Habakkuk - Living by faith

Living by faith is a bewildering venture. We rarely know what's coming next, and not many things turn out the way we anticipate. It is natural to assume that since I am God's chosen and beloved, I will get favorable treatment from the God who favors me so extravagantly. It is not unreasonable to expect that from the time that I become his follower, I will be exempt from dead ends, muddy detours, and cruel treatment from the travelers I meet daily who are walking the other direction. That God-followers don't get preferential treatment in life always comes as a surprise. But it's also a surprise to find that there are a few men and women within the BIble who show up alongside us at such moments.

The prophet Habakkuk is one of them, and a most welcome companion he is. Most prophets, most of the time, speak God's word to us. They are preachers calling us to listen to God's words of judgment and salvation, confrontation and comfort. They face us with God as he is, not as we imagine him to be. Most prophets are in-your-face assertive, not given to tact, not diplomatic, as they insist that we pay attention to God. But Habakkuk speaks our word to God. He gives voice to our bewilderment, articulates our puzzled attempts to make sense of things, faces God with our disappointment with God. He insists that God pay attention to us, and he insists with a prophet's characteristic no-nonsense bluntness.

The circumstance that aroused Habakkuk took place in the seventh century B.C. The prophet realized that God was going to use the godless military machine of Babylon to bring God's judgment on God's own people - using a godless nation to punish a godly nation. It didn't make sense, and Habakkuk was quick and bold to say so. He dared to voice his feelings that God didn't know his own God business. Not a day has passed since then that one of us hasn't picked up and repeated Habakkuk's bafflement: "God, you don't seem to make sense!"

But this prophet companion who stands at our side does something even more important. He waits and he listens. It is in his waiting and listening - which then turns into his praying - that he found himself inhabiting the large world of God's sovereignty. Only there did he eventually realize that the beliving-in-God life, the steady trusting-in-God life, is the full life, the only real life. Habakkuk started out exactly where we start out with our puzzled complaints and God-accusation, but he didn't stay there. He ended up in a world, along with us, where every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something Good.

Introduction to Habakkuk
The Message - Remix, Eugene Peterson.

Our pastor talked about Habakkuk yesterday at church, and as I got ready for bed last night I decided to give the whole book a quick read in The Message I have laying by my bed. This introduction to the book hit home with me. This man was real. He didn't just have "a word to share." He wasn't so much being prophetic and telling people what was going to happen as he was observing it and asking God, "What's up?" I love that. He truly is, as this text said, our companion through so many of our daily experiences.

One phrase my pastor used struck a chord with me... so much that I texted it to my facebook account while I was sitting in church:

"There is nothing like suffering through the silence of God."

I have some friends right now that are in this right now... some know it, some don't. I'm there myself from time to time, and sometimes for an extended time... and how true is it. The book of Habakkuk puts this into the wonderful context of our ability to question God, to approach him, and even to trust him in the silence.

While the entire book (just 3 chapters) is a great quick read, especially (for me right now) in the Message, I think the beginning and ending verses make great book-ends for it:

The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it:
God, how long do I have to cry out for help
before yuou listen?
How many times do I have to yell, "Help! Murder! Police!"
before you come to the rescue?
Why do you force me to look at evil,
stare trouble in the face day after day?
Anarchy and violence break out,
quarrels and fights all over the place.
Law and order fall to pieces.
Justice is a joke.
The wicked have the righteous hamstrung
and stand justice on its head.

Though the cherry treas don't blossom
and the strawberries don't ripen,
Though the apples are worm eaten
and the wheat fields stunted,
Though the sheep pens are sheepless
and the cattle barns empty,
I'm singing joyful praise to God.
I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.
Counting on God's Rule to prevail,
I take heart and gain strength.
I run like a dear.
I feel like I'm king of the mountain!

How do you get from point A to point B? From hopelessness to praise?

Read the book.

Wait. Listen. Pray.

Experience the God.

Hope.