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Articles 2014-2017
Recently, I was asking the Lord about the great violence being perpetrated both in the Middle East against Christians and Jews, and then also exported into Western societies. Shortly after, I sensed that He wanted me to read the prophet Habakkuk.
The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save.
The prophet had spent some time crying out to the Lord about the great violence he was seeing expressed both internally in his own nation and externally through the wicked Babylonian Empire. And it seemed as if the Lord either did not see or did not care. And so Habakkuk sought answers.
Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention arises.
It was not as if the prophet just happened to notice what was going on; it was that the Lord was specifically causing him to see great evil. As a result, turmoil was being stirred up in the man of God. Disquiet. A lack of peace. Surely these cannot be the fruit of God’s interaction with His people. Or can they?
Today, it is not as if believers are merely aware of the growing darkness in society. Rather, God is specifically putting it before our eyes. He wants us to unreservedly see what is happening.
Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
Today, great injustices are being perpetrated against godly people in both Communist countries as well as in Islamic ones. Then there is America. Just as the Mosaic Law was Judah’s constitution, and therefore, the law of the land, so also America’s Constitution is the document with which all other laws in this nation must align. Many Americans have sought safety in our founding documents to protect us from tyranny, to support our religious freedom, and to undergird our society’s right to punish evildoers.
But instead, like in Habakkuk’s day, the law has to some degree been neutralized, and perverted judgments go forth regularly. Just to name a few, we find examples of judicial injustice against African-Americans, against those who cannot afford expensive lawyers, and against those who in their conscience cannot support legal immorality.
Just as the Law in Habakkuk’s day could not change the hearts of men, so our Constitution and Bill of Rights are slowly being revealed as insufficient in protecting the rights of righteous people. The reason is because these precious documents cannot change the hearts of sinful men. But if God is the solution to what ails the nation/nations, where is He?
So the Lord responded to the prophet.
”Look among the nations and watch–be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. 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.
The wicked were rising up external to the nation of Judah and seizing territory. They were conquering nations through military force and taking what was not theirs. But the God of Israel, the sovereign ruler of the earth was watching everything carefully. In fact, as the great Orchestrator of history, He was establishing His purpose.
They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
The Chaldeans passed judgments on other nations and did so with a certain prideful poise. But since they were a law unto themselves, their judgments were unjust and their nobility was based on barbarism.
The veneer of civilization wears very thin when the wicked are in power. Any nation that rejects the Lord and His perspective on truth and values will increasingly bring about injustice in the name of justice and then require increasing degrees of violence to defend the established order.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; their cavalry comes from afar; they fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.
When a hungry eagle sees its prey, it swoops swiftly and suddenly. For the victim, death is quick and certain. Notice the motives of the Chaldeans’ hearts.
”They all come for violence; their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings, and princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
“Nothing can stop us. We will simply crush everyone who gets in our way.” There was a certain inevitability that darkness wanted to communicate to Judah and to all other nations. “Just submit to us and spare yourself unnecessary pain.” Darkness is always rooted in the arrogant certainty of its own ultimate success. And it is deceived. Pride always goes before a fall.
Today Islamic extremists would have us believe that their perspective of righteousness and societal order will one day fill the earth. “Just submit.” Similarly, Communist rulers keep beating their heads against the wall of Christ’s house trying to destroy what He is building, all the while convinced that they can outlast the Eternal One. And in our own country, secular humanists keep trying to convince themselves and the rest of us of the worldwide inevitability of their views on evolution, gay rights, and the effectiveness of government to ultimately fix what is wrong among men. But what the world calls inevitable God refers to as a great statue that was struck on the feet by a Stone from heaven two thousand years ago. The inevitable collapse of the Babylonian systems of this world was guaranteed when that Stone arose from the dead and ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
If we want to think about absolute certainty, think about God’s prophetic promise that the statue-striking Stone would become a great mountain and fill the whole earth (Daniel 2). There is not a snowball’s chance in Hades that His word will fail.
In fact, Jesus when speaking to the religious leaders of His day spoke of himself as a rejected stone that would become the chief cornerstone in the house God was building (Matthew 21:42). But notice the similarity of his next statement with Daniel’s prophecy. Whoever would fall on this stone (i.e. in humility) would experience a breaking, a humbling. But those upon whom it fell (i.e. in judgment) would be ground to powder. Mankind has but two choices and they both revolve around the person of Christ. Those who humble themselves before Him will ultimately be exalted. Those who reject Him will simply be parts of a great statue already struck on the feet, in the process of being pulverized, and ultimately blown away by the winds of heaven.
