Habakkuk 1:1-3:19 + Revelation 9:1-21 + Psalm 137:1-9 + Proverbs 30:10
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Old Testament – Today we start and finish the book of the prophet Habakkuk! This is a great book & there is a lot going on in it. In some ways it reminded me of the end of the book of Job, with the conversation going on between Habakkuk and God. Habakkuk was a prophet from Judah who prophesied between the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. and Babylon’s invasion of Judah in 588 B.C. Assyria fell in 612-605 B.C. and Babylon was becoming the world’s dominant nation. In the first 2 chapters of this book Habakkuk argues with God about God’s ways, and then in the 3rd chapter Habakkuk responds with an incredible prayer to God. In the first 2 chapters the big questions are – 1. Why does evil seem to go unpunished? and 2. Why does God not seem to respond to prayers? Reminds me of the Psalms! 🙂 A good overview of the book of Habakkuk is online at bible.org at this link. Below is an image of Habakkuk denouncing the Chaldaeans from a 14th century illuminated Bible:
Chapter 1 Verse 5 stands out in today’s readings: “The LORD replied, “Look at the nations and be amazed! Watch and be astounded at what I will do! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.” A wonderful thing about this verse is that the apostle Paul utilizes this same verse in concluding a sermon in Antioch in Acts chapter 13 verses 38-41: ““Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you: “ ‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.’” Below is a sculpture of Habakkuk with an angel by the Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, from the year 1655:
Chapter 3 verses 18 & 19 are powerful verses for us to consider in our own lives in the midst of challenging times: “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He will make me as surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains.” Do you rejoice in God? Are you joyful in God as your salvation? Even in the midst of challenging times in your life? Do you trust that God will bring you to safety? Below is an icon of Habukkuk:
Bible Project: Here is a terrific video overview of the book of Habakkuk!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPMaRqGJPUU
New Testament – Revelation chapter 9 brings forth the 5th and 6th trumpet plagues at the end times! A note on the star in verse 1 – this is likely an angel that descends from heaven with the key from Jesus to open the abyss.
The fierce demonic locusts in today’s readings are intense. You will recall that very recently we read about locusts in a similar fashion in the Old Testament in Joel chapter 1 through chapter 2 verse 11.
Verses 20 & 21 in this chapter stand out: “But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to turn from their evil deeds. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood–idols that neither see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their immorality or their thefts.” Even in the midst of such destruction and horror, many people do not repent. Is it possible that we receive much less severe signs in our own life today to repent, and we ignore them? Why do we ignore the signs? Is this wise? Below is an image of the first six trumpet judgements by the incredible artist Pat Marvenko Smith:
To order prints visit her “Revelation Illustrated” site.
Psalms – Psalm 137 is a Psalm reflecting upon the Israelites exile in Babylon and about how much Jerusalem was missed. We also read about a call to punish Edom for their rejoicing in the fall of Jerusalem. As you’ll recall, we recently read prophesies against Edom in the book of the prophet Obadiah. Below is an image of ancient Jerusalem – and the tower of David – that this Psalmist missed so greatly:
Proverbs – Proverbs 30 verse 10 today teaches us: “Never slander a person to his employer. If you do, the person will curse you, and you will pay for it.” This is a great reminder to not speak untruths behind someone’s back – particularly to their employer! If you attack someone’s livelihood unfairly, you’ll be attacked back. Simply a foolish idea. Bite your tongue and pray rather than say anything false or in anger to someone’s employer…
Worship Video: Today’s readings in Habbakuk remind me of the Sidewalk Prophets song “The Words I Would Say:”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htyU9cwNp0k
Do you know how much He loves you? Click here for His eternal love!
Please join us in memorizing and meditating on two verses of Scripture today: “Look at the nations and watch — and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)
Prayer Point: Pray that you are looking at the nations and are prepared to be utterly amazed for what God is planning to do. Pray in belief that God will do something that most would find hard to believe. Pray in faith.
Comments from you: What verses or insights stand out to you in today’s readings? Please post up by clicking on the “Comments” link below!
God bless,
Mike
p.s. Download our monthly Small Group study notes for our Bible readings at this link.
