One of the traits of a victor or conquerer is to attribute all the glory for his or her accomplishment to themselves. It seems such a natural bent for most: “I did this, and I did that. It was because I did this thing or I did that thing.” However, glory to God for accomplishments is often forgotten or at best an honorable mention. Such is the case with God's agent of judgment Chaldea, as they have been chosen by God as His tool for judgment against Israel. Their victory is promised to be formidable and swift, and yet, they soon swell in their pride, forget the true God, and give glory to their god for their winnings. Habakkuk records God's words about them in verse eleven of chapter one in his book. He wrote:
Then shall [his] mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, [imputing] this his power unto his god.
After the swift conquest, it is said of the Chaldeans “then shall his mind change.” We can relate to this if we think about it. How many times have we seen people who were praying like crazy for God to help them before a test or perhaps a sports game and then when they succeed they take all the credit for themselves? The way they talk afterwards leads us to believe that they really didn't need the help of God at all. In fact, they probably could have done the whole thing without praying. Such was the case with the Chaldeans. They had power from God, authority from God and position from God, and they even had permission from God to be His agent of judgment, and yet they change their minds after victory.
Next God says, “he shall pass over, and offend.” We can imagine that offending God after we have victory is not an enviable position, however this is the idea: once the Chaldeans have the victory, they will change their minds and offend God who gave them the power to do so. The question is how do they do this, and is there anything for us to learn from their mistake? Indeed there is.
God says the Chaldeans will not only change their minds, quickly conquer, and offend, but their reason for offending is their greatest mistake of all: “imputing this his power unto his god.” In other words, they attribute their power to be victorious to their own gods rather than the true God. The Chaldeans worshiped Bel and Nebo as their gods, and although the one holy and true God was their source of help, they forgot about Him after their conquest. Such is the case with most people. People will give credit to their training, their education, their hard work and effort. They will give credit to their coaches, parents, pastors, leaders, etc., etc., but they often forget the Heavenly Father above who created everything of which they took advantage. When it comes to the glory of God we should always remember what the prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter forty-two and verse eight of his book:
I [am] the LORD: that [is] my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
We can learn much from the Chaldeans today. Who receives the glory for our lives? To whom or what do we attribute our successes? When we have victories, who is truly the one to whom we give praise? Maybe as we meditate upon this today we will turn from our natural inclination to praise ourselves and give glory to God to whom it is more than certainly due. Praise be to His name.
Next time we will discover Habakkuk's reaction to God's pronouncement of judgment upon that which he complained, 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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