Habakkuku 1 (05-Aug-14)
Habakkuk M1 When God Doesn’t Make Sense August 14, 2005
Big Idea: Even in the unsolved mysteries of life, we can know that God is working out his purposes.
Have you though about why in a wedding the groom always stands on the left or why pencils are typically hexagonal? Have you ever thought about why a useless gift is called a white elephant?
Grooms began standing on the left during the days when men captured women from neighboring villages. The groom wanted his sword hand free (his right hand) during the wedding to fight off a possible attack from his rivals. The 9 sided hexagonal can be made with the same amount of wood as 8 round ones. So hexagonal pencils are less expensive to produce. In years gone by, the King of Siam apparently gave people he was displeased with a white elephant. These animals were considered sacred and could not work, but had to be maintained.
Wouldn’t it be great if all of life’s mysteries could be solved so easily!
We know that this is not the case.
There are many unsolved puzzles in life in life. One of the biggest puzzles is why there so much pain and evil in the world?
Why the London bombings? Why 911? Why the violence on the downtown eastside? Why the domestic violence? Why do the evil seem to prosper?
The prophet Habakkuk wrestled with these kinds question in his day. In about the year 600 B.C. Habbakuk saw all kinds of violence, evil, and injustice committed in Judah and asked, “God why don’t you do something!”
Under the reign of King Josiah, who reigned in time not long before Habbakuk’s prophecy (over years 640-609 B.C.) Judah had experience some spiritual and social renewal, but that renewal proved to be rather shallow and shorted lived. Before long, Judah reverted back to its sins of violence and injustice.
This morning we’re going to look at Habakkuk’s angst over this and God’s response.
If you have your Bibles turn to Habbakuk (after Ezekiel near the middle of your Bible Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk)
Habakkuk 1
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
Habakkuk's Complaint
2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk is a person who asked the questions we’ve asked? Why there is so much violence and evil? Why is there so much injustice? Why are there two standards of “justice” one for the rich and the poor? Why do the wicked prosper?
God, Why don’t you do anything?
Part of what the book of Habakkuk (and the many of the Psalms) shows us is that it is ok to honestly question God.
God can take it.
If a mother who puts her young son to sleep earlier than usual for misbehaving and the boy screams, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you…” can take it, how much more can a God who is infinite in love?
God has feelings, but God is big enough to take our questions and complaints.
We can be honest in our complaints to God.
The key, however, like Habbakuk is that we direct our complaints to God in prayer…
Some people experience a tragedy in their lives and they allow that tragedy to turn them away from God…
We probably all know of someone who’s turned away from God, because of some kind of disappointment with God they’ve experienced. Perhaps we’ve been tempted to turn away as well.
In life we are going to experience all kind of questions about God without any easy answers. Habakkuk shows us that it’s ok to express our angst and anger to God. He shows that it’s healthier to express our complaint directly to God than to sullenly turn away from God in our pain.
The Lord answers Habakkuk:
The Lord tells the prophet that he is going to raise up the Babylonians to bring judgment on the people of Judah.
Look at verse 5.
The Lord 's Answer
5 "Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like a vulture swooping to devour;
9 they all come bent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
10 They deride kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
they build earthen ramps and capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty men, whose own strength is their god."
God explains that he is going to raise up the Babylonians to bring judgment upon the people of Judah, but this answer does the not satisfy Habakkuk because the Babylonians are more evil than the people of Judah!
And Habakkuk issues his second complaint:
Habakkuk's Second Complaint
12 O LORD, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment;
O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
(Then in vss. 14-17 Habbakuk describes how the Babylonians regard their fishing nets as their God.)
Habakkuk cannot believe that God will use a people more evil than the Judeans to judge Judah.
What this passage is teaching us is that God does in fact respond to evil, but he may do it in a way that doesn’t always make sense to us.
Isaiah 55:9 tells us…
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
There are aspects of God’s character and ways that we will never understand.
Eastern thinkers have pointed trying to understand certain things with our rational minds will hinder true understanding. Zen masters have pointed out that the more we realize we don’t understand, the closer we may be to real understanding.
