Things Too Wonderful

I love the book of Habauk.  It’s only three chapters long, hidden away among the minor prophets, but it contains one of the greatest statements of faith in the whole Bible, and lessons you would pay a fortune for online!

Habakuk was around about the same time as Jeremiah.  Tough time in Israel’s history! It was probably at the end of Josiah’s reign or soon after.  Josiah had found the book of the law in the Temple, and for a while God’s people had turned back to Him and were living according to His instructions… but not for long!  They were back to their old ways: sin, degradation and a total disregard for God (sound familiar?)

Habakuk cried out to God in the middle of all this. (He was the first prophet, by the way, to write to God instead of to the people. Then he published the conversation so they could listen in.) In paraphrase of the first chapter, it was a case of “Don’t you care, God?  Why are you letting your people get away with this?  Why don’t you do something about it?” He was angry.  He didn’t understand what God was doing… or wasn’t doing!

And God answered, in a way that Habakuk really didn’t expect, and assured him that He was aware of the sin of the people, and was going to do something about it: he was going to send in the Babylonians to invade and take over the nation.

“You’re what???”

Habakuk did not like this response at all!  The Babylonians were cruel, barbaric and not only disobeyed the laws of God, they had absolutely no concept of them!  Yet God was going to use them to teach His people a lesson.  How does that work? 

We had a Church leader from Hong Kong at our Church this weekend. He was talking about the persecution of Christians in China and saying that it was the best thing that ever happened to them.  In the West we pray that the persecution finishes.  In the East their attitude is “Bring it on!” and the Church over there is growing at a rate of 10,000 a day.  Mmmm.  Interesting.

God doesn’t often answer our questions the way we want Him to.  He sees a much bigger picture.  We know now that the persecution of the early Church in Acts led to Christianity being spread across the world.  I’m not sure I would have seen that if I had been alive in the first century, dreading the sound of roman boots heading to where I and my children slept.

Habakuk lived through the terror of those days of waiting.  He didn’t understand what God was doing, didn’t get it!  But He didn’t give way to bitterness or despair.  He kept the lines of communication with God wide open.

Maybe that’s the main thing I’ve learnt from the first part of Habakuk.  Keep talking to God.  Dare to ask the questions.  Even more importantly keep listening to God and I might just get some answers.  Even if they’re not the answers I want.  God sees a much bigger picture and who am I to argue?

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