FBC Morning Light – December 6, 2022

Habakkuk’s Complaint Over Violence and Injustice

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. So let me ask you, can you relate to this? Okay, let me read this for you. It says, why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me.

There is strife and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, therefore perverse judgment proceeds. Can you relate to that?

If you can't, maybe you don't watch the news or read any kind of a news magazine or, you know, listen to what's going on in this world and in our own nation, right? Yeah, we can relate to this. We certainly can.

It seems that more and more violence and injustice are on the increase. Iniquity abounds. Freaks can bully with impunity. They get away with just about anything. Not only does it seem like the law doesn't do anything about it, or very much about it, but, you know, where is the Lord in this?

This is the dilemma that confronted the prophet Habakkuk. He's looking at his own nation, and he's seeing all of this stuff, and it seems like the Lord isn't doing anything about it. So he cries out to the Lord and says, how long shall I cry and you will not hear?

God’s Hidden Work and the Coming Judgment on the Chaldeans

All this stuff is going on, and you're not doing anything about it. There is more going on behind the scenes than we know. This is what the Lord communicates back to Habakkuk. In the next several verses here, in Habakkuk chapter 1, verses 5 to 11, the Lord says, look, I am involved behind the scenes, and I'm going to eventually bring forth judgment.

You're not going to believe that judgment, which shall fall. The Lord goes on to explain to Habakkuk that he's going to use the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. This again causes Habakkuk a little trouble.

He says, I don't understand this. The Chaldeans, the Babylonians, they're more corrupt and more evil than even we are, and you're going to use them to chasten us? Again, the prophet doesn't get it. Again, the Lord graciously responds and says, don't worry about that.

I have the big picture in mind, not a brief interlude in parenthesis and time. I have the big picture in mind, and in the big picture, yes, the Babylonians are going to be dealt with as well. The Lord's ways in his dealings with evil people and nations, sometimes he uses evil people to bring judgment upon other people that maybe aren't as bad or evil, in our way of thinking, as the evil people who are bringing judgment.

This is an enigma to us. It's enigma, because it is because our sight line is just too short. We can't see beyond that. We don't know what the Lord is going to do even with those bad, evil people. So what do we need to do?

Waiting on the Watchtower and the Earth Filled with God’s Glory

We need to do what Habakkuk did. In chapter 2, verses 1 -3, he says, okay, I'm going to just wait and watch. He says, I will stand my watch, set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected.

And then the Lord came and answered. There's an interesting verse in chapter 2, verse 14, and it says, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

There's a couple of ways of thinking of that verse. One of them is in a very optimistic, positive sort of way, where we can look forward to the expansion of the gospel to reach every creature on the planet, and the vast majority of the people come to faith in Christ, and there's this glorious turning to the Lord in the receiving of the gospel.

But I don't really think that's the way to interpret this verse. I think we have to interpret it in light of its context. And in light of the context, it's a context of judgment. And so what this verse is telling us is that the way that the glory of the Lord is going to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and that the knowledge of the Lord is going to fill the earth, the way that's going to happen is through his divine judgment.

There will be no escaping of the fact that this is the work of God. This is the work of God. Finally, he's going to bring justice to the planet, and it will be unmistakably the work of God. Everybody will know.

The knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth, and his indisputable power and majesty will be in the awareness of everybody. It will be inescapable. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

This is a great promise, but it's coming at a great cost. How vital it is that we know the Lord, that we're trusting in him and trusting in Christ as our Savior, that this kind of judgment doesn't come upon the righteous.

He brings it upon the wicked. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your justice, for your righteousness, for your faithfulness. We thank you that we can trust you, even in these days where it seems like iniquity is abounding and violence and conflict and just all kinds of crazy stuff going on in our world.

We don't see any end to it. We just see it expanding. Help us, Lord, to trust you and what you're doing in all of this, and what your plans are, even behind the scenes. Give us faith to trust you more.

This we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Have a great Tuesday. I trust the Lord will bless you. Good day.