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You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you Isa 26:3 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Today's Passage : Today's PassageIsrael after Solomon (31): Habakkuk Prophesies Jerusalem’s Fall BibleVerse:Habakkuk 1:1-7, 9-10 (ESV) "The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw: Habakkuk’s Protest O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 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. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. The Lord’s Answer “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. 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. . . . At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!” " Message:
We promised to discuss the two minor prophets of pre-Exile Judah (see chart), Zephaniah and Habakkuk. But Habakkuk is so much more interesting that we are going to give him three days and Zephaniah . . . well, Zephaniah will have to be “extra credit.”
The Bible tells us absolutely nothing about Habakkuk, the man. Unlike most of the prophetic books, which give at least some background information on the prophet, all we are told about Habakkuk is what you read in the first line today. And his name is weird; it is unknown in Hebrew. Most of the names in 1 & 2 Kings might sound odd to us, but notice that Habakkuk sounds unlike any of the others. He is something of a mystery man.
Habakuk mausoleum
Habakkuk’s Mausoleum (in Iran).
Like the Queen of Sheba, he turns up in a lot of non-Biblical places. In the colorful Apocrypha book Bel and the Dragon, an angel flies him from Jerusalem to Babylon and back, just to take Daniel a bowl of the stew he is making. Writings of the Kabbalah (a secret, mystical Hebrew cult that claims to have special knowledge about hidden meanings in the Hebrew Bible) claim he is the Shunamite boy that Elisha brought back from the dead in 2 Kings 4. Strangest of all, there is shrine to him in Iran, of all places; Iranians believe it is his tomb.
Much of the book of Habakkuk is difficult to translate; nobody even knows what his name means. Even in translation it seems odd; e.g., “burden” is a Semitic expression meaning something akin to a “warning”, a “dire prediction”, or a “curse”. But even with translation difficulties, we see a very fine example of Hebrew poetry, both in style and content. He and Zephaniah both accomplish the basic task of warning that Judah, because of its idolatry and other sins, will be destroyed by Babylon, and the people taken captive. But Habakkuk is unique in style, at times even reminiscent of Job in its philosophical pondering.
The book begins by doing something no other prophetic book does: questioning God’s work, almost to the point of criticizing Him. Today’s Scripture, when he asks forcefully how God can allow the wicked to continue ruling Judah, implicates an intractable theological problem called simply “the problem of evil in the world”; if God is both good and all-powerful, how can He allow evil to exist?
This is the beginning of a dialogue with God, written in the parallel style of Hebrew psalmists. The second section of the Scripture is God answering (in the first person), telling him to look around, because He has raised up the “bitter and swift” Chaldeans, violent, godless and merciless, who by implication are going to solve the lack of justice and piety in Jerusalem.
The Scripture might remind us of Aesop’s fable, The Frog King. Habukkak cries out for justice, but the justice the Lord will send is not what Habukkak had in mind. “You want ‘justice’? I'll give you justice,” God says.
This is one of the harsh lessons of the Bible. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8-9) And Christ tells us, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Christ requires forgiveness; those who ignore His words and demand judgment, receive judgment. Only in Christ can we avoid the measure of our sins. And in Habakkuk, we find a lesson we must learn before we can grow into the forgiveness of Christ, so contrary to human nature.
Meditation : “Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified, and be silent.” Prayer : And finally, may the grace of Christ our Savior, and the Father’s boundless love, with the Holy Spirit’s favor, rest upon me, and all of us, from above. Thus may we abide in union, with each other and the Lord, and possess, in sweet communion, joys which earth cannot afford.......Amen. |
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