Good morning, everybody. It is always a joy and privilege to be able to preach.
As Jen said, Sean is out at our Sister Church Crossway preaching for them this morning.
And some of you may know I've been taking a class on preaching, and I had to preach various sermons
and turn them in for homework. And Sean thought it would be a good idea to take the last sermon,
which I've already done, and use it and update it for this week as Sean is out.
So because of the nature of the class, I had to pick different parts of the Bible to preach from,
and eventually it came to the prophets. So we're not going to be in Revelation today.
We're actually going to be in the minor prophet Habakkuk.
So if you can open your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk, that would be great.
If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand, and someone will kindly give you one.
Habakkuk is one of the minor prophets. It might be a little hard to find.
He is after Nahum and before Zephaniah, and if that doesn't help you, then you'll probably need your index
to help you. It's the fifth from the last book in the Old Testament.
And I specifically chose this passage because I love it.
However, I wanted to study it more.
To give some context, Habakkuk was a prophet during the time of ancient Israel,
and he likely preached around the time from 640 to 615 BC.
So this is decades before the Babylonian Empire invades and destroys the city of Jerusalem.
While there are no other records of Habakkuk in the Old Testament,
we do know that he was likely around that time because of the way he's talking about the Babylonians,
what makes Habakkuk particularly stand out among the various prophets and the books of the prophets
is that this is actually a dialogue between God.
Normally, the prophets are just like a one-way communication between God and his people
through the prophet, but here Habakkuk is speaking, and God is responding back and forth,
and that's what makes it particularly special.
While our passage today is going to be just the last three verses, Habakkuk 3, 16-19,
I do want to give us some context and talk about the whole book.
It's only three chapters long, so if you're there, I want you to first look at Habakkuk 1, 2-3.
This is how the conversation begins.
Habakkuk 1, 2 says,
That's how Habakkuk begins.
God responds to him, and he says,
He is doing a work that he would not believe.
In verse 6, it says,
He is raising up the Chaldeans, this nation, the Babylonians,
and they're going to come in, and they're going to destroy and judge the people of Israel.
However, Habakkuk is somewhat taken aback.
He can't believe it.
How are you, God, going to use this terrible, bloodthirsty nation to do something like that?
In chapter 2, God responds again, and he says,
I myself will also judge the Chaldeans.
And that brings us to chapter 3, where Habakkuk, having heard God's final response,
offers a prayer to the Lord.
So, if you're willing and able, please stand for the reading and preaching of God's word.
I'm going to go through all of Habakkuk 3, even though we're doing the last few verses, just for context.
Habakkuk 3, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to the Shigionoth.
He said,
He looked and shook the mountains.
Then the everlasting mountains were scattered.
The everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction.
The curtains of the land in Midian did tremble.
Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers?
Or your indignation against the sea?
When you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation,
you stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows.
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw you and writhed.
The raging waters swept on.
The deep gave forth its voice.
It lifted its hands on high.
The sun and moon stood still in their place.
At the light of your arrows as they sped.
At the flash of your glittering spear.
You marched through the earth in fury.
You threshed the nations in anger.
You went out for the salvation of your people.
For the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.
Selah.
You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.
Verse 16.
I hear, and my body trembles.
My lips quiver at the sound.
God, rottenness enters into my bones and my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet, I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon those who invade us.
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold, and there will be no herd in the stalls.
Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength.
He makes my feet like the deer's.
He makes me tread on my high places.
To the choir master, with string instruments.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
You may be seated.
Many of you in high school might have read the book Night by a man named Elie Wiesel.
He was a survivor of the Holocaust.
He was one of the 5% of the 1.3 million people who went through Auschwitz and survived.
Of his many experiences there, one particular one stuck out with him.
It was a strange trial.
He says,
In the kingdom of night, I witnessed a strange trial.
Three rabbis, all erudite and pious men, decided one winter evening to indict God for allowing his children to be massacred.
I remember I was there.
I felt like crying.
But nobody cried.
This is an introduction to the play The Trial of God.
That night, evidence was gathered and witnesses were cross-examined.
And God was put on trial.
Now, the idea of God on trial might be strange to some.
I know we've had, just by coincidence, some fairly high-profile trials in the news.
