May 29, 2013 A Plea and a Promise

Read Habakkuk 1-2 A Plea and a Promise Hab 1:2-6 How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. 5 “Look at the nations and watch — and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. 6 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. 7 They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.” & 2:20 “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” DO YOU sometimes wonder in the course of your daily life, “How long, O Lord, must I cry for help?” It’s easy to ask, isn’t it, as you watch the world decay in sin? Verses 5-7 are just the beginning of God’s response to Habakkuk’s question, “How long, O Lord, must I cry for help?” God gives his prophet a litany of judgment and destruction that he, the Lord, will send upon his people who violently oppose God’s laws and truths. What must be the world’s response to God and his impending judgment? It is silence. As a disobedient child realizes his sin and is quiet, the world will become silent before God to acknowledge God’s power to rule. The world will become silent, prepared to pray to be saved from God’s wrath as you will see in chapter 3. It’s True! God’s coming in judgment again. Be silent and listen to His Word.