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:
Hab. 2:3b GNT It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed.
Then the next verse ends with a famous promise:
Hab. 2:4 GNT And this is the message: ‘Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful 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:
Hab. 2:20 NLT But the Lord is in his holy Temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.”
Hab. 2:14 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:
Is. 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.
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