Tag: Habakkuk

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 21  Read: Ezekiel 21 Listen: (5:29)   Read: Colossians 4 Listen: (2:21)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

This week of Readers’ Choice looks back at reflections about the Bible.

Barbara, TN — Yes, and wow, Erin! Thank you!

This post was originally published on May 13, 2026 based on readings from Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16.

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16

5 Plague went before him;
    pestilence followed his steps.
6 He stood, and shook the earth;
    he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
    and the age-old hills collapsed—
    but he marches on forever.

16 I heard and my heart pounded,
    my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
    and my legs trembled.

Reflection: Worshipping Through Horror — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

For my doctoral studies, I’ve been researching terrifying imagery in the Old Testament. This means when I’m reading books with titles like Reading the Bible with Horror in public, people are looking at me funny.

The question I get often is, “Why horror?” Most of us feel more comfortable focusing on the pleasant places in the Bible: the psalm about being a sheep snoozing in a gentle green pasture or the story of Jesus feeding the multitude. Like it or not, however, the Bible has lots of scenes that terrify us. And it appears the prophets were a little shaken too.

Habakkuk has been given a vision from God of the impending doom on the wicked nations. Despite the terrifying revelation, he responds with a hymnic prayer. How many hymns have you sung that speak of God heading out to smite the enemy while being flanked by Plague and Pestilence? This type of imagery is good for our modern cinemas, not really for the church choir.

Habakkuk takes the terrifying image of God’s power and wrath and doesn’t flee from it. He encapsulates it in song. He carves it into history through prayer. But at the same time, he’s scared. This isn’t some machismo war-song. His heart is pounding. His lips are quivering. His knees are shaking. He can feel his own fear. Why? Because the image of God’s power has overtaken him.

Brandon Grafius, in Reading the Bible with Horror, highlights the effect of horror movies and literature in our Christian lives. We are sometimes drawn to such artistic expressions because the images typically encapsulate our fears. We fear dying, so there’s a blood-sucking monster. We fear ravaging illness (or global pandemics or virus-laden cruises), so horror would make Plague a monster.

Horror (well-crafted horror) and the Bible (especially the Old Testament) have something in common: “They both experience the realities of life too deeply to tell us that everything is okay when it’s not,” says Grafius. Habakkuk gets that. He’s scared. It’s terrifying. But his prayer admits to the reality of the darker parts of life. He knows God is working, but that doesn’t make everything sunshine and daisies.

Reading the Bible with horror means not avoiding these texts or rushing to make them more pleasant. Sometimes we need to pray about the terrifying realities of our world, knowing God is in our midst.

Prayer for the week:

We are taking a break from the Divine Hours Prayers this month. Each week, we will pray a prayer from Scripture or Christian history related to the week’s theme. This week’s prayer is related to our theme of the Bible:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. — Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)

Read more: No, Not Like That

We must trust God when he chooses to address evil, whether it is in our hearts, in our institutions, or in our countries.

No, Not Like That

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Links for today’s readings:

May 13  Read: Habakkuk 3 Listen: (2:59) Read: Luke 4 Listen: (5:27)

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16

Read more: No, Not Like That

We must trust God when he chooses to address evil, whether it is in our hearts, in our institutions, or in our countries.

No, Not Like That

Read more: He Became a Servant

Habakkuk’s psalm longs for the Lord to make himself known…What Habakkuk waited for, we have seen in Jesus.

He Became a Servant

Links for today’s readings:

May 12 Read:  Habakkuk 2 Listen: (3:20) Read: Luke 3 Listen: (5:24)

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 2.15-17

15 “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, 
pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, 
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies! 
16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory. 
Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed! 
The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you, 
and disgrace will cover your glory. 
17 The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, 
and your destruction of animals will terrify you. 
For you have shed human blood; 
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

From John: When we first published this devotional in 2022, we had no idea that today there would be even more evidence of powerful people taking sexual advantage of others, including children. We wouldn’t have imagined that so little action would be taken by the authorities. We couldn’t imagine that some leaders would be encouraging us to “get over it.” May we redouble our prayers, as described in the conclusion of this devotional, that truth would be exposed, justice would fall on wrongdoers, and victims would be comforted.

