Tuesday 20^th November

Habakkuk 3:8-19

‘My God is not dead, surely He’s alive; Living on the inside roaring like a lion’

(a lyric from the David Crowder band)

Habakkuk is a fairly unread book of the Bible, but upon stumbling over it a few months ago, I found a story of God’s favour and heart for His own people. It was a story that deepened my understanding of how much God loves and fights for His beloved.

Habakkuk was a “watchman/prophet” in the Old Testament. He had just witnessed the end of the Assyrian Reign and was seeing the super power of the Babylonians, under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, take Judah captive as part of God’s judgement on them. Chapters 1 and 2 are a dialogue between Habakkuk and God, wherein Habakkuk is questioning why God has let them be taken into captivity and God is giving the answer.

We join the story in the middle of chapter 3 from verse 8 and we see a shift in the style of writing from questioning and reasoning to the awesomeness of Gods power and His eventual redemption of His people. Habakkuk reminds his readers of how God intervened and saved Israel from the Egyptians at the Red Sea.

Habakkuk uses the imagery of chariots branding bows and arrows that parted the earth and sea. So great was this victorious charge that the whole earth could only stand in awe of such a mighty force. Verses 10 and 11 talk of mountains watching and trembling and the sun and moon standing still in the sky. What amazing imagery of things we imagine to have such might and splendour utterly in awe of a Power greater than they. Upon reading that, I was reminded of a scene in the Lord of the Rings were Arwen, Elronds’ daughter, is trapped by the enemy and she causes the waves to crush her foes. The waves take the form of mighty warrior horses that trample upon her enemies. This is the scene we see in Habakkuk (verse 15).

Then the pinnacle of story and were I was most encouraged was in verses 12 and 13. Habakkuk says of the Lord that He marched across the land in anger and fury and went out to rescue His anointed one, His chosen people. What a great picture. The waves are being parted in what must have been a spectacular sight, the sun and moon are in awe and then here comes the One who created it all; the creator of all creation. The way Habakkuk writes is like God is desperate to save His people, there is a depth of love shown here. What an encouraging picture of our God!!

Imagine your child was in great danger; would you not do all you can to save them?? The image here is even more powerful because God did save them knowing full well that they would soon turn their back on Him once they crossed the sea. That is God’s ‘Hesed’ Love, a covenantal love, and an unconditional love that He still shows us today, that He sent Jesus to save us from our sins. Praise God