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Dayna Street and Donna Gaines introduce Habakkuk 1 and encourage us to bring our questions to God and trust Him while we wait.
Welcome to Bellevue Women, a ministry of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN. Find out more about us by going to www.bellevue.org/women today!
Before Donna comes to teach this morning, I want to take just a couple of minutes to set the scene for Habakkuk. His words will mean even more to us when we understand what is happening in the world around him. And to do that, we need to go back about 300 years before Habakkuk lived. After Solomon died in 930 B.C., the kingdom of Israel was torn in two. Ten tribes formed the northern kingdom of Israel with Samaria at its capital. The remaining two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, remained in the south, centered in Jerusalem where the temple was. The northern kingdom quickly turned away from God. Jeroboam, its first king, set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan so that the people would not go back to Jerusalem to worship. But what began as a political strategy soon became an idolatrous way of life. So for the next 200 years, God sent prophets, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea to call Israel back to him. But king after king, warning after warning, the people refused to listen. Then, in 722 B.C., the warnings became history. After a three-year siege, the Assyrian army broke through the walls of Samaria. The city fell. The people were taken into exile. The northern kingdom ceased to exist. To the south, Judah was still standing. From Jerusalem, the people could look north and see the devastating cost of Israel's rebellion. And you would think that the ruins that they saw would have been warning enough. They weren't. Judah followed the same path that Israel did. Under King Manasseh, pagan altars filled the land, even the temple courts. Innocent blood stained the streets of Jerusalem. Years later, Manasseh's grandson, Josiah, became king. And the Book of the Law was found in the temple around 622 B.C. He tore his clothes in grief, destroyed all of the idols, and he called the people back to the Lord. For a moment, hope returned to Judah. But Josiah could remove the idols from the temple more easily than he could remove them from the hearts of the people. His reforms were real, but the moral rot remained. When Josiah died in battle in 609 B.C., Judah's decline accelerated. His son, Jehoiakim, ruled with pride and oppression. The wealthy exploited the poor, justice was twisted, violence filled the streets, God's law was completely ignored. This is the Judah that Habakkuk sees when he cries out, how long, Lord? And the trouble inside Judah is only part of the story. Outside of Judah, the ancient world is shifting. As Syria, the empire that had destroyed Israel, is collapsing. Egypt is moving north, and from the east, Babylon is rising under Nebuchadnezzar. Judah lies right in between the two. Do you realize that the world as they know it is about to disappear? That is where Habakkuk's story begins, a nation rotting from within, an enemy advancing from without, and a prophet trying to understand the ways of God. Donna, come take us into the story. Thank you, Dana, that was great. It's so good to put that into context and to understand just where we are in history, and the reason it is so relevant is because God has not changed, and unfortunately, neither have we. We still have hearts full of sin that are prone to wander. And we're going to pick up this morning in Habakkuk chapter one. So if you'll open your Bibles with me. As Dana said, most theologians will tell you that Habakkuk lived before the Babylonian invasion. He was watching as Assyria was diminishing and Babylon was growing stronger. He did grow up under the reign of King Josiah. Josiah came to power as a child. If you remember, he was eight years old when he was made king. He was a good king, one of the few good kings of Judah, and under him, Habakkuk got a taste of what godly leadership could be like, leadership that led to revival. King Josiah most likely listened to the prophet Zephaniah, who is the second prophet we will look at in our study. And how do we know that? Zephaniah 1.1. The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah, son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amoriah, son of Hezekiah, recognize that name, royal lineage, in the days of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah, God's going to speak to Zephaniah. So most believe he was a very positive influence on Josiah during that period of reconstruction and the reformation that took place under his leadership. Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Huldah. And if you have heard me teach very long at all, you know how much I love Huldah. Huldah is not, she doesn't have a lot of real estate in the Bible. She's mentioned very quickly, but she is a woman who walked with God. And I want to share with you a little bit about her story. She's recorded in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34. And the Bible tells us that when Josiah, as we remember, was made king at eight, when he was 16, it says he began to seek the Lord. And then when he was 20, he began removing all the high places, all the altars, all the places that people were worshiping the pagan gods. When he was 26 is when he commanded the restoration of the temple. And it was during that restoration that the book of the law was found. So when Hilkiah finds it and Shaphan opens that scroll and begins to read the book of the law, which most people think was probably the book of Deuteronomy, he realizes why we've been under such oppression. We have not been obeying the word of God. So Hilkiah says, take it to the king. He takes it to King Josiah. He reads it to King Josiah. And as Dana said, he tears his clothes and realizes as well, we are under judgment because of our rebellion. And what does he tell Hilkiah, the high priest, and Shaphan, the scribe, and the other three men that are with them, go get a word from God. Now you would have thought the high priest would have gone to the temple to seek the face of the Lord, but he did not. In fact, he knew exactly where to go and he went straight to the home of Huldah, the prophetess. It's recorded for us in 2 Kings 22, verse 14, the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhash, keeper of the wardrobe. Some think he was probably the keeper of the wardrobe, maybe a Levite who took care of the priestly robes. Now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter and they spoke to her. She said to them, thus says the Lord of Israel, tell the man who sent you to me. This is a message for the king. Thus says the Lord, behold, I bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands. Therefore my wrath burns against this place and it shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him. Thus says the Lord God of Israel regarding the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I truly have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you will be gathered to your grave in peace and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place. So they brought back the word to the king. And when they did, guess what he did? He called all the people together at the temple and Josiah himself stood before the people and read the book of the law and he called them to repentance. And then they had a Passover, the Bible says, that was grander than any Passover Israel had ever celebrated. So they experienced peace and prosperity until Josiah was 39 and he died in battle against the king of Egypt. And in the midst of this is when Habakkuk.
crying out to the Lord. We'll begin in Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 1. The oracle, or literally vision, which Habakkuk the prophet saw. So he's going to see the Lord. How long, O Lord, will I call for help and you will not hear? I cry out to you, violence. You know what that word literally is? Hamas. Yeah, interesting, isn't it? Yet you do not save. Why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me. Strife exists and contention arises. Therefore, the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, justice comes out perverted. Habakkuk is crying out to the Lord because he's so troubled about what he sees happening on the world stage. And even as Assyria's fading away, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, you can call them either one, are vicious and they're brutal. And he's watching them rise to power. And he takes his concern to the Lord. And he cries out to him, how long, O Lord? I've been crying out, but it doesn't seem as though you're answering or moving on our behalf. It can be excruciating to wait, can't it? We've all been there at some point. You know, when our children were growing up and we were traveling, if you've had children, you know, they say, how much longer? How much longer? How much longer? And so Steve and I decided we would just say 20 minutes. It didn't matter if it was two hours or 10 minutes. We just said 20 minutes. So guess what? They stopped asking. And then we would laugh because we said they're gonna grow up and have a really distorted understanding of time. But it can feel that way when you're crying out to God and he seems to be silent. He is always at work and he will speak in his timing. He is always moving on your behalf. Waiting is hard for all of us. When we're waiting, we don't understand, we need to remember, and this is a statement from our workbook this week, mature faith is not pretending everything makes sense. It's choosing to stay in conversation with God when it doesn't. Just let that sink in. Walking through Steve's two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer, there were several times that the words of Paul brought such stability and peace to my heart. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul said, but we have this treasure, the Holy Spirit, Christ in us, in earthen vessels, our physical bodies. So that's the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed. Perplexed but not despairing. