Jump Start # 3463

Habakkuk 1:2 “How long, O Lord, will I call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ Yet You do not save.”

The cry of violence. It is something that fills our times and the pages of history. Shootings and killings are so common that we hardly pay attention. Most major cities have seen an increase in murder. The aggressive attack upon Israel in October was more than war, it was barbaric. The innocent suffered.

Have you ever just looked at the violent acts of mankind as recorded in the Bible? Here is a sampling:

• It starts with Cain murdering his brother, Abel (Gen 4:8)
• Pharoah commanded all the boys that were born were to be thrown into the Nile River (Ex 1:22)
• The rape of Dinah (Gen 34:2) and the rape of Tamar (2 Sam 13:14)
• The dismembered concubine (Judges 19:29-30)
• Samson’s killing a thousand Philistines with jawbone of a donkey (Judges 16:15)
• Adonibezek had this thumbs and big toes cut off (Judges 1:6-7)
• Abimelech killed seventy of his brothers (Judges 9:5)
• Jael hammered a tent peg into the head of Sisera (Judges 4:21)
• Gouging of Samson’s eyes by the Philistines (Judges 16:21)
• King Saul threw a spear at David to kill him (1 Sam 20:33)
• Two women boiled and ate a baby (2 Kings 6:29)
• Absalom was killed with spears as he hung in tree (2 Sam 18:14)
• Jezebel was thrown out a window (2 Kings 9:30-34)
• King Manassah sacrificed his own child in a pagan worship (2 Kings 21:6)
• Zedekiah saw his sons killed and then his eyes were put out (2 Kings 25:7)
• Jeremiah was put into a cistern and left there (Jeremiah 38:6)
• The men who accused Daniel were thrown into the lion’s den, along with their families (Dan 6:24)
• Nehemiah hit and pulled the out the hair of some (Nehemiah 13:25)
• Beheading of the prophet John (Mt 14:10)
• Herod’s slaughter of baby boys in Bethlehem (Mt 2:16)
• Stephen was stoned (Acts 7:58)
• The apostle James was executed (Acts 12:2)
• Jesus was crucified (Mt 27:50)

Some lessons we learn from this:

First, violence is not new. It has been around for a long, long time. We may be more aware of it today because of our advanced media, but hatred, violence and evil have walked the halls of mankind for most generations. Without God, people act like animals.

Second, without God, there is no bottom to how far some will fall. Wicked and evil fills the hearts of many people and their thoughts, plans and intentions are to do more and more evil. There is no limit to how bad some bad people become.

Third, many innocent people have been hurt by evil in this world. The wicked like to prey upon the vulnerable and the innocent. They have no mercy in their hearts and they live without any compassion.

Fourth, God is aware of all these wicked deeds and every person will stand before the Lord in the judgment. There is a penalty and a consequence that follows evil.

We must pray for our safety and be there to encourage and help others who have been hurt. It is not our right to return evil upon evil. God has a system in place to deal with evil, and even if that doesn’t work, God knows and God will bring His justice upon the wicked some day.

Our verse has the prophet questioning why God wasn’t doing something. The following verses remind us that God was doing something His answer was not what the prophet expected. “You would not believe if you were told,” is Heaven’s explanation. God was doing things, even thought the prophet could not see that. And, today, it very well may be the same for us. We wonder why there is so much wickedness and crime. Why doesn’t God do something? He may be doing something and we are not aware of it. He may be doing something and we cannot see it.

There is a day approaching when we will be separated from the wicked of this world. We will be ushered into the home of God where we will forever be safe.

Roger