11/18/2023 – Amazing unfathomable love and grace is evidenced by amazing faith: For this thanksgiving, read the book of Habakkuk. With prayer, you will be joyfully amazed! “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Phillipians 4:4
Our Wednesday night bible study group covered Daniel, Chapter One, which included appropriately the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk’s writing coincides with the Babylonian destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, leaving the land desolated in 586 B.C. With that in mind, let’s look at the last four verses:
“I heard and I trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress to come against the people invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! ‘Yahweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to talk on mountain heights! (*a) Habakkuk 3: 16 – 19
(*a) – “The final line of Habakkuk is an instruction for musical performance, similar to what is found in the superscriptions of many of the psalms. This would indicate that his prophecy, or a portion of it, was intended for use in worship.” (footnote to my Bible)
I highly suspect we were born for this time. Therefore, for me, to follow a path other than walking in the footsteps of Habakkuk is simply not an option! And if perchance we have rapture in our near future, I will not complain (lol) , but I am not going to give it more than a passing thought.
Here is my bible footnote for these concluding four verses:
“At the end of his book, Habakkuk reiterated his determination to continue to trust God even when conditions of physical survival would become almost insurmountable. Nothing would deter him from his first obligation as a worshiper of Yahweh, to ‘triumph’ and ‘rejoice in Him. The ‘salvation’ (v. 18) Habakkuk mentioned in other words, is not dependent on people or circumstances but on God, who supplies ‘strength’ (v. 19). That was Pauls’ point: Salvation is through faith and therefore dependent on God alone, not on what people strive to do by their own means nor upon the outward circumstances of life. One can hear the echo of Habakkuk in Paul’s admonition, ‘ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: ‘Rejoice!’ (Philippians 4:4)
Finally, this is the eternal fulfillment of Jesus’ amazing prayer, John 17: 20-26, “Jesus Prays for All Believers”: “… May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You…”
SolI Deo Gloria! Always connected through his grace and through prayer….
Your brother in Christ,
Jimmy