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our body. I would go over those verses and I would say quite often to myself, Lord I'm perplexed but not despairing. Perplexed but not despairing. Why? Because like Habakkuk, I know God and he is my father and I know he is faithful and trustworthy and I know he has prepared a place for me that I has not seen nor has ear heard nor can the mind conceive. It is so grand and this place is not my home. I am journeying through just as you are. We're headed home and we long for it. Some days much more than others but we long for it and it's the difficulties in this life that allow us to let go of the things of this world, come untethered from them so that they don't hold us down and we're able to live for the kingdom yet to come. When we received the call that the cancer had gone to Steve's brain, the very first words out of his mouth were faith is not gritting your teeth. It's not gritting your teeth. It is trust and surrender and that's what he's calling us to because when we surrender what are we saying? I trust you. Not my ability to control the situation, not to get the outcome I want. God, I trust you. So I was cleaning upstairs after everybody had left after the funeral and all that and found this little book by John Piper. Little book, you can see. The Dangerous Duty of the Light. It's the condensed version of Desiring God. Gentry, Ali's husband, had found it in the nightstand it was a graduation gift to Ali in 2007. I dare say she never cracked it open but I did. I saw it laying on the nightstand and I took it downstairs with me and you know very well-meaning people gave me quite a few books on grief and I would try to read through them. Most of them were a little too introspective for me. I didn't want to wallow in my grief. It's not that I didn't cry and grieve. I did but I knew there was so much more the Lord was trying to speak to me and reveal to me that I didn't want to wallow in that. I wanted to hear from God. Well, God spoke to me through his word but that morning he spoke to me through this little book and he challenged me much like Paul challenges me when I read Paul. Because what did Paul say in Philippians 121? For me to live is what? Christ. And to die is what? Gain. Do we believe that? We profess it but if we believe it we're going to live very differently when faced with death. And that's one of the things that he says. He says if you want to glorify Christ in your dying you must experience death as gain. Which means Christ must be your prize, your treasure, your joy. He must be a satisfaction so deep that when death takes away everything you love but gives you more of Christ you count it gain. Christ is praised in death by being prized above life and Christ is most glorified in life when we are most satisfied in him even before death. I said yes Lord. That's the word I needed. That you are my prize and death can take away everything I love but if I still have Jesus I have everything I need. I have the treasure that this world cannot even come close to comparing to. And not only that I want my loved ones to know him which means if there are any who don't I've got a job to do until I go home. That's to make sure they come to know Jesus. That's to pray for them. That's to stand in the gap for them. To not let one of them die apart from Christ if it's up to me. And I realize they have a free will and some of you have prodigal children that you have prayed for for years. Don't stop. Turn up the heat. Recruit more prayer warriors. I mean get serious. Go after it and watch God do what only God can do. Yesterday my sweet niece moved to a house in Germantown and my sister and I were there helping unload. And I had gone to run an errand and I came back and the men had finished unloading everything. And I saw her there. She kept our motions going. I noticed she's sharing the gospel. I knew what she was doing. And so Kayla and I just kind of slipped in the back because I didn't want to interrupt or disturb. And she came in with tears streaming and said all four of them prayed to receive Christ. Shared her old EE outline and went through it. And one of them said I have a Bible. I try to read it some. They were very open. They responded to what she shared. Guys that's our mission. That is our mission. If we will keep our eyes on Jesus as the prize we want everybody to have him as a prize as well. And you know God's timetable is so very rarely ours. We are so impatient. When you look at Scripture and you see how long like God promised Abraham, Isaac, and it was 25 years. God promised David the kingdom. It was 13 years of running from Saul before he becomes king. Joseph gets sold as a slave and thrown into prison. It's 13 years for him before he sees the fulfillment of the dream God had given him. His timetable is not ours. But was he working in every one of those situations? Absolutely. And he was putting everything together so that just the right time that promise could be fulfilled. So we're going to move into God's response to Habakkuk. Look at verse 5. They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand. They mock at kings and rulers are laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress and heap up rubble to capture it. Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty. They whose strength is their God. Now Habakkuk is disturbed because he doesn't understand how God can use a more wicked nation to punish his wicked people. But God says, I'm going to use them and you're going to see how vicious and ruthless they actually are. You're seeing what they're doing to other nations that they're conquering and they're coming for Judah. It will happen. But they will experience their own downfall. Why? Because of pride. What did he say? Their strength had become their God. God was simply using them on the world stage to fulfill his purposes and God, as we said, has not changed. We can step back and look at what's going on in the world right now with Russia and Ukraine, with Israel and Iran.
