Sunday Worship

Habakkuk 1:1-4
1  This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.

Habakkuk’s Complaint
2  How long, O Lord, must I call for help?  But you do not listen!
“Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save.
3  Must I forever see these evil deeds?  Why must I watch all this misery?
Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence.  I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.
4  The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts.  The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.

Habakkuk 1:5-11

The Lord’s Reply
5  The Lord replied, “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.
6  I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people.  They will march across the world and conquer other lands.
7  They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.
8  Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk.  Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9  “On they come, all bent on violence.  Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10  They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses.  They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them!
11  They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.

Habakkuk 2:1-4
1  I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post.  There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint.

The Lord’s Second Reply
2  Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.
3  This vision is for a future time.  It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled.  If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.  It will not be delayed.
4  “Look at the proud!  They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked.  But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.

Habakkuk 3:17-19
17  Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty,
18  yet I will rejoice in the Lord!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
19  The Sovereign Lord is my strength!  He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.