Dear God, Why Don't You Do Something?

11.20.22 Habakkuk 1:1–3, 2:1-4

1 The threatening oracle which the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 How long, LORD, must I cry for help, but you do not listen? I call out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save! 3 Why do you cause me to see injustice? Why do you overlook misery? Devastation and violence confront me. There is strife, and tensions rise.

1 I will stand at my watch post and station myself on the city wall. I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer he will give to my complaint. 2 Then the LORD answered me. He said: Record the vision and write it plainly on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 Indeed, the vision is waiting for the appointed time. It longs for fulfillment and will not prove false. If it seems slow in coming, wait for it, because it will certainly come and will not be delayed. 4 Look, his soul is puffed up and is not righteous within him—but the righteous one will live by his faith.

Dear God, Why Don’t You DO Something?

Dear Friends in Christ,

Habakkuk was a prophet from the late 600’s B.C. He was beyond frustrated with the Israelites. No matter how much he tried to call them out for their violence and injustice, they ignored him. So he prayed to the LORD. How long, LORD, must I cry for help, but you do not listen? I call out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save! These are not the words of a whiner or a wimp. They are the words of a faithful man who had done his duty and gotten NOWHERE with the Israelites. He needed God to step in and do something, but nothing was being done. He complained to the LORD that he felt like he was being ignored or that God wasn’t listening.

Do you feel that way too? Think about what is happening in our society. There’s been a recent case in Texas with two parents fighting over a twin boy named James Younger. His mother told him he was a girl and wanted to force him (against his father’s wishes) to take sterilizing puberty blocker and cross-sex hormone drugs and eventually be castrated. As time went on the courts stripped away his rights for not affirming his son’s false gender. They said that he had to allow his son to wear a dress when he visited with him, but his father refused. They regarded it as if the man were abandoning his son. He said he wouldn’t participate in child abuse. One good thing was that as long as James was in Texas he could not be given puberty blockers against his father’s will.

Recently, a new “gender-affirming health care” legislation in California (Senate Bill 107) was recently passed. It strips parents of custody over their children if they disagree or refuse to allow chemical castration and irreversible surgeries on their child in the name of “gender-affirming care.” It was intended to turn California into a sanctuary state for transgender youth, and would allow children from other states to access these procedures in California and for the state to take custody of the children if parents protest the irreversible mutilation. When James’ mother was not allowed to make James take puberty blockers in Texas, she then petitioned to move to California, and she was granted permission. Now Jeff Younger, the child’s dad, cannot regain custody of his son. It would appear that James has basically been kidnapped by his mother to California in order to try and change him into a girl. You can’t make this stuff up.

In the most recent election here in Michigan, proposal 3 was passed. Abortions can now be performed by anyone, at any point in pregnancy, and for any reason. One proponent said, “Michigan has paved the way for future efforts to restore the rights and protections of Roe v. Wade nationwide.” It has thrown away state laws regulating quality, safety, and inspections for abortion clinics. It also removes parental consent requirement for teens seeking abortions, and also teens seeking gender reassignment surgeries. Bay County approved the measure 53-47 percent.

Canada is preparing to loosen laws related to medically assisted suicide. What did the United Church of Canada decide to do? They wrote and published prayers designed to help sick and disabled people follow through with the lethal procedure. I could go on and on. It is sickening.

Habakkuk said it well, Devastation and violence confront me. There is strife, and tensions rise. We can feel that tension here in America. Some have predicted a Civil War. As Christians, we submit to the government, as long as it doesn’t tell us to do something immoral. If it does, we passively resist. We don’t do what they say, but we don’t take up arms - physical arms. Instead, like Habakkuk, we pray. Dear God, why don’t you do something?