GN-Day351 Habakkuk 1-2; Isaiah 55; Revelation 8

HABAKKUK 1-2:
The book of Nahum ended with these words about Nineveh:

Nam. 3:19 NLT There is no healing for your wound;
your injury is fatal.
All who hear of your destruction
will clap their hands for joy.
Where can anyone be found
who has not suffered from your continual cruelty?

And now we turn to the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk preached at the time when it was already clear—  through the means of prophecy and conquest, that Babylon would defeat Judah. This was between 627 and 605 BC, which would have been at the same time as Jeremiah, Nahum, Zephaniah were living, and Daniel may have been a young boy.

We often hear people questioning how God could be good and loving and allow various disasters or evil things to happen. And Habakkuk asks that question, and another: “Why do You, God, use a nation that is more sinful than we are to punish us?”

Mears gives this neat outline of the three chapters of Habakkuk:

1. Watch and see
2. Stand and see
3. Kneel and see

ISAIAH 55:
Perhaps you noticed that Isaiah 54:1 was quoted by Paul in Gal. 4:27.

And did Isaiah 54:11-12 cause you to think of Revelation? In just a few days in our reading of Revelation we will hear about precious gems used in building the New Jerusalem.

REVELATION 8:
Remember that in Rev. 7 we saw first the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel. 144,000 = 12 x 12,000. Remember, numbers in Revelation have symbolic meanings! Now the question is whether the next group that John sees is the same group or a different one. He says that they were “a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language.”

Look closer at God’s Word and you will always see that it is very deep. Look closely at the names of the 12 tribes! Notice that the list has been altered from the normal list repeated in the Old Testament. Which tribes are missing? Which tribe is doubled up? Note that the answers to this may hold a clue as to whether the 144,000 is made up only of ethnic Jews. There is gold to dig for here!