The Coming Kingdom - August 29, 2021 - Malachi

Matthew 5: 17-20

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

1. Introduction

Lord Tennyson wrote these lines about reverence towards God: “I would the great world grew like thee: who growest not alone in power and knowledge, but by year and hour in reverence and charity.” Reverence is not merely a thing of words, it is an attitude of the soul which enables the whole of life and of conduct. This reminded me of a story I heard about reverence. It said “it was reverence, reverence for himself, for his work, for the Divine Presence, which by Michalangelo, when a friend chided him for paying so much attention to the hair of a statue, on the plea that it would be so high up that not one would see it. Michaelangelo answered “yes, but God will see it!” It is for us to revere God and honor Him on a daily basis. 

This was something that God’s people were having a troublesome time with in the days of Malachi. This is the last of our study of the minor prophets, at least for now. As I’ve mentioned, these small chapters at the end of the Old Testament are not very long, but their message is very strong. Malachi’s place in the Bible is at the very end of the Old Testament. Some Biblical scholars place some of the writings of the Old Testament, such as Ezra and Chronicles during the time period between the Testaments, but it is clear to us that no matter if these writings were put down after the book of Malachi, these were the last prophetic messages that God allowed to His people before the years of silence. 

Can you imagine what God’s chosen people must have thought when they realized that God was not sending prophets to them? I personally believe that they went back and looked at these words that we can read in this chapter.  Can you imagine the silence? It’s hard to think that these people had gotten so far from God, had gotten so arrogant about the way they approached the creator of everything that God was silent to them. But as we will learn from this book, there was a great deal of dishonor going on, even by those who were supposed to be leading God’s people back to Him.  

2. Dishonoring God

Some have said that Malachi was a prophet who taught and spoke out in the open. This book is unlike any other within the Old Testament concerning prophets because, as one commentary put it, he launches into arguments with his contemporaries. We can hear in the text the way that the crowd responds to his talking, and how Malachi deftly takes each objection and excuse that they give to him for what they are doing to dishonor God and how, even though God is a God of patience, of divine love, and faithfulness, they were running out of time to repent. But what were the people doing to dishonor God so much?

First, the priests were misleading the people. Unfortunately, I have seen all too often preachers in this day and age who will put their own selfish needs before the health of their congregation to gain for themselves rather than for the whole. We see preachers that want you to send them your money so "you'll not sin with it". Well, you won't because they'll do it for you! They pay for their entourage, their posse. Now,, I'm no better than they are, I'm a sinner fallen short of glory and am only saved through grace,, but I have a posse of three: the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit! That's all we ever need. 

These priests were allowing for impure animals to be sacrificed on the altar of God. We know that there were rules and regulations for this sacrifice to God. All the way back to Cain and Able, God was dishonored by impure sacrifices to Him. Look at Malachi 1:6-8. It says ““A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ “By offering defiled food on my altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

Now imagine if you were to come to church today and instead of truly worshipping God, you just came to talk to your friends, you passed notes all through church, you made sure to not pay attention intentionally to anything I or anyone else was saying. You didn’t even sing the songs in your head. It was just something you had to do.. You just went out of your way to make yourself obnoxious to God. You know, we may think to ourselves, well, I’ve never done that. But I know in my life that I’ve been insincere with my worship. Insincerity in worship is an insult to God. God says later in this chapter “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar!” and even later “you profane it by saying ‘The Lord’s table is defiled, and its food is contemptible. And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously.” It is a calling out by God that he is more than displeased.

Imagine one more time that someone came into this building and spray painted terrible things on the walls of the church. Tore up the pews. Stole the sound system or the copper in the air conditioners. Just made a wreck of the place. That would be awful, wouldn’t it? But if we come to church and we are not preparing ourselves to worship God, we are doing the same thing to God even if it's not showing on the outside. And if those who are especially in leadership positions within the church, especially pastors, who don’t come to the Lord prepared to worship Him, there are dire warnings that Malachi gives to them. When God’s priests turned away from Him, Malachi writes in chapter 2, verse 9 that “I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.” I fully believe that those preachers who are leading their flocks astray will be ridiculed and humiliated. How many of these preachers do we hear of that end up being found out? Well, the ones of Jesus’ day were certainly found out, weren’t they? Jesus did ridicule them for missing the Son of Man right before their own eyes! And ultimately, they were humiliated before God when Christ came to earth.