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BLOG READERS HISTORICAL COMMUNITY COMMENTS:
======= Jeff:
Could someone please explain Psalm 137:9?
How does the retribution of killing defenseless children make one happy?
Jeff
======= Ramona:
Jeff,
We forget that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Since He also is not constrained by Time, we who live upon the earth are living in time, God dwells in eternity so for Him everything is in the Now—past, present and future.
I believe that God saw and sees past the infancy of the children mentioned and saw their final outcome/choices. Let me make note that God is the ONLY one that can do that. We cannot look at someone’s present or past choices and determine whether they will repent, but God can.
The Christian walk is a Faith Walk (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV) and Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4 KJV). My prayer for you is that God will give you a revelation of who He is, His Justice, His Mercy and Grace and His Judgment. God is not just good; God IS Good and unless you get a revelation of that difference, it will be difficult for you to grasp the understanding of not so innocent children.
Grace and peace,
Ramona
======= Peggy:
Can you still get your hands on one of those 14th century illuminated bibles? The art is always cool
Peggy
======= Leroy:
Peggy, The price will be a lot cooler! It will numb you when you Cost them!
Leroy
======= Pat:
Habakkuk 3:17-19 is my favorite scripture selection in the whole Bible.
“Though the fig tree may not blossom and no grapes grow on the vine,
Though the olive crops fail and the fields produce no food,
Though there are no sheep in the pens and the cattle stalls are empty,
I will rejoice in the Lord for He is my Savior. The Lord is my strength.
He makes my feet like the feet of the deer and carries me over the mountain.”
Regardless of what mountain of trouble life places before us, and we all will be faced with those mountains, the Lord will give us the strength to climb over the mountain. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17)”. God never strikes us with any form of trouble, and he does not have to test our faith because He is all knowing. We are going to experience all types of problems, strife and turmoil in our lives just because we reside in these earthly bodies here on this planet Earth. It will not be until we join the Lord in His Holy Kingdom that we will be free from the trials of life we now face. What God will do is give us the strength to handle anything life throws on us. He will give us the feet of deer and carry us over the mountain! Praise the Lord!!!!!
Because I love this scripture so, one of the Sunday School classes I taught had it embroidered on a wall hanging for me one Christmas. It hangs in my living room where I read it every day to remind myself that life can’t hand me anything that day that God won’t give me the strength to handle.
Psalms 137:7-9 “Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Did I read this incorrectly? The way I read this is that the psalmist is asking God to take revenge on the Babylonians who took the babies and dashed them against the rocks and the Edomites who cheered them on. When we studied Hosea and he was prophesizing against the sinful Samarian Israelites and warning them about what the Babylonians were going to do to them, God instructed Hosea to tell the people in Hosea 13:16 “The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the rocks, their pregnant women ripped open.” This psalmist is sitting in Babylon and the events occured exactly as Hosea said they would.
I think even though the psalmist recognized that this horrible thing with the babies happened because the people had turned away from God, he still is asking God to take revenge against the Babylonians for their actions, and to even extend the revenge to the Edomites who stood by and cheered them on instead of helping to stop this brutal killing.
God Bless!
Pat
======= Art:
Bless you, Pat, for reminding us of that wonderful verse. It is a great favorite of mine, also.
Habukkuk starts out where many of us start, with complaints and accusations to God. But he didn’t stay there for long. He waits patiently for God, and he listens. He watches and he prays. God does not come to him. God has been with him all along! Yes, it is true! The Lord is with us all along! Let us also be with Him.
Art
======= Jenny:
When we pray, God answers our prayers with a yes, no, or wait…i’m really not fond of the latter. Hab. 2:3 “Though it linger, wait for it”. This spoke to me…for most of my life the answer has been wait, but I always find the wait, tho hard, is worth it. Some things in my life that i wasnt given or where taken from me earlier were restored to me 10 yrs later. there are prayers i’m still waiting for 16 yrs later. Waiting is hard!!..and doubts creep in, like in Abraham n Sarah’s case as well. But it is well worth it..and comes unexpectedly and better then we imagined! these are blessings bestowed on me…not even things i asked for…but out of the Lords grace, be bestowed to me n i realize God restored some of my past. God would remind me, ‘remember you missed out on “this”…i am restoring those yrs by giving you “this”.’ Very healing n all just because God wants to bless me, not that i deserve it.
