Where do you put Trust?

Habakkuk 1:1-4

The first words we hear from this prophet is a prayer in verses 2-4; “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?  Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?  Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?  Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.  So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.  For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”

This prayer was sometime in 600 B.C. by a prophet named Habakkuk, but is it that uncommon to your prayers?  How many times have you prayed and it seemed the heavens were closed to your prayers?  Or you witnessed evil and violence taking place, as was done last year when a wicked man entered a church and mowed down people who had come to worship.  Often we ask the question why, why did my child have to suffer, why did my friend kill himself, why did you allow a godly man to die so young, yes, we have questions?   God seems not to hear, as was the case with Habakkuk.

Then like Habakkuk we get a word from God but it is often not the word we were hoping for.  Shall we listen to how God replied; “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.  For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on.  Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.  They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.  At Kings, they scoff, and at rulers, they laugh.  They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.  Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

An example from our time and only used as such would be if God told one of us that He was raising up China to march through the earth and seek to kill and destroy and take what they wanted.  Once more, I am only using them as an example of what God told Habakkuk about the Chaldeans.  For like the Chaldeans, the rulers of China believe their might is their god.  If you put yourself in Habakkuk’s shoes, do you want God to rise up an army to come against you?

This thought is worth pondering; do you trust in God or the might of the United States of America?  I’m fearful that too many who go by the name Christian put faith in the United States military and economic power.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice