The Disconcerting Dilemma Of Divine Inaction-1

The DISCONCERTING DILEMMA Of DIVINE INACTION--I

—Habakkuk 1:1-2a(:1-4)

Key Words—•Difficult/Disturbing/Disorienting/Disconcerting/Perplexing/Uncertainty/Unsettling. •Dilemma/Predicament/Quandary/Situation.

Attention:

Building a road on a mountainside. Rock must be removed. Much of it is done thru the use of heavy explosives.

You may ask, ?Why are they waiting? All they have to do is ‘blow it up’, right?.....

WRONG!

There are other processes at work, behind the scenes, & therefore unseen, that must be present, to produce the desired result.

The explosives must be expertly prepared:

a. The precise need must be expertly determined.

b. Type of explosive must be expertly determined.

c. Amount of explosive must be expertly measured.

d. The explosive must be expertly placed—depth, & distance from each other.

e. The detonators must be expertly connected to a power source.

f. The area must be expertly cleared of people, so no one will be hurt.

g. Guards(both material & human) must be expertly positioned around the area.

Likewise, there are many ‘behind-the-scenes’ or unseen & puzzling processes that come into play, & are at work with the execution/outworking of God’s sovereignty.

Need:

Most of us at times, have questioned:—Why God doesn’t do something’ about whatever malady, or affliction, or trouble, or distress we’re facing.

As Christians, we can allow those things to become disorienting, unsettling, & disconcerting to our faith in God thru Christ.

Habakkuk was a prophet of God, who faced the disconcerting/unsettling dilemma of Divine inaction towards His people, Judah.

Divine ‘inaction’ presents an unsettling dilemma for God’s people.

How is Divine inaction unsettling?

4 fabrications that either accentuate the dilemma of God’s inaction

—OR said another way:—

4 fabrications muddy/confuse/obscure the answer/explanation to God’s inaction.

“Habakkuk” is pronounced variously as:

—Khab´-Ah-Kook -OR- Kha-Bak?-Ook—

•His name derives from the Hebrew word, qbx--Kha-Bahk, meaning “to embrace.” It is intensified with the addition of qw--Ook—at the end.

•So “Habakkuk” was a person who was expected to ‘embrace’ God’s desire for Judah(Israel)....Even though that desire was for cleansing thru Judah’s promised destruction(cf.-Jeremiah). Thus thru his heartache at the God-ordained demise of his country, “Habakkuk” has to ‘double down’ on what YHWH wanted him to ‘embrace’ & share!

There is no firm date provided from the book itself. The only hint of a date is in the single reference to “the Chaldeans” in 1:6, where YHWH God states to the prophet, “For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.”

•Most conservative scholars hold that 1:6 is a reference to the God-ordained destruction of Jerusalem, & thus “Habakkuk” predates the eventual Babylonian exile of Judah. Thereby, “the Chaldeans” are spoken of “as about to invade Judah, but not as having actually done so”(JFB).

•Thus the dates provided for “Habakkuk’s” prophecy are ‘educated guesses’, which range anywhere from ~635BC to ~590BC.....Much of it being within the reign of Jehoiakim(Barker/Bailey in NAC-1998).

•Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians(“Chaldeans”) in 598/7 BC. Following that, major deportations of the Jewish populations are known to have taken place in 598BC, 586/7BC, & 582BC.

Thus “Habakkuk” would have 'possibly' been a contemporary of Jeremiah, Zephaniah, & possibly Daniel.

1:1—“The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.”

“Habakkuk’s” “burden” is one which he “saw.” And in that sense he was a ‘seer’(1Sam. 9:9). He eventually ‘perceived’ as God wanted him to. Habakkuk was 'witness' to God's desire & future movement.

•1Sam. 9:9—“(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: “Come, let us go to the seer”; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.)”

What “Habakkuk” “saw” from YHWH(1:1ff.), is what produced the “burden” upon “Habakkuk.”

“Habakkuk” was given the “burden” by YHWH, & “Habakkuk” shared that “burden” during his time in history, as well as sharing it beyond himself thru this his biblical record.

*First & foremost it must be said, that it is a FACT that God is neither inactive, nor is He negligent, nor indifferent to your plight!*

*God’s seeming ‘inaction/inactivity’ is actually a ‘human perception’ problem!*

•That is, unless a person’s ‘limited perception’ of reality is overcome by the Spirit of God, such people will continue to muddy the waters of God’s reality!

A 'FABRICATION' is—“The action or process of manufacturing or inventing something.”

For our purposes here, a ‘fabrication’ is a misleading attempt to make sense of what might be falsely perceived as God’s inaction.

1—A fabrication forged thru Divine inaction is An Unsettling...

‘INATTENTION’ To PERSONAL PLIGHT(:2a)

Explanation:(:2a)

:2—“O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear?...”

The prophet Habakkuk is pouring his heart out to YHWH(“LORD”).

•Recall that the name, ‘YHWH’ is a description of God’s eternal uncreated nature. It is derived from the Hebrew verb, meaning ‘To Be.’

God’s own prophet “cries out” to God with the soul-wrenching: “how long?”