Habakkuks Complaint, Part 1 The prophet Habakkuk cried out to God in his time as many of us do today. Many have their faith questioned because of what appears to be Gods silence in the chaos going on around us. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and You will not hear? Or cry out to You of violence and You will not save? Why do You show me iniquity and wrong, and Yourself look upon me to see perversion and trouble? For destruction and violence are before me, and there is strife, and contention arises. (Habakkuk 1:2-3) What we are seeing now in this world is no different than the world in the times of the Bible. Habakkuk sees evil prevailing everywhere he looks, and questions God as to well why dont You DO something about it? If we are honest with ourselves, we probably find ourselves asking the very same things. Verse 4 goes on to say that therefore the law is slackened and justice and a righteous sentence never goes forth, for the wicked surrounds the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted. The Lord, in turn, acknowledges all that Habakkuk is witnessing, and even agrees with him about the marauding Chaldeans (Babylonians), acknowledging their evil but at the same time, setting them up to take their own fall. The Lord says to Habakkuk in verse 5, Look among the nations and see! And be astonished! Astounded! For I am putting into effect a work in your days that you would not believe it if it were told you. God works in ways that are just so far above our ways that even if He did try to explain to us, in our finite little minds we would not understand it anyway. As evidenced in verses 6 where God says, For behold, I am rousing up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation who march through the breadth of the earth to take possession of dwelling places that do not belong to them. He further acknowledges their iniquity in verses 7-11; The Chaldeans are terrible and dreadful; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. This bunch wants NOTHING to do with God, they are too drunk on their own brand of justice to even acknowledge the One who created them. Sound familiar? They know only of the power they possess in and of themselves as evidenced in verses 8-11 Their horses are swifter than leopards and are fiercer than the evening wolves, and their horsemen press on proudly; yes, their horsemen come from afar, they fly like an eagle that hastens to devour. They all come for violence; their faces turn eagerly forward, and they gather prisoners like sand. They scoff at kings, and rulers are a derision to them; they ridicule every stronghold, for they heap up dust and take it. Then they sweep by like a wind and pass on, and they load themselves with guilt, whose power is their god. Wow, there is some seriously damning declarations there. We see Christians persecuted all over the world, we see all sorts persecuted all over the world. Have you ever heard the phrase, give them enough rope and they will hang themselves? That is pretty much what God is doing here. He is letting the Chaldeans have their fun, if you will, but their day is coming. I will let you read Habakkuks reply to God on this in verses 12-17 yourself, as he goes on to question God about why all this is happening. It may sound eerily familiar, you may have asked these things of God yourself. But none of this, none of the evil that is going on, none of our questioning, comes as any surprise to Him. However, it is what Habakkuk does that makes all the difference. Does he turn his back on God for not giving him a satisfactory answer? Absolutely not! Instead, he admits to having been rash in speaking plainly to God. I believe God would rather we be honest with Him, even if it isnt pretty. We are free to bare our souls to Him, even if we are angry, He knows about it anyway, so we may as well be as honest as we can possibly be. What Habakkuk does, which many of us find almost impossible to do, is he stands on the rampart of his mind and waits to see how God will respond and what answer he will formulate to the complexities of his complaint. When we want an answer from God we want it yesterday! It is imperative that we believe that He knows what He is doing and wait for what He will do. For His plans far outweigh ours, His ways are higher than ours, as are His thoughts. So if you are questioning God, take heart. If you are a child of His, He has heard you and He will answer you. We need to stand on the rampart and wait for His reply. ~God loves you and so do I ~
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 14:43:49 +0000
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