SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/2/2016
8:14 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 How Could God Be So Inconsistent
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Habakkuk
1:12-13
Message of
the verses: “12 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my
God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge;
And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. 13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And
You cannot look on
wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal
treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more
righteous than they?”
We begin a new section from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline on
Habakkuk and the title of this section is in the “focus” section of this
Spiritual Diary. This new section
actually covers the rest of chapter one, verses 12-17, but we will only look at
verses 12-13 in this SD, and the sub-section is entitled “The Holiness of God.”
Dr. Wiersbe previews this second main section with
these words: “As far as Habakkuk was
concerned, God’s first answer hadn’t been an answer at all. In fact, it only created a new problem that
was even more puzzling: inconsistency on
the part of God. How could a holy God
use a wicked nation to punish His own special people?” This is probably the main question that we
find in the book of Habakkuk, along with the first question that Habakkuk asked
God which is what was He going to do with His sinful people, or why has He not
brought revival into their hearts? I
have to say that I am glad for the book of Habakkuk, along with the book of Job
which has some similar things in it that answer questions that we want to ask
God in them. We also got some
interesting questions from the book of Jonah, questions that Jonah had, like
why did God bring revival to the Assyrians when they were such a wicked people?
G. Campbell Morgan wrote “Men of faith are always
the men who have to confront problems,” and Dr. Wiersbe adds “for if you
believe in God, you sometimes wonder why He allows certain things to happen. But keep in mind that there’s a difference
between doubt and unbelief. Like
Habakkuk, the doubter questions God and may even debate with God, but the
doubter doesn’t abandon God. But
unbelief is rebellion against God, a refusal to accept what He says and
does. Unbelief is an act of the will,
while doubt is born out of a troubled mind and a broken heart.”
What we get from these verses is actually a theology
lesson from the pen of Habakkuk, as seen from his argument. Point one is that the Babylonians are more
wicked than that of the people of Judah, so comes the question how could God
use evil Gentiles to punish His own chosen people? We know from reading the prophets and also
the books of history in the Bible that Judah surely deserved punishment, the
question is could God find a better instrument to punish them? Habakkuk writes in 1:12 that the nation of
Judah will not die which answers the question as to whether or not He will
totally destroy all of those from Judah.
We know from our studies that God has a purpose for the nation of Israel
and we have even seen what that purpose is from studies in the books of Romans,
Daniel, Mark, and Revelation. However
before all of His purposes are fulfilled in Israel they must suffer greatly
through some painful trials.
As we read through the Scriptures we read that God
had used other tools to chasten His people such as war, natural calamities,
also the preaching of the prophets but the people would not listen. We know that the greater the light the more responsibility
that people have, and Israel had received great light as they have the written
Word of God with all of the perfect laws in it and they also had great prophets
and the patriarchs, prophets like Moses, and then Isaiah, Jeremiah and
others. The main difference between
Judah and the Babylonians was that the Babylonians were idol worshipers because
they did not know any better, while Judah worshiped idols when they knew that they
should not do so. Now because the
Babylonians worshiped idols did not excuse them for Paul wrote about this in
Romans 1:18 and following “18 For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within
them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the
world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are
without excuse.” These verses show the
conduct of the Babylonians, but did not excuse them from what they did. I
realize that the verses in Romans were written much later on in history, but
the truth is still the same for those who lived before it was written by Paul.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “When God’s people deliberately
disobey Him, they sin against a flood of light and an ocean of love.”
We will continue our
theology lesson from Habakkuk in our next SD.
2/2/2016 8:51 PM
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