Habakkuk

I have to admit....often times when I read the minor prophets I think...oh...it's the same old same old. People being bad, God sends a prophet to warn them to smarten up or punishment is coming. I tend to enjoy reading Micah and Amos. Not sure why, there is just something in those books that I like, but as for the rest... I just tend not to get a whole lot out of them because I think ... the same old same old. I shouldn't do that. God's word is indeed God's word. There is truth and wisdom to be gleaned from all of it.

When I learned tonight that my scripture reading came from Habakkuk...my immediate thought was oh...the same old same old. It felt like God gave me a bit of knock on the noggin of "smarten up youngling, this is MY word that you are reading so pay up!" (I say pay up to my younger dog when I want her to listen to me).
So I read Habakkuk 1-3. I will cheerfully admit that I had to read it a few times before I noticed something. And yes, in the midst of it I said.. "God I"m sorry, I don't want to read this, but I need to. Help me to understand your word". And he did! :) I noticed tonight in Habakkuk that God answers questions/complaints! Yes, he does. Habakkuk comes before God with a complaint. God answered it. Habakkuk came up with another complaint... and once again, God answered it. Neat huh? :)

So let's see just what their conversation was all about.

Habakkuk Complains in chapter 1:2-4

"O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you "Violence!"
and you will not save?
3Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted."

He, in essence is saying, God...I"ve been calling for you to deal with all these evil-doing folk, how long do I have to wait before you do something!?!?!? Why are you being so idle God?

God's response:

5"Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.

God, in essence is saying, but I"m not just sitting down wasting my time. I am raising up a nation that will come and punish these evildoers.

Habakkuk complains again

12Are you not from everlasting,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
13You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and are silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
16Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
17Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?

Habakkuk notes that God makes man like bugs are. They fill the earth. Even if the Chaldeans come to punish them, not all of them (the evildoers) will be destroyed. So will this punishment go on and on and on and on?

God's response is that we must wait. The end is still to come. Even the Chaldeans will be punished for acting against the people of God.
The vision has yet to be fulfilled....

2And the LORD answered me:
"Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
3For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end--it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.

We must wait for it.

Habakkuk's response to God is to lift up a prayer of praise and rejoicing to God. He closes that prayer saying

17Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.

He knows that regardless of what happens, God is his strength and he will take care of his people.

Hah...I learned something from Habakkuk! See what happens when God offers correction and his somewhat wayward child listens! :) Ah...Praise indeed to be our God and Father! :) What can I say.... I do enjoy learning new things. :)