Have you ever heard the phrase “too good to be true”? Well the prophet Habakkuk gets a message from God that seems “too bad to be possible”.
The book starts off with Habakkuk crying out to God for revival. But God reveals to the prophet that instead of sending revival He was going to send the Babylonians, one of the most wicked and ruthless nations on the planet, to punish Judah for their idolatry. It would be like God revealing to you that He was going to send one of the most notorious drug cartels to burn down your church and kill all the pastors and elders for their spiritual apathy.
The news was shocking to Habakkuk. He couldn’t understand how a good and righteous God could use a nation that was exceedingly wicked to bring judgment on His own people? What Habakkuk didn’t know was that this was ultimately pointing to Jesus.
In Mark 8:31 Jesus gave His disciples a message that also seemed “too bad to be true.” He told them that, “the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” This news was so unbelievable for them that Peter actually took Jesus aside and rebuked Him for saying such a thing.
Like Habakkuk, they just couldn’t comprehend that God would allow someone as righteous as Jesus to be crucified by those as wicked as the religious leaders and Roman officials. This ultimately points to God sovereignly using the hypocritical religious rulers and the corrupt Roman officials to crucify Jesus in order to bring final judgment on sin and salvation for the world.
God’s ways are not our ways, but we can wholeheartedly place our trust in His perfect wisdom and sovereignty, even when it astonishes us. We can take comfort in the fact that, even though His divine plan is beyond our ability to understand, we can trust that He is always wise, perfect and good.
The book starts off with Habakkuk crying out to God for revival. But God reveals to the prophet that instead of sending revival He was going to send the Babylonians, one of the most wicked and ruthless nations on the planet, to punish Judah for their idolatry. It would be like God revealing to you that He was going to send one of the most notorious drug cartels to burn down your church and kill all the pastors and elders for their spiritual apathy.
The news was shocking to Habakkuk. He couldn’t understand how a good and righteous God could use a nation that was exceedingly wicked to bring judgment on His own people? What Habakkuk didn’t know was that this was ultimately pointing to Jesus.
In Mark 8:31 Jesus gave His disciples a message that also seemed “too bad to be true.” He told them that, “the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” This news was so unbelievable for them that Peter actually took Jesus aside and rebuked Him for saying such a thing.
Like Habakkuk, they just couldn’t comprehend that God would allow someone as righteous as Jesus to be crucified by those as wicked as the religious leaders and Roman officials. This ultimately points to God sovereignly using the hypocritical religious rulers and the corrupt Roman officials to crucify Jesus in order to bring final judgment on sin and salvation for the world.
God’s ways are not our ways, but we can wholeheartedly place our trust in His perfect wisdom and sovereignty, even when it astonishes us. We can take comfort in the fact that, even though His divine plan is beyond our ability to understand, we can trust that He is always wise, perfect and good.
Posted in devo