3:16-19
This prayer is set firmly in real circumstance, Babylon is invading the land. Habakkuk is reminded of all the things he has spoken about in the earlier verses of this chapter, and of God’s answers to his two complaints. The word had a severe effect on him. Maybe it is God’s earlier pronouncement that Babylon would be used to inflict punishment upon Judah that is most troubling him. But now he knows that a day of calamity would come upon Babylon as well one day. The punishment was not for ever.
Fig trees, the vine, olive crops and wheat fields were essential to the economy and food of the nation. So although the outward signs are dire, with no obvious prospect of help, Habakkuk would rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in Him. Note that he is not saying these things do not matter, nor is he resigned to good never happening. Rather he now knows that God will act, God has not forgotten, in due time, at the right time, the Lord would act.
Habakkuk’s strength is not in the circumstances, but in the Lord, the Sovereign Lord. The Lord does not just enable Habakkuk to endure, but “makes his feet like the feet of a deer”, and enables him to tread on the heights. We should aim to become a people not governed by circumstances, but a people whose strength is in the Lord. This manifestly does not mean that the circumstances do not matter. But it does mean that we live by the Spirit, not by the flesh. Then, instead of being governed by the circumstances, we reign in the midst of the circumstances.
No comments:
Post a Comment