Habakkuk begins his prophetic word by asking how the Lord
can put up with the sinful behavior of His people. The prophet is crying out for justice and
judgment on the wickedness of the nation.
The answer he receives is not what he expected and it brings horror to
the prophet. The Lord announces that the
wickedness in the nation is worse than the prophet realizes, He is bringing the
dreaded and fearsome Babylonians against Israel as instruments of His
judgment. Habakkuk is appalled at the
idea. How could the Lord use such ruthless pagan idolaters against His own
people? He can't reconcile this and
says, I will lean not on my own understanding in the matter, I will position
myself on the watchtower and look for wisdom elsewhere, to the Lord. Sometimes we can be overwhelmed by the events
of the day and we can miss what the Lord is doing because it doesn't fit neatly
with what we think or believe. He is
Lord of all, whether they acknowledge Him or not, and all is at His
disposal. Wisdom requires us to move
beyond our own common sense if we are to understand the times.
Jesus, like Habakkuk, is highly critical of the leaders of
the nation in His own day. Particularly
singled out are the evangelicals, the scribes and Pharisees, those who know and
take the Word seriously. Their entire
lives are consumed with the smallest jots and tittles of the Law, it is the
most important thing in their lives. The
problem is that they have missed the forest for the trees, they have so finely
tuned their understanding that they have lost sight of the story itself. Sometimes we can exposit verses in such a way
that we lose the larger picture, God's mercy and love, the incredible reality
that we are chosen by Him in Christ.
They have forgotten that the temple is greater than anything in it but
more than that, the temple is less than the one who is worshiped there and who
dwells there. The world, the heavens,
all of creation, is less than the One who created it. The small matters of tithing are nothing
compared with the great matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness. All these come down to loving God and loving
our neighbors.
If I truly thought the goal was the prize of the upward call
and that my real and only citizenship was in heaven, that I should forget what
lies behind and should expend all my effort in straining forward, what would
change in my life? At the very least the
things that concern me would change. My
life, the way I spend my time, the things in which I invest my time, talents
and treasure would be different. The
things I think are important in this life would be shaped by the commandments
to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves and
thus the stuff of earth, accumulating treasure, would be a lower priority. Becoming like Him would be my goal and I
would spend more time in prayer, worship, meditation and less time watching TV,
movies, sports, Facebook, etc. Today
might be a good day to start.
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