Habakkuk 1

❇️ The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net (v15)
Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy (v17)

❇️ Above verses indicate Prophet Habakkuk’s concern about the evil one destroying people and nations. Right now the world is going through a similar situation where the Covid -19 is killing thousands of people all over the world.

❇️ We may have similar apprehension of how long this will continue and what is God’s plan for his children in the midst of this pandemic?

❇️ Here I share a model of God’s response to a pandemic after reading the word of God and listening to the messages of servants of God recently.

❇️ Pestilence/ Pandemic is a result of man playing into the hands of the evil one by his sinful life with disregard to the word of God which results in loss of thousands of life. Words given below may show how God responds to the safety of his children.

❇️ God’s intervention to stop this pandemic depends on how quickly the people humble themselves and confess their sins and return from their wicked ways – 2Chr.7:14

❇️ God may respond to his children’s safety in the following three ways in this model.
▪️Protection
▪️Preservation/ Rescue
▪️Promotion

Protection:

Following words of God promise us protection.
▪️For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off – Ps.37:28
▪️The Lord is faithful and will strengthen and protect you from the evil one – 2 Thes.3:3

❇️ From these verses we know that God protects his children from the schemes of the evil one.

Preservation/ Rescue:

❇️ When the children are affected by the schemes of evil one God preserves/ rescues them from those experiences.
▪️The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness – Ps.41: 3
▪️He will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him – Ps. 91: 15

Promotion:

❇️ God may neither protect nor preserve some of his children during time like this but gives them promotion to eternal life. Though it is painful for the near and dear ones it is an escape from this sinful world to enter heaven for the children of God.
▪️If the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands – 2 Cor.5: 1
▪️For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain – Php.1:21

❇️ Since we have a tendency to commit sin as long as we are in our physical bodies when we die we cease from sinning and hence death is the ultimate healing from the disease of sin.
❇️Thus as a general principle we see the hand of God in the life of his children which gives victory to us in all the three ways during a Pandemic.

❇️ Insights learnt:
God may respond to his children in a Pandemic in three ways
▪️Protects
▪️Preserves/ Rescues
▪️Promotes &
▪️Death is the ultimate healing

Dr. E. Christadoss
Vellore🙏🏽

The book of Habakkuk

Habakkuk ministers during the death throes of the nation of Judah, as it faces the Babylonian threat.

Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah and Nahum, wrestles with the question of why God seems inactive in the face of evil and injustice.

The Book is a dialogue between the prophet and God;
Complaint and petition are followed by the divine perspective on the problem.

Like the Psalmist, Habakkuk uses poetic imagery to color and convey his message.

Like Job, Habakkuk receives no answer, except that God is God.
God is holy, cares about His people and will act as He sees fit, but only in His time.

Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted by NT authors while speaking about faith.
Romans 1:17.
Galatians 3:11.
Hebrews 10:38.
…… The righteous will live by his faith.

The beginning of the book and the ending stand in stark contrast;
Mystery to Certainty;
Questioning to Affirming;
Complaint to Confidence.

SURVEY OF HABAKKUK;

THE PROBLEMS OF HABAKKUK.
CHAPTERS 1-2.

The prophet asks God how long He will allow the wickedness of Judah to go unpunished.

God was raising up the fierce Babylonians as His rod of judgment upon sinful Judah.

The prophet is perplexed as to how the righteous God can punish Judah with a nation even more wicked;
God is aware of the sins of the Babylonians and they too will not escape.

Yahweh concludes with His statement of sovereign majesty;
” But the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him. 2:20.

THE PRAISE OF HABAKKUK.
CHAPTER 3.

Habakkuk concludes with a Psalm of Praise for the Person, Power and Plan of God.
3:1-19.

Habakkuk is terrified about the coming vision of Judah, but God’s creative, redemptive work in the past, gives him confidence about the Divine Purpose.

Habakkuk builds up to a triumphant climax in a song of praise in the final verses.
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 to the heights. V17-19.

Compiled by Shanti Jayanth, Madurai.