That’s rather abstract; let’s use a concrete example.
If someone who you only met once or twice came up to you and said I’ve read your Myers Briggs type ( ESTJ, extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging person), and I know you came raised by a single mom and on the East side of Vancouver and went to UBC and majored in electrical engineering. I’ve got figured you out.
Then there’s someone else comes up to you… who’s known you over 20 years and whose a really close friend: you’ve been through thick and thin together. And they say I thought knew you, but you still remain such a mystery to me, there’s so about you I still have yet to discover!
Who do feels knows you better? The person, who thinks they got you all figured out or the person who realizes that you are a rich, unfathomable mystery.
You feel like the person who realizes that they don’t know you fully, knows you better.
We are called to love God with our minds and seek to understand God’s character, but there are parts of God that will remain an ineffable mystery to us…
Later in Habakkuk, we read the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him.
There’s a time to question God, there’s a time to study, but then there’s a time just to be silent before God… to realize we have no idea…
But, Habakkuk does not seem ready to be silent just yet… He’s deeply troubled by the fact that God is willing to use an evil people like Babylon to accomplish His purpose.
We see here in the passage that God can even use evil for his larger purposes.
Anne Graham Lotz has pointed out that we see war and violence because we have pushed God out of our lives. Other people have said that the violence in our world is evidence of the absence of God. There is some truth to this perspective.
But the disturbing truth of the book of Habbukuk seems to be teaching us is that God can and does work his purposes in through the chaos and violence of our world.
As Elizabeth Achtemeier points out, the turmoil and violence and death in our societies may not be evidence of God’s absence, but instead witness to his actual workings in judgment for his purposes.
If God could use the unjust, violence against his son Jesus Christ as he was nailed for his purposes, is it not conceivable that God could use other “terrible” things to further his purposes in the world?
Some qualifications:
The fact that God can uses evil for his purposes is the God is NOT to say God is the direct cause of evil. The forces of darkness and human beings are the sources of evil.
NOR can we say that because God can use evil for his purposes, WE have any kind of justification to enter to use violence or to be aggressors in war.
Though God can use any circumstance to further his purposes, we are not prophets and we cannot not presume to glibly comment on world affairs and say this is how God is using this…
But we can say that History is HisStory.
If God can use the good and the bad in history to accomplish his purposes, he can also use good and evil in our lives to achieve his purposes.
The apostle Paul in the book of Romans tells us that God uses all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
Paul does not mean that all things that happen to those who belong to God are good--some things are clearly bad that happen to God’s people, but God can use to them for God.
I don’t in any way want to minimize or trivialize physical suffering. In my vocation I witness a lot of suffering. But God can use even these evils for his purpose. I’ve heard people say that getting this stroke or the cancer was worst thing and it was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. It really clarified what was really important to me.
God can even use our sin to ultimately work for his purposes and our final good. This is not an encouragement to go out and sin, but if you have sinned God cans use even that!
An alcoholic can say, “Alcohol ruined my marriage, hurt my kinds, cost me my job, it doesn’t make any sense, but it was the best thing that happened to me.”
As Julian or Norwich in Revelation of Divine Love has said, “Sin shall not be a shame to humans, but a glory, the mark of sin shall be turned to an honor.”
Richard Rohr says that logically it doesn’t make sense, but theo-logically it makes sense.
So, life is filled with mystery, we don’t have all the answers.
There are times when like Habbakuk, we want to rail against God.
As was the case for the prophet there are times when God’s answer doesn’t satisfy us.
Habbakuk cannot understand how God could use evil to bring about good!
But see what Habbakuk does in 2:1
Habakkuk 2
1 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
Habbukuk, instead of turning away from God, in his angst, climbs a watchtower, i.e., he goes to a high place where he can get some perspective and he waits for God to speak to him.
When you are perplexed or angry with God. Express that to God, question God.
And go up in your “watch tower.” Go to some “high” and private place where you can gain perspective and wait and see what God will do.
Prayer: Is there something I must wait on God for?
