Habakkuk
1:1-2:5
The oracle
that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Lord,
how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look
at wrong?
Destruction and violence are
before me;
strife and contention
arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes
forth.
For the wicked surround the
righteous;
so justice goes forth
perverted.
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.
6 For 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.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity
go forth from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the
evening wolves;
their horsemen press
proudly on.
Their horsemen come from
afar;
they fly like an eagle
swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like
sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and
take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own
might is their god!”
12 Are 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.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at
traitors
and remain silent when the
wicked swallows up
the man more righteous
than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that
have no ruler.
15 He 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.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his
dragnet;
for by them he lives in
luxury,
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing
nations forever?
2 I will take my stand at my
watchpost
and station myself on the
tower,
and look out to see what he
will say to me,
and what I will answer
concerning my complaint.
2 And the Lord
answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads
it.
3 For 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.
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not
upright within him,
but the righteous shall live
by his faith.
5 “Moreover, wine is a traitor,
an arrogant man who is
never at rest.
His greed is as wide as
Sheol;
like death he has never
enough.
He gathers for himself all
nations
and collects as his own
all peoples.”
Habakkuk desires God to step in and take action. People think that a loving God would not let their 78 year old grandmother die of cancer. Others scream out gun violence in schools. Habakkuk just wants a little justice for crimes being committed against humanity. The truth is shown, that if a God provided justice, all of us desire to be eliminated.
There is none that is righteous apart from God. God has mercy of you by letting you live. God shows his love by giving you life. God even provides you with Hope! Christ has died to justify your sinfulness. Christ is risen as the first fruits of your resurrection. Christ makes you righteous by his blood.
So take a stand at the watch tower. Watch the nations devour each other. Ask where the good people are? Think about the Love and Compassion God has on the lost sheep of Israel. Remember John 3:16. God did step in and provide justice and judgement over all creation.
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