From the highly recommended: Prophecy Today <jimmydeyoung@prophecytoday.com>
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Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Those of us who are using this third chapter of Habakkuk for our daily devotion most likely have difficulty even pronouncing the prophets name as we endeavor to understand what is taking place in this little prophetic book.
Before we look at our passage for today I think a quick look back at the entire prophecy would be good. Because of destruction, violence, strife, conflict, injustice and wickedness all around him, Habakkuk, as recorded in chapter one, was so depressed that he was about to go under when he started this book.
The prophet had a number of questions for God. All of his questions started with "Why". Habakkuk cried out to the Lord for some answers and his call did not go unheeded.
In the Lord's response, as revealed in chapter two, He not only answered the prophets demanding questions as to why "bad things happen to good people" but the Lord gave His prophet the confidence to lift him up from the "pits to the mountaintop".
In the third chapter God gives the prophet a "prayer of praise" that was the "song of joy" for a servant who began in a "valley of distress" and ends his journey on the "mountaintop of delight".
As you read our extended passage you can almost hear the music. It is a "hymn of praise", a "prayer of praise" put to music that glorifies the Lord, with who the prophet had been conversing and complaining.
Now Habakkuk will celebrate as he comes to the understanding of why Judah was being punished and the "who" that God had chosen to chastise the Jews, Babylon.
To make the song complete, God revealed the defeat of Babylon and that Judah would return to the Lord. The key verse of the entire book, 2:4, expresses the principle upon which we must develop our own lives in this time, similar to the times of Habakkuk.
"The just shall live by his faith" is the principle that must be applied in our day of wickedness, distress, violence, evil, conflict, injustice and destruction. God has a plan that is found in the pages of His prophetic passages that prepare us for His purpose in these days.
As we stop and listen to Him, by reading His Word daily, we can move from "distress to deliverance", as did Habakkuk. One very interesting thought before we conclude, the ultimate destruction of Babylon, modern-day Iraq, will take place after the Anti- christ sets up his worldwide political, economic, governmental kingdom in that "literal" city of Babylon ( Revelation 18 and 16:17-21 ).
All that we see going on in Iraq today is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled, seemingly in the near future. But remember, the total destruction of Babylon takes place just before Jesus comes back to Earth and steps down on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
These events will take place at least seven years from today, and I say that because the next event on God's calendar is the Rapture, which has not happened yet. However, it could happen today..........Keep looking up.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me Lord, to live by faith, faith in You and Your plan for the future, which will be the very best for me.  | | | | | | | |
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