Sunday, March 14, 2010

Habakkuk 1

8 comments:

Jude said...

I think we are at Habakkuk 1, correct?

Habakkuk 1:6 " I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own."

My thoughts are much like Habakkuk in response to this prophecy. v13 "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?"

It seems so hard for me to understand/imagine God using the evil to punish the (somewhat)righteous. We know that God did use the Babylonians to humble the Israelites and in fact end the royal line and destroy the temple and holy city (Jerusalem). Then again, short of using a big lightning bolt, I suppose it might be hard to get the righteous to dole out such a punishment. It is all a bit confusing. I am gald that He is in control and I am not!

Unknown said...

Sorry about that. Habakkuk 1 it is!

From my bible intro to Habakkuk;

"Here's a challenge. Find one sincere seeker whom God ignored. Search the Bible for one honest person spurned by heaven. Go ahead. Flip the pages. Examine the Scriptures. Read the stories. Where int he Bible did God turn away the genuine heart? Where in history did God spurn the authentic soul?

Thomas came with doubts. Did Christ turn him away? Moses had his reservations. Did God tell him to go home? JOb had his struggles, did God avoid him? Paul had his hard times. Did God abandon him?

And Habakkuk had his questions. Tough questions. GEt-down-and-get-honest type of questions. Did God tell him to talk to someone else?

No. God never turns away the sincere heart. Tough questions don't stump God. He invites our probing. And that is what Habakkuk did. He probed. As well as speaking FOR God, he spoke TO God."

Unknown said...

"Why do you make me see wrong things and make me look at trouble?" v3

Oh how I could relate to this! I've never been one with eyes for the external. I've been gifted (although it sometimes feels more like a curse) with a type of xray vision that looks to the heart of the matter. Everything I see gets alligned to my biblical worldview, tested, and usually left wanting.

That's a given, that it will be left wanting, because we are not what we were made to be, although we are being made holy, we are not yet like Him, so our life is a perpetual journey of refinement and growth. Personally I love to grow. I don't mind being chipped away at and refined, I learned young (the easiest time to learn) to surrender to the chisel chippnig away at my rusty old exterior and be grateful for the work it accomplishes in me.

But that verse, that truth of being constantly aware of what isn't "right"? It's a really, really tough load to carry. I guess that part of what it must mean to share with Christ in his sufferings. To "see", to grow discouraged, to "care", to PRAY, to persevere in faith, hope and love. That's the call.

Unknown said...

"We will not die." v12

Forgot to say, I love this declaration of faith, like the one of Job (for I know that my redeemer lives, and I will stand with him on that day)... it shows that they knew the gospel before the He ever lived and breathed, and they expected his salvation and life eternal in Him.

Unknown said...

"Obey God and be at peace with HIm, this is the way to happiness. Accept teaching from His mouth and keep His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be blessed again, so remove evil from your house. Throw your gold nuggets into the dust and your fine gold among th erocks in the ditches. Then the Almighty will be your gold and the best silver for you. You will find pleasure in the Almighty and you will look up to Him. You will pray to Him and He will hear you and you will keep your promises to Him... light will shine on your ways." 21-28

This is an amazingly beautiful passage. I am going to copy it out and stick in in my kitchen window. So full of hope and promise and good things both to pursue and receive.

Jude said...

That is a keeper! (v21-28)

Unknown said...

it is very curious that there are NO verses 21-28 in this chapter, and I have no idea where those came from. I obviously flipped through to another spot and forgot to flip back! Will try to hunt those verses down somehow and let you know where they REALLY came from.

Unknown said...

Okay, that was easy, I just googled it. The verses are found in Job 22:21-28. I had flipped there to look for the "redeemer" prophecy in Job, not sure how I ended up in chapter 22 but that's pretty typical of me! Sorry about that!