HABAKKUK
GOD ANSWERS THE PROPHETS QUESTION
“…Look among the nations! Watch! Be horrified! Be frightened speechless!
For I am accomplishing a work in your days—
You would not believe it even if you were told! For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That grim and impetuous
people Who march throughout the earth, To take
possession of dwelling places that are not theirs. They
are terrifying and feared; Their justice and authority
originate with themselves. Their horses are faster than
leopards, And quicker than wolves in the evening.
Their horsemen charge along, 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 gather captives like sand. They
make fun of kings, And dignitaries are an object of
laughter to them. They laugh at every fortress,
Then heap up dirt and capture it. Then
they fly along like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god…” (Habakkuk
1:5-11 NASB).
*
Habakkuk KNEW God’s JUSTICE would, no doubt, be served, but it was HIS TIMING, that always CONCERNS his people.
God doesn’t HANDLE injustice in the WAY or in the time frame his people would handle injustice!
Often, while WAITING on God’s timing, his people WITNESS incredible injustices and utterly depraved acts of wickedness against others, the nation, the creation, themselves, those they love, etc.
Thus, EVIL was OBVIOUS and RAMPANT upon the earth. God’s answer to Habakkuk starts in Chapter 1 verse 5: “…Look among the nations! Watch! Be horrified! Be frightened speechless! For I am accomplishing a work in your days—You would not believe it even if you were told! …” (Habakkuk 1:5-11 NASB).
God “….is longsuffering to us-ward, NOT WILLING that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance…” (2 Peter 3:9 KJV). “… the longsuffering of our Lord IS SALVATION…” (2 Peter 3:15 KJV).
“…Look around at the godless nations. Look long and hard. Brace yourself for a shock. Something’s about to take place and you’re going to find it hard to believe…” (Habakkuk 2:5 MSG).
“…Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you…” (Habakkuk 2:5 KJV).
God informed Habakkuk about a NATION of wicked people who were godless, unrepentant, and heathen and he was going to allow them to RISE UP in control.
A heathen DOES NOT belong to God, the Holy Spirit, or his FAMILY. They are lost and spiritually DEAD souls and were NOT repentance, and therefore godless. Yet, God’s JUSTICE will be UPHELD, from allowing this EVIL nation to RISE-UP and take control over his “own” people. “... judgment and justice will be upheld…” (Job 36:16-21 NLT).
This wicked nation would ignore and ABUSE God’s opportunity for salvation and will FACE his JUSTICE. In fact, without repentance, they were CONDEMNED already.“...For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son...” (John 3:17-18 NIV).
“…Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you…” (Habakkuk 2:5 KJV).
“…Look around at the godless nations. Look long and hard. Brace yourself for a shock. Something’s about to take place and you’re going to find it hard to believe…” (Habakkuk 2:5 MSG).
“…Look among the nations! Watch! Be horrified! Be frightened speechless! For I am accomplishing a work in your days—You would not believe it even if you were told! …” (Habakkuk 1:5-11 NASB).
The JUDGEMENT of this heathen NATION will be PUBLIC, because he told Habakkuk to WATCH, REGARD, and LOOK. God has made this kind of spectacle before of heathen nations. “…Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt…” (Deuteronomy 29:24-25 NASB).
“…All the nations will ask, “Why did God do this to this country? What on earth could have made him this angry?” Your children will answer, “Because they abandoned the Covenant of the God of their ancestors that he made with them after he got them out of Egypt; they went off and worshiped other gods, submitted to gods they’d never heard of before, gods they had no business dealing with. So God’s anger erupted against that land and all the curses written in this book came down on it. God, furiously angry, pulled them, roots and all, out of their land and dumped them in another country, as you can see…” (Deuteronomy 29:24-25 MSG).
“…regard, and wonder marvelously…” (Habakkuk 2:5 KJV).“…Brace yourself for a shock.…” (Habakkuk 2:5 MSG). “…Watch! Be horrified! Be frightened speechless…” (Habakkuk 1:5-11 NASB).
Not only would Habakkuk WITNESS this punishment, but it would happen during HIS DAY upon earth.
“…for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you…” (Habakkuk 2:5 KJV). “…Something’s about to take place and you’re going to find it hard to believe…” (Habakkuk 2:5 MSG). “…For I am accomplishing a work in your days—You would not believe it even if you were told! …” (Habakkuk 1:5-11 NASB).
The DAY of RECKONING for that group of wicked people, in Habakkuk’s day, was UPON THEM. Their TIME was up, and God’s threatened JUDGEMENT was NIGH. “…You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation…” (Matthew 23:36 MSG).
“…And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation…” (Matthew 23:30-36 NASB).
“…Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation…” (Matthew 23:30-36 NASB). When men and women inherit and take on the wickedness of past generations, by continuing their EVIL atrocities, they also inherit the SAME JUDGEMENT.
Everyone who chooses to identify themselves with the heathen nation, contributes their own sins to the debt of sin already owed by their forefathers.
The unrighteous, ungodly, and unjust people who DO WRONG often SEEM to go on and on and on without FACING or ANSWERING to God’s system of JUSTICE.
