SECURITY

Habakkuk 3:19—The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights.

Beware the dreaded Babylonians! Habakkuk, a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah, was a man of profound faith who voiced complaints to God that rose from a troubled heart. The world (605 B.C.?), as he knew it, abounded with injustice. His own nation, Judah, was awash in sin and about to be conquered by a godless enemy. “How long, O Lord, must I call for help but You do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? . . . Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (1:2, 13) Ever felt that way towards God? Ever wondered amidst evil-dominated headlines if God was off on some celestial sabbatical?

The three short chapters of Habakkuk located near the end of the Old Testament provide us invaluable insight into the value of faith. Read God’s perspective and response to the universal pride, greed, theft, extortion, murder, injustice, drugs, idolatry and their root cause—the desire to please self, that left the godly feeling abandoned and insecure.

If I go to bed feeling safe because my nation’s military might is greater than any other land on earth I rest on a pillow filled with radioactive reasoning. Does materialism and the prestige of a good name secure my place in eternity? Is plenty the blanket that covers fear or money the means to achieve peace? In the best of times what constitutes security?

If the stock market flops and the economy melts is God dead? If natural disasters rip the land is divine mercy hollow? If prejudice mocks my color and discrimination chains my bones who owns my soul? If disease wracks my body can I still hope? In the dungeon of darkness where does one find joy? In the worst of times what constitutes security?

Habakkuk heard the Lord, took a deep breath and reached the following conclusion. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (3:17,18). Where is your security?

Inspiration
Just as nations place their confidence for security in armaments or arbitration (as the whim takes them) and neglect the worship of God as the only security, so individuals may easily place confidence in the amenities of society, in civilized entrenchments, in a good home and a good situation, and belittle the one abiding security—in God!—Oswald Chambers in Christian Disciplines