ONE OF MY FAVORITE SET OF VERSES in the Bible comes from the mouth of a prophet standing at the brink…about to lose everything, perhaps even his life.
His name is Habakkuk (huh BACK uck).
He has just learned from God that invaders are coming. Most Bible experts say the invaders were the Babylonians from what is now Iraq.
They wiped the Jewish nation off the map, leveled Jerusalem and its Temple, and then deported most of the Jews lucky enough to survive the battles. That was in 586 BC.
I think Habbakuk’s words would have worked nicely as the last he ever spoke.
That might be why the writer drew on them to produce the book’s dramatic finale.
I’ve read the words in many Bible translations and paraphrases, but I especially love the way they’re paraphrased in The Living Bible.
“Even though the fig trees are all destroyed, and there is neither blossom left nor fruit, and though the olive crops all fail, and the fields like barren; even if the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be happy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my Strength, and he will give me the speed of a deer and bring me safely over the mountains” (Habakkuk 3:17-19).
I believe I can have faith like that. But I think I need Someone to help my unbelief.
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