with China, and all that's happening around the world, with the unstable economy, with what's going on with polarization in our own nation, and so, Lord, where are you? Father, please have mercy. God would you send revival once again, and God may say, judgment will come first. Unfortunately for all of us, because of our sin nature, most often it takes judgment for us to turn back to God. When things are smooth and good, we think, we got this. We don't have to have God. We've got this. We can do this, but let crisis hit, and what do we do? 9-11. Did you go to church after 9-11? We just celebrated the 25th anniversary. They were packed. Churches were packed all over the nation, but did it last? No. Why? Things smoothed out, right? People went back to life as usual, and that's exactly what we see here. You know, God had revealed the truth to Isaiah that Habakkuk was grasping right now, and it's contained in Isaiah 55, 8, and 9, where God says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts. The description of the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, wow, that would strike fear in anybody's heart, wouldn't it? And yet, after hearing that, how does Habakkuk respond to God? He begins by calling God who he knows he is. Are you not from everlasting? God, you're the eternal one. O Lord, my God, not the God, my God, my holy one, we will not die. You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge, and you, O Rock, have established them to correct. He's struggling, but he's clinging, which is exactly what God calls us to do. You may struggle in a circumstance right now, and I'm sure many of us have difficulties going on in our lives, things that maybe nobody else in this room knows about. But if you are struggling, hang on. Press in. Cling to the Lord. He is faithful. God had been warning them. This should not have been a shock. I mean, we can go back and look. God warned them through Moses. They had the warnings in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. In fact, Deuteronomy 28 through 30 literally lays out in black and white, plain language, what happens if they obey, the blessings that follow, what happens if they rebel, and the curses that follow. And they're walking right into the ultimate curse, which is going to be captivity. And yet God gives them prophet after prophet. Jeremiah is prophesying during this time. And what do they do? They harden their hearts. They throw him in a cistern. They put him in prison. They're abusing him because he's speaking the truth, because they also had false prophets, right? Tickling their ears and saying, oh no, God would never do that. God's not going to allow the temple to be destroyed. That's where his presence rests. God's not going to do that. In fact, and then they would say, oh, you'll be in captivity, but it'll be a short time. And what does Jeremiah say? No, it's not going to be short. In fact, go ahead and build houses and have your life there. It's going to be 70 years before God brings you back. And that's exactly what God did. You know, as Joshua took the people into the promised land, he stood before them and what did he say? Choose you this day whom you shall serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The failure that Joshua had was he did not train that next generation in the word of God and the deeds of God. And Judges 2.10 is one of the saddest verses in the Old Testament to me. It says also that generation, the generation of Joshua, were gathered unto their fathers and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. They had not taught their children the word of God. They had not Deuteronomy 6'd their children. What does it say in 4 through 9? Hear oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. Now how are we to teach them? You shall teach them diligently with intention, focus, purpose to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your head. They shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Okay, this is how you love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. What Jesus said is the greatest commandment, that's your entire being loving him. And if we love him like that, you talk about people that you love. You're going to talk to him, you're going to talk about him. And you're going to talk about him when you sit, when you walk in the way, when you rise up. You're going to have his word posted in your home. What did he say? They wore the tassels to remind them of scripture, they wore phylacteries with