Day Eight - Utterly amazed

“Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”

Habakkuk 1:5 NIV

Habakkuk is a lovely little book tucked away near the end of the Old Testament. It only has 3 chapters so doesn’t take long to read. It is when you’ve read it a couple of times that things kind of jump out at you. Habakkuk was having a good old moan to God with complaints that he thought were justified. Not only that, he was getting upset for he thought God wasn’t listening and wasn’t doing anything about the situation. I think God gives a superb answer to Habakkuk’s moans in verse 5 when he says, "…be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. "

Have you ever been in the situation where you have seen something which has been so strange yet so real that when you speak to someone of the experience you can tell by their body language that they just don’t believe you?

A couple of years ago I was asked to conduct a marriage blessing for a couple at a Scottish Castle. As it was a medieval setting and the wedding had a medieval flavour, I thought I’d do my part and dress appropriately, so went in a kind of Rob Roy style outfit complete with Balmoral hat and a Scottish Dirk. The blessing went well but to save time decided not to remove some of the outfit before climbing into the car and heading home. Things livened up a bit as we set out on our journey. Driving through one of the local villages, apparently there had been an incident and as a result police were in attendance and so we were flagged down. I got out of the car to find out what was going on and as I stood before the officer, he saw the outfit I was wearing, he did smile, looked me up and down and was heard to comment. “Ok wee man, the outfit! Try me and make it good”!

You don’t need reminding of the kind of year we have all had, but through it all God is showing us a new thing. Experiences we never thought we’d encounter in our ministries. There are so many similarities in Habakkuk which match up with our current situation. Through it all God said then to have faith in Him and that Israel will in time be restored unto righteousness and their enemies would be punished. That caused Habakkuk to break into a song of faith and praise. God is saying the same today “Have faith in me”.

The policeman? He eventually saw the funny side of things, and we continued on our way. Enjoy your day.

Tom Bonnar