Fri.’s Devo - Habakkuk

Read: Habakkuk 1:1-3:19; Revelation 9:1-21; Psalm 137:1-9: Proverbs 30:10 Habakkuk lived between the time that Nineveh fell in 612 B.C. and the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. He begins overwhelmed by the circumstances of his nation and works through to having unwavering faith. In the first chapter, Habakkuk can think of nothing but the sin and violence of his nation. He thinks God has “left the building.” He sees no justice anywhere. He cries out to God hoping that God will do something. In the second chapter, Habakkuk takes his stand and uses his prophetic gift to look into the future. He sees it but it is a far way off. He does see a day when the sinner will be punished and the righteous rewarded and a day when the earth would be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord. He taunts their idols made of wood and covered with silver and gold. They are lifeless and powerless but God is alive. In Chapter Three, Habakkuk is singing his prayer. He remembers God’s works from the past. He sees the Lord coming to punish the sinner. He is coming in his glory and splendor bringing pestilence and plagues. The nations tremble before him because he was coming in anger to crush nations and rescue his chosen people and save his anointed ones. Though everything would look barren, Habakkuk understood it was the Lord so he rejoiced. In Revelation, the fifth angel blew his trumpet and a star that had fallen from the sky was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. Smoke came from it and produced locusts that stung like scorpions. They only bit the people on the earth that didn’t have the seal of God on their forehead. The sting tortured them for five months but they could not escape it with death. The locusts looked like war horses with gold crowns on their heads and human faces They had the hair of a woman and the teeth of lions. Their armor was iron and their wings sounded like an army of chariots. Their tails stung like scorpions and they tormented the people for five months. Their king was the angel from the bottomless pit named Abandon which means “the Destroyer.” The sixth angel blew his trumpet and a voice spoke from the four horns of the gold altar. He gave the order to release the four angels who were bound at the Euphrates River. He had an army of 200 million mounted troops whose order was to kill one-third of the people on earth. They released biological warfare that killed one third of the people. Their power was in their mouths and in their tails. In spite of all this, many wicked people refused to repent. They continued worshipping demons and murdering and doing all sorts of sexual immorality and thefts. This sounds like where we are now. Lord, this is very sobering to read but our hope has never been in this world; our hope is in you.