{"id":7737,"date":"2021-08-19T06:37:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T11:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7737"},"modified":"2021-08-18T09:24:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T14:24:31","slug":"devotional-on-habakkuk-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-habakkuk-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Habakkuk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_15484\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15484\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_1546.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_1546-1024x765.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"717\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15484\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_1546-1024x765.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_1546-300x224.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_1546-768x574.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_1546-1536x1148.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_1546.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15484\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 &#8211; Cataloochee Valley &#8211; Great Smoky Mountains National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nTrusting without understanding<br \/>\nHabakkuk 2: Look at that man&#8230;full of himself but soul-empty.<br \/>\nThe prophet understands that sinful Babylon is God\u2019s chosen instrument for punishing sinful Judah.  As bad as Judah is, Habakkuk is having a hard time understanding how God could ever use such an evil nation as his tool against the Children of Abraham.  Habakkuk reverently takes his concern to God and now God answers.  A part of that answer is contained in chapter two of this brief book of the Bible.  The Lord tells Habakkuk he&#8217;s well aware of the sin of Babylon.  Although the language used suggests that the remarks are about only the King of Babylon, the context tells us that it&#8217;s the nation as a whole that&#8217;s being described.  The Lord wants Habakkuk to know that he hasn\u2019t underestimated the sin of Babylon and he isn\u2019t about to overlook it.  Babylon\u2019s self-indulgent pride, its injustice, and its immorality will be dealt with.  Just because God intends to use this nation for his own purpose doesn\u2019t mean that he&#8217;s going to overlook its sin.  The Lord remains sovereign and, in the end, he always has the last word.  This godless empire is, indeed, a tool in the hands of the Almighty.  At some point it may seem that Babylon is getting the benefit of this arraignment, but the real result will only be seen when the final chapter is written.  Today, I\u2019m reminded that all of Creation is in God\u2019s hands.  Anytime he wants, he can use whoever he wants for his purposes.  The Lord doesn\u2019t need for me to explain his actions or to make apologies for them.  He does, however, insist that I trust him even when I don\u2019t understand him.<br \/>\nTake Away: I\u2019m not required to understand the Lord but I am called to trust him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trusting without understanding Habakkuk 2: Look at that man&#8230;full of himself but soul-empty. The prophet understands that sinful Babylon is God\u2019s chosen instrument for punishing sinful Judah. As bad as Judah is, Habakkuk is having a hard time understanding how God could ever use such an evil nation as his tool against the Children of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1498,6,7],"tags":[128,340,433,1108],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7737"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7737"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15486,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7737\/revisions\/15486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}