If you missed yesterday’s message, may I encourage you to stop right here and just scroll back and read it now. And for those who did read it, it might not be a bad idea to go ‘review’ it one more time before continuing on here today; just saying. :- )

I would like to think we all know the difference between a ‘threat’ and a ‘warning’. God has never been in the business of ‘threatening’ mankind, but He sure gives us plenty of ‘warnings’…offered up in ‘love’, because it’s NOT His will that any suffer or perish…but that we would all come to __________ (2 Pet. 3:9).

So consider a warning that Paul issued in Acts 13:40, where he admonishes us to “beware therefore…lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon us.”

Paul then quotes a rather obscure passage from a minor prophet known as Habakkuk. If you’ve never heard me point this out before, I’d be curious to know how many actually have gone and done a semi-deep dive on what Paul was referring to here, by going back and looking up the passage; or did you just continue on with reading Acts 13? (no judging here). But Paul refers to this for a reason: it’s a ‘warning’.

Keep in mind: weatherman don’t ‘threaten’ us when forecasting extreme weather, they warn us, so that we can take the necessary precautions to protect ourselves and our loved ones. So let’s now turn to that OT book titled ‘The Book of Habakkuk’. Paul quoted vs. 5 from chapter 1, (in Acts 13:41) so we can begin there and continue on: The Lord is making it known that He is going to do something that people would find hard to believe …even if told in advance. I’ll let you read vs. 6-10 on your own.

It would appear that God is saying: “Look…I’m going to do something among the nations that will blow your minds. In fact…it will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen to the extent that if I spelled it out for you ahead of time…you would still have a difficult time believing it.”

Then…He begins to offer up clues. Please know that oftentimes, much of what we read in the Old Testament…was a set of ‘spiritual blueprints’, meaning that you can also have ‘spiritual layers of truth and application’ that exists within a ‘natural’ application or occurrence. In Bible study circles, these are known as ‘spiritual types’ or ‘foreshadowing’. The Bible is full of them, and we don’t ‘figure these out’ because we are smart; rather, it is the Holy Spirit who ‘reveals’ these things to us. (Matt. 16:17; Luke 10:21,24; 24:32,45; 2 Tim. 2:17).

So back to Habakkuk 1:6…”For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.”

The Chaldeans were one of multiple ‘enemies’ of God’s people, known to be ‘war-like and aggressive’. We know that when God was not directing His people, the Israelites, to ‘deal with their enemies’ (Remove the Canaanite nations from the land)…that God would use their enemies to come in as a tool or instrument of His wrath, correction, and/or judgement. So having made that clear, may I ask who is our ‘enemy’ today, according to 1 Pet. 5:8? And in addition to what Peter has to say about this ‘enemy’ who ‘roams about like a roaring lion’, what do we learn from Job 1:7-8 that Satan is known to do? (Do you have Ephesians 6:12 memorized yet?) And what are these ‘Chaldeans’ known to do…’seize or possess dwelling places that are not theirs”?

Do you think Paul is suggesting that these literal and physical tribal people who were greatly feared centuries ago…are going to appear on the scene once again and cause havoc and destruction? Or might they be a ‘type’ or a representation of something else, ‘spiritual’ in nature’?. The remaining verses, 7-12 add more description to their nature and their purpose, with vs. 12 affirming…God uses them for ‘judgement and correction’.

Would you please make a quick visit to Psalm 78:49, and then jump over to Joel 2. ‘Trigger warning’ here: this chapter can be troublesome to read as it describes the coming ‘Day of the Lord’ (1). Paul also mentions what will be happening in the ‘Day of the Lord’ in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4. You might hold your place in Joel and turn to read those 4 verses. While people are preaching about ‘peace and safety’…we are told ‘sudden destruction’ comes and that ‘day will be as a thief in the night’. Now, back to Joel 2.

You can read vs. 1-9 on your own, making note that once again we see this picture of a ‘people great and strong…the like of whom has never been nor will there ever been any such after them’ (2). They come ‘marching in formation like men of war’ (7) and the people whom are under attack…’writhe in pain as their faces are drained of color’ (6). And what are we told they will do in vs. 9?

Verse 11 reminds us that “the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?” followed up with how people might escape this horror, in verse 12-13. Does that not sound like ‘repentance’? You might jot down Luke 13:3,5 and 2 Pet. 3:9 as footnotes, and maybe look those up yourself now if you have time.

So when Paul warns us in Acts 13:40 to ‘beware’…you have to wonder what he knew that many are unaware of today. I know this is a lot to process and take in, but the time is drawing nearer and God is wanting to awaken a sleeping church, just as those Ten Virgins in Matt. 25 needed to be awoken. And while we are on this topic of a ‘thief’ which we have seen mentioned a time or two here, may I remind you what a ‘thief comes to do’, according to what Jesus shared in John 10:10? So now turn to Matt. 24:42-44 and read what Jesus had to share regarding this ‘thief’. Sounds like a warning to me, does it not to you?

Time for one more reference? Go read Revelation 3:1-3, and listen to those words of Jesus, ‘warning’ the church at Sardis….a people who had reputation of being alive, but Jesus told them they were ‘dead’…and that they better repent…or else He would ‘come as a (what)?

Warnings are a good thing…at least for those who heed them and ‘take shelter immediately’. Guess who our ‘shelter’ is today…and is ready to provide you protection and peace…provided you surrender to Him fully? (Psalm 91; 1 John 5:18).