03/13/2021 – Day 300 – Habakkuk: 1-3 // “Good hope through grace is founded in a holy fear.”
The background is this Book is it precedes the Babylonian capitivity, spanning the years 597 B.C. to 538 B.C. Once again , I defer to Matthew Henry. Check out the last words of his commentary, covering the very last verses 3: 16 – 19: “Thus the prophet, who began his prayer with fear and trembling, concludes it with joy and triumph, for prayer is heart’s ease to a gracious soul. He set his song upon Shigionoth (v. 1), wandering tunes, according to the variable songs, and upon Neginoth (v. 19), the stringed instruments. He that is afflicted, and has prayed aright, may then be so merry, as to sing psalms. ” And so shall we prior to going home to be with our Lord in His kingdom!
And in conclusion, I will share with you a section from his summary of “The Prophecy of Habakkuk”, our reading for today:
“In the apocrphal story of Bel and the Dragon mention is made of Habakkuk the prophet in the land of Judah, who was carried thence by an angel to Babylon, to feed Daniel in the den;; those who give credit to that story take pains to reconcile our prophet’s living before the captivity, and foretelling it, with that. And some have imagined that Habakkuk’s feeding Daniel in the den is to be understood mystically, that Daniel then lived by faith, as Habakkuk had said the just should do; he was fed by that word, Hab. 2:4. (*a) The prophecy of this book is a mixture of the prophet’s addresses to God in the people’s name and to the people in God’s name. ; for it is the office of the prophet to carry messages both ways. It is the intercourse and communion between a gracious God and a gracious soul. The whole refers particularly in the invasion of the land of Judah by the Chaldeans.
(*a) – Habakkuk 2:4: “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by faith.”
Soli Do Gloria indeed! Blessings to your day; Always connected by His grace and through prayer…..