Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 (NRSV)
Read Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 1The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. Verse 2O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Verse 3Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. Verse 4So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous- therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
Chapter 2I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Verse 2Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. Verse 3For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Verse 4Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.
Devotion
The last word of today’s reading is our word for the week: faith. It is, of course, more than a word. Sure, you can look it up in the dictionary or read Dynamics of Faith. But to see a living faith, look to people to get your definitions. Look to someone like Habakkuk. He might look from his watchpost at our world today and say, “This seems familiar to me. I saw then what you’re seeing now: strife and contention, the law ignored and justice in short supply.” To experience an example of faith, I look to one like Habakkuk—that’s what honoring the cloud of witnesses is all about. Faith is seen in a variety of characters and defined with a variety of postures. One equivalent expression for faith is “waiting for it.” May we wait for it with the same assurance Habakkuk was given: “It will surely come.”
Prayer
Holy God, just as the light leaving a distant star cannot turn around and go back the way it came, so too, your word of fulfillment, which is for now a word of promise, cannot turn around. Even if it takes a millennium, we will wait for it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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