The Disconcerting Dilemma Of Divine Inaction-4

The DISCONCERTING DILEMMA Of DIVINE INACTION--IV

—Habakkuk 1:4(1:1-4)

Key Words—

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

•Dilemma/Predicament/Quandary/Situation.

Attention—

The Bronze Rat:

A tourist walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotic items, he notices a very lifelike, life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking he decides he must have it.

He took it to the owner: “How much for the bronze rat?”

“Twelve dollars for the rat, five-hundred dollars for the story,” said the owner.

The tourist gave the man twelve dollars. “I'll just take the rat, you can keep the story.”

The curio shop owner said smugly, “Okay, but you’ll be back for the story.”

As the man walked down the street carrying his bronze rat, he noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the alleys & sewers & began following him down the street. This was disconcerting; he began walking faster. But within a couple blocks, the herd of rats behind him had grown to hundreds, & they began squealing.

He began to trot toward the bay bridge, looking around to see that the rats now numbered in the MILLIONS, & were squealing & coming toward him faster & faster.

On the bridge & fearing for his life, he runs to the edge of the bridge & throws the bronze rat as far out into the bay as he could. Amazingly, the millions of rats all jumped into the bay after it, & were all drowned.

The man walks back to the curio shop.

“Ah ha!” said the owner, “You have come back for the story!”

* “No,” said the man, “I came back to see if you have a bronze politician?”

*As the unknown, yet efficient work of the Bronze Rat prompted the man’s search for a ‘Bronze Politician’,

So, There are ‘unperceived’ processes, things you may never have a definite answer for, 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.

Do not allow your Disappointment, Dissatisfaction, Anxiety, & Fabrications to misrepresent God’s will, His ways, & His reality.

So I encourage you to Let honesty rule!

Need:

Most of us at times, have questioned:—‘Why doesn’t God do something’ about” whatever difficulty we’re facing.

As Christians, we can allow that insufficiently answered question to become unsettling & disconcerting to our saving faith.

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.

*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)

3. ‘CONTENTION’ In The LAND(:3)

Today we’ll find that:

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

‘ABSENCE’ Of JUSTICE(:4)

Explanation:(:4)

:4—“Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.”

“The law” mentioned here is “the Law”(for the Jews) brought forth thru God’s devising & wisdom. And so, God’s “Law” was executed or implemented thru the practical out-workings of Jewish CIVIL “law.” And Judah’s civil “law” had become perverted by the people’s dedication to worldliness, & was maintained thru worldly leadership.

And so, God’s “Law” as well as the “law” of the land, had become “powerless” in Habakkuk’s day. That “powerlessness” was due to the hands of men who had distanced & divorced themselves from God’s desire in that “law.” The Judeans had discarded the original intent of God’s “Law” as a tutor, until faith in the One Messiah/Christ would arrive(Gal. 3:22-26).

Gal. 3:22-26—“But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”