GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS—THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY HIS FAITH —Hope for Today Through a Study on the Book of Habakkuk —Lesson 2

 

If you have been a Christian any length of time, it wasn’t long in your walk before you figured out you couldn’t “put God in a box”. When we use that phrase, we typically are saying that we can’t know how God is going to act in any situation. While we can’t put “God in a box”, we can know that He acts within the boundaries of His Word. In other words, He will never act outside His character. What happens when God doesn’t act according to how we think He should act or in a timely manner according to His character and His promises? What else can we know about God from Psalm 135:6, Hebrews 1:3, Ephesians 1:11, and Matthew 10:30?

 

In the Ladies’ Bible study I attend, we are going through 1 Kings. After Lesson 1, I was driving home meditating on the theme of 1 Kings. This thought popped into my head: I am part of God’s plan; He is not part of my plan. This is good to keep in the forefront of our minds all the time, not just when studying 1 Kings. In other words, God is not the actor in the story of my life; I am an actor in His story. In fact, He is the writer, director, producer, set designer AND main character in His story. Those who insist on putting God in a ‘box’ better make that box as big as the universe. 1 Kings 8:27 says that heaven and the highest of heavens cannot contain God.

 

The Heidelberg Catechism says of God’s providence:

 

“God’s providence is His almighty and ever-present power, whereby as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures and so governs them so that: leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed all things, come to us not by change but by His fatherly hand.”

 

God not only knows what is going on in the world today, He has always known what is going on in the world. In fact, He is upholding, governing, and ordering all things as with His very hand.

This knowledge presents a dilemma we must wrestle through if our doctrine and theology is to be rightly formed.

 

Habakkuk saw the wickedness of Judah, his own people, all around him. He was fed up with the injustice and moral decay of God’s people. He wanted God to do something. Perhaps he thought God would bring revival, turning the hearts of His people back to Him. After all, we know that God is the business of salvation. Do we lament over sin in ourselves and the sin around us? Why or why not? Habakkuk, realizing he is part of God’s plan, and not the other way around, is jealous for God’s glory. Therefore, Habakkuk’s complaint is not a personal one; he is putting a voice to the desire and longing of all the godly in the nation. The Lord is not being glorified as He deserves in the wickedness of Judah. We can expect those who profess to belong to God would honor Him in obedience.  Look up Jeremiah 22:3, 13-17, Jeremiah 12:1; 20:8; and Job 19:7. How do these passages compare to what Habakkuk is experiencing?

 

What seems to trouble the prophet is the fact that he knows God controls everything, yet He seems to look down at the wicked with indifference.

 

Has there ever been a time in your life when God seemed to go radio silent in your life? What questions did you wrestle with? What was the result after your trial ended? We know the promises of Scripture. In faith, we want to stand upon them. At first, we have great faith to stand firmly upon this mighty solid-rock-foundation of God’s character. If the trial continues for any length of time, however, we can start to lose our steady footing and begin to wrestle with our whole belief system. In the end, either our faith will be greatly strengthened, or we will walk away from God, disillusioned, because our ‘faith’ was not that which saves but only that which is built upon sinking sand.

 

What might those in Judah living in sin focus on regarding the Lord’s character from the following Scriptures: Psalm 86:15, 145:8, Joel 2:13 and Isaiah 30:18? What might ‘professing’ Christians today believe about God from 2 Peter 3:9, 15 and Romans 2:4?

 

Now, read Exodus 34:6-7; Numbers 14:18. What might those reading these passages tend to want to leave out regarding God’s character? We must always keep the chord taut between understanding God’s goodness towards us and the fact that He must punish sin. True believers don’t want to live in sin but love righteousness.

