The Last Hours: Walking By Faith

WALKING BY FAITH IN PERILOUS TIMES

Jonathan Brentner

I still experience varying emotions in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election in the United States. At times, I feel a calm confidence in God’s sovereignty. I know we live in the last hours of human history as we know it and all the signs point to the nearness of the seven-year tribulation and hence our departure to the place Jesus is preparing for us (John 14:2-3).

On too many occasions, however, what I read about the widespread election fraud aimed against President Trump stirs up panic in my soul. It’s then that I find myself scurrying back to Scripture and prayer through which I bring my heart’s unrest before the Lord.

The outcome of the election in the United States impacts the entire world in the sense that if America falls under the leadership of those dedicated to the New World Order, this will remove the most powerful obstacle in the way of the globalists that seek to establish a Marxist one-world government.

Habakkuk lived in a day remarkably similar to ours and he felt the same despondency we often feel as we witness the corruption, violence, and injustice of our day. His words below express his desire for the Lord to intervene in the wickedness he saw in ancient Judah.

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, / and you will not hear? / Or cry to you “Violence!” / and you will not save? / Why do you make me see iniquity, / and why do you idly look at wrong? / Destruction and violence are before me; / strife and contention arise. / So the law is paralyzed, / and justice never goes forth. / For the wicked surround the righteous; / so justice goes forth perverted. Habakkuk 1:2-4

Not only does this prophet of old express many of our thoughts today, there’s also much we can learn from the ongoing dialog between Habakkuk and the Lord. The words teach us about a walk of faith during perilous times.

If there’s anything I have learned from my walk with the Lord over the years is that He often makes me wait. He does not answer my pleas as soon as I would like, nor do I see Him respond as quickly to injustice as I expect. But I have also learned that His final answer is always worth waiting for.

In response to Habakkuk’s second complaint, the Lord told him to “wait” and that “the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:2-4). Notice the Lord’s answer to the prophet in these verses:

Write the vision; / make it plain on tablets, / so he may run who reads it. / For still the vision awaits its appointed time; / it hastens to the end—it will not lie. / If it seems slow, wait for it; / it will surely come; it will not delay. / “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, / but the righteous shall live by his faith.

In these verses and those that follow, the Lord tells the prophet that He will also judge the Chaldeans, but he would need to wait for it. I believe there was a near and far fulfillment to the vision that Habakkuk saw in the remainder of chapter 2 and most of chapter 3. Under Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took many people captive. Habakkuk may have lived to witness this as it happened a decade or two after he wrote

In these verses and those that follow, the Lord tells the prophet that He will also judge the Chaldeans, but he would need to wait for it

As for the future fulfillment of the vision, the Lord will destroy a future representation of Babylon as described in Revelation 18, which I believe is the kingdom of Satan during the tribulation. We see it coming to power now under labels such as the New World Order or The Great Reset.

We live in a time of waiting. It may be several weeks, or more, before we learn the final outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. At the same time, we also wait for Jesus’ imminent appearing to take us home.

We do not know the timing of what lies ahead for us, but we know that when the end comes, it will come suddenly (1 Thess. 5:3; 1 Cor. 15:52). These words from Habakkuk aptly apply to our current period in history as we wait for the Lord to intervene, “If it seems slow, wait for it; / it will surely come; it will not delay.

While we wait, we walk by faith knowing that the convergence of signs tells us we live in the season of Jesus’ return.

The book of Habakkuk ends with one of the strongest proclamations of faith in Scripture. The prophet starts his book questioning God’s absence amid the violence and corruption of his day, but ends with these amazing words recorded in 3:17-19:

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, / 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.

After the prophet describes conditions that would be totally catastrophic to any agrarian nation such as Judah, he amazingly states his total faith in the Lord. Regardless of the future for his nation, he would “rejoice” and rely upon the Lord’s strength. He knew dark and traumatic days were coming to Judah, but that didn’t shake his absolute trust in the Lord.

We have a distinct advantage over the prophet Habakkuk. We live in New Testament days and have the entirety of Scripture at our fingertips. The Bible is essential to our faith in times like these. It pushes our hearts and souls ahead to the promises of Jesus’ appearing, our reign with Him in His millennial kingdom, and our eternal enjoyment of paradise on the new earth and in the New Jerusalem.

We do not know what tomorrow will bring, but we rest in what the Lord has promised in His Word. In times like these, we look to the Lord for both our strength and joy.

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).

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