Kiza Devotional 5

Wait for it

Hab 2:2-4

Vid of Bolt

This morning I wanted to share a short passage from a book I don't often hear cited as memory verses or sermons frequently preached from and it's the tiny prophetic book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk was written in the late 7th century BC just prior to the Babylonian invasion in Judah. Let me digress just a moment to give you a bit of background. When God delivered Israel through Moses from Egypt, he intended for this people to be a thriving and flourishing nation in the land of Canaan. God he declared a covenant with his people based on their adherence to God's laws and commands. We see the language of this in the books are the Pentateuch especially in the book of Deuteronomy. The language is given in a if this then that type of language and basically what God had outlined was that if the people of Israel obeyed God's commands then God would surely bless them however if they did not adhere to God's laws then God would surely curse them and use the people displaced from Canaan to troubled them.

God had also promised them a future king would rule over them and that promise was fulfilled in David who became their king. The problem was the David's grandson was not a wise man and through him the nation of Israel split and became Israel in the north and Judah in the south. All of the northern kingdom kings did not adhere to God's law. They were evil men. So God allowed them to be captured first by neighboring nations. Judah on the other hand waffled back-and-forth between kings who tried to bring about religious reform and other kings who disregarded God's law.

Habakkuk lived in the time just before the fall of Jerusalem and Judah to the hands of the famous Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. In the book he wrote, Habakkuk complains to God asking why does he allow evil to continue to go unpunished in Jerusalem. He is frustrated that all he sees is violence and says that the law is paralyzed in v1.4

God answers Habakkuk and totally shocks him. God tells him that he is raising up the Chaldeans (the Babylonians) who were even more evil than what Habakkuk saw in Jerusalem to punish them. STOP! This would be like God raising up the Mafia, Triads, Yakuza, or the Black Axe to punish evil today! Habakkuk is dumbfounded. He complains to God in 1:13 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?

The entire book of Habakkuk deals with a problem we wrestle with today--that is the problem of evil. How can adjust God allow evil to continue and not punish it. What we fell so often to recognize is the sovereignty of God that he sees the bigger picture and accomplishes his purposes in ways we don't understand.

God responds to Habakkuk in 2:2.

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.

To keep this in perspective, it was probably another 20 years after God had given Habakkuk this prophecy before Jerusalem fell to Babylon.

We have been waiting for the fulfillment of a prophecy as well--a day of the Lord's judgement and the return of Christ--for 2000 years. I find it funny every time someone "calculates" the return of Christ and get it wrong. That's nothing new, even some in the first century church did that.

In these verses there are 3 things God is encouraging us to do.

1) Be patient - "wait for it" Patience is often cited through scriptures and we are encouraged to be patient. James encourages us 7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient.

2) Be Righteous - Sometimes theological words and terms get confusing so when my kids were little, I explained "righteousness" as simply, doing what is right. To many people get tripped up even in that! "What is right?" they ask and then make up lists of things you must do or don't do. Jewish law had so many do's and don't that the common people were confused by it so much that somone asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment in the scriptures and Jesus responded with "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." If you are doing that, then you are living a righteous life.

3) Be Faithful - This is another concept that trips people up as if it's something you must have a great amount of to do great things for God. Even Jesus' disciples exclaimed "Increase our faith!" But faith isn't complicated--Jesus told us to let our faith be like that of a child. Children are so trusting in us and believe what we tell them. Faith should be like that for us as well, we simply trust what God has promised us, and patiently live out our lives until the day of his return.

We can find encouragement in God's reply, "Wait for it" and "the righteous shall live by his faith."

Habbakuk ends his book with this

3:18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.