Act 13:40-41 | KingComments | STEP | The previous verse would have been a nice ending. But Paul has looked around and expects a reaction to his speech. He therefore ends his speech with a serious exhortation from the Word for anyone who rejects the offer of grace. If they reject it, this word of the prophet Habakkuk will be fulfilled to them ( ). This verse announces the situation of the downfall of the state of Israel. This is how it will be with them. Whether this is so depends on whether or not ‘you, listeners’ accept the message. The work of God in the days of Habakkuk was that God sent the Chaldeans to discipline His people, a work they did not want to believe. That God punished His people through an evil gentile nation was a wondrous work. Paul applies this word of the work of the judgment of God to the work of the gospel that God was now doing. If they rejected it, it would bring doom upon them in a way similar to the days of Habakkuk. When Paul makes this serious appeal to the conscience of his listeners, we are in the year 45/46. We know that twenty-five years later the downfall will come, for they have rejected salvation.

‏ Acts 13:40-41

A Warning at the End

The previous verse would have been a nice ending. But Paul has looked around and expects a reaction to his speech. He therefore ends his speech with a serious exhortation from the Word for anyone who rejects the offer of grace. If they reject it, this word of the prophet Habakkuk will be fulfilled to them (Hab 1:5). This verse announces the situation of the downfall of the state of Israel. This is how it will be with them. Whether this is so depends on whether or not ‘you, listeners’ accept the message.

The work of God in the days of Habakkuk was that God sent the Chaldeans to discipline His people, a work they did not want to believe. That God punished His people through an evil gentile nation was a wondrous work. Paul applies this word of the work of the judgment of God to the work of the gospel that God was now doing. If they rejected it, it would bring doom upon them in a way similar to the days of Habakkuk.

When Paul makes this serious appeal to the conscience of his listeners, we are in the year 45/46. We know that twenty-five years later the downfall will come, for they have rejected salvation.