KBM I Will Quietly Wait
Notes
Transcript
I so glad to be back this week looking today at the great prophet Habakkuk. He by far the least known about wherein the minor prophets are concerned. He is also likely the last prophet recorded during the Divided Kingdom. We can know a little bit about the time of the writing. We know it was after Assyria fell to Babylon in 612 BC, because it was Babylon that was to bring judgment on Judah (Habakkuk 1:6). It’s also obvious that Babylon had not yet reached Judah (Habakkuk 3:16). Daniel and his three friends were some of the first captives of Babylon in the first dispersion around 605 BC. So this book is dealing with the time between 612 and 605. Habakkuk is not like most the prophets before him in his message either. Most prophets spoke for God to the people but Habakkuk spoke for the people to God. He asks a question that God’s faithful will almost always ask at some point in their life, “How can those that commit iniquity continue without punishment” (Habakkuk 1:1-4; Psalm 94:3; Revelation 6:10)? God answers Habakkuk by telling him that which should always be considered when we are struggling in understanding “God’s plans.”
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.
This reality brings us to our text where we find Habbakuk’s ultimate realization and response.
16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
Habakkuk realized that no matter the situation around him, no matter the anxiety it caused, no matter the worry he felt or the uncertainty of it all, God was in his holy temple (Habakkuk 2:20), that the unrighteous will reap what they sow (Galatians 6:7-8), and that God will avenge his children (Romans 12:19).
When it looks like the unrighteous around you are getting away with everything and the sinful seem to be winning, just remember to quietly wait because everyone will be judged by God and if you stay faithful and true to him you will be found that “good and faithful servant” that finds rest forever in the next life (Matthew 25:21).