Habakkuk 1:1-3:19, Revelation 9:1-21, Psalms 137:1-9, Proverbs 30:10
Today is the 18th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we continue our journey through this final month of the year. And the final month of the year is full of color in the Bible because we cover so much different territory. And today is no different. We will be diving into the Old Testament portion of our reading and as we do, we’ll be reading in its entirety the book of Habakkuk, which is the eighth book in the grouping of prophetic writings that are known as the minor prophets.
Introduction to the book of Habakkuk:
Now, Habakkuk is a bit of a mystery. Like there’s probably less known about Habakkuk than any other writer in the Bible. There…there’s a Jewish tradition that speaks of Habakkuk as being the son of this Shunamite woman who was resurrected through the ministry of Elisha. And that story we found in the book of second Kings and there’s another tradition that’s in the apocryphal book called Bell and the Dragon and that depicts Habakkuk ministering to Daniel well he’s in the lion’s den. And these are traditions. And when scholars examine these traditions, especially this last one about Daniel in the lion’s den. Well, you know, usually they consider them to be stuff of legend. So, even though we’re pretty unsure about Habakkuk and his history, there’s many verses in Habakkuk that are very well known, like this one, “the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God”, right? That should sound very familiar because Paul repeats that sentiment over and over in his letters. And it should sound familiar from the book of Hebrews. This is a core doctrine in the Christian faith. And because Habakkuk reads kind of poetic and has a lyrical form to it, especially as it closes out with a Psalm or a hymn, some scholars have looked at Habakkuk and considered maybe he was a temple musician. But Habakkuk is interesting because it contains inside of it a conversation that is a pretty direct conversation between the prophet Habakkuk and…and God. And the conversation moves from doubt into a place of worship. Habakkuk is just talking to God and saying out loud what he’s seeing. Like, everybody’s fighting, there’s no justice, there’s more wicked people then there are righteous, and justice is perverted. So, Habakkuk’s saying all this to God because he wants to understand how it is that God’s letting the evil, like every conceivable evil happen like…like He’s not even paying attention, like He’s not even aware of it. And God responds to Habakkuk that the Babylonians are going to come punish His people, which sort of like exacerbated the problem for Habakkuk because he’s like, “you are going to let even more evil people come here to…to punish the evil of your own people?” In other words, “you gonna let even more evil people than us come and punish our evil. And God begins to give Habakkuk like a…a larger perspective that the Babylonians would come and punish His people, but they would not be unpunished. In fact, their ultimate destiny would be complete destruction. So, it began to dawn on Habakkuk that God is not indifferent, He’s not unaware, that He’s not uninterested, but He is in fact working in the world and He is in fact just and true, which ultimately leads Habakkuk into…into a hymn of worship and give us language, words of faith and trust that are beyond what we can currently see as a set of circumstances that come and go every single day. And, so, with that we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week and we will read in its entirety the book of Habakkuk, which contains three chapters.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for another day in the rhythm of life that allows Your word to wash into our hearts and minds and to guide us in our lives as You penetrate into every aspect of who we are and we open ourselves to that fully and we declare along with Habakkuk, “we will be happy with You, Lord. We will truly find joy in You God. You save us. You Lord, God Almighty are our strength. You make our feet like those of the deer and make us walk on the mountains.” So, Father, it would be easy to say amen and invite You to go into our day, but that’s backwards. Father, lead us into this day and may we follow where You are leading so that we participate in a day that collaborates with You in revealing Your kingdom in this world, especially in this season where the entire world is…is being marketed to and we’re distracted in every way possible but the world takes note that we are commemorating the arrival of the Savior. So, come Holy Spirit, may our lives be a beacon pointing to the way, the truth, and the life. We pray this in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.
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