3. The Coming Messiah

Because of the way that all of mankind has dishonored God, God knew in his infinite glory that we would need a savior. Look in chapter 4, verses 1-3. God’s word says “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty. This statement here, like most Biblical scholars, I feel is talking about the coming of Christ. The sun of righteousness, spelled here as S-U-N, really refers to the son, S-O-N, does it not? God was promising a coming kingdom very soon to His people.

Jesus himself had some things to say about the righteousness of people. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Now, you might be wondering what direction I’m going in with this verse here. Certainly we see a bit of connection with what I’ve said above, that those preachers and teachers who were more concerned with themselves would be ridiculed and shamed. But even more than this, just before this verse, Jesus was stating that he had come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. What the Pharisees were pushing was a strict adherence to the Law, and that if you did anything to break it, you would be subject to the utmost punishment. **These Pharisees were extremely careful about keeping the Law of Moses, so extreme, in fact, that they had added details, rules, regulations, and even other ‘laws’ on TOP of the Law so that they’d never come close to breaking it. Have you ever seen a child that was told to stay away from the edge of something, and they back up six feet from it instead? That’s what the Pharisees were like. But beyond this, the Pharisees were strict with their students as well. If you stepped one toe out of line, you were unrighteous!

What Jesus was doing here is the same as what Malachi was trying to accomplish in his day. Jesus had shown that the righteousness of the Pharisees was false, just as Malachi had shown that the priest’s offerings were false to God. All of these supposed holy people were guilty of showing irreverence towards God. They were more interested in how things looked versus how their heart were for the Lord. As one person wrote, Jesus clashed with the Pharisees over the way they work so hard on outward appearances while sin decayed their hearts. But here is the important part of the coming kingdom of God, both in Malachi’s time, and in our time of waiting for Christ to return: God cares far more about what is in a person’s heart than how other people perceive them. God truly values true purity motivated by true love more than technical rule-keeping motivated by spiritual pride. The people of Malachi’s day were involved in keeping up the appearance of giving sacrifices to God, no matter if they were pure or not. The sacrifices were not, and because of their arrogance, God wanted nothing to do with them. And in the same way, the Pharisees were hung up on all of these rules and regulations that were supposed to keep them pure and holy that they completely missed the Messiah right in front of them. The true righteousness of the coming kingdom of Christ is not in the ways that we keep righteous, but it can only be accomplished through true devotion to Christ only.

Jesus makes one more point in this verse, and I think that Malachi would have supported this. Even though we can try to be righteous, nobody can be truly, perfectly righteous. No person can live a life of moral purity worthy of heaven. Romans 3:23 reminds us that “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” But here is the key: we are justified through the gift of grace, through the redemption of Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us a choice, just like God gave a choice to His own people: turn to me, and I will save you. God says in Malachi 1:14 “For I am a great king, and my name is to be feared among the nations.” God will be honored by all nations of people when Jesus returns. But we are to know that if we put our trust in Christ, and truly and fully live our lives for Him, that we will be saved. There are two final verses for us to look at that will give us comfort, and it comes from Malachi 3:17 and 18. God’s word says “On the day when I act, they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” Even though Christ served his father well, God did not spare his son the punishment that we deserve. Christ was the perfect sacrifice, not blemished, no spots, and completely sinless. But he took the complete blunt of that death blow meant for us so that we could be saved. And through that, we will be the treasured possession of God.

4. Conclusion

In Romans 10:4, Paul wrote “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” I read a story once of a man who had been downtrodden, hurt and in pain from life’s great troubles. His friend was a Christian, and read to him John 14:1, which of course is let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. This broken man interrupted his friend, saying “Yes, if he was God he had a right to say that. But if he was a man, he knew no more about it than anyone else.” How sad to think that way. If Christ is only a superman, only a ‘good’ man, and not the eternal Son of the Living God, then our hope for all of humanity has gone out in the darkness of despair. 

