The Wonder of Habakkuk 2:7 The Awakeing Lion

This is the Truth Network Bible Wonders of Habakkuk.

Well, happy Valentine's Day for those of us on Tuesday, February 14th, which is the day I'm recording it. And what a valentine we have for you as the Lord has the seventh verse in the second chapter of Habakkuk. And the seventh letter, which is obviously a hugely significant letter for those of us who follow the Bible in the number seven, is the letter Zion. And the letter Zion means, in Hebrew, a couple of things. First and foremost, I think it means to remember Jesus or to reflect Jesus. And, as you might guess, it looks like a sword. And oh, does that sword play into what's going to happen here in this particular verse?

Because, you know, it's interesting to me, as we reflect Jesus, we then have his power, and oh, what a power that is. And so, you know, this clearly, in so many different ways, you know, I see that this book has to do with what is going to happen, but also what happens constantly, and certainly what did happen, you know, with Babylon. So here we go, the seventh verse, the Zion verse, which there is a very significant Zion in it, believe me, two of them. So it says, Shall they not rise up suddenly, that shall bite thee, and awake, that shall vex thee? And thou shalt be for booties unto them.

Wow. And here we see, again, this sudden strike, which has to do with an awakening, which is just spectacular when you think about the whole letter Zion, and that word vex, that word vex has got two Zions in it, and I think that's kind of, to me, you know, the focal point of the verse. The way this reads in Hebrew starts with a mem, which has to do with that idea of thee, but it also has to do with the idea of Messiah, and then that Zion I told you about, and then a yoke, or an iron, which looks just like a yoke, and then another Zion, and then a vav, which would really be another Zion, the way that they've done the word, but they use the vav and a hoof in order to show that it's going to happen to them.

And so, you know, it's just a spectacular idea of this sword that's just going to come out and strike like a viper. I mean, and the idea here is that this is a trembling, terrible, in other words, this is something that will make them tremble, that shake violently is actually the way that it is described in the concordance. And so this idea of vexing somebody is that they're just terrified of you, okay? And they're terrified because you reflect this judgment of Jesus.

I mean, it just is what is happening, and because for that, you appear as a sword to them. And no wonder they tremble violently as this whole idea of how you vex them, and they shall be as booty. And that idea of booty, you know, is really, when you think about it, it's the marriage supper of the lamb to some extent, which also just gives you a lot to think about.

But obviously, you know, the people did rise up against Nebuchadnezzar's family with Belshazzar, and certainly their country became booty for the Medes and the Persians, as the case may be, or any time you see somebody conquer somebody. But again, it's speaking all towards the end of the age when everybody that is not in Christ obviously will be, you know, flesh for the fowl of the ear, according to the way the supper of the lamb reads in Revelation 19, which is worth reading when you think about this particular verse, in my opinion. I read it this morning, just as just to refresh myself on what that looked like, because it's clearly what's happening is all these people just become booty. And as I thought about it, what exactly does that mean? You know, and I, as I thought about it, that what happened, certainly with the Egyptians was they became booty for, you know, the Israelites, you know, when God inflicted them with all sorts of different plagues and all that happened. And I think it was a picture of kind of what goes on. And what does that look like, you know, in your particular life? If somebody just continues to abuse you and pick on you and is a bully, well, as I reflected on that, I remembered my story from when I was in junior high school.

And hopefully this helps you, it sure helps me to get an idea of what this is. And that there was a young man by the name of Billy, and this was in the sixth grade, the first time I went through the sixth grade. And he used to bully me at the trucks, at the bus stop every morning.

We lived in Chicago and he was the head of one of the bigger gangs. And he just thought he was something. And so every morning he would just taunt me, pick on me, and all sorts of things. And it wouldn't be unusual for him to squish my lunch. And, you know, that was just, you know, his way of putting you down. Well, one particular day I awakened, something came up in me and I struck like a snake.

I don't know what happened inside, but I think it must've been Jesus. Cause all of a sudden I just punched him right in the nose. I mean, it was, it was lightning fast and he didn't know what hit him and his nose started to bleed.

And there he was in front of his whole gang, just shamed. And so he told all the school that we got off the bus that day, that he was going to beat the heck out of what at that point in time, people referred to me as Bruce Dilmore. And so, you know, all day long, I worried about what was, what was going to happen, you know, when I got off the bus, cause I knew it was going to be on and Billy Kilmer was known to be, you know, one of the toughest kids in school. But all I knew from earlier was that his nose would bleed if you hit it. And so when we got off the bus and there was a lot of snow that day and I just struck again like a Viper and I just knew that his nose would bleed. So I kept on shooting right for his nose and it didn't take long and it started to bleed.

And he had so much blood all over him and all over the snow that he fell down. And you know, that was the end of it, except his mom came and took me to my house to, you know, my mom, she thought was going to jump all over me. But as it turned out, she jumped all over him and her for all the years of, I mean, all the months at this point in time of picking on me and bullying and she was proud of me for standing up for myself as interestingly, I did awaken that day. And there's no doubt that something came over me. I had a sword I did, was not aware of, but nonetheless, something happened. Billy Kilmer became booty for me. In other words, all the honor and respect that people had, that Billy was the tough kid in school and all that stuff became the, that of mine.

I, you know, it was interesting. It was just now people treated me a bit differently and the respect and the honor and all that stuff. And so, as I thought about this at the wedding supper, the lamb, everybody was given gifts. Everybody has been given gifts all their life by the Lord.

And so I think what happens, and it really kind of breaks my heart, but at the same time, I think nothing is going to go to waste. That God is going to redistribute all those gifts, just like it says that, you know, to those who had nothing, you know, it's going to be given, you know, those who didn't do anything with their talents, it's going to be given to those who already had a bunch of talents. And so all those gifts and things that were given to all those men who didn't use them are all going to be distributed among the saints so that nothing that reflects God will be not in our, you know, not available. In other words, we don't want to miss any little tidbit of how cool God is. And so as I thought about what that feast is going to look like, you know, I just had that idea that, wow, here are we going to see all the booty of all the nations. In other words, all the gifts are going to get redistributed to those who use them for the kingdom and those who use them to reflect Christ. And so it's kind of neat to know that deep inside of us, we have this sword that when necessary, it can come out of our mouth like Jesus, or when necessary, it can come out of our fist.

Whatever the situation may be, you know, he rises up in you and maybe you've had that experience. And I think this Zion verse, you know, I think it's significant. And I really hope you see with me, you know, how God is teaching us about his letters through the prophet Habakkuk here is this so clearly is a Zion verse. I mean, when you see the zions in that word vex and realize that it's causing this evil one to tremble as the people rise up and vex him.

And then he becomes booty. I mean, it's a beautiful thing to see God reflected, which is the letter Zion in his people, which is setting us up for the miracle verse. The eighth verse is there will be a marriage now coming up in the next verse.

You don't want to miss that. In the meantime, again, I'm so grateful for your listening and for your taking part in this. And I, so I'm thankful for the prayers and the way you've shared this and continue to do that as Lord is certainly blessing it.

And we want his light to get around as much as possible. Thanks for listening.