Thurs.’s Devo - The Prophecy of Habakkuk

Read: Habakkuk 1:1-3:19; Revelation 9:1-21; Psalm 137:1-9; Proverbs 30:10 Habakkuk means “embrace”. It was a time of national crisis and they would need to embrace the Lord to endure. Habakkuk lived during Josiah’s reform and the return of a nation to the Lord to the fall of the nation in the next five evil kings. During that time the citizens were treated violently and the poor were oppressed. The legal system collapsed and justice was not to be found. Nineveh had fallen and Jerusalem would be next. *** Habakkuk begins by being overwhelmed by the circumstances of the nation. All he sees is violence and wonders if God has left them. Evil men are in control and violence prevails. There is no justice to be found. (Sound familiar?) *** Habakkuk saw that God was raising up the Babylonians to correct and punish them for their sins. They would be even more violent than the people of Judah. He asks God if they would be allowed to plunder them forever. He went up on his watchtower to hear God’s answer. God gave him a vision for the end time. He told him that in the end it will seem to go on forever but they were to wait on the Lord and trust him. He describes vividly what the enemy will do to God’s people and why. The very stones in the walls will cry out their sins. Their idols will be worthless to them. Habakkuk begs God to remember his mercy. *** God respond by filling the heavens with his glory and the earth with praise. He will come bringing chariots of salvation. He demolished their enemies. In the end, the Lord will strike their enemies. Then, Habakkuk could see beyond their lack and rejoice in the Lord who is their salvation. *** In Revelation, the fifth angel blew his trumpet and John saw a star fallen from heaven. He was given the key to hell. When he opened it, smoke poured out and turned the air dark. Locusts came from the smoke and went out on the earth with the power to sting like a scorpion. They were only to hurt those who were not sealed as God’s people. The sting will be painful but not deadly. For five months they were able to torment the ungodly. The locust’s king was called Abbadon or Apollyon, the Destroyer. *** The sixth angel blew his trumpet and four angels who were bound at the Euphrates River were released. They were allowed to kill one-third of the ungodly people on the earth. After this, there were still those who refused to repent and continued to worship demons and participate in their witchcraft and sexual immorality. *** Lord, may we respond to all you do to our enemies as you responded to yours. You prayed that God would forgive them for they know not what they do. May the blinders be taken from the eyes of the wicked so they can see how weak and empty they are, and may they repent before they are judged. May we be merciful when we need to be gracious and a warrior when we need to be vigilant.