Quiet…
Benediction:
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible (and sometimes to us inscrutable), the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen
Big Idea: Even in the unsolved mysteries of life, we can know that God is working out his purposes.
Have you though about why in a wedding the groom always stands on the left or why pencils are typically hexagonal? Have you ever thought about why a useless gift is called a white elephant?
Grooms began standing on the left during the days when men captured women from neighboring villages. The groom wanted his sword hand free (his right hand) during the wedding to fight off a possible attack from his rivals. The 9 sided hexagonal can be made with the same amount of wood as 8 round ones. So hexagonal pencils are less expensive to produce. In years gone by, the King of Siam apparently gave people he was displeased with a white elephant. These animals were considered sacred and could not work, but had to be maintained.
Wouldn’t it be great if all of life’s mysteries could be solved so easily!
We know that this is not the case.
There are many unsolved puzzles in life in life. One of the biggest puzzles is why there so much pain and evil in the world?
Why the London bombings? Why 911? Why the violence on the downtown eastside? Why the domestic violence? Why do the evil seem to prosper?
The prophet Habakkuk wrestled with these kinds question in his day. In about the year 600 B.C. Habbakuk saw all kinds of violence, evil, and injustice committed in Judah and asked, “God why don’t you do something!”
Under the reign of King Josiah, who reigned in time not long before Habbakuk’s prophecy (over years 640-609 B.C.) Judah had experience some spiritual and social renewal, but that renewal proved to be rather shallow and shorted lived. Before long, Judah reverted back to its sins of violence and injustice.
This morning we’re going to look at Habakkuk’s angst over this and God’s response.
If you have your Bibles turn to Habbakuk (after Ezekiel near the middle of your Bible Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk)
Habakkuk 1
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
Habakkuk's Complaint
2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk is a person who asked the questions we’ve asked? Why there is so much violence and evil? Why is there so much injustice? Why are there two standards of “justice” one for the rich and the poor? Why do the wicked prosper?
God, Why don’t you do anything?
Part of what the book of Habakkuk (and the many of the Psalms) shows us is that it is ok to honestly question God.
God can take it.
If a mother who puts her young son to sleep earlier than usual for misbehaving and the boy screams, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you…” can take it, how much more can a God who is infinite in love?
God has feelings, but God is big enough to take our questions and complaints.
We can be honest in our complaints to God.
The key, however, like Habbakuk is that we direct our complaints to God in prayer…
Some people experience a tragedy in their lives and they allow that tragedy to turn them away from God…
We probably all know of someone who’s turned away from God, because of some kind of disappointment with God they’ve experienced. Perhaps we’ve been tempted to turn away as well.
In life we are going to experience all kind of questions about God without any easy answers. Habakkuk shows us that it’s ok to express our angst and anger to God. He shows that it’s healthier to express our complaint directly to God than to sullenly turn away from God in our pain.
The Lord answers Habakkuk:
The Lord tells the prophet that he is going to raise up the Babylonians to bring judgment on the people of Judah.
Look at verse 5.
The Lord 's Answer
5 "Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like a vulture swooping to devour;
9 they all come bent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
10 They deride kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
they build earthen ramps and capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty men, whose own strength is their god."
God explains that he is going to raise up the Babylonians to bring judgment upon the people of Judah, but this answer does the not satisfy Habakkuk because the Babylonians are more evil than the people of Judah!
And Habakkuk issues his second complaint:
Habakkuk's Second Complaint
12 O LORD, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment;
O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
(Then in vss. 14-17 Habbakuk describes how the Babylonians regard their fishing nets as their God.)
Habakkuk cannot believe that God will use a people more evil than the Judeans to judge Judah.
What this passage is teaching us is that God does in fact respond to evil, but he may do it in a way that doesn’t always make sense to us.
Isaiah 55:9 tells us…
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
There are aspects of God’s character and ways that we will never understand.
Eastern thinkers have pointed trying to understand certain things with our rational minds will hinder true understanding. Zen masters have pointed out that the more we realize we don’t understand, the closer we may be to real understanding.
That’s rather abstract; let’s use a concrete example.