When we believe, we are made righteous in the eyes of God, because Christ is the only way that we can be. God is righteous and does not approve of anything that is unrighteous. We cannot change the moral laws and expect God to forgive and accept that. We must never think God has given up on establishing righteousness in His world. We might not see the evidence of God’s work to see this righteousness, but we can be sure that He is just, loving and caring for us, and that is why He sent his son to us to save us. Christ’s righteousness is available to everyone who believes in Him. And it is only through Him that we can be truly saved from our own wicked ways. Let’s pray. 

More Than a Fish Tale - August 22, 2021 - Jonah

 Jonah 4:10-11

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

1. Introduction

Today we’re continuing our look at the minor prophets. Something I failed to mention earlier is that there are actually 12 minor prophets, so we’re only looking at a third of them. Today, though, we look at perhaps the best-known minor prophet, and that is Jonah. We know this story well, don’t we? It’s the one with the fish with the man who gets swallowed up by it. But sometimes we get stopped at just that point, don’t we? We don’t really look at too much more than that. There are enough lessons within the book of Jonah that could keep us talking about it for weeks on end. Honestly!

One of the Bibles I own is a study Bible, and the first thing that it says in its introduction of the book of Jonah is “does God’s love have limits?” One of the hardest things for us to learn from this chapter is that God truly does love our enemies. Jonah was told to go and preach to his enemies, but Jonah had found he could not love them, and did not expect God to love them either! Coloring Jonah’s viewpoint was that he was highly nationalistic. It is believed that this book was written, or at least begun to be told, at a time when there was a great nationalism for Judah. Some scholars believe that the story was told by Jonah to a scribe right after he returned from Nineveh, and that over time it grew in its importance to the people after they had returned from the captivity in Babylon. But for right then, during the time of the origins of the story, God’s people were enjoying a level of luxurious living that they had rarely experienced. Times were good! Why go and rock the boat, and why go to try to save a group of people that threatened the good times they were having? That was the viewpoint that Jonah was living with. 

We also can be certain that when Jonah was told to go to Nineveh that he was living in the days of Jeroboam II because we are told in 2 Kings 14:25. Interestingly enough, at least to me, is that we can know when that happened because of a great earthquake that destroyed part of Jerusalem in 760 BC. Modern archeologists have found evidence of a great earthquake from that time period, and have dated it using technology, once more showing that the Bible is truthfully true when it reports things, even to this day! That means that Jonah was prophesying at the same time that Amos, Hosea, and Joel. 

Additionally, I think it’s worth noting that there is a disagreement amongst Christian and even Jewish scholars about the veracity of this book’s claims. There are some scholars that believe that this story is completely mythical, meaning that it is complete fiction and just an imaginary experience intended to relate a lesson, much like a parable. Another view is that it is allegorical, meaning that once again it is used to represent something else, that being God’s people in captivity and the fish being the sinful nature that is holding them there. Finally, and I personally believe this viewpoint, is that it is truly historic; in other words, what Jonah said happened to him is what happened to him, and that the lessons learned from this are trustworthy and true. But let’s look at this book and see what it can teach us today.

2. Running from God (chapter 1)

Look at chapter 1 here. The first verse says “the word of the Lord came to Jonah.” and then in verse 2 Jonah was told by God “go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.” This is a very clear instruction from God of what to do, of what will happen to this city of Nineveh if he doesn’t go and preach, and how pressing the issue was to Jonah! But what happens? Jonah runs. Verse 3 says “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” I’ve got to say that this part has always been the most funny to me. The creator of everything, the omnipresent God, the one who knows everything about everyone all the time...Jonah tries to run away from God and his purpose for Jonah. Now, how well do you think that ever works? Jonah was being a coward! He was having a hissy fit over being told to go and save his enemy! He gets aboard a boat, thinking that because he wasn’t going to go to Nineveh that it would be destroyed, and that God would let him off the hook. 

