God replies when we pray. But are we open to his answer being surprising, even shocking?
Read: Habakkuk 1: 5-11
We all have expectations about the way God will answer our prayers. “God has done it this way before”, we tell ourselves, “so he’ll likely do it that way again.”
But God won’t be tied down by our expectations. He could answer Habakkuk’s prayer in myriad ways, but the way he chooses is quite shocking to Habakkuk…it blows his expectations out of the water.
“Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.”
God says he’ll raise up a secular nation from far beyond Judah’s religious world and that they will be the means of God enacting the change of heart that his people need. The problem is the result of bad leadership, so when Babylon invades, the leaders (the problem) will be carried off into exile, while the ordinary people (the sufferers) will be left to reclaim the things that violence and lack of justice has deprived them of.
So, God answers our prayers, often in surprising ways. And the same God is at work and able to work in and through and despite the political power plays of today’s world.
Have you ever had experience of God working in ways that are surprisingly unlikely? How do you feel about the suggestion that God will work through secular institutions and individuals to bring things that are ultimately for everyone’s good?
If we want to enjoy a close relationship with God, sometimes we’ll have to wrestle with God when we just don’t understand what he’s doing (or not doing, in this case).
Read: Habakkuk 1: 1-4
Habakkuk’s name means “to embrace” or “to wrestle” in the original Hebrew. He certainly seems to live up to his name in his relationship with God. In order to enjoy the embrace of a close relationship with God, Habakkuk knows it is necessary to wrestle with some difficult questions about the way God does some things or doesn’t do others.
Phil Moore, in his book “Straight to the Heart of The Minor Prophets” reminds us that, “a relationship with God isn’t first and foremost about the things you believe about him, but about the conversations you enjoy with him.”
Habakkuk certainly speaks how he feels, and means what he prays, with courageous honesty before God. The issue here is about one of the biggest practical and intellectual problems people have with belief in a God of love…the problem of evil.
Habakkuk asks God why it is that he sees all the evil in the world and does…nothing. The catalogue of evil includes violence, evil deeds, misery, destruction, arguing, fighting, no justice…in short, “ the wicked far outnumber the righteous”.
What’s interesting, to me, is that if, as verse one says, this is a message (the original word could be translated “burden”) that Habakkuk receives from God, then effectively Habakkuk is inspired by God to complain about God. In that sense it is very like the honest language of many of the Psalms.
For example, Psalm 13 begins: “O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?” Have a look for yourself and see how like Habakkuk’s question it is.
It seems that God wants us to ask these difficult questions, and not pray dishonestly, pretending everything is fine and we’re living victorious lives. He even inspires a prophet to ask a question that has been asked myriad times since.
Do you have difficult questions about God and his ways that you have simply pushed into the dark corners of your mind so you can avoid them? They may be things that cause you to doubt and struggle with your faith, they may seem too painful to bring into the light of day. God wants each of us to have honest and open relationships with him, and longs to brings us closer. Are you prepared to take the risk of sharing these things honestly with God, so that he can increase our trust even if we can’t fully understand?
Nahum – warning oppressors, comforting the oppressed
When Jonah took God’s message to Nineveh the people repented and turned to God. But did their change of heart last?
Read Nahum 1: 9-15
Although both prophets were sent to take God’s message to Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire, Jonah and Nahum never met.
Jonah carried God’s message to Assyria in around 780 BC. The people heard the message and responded with repentance and turning to God. In the years that followed the Assyrian Empire grew and prospered, but as it did so, the people forgot about God and returned to the violence and oppression that God had sent Jonah to condemn.
So, more than a hundred years later, in about 630 BC God sent Nahum to remind the Assyrians that he’s been watching and waiting, patiently giving them time to remember and repent again. But he also tells them that time is running out.
Intertwined with the prophecy against Assyria, there are also words of hope and encouragement for the people of Judah, who have looked on in horror at the atrocities committed by Assyria, with a sinking feeling that they may be next.
They watched as Assyria conquered the kingdom of Aram in 732 BC, then later destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel, in 722 BC, wiping the kingdom from the map and carrying off the survivors to Assyria. Then in 701 BC they themselves come within a whisker of being completely defeated and overrun by the Assyrians. That time they were saved by a last-minute miracle (read about it in 2 Kings18: 13 to 19: 37). Judah was thankful for the reprieve but knew it would only be a matter of time before the Assyrians returned.
So, Nahum’s reminder that God may be patient but he’s also powerful, and well able to sort out evil Assyria, is a message of hope for Judah. Soon, they will see the sudden and unexpected downfall of the mighty Assyrian Empire, and this time there will be no escape, their “injury is fatal”.
When we hear the things God says to us, we may respond in a variety of ways:
“The farmer plants the Word. Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.
[16] “And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel. When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
[18] “The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
[20] “But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.”
Mark 4:14,16,18,20 MSG
I guess for the Assyrians, their response to God’s message was something along the lines of verses 16 and 17. Are there any areas of my life where I may be guilty of the same kind of responses.
Pilgrim Traveller 