Thought for the Day 09/06/21 - The (happy) tale of the prophet with a problem ...

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You expect a prophet to be telling the future or telling people off, really, don't you?

A prophecy is really supposed to be about OTHER people ... but the prophet Habakkuk, writing in the mid-to late 7th century BC, has got a personal problem with God and he airs it quite freely in his book.

Habakkuk's unusual prophecy looks like a tale of a spiritual journey, which goes both into and through a common sort of problem people have with God. 

Habakkuk's problem

Habakkuk can't cope with the evil he sees in the world and a God Habakkuk thinks is doing nothing about it.

But Habakkuk does the RIGHT thing with his problem, and this book of the prophet Habakkuk is more of the chrobicle of a spiritual journey, showing us what Habakkuk learned as he aired this common challenge to faith before God.

When Habbakuk has a problem with God he takes it to God, and that's what the book of this prophet goes straight into.

Habakkuk's first complaint

Habakkuk unpacks his first complaint, that in the light of the injustice and violence of his society and the inability or unwillingness of the corrupt legal system to deal with it, God seems to be doing nothing at all!

"How long, Lord, must I call for help,

    but you do not listen?"

Habakkuk 1:2

That's Habakkuk's FIRST complaint.

Notice, Habakkuk isn't making this complaint ABOUT God, but TO God.

That's the difference between godless rebellion and godly lament.

God will deal with lament but He won't deal with rebellion in anything like the same way at all.

So God hears the prophet's complaint and comes straight back to Habakkuk in this unusual of prophecies.

God's first response

God doesn't argue against what Habbakuk is saying at all, but He tells Habbakuk what He's going to do about it.

Now, we can't always rely on a thorough answer like this ... sometimes I suspect we're not strong enough for it ... but God is REALLY teaching Habakkuk a lesson here!

God tells Habakkuk that He is going to bring a 

• far more violent 
  
  
• far more unjust and 
  
  
• far more corrupt nation 

as His agents of judgement to give Habbakuk's people a taste of their own medicine.

Habbakuk is HORRIFIED at the thought of the justice he has called for and launches straight into His second complaint against God.

Habbakuk's second complaint

Habbakuk had complained against God for NOT actoing against the injustice of his world, but when God told Habbakuk what He WAS doing about it ... Habakkuk immediately complained against God's jusgement!

How OFTEN have I come across people like this?

They complain God doesn't DEAL with sin, and then He does they complain against God judging it!

God's second response

God's second response is to tell Habakkuk to get some tablets of stone and a chisel and carve the five woes God speaks against the evil's Habbakuk sees onto those tablets as a portable permanent record that can travel with the Israelites as God does what He says he'd do about the problem Habakkuk initially aired with Him.

That second response from God contains five 'woes' or curses for covenant-breaking against the wayward people and rulers of Israel.

God anathematises roundly 

the rigged borrowing system that exploits the poor, 

the way the power of private wealth gets exercised making the rich richer at the expense of the poor, 

slave labour, 

the abuse of alcohol by irresponsible leaders and 

idolatry which corrupts value systems and leads to all the other abuses in their society.

We have far too many of those things contextualised but present in our own.

The last chapter of the book tells the tale of Habakkuk's ensuing face-time with God.

Head-to-heading with God brings more than Habakkuk  bargained for 

So far this book's been about the problem of evil in the world, while God is appearing to do nothing.

Now it becomes a matter of meeting with God, and theology dwarfs theodicy out of existence.

Meeting the Holy One melts the accusation of His apparent injustice. 

He is TANGIBLY holy and good. Habakkuk comes to the point where he might not understand, but He knows the God Whose goodness lies behind it all, and know he trusts Him. 

The point

Habbakuk has been deeply troubled by taking God's business upon himself ... as if HE should be the arbiter of God's actions.

But meeting the Holy One of Israel and hearing Him speak DEALT with Habakkuk's assumption of God's injustice.

And Habakkuk's previously anguished life is transormed by that fundamental re-orientation.

Here's the Verse for the Day:

"The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights."

                                   Habakkuk 3:19

Now THAT's a very different story to the one we started with!

Habbakuk has lamented then met with God about his issue.

But it's meeting with and relating to God in his lament that transforms the issue, and the life-experience of the prophet.

Worries about theodicy are swallowed up in theology!

The Takeaway

Never be afraid to pour your heart out to the Lord, in Whom you trust.

Fear, rather, NOT to take your problems to Him.

But bear in mind that it is, on a number of occasions in Scripture, ultimately meeting God Himself, not understanding His reasoning, that brings the change in our situation about.

Here Habakkuk describes the effect of this.

And it is this that brings Habakkuk from dragging his feet through this world to dancing his way onwards  like a deer.

 

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