If someone who you only met once or twice came up to you and said I’ve read your Myers Briggs type ( ESTJ, extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging person), and I know you came raised by a single mom and on the East side of Vancouver and went to UBC and majored in electrical engineering. I’ve got figured you out.
Then there’s someone else comes up to you… who’s known you over 20 years and whose a really close friend: you’ve been through thick and thin together. And they say I thought knew you, but you still remain such a mystery to me, there’s so about you I still have yet to discover!
Who do feels knows you better? The person, who thinks they got you all figured out or the person who realizes that you are a rich, unfathomable mystery.
You feel like the person who realizes that they don’t know you fully, knows you better.
We are called to love God with our minds and seek to understand God’s character, but there are parts of God that will remain an ineffable mystery to us…
Later in Habakkuk, we read the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him.
There’s a time to question God, there’s a time to study, but then there’s a time just to be silent before God… to realize we have no idea…
But, Habakkuk does not seem ready to be silent just yet… He’s deeply troubled by the fact that God is willing to use an evil people like Babylon to accomplish His purpose.
We see here in the passage that God can even use evil for his larger purposes.
Anne Graham Lotz has pointed out that we see war and violence because we have pushed God out of our lives. Other people have said that the violence in our world is evidence of the absence of God. There is some truth to this perspective.
But the disturbing truth of the book of Habbukuk seems to be teaching us is that God can and does work his purposes in through the chaos and violence of our world.
As Elizabeth Achtemeier points out, the turmoil and violence and death in our societies may not be evidence of God’s absence, but instead witness to his actual workings in judgment for his purposes.
If God could use the unjust, violence against his son Jesus Christ as he was nailed for his purposes, is it not conceivable that God could use other “terrible” things to further his purposes in the world?
Some qualifications:
The fact that God can uses evil for his purposes is the God is NOT to say God is the direct cause of evil. The forces of darkness and human beings are the sources of evil.
NOR can we say that because God can use evil for his purposes, WE have any kind of justification to enter to use violence or to be aggressors in war.
Though God can use any circumstance to further his purposes, we are not prophets and we cannot not presume to glibly comment on world affairs and say this is how God is using this…
But we can say that History is HisStory.
If God can use the good and the bad in history to accomplish his purposes, he can also use good and evil in our lives to achieve his purposes.
The apostle Paul in the book of Romans tells us that God uses all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
Paul does not mean that all things that happen to those who belong to God are good--some things are clearly bad that happen to God’s people, but God can use to them for God.
I don’t in any way want to minimize or trivialize physical suffering. In my vocation I witness a lot of suffering. But God can use even these evils for his purpose. I’ve heard people say that getting this stroke or the cancer was worst thing and it was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. It really clarified what was really important to me.
God can even use our sin to ultimately work for his purposes and our final good. This is not an encouragement to go out and sin, but if you have sinned God cans use even that!
An alcoholic can say, “Alcohol ruined my marriage, hurt my kinds, cost me my job, it doesn’t make any sense, but it was the best thing that happened to me.”
As Julian or Norwich in Revelation of Divine Love has said, “Sin shall not be a shame to humans, but a glory, the mark of sin shall be turned to an honor.”
Richard Rohr says that logically it doesn’t make sense, but theo-logically it makes sense.
So, life is filled with mystery, we don’t have all the answers.
There are times when like Habbakuk, we want to rail against God.
As was the case for the prophet there are times when God’s answer doesn’t satisfy us.
Habbakuk cannot understand how God could use evil to bring about good!
But see what Habbakuk does in 2:1
Habakkuk 2
1 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
Habbukuk, instead of turning away from God, in his angst, climbs a watchtower, i.e., he goes to a high place where he can get some perspective and he waits for God to speak to him.
When you are perplexed or angry with God. Express that to God, question God.
And go up in your “watch tower.” Go to some “high” and private place where you can gain perspective and wait and see what God will do.
Prayer: Is there something I must wait on God for?
Quiet…
Benediction:
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible (and sometimes to us inscrutable), the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen
posted by Shigematsu at 11:05 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home