Habakkuk 2:4

Monarch Butterfly

Like the butterfly in Julie’s photo that clings to the Joe Pye Weed to get its nectar, Habakkuk and Nehemiah cling to God for the nectar of His Word and His Direction. As in their examples in Nate’s Message, we cannot receive the nectar, unless we cling to Him.

With last weeks devotional from Nehemiah 6:3, “Why Should the Work Cease?”, this week centers upon another First Testament Prophet, Habakkuk, whose stand for God in the midst of a pandemic of social collapse brings him confidence to assert that “the just shall live by his faith,” Habakkuk 2:6.

This was not a casual statement to make. The Nation of Judah was in its final days. Destruction at the hands of the besieging Babylonians was all about them. The Prophet Habakkuk repeatedly called his countrymen and countrywomen to repentance. They stubbornly refused.

The Prophet continued to call upon the Lord God for an answer to how long his nation’s agony would continue. God’s answer, within a number of prophesies of judgment, includes Habakkuk 2:14, “For the earth shall be filled be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

Nehemiah and Habakkuk: two courageous prophets of God. “I am doing a great work,” Nehemiah informs us in 6:3, “so I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”

“I shall stand upon my watch,” Habakkuk declares in 2:1, “and set me upon the tower, and will watch and see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”

Nehemiah and Habakkuk: two courageous and faithful Prophets of Almighty God, living in troubling times approximately 200 years apart, and 2,600 years ago, had a singular message for the faithful. At the end of this powerful yet very brief book, Habakkuk declares that “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and will make me to walk upon mine high places.” (Habakkuk 3:18-19)

The Prophet Nehemiah sums up his faithful ministry with Nehemiah 13:14, “Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe out not my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and the offices thereof.”

In all times, difficult and otherwise, the people of God are called to stand firm in faith that Almighty God is Sovereign, that He cares, that He is worthy to continue faithfully serving, whatever the circumstances!

Habakkuk’s name in Hebrew translates to “embrace,” or “one who embraces,” or “clings.” May we too, cling to God, lovingly embracing our Heavenly Father’s Presence in Jesus Christ, by a growing and trusting faith that He knows about all of our circumstances, and that He cares!