We’re coming to the end of the Prophets in our reading plan. Habakkuk is another short 3-chapter book. Eugene Peterson in his introduction to Habakkuk in The Message Bible observes:

Most prophets, most of the time, speak God’s Word to us. They are preachers calling us to listen to God’s words of judgment and salvation, confrontation and comfort. They face us with God as he is, not as we imagine him to be. Most prophets are in-your-face assertive, not given to tact, not diplomatic, as they insist that we pay attention to God.

But Habakkuk speaks our word to God. He gives voice to our bewilderment, articulates our puzzled attempts to make sense of things, faces God with our disappointment with God. He insists that God pay attention to us, and he insists with a prophet’s characteristic no-nonsense bluntness.

From the ESV’s Introduction:

Habakkuk was probably written about 640–615 B.C., just before the fall of Assyria and the rise of Babylon (Chaldea). God used Assyria to punish Israel (722); now he would use Babylon to punish Assyria and Judah. This prophecy would be fulfilled several decades after Habakkuk, in 586.

The “theme question” of Habakkuk is, how can God use a wicked nation such as Babylon for his divine purpose? God judges all nations, said Habakkuk, and even Babylon would eventually be judged (Babylon fell to Persia in 539). Though God’s ways are sometimes mysterious, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4) while awaiting salvation. These words are quoted three times in the New Testament (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38).

We don’t need commentary, however; the text is clear:

Habakkuk asks God what he’s going to do about the sin in Judah:

The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1.1 – 4, ESV)

God’s answer is disturbing:

Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour… (Habakkuk 1.5 – 8, ESV)

No problem! I’m going to use the Chaldeans to take you out. That will solve the problem of evil that you have observed.

Whoa! You can’t do that. You can’t solved wickedness by letting a nation more wicked than us destroy us!

Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? (Habakkuk 1.12, 13, ESV)

Habakkuk thinks he has made a good case, and he will wait for God’s answer:

I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. (Habakkuk 2.1, ESV)

Stay tuned.

PS Today is Friday 13th. Hope you’ve had a good one. (Regular blog readers might remember that we value Friday 13th in our family. I was born on a Friday 13th.)

We close out Nahum and the destruction of Nineveh today. Chapter 2 contains a verse many people see as a prediction of automobiles!

The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning. (Nahum 2.4, ESV)

When I was a kid, I saw more than one car painted with Nahum 2.4, declaring itself to be a sign of the end times. We know, however, that the exact fulfillment would have been when Assyria and its chariots were attacked. Nahum 2.4 is war in the streets. Anything else is fun speculation.

Unlike some of the other prophets, who predicted punishment for Israel while ending on an upbeat note for the “last days,” there is no such end for Nineveh in Nahum:

Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? (Nahum 3.18, 19, ESV)

Nahum simply confirms Isaiah’s message:

The LORD of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.” This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Isaiah 14.24 – 27, ESV)

It’s Veteran’s Day, and I write about it every year, usually on this theme: God Values Warriors. I want to do something a bit different this year…

I’m preparing a series of talks for Winter Retreat at Spring Canyon, December 27, 2026 – January 3, 2027. Join us! One of the lessons is that God specifically targeted the military by putting the Apostle Paul in military custody from Acts 21.33 – Acts 28.30. As I was putting the talk together, I was reminded of an Army colonel I heard speak, maybe 10 years ago. It was one of the most impressive stories I’ve ever heard and illustrates why God invested in the military in Paul’s day and ours. My friend Gary Sanders writes:

God was putting the Gospel into the hands of people who:

• Were mobile
• Had initiative and were highly disciplined
• Knew how to lead
• Had access to the highest levels of government

Enter Colonel Jim Brown.

Here’s a snippet from his official bio:

James (Jim) Brown is a graduate of West Point and served for 31 years as a Military Police and Foreign Area Officer…Jim commanded two brigades in Iraq and a battalion in Germany and Kosovo….

Note “Military Police,” which is generally NOT a high status career field. But for Jim, it was an opportunity to serve. Here’s a bit of what I remember from his talk:

So they called me one day and said,

“We need you to go command a Prisoner of War Camp in Iraq.”

