I wrote a four-day reflection on the book of Habakkuk in January of 2020. I had just begun my second semester at UNLV. There were whispers of a strange new virus coming out of China, but no hint at how that news might unfold. Reports of anger, division, injustice, and violence dominated the nightly news. Politicians raged. Students insisted on their rights. Civil discourse disappeared. Nothing new under the sun. I had time to think about the notion that people really are pretty self-centered by nature, and unless they were taught otherwise, a steady decline in civilization was inevitable.
What I wrote in those pre-pandemic days still holds. COVID protocols may have accelerated the deterioration of society, but human nature and the drive for influence and power made it happen. Yes, there are nice people everywhere. A lot of them write on Substack. But power corrupts, and it's clear that the people in power today are corrupted by the power they wield. A look at the current nonsense in Congress is just one point of evidence that nice people don't last there. The more outrageous the behavior, the more contentious the rhetoric, the more obvious it is. And that's both sides of the aisle.
Add a crumbling economy, violence in schools, children being abused by both miscreant parents and the social scientists, and an incessant pursuit of death amidst a crisis of isolation and mental illness, and we have everything we need for utter collapse. How long can these things continue?
"How long?"
Habakkuk asked the question sometime around 600 b.c.e. but we're still asking. Why doesn't God do something? Why do the wicked people seem to thwart justice and ignore the law without penalty? How long will God let destruction and violence pervert justice? When will the laws be upheld? Why doesn't God listen?
That was Habakkuk's question, too. The nation of Judah sat in an immoral morass, where ethics were ignored and the law of God ignored. The prophet, Habakkuk didn't understand why God allowed His people to enact violence against each other in direct contradiction to the Commandments they all knew. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians; had the kings of Judah learned nothing?
Evidently not. God told Habakkuk, "Pay attention. It's about to get real" and then laid out the plan. It was not exactly what Habakkuk expected (Habakkuk 1:5-11). In a nutshell, God was about to let the Marduk-worshipping, witchcraft-practicing, violence-loving Chaldeans conquer Israel. This conquest led to a Babylonian captivity that lasted a generation. Wait, what?
That doesn't make sense (which Habakkuk says in verses 12-17), but that's because Habakkuk (like all of us) was limited to a finite and limited understanding of human history and future.
Sometimes, when things look dismal, God's work in our lives doesn't line up with our expectations. It is during those moments that we need to remember that God's thoughts and ways are so much more than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9.) The will of God is to draw each person into a relationship, which can only happen through repentance (Isaiah 55:6-7). And sometimes we don't pay attention to God's holiness and ultimate justice until something drastic happens. It's still really hard to wrap my brain around, to be honest. But that's where trust in God and faith in His character has to take precedence over our own limited understanding. (Romans 3:21-26).
Post-pandemic and in another contentious election year in the US, trust and faith in God is more important than ever. Not only that, but individual believers need each other in a community of Jesus-followers to stand together against the evil we see in our leadership. We know God will prevail, and in the meantime, we need to comfort each other by speaking Truth and worshiping the Lord of all Creation in spite of the culture falling into pieces all around.
What you wrote is so true: "And sometimes we don't pay attention to God's holiness and ultimate justice until something drastic happens."
Such a good word for now Resharing.