It was a prideful thing to do, wasn’t it? He wanted his enemies crushed, destroyed, obliterated! Certainly after coming to reason, God would agree with him, right? I mean, these are the people who defiled the name of the Lord! Wouldn’t they be the ones who deserved the punishment? Now, we can get onto Jonah’s case pretty hard here, but how many times have we been told by that still, small voice to go and talk with someone about their faith, but yet somehow we don’t find time to do it? Or we say, well, that’s someone else’s job to do? Trust me, I’m in this same boat as you are! It’s not pleasant to talk to people we don’t like, isn’t it? Especially about something so touchy as faith. But when we don’t go and talk to them, we are doing what Jonah did here! We are hoping that they will be obliterated, tortured in the great lake of fire at the end of all time. Can we live with that on our conscience? 

Well, Jonah goes out onto the boat with a bunch of people who are not of his kind. And what happens? God sends a great storm up, large and terrible enough so that the boat is threatening to come to pieces. It got so bad that they threw the cargo over the side of the ship to save weight, and in turn destroyed part of their livelihood. But what do we see Jonah doing? Oh, he’s down below decks, enjoying a nice deep sleep. He’s not helping, he’s not praying, he’s a peace here! I feel like Jonah is enjoying the thought that he’s hoodwinked God, that his enemies are going to be destroyed. 

Down comes the ship captain. You can imagine the rage this man must have had seeing this passenger sleeping with HIS ship going to pieces. He wakes him, asking “How in the world can you sleep? Get up and call on your god. Maybe he will take notice of us and we will not perish.” This man was obviously not a person who believed in the One True God. All he knew was that they were being punished for something that they had had no part in, other than the innocent manner of taking in this passenger who seemed to be at peace with all even though a great storm was coming through! So when he comes on deck, the people of the boat know that something supernatural is happening, and to discern who was responsible, they cast lots. They take out strings or bits of wood cut to different lengths, and lo and behold, Jonah is holding the short one. They ask him so many questions, but the most important one is this: What have you done? It says in verse 10 of chapter 1 that they already knew that he was running from God. 

Finally, Jonah takes responsibility for his actions. He had tried to outrun God, but he finally realized that there was no way. How can you even try to outrun God? He tells the sailors to throw him into the sea, and it would become calm after that. Try as they might to not have to do this, knowing that killing was wrong, these pagan sailors beg of God to forgive them for throwing Jonah into the sea. They throw Jonah into the waters, and immediately the sea becomes calm. It says in verse 16 that “at this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered sacrifices to the Lord and made vows to Him.” Amazingly enough, you can look at this scene in a certain way that these people were saved because of having to go through this storm. Not only saved from the destruction of their vessel or losing their lives, but they made vows to God. They were saved from their pagan ways by an amazing event in their lives. But this is the end of their story, but not of Jonah’s. What happens next? God spares Jonah’s life, sending a great fish for the prophet to be swallowed up into, staying in this fish’s gullet for three days and three night. And what happens there reminds us that we are to run with God, not away from him. 

3. Running to God (chapter 2)

You can imagine the intensity of Jonah’s situation here. I know many of you fish, and you’ve gutted plenty of fish to make sure you can eat them. The inside of some fish is not a pleasant smell, is it? And often, the stomach of a fish contains pretty nasty things. Now, Jonah was in the stomach of a fish for three days and three nights, surrounded by strange sounds, no light, and by this terrible stench. He was fully aware of God’s complete power and control over his life. One study Bible I have said this: Jonah, like many other humans, prayed when he was driven to it. Well, understatement of the year there, right?! Jonah was in a place where he most certainly did not want to be, and was certainly placed there against what he would want! But he comes to realize his terrible ways. 