“GREAT! When do I leave?”

“Next week.”

“GREAT!”

So I took over this POW camp with the objective of making as many Arabs as I could fall in love with the United States. We taught them how to read. We provided them a comfortable place for their daily prayers. We treated them as humanely as possible and, except for a few radicals, we accomplished the objective. We turned enemies into friends. And before I left, the mayor of the city where we were had become a follower of Jesus.

Folks, you can’t buy ministry like that! So thanks to ALL veterans. And thanks to the veterans following Jesus who made a difference where God sent them.

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. – Joshua, son of Nun, General, Israeli Army (retired) – recorded in Joshua 24.15

We move into Nahum, and for those like Jonah who are upset that God didn’t destroy the Ninevites, Nineveh’s destruction happens 200 years later.

When Jonah preached repentance on the streets of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the people responded and were spared. A century later, sometime between 663 and 612 B.C., Nahum preached in a time when Nineveh would not repent. Nineveh, which had destroyed Israel’s northern kingdom in 722, itself fell to Babylon in 612—just a few years after Nahum’s warning. The Assyrians were notorious for the brutality of their treatment of other nations. Nahum declared, however, that God is sovereign: he punishes whom he will, and they are powerless to stop him. Much of Nahum’s prophecy was directed to the people of Judah, who could rejoice at the good news (1:15) of Nineveh’s impending fall. – Introduction to Nahum from the ESV

The main message is right there in the first three verses:

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. (Nahum 1.1 – 3, ESV)

In the middle of “death and bodily destruction,” it’s easy to forget that one of my favorite memory verses is there:

The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1.7, ESV)

“He knows those who take refuge in him.” By contrast:

But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried. From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a worthless counselor. (Nahum 1.8 – 11, ESV)

And here’s another nugget buried in chapter one:

Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! (Nahum 1.15, ESV)

Compare Isaiah 52.7, quoted in Romans 10:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

We’ll continue Nahum’s prophecy of Nineveh’s destruction after Veteran’s Day. Stay tuned.

Micah ends in roughly the same way some of the other prophets end. “It will all turn out right in the end:”

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. (Micah 7.18 – 20, ESV)

It’s a recurring theme.

Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; For the future of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; The future of the wicked shall be cut off. (Psalm 37.37, 38, NKJV)

Everything will be alright in the end so if it is not alright, it is not the end.― Sonny Kapoor, Hotel Manager, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. (Ephesians 1.7, ESV)

Can we continue the sports theme for one more day? The Milwaukee Brewers won the World Series for the first time in their 56-year existence, defeating the Tampa Bay rays in five games. I didn’t have a dog in the fight: the Rockies have had one World Series appearance, back in 2009, and they’ve been recently setting records for losing.

Not the Brewers:

The were Milwaukee Brewers were the best team in Major League Baseball all season. They were far and away the best for the first three weeks of October, the sport’s most crucial month. And they were the best during the 123rd World Series…

After staking their claim at the top of the sport all season long, it culminates here: For the first time, the Milwaukee Brewers are champions of the baseball world, and they deserve it.

There is simply no facet of baseball and of winning games at which the Brewers do not excel. Only one team scored more runs. They ranked fifth in steals, first in walk rate. They led the majors in batting average and on-base percentage. They did not rely on homers but could go deep when needed and ranked seventh in average exit velocity. In run prevention, the Brewers ranked second in team ERA and second in strikeout rate. The team defense was in the top five to 10 in most leading metrics.

The Brewers are a small-market team with a relatively low payroll, and they defeated their opposite, the Los Angeles Dodgers, sweeping them in the playoffs, 4 games to 0. After game 3 of the World Series, which put them up 3 – 0 over the Rays, the question was, “Can they close it out or will they try to coast to victory?” Here’s your answer:

“We’re focused on winning tomorrow,” Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said. “We’re going to treat it like a Game 7. We obviously know that one more win can get us a nice trophy, but it’s really just win every pitch, every inning, every at-bat. That’s kind of what got us here.” – Reported on ESPN

“Win every pitch, every inning, every at-bat. That’s kind of what got us here.”

