Devotional Ecwa Church for TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2024

1:The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

2:How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?

3:Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.

4:Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

5:“Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.

6:I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.

7:They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.

8:Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;

9:they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.

10:They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.

11:Then they sweep past like the wind and go on— guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Prophet Habakkuk was frustrated by the seeming refusal of God to answer the prayers he had been offering for His intervention in a society full of violence, injustice, strife, corruption and many other evils just as we are experiencing today.

Judah, an assumed nation of God’s people, had been suffering under wicked leaders and in the hands of neighbouring nations. The prophet asked, “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”

This is similar to believers’ prayers to God without the anticipated outcome. Instead of a positive response, read God’s word to the prophet in vs. 5-11 and note how confused he was about His plan to further deal with His people using a more wicked nation.

When God wants to punish or discipline His disobedient children, He can use anyone or anything to achieve His purpose.

QUESTION: Are you perplexed and confused that while we are experiencing the pains of injustice, it seems the prayers of the saints are not being answered?

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, grant us the grace not to fall under Your wrath when You judge a nation that refused to turn away from sin. Amen.

Food for the Day – 2024