This week’s reading is Be’halot’cha from Numbers 8-12. (Click to listen/download)
Today in the calendar we are in the season of Pentecost. This past Wednesday (50 days after the First Day of Unleavened Bread) was the Jewish Shavuot. Tomorrow (7 weeks after Resurrection Day) is the Christian Pentecost.
One monumental event that is commemorated at this time each year is the great theophany (appearance of God) at Mount Sinai in the year of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. This event is recalled and celebrated throughout the scriptures. For example, in our Minor Prophets study we have been reading the book of Habakkuk. For Habakkuk, God’s mighty works were the basis for a firm, steady trust in God.
Habakkuk lived during the last years of the kingdom of Judah. He was greatly troubled by the spiritual decline in Judah, and he prayed for God to intervene. He may have hoped that God would send another righteous leader like Hezekiah or Josiah to turn the nation around. But instead God told Habakkuk that he would allow the cruel, ruthless Babylonians to conquer Judah.
This news was devastating for Habakkuk. How could God allow the evil Babylonians to defeat his people? And so he poured out his heart to God. God answered that if Babylon continued to defy him, he would judge Babylon at the appointed time. In the meantime, Habakkuk would have to be patient. “The righteous shall live by his faith,’’ God said.
Habakkuk was greatly encouraged by the answer he received. His prayer of praise is recorded in Habakkuk 3, which is one of the traditional readings for Shavuot. Habakkuk 3 is an Exodus Psalm, like the ones Dr. David Emmanuel discussed in his lectures last fall. Here are verses 3-6:
God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
4 His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
5 Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
6 He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
Habakkuk describes God coming from the region of Sinai and leading his people toward the Promised Land. There is great brightness in his presence. (Remember how bright the face of Moses was after his encounter with God there.) He shoots rays of lightning like arrows. He judges Egypt with great plagues. The mountains shake when he appears. Habakkuk is encouraged by what God has done. This is how he concludes his prophecy:
I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
17 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 be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Habakkuk had faith that what God had done in the past, he would do again. In the Exodus he judged the oppressors and rescued his people, and he will do so again in the future. And so Habakkuk could wait in faith.
What about us? We come 2600 years after Habakkuk, so we know about even more of God’s mighty works, including other great theophanies—like the resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place on Pentecost seven weeks later. And so we can rejoice even more so.
Psalm 77:11-20: 11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
15 You with your arm redeemed your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
indeed, the deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies gave forth thunder;
your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lighted up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
20 You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
These audio files are stored (for free) at archive.org. CoM does not control or approve other content on archive.org