Monday, November 30, 2020

HABAKKUK AND THE COMING HOLOCAUST

 

 

 

The Prophet Habakkuk lived in times like our own. He had been tormented by the unrighteousness of his nation:
 
·       LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2–4 (ESV)
 
However, Habakkuk was disturbed by the answer he received from the Lord. He would bring the Babylonians to punish his nation, Judah:
 
·       “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.” (Habakkuk 1:6)
 
Habakkuk complained against God’s promised judgment and awaited His response. The Lord answered that He would protect His people during this coming destruction. Nevertheless, it took Habakkuk a while to resign himself to this reality. Finally, he was able to conclude:
 
·       You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:14–19)
 
We can learn from Habakkuk’s conclusions. First, he did not deny the horror that confronted Judah. However, he would wait patiently for the inevitable judgment of the Lord against the Babylonians. There is nothing wrong with desiring justice. Even the martyred saints cried out for the justice of the Lord:

·       They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:10–11)
 
God was pleased with their request since He too loves justice.
 
Meanwhile, Habakkuk would “rejoice in the Lord.” He would take joy in the promised salvation of the Lord - “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4). He would also rejoice in God’s promised provisions during the holocaust. God would enable His Prophet to climb above the agony (3:19).
 
We too must look in faith, beyond the approaching calamity, to the eternal:
 
·       So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)
 
Only by setting our sights on the things above can we hope to stand amid the things below.

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