Resist the Riptides - Habakkuk 2
I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.-- Habakkuk 2:1
Most of Habakkuk 2 is God’s response to a very distraught Habakkuk. It’s grim. And it tells us that God does not tolerate wickedness. Although He will use wicked Babylon to punish wicked Judah, in the end, Babylon pays for their wickedness too. Sin is always punished. Evil never wins.
And tucked into this prophecy of coming punishment are these simple words: “the righteous will live by his faith.” (Hab 2:4) Evildoers will be destroyed by their own destructive ways, but the righteous have a different fate. They will live by faith.
I am reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 24 in his description of the end of days. He warned, “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Math 24: 10-13)
Many will turn away from the faith… the love of most will grow cold. Not a few, not a couple, but many and most. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to get caught in a riptide and find myself among the many and the most. I want to be one who stands firm to the end. I want to be a righteous person living by faith.
In Matthew, Jesus goes on to tell several parables that give us a picture of what it means to live by faith and be ready. To resist the riptides.
Jesus described two servants– one faithful and wise who stayed on task, and one wicked who abused his position and was caught off guard at the Master’s return. The wicked servant meets a dire end– “cut to pieces and assigned a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Matthew 25, Jesus told a story of ten virgins, attendants at a wedding. Again, five were wise and brought extra oil and were watching in readiness, but five were foolish and were not awake and ready when the bridegroom arrived. This story ends with the five foolish virgins cast out of the celebration and left in the darkness of night. And Jesus concluded, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
The fact is we’ve been waiting a long time for our Master to return. We live in a culture every bit as wicked and idolatrous as Habakkuk. And evil wants us to believe that their side is winning. That our God has forgotten His promises, or that He’s lost interest in humanity, or that He was never really in control anyway.
It’s easy on a sunny day to refute those lies and see them for what they are. But about when the storm clouds are gathering? When life has been hard for a good long while and you’re not sure how much strength you have left to keep going? When your prayers seem to just bounce and come back to you, like an email sent to the wrong address? Cannot be delivered. Then… isn’t it a bit tempting for your attitude towards God to grow a little cool? Stand-offish? There’s a riptide ready to sweep you away.
Or perhaps everything is going well enough but for some reason you can’t explain God feels far away. You feel a little numb… then a little disengaged… then a little apathetic. And one day you’re not really sure if any of it is real anymore. A riptide ready to sweep you away.
Or maybe there’s just too many distractions. This is perhaps the most distracted humanity has ever been as we carry the world in little buzzing devices we keep in our pockets. So much content. So much noise. And giving our attention away seems harmless really. So what if our attention spans are about 47 seconds (no, I didn’t make that up. That’s a real statistic)? So what if we forget our thoughts right after we have them? So what if we can’t remember what we did yesterday because the tidal wave of content washed it out to sea? A riptide ready to sweep you away.
And I’ll tell you what– twice in 1 Peter we read this warning: “The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray…. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 4:7, 5:8-9)
Sober mind doesn’t mean only to abstain from alcohol or drugs. It means to not let your mind be controlled or influenced by anything apart from God. It means to maintain presence of mind, self-control, awareness. To be a servant found on task at the Master’s return we can’t be watching cat videos on social media or trading our capacity to think and reason for the ease that AI offers us.
Can you see the riptides now? The riptides of suffering and broken hearts, of malaise and apathy, of distraction and attention atrophy? And these riptides aren’t random. Peter told us– there’s a lion looking to devour us. Jesus called him the father of lies and a thief who came to kill, steal, and destroy. There’s a tempter who wants us to be off-task when the Master returns. He wants us to be asleep and miss what God is doing in the world. He wants us to grow lax and lazy, selfish and sinful.
Many will turn away from the faith; the love of most will grow cold.
Habakkuk’s love could’ve grown cold. After hearing God’s plan to use Babylon to punish Judah, Habakkuk could’ve said “that’s crazy, I’m out. I don’t get it. I don’t like it. I don’t want it. I’m joining the others in the party because at least they’re having a good time while it lasts.”
But he didn’t. He climbed the watch tower. Maybe his feet stumbled in weariness, his eyes bleary with tears, but he ascended to the top where he waited and he watched. He stayed alert. He kept his mind sober, focused on the character of God and the reality of His promises. Habakkuk was expectant. He was ready for God to show up. And even if what God did next would break his heart, it wouldn’t break his faith. Habakkuk’s love for the Lord was not fragile; his love grew deeper and stronger and truer as he lived by faith as God did what he did not like or understand or want. He resisted the riptides.
Lord Jesus, thank you for your Word that tells us so clearly how high the stakes are. You didn’t mince words. You didn’t soften your message to make it easier to digest. You said that many will turn away from the faith and the love of most will grow cold. Jesus, increase our desire for you so that we will stay close to you and resist the riptides. Holy Spirit, help us to stay alert and sober-minded. God, show us where you are working and how we can join you. We want to be on task and ready when the Master returns. We want to stand firm, living by faith, and watching for you, even and especially when it’s hard to keep going. In Jesus’ name we pray– Amen.
