Spring26 Bible School- Habakkuk -Meg Nurcombe

Here is a short reflection on the Minor Prophet Habakkuk as part of Spring Bible School

Transcript

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So that's what we're going to do at the moment. We're just going to reflect briefly on the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a short book that was written by the prophet of the same name in what was the last few decades of the Israelite freedom in the Southern Kingdom before they were captured by the Babylonians. So you can kind of like picture that after what Tim has shared tonight. But unlike many of the other prophets, Habakkuk is not an address to the people of Israel, but it's actually addressed to God and it's a conversation between God and Habakkuk. And really, as I read it, I kind of recognized that Habakkuk is a book of lament as it documents the prophet grappling with how God can be good and merciful in the face of so much injustice and suffering and impending doom, really, as the Babylonian Empire approached. In this way, Habakkuk is like many of the Psalms of Lament that we find so much comfort in. It's an example of how to actually take our questions about suffering and injustice to God and allow those questions to create a pathway into the presence of God. And so, like the Psalms of Lament, the Book of Habakkuk can help us form our prayers and guide our words as we are confronted with a world riddled with injustice and face the reality of suffering in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. So, as readers, this personal conversation between Habakkuk and God invites a response from us. In my opinion, the words of Habakkuk cannot be passively read or skimmed over. They are a provocation, they're actually an invitation for us to add our own words to Habakkuk's words, to add our own cries of lament, to add our own questions. Because despite the thousands of years that separate us from the time of the prophets, so many of our questions are the same. And we've seen this evening so many of the circumstances kind of feel the same as well. The book of Habakkuk opens with these words. Or cry to you violence and you will not save? Strife and contention arise, so the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth, for the wicked surround the righteous, and justice goes forth perverted. We don't need to look far to see the kind of suffering and injustice that Habakkuk cries out against. God replies to Habakkuk with a declaration of his sovereignty and his goodness, with the words, 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. Suffering and injustice do not get the last word. In another response to Habakkuk, when the prophet is questioning how God could let enemy nations conquer his own people, God says, Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Here God acknowledges the sin of the wicked but encourages the righteous to live by faith. And this is the message that emerges from the pages of the book. We are called to live by faith and to trust God amid suffering. Like the book of Job and the Psalms of Lament, Habakkuk's conversation with God doesn't offer an easy answer to pain, suffering, and injustice that we as the reader might have initially been looking for. What it does do, however, is allow us to see dialogue between the prophet and God, which begins with the raw wrenching questions of how long, O Lord, and will you not hear? And ends in trust and praise. The final chapter of the short book is a prayer of awe and wonder, with Habakkuk expressing the power and majesty of God. He concludes with these three beautiful verses of trust and praise. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond 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 stores, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the deers, he makes me tread on my high places. Though Habakkuk doesn't yet see the provision and abundance of the Lord, yet he praises, yet he is filled with joy and strength. Though he does not see how God is moving, yet he trusts. His last words are an expression of faith. The Lord will equip him to walk with confidence and strength. For me, the book of Habakkuk is a picture of the reality of living in this world of injustice and seeing the pain of others and experiencing our own suffering. In my opinion, the honest questions and poetic prayers of Habakkuk show us how to create something with our pain. As I said earlier, to create something that takes us into the presence of God. It teaches us how to respond to injustice, how to respond to pain. Teaches us how to cry out to God and how to be met by God and to hear his voice and surrender to his sovereignty when we don't have the answers ourselves. I prepared this reflection upon Habakkuk a few weeks ago, actually, and in between now and then I lost a much-loved family member quite suddenly. There are many experiences in life that cause us to cry out to God with questions that seem to go unanswered. And to sit by the side of someone you love as they breathe their last is definitely one of those times. Suffering, especially the suffering of those closest to you, cannot but cause us to ask, why God? Where are you God? Why death? Why pain? I want to conclude with a prayer that has been formed from these chapters of Habakkuk, as an example of how this book can incite our own words to God. So if you want to join me as we pray now. Father, God of all comfort, may our questions, may our experiences of pain and injustice take us to you and not away from you. May the chaos of the world, the conflicts and corruptions, the evil powers and the hidden exploitations, the suffering that is both far away and in our very homes and souls, may this drive us to our knees. May the pain of the world, the pain of our neighbor, and the pain inside be catalysts for greater awareness of you and greater trust in your sovereignty and goodness. Our questions belong in your presence. Our heartbreak over injustice belongs in your presence. So we ask with Habakkuk, O Lord, how long? We cry to you in the face of great violence and injustice. Will you not save? Where are you? Where are you in the conflict in the Middle East? Christ, have mercy. Where are you in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine? Christ, have mercy. Where are you in the shedding of innocent blood and in the destruction of homes and families? Christ, have mercy. God, where are you in the suffering on our own streets and in our own neighborhoods? Christ, have mercy. Where are you in the situations of the friends and family that we love and see suffer? Christ, have mercy. And God, where are you in our own suffering? In the pain we carry in our own hearts and minds and bodies. Christ, have mercy. God, in your mercy, help us to say with Habakkuk that yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deers. He makes me tread on my high places. Though we do not see, yet we praise you. In the uncertainty and vulnerability, fill us with your joy. You are our strength, and you make our feet like the deers. You make us tread on the high places. Like a deer in the mountains, you enable us to walk without stumbling. Your power enables us to walk this road and to journey on steep mountain faces with joy and freedom, because your power and your presence sustain us. So in the face of the injustice of the world and the suffering of this life, may our hearts and our lives offer up praise to you. You are good when the world is not, you are faithful when we are not, and you are sovereign when all feels lost. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. Amen. So that concludes our evening tonight. So I want to thank you all for being here and yeah, giving your time to learn together. As Tim said, next week we're here again, and we're going to be doing a deep dive into the book of Hosea, which is a sometimes provocative and polarizing book. So it should be yeah, good to make some good discussion and perhaps some disagreement, but it will be really interesting, hopefully. So yeah, hopefully see you there. But um God bless and hope you have a good rest.