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?
God answers prayer. His first answer was contained in chapter 1. God said, “Don’t worry Habakkuk. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to send the Babylonians in.” Now, the Babylonians would turn out to be much more violent than the Israelites. Wall inscriptions discovered at the palace of the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II speak of the cruel king skinning nobles alive who had rebelled against him and draping their skins over piles of corpses. They would also cut off hands, decapitate bodies, impale and burn their victims. Soldiers would be rewarded for how many heads they came home with. It was meant to completely terrify anyone who even thought about resisting their tyranny.
(https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1338641/Archaeology-news-Bible-evidence-Assyrian-cruelty-Ashurnasirpal-Sennacherib)
These were the ones that God sent to deal with southern Israel. They would end up tearing down their temple and taking all of the Israelites captive for 70 years.
Habakkuk couldn’t BELIEVE it. It wasn’t the answer he was expecting. Why would God use such an evil empire - one that was far more evil than Israel - as His scourge? But what else did God have to work with? God has to get His hands dirty in a dirty world. And you could argue that as evil as the Babylonians were, they had not at least rejected God’s prophets and persecuted them. The Israelites deserved every bit of that punishment and even worse.
I can’t help but wonder what God is going to bring on America after our insistence on murdering babies, living in adultery, rampant theft going unpunished, school shootings, drug problems, massive divorce, and every other kind of sin under the sun. Will it be the Chinese that come in? The Russians? Or will we turn into Venezuela where our dollar ends up being worth nothing? Will we just turn on each other and turn into a completely lawless country? Mad Max 2023? Whatever it is, we have more than deserved it. We will see what the LORD has in store.
But that wasn’t the only answer that God gave to Habakkuk. After the Babylonians had come, what hope would there be? 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.
First of all, God reminds us that He has an appointed time for everything, even in this messed up world that seems to be so chaotic. When the Israelites seemed completely decimated and under the rule of the Roman Empire, He managed to send a Savior in the little town of Bethlehem to be born of an unknown virgin named Mary. Jesus would set things right, not by immediately destroying the world, but by letting the world attack Him so that He could die for her. God worked it out in a very unlikely place and time. God told Habakkuk that he had to wait for the appointed time, the exact right time. And His promise would come true. God’s prophecies always come true. Habakkuk needed to remember this, and so do we. God works on His own timetable. He knows what He’s doing. He knows when to do it. “When the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son” to be born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus did something alright. He died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead as our victorious King! And when the time is right, Jesus will come again.
In contrast to the pride of the Babylonians, this is what the LORD told Malachi. The righteous one will live by his faith. This faith isn’t generated by your own mind or will. It is generated by the Word and revelation of God who reminds us of who He is and how He works. The same God who conquered death by His own death will come again in the clouds. He will distribute eternal justice. He will even work through the evil in this world to save more people and bring more people to faith.
What about those who don’t believe? For those who don’t repent of their pride, for those who continue to do evil, they will pay with the worst kind of death you could imagine. They will die a death that never ends. You think of people that commit suicide, they have an end to their misery here on earth. They just want it to end. There will be no such option in hell. Their fire is never quenched. Their suffering will continue forever. People weeping constantly and full of anger, living in darkness, with no relief. Before you get too upset over injustice in the world, don’t worry and think that those who refuse to repent get away with it. They don’t. Trust that God is just. He knows how to take care of injustice and when to take care of it. You don’t have to take justice into your own hands. You don’t have to be God. We already have One. Trust Him. And before you get too filled with anger over injustice in the world, remember what you deserve also. You deserve the same for your own sins and failures.
So Faith also involves you looking to the cross and trusting that Jesus died for you. Jesus is the answer to your prayers. You are saved by grace. Don’t measure God’s love for you on how well you are fighting against evil in this world. Don’t measure His mercy on how much you suffer or not or how well you are faring. Jesus died on the cross for you. He rose from the dead for you. He has adopted you in your baptism and holds you in His hands of grace. Live by faith in what Jesus did for you and your sins. Live by faith that no matter how much your house falls apart or your health falls apart, you have a better one prepared for you in heaven. Trust in Christ, and live by faith!
Living by faith then segways into how you live in this world. Be strong. Be fearless. Don’t worry that somehow everything is beyond GOD’S control. Don’t panic when America falls apart, as it probably will. I sense a lot of anger in Christians that see all of this garbage going on in our world, and I feel it too. You can see it on Facebook and social posts. What did Habakkuk do? He prayed, and God answered. What was His answer? “I’ll take care of it. Wait. Have faith.” It’s good advice for us too. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. We are no different. As much as the immorality in our world may bother you, there’s not much you can do about it. Speak up against it and do what you can to stand up against it. Make sure that you don’t fall into it. But don’t give up. Don’t live as if God were dead. Live by faith. He’s got this.
This Sunday marks the end of another church year. Lots has changed in this past year, but a lot has stayed the same as well. I think of what Luther said when he was asked what he would do if the end of the world would come today. He said, “I’d plant a tree.” That might sound foolish, but I think he was basically saying that he’d keep doing what he has always been doing. Living by grace, through faith in Jesus. There’s a tendency to panic when you think the world is getting out of control. There’s plenty to panic about, especially when we think we are in control. We want God to DO something. He has, and He will. Remember who is in charge. Remember who has come to save you. Remember who is coming to rescue you. His name is Jesus. We’ve seen the end of this story. We know what happens. God wins, and so do we, by faith in Jesus. Amen.
