God is in Control

July 1, 2020 Spiritual Growth

When I read the Book of Habakkuk, I chuckle because I understand the writer’s feelings about God exactly. I just haven’t expressed my questions so honestly.

We know little about Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah, who lived when the nation of Israel crumbled. Habakkuk doesn’t think God is listening or doing anything about the wickedness around him.

Attempts to communicate with God seem useless. Then God tells Habakkuk not to worry; He is sending the Chaldeans to capture Israel.

Shocked, Habakkuk reminds God—as if He didn’t know—that the Chaldeans are worse than the Israelites. Then Habakkuk sets himself on a tower to watch what God will do.

God teaches Habakkuk a valuable lesson—to look beyond his circumstances to see the big picture. Wickedness was all around, but that would not always be so.

God introduced to Habakkuk a principle that both the apostle Paul and Martin Luther picked up much later, familiarly expressed as, “The just shall live by his faith” (2:4, KJV).

God reminds Habakkuk of His authoritative position:

The LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth be silent before him. (2:20)

Habakkuk was silenced by this declaration. His powerful prayer in the next chapter shows him moving from doubt to faith. In spite of conflicting circumstances, he could trust God and rejoice in Him by faith.

Prayer: Lord, help us learn faith as Habakkuk did, to remember that You are in control, even when it does not seem You are.

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