 

When God’s enemies come against His children, it is easy for us to run to the imprecatory psalms and believe God is going to defend and vindicate us. We think of Daniel in the lions’ den, David against the giant, Goliath, etc. After all, Scripture says God is angry with the wicked every day, right? (Psalm 7:11)

 

In fact, most people believe that all evil will be punished, and good behavior will be rewarded. Reaping and sowing is a biblical principle. Even Buddhists believe in ‘Karma’. Retribution theology or exact retribution is the idea that one will get what one deserves. For instance, if one gets cancer, it is a sign that God is punishing you for something bad you have done in this life. If you are prosperous, God must be pleased with you. The problem with retribution theology is that it puts God in a box! Being concerned with rewards and punishments here and now is an overly simplistic interpretation of life events that makes assumptions about God’s intentions.

 

We must never make assumptions about God’s intentions. To do so is to ‘play god’. Isaiah 55:8-9—For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Judah was about to learn that hard lesson.

 

The book of Job is a prime example of why we must be right in our theology regarding this topic. Not all good people get good things in this life, and not all bad people get punished in this life. Job’s friends came to ‘support their friend’, bringing with them this bad theology. (See Job 4:7-9, 8:6, and 20:27-29). There are other instances where this wrong thinking is disputed: The man born blind in John 9:2 and the eighteen who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them (Luke 13:4-5). Under Israel’s theocracy, God did promise retribution upon the disobedient. Sometimes, judgment came quickly; and sometimes it did not (Psalm 35:17). God’s treatment of Israel under the dispensation of the Law can’t be the basis of our theology in the dispensation of grace.

 

According to Revelation 22:12 and Genesis 18:25, what can we know? Write out your answers.

 

There is a day set for judgment. One day, God will judge the world in righteousness and perfect justice. Retribution is certainly coming. Until that day, we must be careful not to assume God’s blessing or judgment on individuals based on their external circumstances.

 

Habakkuk didn’t understand how the Lord could allow the wicked to persecute and triumph over the good. Read a similar cry from David’s heart in Psalm 73:3-5, 12-14. It’s the age-old dilemma of why good people suffer, and bad people flourish in this world. Those who do not want to believe in God often use the excuse that surely there cannot be a God if He allows war, pain, death, and trouble in this world. Why should every true believer know for certain that is not true?

 

We learned from Lesson 1 that the law was slacked, chilled, rendered ineffective, or paralyzed. For almost 250 years, Americans have stood firmly upon their belief in this country’s judicial system. This faith is not necessarily entrusted to the men who administer the law to always do the right thing but, in the law, itself. How often we have heard, “This is the law. The law says this or that. According to the law…”. In Habakkuk’s days, as in our own, the law came to be looked upon as being without force or authority. Miscarriages of justice were the order of the day. “Ensnaring the righteous by fraud, the ungodly perverted all right and honesty. Because God did not punish sin immediately, men thought they could sin on with impunity.” (Feinberg) Ecclesiastes 8:11 says: Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

 

When unrighteous systems and their forms of judgment are corrupted, both life and property are insecure.

 

No doubt, Habakkuk fully expected God to chasten Judah, but he never could have dreamed of God’s response to his pleadings.

 

Habakkuk 1:5-11

 

“Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days—you would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. They are dreaded and feared; their justice and authority originate with themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards and keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand. They mock at kings and rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress and heap up rubble to capture it. Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.”

 

Read 1 Peter 5:7, Philippians 1:6, Psalm 138:8, and Psalm 57:2. What can we know in times when it seems like God is not active in the things that concern me?

 

God points Habakkuk and Judah to what is happening in the world. According to Feinberg, what was happening around them at this time included, “The Assyrian Empire was destroyed by Nabopolassar; the founding of the Chaldean rule; and the victory of Nabopolassar (with his son, Nebuchadnezzar) over the Egyptians at Carchemish.” Pointing to these historic events should cause Judah to wonder greatly. The terms are expressed emphatically by God.

 

Because I am doing something in your days—you would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. They are dreaded and feared; their justice and authority originate with themselves.

 

Just because we don’t see God at work does not mean He is not. You think I’m not doing anything, Habakkuk? I am doing something in your days. In fact, you would not believe it if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans to chastise Judah.

