Friday after the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 16, 2022 by under
Scripture: Habakkuk 1:12—2:4 (NKJV)
1:12 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.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?
14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?
2:1 I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.
3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
4 “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.”
Devotion
Habakkuk saw how evil men seem to prosper. “Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?” This is a perennial question in the minds of the faithful. But the prophet knows not to believe his reason: “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.” Habakkuk does not attribute to the Lord any sort of double mindedness. Instead, he recognizes that something is wrong in his own reasoning, and he pledges to be attentive—“stand my watch and set myself on the rampart”—as he awaits the Lord’s word of correction.
Like Job before him, Habakkuk is profoundly grieved to see the wicked appearing to escape, even as they afflict the faithful. The Lord proclaims the consolation of the faithful, and the promise which is our in the Christ: “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” As St. Paul declared, “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith.’” Justifying faith is faith in Jesus, who made atonement for all sin through His suffering and death, so that all who believe would have salvation in Him.
Prayer: Almighty and Everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we may obtain that which Thou dost promise, make us to love that which Thou dost command; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
