Shock and Awe

How depressing it is to watch the news these days.  We're told to always be on the watch (Luke 21:36) -- so I can't exactly bury my head in the sand as a reaction to all the incredibly disgusting things which are happening in our world.  According to recent news, terrorists have been found -- and thankfully caught -- not very far from where I'm sitting as I compose this. The violence is a phenomenon which has never been so imminent in my lifetime -- at least that I KNEW about! Fathers that run over their own daughters? It's like a science fiction novel -- only it is not fictional.

And what about injustice? I'm an attorney, so my clients naturally expect me to bring them justice. Many times I can with God’s help -- but how frustrating it is when I am forced to tell a potential client, "Sorry, I can't help you." For example, when people are hit by an uninsured motorist. The bad guy (we call him or her the "tortfeasor" in the law) almost always gets off with little or no consequences and yet my client is left with huge doctor bills and no one to hold accountable for the fact that -- without a miracle from God -- their lives will never be the same. No one would argue that that's injustice and this scenario is only one example which I see in my law practice.

You could accurately describe many current events with these words: "Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice goes forth perverted." Sound familiar? Yes, but those words were written over 2,500 years ago in another country, thousands of miles away from most of us -- long before the advent of cell phones, automobiles, Tylenol or light bulbs. In fact, if a Hebrew scholar were to translate the Book of Habakkuk into our own vernacular, we would find his situation hauntingly similar to many news stories of today. Only God could have a man write down those things so many years ago, yet now when we read them, the situation is so incredibly similar to our world today.  

You might even find yourself identifying with the man named Habakkuk -- a man who wrote what most of us know only as an obscure book in the Old Testament which could not possibly have any relevance to our lives today. Or could it? Actually, it seems to me that this gentlemen was unlike any of the other prophets we read about in the Old Testament. Most of them had a very similar message -- repent or God will judge you. Each of them seemed to have been bringing a message FROM God. But to my mind, Habakkuk's short essay really doesn't fit in with books like Jeremiah, Zephaniah and the like. His purpose wasn't really to PREDICT judgment. Rather, he asked God questions, such as what we've talking about above, i.e., "Why do you tolerate wrong?" and "Where's justice?" Habakkuk ASKED God for judgment and for justice because the sins with which he was surrounded were so rampant and seemingly went unpunished. Do you ever find yourself asking such questions? 

 So what was God's answer? "Look among the nations and watch. Be amazed and astonished. I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if it were reported to you." (Hab. 1:5) Not only is God GOING to bring justice. He tells Habakkuk that He's going to use an evil man (Nebuchadnezzar) to do it. This guy was from Babylon -- of course, known as Iraq today -- and you talk about cruelty. When Nebuchadnezzar's men finally did capture Judah's king, Zedekiah, they first murdered his sons and made Zedekiah watch -- then they put out his eyes -- so the last thing Zedekiah would ever see was the murder of his own children. After that, they led him in chains to Babylon.

The kicker here, however, is that when Habakkuk does get his question answered, he doesn't like the answer. He asks God: “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those MORE RIGHTEOUS then themselves?: (Hab. 1:13)Like us, he felt that God should do things in the way WE think best.

Besides telling Habakkuk, I AM going to bring justice -- I DON'T tolerate wrong -- and even graciously revealing to Habakkuk the people He would use, God also tells Habakkuk how to live in the meantime. In simple words which are repeated no less than 3 times in the New Testament (Galations 3:11 Romans 1:17; and Hebrews 10:38), God tells Habakkuk -- and us -- that the just shall live by their faith (Hab. 2:4) We are simply to trust that God will do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, in the way it should be done. We “live by faith” by accepting God’s words as the truth that they are. We do not doubt His promises or His incredible ability to deal with the horrendous things which are happening before our eyes. We don't wring our hands saying things like: "How in the world are we going to make it through what’s ahead?" We believe that God knows far more than we do -- and that He's got a plan which He will carry out with perfect precision and timing.

Now that I'm almost 59 years old, I've lived long enough to have seen God's judgment or at least partial judgment more than once. Every time I've seen it, it seemed to take forever before God acted, but when judgment came, it was swift and sure. It had a great purpose and it was always at the right time.  

 So why isn't God judging all of the evil stuff right now? Well, perhaps the sin may not have run its course yet. (See Genesis 15:13-16.) God typically gives people chance after chance after chance to repent before He finally judges them -- as He's not willing that any should perish and He's long-suffering to us-ward (2 Peter 3:9) . After all, we can't really criticize Him for that can we, when we consider our own sins and failures! 

Or perhaps the answer is that if He told us now why He was waiting on judgment until a certain period of time, that knowledge would keep us from sleeping tonight. But whatever the reasons, we can trust that God does have a plan and does have reasons for everything He does. The truth is that one day we'll look back and say something like: "Oh, I get it now. If He had changed everything when I wanted it, it wouldn't have worked out nearly as well." We can't possibly see what God sees and how perfect His detailed, specific plan really is. And if God deigned to share it with us, guess what? We couldn't understand it anyway because we only have finite minds. It would be like attempting to explain nuclear fission to the satisfaction of a two-year-old. For right now we truly see "through a glass darkly." (1 Corinthians 13:12.)

So the Lord tells Habakkuk: "...[T]he vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fall. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay." (Hab. 2:3). Trust that God knows exactly what He's doing. Wait for it. Trust Him to do the right thing, in the right way, and at the right time. When it happens, it will astonish and amaze you, just as God promised Habakkuk. You will look back and say something like: "I never thought I'd see the day when ..." In truth, God's shock and awe plans are far more shocking and awesome than what our soldiers did in Iraq. They are far more amazing than Hitler's blitzkrieg, Alexander the Great's plundering armies or Rome's murdering legions. Our role is to trust the Lord, wait for His justice to prevail and focus OUR efforts on the calling He has placed into our hearts. Let these words trickle down from your head into your spirit. The just shall live by their faith!

It is a blessing to receive comments, so please do comment, if you have the time. God bless you. Roberta