Daily Devotions – The Righteous and the Wicked

Daily Devotions – The Righteous and the Wicked

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:

Habakkuk 2:1-5 (NIV)

2 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. The Lord’s Answer 2 Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. 4 “See, the enemy is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—5 indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.

 

Habakkuk, a prophet of old, was complaining to God about the state of the world.  Those who loved the Lord, who kept God’s law, were constantly trampled by the wicked.  Yet, it seemed, that the wicked went along without punishment!  Sound familiar?  God tells Habakkuk to proclaim patience to the people: “If it seems slow, wait for it”. (Hab 2:3) God’s judgment will come in God’s time!  He will not judge outward actions, God will see the heart of all.  Woe to those whose heart is not upright; to those whose “soul is puffed up” within them “but the righteous shall live by his faith”. (Hab 2:4a) God desires that our focus be on him, that our eyes see this world as a gift, that we see our neighbors as companions through our life, and that we leave all else to God alone.  As you walk through this day, consider each person you meet as a gift.