Reflection: Woe to Abusers and Victimizers

By John Tillman

Habakkuk describes the host of a party who betrays his neighbors by getting them drunk and then taking sexual advantage of them. This story has a chillingly familiar ring. 

The details could be copied from today’s headlines. It is similar to reports of heinous actions exposed during the #MeToo era. The betrayal goes beyond the sexual element. These people were neighbors who trusted their host and accepted drinks poured by his hand. Only afterward did they realize the person they thought was friendly was victimizing them. What seemed like generosity was selfishness and what seemed like hospitality was making them hostages to the host’s lust.

No era has ever been without sexual abuse and sin. However, this description by Habakkuk is metaphorical. The scene he paints is about a larger, worldwide pattern of abuse. The host in this metaphor is Babylon. Nations who allied themselves politically with Babylon bought into the hype of Babylon’s greatness and superiority. They thought they were guests at this party enjoying the wealth and spoils of Babylon’s reign, but actually, they were just victims lured into a trap. They were eventually despoiled and humiliated.

When we sip from the cup of empires, we will be dominated and controlled by them. It’s easy for us to be suckered and find ourselves victims of those who at first seem to be on our side. Whenever and wherever we live there are and will be those who will seek to take advantage of us.

Babylon, like Nineveh, was a city built on bloodshed and humiliation. Habakkuk proclaimed that exactly what was done by Babylon to others would be done to them in return. God will bring justice to victimizers and abusers. All the wickedness they think they have gotten away with will be exposed. They will be the ones naked and exposed and shamed. Let us pray for that day.

Let us pray that all victims, nations, groups, and individuals will see justice fall on their abusers and victimizers. Let us pray that abusers’ defenses and excuses and denials will be stripped from them. Let us pray that all victims would find shelter, acceptance, care, and healing in the arms of the church. 

And finally, let us pray that we will be wise and discerning, not easily falling into the traps set by those who would take sexual, spiritual, or political advantage of us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Beyond Consent

Our culture has groomed many of us to accept the idea that the “freedom” of unlimited sexual experiences is harmless

Beyond Consent

Read more: A Rebellion of Repentance

John’s teaching had barbs of uncomfortable truth but also had hope…the world was full of snakes but the snake-crusher was coming.

A Rebellion of Repentance

Links for today’s readings:

May 11 Read:  Habakkuk 1 Listen: (2:39) Read: Luke 2 Listen: (6:11)

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 1.2-4

2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, 
but you do not listen? 
Or cry out to you, “Violence!” 
but you do not save? 
3 Why do you make me look at injustice? 
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? 
Destruction and violence are before me; 
there is strife, and conflict abounds. 
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, 
and justice never prevails. 
The wicked hem in the righteous, 
so that justice is perverted.

Reflection: Getting the Foxes Out

By John Tillman

Habakkuk complained to the Lord about the injustice, violence, and rampant moral decay of his country.

Habakkuk watched in shock as the legal system failed to deliver justice. He witnessed the righteous hemmed in by the wicked. He watched justice perverted in the hands of greedy, corrupt wrongdoers. The foxes were in charge of the henhouses.

Habakkuk wanted God to do something about the foxes in the henhouse, but he didn’t expect God would send ravenous wolves to do it. The Babylonians were God’s instrument that punished Judah’s rulers with the exact sins they were committing.

Judah chose to worship harsh and unholy false gods. So God sent people who followed such gods to conquer them and enslave them to the types of gods they chose over him. The calloused leaders would be ravaged by ruthless rulers. The corrupt officials would be terrorized by  impetuous invaders. (Hab 1.6) The unjust judges would face judgments by those with no respect for the law. (Hab 1.7)

God turned them over to their sins. The Babylonians physically devastated the land that was already devastated spiritually and socially.

