Habakkuk 2:6-3:19
Readings for this week July 15 - 19
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Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Habakkuk 2:6-19
Even though they are not directly named, the entire section from 2:6-2:20 presents a series of images directed at the Babylonians. In this series of five woes, the seemingly all-powerful Babylon is mocked and a day of reckoning is promised them. An inspired Habakkuk foresees this day and presents a list of all the charges that will be brought against the wicked at this time. The lack of a particular named target also helps us see these charges as applicable to anyone – then or now – who scorns God, attacks his people, and looks to their own power and righteousness. Each of the five woes identifies a particular sin of the wicked and announces appropriate retribution, sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly. God will not be mocked and God will not be silent in the face of sin and evil.
Though at the time Habakkuk is questioning God, Babylon might look invincible and untouchable, and be threatening the very existence of the people of God, yet God promises that the wicked, whoever they are, will be held to account. Their wickedness, oppression of others, selfishness, and defiance of God have been seen and will be punished. And it is God who directs the punishment, God in his righteous anger who knows best how to deal with evildoers, even if at times it seems to us he is silent, distant, unaware. He is not. He knows all and sees all and is faithful to his promises to act, punish, and make right. His faithfulness is assured; it is our trust in him that we need to focus on.
Questions to Consider
What makes it hard to trust God in times of trouble? How have you overcome this difficulty in the past?
Prayer
Sovereign Lord, you are never absent, though there are times when it feels like you are. Help me weather these times by your Spirit. Give me strength when I most need it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Silence
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Habakkuk 2:20
Let the earth fall silent. There is nothing more to be said. Habakkuk has had his say, questioning the ways of God; the people have agonised over what is to come and how it is to come; the pagan Babylonians have praised their idols and their own invulnerability. God has pronounced the five woes over Babylon and silence is the only appropriate response to his declaration of judgement. There is nothing more to say. In the face of God’s glory and majesty and divine judgement, all human tongues fall silent – including Habakkuk’s. Even he realises the need to stop searching for an explanation. God has clearly spoken, revealing an answer to his prayers. To say more now would be to undermine both Habakkuk’s courage in questioning and his faith in God’s answer.
Habakkuk has been assured that God is in his holy temple and is still sovereign over all things. He has Israel in his hand and even the mighty Babylonian empire cannot escape his authority and judgement. Habakkuk spoke plainly, questioned searchingly, prayed fervently, and was heard and answered. Now is the time to be silent, to stop his talking and his thinking and be still and silent in the presence of God. To hear God speak requires silence. To hear God speak requires that we cease to speak – to hear what God would say to us and then to sit with what he does say to us. Even in extremity and uncertainty, Habakkuk knew this and took the time to cease his talk and wait in the presence of God.
Questions to Consider
How is silence important, both when listening for God to speak and once he has spoken? What is your experience of silence with God?
Prayer
Gracious God, bring me to a stop; silence my tongue, relax my limbs, move me to stillness. Help me stop and cease to speak when you speak. May it be your words that move me and uphold my being. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – From Silence to Prayer
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Habakkuk 3:1-7
From out of the silence produced by the pronouncement of God’s judgement, comes prayer. Before, Habakkuk spoke in oracles. Answered and yet also silenced by God’s response to his troubled heart and mind, Habakkuk now turns back to God in prayer. He calls for God to act now and does so by recalling many instances in the past when God had acted, times when he had dramatically intervened, calling for him to repeat them again now. Habakkuk knows and affirms that God is at work in the world because he has been in the past and so there is good reason to trust that he will again because he is faithful to his promises. When in doubt of God’s goodness, we can always look back to past instances as a reminder of his love and his presence with us.
Habakkuk knows that God is a God of wrath and mercy. All that he has seen of the Babylonians tells him that they are fully deserving of God’s wrath – but Habakkuk would also be well aware of ways in which his fellow Israelites were also deserving of punishment. God’s judgement is directed at all who are prideful, no matter who they are. To pray for God to renew and reveal his works requires that Habakkuk plead for God to remember mercy in the middle of his wrath. Habakkuk’s faith is such that even in accepting the validity of God’s wrath – indeed, in seeking deliverance for his people from their oppressors – he still prays for mercy to temper God’s anger, even against his enemies.
Questions to Consider
Where do you see God at work in the world? What do you do to remind yourself of God’s goodness and mercy?
Prayer
Almighty Lord, if I pray that you are slow to anger with me, I also pray the same for my enemies - may you show mercy to them as you have done so for me. May all people come to know you as their loving Father. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – God’s Faithful Purpose
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Habakkuk 3:8-15
In verse 8, Habakkuk switches from the general word for God (used in verse 3) to the covenant name Lord (Yahweh). It is not a coincidence that he does this as he now addresses this imposing figure bestriding the world throughout history, demonstrating his power and sovereignty over nations and nature. This is Yahweh, creator God, holy and eternal, sovereign over all things. As he speaks to the Lord, Habakkuk returns to the theme of judgement and wrath, describing God as a warrior riding out to destroy his foes. Much of the imagery revolves around the seminal event of the Exodus and past ways in which God has come to the rescue of his people – another powerful reminder to Habakkuk of God’s faithfulness throughout history and the promise of action in the near future to fulfil his purpose.
And that purpose? The salvation of God’s people and the overthrow of his enemies. Just as he has done in the past, God will come again. In fact, much of the descriptive material in this passage is a blend of Moses’ song from Exodus 15, Deborah’s from Judges 5 and David’s from 2 Samuel 22 (also found in Psalm 18). The rich heritage of the Israelites’ relationship with God has provided Habakkuk with the material with which to remind his fellow Israelites of his protection for and provision of them. God acted in the past, in line with his promises; whatever may be happening in the present, the Israelites can look to the future with confidence that he will act again. God has promised to act, and history shows that he is faithful.
Questions to Consider
What are key moments from your life with God when he delivered you? What was special about them? How do you commemorate them?
Prayer
Gracious God, thank you for your faithfulness and your goodness. Give me the strength and courage to trust in you even when – especially when – times are hard and things look dark. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – The Final Say: God and Prophet
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Habakkuk 3:16-19
At the end of the book what we have is prayer. After all that has been said, on both sides, the prophet’s beseeching and the Lord’s answering, what we end with is prayer. The prayer of a man for himself and on behalf of his people to his God, appealing to him to march out in the name of justice and righteousness and restore his people – to act again on behalf of his people. Habakkuk does not end his interaction with God with argument – the (right) time for that has passed. He ends with supplication and prayer, offering into the hands of God all that he has said and demanded, all that he wants. The final say is God’s, the final decision is God’s.
Why do the evildoers prosper while the righteous suffer? God’s answer is that, ultimately, the evildoers do not triumph. Habakkuk had his say, he brought his troubles and complaints to God, but in the end he realised his own limitations, his own truncated perspective and yielded the prerogative of judgement back to the sovereign Lord. Habakkuk’s hope for salvation came just as much from what God had done in the past as from what he had promised for the future. Like Habakkuk, we do not see all that God does and do not know all that God will do. But we can speak all that is on our heart, for ourselves, for each other and for the world, and know that God hears us. And we can trust in him to bring all things to a good, righteous, restored fullness in him.
Questions to Consider
What have you gained from reading the book of Habakkuk? What has God revealed to you about himself, yourself, and the world as you have read?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you for your word to the prophet and to us. Thank you for still speaking to us anew today through scripture and through your Spirit. May your word dwell in us and transform us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)