“See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will live by his faithfulness—”
~ Habakkuk 2:4
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you good at listening? What does it take for you to want to listen to what a guy or gal wants you to know or do? If you had been in Bolivia with your grandmaa and grandpaa and if they told you to drink only bottled water, Gatorade or sodas, would you think that you knew more than what your grandmaa or grandpaa knew and drink a mocochinchi or somó from a street vender? Your grandpaa is very sure that if you were to suddenly feel really yucky after having drank a drink that you bought off the street in a country like Bolivia that you will begin to listen to what someone – like your grandmaa or grandpaa, tells you what you should do or not do. Your grandpaa would often buy a glass of chicha to drink when he was traveling by train. Chicha is usually made from mashed corn. Even though your grandpaa will at times drink a ‘homemade’ drink from off the street, your grandpaa will always tell guys, gals and kids who have gone to a place like Bolivia that they should always drink bottled water, Gatorade and/or sodas. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were going someplace when they were living in Bolivia as missionaries and your grandpaa knew that to get to where he and your grandmaa were going that he would have to go through several streams or small rivers that had rocks in their riverbeds that could knock a hole in a vehicle’s gas tank, do you think that your grandpaa would want to take something with him to temporarily repair a hole if . . . a couple of times on trips that he made in Bolivia, your grandpaa had a rock in a stream or riverbed punch a hole in the gas tank of the vehicle that he was driving. When using gum that had been chewed did not really work to stop gas from leaking from a small hole the first time that your grandpaa had a rock punch a hole in the gas tank of the vehicle that he was driving, your grandpaa was told that kneading cotton threads into soap that had been soften by water and plastering a gob of the stuff over the hole that this would work a lot better at stopping gas from leaking out of a hole that a rock had punched in a gas tank. The last time that your grandpaa had a rock punch a hole in the gas tank of the vehicle that he was driving happened on a trip that he and your grandmaa were making alone. As soon as your grandpaa got the vehicle that he was driving through a stream or small river that he and your grandmaa had to go through – that had rocks and deep ruts in it, your grandpaa would check to see if a rock had punched a hole in the gas tank of the vehicle. When your grandpaa saw that gas was really streaming out of a big hole, your grandpaa – while he kept his thumb over the hole, told your grandmaa to quickly soften up some soap with water and mix some cotton threads into the soap. Your grandpaa had listened to what he had been told about mixing cotton threads with water soften soap as a way to plug a hole in a gas tank that was caused by a rock in a river or stream. If your grandpaa had not followed through when he traveled about having a piece of cotton cloth and soap with him in the vehicle that he was driving to mix cotton threads with water soften soap to stop up a hole in the gas tank, your grandmaa and grandpaa would probably have ended up waiting for hours on a very lightly traveled road for another vehicle to show up.
Habakkuk was one of God’s prophet messengers. God – as God the Spirit, had Habakkuk scribe a warning to the guys and gals who lived in the country of Babylonia. Habakkuk scribed this ominous warning in Habakkuk 2. The Babylonian people group army – led by King Nebuchadnezzar, were finally able to breach the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. A good number of God’s specially guys and gals who were still alive in the city of Jerusalem and the land area of Judah were taken away as exiles to live in the country of Babylonia. About twenty years before the Babylonian people group army – through God’s leading to do what they did, did what they did as a way to punish the guys and gals who were living in Israel’s southern kingdom – which was the land area called Judah, because of their disobedient obstinacy, Sixty-six years after Habakkuk recorded in his Habakkuk Book what was going to take place to an arrogant, greedy, plundering, violent nation of guys and gals – which was the country of Babylonia, Mede and Persian guys – in 539 B.C., overran the country of Babylonia and became the world power. Even though God used King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian people group army to punish His specially chosen guys and gals in 586 B.C., God would punish the guys and gals who were living in the country of Babylonia because of their awful lifestyles – which included making and worshipping carved, inanimate idol gods and images, their depravity and corruption of all sorts and for ravaging other people groups of guys and gals in countries such as Lebanon where guys from the country of Babylonia decimated the cedar forests and wild animals that were in Lebanon,
The guys and gals who were living in country of Babylonia had no excuse when the Mede and Persian army conquered them. Your grandpaa doubts even if the Babylonia leadership had in their possession the Habakkuk Book that they would have paid any attention to what was written in the book. The guys and gals who were living in the country of Babylonia had not learned what it was like to be beaten up by another country or people group army. The guys and gals who were living in the country of Babylonia could have learned from the exiled guys and gals who were living among them who had once lived in the city of Jerusalem and in the land area of Judah but . . . it will ultimately come down to what verse 4 says, “‘See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will live by his faith—” This verse became – in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation rallying cry. What do you hope that the year 2007 will be like for you? What kind of Christ-follower kids are you hoping to be this year?
Habakkuk 2 (790)