QT 8/15/2022 Hab 3:4-6, Money in the bank

Habakkuk 3:4–6 (ESV) —

4 His brightness was like the light;

rays flashed from his hand;

and there he veiled his power.

5 Before him went pestilence,

and plague followed at his heels.

6 He stood and measured the earth;

he looked and shook the nations;

then the eternal mountains were scattered;

the everlasting hills sank low.

His were the everlasting ways.

 

NOTE: Habakkuk started out his prayer with a request for mercy (vs 3) and now for the next 14 verses, he describes God in terms of a theophany, a manifestation of his presence in earthly terms. It is hard to adequately describe God. We have words but they fail to capture the immensity of God or the extremes of his character, such as his holiness. The prophet tries to describe his power by imagining the most powerful manifestations in nature -- brightness that exceeds the sun; power that can kill like a pestilence or plague (unseen but deadly). God stands and measures the entire earth, and shakes it -- mountains that have stood for time are scattered and the hills disappear. The tense is strange. Most of the verbs are in perfect tense. It is as if the prophetic is describing something in the future in such an exact sense as to think of it as having already been accomplished -- also called the "prophetic perfect" by some commentators or another as "money in the bank." The prophecies are true and they are coming. There is a day of judgment. It is a sure thing. A person may mock it, but that does not change its' unalterable truth. In fact, mocking it is exactly what Satan wants the world to do. He does not want people to believe the truth lest they repent and turn to God.

 

PONDER:

1. Am I absolutely confident in the future that God has already determined? Is it "money in the bank" in my mind?

 

PRAYER: Father, help me answer the mocker in gentle terms yet in a way that causes them to think. Who is the fool -- the person who believes truth but does not see it yet or the person who does not believe because cannot see it? Gives us the faith to stand up to truth. We have seen it because we have seen the Holy Spirit change us.