On Solid Ground
I want to share a little history with you this week about a guy named Habakkuk. Now, I know he does not have your everyday common name, but he was important in the Bible.
He was one of the Old Testament prophets whose ministry was around the time of Jeremiah and two other lesser known prophets, Zephaniah and Obadiah.
All four of these prophets were contemporaries of one another, which means they prophesied about the same time, and that time coincided with the coming invading armies of Babylon, the nation that conquered the southern kingdom of Judah.
The reason for Babylon’s invasion was because of the sins of Manasseh, one of Judah’s most evil kings.
And that’s too bad because either side of Manasseh, before and after, Judah was under two of it’s most godly of all kings. Each led the nation to a national revival calling the people back to the God of Abraham and David, but Manasseh was completely opposite.
To give you an idea of just how bad Manasseh was, he led the people of Judah far away from their faith in God to worshipping the Caananite gods of Baal and Asherah.
To worship these two gods, he led the nation into witchcraft, the worship of the stars and planets, the consulting of mediums and spiritists, and worst of all, the sacrifice of babies to the fires of Baal and Asherah.
The Bible says of him that Manasseh did more evil in the sight of God than any other king before him or after him.
And it was because of his sins that God was bringing Babylon as a conquering nation upon Judah.
Nobody wanted this to happen. Babylon already had a bad reputation.
Habakkuk says of them that they were a nation who marched into a territory possessing dwelling places that are not their own, and they were so terrible and dreadful that their horses were more swift than leopards and more fierce than evening wolves!
Folks, they just weren’t nice people. Even Habakkuk was befuddled about God’s plans here, and he cried out, “Lord, don’t you hear me when I call?
These guys are full of violence, and you don’t seem concerned with saving us. All around us are plunderings, troubles, and contentions, and the law is powerless.
There is no justice!
The wicked surround the righteous and only perverse judgment proceeds!” And do you know how God answered? “Habakkuk, you have yet to see the worst of it! You are not going to believe what I tell you, but get ready, the Babylonians are coming!”
Now this is what I want you to hear.
I want you to hear how Habakkuk responded because it’s the way we need to respond in troubled times.
Habakkuk took the stand of faith and said, “I will stand my watch, and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.”
Folks, that’s faith! That’s letting God be God no matter what is going on. That’s complete trust in God and in his plan for your life.
And God said to him. “Habakkuk, I want you to know that the just shall live by faith. And I want you to also know that the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
In other words, “Habakkuk, I’m in charge and I won’t let you fall.”
And with that assurance, Habakkuk responded, even when all this trouble was about to take place, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.The Lord is my strength. He will makes my feet like deer’s feet and makes me walk safely on the mountains.”
Did you know that everywhere a deer’s front feet go, their hind feet follow in the same place?
That’s why deer never slip and fall on the mountainside.
They are sure-footed.
And when you and I place our faith completely in the hands of God, no matter what circumstance of predicament we find ourselves in, we will be sure-footed in our steps because our faith rests not in ourselves but on the solid ground of Jesus Christ.
Are you on solid ground?