Exposition by Max A Forsythe
The
Reformer's Fire
Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Let us suppose that we lived in one of the third world countries where the wickedness of the local government had brought down the ire of the NATO air forces. For many weeks - government buildings, military bases, bridges, pipe lines, railways and even electrical generating plants were the targets of smart bombs and rockets with an occasional error in targeting that kept life interesting. Now in the context of this experience your prayers and those of your friends are given sincerely to the Creator God that this ongoing punishment is more than your country deserves!
Yes, your leader is a selfish, vile criminal by international standards and the bloody internal struggle for home lands has been a problem of many generations. But this punishment from the bomb bays of the "Great Satan" of your time is more than what would be morally justified in your eyes. Now take this attitude back to the time of Habakkuk who foresees prophetically such a terrible punishment on the horizon of history. Everything you have believed about God is in question. You cannot understand why the fair land of Judea must be laid open for Babylonian wastage.
James Montgomery Boice tells us that it is for this reasoning that "Habakkuk is a profound book, one which delves deeply into the mysteries of God." The book "raises deep questions about the workings of God in history - why God does what He does, why He does it in the way He does, and why He sometimes does nothing."
In verse twelve through the first phrase of thirteen we see the honor that the prophet holds the Lord in. He understands at least four things about the Creator God.
And even though the prophet appears before such a God in wonder and in awe, he is still troubled In verses fourteen through seventeen he outlines the life goals of naturalistic mankind. They are indeed "fishers of men" in the image here, but their motives are selfish - all of humanity are theirs to be exploited. Lands, cattle, crops, jewelry and even the persons of their conquests are taken for their own prosperity and enjoyment. This is one reason why the Middle East is such a desert and wasteland. Nothing that anyone builds lasts for more than a generation or two.
Imagine how poor our own country would be is at the end of every American war - we had to repair and rebuild our homes, businesses and communications infrastructure. Zane Grey reports that his ancestors near Wheeling, West Virginia had to build their cabin three times as a result of the Indian troubles in the Ohio Country. At least in Colonial America - there were trees aplenty.
But, what if in your lifetime you had to rebuild your home two or three times and pay off the costs of those that had been destroyed in the bargain as well! I'll bet houses two and three would be a lot smaller than what you are used to living in now! Now add into this ongoing series of wars a wholesale relocation of the entire population. One in four Cambodians died as a result of such a forcible relocation some years ago. How many of you would survive a three hundred mile march with next to nothing to eat and a constant harassment by enemy troops.
Yes, we well know that the quarter of a million exiles from Kosovo have been through a living hell and all of the drastic reports are very probably all too true! A lot of people around the world are asking like Habakkuk - Why O Lord, do you allow these things to happen? And for us in America we may well ask, why have our own troops allowed to be a part of this tragic mess. Couldn't we have been blessed with more common sense leadership that wouldn't have fallen so thoroughly into the conniving cutthroat plans of the beast of Belgrade? I had better be careful what I say here, there are so very many parallels in the leadership of America with that in Ancient Israel.
Habakkuk, having asked his questions will now wait upon the Lord and trust in God to answer his heartfelt questions. May we learn a lesson or more from the actions of the prophet in this treasure of a little book. Martyn Lloyd-Jones outlines four actions of the prophet worth imitating. They are:
Habakkuk is a short book, but a full book. There are deep ideas and concepts here. Habakkuk may indeed be described as the "Thinking Man's Prophet". He packs a lot of detail into his verses and chapters. In a like manner, whether we have personal problems or suffer from the problems of history we are supposed to think about them. Do you have doubts, fears, things that bother or even bug you. I know well what problems there are in life. Like Joseph and Daniel I have worked in secular institutions and seen first hand problems of state that are unsolvable. But also like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn I know full well what the inevitable outcome of secular administration is going to be. And the reason why America's institutions are running down is that the brightest and best Rhodes Scholars do not have any spiritual sense to comprehend nor apply the ten principles of God's revelation to social problems.
