One of the interesting aspects to God is that we do not always know what He is doing. His ways are beyond our ways, and sometimes they are beyond our finding out. Such has been the case with Habakkuk. Habakkuk has complained that God has allowed wickedness to prevail all around him, and he wonders and prays to God asking why He is not doing anything about it. God told Habakkuk that He was involved and He had a solution that if He told it to Habakkuk, he wouldn't believe it. Now God has shared with Habakkuk that He is going to use the Chaldeans to bring judgment upon Israel, and God has spoken of the fierceness of His agent of judgment. Today we see Habakkuk's response to what God has planned, and as God said, Habakkuk couldn't believe God's choice. Habakkuk wrote in verse twelve of chapter one:
Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, you have established them for correction.
Habakkuk's first question in response to God was, “Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One?” The origin and eternalness of God is questioned first. Habakkuk is continuing his challenge toward God as he was in the beginning of his book, but now instead of an appeal for God to be just against those who were wicked, he is appealing on behalf of the Israelites themselves. If God has been “everlasting”, and He has, then He will be “everlasting” today, and He is. He is “LORD” or Jehovah God, and He is claimed by Habakkuk as “my God” which makes the relationship personal with him. He is “my Holy One” according to Habakkuk, and this is what causes Habakkuk such dismay.
Next we find the core of Habakkuk's question, “you have ordained them for judgment”. In other words, Habakkuk is basically saying, “God, I know we're bad, but these people are horrible!” Evidently Habakkuk knew the reputation of the Chaldeans. No doubt the word had been spread about the formidable nature, power and viciousness of the Chaldean's army, and as God had said in verse five, “for [I] will work a work in your days, [which] ye will not believe, though it be told [you].” Now as just as God had predicted, Habakkuk is fulfilling His words.
Finally Habakkuk appeals to God's very character. He wrote, “O mighty God, you have established them for correction.” There is none mightier than God, and no weapon or fabricated god shall rise up against Him. He is the almighty God, and as Paul the apostle wrote in First Corinthians chapter eight and verse four, “that [there is] none other God but one.” This Almighty God, has “chosen” them for correction. Notice that God chose them. God sets up one authority and puts down another. He chooses whom He desires to use, and He chooses whom He does not. Paul the apostle teaches us this principle in the book of Romans in chapter thirteen verse one, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
God gave the power to the Chaldean's to be His agents of “correction.” Notice that it doesn't say “elimination”, and for Israel's sake, that is a good thing. The Heavenly Father “corrects” His children. He doesn't abandon them. He may use resources and people that causes great confusion at times, but God is our loving Father, and as He was to Israel, so He is toward us. We have the privilege of being the children of God if we have given our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ, and therefore we as the children of Israel may need correction from time to time. As Habakkuk we too may be dismayed by God's methods and agents of correction, but nonetheless, our Heavenly Father knows what is best for our lives. Perhaps today we should consider where correction is being applied to our lives by God. There may be some area of dismay, and we wonder as Habakkuk what the everlasting, mighty and holy God is doing with us. Our greatest advantage will come when we turn our eyes toward Him, trust Him, and allow Him to maintain all the correction that He deems necessary for us to continue being His children.
Next time we will look further into Habakkuk's wondering about God's choice, 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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