The Wonder of Habakkuk 2:8 Faithful Remnant or or Faithless Booty

This is the Truth Network. Bible Wonders of Habakkuk. Oh, how I love miracle verses, and this is certainly one we get to talk about today.

It's the eighth verse, like so many miracles happened on the eighth day, and this is clearly very miraculous. And we are in the second chapter of Habakkuk, and so when we look at the het verse, the eighth verse of the second chapter, before we do that, I think it might be good to reflect for a minute on what we have been understanding, that again, when we think of the letter het, we think of a marriage, and certainly our marriage to Christ. But what God has been teaching us here is that the righteous will live by faith. And so as I think, as you look at this particular verse, you can't help but notice its connection to chapter 19 of Revelation, where we see the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is set about completely, it's interesting, I studied it this morning and noted that it was a break in faith, that idea of whoredoms and Babylon and all that stuff is what led to it, as we had talked about in the fifth and sixth verses that essentially when we learn in the fourth verse that the righteous should live by faith, it's when we break faith that we end up with all these horrible situations, as the antichrist, Adolf Hitler, you name it, that happens as a complete lack of faith.

And when you look at that idea of whoredoms, essentially porno is what it would point to as far as the Greek, you can see that unfortunately, it's just rampant that we lack faith in one another, we lack faith in our mates, we lack faith in God. And as we do that, obviously we're playing into this situation where we're fixing to be booty, which is what the eighth verse has so much to do with. So the eighth verse says, because thou has spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land of the city, and all that dwell therein.

Well, as I studied that, because I knew it would have something very much to do with the net, excuse me with the letter hat. You see where it says because of men's blood and for the violence of the city, you might remember that Habakkuk's original complaint, why does thou show me violence and does not save? Well, here in the 19th verse of Revelation, he is going to save. And here in this particular verse as well, you can't help but see the salvation and it is a result of this violence. And this violence begins with the word, excuse me, with a letter slash word hat, that people get connected, their souls are connected to cruelty. And so the places you find this horrible word violence, is the reason that God brought the flood.

That's clearly one of the big ones, but the taskmasters in Egypt, they had that same violence, that cruelty, and because of that cruelty and men's blood. And when you go back into look at Revelation 19, again, you're going to see that because they spilled the blood of the nations, that they are all going to be spoiled. And thus comes, interestingly, the wedding supper of the land and all that booty and all the eating of the flesh and all those things are going to be spoiled for the remnant.

And the remnant are those that are left over that did not break faith with the Lord and therein lies the, again, the opportunity of how we can live by faith. So this verse clearly points to, in my opinion, clearly points to what's going to happen at the end, but also points to what's going to happen every time a despot like Adolf Hitler or somebody reigns, that eventually, you know, this spoiling is going to take place, but also in your own life, you know, and I couldn't help but know that I have been in my life at times, very cruel. And I think, you know, when I really think about the word cruel and how I can be cruel, like I was exceptionally cruel to my little brother at times.

I seem to be united to it. And there's a sick pleasure that comes about being cruel to people. And sometimes we're cruel with our words on purpose.

Sometimes we're cruel with our action on purpose, like just to hurt somebody like there, we get some kick out of hurting people. And in doing so we are literally breaking faith with that person. We don't see the father's blood in them. As you know, I was thinking about the word Adam today.

What I need to do is have more faith in people and people in Hebrew is Adam, which is starts with the Aleph, which is the father, and then has a Dalet and a Mem, which is blood. And every single man has the father's blood, right? We all have Adam's blood in us. But more than that, we have God's blood in us. And because God's blood is in us, oh my goodness, you know, how could we possibly be? It's bad enough we're cruel to animals, and I've certainly been cruel to animals, but to be cruel to another human being is certainly to break faith in the father because it's his blood. You know, it's like your true brothers and sisters. And as I was thinking about that, oh man, the times I would pick on my little brother.

And even to this day, there are times when honestly, I'm cruel to people in my household, in some sense, because I feel like I'm getting even or something with their behavior. But the sad news is that here, if you want to get waylaid, you know, God does not like violence. And it's interesting that Habakkuk starts this whole thing with this idea, you know, why does thou, he was crying, you know, and why does thou show me violence and thou does not save? You know, there's the idea is that God will not put up with violence, not forever. In other words, he is going to give those who break faith the chance to do all those things.

But the point if it is, is for us to come back to those two greatest commandments, right? Love God, love others. Don't break faith with God. Don't break faith with others because the righteous will live by faith. And as we treat our brothers and sisters right, then obviously not only do we end up not being booty, but we get to share in what God's going to do and we let him do the saving and we let him do the judging, as the case may be. Again, I think it's a great verse for introspection to go, okay, if I'm going to end up at the marriage supper of the lamb, it's going to have to take great faith, not just great faith in God, but it's going to take great faith in other people. And that speaks back to the idea of grace, that I've got to have complete faith in my brothers and sisters, that they're my favorites. Just last night, I got really angry at a brother of mine and stomped out of the restaurant because he'd made me so mad. And as I was thinking about this verse this morning, I thought, well, I was truly being cruel to him on purpose.

And so fortunately I reconciled that situation before I went home that night and I felt really bad. But it was just a lesson perhaps for me to how easy it is to break faith with somebody or to break faith with God. And again, all you're doing is setting yourself up, be booty. Because it's fascinating to me, the one last thing I will mention is the word booty here is a shin and a lamit. And that is the beginning of the word shalom. But it's interesting that the beginning of shalom is like there has to be some booty involved for you to get shalom. In other words, I don't know how all that works, but I have heard it said, and I think it's very true. There's a peace that only comes on the other side of war and an understanding of how good God is on the other side of war to some extent.

I'm not sure how all that works, but one thing's clearly the case, that the word shalom starts with a shin and a lamit, as does the word booty, as does the word three. Ah, there's a connection in all that, and it's wonderful stuff. Again, I'm so grateful that you're listening. And just because you're listening, you're one of my favorites. I hope I'm one of yours. Thank you so much for listening. If you get a chance to share this, that would be wonderful if God puts it on your heart. Somebody that likes this, be sure and share it with them again. We're so grateful this day after Valentine's Day that we can talk about loving one another.