"Like a Deer on the Heights" June 6 Readings: Habakkuk 1-3

Today's Reading - Habakkuk 1-3

Background

Habakkuk is a powerful book, a conversation between God and the prophet. In 1:1-4, the prophet questions God, asking why he is not dealing with the sin among his chosen people. God answers in 1:5-11, but in a way totally different than Habakkuk had expected. God was raising up the evil Babylonians to punish his wayward people. This time, Habakkuk reacts in horror and even outrage at what God is doing, in 1:12-2:1. How could God use this wicked nation to do his work? In chapter 2 (starting in verse 2) God explains his sovereign work. He will use Babylon as a tool, then he will judge them as they deserve. Habakkuk, in chapter 3, then worships God in awe, having understood his glory and power.

Devotional - Like a Deer on the Heights

Life is confusing and leaves us scratching our heads and wondering why God does what he does and permits what he permits. Every news report carries a story that defies imagination. Why would the loving God who sent his Son into this world allow such insensate evil to prevail?

Prophets asked questions like that throughout the Old Testament era. They observed the sin, the wickedness and the wretched consequences of that sin in the world and wondered where God was. They knew two things about God - he was sovereign and he was good - and they couldn't make sense of it all. So they took their concerns to God and asked him why.

Habakkuk was one of those prophets. His book is a journey in discovery of the purposes of God. In chapter 1, verses 1-4, Habakkuk confronts God with his sense of injustice.

How long, Lord, must I call for help and You do not listen or cry out to You about violence and You do not save?Why do You force me to look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing?

How could a righteous and holy God watch the evil that was going on in Israel and not step in? How could he allow evil men to oppress the innocent? How long was he going to sit back and let this happen?

Habakkuk had a rare privilege. God answered him, but it was not the answer Habakkuk expected. He wanted a soft hand of correction but God was going to do something more. In Habakkuk 1:5-11, God explains himself. Look at verse 6.

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.

Say what? That wasn't a little corrective discipline. That was a nuclear response. Whatever problems there were in Israel, the Babylonians (Chaldeans) were only worse. Wicked. Violent. Cruel. And Habakkuk couldn't understand why God would use them to punish his people. He responded to God in 1:12-17, and in verses 12-13, said this: 

Are you not from everlasting,

    O Lord my God, my Holy One?

    We shall not die.

O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,

    and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

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?

He understood what God was doing, that he was using Babylon to execute judgment on his people for their sins, but he could not understand why he was doing that. How could God tolerate people who were even eviler and use them again his own people? 

In chapter 2, God answered Habakkuk - with both barrels. He let him know in no uncertain terms that he had things well in hand. He was going to deal with evildoers - both in Israel and in Babylon. Verse 20 (we'll have to dip into tomorrow's reading!) sums it up. 

But the Lord is in His holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him. 

That is a very dignified way of saying, "I'm in charge here, Habakkuk. Why don't you settle down and let me handle things?" Be quiet, trust God and watch him work. 

And that is exactly what Habakkuk did. In chapter 3, he expresses his newfound trust in God's purposes. Verse 2 expresses it well. 

O Lord, I have heard the report of you,

    and your work, O Lord, do I fear.

In the midst of the years revive it;

    in the midst of the years make it known;

    in wrath remember mercy.

He had heard of the awesome power of this God, but now he knew it firsthand, and he stood in awe of God's glory. He was content now to stop telling God what to do and to simply trust God to do his work. He called out for God to renew his work of power, but now it was in a spirit of absolute trust. 

The book ends, in verses 17-19, with an affirmation of that faith. Habakkuk realized that hard times were coming to Israel, but he would trust God through them. Whatever happened, God would bring him through. He could trust in the good God to see him and his people through whatever came. 

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold    and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places.

In Israel, I saw a type of small deer walking near En Gedi on a rocky mountain paths. I could never walk there without falling, but these small creatures walked sure-footed on the worst terrain. When we trust in God, when we give ourselves fully to him, we stand like those deer, in the power of God, whatever harsh terrain we encounter. In faith, we walk confidently where in the flesh we would fail and fall. 

Thank you, Lord, that you make my feet stand firm in the mountain heights. May I trust in you always. 

Think and Pray

Thank God today that he is one in whom you can trust even when the world is something you cannot understand.