June 10, 2021 - Habakkuk 1:3,4 [NIV}

 

June 10, 2021 - Habakkuk 1:3,4 [NIV}

"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."

We are moving away from an area that has been devastated by a paralyzing inability to confront sheer madness. Most of the businesses downtown are boarded up after being systematically robbed and damaged by looters and rioters who knew the law would do little or nothing to hold them accountable. Many people in the area feel helpless about changing anything. And now children will be taught in area schools that we are bad people who are responsible for all the wrong in our society for no other reason than the color of our skin.

Good and evil are very real. The prophet Habakkuk described the rising insanity in the kingdom of Judah. Judgment was coming in the form of the Babylonian empire, who replaced the Assyrian empire that had destroyed the rest of Israel. Civilization, like individual humanity, turns its back on God and godliness at its peril. Like then, it is distressing to have to confront that in a society that once honored God but is now under the control of those who are determined to replace godly morality with its own.

What Habakkuk realized at the end of his message is those who love and serve God need not worry about the overwhelming tide of history; God is in control of all things. Our witness of His grace and love is more important than ever, and he will bring us into relationships and conversations with those who are open and ready for his truth. Parental guidance of their own children, and children’s outreach ministries are more important than ever and will be used to reach children who may well become the spiritual leaders and heroes of the coming age.

Habakkuk’s prophecy ends on a bittersweet note of triumph and resignation to God’s plan for the age:

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior."

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