 

Uh, come again, Lord? I thought I heard you say YOU are raising up our enemies to chastise Your own people.

 

Lord, You are using this unrighteous legal system to come against me, to accuse me of all sorts of lies so that I might be sanctified and my faith strengthened? I never would have believed this in a million years! If anyone had told me: ‘You, Karla Podlucky, will be convicted of crimes against this nation and find yourself serving a prison sentence’, I would have laughed out loud and called it an absurdity. Was it outside God’s character, outside His plan for me? Absolutely not. It took some time to work that out in my heart and after a lot of questions not unlike those Habakkuk posed. The Lord has a plan; we are part of His plan, and He can do whatever He wants to do with and through all His creation.

 

God raising up the Chaldeans has the idea of rousing them to invade Judah. Habakkuk ministered in a time when the Chaldeans were coming to the forefront of world power. Did God force them to invade Judah? Were they just puppets in His hands? Did they want to go? God never forces anyone to do evil. God allowed their sinful desires to play out. He called them, and they willingly wanted to go. If God had not wanted them to conquer Judah exiling His people out from the Promised Land, they never could have done it.

 

The Chaldeans had a reputation for being an intelligent, aggressive, especially vicious, cruel, or warlike people. We might relate the news of the Chaldeans coming to judge Judah like the Taliban going after Christians in Afghanistan. It sends terror through our hearts and theirs.

 

During the time of investigation into my husband’s case (and then my own), any mention of those working in the government to prosecute me literally struck terror in my heart. I could feel my heart seem to stop beating. The mention of the Chaldeans would do the same to the heart of Judah. They were a most dreadful adversary who made their own rules and had no fear of God coming after a people who were supposed to obey God’s rules and fear God.

 

Read Genesis 11:4. This is the origin of Babylon. How can we relate the mentality of this early people to the Chaldeans?

 

Their horses are swifter than leopards and keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand.

 

Read Jeremiah 5:6 and Zephaniah 3:3 to see why God likens these animals to the Chaldeans. In Deuteronomy 28:49 we see a warning of Moses. How does it relate to the coming invasion? Earlier, I said, “Under Israel’s theocracy, God did promise retribution upon the disobedient.” Going back to vv. 2 and 3 of Chapter 1, how does the Chaldean invasion represent exact retribution to Judah who was acting violently throughout the land? In other words, what was Israel’s sin, and what would be her punishment?

 

Their horde of faces moves forward. God has set their faces toward Israel, and they will not turn back from accomplishing His purpose. Nothing or no one will be able to thwart His hand as He advances this formidable and irresistible force toward its goal.

 

Surely, Genesis 22:17 rang in Habakkuk’s ears when God said the Chaldeans would collect ‘captives like sand’ for God had told Abraham: I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In 1 Kings 4:20, during Solomon’s reign, Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing. What had happened? What had gone so horribly wrong?

 

They mock at kings and rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress and heap up rubble to capture it. Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.

 

Fearless and confident in their own strength and power, the Chaldeans run roughshod over every obstacle in their way. Giving no glory to God for their successes, they laugh in haughty pride at any authority other than their own. No one tells them what to do! Yet, God has raised them up for His purposes and He laughs knowing what He has in store for them. Psalm 37:12-15—The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct. Their sword will enter their own heart, and their bows will be broken.

 

So many times before, this has been the scenario when God has defended Israel. Judgment came quickly upon their enemies. This time, it was Israel whose disobedience was ripe for judgment. God would take care of the Chaldeans later. For now, they were a tool in His hand to teach His people a lesson they would never forget.

 

But they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.

 

We see what happens when one makes his own strength his god by looking at the life of Nebuchadnezzar who looked out over his kingdom of Babylon and said, “Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” Read Daniel 4:28-33 to refresh your memory of this account.

 

Psalm 35:19-22—Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned (literally ‘held guilty’). The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned (literally ‘held guilty’).

 

Next time, the answer brings another question.