Old Testament Study: Habakkuk

Habakkuk:

I’d never read this book until this morning.  Even though it was written about 600 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and the times are much different now, they’re also still very much the same.  Habakkuk teaches us to trust God even when He seems unresponsive or unfair. 

People complain that God is allowing violence and injustice among His people in Judah. God’s method of dealing with the problem doesn’t seem right to Habakkuk. The Lord is sending the “bitter and hasty” (1:6) Chaldeans to punish Judah.  Habakkuk doesn’t understand it, but God tells him that He’s only using the Chaldeans for His purposes, and that He will punish them for their sins in His timing.  It’s not Habakkuk’s job to question God’s ways.  

Habakkuk 2:20 “The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

Our world is much like Habakkuk’s- full of violence and injustice- but God is still in control.  Whether we sense it or not, He’s working out His own purposes.  The past few weeks, I’ve been really questioning why things have been happening.  It may not seem like a big deal, but the whole bed bugs situation has caused me a lot of trouble.  We continue to find bed bugs in and near my bedroom, and they have also spread to the room next to me.  The head of the dorms told me yesterday that they are closing down my room for the semester, and my roommate and I have to find a new place to live. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find a place to live during the middle of the semester. The only places available are the very nicest dorms and the very worst dorms.  I can’t afford to live in the brand new, nicest dorms, as they are nearly 200 Euros more per month.  The gross dorm, Hafnerreigel, is where I’ve been staying for the past two weeks.  I’ve been praying, asking God where He wants me to live, and to make it clear to me where He wants me.  I don’t understand why it is that this is going on right now, everything about my dorm seemed so perfect at first.  I was trying to figure out what God was trying to teach me from the whole bed bugs ordeal.  No matter what it is in our lives, good or bad, big or small, God is in full control.  He is working things together in our lives for His own purposes.  I might not understand it right now, but moving me to another dormitory is part of His plan and is being used for His purpose. So, like Habakkuk, I’m learning to submit to His authority.