The Prophets: Habakkuk "Yet I WIll Rejoice in the Lord"

S = Habakkuk 3:2, 17-19
3:2 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…

3:17-19

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,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places.

O = Habakkuk lived during a time characterized by violence… wickedness… strife… people ignoring the law… where justice is perverted. He cried out to the Lord, as I know I have done, “How long?” When would God come and deal with the social injustice, oppression, and personal corruption? God’s answer surprised Habakkuk. God was going to use the Chaldeans (Babylon) to judge his people. Habakkuk asked a second question, “How come them?” for they seemed to be worse than Judah. In chapter 2, God assured him that the Chaldeans would be judged for their own sins [Ambitiousness (6-8); Covetousness (9-11); Violence (12-14); Moral Shame (15-17); Idolatry (18-19)]

In Chapter 2 there are three significant verses containing truth even beyond the need of the immediate context:

• 2:4b “…but the righteous [just] shall live by his faith…
• 2:14 “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD.”
• 2:20 “The LORD is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silent before Him.”

God is seen as sovereign over nations and history. Habakkuk was facing a very difficult season of time and did so by drawing near to God in honest communication, simple trust, and heartfelt worship.

A = I am impressed by Habakkuk’s honesty with God about his questions and his resolve to pray, to remember God’s work in the past and worship the Lord through whatever frightening circumstances may come. I need to be able to do likewise. I have found it helpful to re-write 3:17-19 from my own situation. I would suggest that it might be helpful for those reading this as well.

P = O Lord, I know you are just and righteous and will deal with the evil in the world. You will do it in your way and in your time. I will rest in the embrace of your plan though at times it frightens me I will trust in your goodness and mercy! I pray that this week you would set my feet securely where I can give thanks and rejoice in you. Amen.

Judges & 1 Samuel 8 "The Kingdom"

SOAP Journal based on Judges & 1 Samuel

S = Judges 17:6 & 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

1 Samuel 8:5b,7-9 “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” …And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. ⁸ According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. ⁹ Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

O = After the time of conquest under Joshua, the nation of Israel was repeatedly oppressed by surrounding nations as a result of their disobeying God. God told Israel ahead of time that this would happen if they chose to turn away from the Lord, and the people had agreed (Deut. 11, 29-30). The book of Judges narrates the downward cycles of rejection, rebellion, repentance, and rescue. Everyone did as they saw fit. That is a problem. The people were to be looking to God as their king but generally didn’t. They wanted to be like every other nation. God lets the people have what they wanted but warns them ahead of time what a king would cost them.  

A = I would do well to learn from these examples in the Bible. Firstly, is there in my own heart a turning away from following and worshiping the Lord alone? I resign any claim to self-direction and self-salvation…they don’t work anyway. Secondly, what kind of leaders do I tend to follow (Deut. 17:15)? Are they godly or worldly? Thirdly, I know I need to pray for my community, state, and country more consistently—that people might see the emptiness of idolatry and immorality and long for the fullness of joy and peace in the Father, through Christ, by the Spirit! It might also help me if I began to think of God as my King and to actively seek his input before launching into just any old thing on my own.

P = O Lord, send your Spirit to search my heart and reveal—any bitter root which needs to be pulled up, any area where I have begun to coast instead of pressing in relationally, any imaginations that I have raised up against you—and redeem my life from the pit I would surely dig if left to my own devices. Be my king today and always! Amen.

Numbers 13-14 “The Journey Pt.2 ”

S = Numbers 13:30-31 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”

Numbers 14:1-4 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Numbers 14:20-23 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

O = Caleb and Joshua saw that they were able to go up and occupy the land precisely because God was giving it to them. The others only saw the strength of their enemies and complained against God. They blamed God for bringing them out there in the first place and wailed that their little ones would become “prey” for the Canaanites. Don’t miss the irony of  14:31 "But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.” God was nothing like how the people portrayed him. They consistently rebelled against God and challenged him as to his character.

     What was their problem? How could they fail to recognize the amazing works of a loving God in their midst each day? After being delivered from Egyptian slavery, from the army pursuing them, through the barrier of the Red Sea, the Lord provided manna and water so that they didn’t starve or die of thirst. Their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out, they had shade from the sun and light and warmth at night, as well as protection from their enemies and neighbors alike. Yet they refused to believe. Were they stupid or uninformed? No, the problem was in their desires. They desired evil instead of the Lord (1 Cor. 10:6). As a result they could not see the loving care of Yahweh on their behalf and doubted his character.

A = I wonder if we do the same thing today. I know that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 10:1-10) and specifically called them out using the sin of Israel in the wilderness as an example. They too were beginning to desire evil, of which he gives four examples (idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God, and grumbling). So I should probably “go to school on them” and examine my own heart for these thorns, these invasive desires that seek to choke out my love for the Lord…

• Idolatry—is there something I value more than Jesus?
• Immorality—do my relationships reflect the love of God or the lust of the world?
• Testing—is there some area where I repeatedly doubt the goodness of God?
• Grumbling—are there areas in my life where I am neither thankful to, nor trusting of, the Lord and his promises?

      How could I be fed, led, protected, delivered, shaded, illuminated, and instructed on a daily basis and not learn to see and trust the loving hand of Jesus in my life? I need to pause today to actively trust and thank God for his goodness towards me. So I sit and look out my window at the sun hitting the south side of the Columnar Maples in the parking lot—causing them to glow like pillars of fire that hints of the Creator’s glory present amidst the mundane.

      All I deserved was hell and death and what I have received is so much better than that! He is always at work around me; I just need eyes to see.

P = O Lord, help me to trust you completely and then open my eyes to see what you are up to…and thank you for it all. Jesus, please keep me from desiring anything less than you and your loving plan for my life. May many others be blessed by the light of that love this week. Amen.

Hebrews 3 & 1 Corinthians 10 “Lessons from the Journey (Part 1)”

S = Hebrews 3:7-8, 12-13 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

In the day of trial in the wilderness…”

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 

O = This passage quotes from Psalm 95:7-11 words that every Jew at the time of Christ knew by heart “because its opening line served as a call to worship every Sabbath evening in the synagogue with these words. Hebrew ears perked up at their sound.” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, 99). I have long meditated on the first phrase of this passage, “Today, if you hear (NIV) / if you will hear (NKJV).” It doesn't imply that we might hear His voice if the Spirit chooses to speak, but rather we will hear if we desire to listen. The issue here is not about His will, but about our heart, i.e., He is speaking today and we can hear Him if we want to listen. I am instructed by the original context in the wilderness that God did not create them to die in the wilderness, and that they had to choose it by hardening their hearts.

A = If “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11) then I need to ask myself some tough questions today, such as:

·         What might keep me from passing the trust test?

·         What might cause God to be angry with my generation?

·         So what have I seen God do, but remain unmoved? (Israel had seen 10 plagues, Red Sea parted, pillar of cloud/fire, manna, water, etc. The readers of Hebrews had heard or seen Jesus feed 5000 & 4000, heal the sick, deliver the possessed, calm the storm, rise from the dead, fill believers with the Holy Spirit, and fulfill all the prophesies—would they remain unmoved or respond in faith? Will I?

I know I miss the message all too often, but today I want to listen and encourage others to do the same… as long as it is still “Today”!

P = O Lord, open my ears to hear and my heart to trust. Let me not harden my heart in the desert of my circumstances and unmet desires but may trust spring up, and let me respond to your amazing love with a desire to follow you wherever you lead. I need to rest in the confidence that you are with me and that is always enough for my situation today. Amen.