In Habakkuk’s day, the Chaldeans were trusting in the capability of their god.
Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.”
(Habakkuk 1:11 NASB)
Since the Chaldean’s god was false, it was their ultimate destruction that was inevitable. Where is the Babylonian Empire today? Similarly, secular humanism in our day is ultimately religious and serves a false god. At the center of this evil religion is man and what he can accomplish in his own name. It is simply the tower of Babel all over again, the old and tired philosophy of the deification of humanity. And since all religions hate it when outsiders point out the lies and deception in their belief systems, we see a growing rage in our nation when people do not toe the party line. To reject the agenda of the secular elites in our day is to reject everything that is normal. To not use the proper liturgical language (political correctness) is to both undermine the self-importance of those who pronounce what is “holy” and then to speak heretically. And such heresy must be stopped. But who can stop the Holy One of eternity, the possessor of heaven and earth?
Then Habakkuk raised another question with the Lord.
Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?
Clearly, the Lord had raised up the Chaldeans to bring judgment, to bring discipline and correction among His people. His priority was not their comfort but their transformation. God loves His own and is committed to conforming us to the image of His Son. So let us be quite clear on this point. The growing darkness in our day is about God and what He wants to say and then produce in the hearts of His people. Neither the Islamic radicals nor those promoting the inherent goodness of man occupy today’s center stage in the ongoing drama of world history, no matter what our media says. And unless one is born again he simply cannot see Heaven’s work. At the heart of human history is a throne with a river flowing out from it through the hearts of God’s people to the nations. Humanity’s hope will not be found in the Democrats or the Republicans. Nor will it be discovered in the well–meant plans and strategies of the Christian Church. But it will be discerned in the work of the Lord of heaven and earth who is building a house of living stones among men. The glory of His presence and the wisdom of His strategies will be made known in the revelation of Christ among simple people who know they have nothing going for them except Him.
But sometimes Heaven’s process does not look very well thought out. “Lord, I am sure I could improve on the way You are handling this.” But the truth is, only God knows the end from the beginning. The fact that He sometimes seems to not notice the wickedness of the wicked only serves to draw us like Habakkuk to cry out for Him to teach us His ways.
The prophet’s point was to question how God could use those who were more wicked (the Babylonians) to judge the less wicked (God’s people). “Lord as bad as we are, the Babylonians are certainly more evil than we are. How can You allow this to happen?”
Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
In other words, it seemed like God was allowing certain men to ensnare others like fish with a hook or a net in order to devour them. And the earth looked increasingly like crawling insects where there was no discernible leader. The world seemed anarchical, like no one was really in charge. “If You are the righteous Lord of the earth, how can such evil be permitted?”
They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet; because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful.
Because they caught men as fish in their net, they offered sacrifices to their net. “Praise the net.” Maybe they even had little buttons on their armor with the letters PTN. Ok, probably not. But because their nets (their armies) were the tools whereby they could live sumptuously, they then honored those tools. It is like the USA saying that the reason for its international greatness is our powerful military. Which then leads to the conclusion that our people, our educational systems, and our economic insights are the basis for our greatness. And instead of finding God and His purpose at the center of present human history, we find again the exaltation of man. “The real reason for our present stature among the nations is Yankee ingenuity.”
Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?
In other words, would the Babylonians just continue on in their ways forever? It was a good question. But time has given a clear answer. No. Darkness has no ultimate future. But God and His work among men do.
His purpose will continue on successfully until He has established among men the glorious conclusion foreknown in His own heart from before the foundation of the world.
We will continue our study of the prophet Habakkuk in next month’s mailing.
Be blessed,
Donald Rumble – May 2016
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1 Name : Bill FuriosoClick to compress comments
Subject: At Christ's Table
Time : 2016-05-07 14:02:14
Excellent! Very accurate explanation of the purposes and ways of God drawn from His-Story for our time.
2 ↑↑↑ Name : Joseph Fuentes/ Illinois Click to compress comments
Subject: Habakkuk writing
Time : 2016-05-14 22:28:32
I appreciate your obedience to the Lord in putting what He gives to you into these monthly encouragements. Thanks for sharing with the Body of Christ! Blessings to you!
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