So it's very easy to imagine politicians or tech CEOs or celebrities on trial.
But it's not too strange to think about God on trial.
If you have thought about the sufferings of the world.
Or if you yourself have faced deep trials.
You have been probably tempted to take up the gavel and persecute God.
To prosecute God.
To say, God, where are you?
Where are you doing?
Why do you idly stand by?
This is Habakkuk's question.
And God knows.
This is the world he created.
He knows that we are tempted in this way.
To accuse him and doubt him.
So we have this book of Habakkuk today.
If we are to be Christians who live by faith, we must be able to answer these accusations.
Answer these doubts when they arise.
And therefore, we have this book.
So I want us today to learn from Habakkuk.
What it means to, instead of listening to the accusations and letting the doubts sink in.
Instead to live a life of faith.
And a life of faith that rejoices first in the Lord.
By waiting quietly.
Because he brings trouble on his enemies.
And rejoicing triumphantly.
Because he will rescue you from the day of trouble.
So the first lesson from Habakkuk today.
That we get from verse 16.
Is that we should wait quietly.
In faith.
For trouble will come upon his enemies.
Look back into chapter 3 verse 16.
Habakkuk is describing his body trembling.
Rottenness entering into his bones.
He can't stand in the face of the frightening news that he has gotten.
This prophecy of doom that the Lord has given Habakkuk would be fulfilled.
The Babylonians would come.
And their war would be terrifying.
It would be disastrous.
The book of Lamentations describes the siege of Jerusalem.
If you were, back in those days, if you wanted to destroy a city.
You would encamp around it.
Cut off its food.
Starve the people.
And when they were weak, you would enter the city and defeat them.
The famine from the siege was so terrible.
That Lamentations 2, 11 through 12 says.
That infants were fainting in the streets.
Dying in their mothers' bosoms.
The young and old.
Woman and men.
Were laying dead.
Killed by the sword in the streets.
Woman.
Even boiled their own children.
Ate them to survive.
Princes.
And the royalty were hung in the streets.
Turns your legs into jelly.
Just thinking about it.
But it doesn't just make you weak in the legs.
Something else comes up.
Something else arises in your heart.
That voice that says,
God, what are you doing?
How could you idly stand by?
Why?
However, Habakkuk, knowing what war is like, knowing what war is like, knowing that these things would come,
he can say, I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come up on people who await us, invade us.
What we see here is that quietly waiting first involves putting down the gavel.
Chapter 3, we read it all.
It sounds nothing like the beginning of chapter 1.
Gone is the accusatory voice.
Gone is the voice ascribing to God iniquity.
Perversion of justice.
So, when evil comes our ways, when people wrong us, yes, it's right to raise our voice,
to use whatever legal means it is, or within our grasp.
But when we are tempted to prosecute God,
we should quietly wait and put down the gavel.
And Habakkuk can do that because his quiet waiting faith is a waiting faith in God's justice.
He believes that God will repay that.
Whatever this day of trouble that comes upon these invaders will make things right.
Specifically, God tells the Babylonians in chapter 2, verse 17,
the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you.
So, they would come in, and they would destroy Lebanon,
but that violence would return under their head.
Habakkuk has an expectation that accounts will be settled.
Now, the thing is, this kind of quiet waiting faith first has to be a waiting faith,
because things happen in God's time.
God's timing is not ours.
It would take 50 years after the fall of Babylon,
so probably a century after this prophecy,
for the Babylonians themselves to be defeated by Persia,
which is another bloodthirsty and war-hungry nation.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that is not so patient.
If I see that my prime order is coming in three days and not one,
I get to complain.
If my flight is delayed five or six hours, that's the worst thing ever, right?
Used to be regular.
Can you wait a century for God's justice?
This quiet waiting faith also must be quiet,
because God's judgment is terrifying.
There is something worse than death by the sword,
death by an invading empire.
It is judgment in the hands of an almighty God.
Habakkuk starts his prayer in chapter 3
by speaking of the report of the Lord's work.
O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
That is the real source of his fear.
Throughout chapter 3, there are allusions to God's work in creation,
and in judging various nations,
you can see references to various battles,
such as in Joshua 10,
where he stops the sun and moon in their place,
and that corresponds to verse 3, 11 here.
