Habakkuk 1:5-10 Behold you among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe… Very graphic is the description of this new and formidable enemy. Gather four lessons for ourselves. I. THE EVIL OF SIN. It separates the soul from God. Wherever sin is it makes the prophet's roll to be written within and without. "Lamentation, and weeping, and woe." "All unrighteousness is sin." II. NATIONAL SINS LEAD TO NATIONAL JUDGMENTS. They are said to "defile" a land, and to be a "reproach" to any people. Direct judgments come on a nation for its sin; as on Sodom and Gomorrah, Egypt, Israel, etc. Then let our nation take heed. III. THE POWER OF LITTLE THINGS. "He heapeth up dust, and taketh it." That is, the king of Babylon, by means of mounds of dust, would put himself on a level with the besieged, and rapidly overcome them. It needs no great means when God is using the instrument. IV. THE DANGER OF FALSE SECURITY. "They shall deride every stronghold." When the Lord God is not there, the defence is vain. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth in, and is safe." Every false hiding-place will be swept away in the coining storm. Last year I saw in Pompeii a cellar where eighteen persons had fled for safety in the time of the great overthrow, but it was a false refuge. They were all lost. There is something like that in spiritual things. Many souls are hiding in a refuge of lies. They are trusting to their own merits, or to God's uncovenanted goodness apart from Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Without Christ, the God man, you are defenceless and exposed to storm and tempest. (A. C. Thiselton.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. |
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