When he is in this giant fish, he fully knows his sinfulness. He knows that it is his alone, and that he caused it himself. But beyond this, he knows that he has to accept the full responsibility for those actions, whatever they might be. I believe that, when you read this prayer, that Jonah knows that God could very easily take his life as punishment for his running away. He knows that God could have just as easily allowed for him to drown in the ocean. He was in great despair, but not without hope! He runs back to God. In verse 9, chapter 2, Jonah says “what I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.” Jonah knows that he is helpless to save himself, but he fully trusts God to remove him from that situation and to answer his prayer. And answer him God does, in perhaps one of the most punishing ways! When I was a teenager, we had a man named Dale Crum who did a one man show as Jonah, and when he got to this part, he described it in vivid detail. He went “and there I was, on the shore, covered in VOMIT!! OY, it was disgusting!!” Punishment, indeed. But there was hope! In life, there is hope!

4. Running with God (chapter 3)

It says in chapter 3:1-2 “the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Even though he had completely and utterly disobeyed, God gives Jonah another chance at this. Have you ever had your child disobey you? Sometimes you might just close your eyes for a second, breathe, and then tell them to go do it again. Or sometimes you might punish them, then make them go and do it anyway! Well, I don’t think it was that severe, but God still had this task for Jonah to do. But this time, Jonah did it. Not out of a sense that he had to repay God for his deliverance, not because God had his attention right then. I feel that Jonah did it because he had truly learned from his unrighteous ways. He truly understood that he was running with God!

Verse 3 tells us that Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was a large city. It was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, and was located in the northern part of modern day Iraq. It was so large that it would take you three full days of walking to get across it. Besides that, if you can think of where Jonah was going, which was across the Mediterranean Sea, this meant that he had either 1) been thrown up on the coast of Iraq, which would be quite a feat for even a large whale to get to the other side of the Saudi peninsula in three days (although not completely out of the question since this IS God we’re talking about), or 2) he had travelled to the city over land, which would have been a long journey as well! But what is important to realize is that Jonah GOES. He ensures himself to follow God fully, and he proclaims the message “40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned!” 

It was a simple message. Nothing of what God was going to do, what God could do for them, nor any great expository preaching. Just 8 words: 40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Doesn’t sound like a great message that would turn people away from their sin. Can you imagine if someone was down at the store down here saying that? 40 more days and Suches will be overturned. We would likely think that person needed some medical attention, right? But because God was in this message, it was powerful. Powerful enough that the Bible simply says in verse 5 of chapter 3 that “The Ninevites believed God”. They fasted, put on sackcloth, and urged everyone they knew to do the same! And in time, the news even reached the Assyrian king. 

The king took this message seriously, to the point that he called the entire city to fast, and to even have their animals fast! He also called on the people to call on the one true God to spare them, and to turn from their wicked ways. He would say in his decree, which we find in verse 9 “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” And amazingly enough, God does have compassion on these people. Even though they were enemies of God and of God’s people, God spares them because they turned to Him. As one writer put it, “Wrath is never God’s last work to a repentant people.” Much like how later in the story of the Bible, the wrath that God has for all people because of sin was not the last word for repentant people: Jesus Christ took the wrath for our sins on the cross instead! 

5. Running ahead of God (chapter 4)

One of the books that I used for this lesson today said “one tends to limit God through disobedience”. Now, can we truly limit God? Of course not. But the intent of that phrase was to mean that we can limit our usefulness to God, our understanding of God, and the way that his Word can be spread through our disobedience. Now, Jonah had finally been obedient to God. But we get to chapter 4. He is still not happy about this situation. He had relented his will to God, but he had not relented his emotions to God about it all. His still viewed the Assyrians that lived in Nineveh as his enemies! 

Now, something that we must note when we look at this last chapter is something that Biblical scholars nearly all agree on. During this time of Jonah’s life, the exiles had returned from Babylon and in doing so, they had come to think of themselves as only exclusive to the blessings of the Lord and His salvation. It’s a simple trap for us to fall into: those who don’t believe God are certainly evil, and don’t they deserve punishment? The view of the Jews was one of narrowmindedness, of exclusivity, and of intolerance for those who had harassed and embarrassed them. They were God’s chosen people, right? And didn’t God command us not to go and be involved with those unclean people? They had taken this to the nth degree, though. Even though God had shown that he is the God of ALL people, these Jews were making a point to NOT go and tell them about God and his salvation. Because these people had repented in Nineveh, God saved them. It served as a sharp rebuke to Israel’s exclusiveness, and serves as a rebuke to us today. We have to remember that God is the God of all, and that Christ died for all peoples.

