Questioning God - Habakkuk

If you haven't questioned God, you are a rare soul. Yet, we are creatures dependent on a good God, and when the goodness runs out, we're tempted to ask why. It is normal and natural. In our ineptitude and weakness, we want to have some answers as to when we'll be out of our current mess.

Habakkuk was similar to us in this regard. He wanted answers to some difficult questions. So, abruptly he begins his narrative with four tough questions.

How long must I call for help, but you don't listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

That is a pretty concise list of good questions that you might be tempted to ask God if you could get his attention! But, of course, you can get his attention. Just talk to him.

God comes back with straightforward answers that would strike fear into the bravest of hearts. The phrase in verse five is terrifying, "I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people..."

I imagine that Habakkuk wasn't expecting such a surprising answer.

The future conquests by the upstart Babylonians weren't viable. Were they? How could it be that God would use such violent and treacherous people to punish Juda, who was much more righteous? Habakkuk asked exactly that in chapter two, verse thirteen.

God's response was, "It will happen! You can count on it! (Jewell version).

Is that what you want to hear from God? Do you want to know your future? How would it affect what you do right now if you did know your lot?

I used to say that if I knew when I would die, I would take a massive trip to Europe or somewhere else. I would spend time with friends and family. I would (you fill in the blank). However, recently, my brother got word from his doctor that rocked his world. The doc said, "you need to call hospice because you have three weeks or less to live!" Talk about abrupt bedside manner.

My brother didn't do any trips or anything fun. He spent most of his last days trying to breathe. There was no fun to be had in knowing his future. And in two weeks, he was gone.

One fundamental principle of many that we can learn from Habakkuk's tiny book is how we must live. Chapter two, verse four gives us a look at contrast when it says, "See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright -- but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness"

My study Bible note is helpful here.

"The one whose faithfulness... is anchored in the God who triumphs over evil (3:3-15, especially v. 13; cf. Gen 15:6; Isa 26, especially vv. 1-8; Ezek 18:9). The righteous person trusts God in the darkest of times, holding fast to the conviction that God's promises will be fulfilled (2 Cor 1:20). The teaching that people are saved by grace through faith (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Eph 2:8) includes the call to live by faith (Heb 10:38-39; 11:17; Jas 2:22-23). "Justification by faith," part of the book's message and central to NT teaching, became the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century."

The future is sure to happen. Judgment is coming. How and where will you be in 100 years? Ponder this question and seek the righteousness that is only found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. There and then, you won't be able to ask God anything because the future will be eternal now.

What Are You Worth?

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The Circumcision Advantage

What a title right? I'm thinking of Romans 3:1 where Paul asks, "What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?" This was always an avoided subject in Sunday school, especially in a mixed class. We didn't use the "C" word. Too wierd. Paul is bringing up this topic for good reasons. He wants to show that the Jews definitely have had a great advantage during their history. In the next verse he tells one of them when he says, ... "First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God." The first jew talked to God in person. God chose Abram to be the father of many nations and to bring the blessing of the Messiah to the world. The Old Testament is the story of the Jewish nation. God dealt with the Jews throughout the ages of the time before Christ. They were the chosen. But in all that blessing they ended up crucifying the Messiah. With all of their advantages the Jews came short of the ideal....

Are You Prejudiced?

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us ; Ephesians 2:14 In 1967 Detroit exploded in what would be know ever after as, “ The 12th Street Riot ”. As a 14 year old white boy living about an hour from Detroit I was petrified. I didn’t know much about what was going on but I was afraid that my family was going to be murdered. Black people scared me. Why? Ignorance pure and simple. I had grown up in a white community and had never met any black people. There was a black kid in our school but I had never spoken to him. I lived in my own little white world and was happy to do so. My ignorance of the black culture had lead to prejudice and my prejudice had lead me to fear. Prejudice is that decisive determination of guilt or bias that comes before knowledge. One judges before hand. The mind is bent in a certain direction that is impossible to correct. Or seemingly so. God has interesting ways of helping us to face our ignora...

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