Daily Archives: May 4, 2015

The Prophet’s Despair

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THE PROPHET’S DESPAIR

You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. Is he to keep on emptying his net and destroying nations without mercy? (Hab. 1: 14-17).

Habakkuk must have listened with deepening despair to God’s answer to his dilemma. Instead of giving him hope, what God had to say brought more questions. If God was responsible for the coming invasion, using a nation as wicked and cruel as the Babylonians, what hope was there for his people? Their enemy seemed invincible. They swept across the globe without stopping, overrunning one nation after the other like a fisherman catching helpless shoals of fish in his nets.

There was no nation that could stand against the might of Babylon. The very name struck terror in their hearts – and, make no mistake – they were coming because God said they were coming. He had chosen them as His instrument of discipline for His people.

What was even worse, although God hated idolatry, and for Idolatry more than anything else He had a case against His people, the Babylonians worshipped the very instruments that brought them success as though it were their “nets” that had the power over the “fish”. In the end, they were idolaters of the worst kind because they worshipped themselves. After all, wasn’t it their military might and prowess that gave them the victory?

Pride was the bottom line. They were proud and confident in themselves. They didn’t need any gods and they certainly didn’t need God. Their gods were only a token of themselves. Remember Nebuchadnezzar – the greatest of the Babylonian emperors? His power and authority were absolute. What he said went. When Daniel’s three colleagues refused to bow to his image, he had them thrown into the fiery furnace. He simply eliminated everyone who failed to submit to him. He thought he had absolute power but he did not reckon on God.

Although Habakkuk could not understand God’s ways, he had to learn that even a despot like Nebuchadnezzar in the end, had to bow to God’s supreme authority. It may seem to the prophet that Babylon was unstoppable. It may seem that they were invincible, swallowing up nation after nation like fisherman catching hapless shoals of fish, worshipping their strength and skill, but God still held the whip and used it for His own ends.

When we look out at our world, we tend to see it through Habakkuk’s eyes. It seems that evil has the upper hand and that wicked people are invincible and unstoppable. Terrorism seems to rule a terrorists of the worst kind because they do it in the name of their religion.

Memories of September 11 still strike fear in the hearts of people. Who were they and where will they strike next? Even if the ringleaders have been taken out, there are always others waiting in the wings to take their places – another Osama bin Laden, a Hitler, a Stalin or a Mugabe coming up behind to crack the whip. When and where will it all end? Will there ever be peace in our world? Why does God seem so far away and so inactive in the face of human suffering? A dark, bleak picture with no light at the end of the tunnel.

How often don’t we feel like that when we are in the middle of our own crisis! Our circumstances seem to be in control and we feel like helpless pawns in the hands of the “Babylonians”. God’s so-called “answers” don’t even bring comfort and reassurance. Instead of getting us out, He tells us that He is behind it! How crazy is that? If that is so, then we can’t even go to God for help. He’s in bed with the enemy!

Every difficulty, every hardship, every crisis is a process. Habakkuk was in the middle of his but God had not finished with him yet. What kept him going? Firstly, his questions were not arrogant but honest. He did not accuse but he did express his misgivings.  Secondly, he kept reassuring himself with what he knew about God. He looked for the stepping stones which were solid under his feet as he navigated the flood. Thirdly, he waited. He didn’t walk away in a huff before God was finished with him. He knew God well enough to give Him the benefit of the doubt.

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint (Hab. 2:1).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

The Dilemma Deepens

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THE DILEMMA DEEPENS

Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too holy to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (Hab. 1: 12-13).

So, Habakkuk, you got your answer. God is going to sort out the mess in your country by sending the Babylonians against your people. They won’t stand a chance against the Babylonian army. They will be slaughtered or enslaved, and then where will their precious idols be that they so loved to worship? Where will the rulers be who loved to lord it over and oppress the people? What about the apostate priests and false prophets who lead the people astray?

Habakkuk was appalled! “God, is it possible that you who are eternal and indestructible because you have nothing to do with evil, will do a thing like this? How can you raise up a godless nation to correct your own people? How can you use these people against your covenant nation?” The Israelites, in spite of Habakkuk’s complaint against them, looked like saints compared with the Babylonians. If he thought his people were bad, what about these vicious killers?

If the prophet’s first dilemma was puzzling to him, God’s answer was even more difficult to understand. Instead of giving him something to hold on to, God had deepened his confusion. From his perspective, what God said He was doing was not solving the problem at all. He was only making it worse. Many of his people were already suffering cruelty and injustice at the hands of their rulers. Now the Babylonians were coming to wipe them out. What sort of a solution was that?

Let’s put their situation into a modern-day context. Who are God’s people? Two categories: Firstly, God’s ancient people, Israel, are still His covenant people. In spite of their rejection of His Messiah, God has never disowned or abandoned them. And in spite of the teaching of some that God has finished with His people, that is not what the Bible says. So why have they suffered so badly since the time of Jesus?

