habakkuk...

We started Habakkuk today... for the next three weeks we'll walk through this short little book that contains the deepest questions of human existence.

We kind of stirred the pot today- I think some of the concepts here were really challenging for some evergreeners-

1. Habakkuk tells God the Babylonians are "less righteous" than the Jewish people. Some felt this arrogant, and wrong. I agree and disagree- we're ALL pretty unrighteous, yes- and in many ways no better/worse than anyone else. But if I were forced to choose between supporting Nazi Germany and supporting Britain in WWII, I know which side I'd pick. Sometimes, some nations are more wicked and downright evil than others. Habakkuk recognized this, I think.

2. Habakkuk recognizes God is going to bring disaster on Israel to punish them, to teach them, to turn them around. I said this was the exception rather than the rule, that we shouldn't think all disaster in our lives was discipline/God trying to get our attention... but that sometimes... the sticking point was "how do we know?"

Here's a bit of it:

"He drops this wild, pandora’s box of a statement right in the middle: You have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins.” Here’s one of the reasons why bad things happen. Now, before you go thinking I’m going all Pat Robertson on you, let me finish.

In Habakkuk’s case, because God specifically told him so, he knew that the Babylonians were being used to get the people’s attention- to turn them away from their love of self, and violence and their abandoning of the worship of God and love for their neighbor.

That doesn’t mean that every bad thing that happens is God smacking people around, right?
Here’s the thing: Don’t see every tragedy, every misfortune as God’s correction. It’s the exception, not the rule. But exceptions happen, yeah? Be that as it may…

Some of you are experiencing difficulty and you need to know that you are NOT being corrected by God- what you are experiencing are the results of living in a broken world with broken people- it’s impossible to go through this life and not get bruised.

By the same token… Some of you are experiencing difficult times and you need to know- you ARE being corrected by God. What you are experiencing is God trying to wake you, get your attention- He’s trying to get you to put down the thing you are holding so tightly to and that is slowly poisoning you- it may be a relationship, a habit you think no one sees- your porn stash, your selfishness, the way you treat other people, your refusal to care for anyone but yourself, your worship of everything but God…

It’s impossible to continue to walk in the wrong direction and NOT have a God who loves you try to turn you around somehow…"

Comments

[Chris Marsden]

I think, for me personally, that those times that God was trying to correct something in me, I knew exactly what it was, I was just still too busy justifying it and not wanting to admit it outloud to others.

I don't think the Israelites (or at least most of the Israelites) of Habakkuk's day were clueless as to the sin nature of their lives, they just all had good reasons why it was ok for them.

This was a weird year for me and also for a close freind of mine. For me and my family, I think it was just a weird year. The kinds of trials we have gone through don't corelate to sin issues in our lives. But for my friend, I think it was an issue of training. He has learned things and grown in the last year that has prepared him for whatever's next. But in the midst of the trial it was still hard for him to see that.

I think that those times when we don't clearly see what God is doing, what he is doing is a more subtle shaping. A friend or family member gets a disease or tragedy strikes, and the way we grow through that makes us a better person. It wasn't a particular sin that Jesus was correcting (like I said, I think we know when that is happening, we just don't want to admit it), but it is a general tweak of who we are. I have a better understanding of who I am and who God is through the tragedy in my life. I think I am a better person because of it.

Anyways...Good luck with preaching through a "minor" prophet. My proffesor in college who taught Minor Prophets always thought it a shame that more people didn't preach from them.

[bob]

Thanks man- we're actually going to spend the rest of the year excepting 8 weeks in Sep/Oct in the minor prophets...