The Disconcerting Dilemma Of Divine Inaction-3

The DISCONCERTING DILEMMA Of DIVINE INACTION--III

—Habakkuk 1:3(1:1-4)

Key Words—

•Difficult/Disturbing/Disorienting/Disconcerting/Perplexing/Uncertainty/Unsettling.

•Dilemma/Predicament/Quandary/Situation.

Attention:

Salem BC’s ‘foundation plants’ recently got a much needed trimming/hedging. In fact, some of the bushes had gotten pretty much ‘out-of-hand!

The pine-straw/mulch also had not been freshened up in quite a while.

Before the Properties Committee actually took care of the trimming & mulching, no doubt, some in the church were thinking to themselves, “Why don’t they trim those bushes?” “Why don’t they put out some more pine-straw?” “What does that committee do anyway?” “What are they waiting for?”, etc., etc. It should be noted that NOBODY actually complained or voiced any discontent!

Tools have to be borrowed &/or purchased. A proper means of disposing of the trimmings has to be taken into account. Able People have to be contacted & committed. A date & time has to be aimed at & determined. The amount of pine-straw needed has to be determined. The supplier of the pine-straw has to be determined, contacted, & contracted for delivery. Rain-dates have to be considered.

*My point in all this is: To make you realize, that there are a lot of matters to be taken into consideration, under the authority of the Properties Committee, in order to actually get the bushes trimmed & mulched.

*Likewise, There are multiple things, puzzling things, ‘unperceived’ processes, things you may never have a definite answer for, BUT all of which are at work within the execution of God’s sovereignty. Things that ONLY God is qualified to resolve. God is the Designer & Maintainer...So it is up to you & me to TRUST HIM with His creation & kingdom, as He sovereignly directs it toward it’s decided end.

•Limiting perspectives & Limited perceptions all play into people’s Disappointment, Dissatisfaction, Anxiety, & Excuses made for ‘Why’ things didn’t happen the way they wanted them to happen. And in all such matters, let’s not allow those limiting perspectives cloud our view of God’s will.

Need:

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

As Christians, we can allow that question to haunt us so that it becomes 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.

We are answering the question:

How is; What makes; & Why is Divine inaction unsettling?

4 ‘fabrications’ that EITHER: accentuate the dilemma,—OR—that muddy/confuse/obscure the answer/explanation of God’s inaction.

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 perceived as God’s inaction.

The DISCONCERTING DILEMMA Of DIVINE INACTION--III—

Habakkuk 1:3(1:1-4)

*First & foremost it must be said, that it is a FACT that God is neither inactive, nor is He negligent, nor indifferent to your need or 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 thinking will continue to muddy the waters of God’s reality!

Previously in this series, we have discovered that,

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

1. ‘INATTENTION’ To PERSONAL PLIGHT(:2a)

2. ‘REFUSAL’ TO SAVE(:2b)

Today we’ll find that:

3—Another fabrication forged thru Divine inaction is An Unsettling...

‘CONTENTION’ In The LAND(:3)

Explanation:(:3)

:3—“Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering & violence are before me; There is strife, & contention arises.”

Habakkuk is crying out against YHWH’s decision(:2) to do nothing about the “violence”(:2, 3) that is present in the land of Israel.

YHWH is actively “showing” His servant Habakkuk the extent of “iniquity” in the land of Judah.

And as a result, Habakkuk asks “Why” it is that YHWH personally “shows” “iniquity” to Him. Indeed some people—the lost—cannot even “see”(perceive) “iniquity”, even as they live it out!

It seems that Habakkuk is ‘blaming’ YHWH for ensuring that His prophet Habakkuk sees “iniquity”, “trouble”, “plundering”, “violence”, “strife”, & “contention.”

•And such is the case, although God is never to be 'blamed', but rather 'honored' in the revelation of sin. And since YHWH has called Habakkuk to his specific ministry, which is recorded for his generation as well as for posterity, Habakkuk must grasp sin's extent & significance.

* All people, & especially God’s people, must take sin seriously!!

?Has YHWH God shown wickedness to you?

?Do you see iniquity & wickedness in your/our land?

All the ramifications & outpourings of flesh-driven living are present before Habakkuk. Indeed he personally “sees” & perceives it all, for the sin that it is. He is forced to interact with it, receive it, & respond to the ever-present outpouring of human sinfulness.