scriptures on their head. They wore visual symbols to remind them of the word of God but they had not diligently taught their children and an entire generation arose that did not know God. And we know, we know the result of that, judges is a disaster. Because they did not teach their children to know God. If you have children or grandchildren, that is your primary responsibility after your personal walk with Christ, is to train those children and grandchildren to know the Lord. And we have to live it. We cannot pass on what we don't possess. We have to live it before them so they see us walking and talking with the Lord. They see us making it a natural part of our life that it's just the overflow of our love for him that is expressed in how we treat others, how we care for them, how we serve, how we're involved in church, the priority we place on that. Your children catch those values and we need to be diligent in teaching them. You know, under their kings, God had been patient. He had sent prophet after prophet after prophet to warn them to turn back, but they would not listen. We often struggle with God's wrath. It's hard to read that description of the Babylonians and think, ooh, they're coming against God's people? And yet God had warned them and they stiffened their necks and hardened their hearts, which is what we do when we're in rebellion. There's a really good book, and I shared this quote at the kickoff, but I know some of you were not there. And if you did, if you were, you'll enjoy hearing it again because it's amazing. It's from The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith, and he's talking about the wrath of God. He said, in the same way that God's love is not a silly, sappy feeling, but rather a consistent desire for the good of his people. So also the wrath of God is not a crazed rage, but rather a consistent opposition to sin and evil. God is not indecisive when it comes to evil. God is fiercely and forcefully opposed to the things that destroy his precious people, which I am grateful for. It is a sign of God's love. God's wrath must be understood in relation to his love. Wrath is not a permanent attribute of God. Whereas love and holiness are part of his essential nature, wrath is contingent upon human sin. Now listen to this, if there were no sin, there would be no wrath. While it is correct to say God is holy, it is not correct to say God is wrathful. Wrath is the just act of a holy God towards sin. God warns us through his word and his prophets because he doesn't want us to reap what we sow if we're sowing sin, because sin breeds death. And we know that death was not in the original creation. God said if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then you will die. They died first spiritually and then they eventually died physically. We know we were created for more than this. We know that death is unnatural. Everything in us cries out against it. And the only way to avoid the second death, the eternal separation from God, is to be covered by the blood of Jesus in salvation, marked by the blood. We will not experience God's judgment and eternal separation from him in a place called hell. Now ladies, there is a popular, very popular author and influencer who has decided recently that she no longer believes in hell. That is interesting in light of what we're studying in the Minor Prophets. Her voice is literally the voice of a false prophet denying judgment. Now I want you to hear me. If you're on social media, you know who this is. God prophesied judgment through his prophets if they did not repent. God brought that judgment. Jesus promised eternal judgment if we don't repent. That judgment is called hell and it is eternal. Jesus said at the end of the parable of the sheep and the goats, remember when he was said he was separating everybody from sheep and goats and the goats were the ones who didn't come, didn't feed the poor, didn't visit people in prison. And what did Jesus say? When you didn't do it to them, you didn't do it to me because acts of care and service are what it looks like to follow Jesus because it's how Jesus lived. But the sheep were the ones who did. They did feed the poor. They did go visit the prisoners. They did take care of the widows. And what does he say? When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. And when he gets to the end of that, we have heaven and hell in one verse. He said, these will go away into eternal punishment, the goats, but the righteous into eternal life.
