Habakkuk 2:4
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Tag: Between the Times (Between the Promise and Fulfillment).
Habakkuk is a prophet of God, caught in the darkness of time. He has challenged God and God has responded with a stern statement of, “I have a plan, trust me ... you wouldn’t even believe Me or understand Me if I told you.” Habakkuk has been told that the unrighteousness of his people (Israel) is going to be punished by a people (The Babylonians) worse in sin and unrighteousness than Israel. Habakkuk’s response: How can this be??!!!! In Habakkuk 2:2-3 God tells him to be patient, He is doing a great work and it will, in time, be accomplished. God tells him to, “Trust Me, I got this!” But, God says it is not time right now. Habakkuk wants it now. The prophet wants the unrighteousness punished. God says, “In time ... in time.” God simply wants Habakkuk to do what he is required to do and let God do what He is going to do. One person commented on this as follows:
Raymond Calkins said, "The summons is from speculation to action, from questioning to conduct, from brooding to duty. God is attending to His business, and Habakkuk must attend to his. Running the universe is not his task. That burden belongs to God. But Habakkuk has his task, and let him faithfully perform it. Thus he will live in moral sincerity and in moral security that righteous living brings in the midst of external calamities. That is the way for a righteous man to live in an evil world" (The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets [New York: Harper and Row, 1947] 97).
Leaving “between the times” of promise and fulfillment is a tough place to be. How do we do that? In faith!!! We are to be faithful. We are to trust God’s greater plan ... even if we don’t understand it. We are to see that God has a plan and that our faithfulness to it is how we live. God’s response to our fear and God’s response to our desire for a “fair” life (as we define it), is to live by faith. It is God’s job to run the universe, which includes our little steps and plight in that universe. His job is to control. We are not to control. We are to release control of our life to Him and live by faith. Nothing we do is going to change God’s plan. We are to simply be faithful to His plan.
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