Habakkuk for the Holidays

Habakkuk 3

Sometimes my body shouts, “I can’t!”, while my soul claims, “yet I will…” Whether it’s bad news, the uncertainty of a next step, or the probability of hardship ahead, I don’t like the discomfort. I can’t handle it. I can’t bear it. And yet, my soul begs to differ.

In our concluding chapter, fifteen of the nineteen verses describe Habakkuk’s vision of God intervening in epic proportions - a scene that Marvel Studios must have taken notes from. For His people’s salvation, he sees God dismantle nations, overthrow governments and displace authorities. No earthly ruler resists Him. Stepping in as Savior, he disrupts nature, extending his reach from ocean depths to outer space. No earthly obstacle can limit Him. But Israel has turned their backs.  

Now God’s judgment is coming against His people, instead of working on their behalf, and this affects Habakkuk in two profoundly different ways: physically and spiritually. He calculates the physical consequence of Babylon’s pending invasion, and it’s a nightmare: fruitless labor, lack of food, failed investments, financial ruin. His score in red ink at the top of life’s page: F

He shakes, his lips quiver, and his legs go weak. It seems like he’ll weep or faint, or have a panic attack. His body shouts, “I can’t!” Ever feel that stress takes its toll on your body, the world’s brokenness keeps you from sleep, or that sadness saps your energy? Ever heard a devastating word that comes like a punch in the gut? Ever felt sick to your stomach because of what you know?

And yet…though his body feels too fragile to handle the immediate future, there’s another side to his response. His soul hasn’t crumbled in his physical weakness; instead, his faith has been reinforced. It’s only his vision of God, fifteen verses strong, that steadies him. Nothing can outlive his eternal God. No rebellion has the final say. Even this physical life won’t have the last word. Habakkuk may stand on shaky legs, but God is the stability for his feet and the salvation of his soul, come what may for now. 

Since Habakkuk’s day, God has continued his intervention in even more earth-shattering ways for the sake of His people’s salvation: Jesus dismantled the authority of sin, overthrowing death’s reign and absorbing God’s judgment. To be His people’s Savior, He disrupted nature, extending His reach from heaven to earth.  

And we marvel that, through Jesus, this power infuses everyday strength into our souls, so when our bodies tremble, our souls can echo, “yet I will wait” (v.16), “yet I will rejoice” (v.18).  Based on what you know about God, what is your soul’s “yet I will” to your “I can’t”? 

Habakkuk for the Holidays

Habakkuk 2

If you look up the word slow in a thesaurus, most of the synonyms imply bad habits, like negligent or tardy, or they imply fatigue, like sluggish or lethargic.  Slow is not too attractive in our thinking. Slow is only more acceptable when teens that we love learn to drive or start to date. It’s also ok for grandma’s pot roast. And that’s about it.

God reveals to Habakkuk how clearly He sees the wickedness of the enemy nation, Babylon, and how fully He will judge them in the future, but He prefaces His words about them with complete understanding of our human aversion to slow.  It’s one of my favorite lines from God in the whole book, because it sounds so tender. He counsels Habakkuk, “If it seems slow, wait for it.” 

In our long line of faith, when has God’s activity not seemed slow?

The decades Abraham waited for a son? 

The years Joseph spent in prison?

The centuries Israel suffered in slavery?

The years Hannah wept for a child?

The days Esther fasted for her people?

If it seems slow, you’re not alone. 

God assures Habakkuk that even if it seems like the time will never come, there will be a day when the wicked become victims, their security crumbles in on them, their ambitions wilt in shame, and their beliefs prove worthless. Yikes.  All this is sure, because if God’s ultimate plan is to flood the earth with His glory, then anyone whose aim is to fill the earth with their own glory strives hopelessly against the guaranteed future.  It’s futile to side against the covenant-keeping God, who reigns, unflustered, from His holy temple. Have I sided with his glory in my wait?

One test of my faith in Him is how I wait on Him. It’s exhausting to wait, because it’s a workout for my faith, but this is the kind of faith that defines the life of the righteous. In my current circumstances, am I willing to find strength in the same counsel God gave Habakkuk?

If it seems slow, wait for it.

Habakkuk for the Holidays

Habakkuk 1

If I’m honest, when I pray, I have two categories of expectation: the means God uses to answer my prayer and the timing in which God answers. The means include certain types of people or situations through which I expect God to work or make changes. My expectation on timing usually = fast.  

Habakkuk has been pleading for God to intervene in the sinfulness he sees around him, but God’s answer comes with a warning that He’s working through means Habakkuk is not expecting. He’s not sending a prophet, or an angel, or a Proverbs 31 woman to show the way. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” God says. 

He goes on to tell Habakkuk that His chosen tool of judgment on His people’s disobedience is the self-absorbed, dreaded enemy, the Babylonians, who use people for their own idolatrous ends. And God was right - Habakkuk is shocked that this is God’s answer to the perversion in his world. To Habakkuk, the Babylonians are even more depraved than Israel. How can God use depravity to correct those who don’t seem to be nearly as evil? God didn’t seem to notice that the enemy’s victory just fueled their pride. 

Generations prior, this was the consequence God had actually told them would come if His people walked away from Him. Reeling from the understanding that this is God’s means, Habakkuk has a new question about timing.  The opening verse began with his question, “How long will I cry out and you won’t answer?”,  but in the final verse of the chapter, it shifts to, “Will the enemy’s rampage go on forever?!” Chapter 1 is bookended by critiques about timing. “How long?…forever?”

What do we do when God’s means and His timing confuse us? We keep reading into Habakkuk 2:1 for his response: we station ourselves in expectation, like a guard on a tower, to look out with eyes of faith. My station is on a built-in window bench in our living room where I anticipate hearing from God as I wrestle through his seemingly questionable means or timing in response to my prayers. Stepping into this new year, do you have a physical location that represents spiritual expectation?

Habakkuk for the Holidays

At First Glance

I don’t know any baby boys named after this prophet. I’ve met Isaiah’s, Jeremiah’s, and even a Zechariah, but never a Habakkuk.

Habakkuk seems more like a word invented by a desperate Scrabble player: random, obscure letters, all in a line. It doesn’t really make sense. 

When life itself doesn’t make sense, Habakkuk speaks. His opening lines to God are essentially,  “Are you not paying attention? If you could really hear and save, you should have intervened by now.” and “Why are you so passive? If your Word is truly powerful, it should change things for your people.” His experience in life is not confirming what God says; in fact, it’s threatening what Habakkuk thinks about God. Sound familiar?

I relate to this conflicted prophet, holding God at arm’s length when circumstances seem to say something irreconcilable with what I know about God. I’m all about making sense of things when life feels like an unusual assortment of Scrabble letters, and when I can’t, I resort to questions like his.  

But his name might actually be a clue into how to respond when life is disorienting. According to The Bible Knowledge Commentary, the name Habakkuk could be related to the Hebrew word embrace. 

Throughout the 3-chapter conversation he has with God, he illustrates embracing God’s character, though not understanding God’s ways; he’s an example of fully embracing his observations and not letting go of truth. And the link that wraps its arms around the paradox of life is faith. The righteous live by faith, not by what they see. Habakkuk, trembling about what God reveals by the end of the book, rejoices by faith in the God who holds him in a steady embrace.

If your holidays are filled with celebrating in spite of ongoing tensions; singing praises about Christ’s birth with unanswered prayers like untied ribbon in your heart; anticipating God’s guidance in the new year, while still unsettled about what that will mean for you, you are embracing the experience of Habakkuk for the holidays.
May the God of your salvation and the Lord who is your strength give you the same joy Habakkuk found in Him.