Well, with that in mind, Jonah sits and pouts. Jonah 4:1-4 says “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Wow. Just wow. The conservative estimate for the population of Nineveh is 120,000 people. And Jonah is ANGRY with God for saving them. He’s trying to even justify why he ran at this point! He was indignant to God directly for saving these people, all because of his prejudice against anyone who was not Jewish. He was so angry over the repentance and the salvation of people that he was ANGRY. How ridiculous is that?

But again, haven’t we seen this ourselves in times past? I know that I have. I remember being a member of a church where they had a large group of young people come to Christ. It became a great center of activity for these young people to come to, and would end up having a lasting kingdom impact because many of these people went on into ministry after going off to college. But there were people within that church who were angry that all these young people had come to THEIR church and had done so much to THEIR building. They had become angry and indignant because these people were not the same as them. They still viewed them as the enemy! And that church ran off most of the young people, and ensured that the young people would not come back when they ran off their youth minister and pastor that had built up that ministry. It’s the same thing, isn’t it?

God answers Jonah in verse 4, have you any right to be angry? Well, did he? I don’t think that he did. He was truthfully, to me, being a big ole baby! He never answers God, and leaves in a huff. We get so angry with God sometimes when we want to do something our way, but God puts something in our path that we must do for Him. God does something here while Jonah sulks. Jonah has gone out and sat down in a place east of the city. He sets up a shelter for himself, and God makes a great vine to come and cover over Jonah. Well, this is more like it, right? Yeah, I did God’s work, and even though I’m unrighteously angry, God’s still taking care of me. Alright. The Bible says that Jonah was very happy about the vine!

But at dawn the next day, God provides a worm to eat the vine, which in turn falls. The sun was hot that day, and the east wind was blowing right in his face. Y’all know, especially in the last few weeks, how uncomfortable it was with the heat and then a breeze comes and you get no relief from it. It just blows hot air in your face and makes you more uncomfortable and likely more angry! Well, this was Jonah’s plight. He’s hot, he’s angry, he’s uncomfortable, and his vine is gone now. He says “It would just be better for me to die now!” Once again, God asks Jonah, “do you have a right to be angry?” but this time, God adds “about the vine?” Jonah says that he is, enough so that he wants to die!

But God does respond to Jonah this time. He tells Jonah, you didn’t make this vine, you didn’t tend it or make it grow. I did. You’re more upset about a vine than you are about the 120000 living, breathing people in this great city, even if they are enemies of MY people. He asks Jonah, “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” The Bible does not record the answer of Jonah, nor do I think that we really need it. You know, Jonah wanted forgiveness and grace for himself and his multitude of sins. He was prideful, was deceitful, was ornery, and even had hate in his heart. These are some major sins, no matter how you cut it. But Jonah, in his ignorance, only wanted that forgiveness for himself and not for the Assyrian people who were his enemies. He had missed out on the message of grace for all peoples in the world that God was showing to him. 

Truthfully, God had every reason to destroy Nineveh. They had been extremely wicked, they were idol worshippers, and they denied the one true God. But they had, in the end, turned to God. God looked at the innocent multitudes who needed His love and cried out in true repentance to Him for His grace. Jonah was ready to die because God had shown them grace, and had been long suffering for them. Within the human mind, seeking to justify self and gain revenge against others cannot understand and accept God’s grace, even for those who we do think of as enemies! We cannot establish a monopoly on grace for those who are Christians. That grace is for all peoples. 

