Sermon July 15th
Does the situation in New Zealand worry you?
Are you worried about what you see as injustice? are you worried about the environment, family violence, immoral behaviour, drunkenness? Do you think we could treat refugees with dignity and compassion?
Do you think something needs to be done about all this?
Is that the focus of you’re prayer life?
Are you crying out to God for change?
Is your prayer for God to take action?
Do you pray like the Psalmist “How long Lord, must we deal with what we see around us”.
What if God said to you, I hear your prayers and I am going to do something about it?
I am sending the Iraqis to invade New Zealand, (this might have to be before the latest invasion, while Sadam Hussian was still in power, to get the full impact of this).
But Sadam will bring New Zealand to heel. New Zealand will experience terror like they have not known before. The Iraqis are my instrument says the Lord, to punish New Zealand for its behaviour.
And then you cry out, hang on they are worse than us. Sadam is a murderer, who has Weapons of Mass destruction. and so ignoring the fact that our allies also have these weapons, we point to him using chemical weapons on his own people, we can see pretty clearly that we might be bad, but in comparison Sadam is an absolute shocker
Well travel back a few thousand years to the land of Judah and that is pretty much exactly what happened to a man named Habakkuk.
He was crying out about the behaviour of the people of Israel, He was complaining about the injustice he saw all around him IN the first chapter of Habakkuk we see this
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
3 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.
, and God said I hear you Habakkuk an I am going to send the Babylonians to punish Israel for their behaviour.
Now if you thought Sadam Hussian was bad, his ancestors the Babylonians were horrible. During this short period of history, historians believe that the Chaldeans ran Babylon and they were particularly nasty, even nastier that the other really nasty babylonians we have heard about.
Here’s what God says about them in chapter 1
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honour.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
9 they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
They were violent people, who loved to maim and slaughter, and to bring destruction and devastation on anyone they defeated.
And God has said to Habakkuk, I will answer your prayers Habakkuk, I use the most vile people on earth to discipline my chosen people!
Now we need to put a bit of background on this.
There are two things we need to remember
- God is the Judge of the whole earth
- Israel are God’s chosen people They were chased by God to be the instrument by which He would save the world, this was promised long ago to Abraham and to Jacob. The promise repeated through Israel’s history, right up until the time when Jesus came and fulfilled that promise.
When God made his covenant with Israel, he said to them I am you God you will be my people, but there was a rider on that. God promised to look after them, bring them to the promised land, and through them save the world.
But the thing about a covenant is that has two sides. Their side was that they would be a holy people . A people who would be just and live God’s way, this included, worshipping only God and not false Gods, caring for those in society who could not care for themselves, people such as orphans and widows. And the alien, of if you lie the foreigner, the refugee.
And Israel were not doing their bit.
Habakkuk was one of a number of prophets who were called to warn Israel and Judah that God would not tolerate their behaviour any more. That punishment was coming.
We are not certain of the date that Habakkuk was written, probably about 7th or 6th century BC, but that is not important to our story.
Habakkuk looked about himself and saw that it was all going wrong. The injustice that was not to happen was happening all around him.
We come to Habakkuk’s 2nd complaint
12 Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
In his criticism of the Babylonians Habakkuk attacks the same kind of imperialistic policies, that have been part of International politics throughout history
The building of powerful armies, forcing their will on other countries and exploitation of resources as if that is their right. Destroying the forests of Babylon for instance so they can use the timber
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
14 You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
17 Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?
Now here is Habakkuk a member of a small nation, seeing an imperial power exploiting the poorer nations for their own profit.
It is impossible to read this without considering whether the same warning could not be applied to the relationship between powerful industrialised countries and 3rd world countries
2:1 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
He really needs to know what God has to say about all this and so we end up with this image of the prophet waiting for God’s response like a watchman on a watchtower.
2 Then the Lord replied:
“Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.
3 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.
4 “See, the enemy is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—
There is a lot of argument about the meaning of the first verse here, one even suggesting that it is written plainly so that it can be read while running.
The answer I think is a little more obvious than that. It is simply that the job of the prophet is to record what God tells them and to take it to the people.
The next verse (3) is important because it tells us that Gods promises are reliable, and that they will come to pass, even if there seems to be a delay, they when happen at the appointed time, when they are supposed to happen and not when we think it should,
Verse four is quite significant because it reminds us of the contrast between those who trust God no matter what the situation and those who trust themselves. The enemy in this case is full of themselves
But the righteous person lives by his faithfulness.
This phrase was the hallmark of the protestant revolution. Luther based his preaching on the phrase, the Just will live by faith. Paul directly quotes this passage on several occasions. Romans 1: 17, Galatians 3: 11 and Ephesians 2: 8
And it is entirely appropriator in this instance. Our understanding of God’s Justice must be a long term picture, we need to Trust that God’s justice will prevail.
And that is exactly what the prophet is being asked to do here.
To trust God in tough circumstances, knowing that in the end God’s purposes will prevail.
For us the call is simply to trust God and know that it matters not
The remainder of this chapter makes it clear, that God is not on the side of the Babylonians, he makes it very clear that they will have their come up-pence. God roundly condemns them, for their evil behaviour.
Inordinate Greed (2:6–8)
Their greed is insatiable
Pile up stolen Goods and make themselves wealthy by extortion
Those you have hurt by your behaviour will respond in kind
Woe to those whose build their house by unjust gain.
A Hunger to Dominate (2:9–11)
Woe to you builds a city with bloodshed and established a city by unjust gain.
Atrocities (2:12–14)
In our society there are those who believe that they should be able to become rich by whatever means they can, and too bad if others suffer. There is condemnation of those who abuse the environment. as I said early they were destroying forests in Lebanon for the timber. But also animals and people,
IN Genesis we understand that we have been made stewards of the earth and our stewardship is failing.
God has determined your fate and by contrast God will be glorified.
Debauchery (2:15–17)
Then we see condemnation of sexual abuse. This who would manipulate others for their own sexual gratification. IN this case getting people drunk so they can have their way with them.
Idolatry (2:18–20)
And finally there is condemnation of those who worship idols of their own making.
But an idol is not just a statue of Buda an idol is anything that we worship, it could be technology wealth or even our lifestyle
So what is the answer when we see injustice all around us. How do we deal with the idea, that the bad people seem to be winning?
The final chapter which was read to us earlier makes that clear.
That God is control that Gd is sovereign
IN this final part of the chapter we see the prophet waiting and knowing that clarity is about to strike
7 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,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
You see Judah did pay a price, many of itds people were carted off to Babylon, for some years they were an enslaved nation again.
But God had a plan and that plan was the saving of the world through Jesus
In order for that to happen, the people had to be brought back to God, and discipline was needed.
So God used the evil Babylonians to make that happen.
He was not suddenly saying the behaviour of the Babylonians was no OK, they were simply His instrument.
I want to finish to day by giving you a donation of Justice.
Justice which is like righteousness is when Things are in right relationship.
When things get out of wack in terms of relationship with God then Justice fails.
When we do not live with compassion for one another and especially those in need, when there is hate, when love for brothers, is gone, it is because relationship has broken down.
Think of two news items in recent weeks
One where the family say of a person who has been sentenced to 5 years, we will suffer for the rest of our lives, he just gets 5 years where is the justice in that?
Or the other, the woman who lost daughters when a tourist went through a stop sign. We forgive him, he is also a victim, he would be welcomes in our home.
Which is Gods Justice. The 2nd because relationship has been restored.
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