I also liked Hab. 1:5 “For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”……I really feel the Lord speaking this to me now. My flesh is very pessimistic, tend to hope for the best, but expect the worst…kinda a defense i built up from things i suffered.
there are certain things that if you would have told me 10-14 ys ago, i NEVER wouldve believed it, but they came to pass and its amazing! Who knows what the future holds…its in His hands so i dont worry too much, but i think its exciting to see what God is gonna do in my life next.
I like the song Fingerprints of God by Steven C. Chapman…’youre a wonder in the making. and God’s not through…in fact, He’s just getting started!’ ….i love this cause i know each day, each month, each year, God is working out His plan in my life…who He wants me to be and what He wants to do in my life.
Jenny
====== Brandie:
Jenny~do you think God makes us wait because he wants to make sure we have “faith”?
“Yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He will make me as surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains.” Habakkuk 3:18&19
This verse was my insight for today because the Soverign Lord will always be my strength no matter what happens to me as me and Jenny had a discussion the other day and I so appreciated her understandment. The Lord will carry me through everything that I encounter and he will be there for me. I just starting reading Max Lucado’s Tough Times and its for People that have gone through something as I have and this book put my mind at a better ease. As I don’t question anything in life because God will have my answer and when I get to that spot he will answer my big question.
Brandie
====== Gina:
Since Babylon is modern day Iraq, I think there is a lot of prohecy in Habakkuk that can be compared to what is happening in the Middle East today. It’s like watching God’s Word come alive! Very cool!! A reminder to always pray for Jerusalem!
Ch 2:8 “Though it linger, wait for it” That feels like the story of my life right now…but vs. 18 says it all…”yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” I just need to keep remembering He sees the bigger picture. In His timing, not mine.
Gina
====== Mae:
Revelation 9:20-21 stood out for me to – “But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to turn from their evil deeds. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood–idols that neither see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their immorality or their thefts.”
You asked: Is it possible that we receive much less severe signs in our own life today to repent, and we ignore them? Why do we ignore the signs? Is this wise?
For me personally I know I’m not ignoring anything anymore. I might question too much, but I know that will fade the longer I hang on to the Lord. I still question too much cause I’m still a baby in this, if you know what I mean. Before I was saved is a different story; when I look back I now see that Jesus knocked on my door repeatedly and I ignored it. Pretending not too see the signs … who was I kidding???? I had many signs that I needed to change my live immensly, take another path, but I just didn’t listen!!! I’m not really sure what was going through my stubborn head, somehow I didn’t think my sins couldn’t be washed away. I was pretty weird about this, cause I was brought up with the Bible, I knew about God. I knew about the great tribulation … I was scared of that! And I was scared of Him! I always thought it was too late for me. Well … this is not my testimony LOL I’m just thinking out loud what people must think to just go on with their lives, not turning from their evil deeds … Hold on, I’m not saying that I was evil or something like that!!! But just not changing, even though they witnessed the plagues …
Mae
====== Cherry:
” He will make me as surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountians ” of uncertainty. God is given us the ability and the promise that He is our strength to have faith, that this is true. Indeed we have a promise, that God will bring us up the heights of life on our Pathway, according to his Will nd He makes us victorious for His Name sake. With God’s strength given to us, we can conquer any height, because our Father God knows what we need. Praise the Lord.
Be blessed
Cherry
======== Elizabeth:
Hello,
I don’t know how relevant or helpful these thoughts will be to anyone beside myself–they are more just personal reflections. But I’ll share them anyway…
I have heard many good sermons on Psalm 137 and love the imagery here:
Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem.
We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.
For our captors demanded a song from us. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!”
But how can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a pagan land?
-Psalm 137:1-4
I think many of us can relate to being “somewhere else”–somewhere in life literally or emotionally where we didn’t WANT to be. Perhaps never thought we’d be. And it IS very difficult (at least it is for me) to remember the Lord in such circumstances, to recall His faithfulness, to see the BIG picture.
