HABAKKUK 3:
Yesterday in this book we heard Habakkuk bring his complaints to God about God’s justice, and God answered, in effect, that after he uses the Babylonians, their time of judgment will come. In chapter 2 verse 3, God gives this assurance:
If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
Then the next verse ends with a famous promise:
4 “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
(The verse as it is often quoted in the NT is a little different since it was quoted from the Septuagint.
Two more powerful and often quoted verses bear repeating:
20 But the Lord is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”
14 For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.
Rereading ISAIAH 55:
Note that in Revelation we have already read— and will read again, words like the beginning of Isaiah 55:
1 NLT “Is anyone thirsty?
Come and drink—
even if you have no money!
Remember also that Jesus in John chapters 4 and 7 offered living water and streams of water that would bubble from within.
This chapter 55 is so rich! But we don’t have time for me to comment verse by verse. As a Bible translator, the promise we base our very lives upon is found in verse 11.
REVELATION 9:
In Rev. 8, we saw the results of the first four trumpet blasts. This, like the seals, is another vision of God’s justice finally being expressed in judgment. Note that the enactment of this punishment was preceded by the prayers of God’s holy people. (That’s is how NLT translates ‘saints’. And that word means us, we have been purified by Christ!) At last, the answers to prayers for God’s justice like heard from the martyrs in Rev. 6 and like in Habakkuk’s prayer will start to be answered.
Dear heavenly Father, it is a sign of your love that you have warned the human race again and again about your coming judgment. Your judgment cannot be held back forever, because then you would not be just. It is because you are just and righteous that judgment must come. We pity those who close their ears and eyes to the truth and continue in their wickedness. But they will have no excuse and it is right that they get what they deserve. Once again, Lord, you prove that your thoughts and ways are high above our thoughts and ways. Let those who are right now in the Destroyer’s power hear your offer:
Turn to the Lord and pray to him, now that he is near.
Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking.
Let them turn to You, Lord, because You are merciful and quick to forgive“
at this time before it is too late.
But as for us, Lord, we will wait quietly for you. May we have the same heart as Habakkuk and say,
“Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain,
Even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty,
I will still be joyful and glad,
Because the Lord God is my savior.
You, O Sovereign Lord give me strength.
You make me sure-footed as a deer
And keep me safe on the mountains.
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