WHEN MY COUNTRY FALLS APART

By Rev. Richard Jones

rec 07-05-20

WHEN MY COUNTRY FALLS APART

Habakkuk Chapters 1-3

THE CONTEXT   Jeremiah 22: 13-19

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,¹⁴ who says, ”˜I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,”™who cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.¹⁵ Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.¹⁷ But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence.”¹⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:“They shall not lament for him, saying, ”˜Ah, my brother!”™ or ”˜Ah, sister!”™ They shall not lament for him, saying, ”˜Ah, lord!”™ or ”˜Ah, his majesty!”™¹⁹ With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16

All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

THE COMPLAINT   Habakkuk 1: 2-4  

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?³ Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.⁴ So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

THE COUNSEL   Habakkuk 1: 5-11

“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.⁶ For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.⁷ They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.⁹ They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.¹⁰ At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.
¹¹ Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

THE CONFUSION   Habakkuk 1: 12-13

Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.¹³ You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you  idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

THE CONVERSATION   Habakkuk 2: 1-4  

I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. ² And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.³ For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end””it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.⁴ “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.

THE CONSEQUENCE   Habakkuk 2: 8-14

Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.⁹ “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!
¹⁰ You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life.¹¹ For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond. ¹² “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!¹³ Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?¹⁴ For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

THE CONFIDENCE   Habakkuk 3: 16-19  

I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

• Stand for God’s truth…

• Seek God’s mercy…2 Chronicles 7:14

 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

• Submit to God’s Sovereignty…Romans 11: 33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”