Lessons From Lesser Knowns: Finding God In Overlooked ScriptureSample

Surefooted 

Crises have a way of knocking us off balance, leaving us unsteady and unsure of how to move forward.

Habakkuk must have felt this way when he cried out to God to rescue his people from a deep crisis—destruction, violence and injustice—that they had created (Hab. 1:3-4). He probably felt more uncertainty when God responded: “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people.They will march across the world and conquer other lands” (Hab. 1:5-6, NLT).

How could God invite a wicked nation to devastate His people? Shocked and grieved, Habakkuk had the same question: “But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery?” (Hab.1:13a, NLT).

We know that God had been longsuffering with His people for generations and that He had warned them through other prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah) that this would happen if they did not repent. Habakkuk knew the Lord would have to humble their prideful disobedience. 

But instead of explaining His reasons for this shocking intervention to Habakkuk or adjusting His plans so they were more palatable, God described how He would ultimately bring an end to evil—the evil that came against His people and the evil that grew up among them (Hab. 2:3-19). God then reminded Habakkuk of a foundational truth: “But the Lord is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him” (v. 20, NLT).

God is God. We are not.

Because he learned this, Habakkuk could accept that God’s goodness sometimes requires painful discipline to save us from ourselves. Habakkuk trusted God’s heart and was able to rejoice in the middle of desolation, loss and famine. 

God’s faithful love for His people was bigger than any story Habakkuk could have written—it was a rescue plan that extended far beyond Israel’s immediate crisis to the final destruction of all evil. 

No matter how confusing or precarious the path ahead is, we can follow God, surefooted. We can rejoice in the truth that His faithful love will lead us into a fuller and better rescue than we can imagine.

Chew On This:

• How have you seen God’s rescue story in your own life? What do you need to be rescued from today?
• When have you felt or behaved like you knew better than God? What was the result?
• Which aspect of God’s character do you struggle more to accept: His sovereignty or His faithful love? How can you learn more about that attribute of God?