Rejoice in the God of our Salvation

 

By Jared Green    In most Old Testament books of prophecy, God provided prophets with a message to preach to his people. At times, prophets were tasked with preaching messages of repentance when God’s people were living in sin. At times, prophets provided messages of hope when God’s people were struggling. But in the book of Habakkuk, we find a prophet who seemed to work in reverse order. Rather than being God’s mouthpiece to the people, Habakkuk served as the people’s mouthpiece to God.     We do not know much about Habakkuk, but it is believed by many that his ministry was around that of Jeremiah, specifically in the time leading up to the Israelites’ Babylonian captivity. The first two chapters of the prophecy reveal a two-part discourse between Habakkuk and God in which Habakkuk brought a complaint to God followed by God’s response. In Habakkuk’s first complaint, he posed a common question asked of God: How long? Habakkuk looked out among God’s people and saw violence (1:2) and iniquity (1:3), which led to this conclusion: “So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (1:4). As we know, God’s people were in grave sin before the Babylonian exile, and Habakkuk called on God to intervene.     In his first answer, God promised divine intervention. He said, “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” (1:5). As great as that answer sounds on the surface, God went on to explain that he was planning to use the Babylonians to bring about judgement on his wicked people. Habakkuk was appalled. To summarize and paraphrase Habakkuk’s second complaint to God, he said: How could you use a more wicked nation to punish your people, a less wicked nation? In God’s final response to Habakkuk, he provided the most well-known passage from the book, one that is quoted by Paul in the New Testament: “…the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4b).     While God may not have provided the answers Habakkuk seemed to be seeking, they are important answers for all God’s people to consider: I am doing a work that you would not understand, and the righteous shall live by his faith. Upon hearing God’s final answers, the prophecy closes with Habakkuk’s prayer of faith. At the end of his prayer, using language common in an agricultural society, Habakkuk made it clear that even if he experienced the worst physical pain imaginable, he would rejoice and trust in the Lord. In his words: “…yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places (3:18-19). No matter what life situations we find ourselves in, may we always find our joy and strength in the God of our salvation. God loves you, and so do I.

- Jared Green preaches the Calvert City Church of Christ in Calvert City, KY.  He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.calvertchurchofchrist.com