King AHAB, an EVIL leader, reigned for YEARS in Samaria and God’s people “SEEMED” to be the one’s FACING God’s wrath. “...In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years...” (1 Kings 16:29 NIV).
“...Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah. Ahab son of Omri was king over Israel for twenty-two years. He ruled from Samaria. Ahab son of Omri did even more open evil before God than anyone yet—a new champion in evil!
It wasn’t enough for him to copy the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat; no, he went all out, first by marrying Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then by serving and worshiping the god Baal.
He built a temple for Baal in Samaria, and then furnished it with an altar for Baal. Worse, he went on and built a shrine to the sacred whore Asherah. He made the God of Israel angrier than all the previous kings of Israel put together...” (1 Kings 16:29-33 MSG).
The righteous cried out like Habakkuk: “...How long, Lord, will the wicked be jubilant?...” (Psalms 94:3 NIV). “...God, the wicked get away with murder— how long will you let this go on? They brag and boast and crow about their crimes!...” (Psalms 94:3-4 MSG).
“...But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to then and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?” This is what the wicked are like— always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply...” (Psalms 73:2-16 NIV).
God, the Holy Spirit, is a God of JUSTICE. Looking at the wicked, their evil deeds, their worldly privileges, or their temporary comforts, does not look like JUDGEMENT to God’s people, but FAVOR.
God’s system of spiritual justice is WORKING, right NOW as it was in Habakkuk’s day! “...[when]... I entered the sanctuary of God (his presence); then I understood their (the wicked’s) final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise,
Lord, you will despise them as fantasies. When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds...” (Psalms 73:17-27 NIV).
The 21st century heathens have heathens as their ancestral EVIL forefathers and are, therefore, ONE family in the eyes of the God of JUSTICE.
Repentance, through Jesus, is the ONLY way out, but if they harden their hearts, God’s JUSTICE is their guaranteed REWARD since they decided to share in the guilty behaviors of their heathen forefathers.
If present-day heathens are determined to repeat the wicked, EVIL acts and behaviors of their forefathers, their punishment will be spiritual death upon earth and throughout all of eternity. “…Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation…” (Matthew 23:30-36 NASB).
Wickedness is allowed to accumulate or be stored up from one generation to another until it reaches its capacity, then JUSTICE must be satisfied. “... But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will judge everyone according to what they have done. ....” (Romans 2:5-13 NLT).
The blood and wickedness of the past will also be PAID by the “present” generation of heathens. “...he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile....” (Romans 2:5-13 NLT).
“…If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left … For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God…" (Hebrews 10:26-31 NIV).
Many heathen nations FOLLOW evil, false gods, wicked leaders, and some of God’s people end up following the heathens too. “...[YOU]… FORGOT all about ME,” says the Lord…” (Hosea 2:13 NLT). “…for years on end my people have FORGOTten ME…” (Jeremiah 2:32 NLT). “…They ABANDONED ME and did not obey my word….” (JEREMIAH 16:11 NLT). “…They ABANDONED the Lord… they turned their backs on him….” (2 Chronicles 29:6 NLT).
“... For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness...” (Romans 1:18 NASB).
An EVIL HEART of UNBELIEF is the ROAD to APOSTASY for ANYONE or EVERYONE, who is UNREPENTANT and who willfully and voluntarily RETURN to or REMAIN in a SINFUL LIFESTYLE. “...Take heed, BRETHREN (fellow believers), lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God...” (Hebrews 3:12 KJV).
The ruin of wicked people and the ruin of some of God’s people is IDOLATRY or ANY “creation” (person or thing) that makes someone REJECT the gospel of truth. “…EXCEPT YE REPENT (change your mind; your direction), ye shall all likewise PERISH (YOU WON’T MAKE IT TO THE DESTINATION: (ETERNAL LIFE)…” (Luke 13:3 KJV).
“…For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4 KJV). “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Corinthians 10:11 KJV).
“…Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily (because of God’s willingness to suffer long) …the HEART of the sons of men (women) is fully set in them to [continue]... do evil….” (Ecclesiastes 8:11 KJV).
God, the Holy Spirit WILL wait for your repentance until the DAY OF REDEMPTION and then it will be TOO LATE to turn around or to have a reconciliation with him “…For the vision (the DAY of REDEMPTION) ... [is] yet FOR AN APPOINTED TIME, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, WAIT FOR IT; because IT WILL SURELY COME, it will not tarry….” (Habakkuk 2:3 KJV).
“...the TARES (heathens) are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the END of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom THINGS that OFFEND, and them which do INIQUITY; and shall CAST them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth...” (Matthew 13:40-42 KJV). “ ... in the PROCESS of TIME “IT” CAME TO PASS…” (Genesis 4:3 KJV).
God’s answer to Habakkuk started, in verse 5, as a reassurance that his JUSTICE would, no doubt, be served upon the heathens.
He promises his VENGEANCE will no
longer tarry but will COME in Habakkuk’s generation and TIME. “…Look among the nations! Watch! Be horrified! Be
frightened speechless!
For I am accomplishing a work in your days—
they will be held guilty…” (Habakkuk 1:5-11 NASB).
HABAKKUK DIDN’T “LIKE” GOD’S ANSWER.
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