For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14
Maybe you’ve heard the greeting and response: “God is good all the time.” “And all the time, God is good!” It’s easy enough to say these words when the sun is shining. After a long, snowy winter, the fact that sun is streaming into my office on this week when we will greet the first day of spring, makes me want to say, “God is good, all the time.” And this is even more true the morning after our church’s annual meeting, a meeting which began with thanksgiving for God’s goodness to our body and concluded with a unanimous affirmative vote. Yes, God is good. Yet, even as the sun shines in, I think of the darkness that has struck New Zealand and fifty lost lives in the wake of domestic terrorism and I am struck anew by the frailty of human life. Even this morning, when I heard the sounds of sirens just two minutes after a family member left the house, my thoughts immediately turned to concern. Of course, my concern was unwarranted. But we all live with this reality…that tragedy can strike without warning…a reality many of us have experienced firsthand. This is the reality with which Habakkuk opens his prophetic book, “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? 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” (1:2–3). At the heart of Habbakuk’s complaint are the corrupt leaders who oppress their own people. God answers Habakkuk immediately, “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” (Habakkuk 1:5). What is this amazing thing God is going to do? He is going to deal with the corruption in Israel by sending Babylon to mete out justice on an unfaithful people. But this only makes the prophet more upset. How can a righteous God use an even more corrupt nation, a nation that does unthinkable things, to discipline His people Israel? He concludes his question, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint” (2:1). Yet again, God is gracious to answer. What is God’s answer? It is the quote at the beginning of this post, a promise that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh. In other words, God is faithful and good and will ultimately bring about what is best. So, what should the man and woman of God do in the mean time? “But the righteous will live by his faith” (2:4). In other words, don’t put your trust in earthly idols, put your trust in God. For Yahweh “is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (2:20). In the final chapter, we find a prophet no longer complaining, but embracing a righteousness by faith in God’s goodness. This trust in God undergirds the final chapter’s plea, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2). And he concludes the book with an affirmation of his trust in Yahweh God, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights” (3:17–19). Here is what it means for the righteous to live by faith: Trust that, in the end, God will make everything right. But it is not a trust that is merely philosophical. It is a trust that is deeply relational, that joyfully draws near to “God my Savior”, that revels in His goodness and walks in His truth. Ultimately, it is a faith that looks to the coming Messiah. For, tucked away in the concluding chapter of this book of prophecy written hundreds of years before Christ, is a prediction, “You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one” (3:13). Here, yet again, is the crimson thread which runs through the tapestry of Scripture. The prophet predicts deliverance for God’s people, a deliverance that will be displayed in and through His anointed one, Messiah, Christ. In this season in which we celebrate resurrection, we are reminded of what Messiah’s resurrection means for those who trust in Him: Past, present and future deliverance in and through our resurrected Lord. Yes, darkness is a reality in this present age, but 2,000 years ago a light dawned for mankind. And when Jesus returns, that light…the knowledge of glory of Yahweh, will fill the earth “as the waters cover the sea.” Let us look in faith to our Savior and work by faith to see His glory revealed, knowing that God is good, all the time...and all the time, God is good!
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Dan GannonDan has ministered at Renton Bible Church, with his wife Debbie, since 2003. Archives
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