God shows his power,
and Habakkuk has faith that because God has already shown his power,
he will be able to enact that power in justice.
You see, faith is not believing something
in spite of everything that says otherwise.
That is a Dawkins atheist definition of faith.
That is just not what the Bible says.
It's a sad description.
Faith is, it's kind of like a chameleon.
You know how chameleons have two eyes,
and they can move independently?
Well, faith has one eye looking at the past.
It is looking at God's work,
and trusting that whatever it's looking to in the future
will come to pass.
God knows that,
or we know,
that whatever will happen in the future
can happen because of what has already happened.
That is a true picture of faith.
You see,
when people wrong you,
and we people bring trouble to you,
you can also respond with that same faith.
You see,
we,
every single person,
from the kingdom of Israel,
Babylonians,
us here,
we are all made in the image of God.
God is infinitely worthy,
infinitely beautiful,
infinitely good and righteous.
However,
he has put his image into us,
so we bear a slice of that infinite beauty,
and God will defend it.
And he will defend it with his zealous wrath.
So when people sin against you,
know that whatever petty vengeance you have
is nothing but petty.
If we even knew for a bit
what his judgment would actually look like
in the final day,
we would also be quiet.
We get a picture of that today
with people who witness executions.
Ted Bundy
recently had a show or two
produced about him.
He was a serial killer
who operated
in 40 years or so.
He was sentenced to death
by electric chair
for the murder
and sexual abuse
of over 36 women,
though he claims to have
murdered even more.
Throughout his trial,
he displayed
unbelievable arrogance,
smiling and laughing
as he confessed
to the murder of these women.
He turned down
a public defendant
and decided to defend himself
in court
and, of course,
lost.
After a lengthy appeals process,
which he himself
used every method
to complicate,
he was finally
sentenced to death
on January 24,
1989.
He was led
to the electric chair.
On that day,
the self-assured Bundy,
normally cocky
and ready to speak,
was ashen.
He didn't even eat
any of the food
in his last meal.
In front of him
were 42 witnesses,
many of them relatives
of his victims.
He was tied to a chair.
The latch,
the lever was flipped.
2,000 volts
went through his body.
His body stiffened,
went limp,
and he was dead.
As the witnesses
filed outside
of the compound,
they were shocked.
The LA Times
says they were shocked
because apparently
outside,
hundreds of people
had lined the streets
and they were playing music
and celebrating
the death of Ted Bundy.
Outside,
they had signs
like,
Happy Friday!
because,
to them,
it was something
worth celebrating.
But to the eyewitnesses
of the execution,
who the LA Times
called the somber bunch,
they couldn't imagine
other reaction
than grim silence.
If you knew
what God has in store
for those who do evil
to you,
I think it would be
silence.
Hebrews 10,
31 says,
it is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands
of the living God.
The Lord will repay.
Vengeance is his.
So when someone wrongs you
in any way,
know that God will repay.
It can be something
even as small
as an insult.
Jesus says
that if anyone
is angry with his brother,
he is liable to judgment.
If anyone says,
you fool,
they will be liable
to the fires of hell.
Now that judgment
may not come in this life,
but it will come one day.
Hebrews 9, 27,
it says it is important
for man to die once
and after that
comes judgment.
There will be a day
when we are brought
not into a human court
but God's court
and books will be opened
and judgment
will be passed
for every evil deed
and thought
and I tell you
there will be silence
in heaven.
And we know
he can do that
because he created
the world.
Every tree,
every atom,
every plant,
every galaxy
and universe
was made by him.
He can,
he has the power
to judge.
So if someone wrongs you
and they're not
in the church,
it's your first reaction
to feel deep,
deep sorrow for them.
You know,
it seems outdated
but there is a prayer
that says,
may the Lord have mercy
on your soul.
And it's actually often
spoken
in death sentences
when judges
hand down death sentences,
they often end them
by saying,
may the Lord have mercy
on your soul.
people need that mercy.
Now if it's someone
in the church,
it's a different situation.
Someone sins against you
and they're in the church,
you know,
there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ.
However,
God does discipline
and his disciplines
are painful.
