What a story of heartache, judgment, and trust regardless of what befalls us.
Although the historical story of Habakkuk was written roughly around 655 - 606 BC just prior to the Kingdom of Babylon (the Chaldeans referenced in Dan.3:8) becoming the ruling power in the region of Judah, it is in ways, very similar to the time in which we now live. Judah still existed but was a vassal kingdom to the Babylonians. Who are we a possible vassal kingdom to today?
Habakkuk is a unique prophet that spends his time speaking to God rather than God’s people. His discussions center on how can God use a people (the Chaldeans) more evil than themselves to bring His judgment upon His people? If Habakkuk lived today in our present-day Western World, what would He be saying to God? It is clearly obvious that here in the US we are experiencing a small part of what I do believe is to come... judgment! We have become a nation like Judah and have hit a low moral point in our existence.
We have allowed excessive moral decline and depravity. However, before I delve into our modern-day sins let’s look at Judah’s low point sins of the past!
THAT WAS THEN.
It is plausible that Judah has experienced moral decline while under the leadership of two wicked kings Manasseh and Amon. Judah has sunk so low that the people were worshipping Baal and were sacrificing their children to the pagan deity Molech, kind of like today’s abortion craze. Judah’s sins dates to the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose themselves over God. Chose self-centeredness, pride, self-trust, and self-reliance. The very same sins that have beset man ever since. Mankind and its propensity to push the limits through post-modernism and humanism has culminated today as it did for Judah.
THIS IS NOW
We have become a society of people who have allowed evil to be perceived as good and good as evil. Women become men and men become women and accept as normal that which is declared an abomination. The manner of acceptance is even ungodly - a weird pack mentality.
We abort children all the way up to AFTER being born and turn a blind eye to calling it murder. We cause our children to pass through the fires of Molech as in 600BC. (Lev. 18:21)
We allow the union of men and women, something that was orderly established since the garden, fully displayed throughout scripture to be put into disorder by allowing men with man and women with women, publicly condoned thereby defiling the sanctity of marriage. (Rom.1:27; Heb 13:4) We traffic humans and condone pedophilia. We lie, cheat, steal, and murder to get ahead, we elect ungodly leadership. We worship celebrities and abandon the homeless, the widow, and orphans, yet cater to those that are not our own by sacrifice in the name of inclusion. (1Corinth. 10:4; Phil.2:21; 2 Tim.3:2; Proverbs 28:15; 29:2; Isaiah 1:23; 10:1; Ezek. 22:27; Isaiah 3:14; and on and on I could go.)
WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?
Habakkuk wrestled with God.
O Lord, how long will I call for help And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? For destruction and violence are before me; Strife continues and contention arises. Therefore, the law is ineffective and ignored And justice is never upheld, For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore, justice becomes perverted.
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You cannot look favorably on wickedness. Why then do You look favorably On those who act treacherously? Why are you silent when the wicked (Chaldean oppressors) destroy Those more righteous than they? (Habakkuk 1:2-4, 13) AMP
The prophet Habakkuk obviously saw the children of God, although evil, better than those God was using to judge His people. We are all a little bit like that. We see the sins of another as worse than our own and are dismayed and upset when they appear blessed while we are judged and suffer chastisement. We are all okay with our sin until judgment and chastisement of God come upon us. Sin is sin and ours is no less than another. (Romans 3:10; 1 John 1:8)
God goes on to speak to Habakkuk that the same judgment that befalls the children of God will be the same judgment that will come upon those that God has used to judge His people. God is God. He is not to be mocked. He is sovereign and mighty, and no one escapes His judgment. But all in all, it is the Grace of God that will keep us. Although we are to be judged He will keep us.
Are You not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, My Holy One? We will not die. O Lord, You have appointed the Chaldeans [who rule in Babylon] to execute [Your] judgment, And You, O Rock, have established them to correct and chastise. (Habakkuk 1:12) AMP
AS FOR TODAY?
Just as sin reaches back to the Garden it also reaches its tentacles to our present day. However, the Good News is that deliverance from judgment and chastisement is available. It comes ONLY through the redemptive work of Jesus. Not our work, but His work, not our righteousness but His. You cannot maintain that which you could not afford to purchase. His work on the cross was a complete work, not a partial work. When He said “It is finished” that is exactly what He meant. He said what He said and meant what He said!
Just as Habakkuk wrote what God spoke –
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4) KJV
It was again repeated in Romans 1:17 “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
And then again in Galatians 3:11 “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.”
And, Hebrews 10:38 “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Faith in what…? Faith in the one who knew no sin yet was made to become sin so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus) 2 Corinth 5:21.
That we BELIEVE in the One who can save us. Read the very words that Jesus said –
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” John 6:47-51
AS FOR JUDGEMENT
As for sin, judgment, and chastisement. If you continue in your sin, even as a believer, you will continue to have eternal life (1 Corinth 3:15), but do not be fooled and do not mock God for there is a judgment for the believer.
This is when your WORKS will matter!
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (2 Corinth. 5:10)
BUT AS FOR THE STATE OF AFFAIR WE PRESENTLY HAVE…
We must repent as a nation, especially the people of God. Those of us who have stood by, been idle, and even participated. We must repent. Turn away and have a change of heart and mind regarding our own sin.
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 1 Chron 7:14.
GraceApologetics101.org
B.A Hartford
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