So Jesus is telling us right there, there are two destinations. There is eternal punishment, judgment, and there's also eternal life. On Acts 13, Paul was speaking in the synagogue in Pisidian, Antioch. He walked through their Jewish history because he's in the synagogue. He is in the synagogue because what did he do every time he went to a new city? He went to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles. So he's in the synagogue, and if you read Acts 13, he's literally walking through the 14 eras of Scripture. He's taking them through the Jewish history, and I'm sure they're loving it. Yes, we are God's chosen people. This is amazing. Until he gets to the part where he tells them that Jesus Christ, whom they crucified, was the anointed one, the promised one, the Messiah that all of the Old Testament had been looking forward to. And of course, then some of them are going to rise up, and as usual, they get run out. But the beautiful part of this, he even quoted Habakkuk. He said, And sometimes people quote that as though that's a good thing. Guys, he's talking about judgment. He is saying, I am bringing judgment, and that's exactly what Paul was saying. He was saying, Jews, if you don't believe, you are bringing judgment upon yourself. It's exactly what Habakkuk said to the people of Judah. And Paul is saying, God's message has not changed. We have to turn to him and by faith believe for it to be credited to us as righteousness. Exactly what Abraham did in Genesis 15, verse 6. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. He is now seen as righteous. That's exactly what happens to us when we come to Christ, and we believe, and we're saved by grace through faith. Not of works. Why? Because we would boast about it, right? It is an absolute gift when we come to him and surrender and say, I am a sinner, and God, I am lost apart from you. But praise Jesus. You died to pay my penalty. And if I will just believe, I will be received into the family of God, and I will bear my judgment no more. That's the good news of the gospel. Hebrews 9.27 says, Judgment. Judgment. It's all through scripture. For us to deny that. How can you deny it when God makes it so clear? But as believers, as those who are in Christ Jesus, we do not fear judgment. Because our judgment fell on Christ. Because we are in Christ, we are beloved. Eternally loved. And on our way home. And what does 1 John 4.18 tell us about love? It says there's no fear in love. We don't have to fear what's to come. We don't have to fear our current circumstance. We don't have to fear a diagnosis, a strained relationship. We give it over to the Lord. And what does he say? Roll it over onto him. He will carry that burden for us. He is our burden bearer. He is our shame bearer. You can roll it all over onto him. Because he died to make it right, and one day it will be. There's no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear. Why? Because it involves punishment. And the one who fears is not perfected in love. We are not going to be punished. Because we have been embraced by the one who is love. Receive that love today. If you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do not leave this place without committing your life to Jesus. In fact, let me pray for us right now. There's somebody in here. Maybe your heart's just pounding. That's the way my 9-year-old heart was. My heart was pounding. The Lord had been dealing with me for quite some time. And as the pastor was giving the invitation, my heart started pounding. And I grabbed my dad's coat sleeve and said, Will you walk forward with me? I need to get saved. And I remember that day my pastor leading me to pray and commit my life to Jesus. And the moment I did, I literally, even as a 9-year-old, felt my sin roll off. And I had such joy fill my heart. Let me pray with you. Father, how we love you. How we thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you that you are holy, holy, holy. We thank you that you are love. We thank you that judgment comes for our good, for our well-being, to turn us back to you. You discipline us because you love us, because we're your children. And God, if we will run to you and cling to you, you will take care of every need, every detail in our life because you're faithful. And Father, I just believe there may be a woman or some women in here today that have never committed their life to you. Maybe they've been around the things of God. They've even attended church. They're here at Bible study. But they don't know if they were to die today that they would enter heaven. So if that's you in this room, you don't have to pray these exact words. God's looking at your heart. He saved the thief on the cross who said, remember me today when you enter your paradise. And Jesus said, today you'll be with me. He's looking at your heart. Would you just right now admit to him you know that you're a sinner, that your sin has separated you from him? Would you ask him to forgive you? Repent of your sin and then believe. Believe that Jesus Christ bore the penalty for your sin, that he bore your judgment on that cross. And then ask him to come into your life and be your Lord and Savior. Receive him. If you've done that, you are now a daughter of the King. Your name has been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And God is preparing a place for you. Father, thank you that you created us for relationship. Thank you that we can gather this morning. Father, thank you that we can worship you in freedom. God, never let us take that for granted. And Lord, would you send us out today on mission? God, some of us have family members. If they were to die, they would enter eternal punishment. God, do not let us rest until we're able to share Christ with them. Maybe it's neighbors, coworkers, friends. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and send us out on your mission, Father. Thank you for giving us each other on this journey home. And my challenge to all of us is to live what we profess we believe. Let's rehearse what we know is true about God and stand firm like Habakkuk and Huldah and Paul. We may be perplexed, but we are not despairing because we know our God.