So instead of
the imagery
of a courthouse,
instead we have imagery
of perhaps two kids
fighting.
And one of them says,
if you don't make up,
daddy's gonna come.
So,
in that situation,
there's still
a response of faith
to trust that God
as a heavenly father
will come.
So that's our first lesson
from verse 16
so that we,
like Habakkuk,
can respond in faith
by waiting quietly
for the day of trouble
whenever evil comes
our way.
The second lesson
we can learn
about living a life
of faith
is that it rejoices
triumphantly
in verses 17 through 19.
for he will rescue us
from that day of trouble.
Verse 17
is a beautiful,
poetic,
and haunting description
of devastation
and loss.
Each of these things,
the fig trees,
the vines,
the grapes,
the olives,
and the fields,
they're all hallmarks
of a flourishing
agricultural society.
Same thing
with the flock,
the sheep,
and the herd
in the stalls
like the oxen.
If you had these things
in abundance,
you were doing well.
But if you had them,
you were lost.
Imagine how devastating
it would be
to not have a harvest
of any grape.
You don't even have seeds
to plant
for next year's crop.
It would be like
being fired
from your job.
Your bank account
being empty.
You can't even afford
the internet
to look up
other job interviews.
You can't afford
the transportation fees
to get your next interview.
Now, the loss
of these things
could have been literally
because invading forces
as Joel describes,
waste the vine
and the fig tree.
It could also just be
a symbolic description
of Israel's particular judgment
because Israel is described
as a nation
that is God's fig tree.
It is his olive garden.
So for it to be destroyed,
it would be a picture
you could use
the similar language.
However you interpret it,
it is clear.
In the face
of absolute ruin,
terrible devastation,
complete loss,
Habakkuk is able to say,
I will rejoice
in the Lord.
Yet,
I will take joy
in the God
of my salvation.
And he's able to do it
because the God
is his God of salvation.
He says,
the Lord God
is my strength.
He makes my feet
like the deers.
He makes me tread
on my high places.
This description
of having feet
like the deers,
the Lord being his strength
is almost a direct quote
from Psalm 18.
Psalm 18
is described
by its subtitle
as a psalm
in which David
celebrates God
rescuing him
from the hand
of all his enemies
in the hands of Saul.
There's another story
of God saving people
from disaster.
If you have feet
like a deer,
you can bound up a mountain.
You go faster
than any human.
If you are treading
on the high places,
you have at least
a military advantage
because you can see farther.
Your projectiles
have the help of gravity.
The high places
also have a spiritual connotation
because the higher you are,
the closer you are to God,
which is why
by that time,
the word high places
referred to places of idols,
places where they were
enemies of God
and God was expected
to trample down
those enemies,
tread them underfoot.
So this picture of
flight,
the flight of the deer
who treads upon
the high places
is a picture of the Lord
giving safety
and victory.
And this is what
Habakkuk believes in.
He believes that
he can live.
Habakkuk 2, 4
specifically says,
the righteous
shall live by his faith.
The Lord tells Habakkuk,
the righteous
shall live by his faith.
And we see that
literally throughout
the Old Testament.
We don't know
what happens to Habakkuk,
but we do know
what happens to Daniel
and a lot of the people
who are captured
by the Babylonians
and exiled.
Daniel,
there are many stories
of this in Daniel,
but one of them
is that of Daniel
in the lion's den,
a very common
Sunday school story.
Daniel faces a law
that says,
if you pray to any
other God but him,
you'll be thrown
to the lions.
But he keeps faith
in God,
prays to God.
And when he is thrown
to the lions,
God sends an angel
and shuts the lion's
mouth and he comes
out alive.
He lives by his faith.
Now,
Hebrews 11 tells us
these stories
these saints
of great faith
are examples
for us today
of what it means
to live by faith.
And we are going
to need that faith
because a day of trouble
is coming.
And this day of trouble
is not just for
great criminals,
invading empires,
but it is a day
of trouble for you
and me.
You see,
all have fallen short
of the glory of God.
Now,
I spoke about Jesus
saying that anyone
who is angry
with his brother
is liable to hellfire.
I imagine that
that would include
all of us.
We all need
to live.
How can we do that?