Secondly, the church belongs to God. It is the body of Jesus of which He is the head. He loves His church and is passionate about her because she is His betrothed bride and His representative on earth until He comes. He has entrusted His Spirit to His church to lead her into all truth and to empower her to represent Him and do His works on earth. It is imperative that the church remain pure so that He can reveal Himself to the unbelieving world through her. Why is the church in many parts of the world suffering at the hands of cruel and ruthless killers?

When His people veer off course, God does not force them back to His way. He has to corral them by hedging up their way so that they return to His word and follow His leading because He is the only way to eternal life. Every other path leads to destruction.

So what does He do? He allows and orchestrates circumstances that are painful and difficult enough to draw us back to Him. Isn’t it true that people often treat God like a celestial 911? They can do without Him until crises come and emergencies arise. Then they begin to shout and scream for His help. Is that the kind of father He wants to be to us?

When we look at the global church today, in many ways it is no better than God’s people were in Habakkuk’s day. Power struggles go on in the individual congregations; money and wealth preoccupy the teaching of many; the church is continually being fragmented because people cannot get on with each other or they are divided by their pet doctrines; church leaders fall into sin and live no better lives than the people in the world; many of the churches are no more than business enterprises or social clubs.

What is God going to do about it? He is raising up the “Babylonians.” What kind of an answer is that? Suffering divides the men from the boys. It either turns people into apostates or sons. People either turn against God when they suffer or they learn obedience as Jesus did.

Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (Heb. 5: 8).

God is smart. He knows that suffering forces us to choose what we value most and hold on to it. More of that tomorrow . . .

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

 

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

 

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

God Is Raising Up The Babylonians

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GOD IS RAISING UP THE BABYLONIANS

Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am doing 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. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honour . . . (Hab. 1: 5-7).

Imagine that! God – raising up the Babylonians! As if things weren’t bad enough within the country so that the ordinary people were being harassed and oppressed by their own overlords, now God tells the prophet that He is raising up oppressors who would be even worse than those within the country.

He proceeded to describe the Babylonians to Habakkuk, as though the prophet were not already fully aware of how cruel, ruthless and greedy the new threat was. And God said He was doing it?

Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand (Hab. 1:8-9).

Invincible and unstoppable! It’s as though Habakkuk could see this horde in his imagination – like wild animals preying on the weak and helpless, swooping down, snatching and devouring at will. The Babylonians was hungry for power and greedy for the plunder they could seize after each victory, enriching themselves on the possessions of their conquests.

Their army was well trained and well equipped. They had the most modern of the war machinery of their day and they used every piece with skill and accuracy. They had the best horses and horsemen and, most of all, there were no rules as far as the enemy was concerned. Whom they did not kill they enslaved and took captive to Babylon.

They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them. Then they sweep past like the wind and go on – guilty people whose own strength is their god (Hab. 1: 10-11).

This nation had no respect for authority and were unhindered by the puny efforts of their targets to defend themselves. They wanted what they wanted and they stopped at nothing to get it.

“Babylon” stood for everything greedy, immoral, vicious and ungodly in the ancient world. Babylon stands for the anti-Christ system that still operates in the world today. Babylon is the counterfeit bride of Revelation, the scarlet woman who masquerades as the “bride of Christ” – the false church that is in bed with the world system and embraces the same ambitions as the Babylonian Empire which God was raising up in Habakkuk’s day, greed for wealth and power. Babylon is the ruler within the hearts of those who repudiate God’s rule in their hearts.

Just imagine how horrified Habakkuk must have been at this astonishing disclosure! He must surely have anticipated a comforting revelation from God. “Don’t worry, Habakkuk. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll make it all right so that you can settle down to a comfortable and peaceful life together with your own people.” But it just does not work that way.

There is a Babylonian “invasion” in every nation and every life. It does not matter to which country we belong. The human race is rotten to the core and wickedness prevails everywhere. There is no escaping it, but God’s solution is by raising up the Babylonians. How else can He bring His people back to Himself? God works, not by forcing His standards on people from without but by causing people to think and make choices from within by tasting the consequences of rejecting Him.

He gives us what we want so that we can understand the outcome of our choices. The Israelites chose to worship idols, so He gave them what idolatry offered – death to many through war and captivity to the rest in a land where people lived like the idols they worshipped. This was the only way to teach His people where their idolatry was taking them – down the pathway to destruction.

What are the “Babylonians” in your life – those people who oppress you and whom you fear and hate, and those circumstances which you cannot change? God put them there, believe it or not, for a reason, not to destroy you but to awaken you to the consequences of worshipping and relying on any substitute for God. Allegiance to anyone or anything less that God will lead you to captivity and destruction.

Your “Babylonians” are a wake-up call from the Lord. He wants to rescue you, not destroy you, although His ways seem harsh. His goal is for your good. Like Jeremiah, He calls you to submit to His “Babylonians” because He has a restoration plan for you and it is good, but He must purge your heart of idols first before He can reign within you without a rival.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com