Slices
Prepare
Whatever may be on your mind just now and troubling you, ask God for peace from it as you come to his Word.
Bible passage
Habakkuk’s prayer
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
2 Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens
and his praise filled the earth.
4 His splendour was like the sunrise;
rays flashed from his hand,
where his power was hidden.
5 Plague went before him;
pestilence followed his steps.
6 He stood, and shook the earth;
he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
and the age-old hills collapsed –
but he marches on for ever.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,
the dwellings of Midian in anguish.
8 Were you angry with the rivers, Lord?
Was your wrath against the streams?
Did you rage against the sea
when you rode your horses
and your chariots to victory?
9 You uncovered your bow,
you called for many arrows.
You split the earth with rivers;
10 the mountains saw you and writhed.
Torrents of water swept by;
the deep roared
and lifted its waves on high.
11 Sun and moon stood still in the heavens
at the glint of your flying arrows,
at the lightning of your flashing spear.
12 In wrath you strode through the earth
and in anger you threshed the nations.
13 You came out to deliver your people,
to save your anointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
you stripped him from head to foot.
14 With his own spear you pierced his head
when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,
gloating as though about to devour
the wretched who were in hiding.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
churning the great waters.
16 I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.
17 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 sheepfold
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
Explore
Habakkuk, the musician, sings about the wonderful things God did in the past. He asks him to repeat the awesome things he did then (v 2), for example, when he brought his people out of Egypt, and led them to Mount Sinai and the Promised Land. Now, he patiently seeks deliverance from the rule of the oppressor, trusting in God’s strength (vs 16,19).
Over Christmas, of course, we have been thanking God for his gift of Jesus, the second Moses, the ‘anointed one’ (v 13) who also came out of Egypt to free his people from oppression (Matthew 2:13– 21). God heard Habakkuk’s plea and answered it in a vaster, deeper and far more lasting way than Habakkuk could ever have imagined.
Habakkuk had begun by questioning God and pretty much telling him how he should be doing his job (chapters 1,2). Now, he realises God actually does know best, and he can leave the world, with all its pain and injustices, in the Lord’s hands. In spite of it all, he can rejoice. Habakkuk is ‘the person in right standing before God’ who ‘through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive’ (2:4, The Message).
Respond
Just as Habakkuk ends with a personal declaration of faith in God (vs 16–18), tell God just what a difference that first Christmas has made to your life.
Deeper Bible study
‘Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Jesus.’1 What makes you happy? What helps you hold on to joy, even in unhappy situations?
Sri Lanka’s newly appointed prime minister (2022) told the BBC that the country’s worst ever economic crisis would ‘get worse before it gets better’. As I write, our turbulent political waters just seem to grow muddier and warnings of a food crisis ring out louder. Fears rise easily, while hope feels elusive, joy seems distant and praise, quite frankly, is a struggle.
Although Habakkuk’s troubles remain unresolved,2 his time on the ramparts has changed his perspective. Quiet time remembering the Lord who reigns ‘in his holy temple’3 probably recalled past wonders, prompting a plea for a repeat performance (v 2) and a loud shout out in praise of God’s character (vs 3,4) and his powerful acts of deliverance (vs 5–15). These praises, however, do not spring from a carefree ‘all’s right with our world’ scenario. They are although praises, wrung from the prophet like a groan while he is still weighed down by rampant injustice and the frightening possibility of foreign invasion.
For the Israelites, fruitfulness of their crops and livestock both symbolised and actualised God’s covenant blessings,4 but Habakkuk’s praises don’t revolve around fig trees, vines, olives, flocks or cattle (v 17). His unwavering focus is the Giver. Although these blessings may be withheld, the prophet remains committed to two things: he ‘will wait patiently’ (v 16) for God to bring justice and he ‘will be joyful in God’ (v 18). Like faithful sentinels, patient hope and joyful faith stand guard over the terrifying uncertainties of the present (v 17). Singing by faith – rather than sight – Habakkuk finds in God the strength to keep walking by faith. He receives the feet of a deer for high places (v 19)!
Lord, the hard places are still hard, the harsh circumstances still harsh… Until you destroy the strongholds of evil, give me deer’s feet and set me secure on the heights.5
1 Anonymous, https://www.biblia.work/sermons/happiness-4/ 2 Hab 1:2–4,13–17 3 Hab 2:20 4 Deut 28:1–14 5 Ps 18:33
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Malachi 1,2; Psalms 149,150
Pray for Scripture Union
Give thanks for God’s direction over recent months as we have refined the Revealing Jesus strategy to widen its reach and impact – providing a new level of Mission Support to local churches in their journey alongside the 95 in their communities.
