Jump Start # 669

Habakkuk 1:5-6 “ Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days—You would not believe if you were told. “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs.”

One of our Jump Start readers asked me to write some articles from the book of Habakkuk. Children love to say that name, “Habakkuk.” It’s fun to pronounce. The prophet Habakkuk was writing to Judah and foretelling of the invasion of the Babylonians. This book predates Daniel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Habakkuk begins with the prophet wondering why God doesn’t do something about the violence in the land. From his perspective, God was out of touch. Our verses today reveal two wonderful lessons for us.

First, “I am doing something.” God responds. He has not been silent nor unaware of what is going on. I love the powerful words here: Look…observe…be astonished…wonder. Then there is that wonderful expression, “You would not believe if you were told.” An answer was coming. It was not the way that Habakkuk would have thought or imagined.

Second, God was using the Chaldeans, or Babylonians as the answer to Habakkuk’s plea to do something. Although Habakkuk could not see it, far away in Babylon, troops were marching and things were happening. God was using a foreign nation, and a wicked one at that, to deal with His people. God doesn’t only use His people to accomplish what He needs. He has done this time and again.

God used a group of foreign sailors to deal with run away Jonah. God used lepers, gentiles and tax collectors to open the eyes of the disciples. God is not limited to us. God can and will use other people to fulfill His will.

That thought troubles us sometimes and it did Habakkuk. The Babylonians were described by God as: fierce and impetuous. They were on a mission to take places that were not theirs. This is how the three Jewish youths and Daniel get to Babylon. This is the beginning of a seventy year captivity for Judah. This is all part of Judah’s history. And behind it all, was God. When the time was enough and God was through with Babylon, He would allow another nation, the Persians, to come to power. This allowed the people of Judah to return home and rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. History. Wars. Kings. Battles. God.

Our world seems much smaller than Habakkuk’s. We have instant news around the clock. An earthquake in far away lands is reported immediately across the world. Plane crashes, the deaths of prominent people, clashes in the streets and bombings are a part of our nightly news. These things come to us from far away places. We are more aware today of nations building armies, moving ships, and foreign policies than ever before. Our instant news, does not remove God from the picture. The kings heart is still like channels of water in God’s hands. God still removes kings as He chooses. God remains upon the throne.

What does all of this mean to you and I? Often, we are not aware of what God is doing. He is not responsible to us, nor answers to us. He is doing things that we are not aware of. Our prayers may call upon God to help us. It seems like nothing is being done. We can get discouraged. We wonder if it is something with us. Is our faith not right? Could it be God doesn’t like us any more? Our thoughts run to the extremes. Then we are reminded of Habakkuk. We often stand where he did. Why isn’t God doing something. The answer is, “He is.” You wouldn’t believe it if He told you.

God is so far ahead of us that we often don’t see it. When Jesus told the disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread…” have you ever grasped how far into the future God has been working before we even pray that prayer? The seed had been planted a long time ago. The wheat grew to maturity. That took some months. It was harvested, taken to a mill, ground and sold. Some one used it to bake bread. The bread was put on our plate and we bow our heads and thank the Lord for the food we have before us, never seeing the rains that it took to grow it, the harvest, the planting, the baking. All we see is the bread on the plate. God was busy long before we bowed our heads to make that bread possible. And that’s simply bread. Take something more serious and more complex. A child. A person coming to Christ. Finding a mate. Men being appointed elders. All of these things took months and years of development before the results became known. We see someone get baptized on a Sunday morning. It’s exciting. There were many things going on in that person’s heart to get them to that point. God is doing things that we do not even see.

While David was watching his father’s sheep in the hills of Judea, God was preparing him to be the next King of Israel. David didn’t know that. God did. There were things that happened ten to twenty years in advance that took David from a shepherd to king.

All of this tells us that God is doing things even today that I am not aware of. He is doing things now that may not become visible for another twenty years. Things happen to us and we may not see the hand of God in it. A move to a new city. A new job. A new friend. Things here and things there—yet things we would not believe if we were told.

Don’t give up on God. Because you do not see the answer to your prayer today, do not feel that He has turned His back on you. He may well be doing things, even this very moment, that you would not believe. The wheat may still be growing in the field for your future bread. God knows these things. Trust God. His plans may include people that you would not use. God can. He may send help from a place you never considered. Trust God. Don’t give up.

You wouldn’t believe it if He told you!

Roger