600 to 700 years later,
the apostle Paul
would write
in Romans 1, 16,
that he is not ashamed
of the gospel
for it is the power
of God
for salvation
to everyone
who believes,
to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
For in it,
the righteousness
of God
is revealed
from faith to faith.
As it is written,
the righteous
shall live by faith.
That is a direct quotation
from Habakkuk 2, 4.
This salvation
that Habakkuk wrote about
is fulfilled
in the gospel.
In the gospel,
Christ reveals himself
as Lord and Savior.
And if we believe
in him,
we take him
as our God,
then we will be saved.
His righteousness,
his perfect righteousness
from that life
of purity
that he lived
will be granted to us
and our sins
will be placed on him.
And in that divine trade,
we will have the righteousness
of Christ
and by that,
we will survive
that day of judgment.
The books will be opened
and our names
will be written there
and instead of a long list
of every evil we've done,
it'll just be Jesus' name.
Righteous.
So that is something
worth taking joy in.
And this joy
is not a happy-go-lucky
type of joy.
It's not that fleeting high
that people chase
in this world
through, among other things,
sex, money, and drugs.
But it's a deep,
deep abiding joy.
And that joy starts
with thankfulness.
John Piper says that
thankfulness is a species
of joy,
and I love that.
Christ has risen
from the dead.
Let us rejoice in that.
He has not only risen
from the dead,
but he promises new life
to all those
who believe in him.
Death, that final enemy,
is defeated.
And not just death,
but the power of death,
which is sin.
Sin is the source.
It is the actual source
of the suffering
in this world,
not God.
And while sin reigns
in this world
for a moment,
there will be that day
after that judgment
where there will be
no more sin.
And we can look forward
to that day
by the Spirit,
the same Spirit
who allow Jesus
to overcome
the temptations
in the wilderness.
We too can overcome
the lies of the devil.
We can take his word,
the sword,
and have victory,
the same victory
that Christ has.
And we can do that
with our eyes fixed
on that final day.
And that is something
worth rejoicing over.
Now,
that doesn't mean
in this life
that we'll be free
from troubles
and free from trials
and tribulations.
Apostle Paul
in 2 Corinthians
gives a long list
of his various trials.
One of the most
faithful apostles
was faced with
imprisonments,
countless beatings,
being shipwrecked,
toil and hardship,
sleepless nights,
hunger and thirst,
and cold and exposure.
Indeed,
Jesus says,
in this world,
you will have tribulation.
But in John 16,
33,
he also says,
take heart.
Take heart.
I have overcome
the world.
Jesus,
our Lord of salvation,
has overcome the world
so we can take heart
by faith in him.
So we should ask ourselves,
what does it look like
to live by that faith
that Jesus
is our salvation?
You know,
we may not be like Paul.
We may not have been
shipwrecked
or facing beatings,
but we will also face
toils and hardship
in this world.
And we await his salvation
and his vindication
that on that final day,
when the books are opened,
he will make
all things new.
Everything will make sense.
And we will be able to say,
as we've seen in Revelation,
that we will call
God's justice and judgment
true and holy.
And we can do that by faith.
And again,
the faith that does that
is not this blind faith
that just
has
no bearing on reality.
Habakkuk looked back
to God's work
to inspire his faith
and we can look
to God's greatest work,
the death of his son
on the cross
to inspire our faith
that whatever may come,
God is working.
If God can take
the death
of his son
and make it out
to be something
as great as the salvation
of the world,
then he can make good
come out of
whatever troubles
come your way.
Romans 8.32 says,
He who did not
spare his own son
but gave him up for us,
how will he not
also with him
graciously give us
all things?
God can make good
come from the death
of his son.
He can make something
good come from
your troubles.
Now, I can't tell you
exactly what that looks like
in the same way that
I can't tell you
exactly what God's judgment
will be like.
We can't fully imagine it,
but I can tell you
it will be right.
It will be rich
and it will be worth
enduring with patience
the troubles of this world.
So when your fig tree
does not blossom,
when there's no fruit
on your vine
and when your olive tree
has no produce
and your field
yield no food,
how will you live?
What will your heart say
when instead of prosperity
and abundance,
we have desolation,
utter loss?
