Minor prophets, major impact!

Habakkuk 1v1-11 - Does God Care?

This is the start of the book of Habakkuk. It is a short book, written in that hundred year period we saw last week between the northern kingdom of Israel being destroyed by the Assyrians (at Gods command) and the forthcoming invasion of Judah by Babylon. He was almost certainly a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah. Over the next three weeks we shall see how the fundamental message of Habakkuk teaches us how to live by faith in God who is alive and active in the current affairs of life, distasteful and unappealing as those affairs might seem.

Unusually, his book is not an oracle delivered to other people, but a record of this mans conversation with God. Twice we see Habakkuk complaining and God responding, and then we see Habakkuk’s final understanding in the psalm-like chapter 3. Today we’re going to look at the first complaint of Habakkuk.

Before we dive into chapter 1 I’d like to set the scene though.

Sometimes we have disagreements with each other, don’t we? You know the kind of thing I mean - something was said carelessly, or I’ve been hurt by the way a friend acted. What is the best thing for me to do? Do I shun them and never speak to them again? Or do I speak to them and find out what is going on, see if I misunderstood the situation. It is especially important to keep the channels of communication open when some ones behaviour doesn’t match up to what we would normally expect of them!

Believe me, in the first year of our marriage Jo and I often found that a misunderstanding was in danger of driving a wedge between us; yet by talking together and being prepared to forgive we were able to overcome the problems each time.
We all get frustrated when things don’t go the way we expect them. When good people get hurt, when the most wicked people seem to live happy lives with everything they need. When a small child like Victoria Climbie is horribly murdered despite all those who should have been able to protect her. We all end up asking the question “Why?” sooner or later.
God wants to hear our honest questions, our honest doubts. He knows that we are often in circumstances which are difficult or trying, circumstances which we don’t understand. It is a tragedy when some people stumble and then blame God, and run away from him and his people - yet it happens, all to often. The relationship isn’t working out, the job is lost, the people are dying and people blame God without talking to him about it.

Aren’t you listening? Don’t you care? 1v2-4

How many times have we prayed and wondered why God doesn’t seem to be listening?

In v2 it looks as if Habakkuk has been praying for a long, long time. How long O Lord? It sounds similar to the impassioned lament from psalm 13.

v3 Habakkuk complains about the rampant injustice in his society, among the people of God. Month after month, year after year H has been horrified to see the state of things amongst Gods people. There is violence, injustice, wrongdoing, destruction. All the ways of the world around are found throughout Israel.

Having lived through the time of good king Josiah, when the book of the law was rediscovered and the true worship of God was restored in the land (2 Kings 22-23), he is now living under the rule of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, who was yet another wicked king who did evil in the Lords sight.

V4 gives us the hint that he is concerned with Judah, and not the world in general. God’s word, the law, seems paralysed: unable to restrain the problems. The wicked are at the top of the pile and the righteous are at the bottom. How can the righteous live under these conditions?

Why isn’t God listening? Doesn’t he care? This is the crux of Habakkuk’s argument. All these terrible things seem to be going on, and God’s people are ignoring God and his ways - and getting away with it.

Sometimes we are tempted to think the same thing when we look at the church. For God’s people today, as in Habakkuk’s time, are too tolerant of things among themselves which are explicitly contrary to God’s will as revealed in scripture. Too much of the worlds thinking and priorities is getting into the church. Yesterday I received the latest Tear Fund news, and reading about the circumstances facing many Christians around the world – and their response – I have to ask myself how far my own priorities have drifted.

We might think back to the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, and wonder why the Lord lets his church get away with so much nowadays. Perhaps we ask whether he still cares about us.

This is important to look at on a personal level too. Habakkuk is pouring out his frustration to the Lord. He has honest doubts, honest questions - but rather than blame God and turn away, he brings these doubts and questions to the Lord of All - and you can do that today.

Yes, God does care! 1v5-11

Unlike most of us, Habakkuk gets a direct response from God.

God does care about the situation, and he is going to do something. Something surprising (v5)

The surprise is that God is going to sort them out by raising up the proud and idolatrous Babylonians!! This is a bit like Jesus saying that he is going to raise up the capitalistic multinationals to winnow the church.

In v6-11 we see what the Babylonians are like. They are ruthless (v6), a law to themselves (v7) and know no god other than their own might (v11).

We know that it happens just as God said. He used the ruthless and violent Babylonians to rectify the problems Habakkuk has notices, by taking Judah into captivity! Habakkuk probably saw it happen in his lifetime.

Can you imagine a situation like that? Where a ruthless force expelled all the pastors, ministers and vicars from our country and persecuted the churches, torturing the ordinary people like you and I. Could God be behind something like that?

It is worth reading the biography of Hudson Taylor, the missionary to the Chinese and founder of OMF. Shortly after starting work in China he realised that the rest of the missionaries were living in a cultural ghetto, making forays out to the local people and trying to convert them to “Victorian English” as much as to Christ. Their Christian message was severely hampered by their cultural assimilation.

Then we see the cultural revolution.

Communists rise up and take power.

Foreign missions exiled, local pastors imprisoned, ordinary Christians like you and I tortured, all efforts made to exterminate the church. How awful. As OMF tell the story now, for 50 years everyone wondered what could have happened, would any Christians have survived? Then in the latter half of last century news started leaking out.
Now we know that the gospel thrived and grew even under that repression, and today there are probably over 70 million born-again Christians in China. That’s more than there are in Europe.

Does God Care?

God cares passionately about people. He is not willing that any should perish, but wants all to come to repentence (2 Pet 3v9). Sometimes he will go to great lengths, extreme lengths, to bring as many as possible into salvation, into the church. I have many friends in Yugoslavia who are now Christians, certain of their salvation and their future home in heaven only because of the terrible Balkan war of the 1990’s. I know of over 130 full time Christian workers now spreading the gospel in that land who were saved because of the terrible things that happened… the very things that give them an open door for the gospel today.

God doesn’t just care about “them” He cares about “us” too. In fact I’d like to get more direct and tell you that he cares about “You” in person.

When there are problems with family, with friends, with church and we are thinking “I can’t see how God could let this happen”, we should be saying this to God, not just each other. There are people that we know who were hurt by other Christians a couple of years ago and at the moment, sadly, they have still effectively turned their back on God.

So what shall we do? Please don’t turn your back on God if you have problems with family, with friends, with church. Take your concerns to Jesus today. Be honest with him, tell him how you really feel. And be prepared to live the way that he shows you in the midst of your pain. Because as we shall see over the next couple of weeks, the righteous will live by faith.

And Habakkuk proves it is possible.

 

Alex White