A Judgement Reader – Habakkuk 2:2-20

Providence Community Church

A 'reader' is a book written for instruction and practice in reading elsewhere on a particular subject. A sort of user manual for a topic of interest. In our case today, in summarizing and concluding our study of Nahum, we consider Habakkuk 2 as a reader for the judgments of God. In this passage, as God answers the complaints of the prophet, He provides reference points to posture the believing reader as he beholds the prospect of divine judgement. These days, much of the professing church seems averse to appreciating the judgements of God. They seem embarrassed by the “harsh”, “unloving”, “intolerance” of whole books of the Bible such as Nahum or Habakkuk. Andy Stanley – for one – preached recently that Christianity presents a radical break from the Old Testament and finds its grounding exclusively in the resurrection and we, therefore, can thankfully distance ourselves, from the judgmental terms of Old Covenant texts such as ours today. Approaches like this to the challenging passages of imprecatory prerogative fail to realize the Word of God itself provides us with a 'judgement reader'. The Lord Himself declares the sovereignly prescribed priorities that govern the affections of Biblically informed believers beholding the Day of the Lord...