Like Habakkuk, we have probably seen “foxes” in many different “henhouses,” including industries, faith communities, and political and legal systems. We have probably all watched in shock as legal systems failed, injustices mounted, and abuses of power proliferated.

Take these complaints to God. Ask God to get the foxes out. But be prepared for unexpected answers. (Especially if we are responsible for letting in the foxes in the first place. Song of Songs 2.15) In God’s economy, waking us up to repent of our sins is worth temporary pain.

On white-water rafting expeditions, everyone from staff to tourists wears extra-buoyant life vests. When a passenger falls out of the raft, the first thing staff do is not pull them up—they push them under the water hard. Then, when the life vest pops them back up, they use that momentum to pull the passenger back into the raft.

Sometimes things must get much worse before they can get better. Sometimes reaching rock bottom is the only way to get momentum to rise back up.

In Judah’s case, their entire society, government, and religious practice had to be destroyed to completely start over. Pray that in our individual lives and our other areas of influence, we will wake up sooner and repent faster.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. — Psalm 118.23

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: God, Can You Hear Me?

We confuse the patience of God as the endorsement of evil…In the end…praise God and trust that God is still good…may our faith sustain us as we trust in his timing.

God, Can You Hear Me?

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Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3.1-2, 16
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth. 
2 Lord, I have heard of your fame; 
I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. 
Repeat them in our day, 
in our time make them known; 
in wrath remember mercy. 

16 I heard and my heart pounded, 
my lips quivered at the sound; 
decay crept into my bones, 
and my legs trembled. 
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity 
to come on the nation invading us. 

Reflection: No, Not Like That
By John Tillman

A common objection to faith is that if God is all-powerful and all-good, how does he allow evil to exist? Either he is not all-powerful, for he cannot stop evil, or he is not all-good, for he will not stop evil.

Habakkuk has his own version of these objections. Habakkuk is distressed by violence and injustice. The legal system is corrupt. The guilty go free. The innocent are unprotected. He objects that God is not taking action.

God says, “I’m already doing something about it. The Babylonians are on their way.” (Habakkuk 1.1-4)

Rather than rejoicing, Habakkuk questions God’s choices. Surely God cannot use such ruthless, violent, and prideful people. “No, God. Not like that! Not those people. Not those means!”

Perhaps Habakkuk just wanted a new king or a few judges replaced, but God saw deeper problems. We can be like Habakkuk in many ways. We see evil and think God isn’t taking it seriously. But when God acts, we think God is going too far. We didn’t want him to take it that seriously.

God takes both justice and mercy more seriously than us. He knows better than us the costs of holding them both. 

In the parable of the tares in the wheat, Jesus implies that evil is more intimately bound up with us than we think. The tares cannot be pulled up without damaging the wheat. When we ask God to pull up weeds, he can see the weed’s roots are tangled around our own.

We must trust God when he chooses to address evil, whether it is in our hearts, in our institutions, or in our countries. We may not understand how long it took because we don’t know the depths of his patience and mercy. We may not understand how severe the judgment is because we don’t know the depths of our own evil. We may not understand the means God uses because we don’t remember that God can and will use anyone and can turn any evil to good use.

More than anything else, let us stay in dialogue with God, as Habakkuk does. We don’t have to hold back our doubts, fears, or objections. If we draw close to him, God will draw near to us. He will confront us with our sins. May we repent. He will comfort us in our distress. May we lean on him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed. — Psalm 51.8

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Habakkuk 3 (Listen 2:59)
Luke 4 (Listen 5:27)

Read more about He Became a Servant Beyond Jubilee
Habakkuk’s psalm longs for the Lord to make himself known…What Habakkuk waited for, we have seen in Jesus.

He Became a Servant

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