The Man With the Strange Sounding Name
Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run
that readeth it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall
speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come,
it will not tarry.
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just
shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:2-4
If I were to ask you to list all the things you see wrong in this world,
you could probably come up with an extensive list. The only limiting factor
would be whether you are including the wider world, or just the local one
we live in. There are enough problems and injustices to go around.
We pray for Chad McKay, an innocent young man brutally beaten a few weeks
back and left for dead on a downtown street. His attackers may never be caught
and a senseless moment of violence may totally ruin a young man's life. It
is not an isolated story.
Those are the kind of things that get our blood boiling.
But we know that justice in this life is always an approximate thing. We
do our best, at least we hope we have done our best, and we believe that's
enough. Sometimes its not enough and the innocent suffer.
And in a nutshell that's what the book of Habakkuk is all about...injustice
...and where is God when it happens?
The book of Habakkuk is a short little book with a funny name. It is easily
overlooked in favor of Isaiah and Jeremiah and other better known prophets.
Its funny name and the fact that it was written thousands of years ago I suppose
gives us the impression of it being strange, and maybe even rather archaic.
The historical situation is of course long past, but the message is as up
to date as today's newspaper. Life is not just.
Upon accepting an award, the late Jack Benny once remarked,
"I really don't deserve this.
But I have arthritis, and I don't deserve that either."
The name "Habakkuk" doesn't even sound Jewish. It sounds more arabic, but
exactly what the name means or where it came from is uncertain. The man Habakkuk
apparently lived about the same time as Jeremiah in and around Jerusalem.
It seems he may have been a priest in the temple in charge of some part of
the worship.
Isaiah, Jeremiah and Joel, who we looked at last week were prophets sent
to warn Judah that God was displeased and if they did not change their ways,
they would be punished. These were not the only people God used to warn them
of what was coming. An interesting side note is that God gave them plenty
of warning and time to change. But they did not.
In Habakkuk's time, the consequences that Jeremiah warned of are beginning
to take place. Babylon has become the strongest nation in the middle east,
having defeated Assyria. Egypt claimed to rival the Babylonians.
The kings of Judah often tried to make alliances with Egypt to ward off
enemies from the north, but God warns them this will not work, and in king
Josiah's time the Egyptian army is defeated by Babylon at the battle of Carchemish.
The fact that Judah was on the wrong side of the conflict meant it had no
friends and no one to go to for protection. And Babylon was notorious as being
an unforgiving and ruthless nation.
Jerusalem has not yet fallen, but Babylon controls much of the countryside.
The Babylonians were ruthless. They were governed by the Code of Hammurabi,
which allowed for much more severe punishment than Biblical law. But in the
case of conquered people, there was no code and their cruelty was legendary.
Habakkuk has a problem and he goes to God about it.
His problem is this:
God has sent the Babylonians to punish Judah for its failures, lack of justice
and immorality.
But the Babylonians are much worse than the problem they are sent to punish.
How can God call it justice to use a worse people to punish Judah for its
lesser offenses?
In Habakkuk's eyes this is not just, and knowing God, he thinks it is just
not right.
God tells Habakkuk that he is preparing an answer.
Habakkuk tells the Lord that he is going to climb up to his watchtower and
wait to see what God will do.
A watchtower is an approximately one to two story stone structure built
in a farmer's field to keep watch over the crop.
From there, if it is on a hill, Habakkuk could see an approaching or retreating
army. Likely he thought the only solution was for God to drive the Babylonians
out, either with a stronger army or miraculously make them retreat. This would
be a good time for another Gideon.
Off he goes to his watchtower to see what God will do.
In the course of events, God speaks to him again.
Then the LORD replied:
“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald
may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will
not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
“See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will
live by his faith
God says, OK here is your answer. Put it on a billboard so that everyone
can see it.
Your answer is coming, but you will have to wait for it. It's guaranteed,
but not immediate.
There were two things God told Habakkuk to answer his question:
1. The evil carry the seeds of their own destruction within them.
2. The just will live by their faith.
Every evil tyrannical empire sows the seeds of its own self destruction.
Oppressed people eventually will rise up and despotic regimes rarely thrive
over the long run.
The Romans on the other hand, though we would consider them oppressive by
our standards governed under Roman law which for its time was reasonably fair
and just.
Soviet Communism sewed the seeds of its own demise and lasted less than
a century.
This is true in smaller numbers as well. A church or a club that is run
unjustly will not survive.
A boss who rules as a tyrant will not retain good employees and his business
will eventually suffer.
God has said that built into the very nature of life is a process that weeds
out evil regimes.
But ours is the time of Spiderman, James Bond, Catwoman and a host of other
superheroes. (Are Ninja Turtles totally passé?)
What superheroes offer us is perfect justice and on schedule.
When Spiderman doesn't show up on time, which is immediately, everyone knows
there is a crisis.
Even Spiderman knows it isn't right to keep people waiting when evil is
afoot, or aclaw.
But God says, wait for it. Be patient.
I suppose Stephen Truscott says " is forty five years long enough?"
Communism died, but so did millions in the gulags of Siberia.
When is long enough, long enough?
And then comes the second part of God's answer:
--The just will live by their faith.
Martin Luther read Habakkuk who is quoted by the apostle Paul, and it was
enough to transform his life.
Up to that point Luther had tried to make it all happen through his own
efforts and sensed that God was not pleased.
Then he learned that what God asks is for us to live by faith in God's ways
and timing.
It strikes me that in the lives of some people that is a tall order, and
its easy for me to say from the comfort of my relatively untroubled life.
The just will live by their faith.
How well would I do in a prison camp, suffering unjustly?
Hurricane Carter was a well known boxer who was falsely imprisoned for a
crime he did not commit.
After serving nineteen years, Carter was released.
As a free man, Carter reflected on how he has responded to injustice in
his life.
The question invariably arises, it has before and it will again: "Rubin,
are you bitter?" And in answer to that I will say, "After all that's been
said and done—the fact that the most productive years of my life, between
the ages of twenty-nine and fifty, have been stolen; the fact that I was deprived
of seeing my children grow up—wouldn't you think I would have a right to
be bitter? Wouldn't anyone under those circumstances have a right to be bitter?
In fact, it would be very easy to be bitter. But that has never been my nature,
or my lot, to do things the easy way. If I have learned nothing else in my
life, I've learned that bitterness only consumes the vessel that contains
it. And for me to permit bitterness to control or to infect my life in any
way whatsoever would be to allow those who imprisoned me to take even more
than the 22 years they've already taken. Now that would make me an accomplice
to their crime.1
You live with an injustice.
You have prayed and prayed, and so far nothing seems different.
God says, "Trust me with it."
That's what is meant. "Trust me with it."
Put it up on a billboard. God is reliable. Trust Him with it.
God is just, but it is not always immediately apparent.
Do what you can. We are God's hands of justice. There is a time to pray
and there is a time to act.
But when we have acted and prayed, put it in His hands and trust Him.
God will not let you down.
That is a promise.
Preached
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1.James S. Hirsch, Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of
Rubin Carter (Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), p. 310,
as published in Preachingtoday.com
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