Join us as we explore the final chapter of Habakkuk, a profound reflection on God’s wrath and mercy. Through Habakkuk’s prayer, we learn the journey from questioning God to embracing His sovereignty. This episode provides a deep dive into personal reflections and biblical interpretations that speak to the timeless nature of faith amidst trials.
Welcome to ADDBIBLE, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
SPEAKER 01 :
In chapter 3 of Habakkuk, the last chapter, Habakkuk has questioned God in chapters 1 and 2 and heard from the Lord in chapters 1 and 2. And now he wants to see a demonstration of God’s wrath and mercy. And then he closes with praise to the Lord. Let’s listen in to Faith Comes Right Here and his reading of Habakkuk chapter 3.
SPEAKER 03 :
Habakkuk 3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet according to Shigianoth. O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. God came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. Selah. His brightness was like the light, rays flashed from his hand, and there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth, he looked and shook the nations. Then the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. I saw the tents of cushion and affliction, the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers? Or your indignation against the sea when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed. The raging water swept on. The deep gave forth its voice. It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury. You threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me. Rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret, you trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer’s. He makes me tread on my high places.” to the choir master with stringed instruments.
SPEAKER 01 :
We’ll look at two of my personal Bible reading journals concerning Habakkuk chapter 3, one from 2009 when I was 54 years old, and one from 2015, when I was 60 years old. In 2009, I read Habakkuk 1 through 3 on the same day, and concerning chapter 3, I wrote in my journal, God responds to Habakkuk’s questions. He worships and praises him. Then I quoted 3.2, In wrath, remember mercy. Then I quoted verse 13. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. That’s always God’s goal, our salvation. No matter how hard God’s judgment gets, we need to stand firm. Chapter 3, verses 17 through 19. In 2015, I read Habakkuk 1 and 2 on one day. And the next day I read Habakkuk 3 and actually read Zephaniah 1. But concerning Habakkuk 3, I wrote… Do we fear God today? We know of Him, but in this age of grace, do we respect God, tremble at His name, understand He is not only a God of love, but also a God of wrath and judgment? Judgment is on the way, as it was in Habakkuk’s day, and as it comes, will we trust in the Lord? In chapters 1 and 2, Habakkuk questioned and complained to God. In chapter 2, God gave Habakkuk quite an answer. In the first several verses of chapter 3, Habakkuk remembers God and His wrath and His mercy in times gone by. For example, verse 2, Verse 6, Verse 7, verse ten the mountains saw you and writhed verse eleven the sun and the moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped at the flash of your glittering spear verse twelve you marched through the earth in flurry you threshed the nations in anger And finally, Habakkuk concludes his memories with verse 16. I hear and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Habakkuk has completely changed his tone, hasn’t he? We said in the introduction, Habakkuk changes from chapter 1 to chapter 3 of his own book. If there’s any doubt, look at the last couple of verses of chapter 3, starting with verse 17. “…though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the product of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herds in the stalls.” Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. In three chapters, Habakkuk moves from questioning and complaining to God to praising God with a complete understanding of God’s sovereignty. Habakkuk’s circumstances did not change, but his heart, his attitude changed. May that be the application for us from this short, wonderful prophetic book. Your circumstances may not have changed since we began reading Habakkuk a few days ago, but because you’ve spent time in Habakkuk, hopefully your heart has changed. Oh yeah, we can complain and murmur against God, or we can praise Him regardless of our circumstances. As we close out this short book, let us go back to the beginning of when we started. In our book introduction, I said Habakkuk, like Job, questioned God’s justice, but like Job, realizes God is sovereign. His justice is beyond human comprehension. We mentioned the key themes of the book, and now we’ve seen them unfold. God is just and merciful, even though his people may not understand his ways. Secondly, wickedness will eventually be punished, and the righteous will ultimately experience God’s justice. And thirdly, God sometimes uses wicked nations to punish other nations, but ultimately God will judge all nations. We also said in the introduction, by the end of the book Habakkuk is a changed person. Maybe you will be too. He learns to wait and trust in God. Have you? Let’s pray. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herds in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy and the God of my salvation. May your words be our prayer as we have read the book of Habakkuk. Though our circumstances probably didn’t change in the last few days, hopefully our heart has. Lord, we thank you that in these short, minor prophet books, there’s so often so much encouragement that we miss if we never read or listen to these books. Thank you for encouraging us to live by faith. Thank you for reminding us that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Thank you for reminding us that you are in your holy temple. And lastly, Lord, we pray like Habakkuk. In wrath, remember mercy toward us. You have reminded us in this book, too, that everything you do is for the salvation of your people, even when they don’t understand what you’re doing. Thank you for mercy in wrath. Thank you that everything you do is for our salvation. Thank you for the encouraging words we have found in the book of Habakkuk. Encourage us even in the days of trouble. And to God be the glory as you do. Amen. Thanks for listening to ADDBIBLE today. If you love the Bible and you love a radio program fully committed to the Bible, keep ADDBIBLE on the air by investing in ADDBIBLE at EzraProject.net. Without your financial partnership, ADDBIBLE will go off the air on September 30th. Let me say that again. Without your financial support, ADDBIBLE will go off the air on September 30th. Visit EzraProject.net to donate online or get our mailing address there on our website. Help us continue to connect God’s people to God’s Word, and we will thank you for your support. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war, so he was never home. So we took the car that day, neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. but God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf, get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did, was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
