Thus far God's description of the Chaldeans to Habakkuk has been ominous. These agents of God's judgment were powerful, strong, and would conquer their foes with little effort. God tells Habakkuk that He will use them to judge all the wickedness that Habakkuk has been watching, and although Habakkuk wondered if God was seeing all the evil around him, God did indeed see and had a plan. God continues His list of characteristics of the Chaldeans in verse ten of the first chapter of this book. He told Habakkuk,
And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
Respect for authority usually is inherent when the authority is more powerful than the one respecting. For example, a small child usually respects his or her parent because the parent in most cases is stronger than they; a police officer is respected when the officer has the power to arrest someone who violates the law; or a judge is respected when the judge can imprison or free a perpetrator. But those who were in authority positions were not respected at all by the Chaldeans. God says, “they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them.” In other words, those who were usually regarded as supreme authorities would be mocked, derided and made fun of, and their children would be objects of derision. Like pieces on a chess board they would have no regard for their positions, and they would move them around like any other piece of the game.
Whenever these foes against the Chaldeans would arise in defense, God says the Chaldeans “shall deride every strong hold.” These powerful Chaldeans would basically laugh at whatever defense their opponents offered. They would mock and play with them like they were rag dolls. The Chaldeans were powerful, and any self-preservation, shielding or resistance would be easily defeated.
Finally God tells the reason the Chaldeans shall disrespect all authorities and defenses, “for they shall heap dust, and take it.” Like yesterday's verse, the Chaldeans shall conquer their opposition as easy as it would be to scoop up a handful of sand on a beach. They will gather these foes and take anything they like from them. Can we even imagine such a mighty force?
Once again, we can place ourselves in Habakkuk's shoes as he is hearing and writing this. What would it be like to hear that our country was going to be conquered by such a powerful foe? What if there was an army who would disrespect our President, his cabinet, the congress, our judges, or law enforcement officers? What if they were so powerful that no defense mechanism could stop them? What if not even the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines could hold them back, and they were so strong that they would defeat city after city and do so with ease? What would we be thinking?
Maybe after we meditate upon the fact that God by His mercy has not sent such a formidable enemy upon us we will remember to thank Him for His abundant grace, and turn our hearts toward Him long before He sees the need to correct us in judgment by doing so.
Next time we will look at the spiritual influence with whom the Chaldeans trust, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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