Our LORD, how long must I beg for your help before you listen? How long
before you save us from all this violence? Why do you make me watch such
terrible injustice? Why do you allow violence, lawlessness, crime, and cruelty
to spread everywhere? Laws cannot be enforced; justice is always the loser;
criminals crowd out honest people and twist the laws around.[1]
Assad, Aleppo holocaust. Rodrigo Duterte, over 3,500 suspected drug
users and suppliers killed within his first hundred days in office. Putin’s,
Russian aggression. Assad sees Trump as a natural ally, Duterte congratulated
and will work with Trump. Putin favours Trump. The fanatical environmental
crusade has sucked up most governments into its morass of lies and partial
truths. International law was flaunted by waves of migrants into Europe, (some
of whom were legitimate refugees). Britain’s withdrawal from the European
Common Market. Butchery and every kind of barbaric crime committed by the
“Islamic State”. Protests and counter protests. Lawlessness and nihilism.
What the prophet wrote some six hundred years before Christ is most
apropos in today’s world. His world was Judah around 610 BCE. In 721 BCE the
ten northern tribes of Israel were conquered by the Assyrian horde, their
cities destroyed, men women and children killed, and those left alive were
taken captive to be dispersed throughout the Assyrian kingdom. God at that time
prevented Judah from falling to the Assyrians. Idolatry, immorality, greed, and
violence preceded the fall of the northern tribes. Habakkuk’s complaint to God
is that Judah is demonstrating the same behaviours as Israel before its
destruction, and God is not doing anything about it. God responded to
Habakkuk’s accusation saying, that he was indeed aware of the situation and had
plans to rectify it. God would engage the Chaldeans to bring about his judgment
of Judah. The news horrified Habakkuk leading to another complaint, how could
God use a more sinful nation than Judah to execute his punishment?
Habakkuk was told that he would receive a vision, and though it might
take a while to happen, God told him “You can trust what I
say about the future.”[2]
God also said to the prophet “I, the LORD, refuse to accept anyone who is
proud. Only those who live by faith are acceptable to me.”[3] Following that, there is a fairly long
acknowledgement that the Chaldeans are in fact a godless nation. They are full
of themselves and bitterly cruel. The Chaldeans were a pagan nation worshipping
idols,
What is an idol worth? It's merely a false
god. Why trust a speechless image made from wood or metal by human hands? What
can you learn from idols covered with silver or gold? They can't even breathe.
Pity anyone who says to an idol of wood or stone, "Get up and do
something!" Let all the world be silent-- the LORD is present in his holy
temple.[4]
The proud and
haughty will come to nothing, not maybe soon enough for most people, but it
will happen. Pagan and godless people are abominations to God, in this world
however, they will do their thing; like the rich they will have what they want,
and live in disregard of people who lack the necessities of life. Poorer people
who suffer at the hand of the rich will one day be vindicated. Those people who
worship riches or any other form of idolatry, even loyalty to one’s country
above God, will eventually recognize the God of heaven and Jesus his Son. Those
faithful to God accept that God is where he is, and all should bow before him.
From what he heard
from the Lord and presumably his vision, Habakkuk became a changed man, “When I
heard this message, I felt weak from fear, and my lips quivered. My bones
seemed to melt, and I stumbled around. But I will patiently wait. Someday those
vicious enemies will be struck by disaster.”[5] My thinking is that it’s better for us to
accept that God will sort things out than want to know too much of how he will
do it.
Fig trees may no longer bloom, or vineyards
produce grapes; olive trees may be fruitless, and harvest time a failure; sheep
pens may be empty, and cattle stalls vacant- but I will still celebrate because
the LORD God saves me. The LORD gives me strength. He makes my feet as sure as
those of a deer, and he helps me stand on the mountains. To the music director:
Use stringed instruments.[6]
There is much in the
world right now to cause alarm and frustration, the account of Habakkuk
although written a very long, may hold the key to managing to stay sane and
functional; don’t try to do God’s job, and accept that the long term is firmly
under his control.
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