THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act IV - The Prophets, Scene 11
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 11

                                    1                                                                                  2 3 4

VOICE ONE:             O Lord, I’ve heard your voice.  You didn’t say what I wanted you to say when I asked how long you would allow sin to go unpunished.  I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but your announcement about the coming invasion by the Chaldeans was a real shock.  A full-scale, armored-chariot attack was not what I had in mind when I first started asking for a revival.

VOICE TWO:            The prayer of Habakkuk.

VOICE ONE:             O Lord, I’ve heard your voice, and I was afraid.  I know you are righteous.  Sin must be punished.  The days of your longsuffering toward your people must come to an end.  You have extended mercy toward us since the days of David the king, since the days of Moses and Abraham.  But the Chaldeans, Lord?  They have a flagrant disregard for human life.  How can you allow them to govern us?  How can you use them to judge your people?

VOICE THREE:        The prayer of Habakkuk.

VOICE ONE:             O Lord, I have heard your voice, but remind me, O Lord, of the purpose behind your judgment.  When you descended from heaven in all your mighty power and visited plagues on Egypt, Pharoah faced judgment for his hardened heart but your purpose was deliverance—the Exodus.  When Israel came into the land occupied by the Canaanites that nation faced judgment for their sin, but your purpose was a holy land for your people.   King Saul was judged for disobedience in the matter of the witch of Endor, but his judgment made way for the coronation of King David, a man after God’s own heart.  Is it possible that judgment of my country at the hand of the Chaldeans would make possible a victory for righteousness?  Can I trust you to bring forth good even from this terrible invasion which I fear?

VOICE FOUR:          The prayer of Habakkuk.

VOICE ONE:             O Lord, I have heard your voice.  In wrath remember mercy.  In the midst of your wrath and the captivity of our children, there will be those who continue to pray three times a day toward your holy temple.  Remember them with mercy.  Give them favor in the sight of the king.  Protect them from those who would persecute them for their faith.  Help them to stand for you, and exalt them even in captivity for their faithfulness to you and to your word.

VOICES TWO/THREE/FOUR:        The prayer of Habakkuk.

VOICE ONE:             Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet will I exult in the Lord.  I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.