No money in the check book or milk in the fridge! Habakkuk

Perhaps one of the most unusual named books, Habakkuk stands out with what may be the most compelling discussion for today. Habakkuk is arguing with God throughout this book an age old theme: How can God, who is righteous, use the wicked to punish those more righteous than the wicked? Or, why can God use a dirty hammer to pound a shinny nail? God goes on to describe His plan and His holy purpose. He tells Habakkuk that He has "a plan," that even if God told the prophet he wouldn't understand it. God describes the wicked Babylonians who are going to be used to punish the more "righteous" Israel. We don't understand God's plans and activities any more than the funny named prophet. We, too, see the wicked rejoice over the "righteous" and we wonder why God is "allowing" it or "what was He thinking." What should our response be to these wonders and these acts of "injustice" in our minds? God's answer is that if we are "Just" (meaniing God has justified us and we are now "made righteous") than we are to "live" by faith (2:4). This will become the theme Paul uses to right the wonderful book of Romans. It will be the theme that Luther finds to start the fires of the Reformation. It will be the theme that carries us through the troubled waters of our days: The Just shall live by Faith. How is that done and what does it look like? Perhaps the greatest description to that answer is found in the end of the book of Habakkuk ... the last four verses ... 3:16-19. Read them again and see how the prophet responds to God's use of a bad hammer on a good nail - he states that even though the wicked will rule; even though the crops don't come in; even though the barn is collapsed and the animals are gone; "YET" will I trust in the God of the universe. YET will I believe that God has His holy plan and is working that Holy plan to His holy purpose. In fact I will believe, in the face of an empty check book and not milk in the fridge, that God will give me the sustainability to walk where only the most agile can walk and rely on a type of strength that only God can provide. Despite all the injustice I believe in God!