Project 119: Heaven and Nature Sing | Habakkuk 2
| Project 119 | Dr. Wayne Splawn
Reading for Sunday, December 13: Habakkuk 2
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.
-"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors is one of my favorite bands. I do not know Drew Holcomb, the lead singer and primary lyricist, personally, but I resonate deeply with the lyrics in many of his songs. One such song is titled “New Year.” In the song, Holcomb stands on the brink of a new year, struggling to make sense of much of the heartache and tragedy each year seems to bring. After acknowledging the good unfolding in his own home as he enjoys meaningful conversations with friends around a fire, surrounded by children running around the house making a mess and laughter in the kitchen, he is haunted by the tragedies of the world. Family relationships that have been marred by unresolved conflict and people who are united by their struggle to make sense of children taken too soon by cancer are two examples Holcomb cites. Then, he closes the song with these words:
Walking through my neighborhood,
I have nothing left to say,
Life and death they never rest,
And I still got bills to pay.
On earth as is in heaven
Don't make sense to me.
It's a New Year,
It's a new song,
It's the same mystery.
It's a New Year,
It's a new song,
It's the same mystery.
(Drew Holcomb, “New Year”)
The people of God have long struggled to make sense of the tragedies of life that often mark life in a fallen world. Job is perhaps the most well-known example of such wrestling in Scripture, but the book of Habakkuk takes up this same issue. Habakkuk begins his prophetic book with a complaint offered directly to the Lord. He questions why the Lord is allowing His people to be ravaged by the Babylonians, a violent and merciless people. In Habakkuk 2, the Lord does not give Habakkuk all the answers he desires. He simply tells Habakkuk that justice will one day come against all who are evil and that between this day and that day of reckoning the righteous must live by faith. Judgment and deliverance may seem slow in coming, but it is certain nonetheless. The Lord is not a false idol that can be manipulated by offerings or a flurry of religious activities. He is the Holy One before whom all the earth can only keep silence.
In Habakkuk 3, the prophet concludes that he will rejoice in the Lord though all earthly comforts be taken from him. During this Advent season, you may feel like Drew Holcomb, Job, and Habakkuk. The past year may have been marked by more tragedy than you could have anticipated at the beginning of the year, and perhaps you are left wondering where God is in the midst of your despair. If so, register your complaint to the Lord. But do so from a posture of faith and with an acknowledgment that the faithful have always been required to walk by faith and not by sight as we trust God’s goodness in the midst of a fallen world. And know that one day, Christ will descend to earth with eternal blessings in hand.