DAY 207 Read Habakkuk.
Today's reading: Habakkuk's short prophecy is undated, but evidence indicates that it belongs roughly to about the time of Amon's wicked reign or early in the reign of Josiah before the finding of the law.
Memory gem: "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him" (Habakkuk 2:20).
Thought for today:
"Confident that...the purpose of God for His people would in some way be fulfilled, Habakkuk bowed in submission to the revealed will of Jehovah. "Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?" he exclaimed. And then, his faith reaching out beyond the forbidding prospect of the immediate future, and laying fast hold on the precious promises that reveal God's love for His trusting children, the prophet added, 'We shall not die.' Habakkuk 1:12. With this declaration of faith, he rested his case, and that of every believing Israelite, in the hands of a compassionate God....
"The faith that strengthened Habakkuk and all the holy and the just in those days of deep trial, was the same faith that sustains God's people today. In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be renewed. 'The just shall live by his faith.' (Habakkuk 2:4). In the service of God there need be no despondency, no wavering, no fear. The Lord will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He will give them the wisdom their varied necessities demand."--Prophets and Kings, pp. 386, 387.
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Difficult or obscure words:
Habakkuk 1:9. "Sup up"--a Hebrew word occurring only here in the Scriptures. Its meaning and therefore its translation are uncertain.
NOTE: With the collapse of the northern kingdom only Judah remained a bastion of truth in a heathen world. But even in this favored nation God's people could not shake off their fascination with the allurements of idolatry.
God did not give up trying to arouse His people to the consequences of their iniquities. We will be reading messages of warning and calls to repentance from six prophets--two of them major. Jeremiah and Ezekiel watched in dismay as the last five kings of Judah allowed the nation to disintegrate. Jeremiah is known as the "weeping prophet" because of the pathos of his writings.
For some reason, the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel were not compiled in chronological order. We will try to read the messages in connection with the historical events at the time of their writing. This will involve considerable turning back and forth, but the prophecies take on new meaning as we fit them together in the correct sequence.
Today's reading: Habakkuk's short prophecy is undated, but evidence indicates that it belongs roughly to about the time of Amon's wicked reign or early in the reign of Josiah before the finding of the law.
Memory gem: "The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him" (Habakkuk 2:20).
Thought for today:
"Confident that...the purpose of God for His people would in some way be fulfilled, Habakkuk bowed in submission to the revealed will of Jehovah. "Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?" he exclaimed. And then, his faith reaching out beyond the forbidding prospect of the immediate future, and laying fast hold on the precious promises that reveal God's love for His trusting children, the prophet added, 'We shall not die.' Habakkuk 1:12. With this declaration of faith, he rested his case, and that of every believing Israelite, in the hands of a compassionate God....
"The faith that strengthened Habakkuk and all the holy and the just in those days of deep trial, was the same faith that sustains God's people today. In the darkest hours, under circumstances the most forbidding, the Christian believer may keep his soul stayed upon the source of all light and power. Day by day, through faith in God, his hope and courage may be renewed. 'The just shall live by his faith.' (Habakkuk 2:4). In the service of God there need be no despondency, no wavering, no fear. The Lord will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. He will give them the wisdom their varied necessities demand."--Prophets and Kings, pp. 386, 387.
----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Habakkuk 1:9. "Sup up"--a Hebrew word occurring only here in the Scriptures. Its meaning and therefore its translation are uncertain.
NOTE: With the collapse of the northern kingdom only Judah remained a bastion of truth in a heathen world. But even in this favored nation God's people could not shake off their fascination with the allurements of idolatry.
God did not give up trying to arouse His people to the consequences of their iniquities. We will be reading messages of warning and calls to repentance from six prophets--two of them major. Jeremiah and Ezekiel watched in dismay as the last five kings of Judah allowed the nation to disintegrate. Jeremiah is known as the "weeping prophet" because of the pathos of his writings.
For some reason, the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel were not compiled in chronological order. We will try to read the messages in connection with the historical events at the time of their writing. This will involve considerable turning back and forth, but the prophecies take on new meaning as we fit them together in the correct sequence.
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