In The Word
Read: Habakkuk 3:1–15
God’s Deliverance of His People
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
2 Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear.
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years,
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.
3 God comes from Teman,
And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.
His splendor covers the heavens,
And the earth is full of His praise.
4 His radiance is like the sunlight;
He has rays flashing from His hand,
And there is the hiding of His power.
5 Before Him goes pestilence,
And plague comes after Him.
6 He stood and surveyed the earth;
He looked and startled the nations.
Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered,
The ancient hills collapsed.
His ways are everlasting.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan under distress,
The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.
8 Did the Lord rage against the rivers,
Or was Your anger against the rivers,
Or was Your wrath against the sea,
That You rode on Your horses,
On Your chariots of salvation?
9 Your bow was made bare,
The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah.
You cleaved the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and quaked;
The downpour of waters swept by.
The deep uttered forth its voice,
It lifted high its hands.
11 Sun and moon stood in their places;
They went away at the light of Your arrows,
At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.
12 In indignation You marched through the earth;
In anger You trampled the nations.
13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
For the salvation of Your anointed.
You struck the head of the house of the evil
To lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.
14 You pierced with his own spears
The head of his throngs.
They stormed in to scatter us;
Their exultation was like those
Who devour the oppressed in secret.
15 You trampled on the sea with Your horses,
On the surge of many waters.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
The prophet Habakkuk began an emotional poem about the Lord’s deliverance of His people, because he stood in awe of the work of the Lord’s hand. Habakkuk asked the Lord to have compassion on Israel and to move in the nation the same way the Lord did a generation ago. Mountains quaked before Him; nations were trampled under Him. The Habakkuk trembled as he waited for the day that God would move in his generation.
The Savior has come. Jesus Christ came, died, and rose again for the salvation of all people. Our hope is in Him, not in His blessings. We do not love Him to get things; we love Him, because He first loved us. We love Him because He laid down His life for us while we were still sinners. “Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3: 17-18). God used Job to show Satan that a man would love God no matter what he gets in return. Abraham showed God that he loved Him more than anything, even his son of the Lord’s promise. How about you today? Do you serve Him because you love Him?