Today,  it’s Habakkuk chapters 1, 2, and 3; and Zephaniah 1 and 2:1-7.  Let’s get started!  How are you finding spending these few minutes in the Word each day?  Is this proving to be a benefit to you? It is for me! Let’s get after it this morning!

Life was hard for a prophet. The Message translation opens Habakkuk with the phrase,

“the problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it” (Habakkuk 1:1 MSG)

Look at 1:12 in the New King James translation:

“Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, You have marked them for correction” (Hab. 1:12 NKJV)

“Marked for correction” – there must be comfort in that phrase for the believer.  A wise parent wouldn’t not allow their child to continue in wrong behavior.  A loving parent offers correction as a means of protection – a parent wants their child to be roundly successful.  Our Father God wants us to be successful in life and in our pursuit of godliness – if correction will help us get back on the right track, then that is what it is: a help to us.

“But oh! GOD is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!” (Habakkuk 2:20 MSG)

No matter what judgement comes down, no matter what consequences the people chose, there’s always God with us.