SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/8/2016
9:28 PM
My Worship Time
Focus: Trust God’s Word
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Habakkuk
2:4-5
Message of
the verses: “4 “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is
not right within him; But
the righteous will live by his faith. 5 “Furthermore, wine betrays the
haughty man, So that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like
Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all
nations And collects to himself all peoples.”
Dr. Wiersbe begins this second main section from
chapter two with these words: “The
contrast here is between people of faith and people who arrogantly trust
themselves and leave God out of their lives.
The immediate application was to the Babylonians.” As mentioned in earlier SD’s on the book of
Habakkuk this fourth verse in the second chapter is repeated three times in the
New Testament, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, and in the KJV it is translated “the
just shall live by faith,” while in the NASB it is translated “the righteous
will live by his faith.” Dr. Wiersbe
divides these two verses into three topics that we will look at in three
Spiritual Diaries, and the first one we will look at he entitles “The sinner,”
which is what we will look at this evening.
The Sinner: Now
when we studied the book of Daniel we learn much about the pride of the
Babylonians, especially their leader, Nebuchadnezzar who said the following
words as recorded in Daniel 4:30 “"The king reflected and said, ’Is this not Babylon the great,
which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for
the glory of my majesty?’” Well
the Lord turned him into some kind of a man who ate grass for seven years, a disease
that I wrote about when we studied the book of Daniel, a disease that brought
great humility to the king, but this was a nation that in human eyes had a lot
to brag about and they did do that.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “But Nebuchadnezzar and the
Babylonians aren’t the only ones puffed up with pride and
self-sufficiency. This is the condition
of most people in today’s society who belong to the world and live for the
world. The Apostle John warns us against
‘the pride [vain glory] of life’ that belongs to this present evil world system
which is against God and without God (1 John 2:15-17).”
If one takes the time to look at God and who He is
and how He created man and how He created all of the universe that we can see,
even with those great telescopes that we have out in space what does man have
to be proud of. The following are some
verses that I found doing a search with the words “is man” and found them using
the KJV, but then changed to the NASB and I want to quote a couple of
these: “Job 7:17 "What is man that
You magnify him, And that You are concerned about him.” “Ps 8:4 What is man that You take thought of
him, And the son of man that You care for him?”
“Ps 144:3 O LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the
son of man, that You think of him?” “Heb
2:6 But one has testified somewhere,
saying, "WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU REMEMBER HIM? OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT YOU
ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HIM?” The problem
with man of course is sin as sin has caused all the problems that man has and
has ever had. The first sin was done by
one of the great angels that the Lord made, Lucifer, who we know is now Satan,
and his sin was pride, and when he tempted Adam and Eve in the garden pride was
also involved in that temptation, and pride is a great problem that all of us
have, more so to some like Nebuchadnezzar.
I have quoted a song by a man who I guess was a country or folk singer
in past SD’s. Roger Miller was popular
when I was in High School, and one of the songs that he made famous was
entitled “Pride is the Chief cause in the Decline of the Number of Husbands and
Wives.” I don’t know if he was a
believer, but I do know that that song makes a lot of sense and is true
especially in today’s society.
Dr. Wiersbe writes that this about pride “It twists
them [man] inwardly, for the soul of the unbeliever is ‘not upright,’ which
means his inner appetites are crooked and sinful. He delights in the things that God abhors,
the things God condemns in the five ‘woe’ in this chapter. One of the chief causes of the corruption in
this world is what Peter calls ‘lust’ (2 Peter 1:4), which simply means ‘evil
desires, passionate longing.’ Were it
not for the base appetites of people, longing to be satisfied but never
satisfied, the ‘sin industries’ would never prosper.” All you have to do is look at the advisements
that are seen on TV or heard on the radio or come over the internet and you can
see that most of them work on our sinful appetites.
In verse five Habakkuk speaks of another thing that
pride does and that is it makes people restless, they are never satisfied. I suppose that this is something that I have
to fight a lot, especially when the weather turns cold and I would rather be in
the sunshine, but do to personal reasons I have not moved to where it is warmer
most of the year. What this is called is
a lack of contentment, and in that area it rears its ugly head. Habakkuk speaks of this restlessness causing
people to get drunk or in many cases today to take some kind of drugs to make
them feel better, at least for a while.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes “The Babylonians weren’t satisfied with what they
had; they coveted even more land and wealth, and therefore set their course to
conquer every nation that stood in their way.
More than one kind or dictator in history has followed this resolve,
only to discover that it leads to disappointment, ruin, and death.” When we studied the book of Revelation last
year we saw the greatest sinful dictator who will ever live, that being the
Antichrist and he will try to conquer the whole world, but when it comes down
to it that won’t even satisfy him.
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