Category: Morning Musings

Morning Musing: Habakkuk 2:12-14

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“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice! Is it not from the Lord of Armies that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire and countries exhaust themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord’s glory, as the water covers the sea.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

What kinds of accomplishments really matter? What is it that makes a certain accomplishment significant anyway? Is it the way we go about it? Is it the intent with which we pursue it? Whatever it is, we want to know that what we do matters. If we’re going to achieve this aim, though, we’ve got to figure out what it is that makes anything matter. Not hitting that mark in anything we do would be awful…a bit like judgment…just like Habakkuk describes here.

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Morning Musing: Habakkuk 2:6-8

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“Won’t all of these take up a taunt against him, with mockery and riddles about him? They will say, ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his–how much longer?–and loads himself with goods taken in pledge.’ Won’t your creditors suddenly arise, and those who disturb you wake up? Then you will become spoil for them. Since you have plundered many nations, all the peoples who remain will plunder you–because of human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Judgment finally arrives. Habakkuk–and us with him–have been waiting for this moment to arrive for quite a while. God finally speaks a word of judgment over the Babylonians. They are going to get what’s coming to them. And yet, what exactly is coming to them? Who will deliver it? And what does any of this mean for us reading more than 2,500 years later and on the other side of the empty tomb? For the next few days, that’s exactly what we’re going to be talking about.

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Morning Musing: Habakkuk 2:1

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“I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see what he will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever asked somebody a question and then didn’t stick around for an answer? Better yet, have you ever had somebody ask you a question and then didn’t stick around for your answer? My kids will occasionally do that. They’ll ask me something and just as I mount my soapbox of parental wisdom to impart to them the secrets of the universe, they’ve already either asked me something else or are talking about the next thing. It drives me crazy…in no small part because it wounds my ego. As frustrating as this is for us, imagine how God feels. Think for a minute about how many times you’ve asked Him something only to not wait around for the answer. Habakkuk has asked God some really big questions. He does something next that is really important for us to mimic.

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Morning Musing: Habakkuk 1:13

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“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are you silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself?”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

The world is not like it’s supposed to be. That is a truth everyone understands. Everyone. No matter what religion they profess or no religion at all, we all have a general sense that the world is broken. Our understanding of exactly why it’s broken and what the solution should be varies, but on the brokenness we all can agree. This is called the problem of evil and it is exactly what we find Habakkuk wrestling with here at the end of chapter 1. Let’s wrestle with him.

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Morning Musing: Habakkuk 1:5-6

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“Look at the nations and observe — be utterly astounded! For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it. Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter, impetuous nation that marches across the earth’s open spaces to seize territories not its own.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever cautioned someone to be careful what they wish for? Why do we do that? Because we generally understand that we don’t know everything and that wanting things to be other than they are may come with consequences we don’t anticipate. Seeing one thing happen that we want at the expense of two or three (or more) things happening that we don’t may not be a worthwhile trade. Habakkuk here reminds us that the same principle applies to the things we ask of God as well.

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