NAHUM
1:1-2:9 - ‘Fulfil your
vows’ (1:15). God is calling us to be faithful to Him. We are to be
faithful in worship. We are to be faithful in reading His Word. We are
to be faithful in prayer. We are to be faithful in giving. We are to be
faithful in witness. Our faith is to be real. Our faith is to make a
difference. It’s to change the way we live. It’s not to be a case of
‘faith without works’. That kind of ‘faith’ is ‘dead’ (James 2:17). Our
whole life is to be a life of faith. It is to be a life of ‘love’. We
are to live ‘for the glory of God’ (Romans 14:23; 1 Corinthians 16:14;
10:31). ‘Fill Thou our life, O Lord our God, in every part with
praise... Not for the lip of praise alone, nor even the praising heart
we ask, but for a life made up of praise in every part’ (Church Hymnary, 457).
2:10-3:19
- To those who refuse to live in obedience to Him, God speaks His Word
of judgment: ‘I am against you’ (2:13; 3:5). Those who refuse to listen
to God’s Word of salvation - ‘The Lord is good, a refuge in times of
trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him’ - will hear a very
different Word from the Lord. It will be a Word of judgment. God’s Word
will come like ‘an overwhelming flood’: ‘He will pursue His foes into
darkness’ (1:7-8). None of us needs to face this ‘overwhelming flood’
and hear the words, ‘I am against you’. Each of us can come to Christ
and hear His Word of ‘overwhelming victory’: ‘If God is for us, who can
be against us?... Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:31,37-39).
HABAKKUK
1:1-2:14
- ‘How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen?’
(1:2). There are times when it seems that God is not listening to us.
What are we to do when we feel like this? Are we to give up on God? Are
we to stop praying? No! We must wait patiently for the Lord’s answer -
‘I will look to see what He will say to me’. We must not forget His
promise: ‘The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that
seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of
the Lord’ (2:1; Lamentations 3:25-26). ‘The vision awaits its time... If
it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay’.
Let us ‘live by faith’, awaiting the Day when ‘the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea’ (2:3-4,14).
2:15-3:19 - We are to ‘be silent’ before
God. We are to ‘stand in awe’ of Him. In His holy presence, we become
deeply conscious of our sin which separates us from Him: ‘Your eyes are
too pure to look on evil’. Confessing our sin to God, we pray that ‘in
wrath’ He will ‘remember mercy’. We pray that He will ‘renew’ us with
His blessing. God answers our prayer. He sends His ‘glory’ into our
lives. He fills our hearts with His ‘praise’: ‘I will rejoice in the
Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Lord God is my Strength.
He makes my feet like the feet of the deer. He enables me to go on the
heights’. ‘Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They
will soar on wings like eagles...’ (2:20; 3:2; 1:13; 3:18-19; Isaiah
40:31).
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