A
little history; Habakkuk appears late in King Josiah's reign. Josiah becomes
king at 8 years old after 57 years of evil kings. Josiah follows God because of
his mother's influence. At 18, King Josiah repairs the temple where the book of
the Law is discovered. Josiah’s horrified when he realizes that Israel hasn’t
lived by God's word for a long time and tells the high priest to ask God for
guidance. The prophetess Huldah gives them God's answer in 2 Kings 22, "This is what the Lord
says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to
everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. Because they have
forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all the
idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not
be quenched." But the prophetess also tells them that because
Josiah has repented, this punishment will not happen until after Josiah dies.
King Josiah works hard to bring his people
back to God.
He renews the covenant with God and has the book of the covenant read aloud to
everyone. Josiah tears down all the idol temples and altars and reinstates the
worship of God with all the festivals and sacrifices. But it's hard leading the
people back into a faithful relationship with God. For 67 years they haven’t
heard the word of God read or taught by the priests and the people resist
change. But hearing God’s Word, doing the sacrifices and festivals, didn’t
change the hearts of many of the people or produce holiness.
Habakkuk has hard questions for God, "How long, Lord,
must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but
you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate
wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and
conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice
never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted."
Why isn't God's Law creating a holy people; why does God allow evil and
injustice. The nations around Israel are never going to understand who God is
if this continues, why isn't God doing something to force his people back into
a proper God honouring relationship for his glory?
Apathy
is a common problem in many Christian churches today, so is bickering
and fighting among God's people. Philip Yancy writes about how grace and love
can be hard to find in many churches and it’s hard to change it. God doesn’t
force us to follow him, but he does allow the consequences of our choices
impact us in order to draw us back to him, as he does here with Israel. If we
want to be acceptable to our culture, God’s not going to force us to choose his
way over the world’s. He’s patient, but won’t allow our lack of faithfulness to
go on forever.
With so many churches around, with the Bible so
easy to get our hands on, with so many devotionals available and so many
Christian writers, so many Bible studies, why is the church still so messed up?
Why is there so much brokenness in so many Christian families? Why does the
church so often feel like a social club instead of a place of transformation into
the image of Jesus?
The missionary E. Stanley Jones asked Mahatma Gandhi,
"Mr. Ghandi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you
appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?" Ghandi replied,
"Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so
many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ." He went on to tell Jones, “If Christians would really live according to
the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian
today.” Ghandi rejected Christianity because when he was practicing law
in South Africa, seriously exploring becoming a Christian and visited a church
service. As he went to enter the church, a white South African elder stopped
him, "Where do you think you're going, kaffir?" the man asked Ghandi.
Ghandi told him, "I'd like to attend worship here." The church elder
snarled at him, "There's no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of
here or I'll have my assistants throw you down the steps." Ghandi decided then
to accept the good he found in Jesus, but never again considered joining a
church.
Habakkuk wonders why God seems so quiet
and so inactive
and allows so much wrong to go on? God
responds to Habakkuk, “Look at the nations and
watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that
you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up
the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the
whole earth to seize dwellings not their own."
God’s
going to allow outsiders to punish Judah for not being faithful to him. God allows
the nations, whom the Jews want to be like, to conquer them and show them
exactly what it means to be just like them. This isn't something new, during
the time of the Judges God often allowed the nations around Israel to come in
and conquer them until the people realized just how good they actually have it
when they actually follow God seriously and would turn back to God; God would
then send someone to come and rescue Judah from their oppressors. However,
Babylon’s much more powerful, vicious, and crueler than any other nation.
God’s telling Habakkuk, if Judah’s not
going to fear God, then they’ll fear the enemy he’s going to send against them.
Judah's violence and injustice to their own poor, widows, orphans, and
foreigners will be repaid by a people more skilled in violence and injustice.
Habakkuk has to wrestle with the knowledge that God’s getting ready to do
something hard and drastic. God’s going to allow the full consequences of Judah's
desire to be like the nations to play its way out and it's not going to be
pretty. A lot of innocent believers are going to suffer alongside those who
don't really care about God. When we choose the power of this world to guide
and shape us, it always leads to violence and injustice. Speaking with an older
man in our community who blames the church for all the evils of the world, I brought
up the teachings of Jesus and tried to show him how it’s only when the church embraces
the world’s ways of power and might instead of living out Jesus’ humility and sacrificial
servant spirit, that the church brings hurt instead of Jesus’ hope and
salvation.
There’s
so much injustice and evil in the world, just listen to the news. Why are
churches having little impact in our communities? Is it because the church has
tried so hard to be acceptable to our culture instead of focusing on being holy
like God is holy. We’re all sinners unable to measure up to God; we deserve to
be punished. God knows that we’re unable to pay the penalty for our sin, so he
sends his own son Jesus to become human to take our punishment on himself. The
Jews of Jesus’ time could have asked Habakkuk’s same questions, considering
Rome oppression, asking why God doesn’t act. Yet through Jesus’ death and
resurrection we’re saved from the greatest oppressor Satan who can enslave our
souls forever! Jesus calls us to respond to him with humble gratitude and work
with his Spirit to establish the kingdom of heaven here and choose him and his
way over the ways of the world. Our governments and power systems will all
fall, only the kingdom of heaven is forever.
God
doesn’t tolerate evil. God repeatedly says, I've chosen you to become people who are like me so that you can show
the world who I am. I want you to be holy so you can show the world a more
blessed way of living that looks to build others up, to help others become who
God calls them to be, to be a people who are sacrificial and generous and grace
filled and loving towards others so that God is honoured and glorified.
Jesus tells a parable about fruit trees, and that if you
don't bear fruit, you’ll get pruned. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as,
"love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against
such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the
Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." This fruit we’re
called to develop in ourselves, showing others through our lives and words who
a Jesus follower is, imitating Jesus. This begins in each of our homes,
supported by the church. This morning Adelyn professed her faith in Jesus,
committing herself to him, to be shaped by the Holy Spirit, choosing Jesus’ way
over our culture’s way because she trusts Jesus. This was Josiah’s hope for the
people, this is my hope for each one of us, that we begin each day telling
Jesus, “I choose you today, use me.”
Following rules doesn't change us, just like
following the law and doing the festivals didn't change the hearts of Judah. The
Holy Spirit transforms us to become a holy people that imitate Jesus. We’re
called to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit to be transformed; having our hearts of stone changed into softer hearts of flesh,
walking in the way of Jesus.
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