That was a good attitude going into game 4, which they lost in 12 innings. The game was tied 2-2 from the 6th through the 11th innings. The Brewers hit a home run to go up 3-2 in the top of the 12th, but the Rays came back to win 4-3. The Brewers’ response after the game?

“This stuff is not supposed to be easy,” Brewers captain Christian Yelich said. “It’s supposed to test you.”

“It’s going to be hard,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “When you’re achieving something like this, it’s going to have its adversity.”

Wow. Then they went out and won the fifth game 4 – 1, winning the World Series. It’s clear they had mastered the fundamentals of baseball and they persisted in deploying them.

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. – Attributed to Calvin Coolidge

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way… Paul, recorded in Philippians 3.12 – 15, ESV

On Sunday, October 25, Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix ran “62 yards” for a touchdown. Of course, the actual run was longer. It looks to me as if he took off running from the 28 yard line, making it a 72-yard sprint. It’s a fun play to watch (unless you’re an Arizona Cardinals fan):

There are a couple of lessons. First, quarterback Bo was just “delivering the cheese.” It was obviously a called pass play. He didn’t expect the whole left side of the field to open up in front of him. He certainly wasn’t mentally prepared to sprint 70 yards for a touchdown. But he did. No doubt Bo had trained, including running wind sprints, even though he ordinarily wouldn’t be expected to run that far.

When the opportunity comes, it’s too late to train.

Train yourself for godliness. (1 Timothy 4.7)

Second, it was a solo run but a team effort. Note, especially in the replay on the video, the action of two of the Bronco receivers. When they saw Bo take off, they kept running their routes (one right, one left) as though Bo were still looking for someone to throw to. They drew their defensive guys away from Bo’s track. That’s quick, selfless thinking.

He must increase; I must decrease. – John the Baptist (recorded in John 10.30)

There are always lessons from sports.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. (1 Corinthians 9.24, ESV)

Micah reminded us in chapter 4 that the purpose of knowing God’s law is so that we may “walk in his paths.” Micah 6 answers the question, “What does that look like?”

“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Nope. It’s “simpler” than that:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.6 – 8, ESV)

Simpler? Remarkably simple.

• Do justice
• Love kindness
• Walk humbly with your God

Compare Jesus’ answer to the same question: Love God, love people.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22.36 – 39, NIV)

Yesterday, I promised an answer from Micah 6 to the question, “What does it mean to walk in God’s paths?” But first, we need to look at a very well-known verse from Micah. It answers the question: “Where will the Messiah be born?”

Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5.1, 2, NIV)

The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day were well aware of it when the wise men showed up in Jerusalem:

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” (Matthew 2.3 – 6, NIV)

And Luke 2 tells us that it took a decree from the Roman emperor to get Mary to Bethlehem. Else, he would have been born in Nazareth:

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2.1 – 7, ESV)

You don’t think God manages the world?

Micah 4 contains a promise for “the last days.”

In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Micah 4.1 – 2, NIV)

Note that the purpose of learning God’s ways is so that we “may walk in his paths.”

And there will be peace:

…They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken. (Micah 4.3, 4, NIV)

But the last days haven’t arrived yet. Now, as when Micah was written, there is war.

Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued. There the LORD will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies. (Micah 4.10, NIV)

There will be the Babylonian Captivity, from which Israel will return. But this sounds like today’s headlines:

But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, “Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!” (Micah 4.11, NIV)

But God has a plan. Those enemies will be destroyed…”in the last days.”

But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. “Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion, for I will give you horns of iron; I will give you hooves of bronze, and you will break to pieces many nations.” You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. (Micah 4.12, 13, NIV)

When? We have no idea. So let’s go back to the beginning:

He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. (Micah 4.2, ESV)

There’s no other reason to learn about God! All the issues going on today – LGBT…, AI, politics,… – how does God want ME to live? Not how does he want others to live!

Stay tuned for a specific answer from Micah 6.