I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
The opening lines of Habakkuk are so appropriate right now considering the events of last week, but they would be appropriate even if the events of last friday had not happened.
But you do not listen!
“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,
but you do not come to save.
Must I forever see these evil deeds?
Why must I watch all this misery?
Wherever I look,
I see destruction and violence.
We see violence and evil deeds around us all the time. We hear the cry of “Where was God when this happened?” But the problem of violence and evil deeds is not just the events like the school shooting on Friday, or the shooting in the movie theater some months back. Our cities have shootings every week, people are killed with violence. I am not going to go into a list of all the murders in our major cities, but it is in the hundreds. Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence.
God replies to Habakkuk’s lament;
look and be amazed!
For I am doing something in your own day,
something you wouldn’t believe
even if someone told you about it.”
God is going to do something about the wicked. Something we will not believe until it happens. I believe it will be something that few would believe, something that if you were told “God is going to address this problem by doing X,” you would respond, “How will that help?” We as a Church need to pray about the violence in our country and in our world. We need to pray for God’s Spirit to move in the hearts of people to bring about change.
God told Habakkuk that He was bringing the Babylonians to punish the wicked in Judah, but that the Babylonians were deeply guilty because they worshiped their own strength. Habakkuk responded to God’s declaration of the judgment He was bringing to ask if He was going to allow the Babylonians to continue to think that their success was due to their own might. Would God let them get away with crediting their success to something other than God?
God replies once more by telling Habakkuk to be patient, judgment may seem slow in coming but it will surely come. It will come in its time and will not be delayed. The proud trust in themselves but they do not do what is right. The righteous, on the other hand, live by their faithfulness to God. The proud stand forth and brag of their might and wealth, but God tells them that soon they will be humiliated. He tells the prophet that those who gained wealth through extortion and murder will experience great sorrow. Wealth will not buy security, those who have striven to set themselves up as powers that will not be accountable to God will discover their error. In the same way that the sea fills with water, so will the earth be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory. If we as the Church turn to God with prayer and fasting, if we turn away from our idolatrous pride and faith in our wealth, God’s Spirit will come down on this world and bring about revival. I will pray for God to reach the hearts of those I meet and interact with. I will echo the prophet, even when things look bad and I experience suffering,
I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance.
The Lord God is my strength.
He will set my feet like the deer.
He will let me walk upon the heights.”
The fifth trumpet sounded and the writer saw a star that had fallen from the sky to earth being given the key to the shaft to the bottomless pit. When the shaft was opened the writer saw smoke billow forth. He saw locusts emerge from the smoke. These locusts had the ability to sting like scorpions. He describes them as resembling horses prepared for battle. Overall the description sounds a lot like some variation of modern military equipment. The locusts were told not to harm any plant, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their forehead. The torment from the sting of the locusts would last for five months. During that time people who were stung would seek to die, but would be unable to do so.
Then the sixth angel blew its trumpet. When the trumpet sounded four angels that had been prepared for this day were released. They were turned loose to kill one-third of the people on the earth. These four angels led a force that was composed of 200 million mounted troops. The writer describes what he saw. Again it sounds a lot like modern military equipment. Out of the mouths of the horses came fire, smoke and sulfur. One-third of all mankind was killed by the fire, smoke and sulfur which came out of the mouths of these horses. Yet even so, the rest of mankind did not repent of their sins, nor turn from their idolatry. I remember reading this when I was younger and thinking, how could people experience these troubles and not turn to God? Yet, since that time I have seen tragedy after tragedy and yet I have seen no major revival. Occasionally there will be an upsurge in interest in God for a few weeks or months, but then everybody returns to life as normal, even those who I perceive as Christians (including myself). I am feeling compelled to start praying and fasting on a regular basis. I will strive to do this and perhaps it will make a difference. Perhaps others will do the same, in which case I am sure that it will make a difference.
Today’s song is a song of mourning which is very appropriate right now.
What more is there to do right now as we remember what happened on Friday? But in our mourning, let us not forget the joy of the City of God. God will bring us comfort and joy once again. For now, let us mourn with those who have lost those precious to them. I want them to know that they are not alone in their sorrow.
Do not tell lies to get someone in trouble with their boss, such actions will come back to bring you harm.