Will you rejoice
in the Lord
of your salvation?
One great way
we can express that joy
is through song.
If you noticed
in Habakkuk 3,
there's various,
it's not just a prayer,
it's actually a song.
It says in Habakkuk 3, 1,
that it's according
to the Shigiona,
that's a musical direction,
saying it's kind of like
how the song
All Glory Be to Christ
is according to
Agil Sing,
which is that New Year's song.
Throughout it,
it's punctuated
with the word Selah,
another common refrain
during Psalms,
and it ends
to the choir master
with string instruments.
You see,
on that dark night
in Auschwitz,
these three rabbis
convened,
and they set God
in trial,
and they came down
with a sentence.
Their sentence,
depending on the interview
with Elie Wiesel,
was either guilty
or recompense needed.
But Habakkuk's verdict
was not a verdict,
but a verse.
It was not a sentence,
but a song,
and we can learn
from him.
And we should learn
that we should be people
to sing
in the face
of our trials.
We should be people
of song,
and not just on Sundays,
because trials come
every day of the week.
I highly recommend
if singing
is not a part
of your regular devotional
daily practice,
I recommend you
to make it a part of it.
So, for example,
every morning,
I try to,
with Nora,
my two-year-old daughter,
I try to read a little bit
from the Bible.
She doesn't understand much.
That's okay.
I try to sing a little,
and then I just do
the Lord's Prayer together.
If you're not singing
every day,
I think you're missing out.
And don't just sing.
I would highly recommend
you to also consider
writing your own psalms.
Write your own psalms.
They don't have
to be good.
You don't have
to perform them.
They're not going
to be stuck in a Bible
for literally billions
of people to read.
They can be stolen
and copied from other people,
just like Habakkuk
probably copied from David.
All they have to be
is dreadfully honest to God.
Every trouble of your life,
from the worst to the least,
bring before Him.
Recount your current struggles,
your fears for the future,
and recount His good works.
I don't know what your psalm
would sound like,
but I've thrown something together.
Maybe it would sound
something like this.
Though the traffic
in Boston suck,
and though the guy
in front of me
at the stoplight
won't look up
from his phone,
and now I'm late from work,
I will rejoice in the Lord.
Though I can't find a date,
and my romantic hopes
and dreams are shattered,
I will take joy
in the God of my salvation.
Though the price of groceries
skyrockets,
money is tight,
and the job market
is hopeless,
you, God,
are my strength.
Though political turmoil,
war, and rumors of war
are on the horizon,
you, Lord,
make my feet like the deer's.
Though I lose everything
I have
because of my faith.
Though I may even be
diagnosed with cancer,
have but months to live.
Though
maybe
my wife,
child,
my loved ones
pass away before me.
Though all my friends
be miserable comforters,
and I have nothing left
but you.
Though you give,
and you take away,
you still make me tread
on my high places.
I will rejoice in you,
Lord.
You are the God
of my salvation.
Let us be a people
who rejoice in song
as we recognize
that he saved us
from that day of trouble.
So I want to end
by clarifying
that I'm not being hard
on these rabbis
in Auschwitz.
They, of course,
they had reason
to be asking
the questions they did.
In fact,
Elie Wiesel
ends his account
with something
in incredible detail.
that after the rabbis
had convened
and delivered
their verdict,
God being guilty,
they concluded
by saying,
it's time
for evening prayers.
Who are they praying to?
There's something
commendable
in that type of faith.
We, on the other hand,
have the full,
the true revelation
of Jesus Christ.
we, by faith,
believe that he has died
and he has risen
and he will come again
and he will come
to judge the living
and the dead
and on that day
he will make
all things new.
It will be a day
of trouble
for those who do evil
who have not believed
in him.
The trouble for his enemy
but it will be salvation
for the one
who loves him.
So in the meantime,
while we are on this earth,
while trials
and tribulations
come our way,
let us be people
of faith.
Let us wait quietly
in that faith
and rejoice triumphantly.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father,
we trust you
that though
the evils of this world
are countless,
you have let the evil
of the death of your son
be used for good
we don't know exactly
what that good is
in its fullness
but we trust one day
we will see it
face to face.
Let us live
rightly
and well before you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.