And what are those principles that Habakkuk knew and studied? All of God's Law in a nutshell. In addition as Habakkuk outlined earlier in this chapter - there are the Doctrines related to who and what the Creator God is and what He is doing. If you at least know the law of God, you will comprehend how you ought to live and what behavior the God of Creation is likely to bless. I have met grown men who thought that they could keep two or even three women on the string and then were dismayed when their whole world crashed around them. Of course we well realize how right it is that such a knave's property and livelihood are redistributed to those who he has injured. But how much better would so many families be - if the biblical principle of one man - one woman were held up as the ideal relationship! This is only one example of life's problems that could be avoided or improved if people would learn to think things through and then consider what Godly principles should apply to their problem.
The next step is to apply the principles of Scripture carefully to the problem at hand. This can be a difficult proposition for most people because it involves a lot of hard work in learning and applying God's law to every area of life. "Make every thought captive to the Word of God" is our congregational motto and that is a life work to be sure!
A few weeks ago, I linked my World War One Web Page on the internet to an article in World magazine. The article is an excellent piece on what constitutes a just war. All of the principles of God's wisdom that applies to war is contained in that excellent outline. Now, you may be wondering what conclusion the article came to in regard to the current conflict in Serbia. Well, I'm not going to tell you, you have to look at the principles for waging war and consider the current problem in light of scripture.
The same may be true of economics as well. We live in a socialistic age where the economy of all the Russia's has been stunted by seventy-some years of communistic experimentation. At least in America that socialism is Corporate in nature and instead of having your property confiscated, you can purchase a share or more in businesses that were once privately owned! But, be careful - you might want to read about Joseph and look at the long view of Egyptian history once the Pharaoh owned everything! The four hundred and more years it took Egypt to recover from Joseph's work allowed Israel to live in peace and grow strong and prosper.
In every age and every place we ignore God's principles to our peril. And yet, God is all powerful, as Joseph explained to his brothers, and as Habakkuk well understands, God is able to turn any event to His ultimate providential purpose. And for that purpose Habakkuk trusts in God and patiently waits in his watch tower. In verses two and three of Chapter Two, the God of heaven tells Habakkuk that His Word will come to him who waits.
While each vision may be for an appointed time, the outworking of history is in the trusted hands of our Almighty Father in heaven. Like Habakkuk, we reason as best as we are able from the laws and revelation of our God, and then we wait for God's will to happen. In the meantime what are we to be doing? "How shall we then live?" as Francis Schaeffer so beautifully put it. Everything we have read and said last week and this is to lead up to the first verse that we consider in the third sermon of our series. Look ahead to the last phrase of verse four: "The just shall live by his faith." What a wonderful text, a text that turned the world upside down at the beginning of the Reformation. A text that can turn a life around and even a culture if the Spirit wills it!
You see, God has a purpose in History and He earnestly desires that His people, who believe in Him will apply His word to their lives, their families and their countries. We have only to consider the generation in the Sixteenth Century who earnestly sought the God of heaven and earth in faith and received the blessings that came to them in putting all things under His feet. Do your realize that once all heaven broke out in the thinking man's revival of the Reformation that out of that great historic event we received the blessings of capitalism and a republican form of government! All that we are, all that we were has come from the very hand of God through the working out of His providence. Yes, there were very many anciene regimes that collapsed and foundered when they challenged the Word of God. And so will the cultural despisers of Christianity in our age come to a sad end whenever the God of Heaven announces - enough!
Just seeing what God did with the former Soviet Empire was so exciting in the late eighties, I can hardly wait to see what He has in store for our own American/NATO version of things. As we wait for the working out of God's purpose, let us make certain of one thing - that we trust Him to do rightly because that is His true nature. The Awesome, Holy God of all Creation can only do right. May His hand work out His purpose even in our midst today.
Resources Used:
Baker, David W. Tyndale Old Testament Commenteries: Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah.
Boice, James M. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary.
Places Preached:
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America)
Box 13926 -- Columbus, OH 43213
Hab01b 13 June 99
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