Filled With Knowledge And Glory (Habakkuk 2:14)

 


Wednesday, September 18, 2024


Psalms 62; 63

Habakkuk 2:6-17

Ephesians 2:11-22


Observance: John Ramsden Wollaston, priest and missionary of Western Australia (d. 1856)


Filled With Knowledge And Glory (Habakkuk 2:14)


I realise we are still a fair way off, but I want to spend a moment thinking about Christmas. Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year, so the crooners croon, and in my defence, today’s reading from Habakkuk is a direct reference to Christmas.


It is, I promise! He is quoting Isaiah: chapter 11, verse 9. We read it every Christmas Eve during our Nine Lessons and Carols, and the whole passage begins like this: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord – and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.” (Is 11:1-2)


Why do we read that passage every year during Christmas? And why does Habakkuk think it relevant to quote it while pronouncing woe upon the Babylonian Empire?


Because there is no point in trying to work against the mission of the kingdom of heaven. Christ came into the world, and in spite of the best efforts of his enemies, turned the cross of defeat into the cross of victory. There is nothing that can stand against Jesus Christ and his mission of redemption. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out. We have been built into his church as living stones, and not even the gates of Hades can stand against the battering ram of Christ’s resurrection power that flows through us.


We have a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. We are looking out into a world of great beauty mixed with great evil. Our work is to overcome the evil with the beauty of Christ, and today, through the prophet Habakkuk, we are promised by God that our work will only ever increase in success until the final consummation of all things under Jesus’ kingship. And God keeps his promises.


Do you think that the Bible is teaching that the future of this world is only ever going to get better? How might you see your own work of ministry, knowing that things can only go up from here?


O Stump of Jesse, Branch of David: tend the gardens of our hearts, so that our nation and indeed the whole world will be brought to the blossoming of your kingdom.

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