I had a job once that stressed me out so much that I got sick to my stomach about it sometimes. I recall reading this psalm in that season of my life and clinging to it like a lifeline.
The Lord allows these difficult seasons, and yet brings great good out of them. It’s a mystery, isn’t it…how He uses all things…
Elizabeth
======== David:
Hi Mike,
You asked why do we ignore the signs. They did an experiment to find out how to boil a frog. They threw the frog in hot water and that obviously did not work. The frog just jumped out. Then instead of trowing the frog in hot water, they put it in cold water but raised the temperature gradually until it began to boil. Believe it or not the frog remained in the water until it was cooked. It is not too crazy to assume that if a third of the people were to die that people would not think anything of it still. They would have gotten desensitized to all the violence and boiling water all around them.
By the way to add to today’s proverb, I would say never to tell anyone to their employer. Only tell the employer under extreme duress. It does not matter whether it be a slanderous comment or not, you are looking for serious curses, revenge, or even violence, from that person and their loved ones no matter if you are right or wrong! Bottom-line is, do not attack anyone’s livelihood unless you have weighed all the consequences, especially the the consequences to yourself.
Back to my theme on “Are we in the tribulation times already?”. I believe that the world is in the right state now that anything could happen and people would go about their normal business and not react. As long as isn’t happening to them. What do you think?
David
======== Lily:
Thank you Mike & Pat for the lesson on encouragement and faith to handle the day with assurance that God is always with us and walks with us.
Blessings
Lily
======== Calypso:
Hi Pat:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17)”.
I love this scripture.
It kinda reminded me of a passage in The Time Traveler’s Wife. Claire’s mother has passed away and she’s looking through all her papers and writings and is overwhelmed when she finds a poem her mom wrote about her. Henry standing beside her mentions Claire’s mom was changeable like wind. You never knew what she was about, what she stood for. His memories of his own mother were sweet. He knew he was loved. Never doubted it. Never had to. I pray and hope my boy never doubts me for I can be changeable as the wind myself.
If you’ve not read Time Traveler’s Wife.. it’s amazing reading.
“This is a great reminder to not speak untruths behind someone’s back – particularly to their employer! If you attack someone’s livelihood unfairly, you’ll be attacked back. Simply a foolish idea. Bite your tongue and pray rather than say anything false or in anger to someone’s employer…”
— I desperately needed this reminder..— many thanks.
I am praying now…
Calypso
======= Jill:
Very well stated Pat. I love Habakkuk 3:17-19 too!
I think of the verse I can do all thing through God who gives me strength Phil 4:13 and James 1:2-4 “consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance . Preserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete , not lacking anything “.
And 1 Peter 4:16 if you suffer s s Christian do not be ashamed but praise God that you hear that name!!!
God bless you during this Christmas season where one only finds joy in Jesus not in circumstances happening around us. Share Jesus joy with others that Only comes from
Within!
Jill
======== Carter:
“Habakkuk 3:17-19 = 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” These are some of my favorite verses in the Bible. I like them so much that a Bible study class I taught had them made into a plaque for me that hangs in my living room. What a comfort it is to know that regardless how many or how great the problems are that life piles up on me I can be joyful because God my Savior is going to give the feet of a deer to surmount that mountain of problems. Thank you Lord Jesus for loving me that much!!!
Carter
====== Karen:
I pray that I will be like Habakkuk who trembles and is in awe of the God who is coming in wrath; yet his posture is to wait patiently for the day of calamity as if there is a peace underneath all the trembling that cannot be taken. In the end, he rejoices in the Lord for He alone gives him strength.
Karen
======= Maureen:
so needed this
so failing ur will
but u said no my child i made u
u could never fail me
quit failing u
& letting satan in
here is another tool i give to u
fellowship & never give in
i will never let satan steal destroy or kill u
this is always a choice
Jesus said as He was outstretched on the cross
Forgive them for they know not what they do
Jesus wants no to b left behind
& i promise u Lord i will listen & share this
Maureen
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