6. Conclusion

You know, this reminds me of a time when I was doing reenacting. We were at a battle in Jonesboro, GA. We were in our group of guys, and we were told that we had to run up this slight incline to ‘overtake Yankee cannon’. What they didn’t inform us was that when they said run, they meant run as fast as the fat old guys could do (who, incidentally, are about what age and shape I am now. Smart me, right?!). Well, me and my best friend Josh Reeves tear out of that line. We’re running as hard as we can, determined to make our best show to take out the cannons by ourselves. We are running hard, clear across the battlefield, and then, Josh first, we realize that we are WAY ahead of everyone else. I mean by like 200 yards! If it had been a real battle, we’d have been sitting ducks! We had outrun our coverage, and had outrun all sort of protection. We ended up being so far ahead of the pack that we were ‘taken prisoner’ by the Union forces, and trust me, we heard it from them, we heard it from our friends, we heard it from even the spectators. Boy were we dumb to run so fast and so far out in front of everyone!

Well, that was what Jonah was doing at the end of this story. He had outrun God’s grace. He had gotten so wrapped up in his own self, had gotten so wrapped up in his own identity and his own prejudices that he could never understand why God wanted to save these heathen people. But here’s the one thing that we can take away from this today, if anything. No matter if we outrun our coverage, if we outrun all the rest of the people that we are supposed to be with and to witness to, we can NEVER truly outrun God. It is completely and utterly impossible to escape God.  

Jesus compared himself to Jonah as recorded in two places in the Gospels. Jesus Christ spoke in both of those spots that a wicked generation asked for a sign, and that much like the sign of Jonah, the son of man would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And even harsher, Jesus says in Matthew 12:41 “the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.” The people of Jesus’ day wanted a sign from God that salvation was truly coming. Jesus had told them right there that salvation was HERE and NOW. But yet they still rejected Him. It is a reminder that Jesus Christ is truly the salvation of the World. Not just of those who sound and look like us, but of all of mankind. And when we know that, we are able to go and witness to anyone and everyone about the greatness of our God. Let’s pray. 

Prayers Needed! - Habakkuk - August 15, 2021

 Habakkuk 1:5 

Look at the nations and watch—

    and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days

    that you would not believe,

    even if you were told.

1. Introduction

We continue this little study of the minor prophets with one of my favorite books of the Bible to say, which is Habakkuk. Habakkuk is one of those books of the Bible that I myself sometimes overlook. Some have speculated that Habakkuk was either a priest, a choirmaster in the temple (mainly because of the music notes that are included in the final chapter of the book), or just a member of the tribe of Levi. If the latter were so, it would reveal that he had been set aside by God to be a leader within the community of believers. This book was likely written about the same time as Jeremiah. Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and some of the other prophets were living in a time where they were seeing God’s judgment come down upon His people, and they were seeing what happened when their leaders turned away from God. This was right after the time of King Hezekiah’s death, and his son Manasseh had come into power and turned his back completely on God. It got so bad with Manasseh that he actually sacrificed one of his sons to one of the false gods! 

During this time, Habakkuk asks God a few questions. First, he asks why God was using the Babylonians to be his instrument of justice when they were so wicked. He also asks if the divine purpose of these events be justified? And finally, perhaps the most important question to us today was this: why do the wicked seem to triumph while the righteous suffer? Why is it that good people have to suffer bad things? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? We struggle, we toil, we do the right thing, but yet we get attacked, we have things happen to us that we don’t understand, we lose things, we lose friends and family. We sometimes want to scream at God, WHY? Is it because we are meant to suffer? Is it because we have done something evil and deserve it? Or is it from Satan attacking us? And what are we to do when something terrible befalls us? We do what Habakkuk does: go to the Lord. Let’s look at what he says to God and what God says back. 

2. Complaints 

Habakkuk opens his prayer with this in verse 2. “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?” Something terrible is happening to Habakkuk at this time, and to his people. He knew that the leaders of his land were not following God, and he knew that God was revealing something to him in a way that would show God’s forgiveness and lovingness towards them. But sometimes you just are so worn down by trying to do the right thing, and you just get beat down sometimes by the weariness of life. You wonder, is God really listening? I mean, I’m doing everything in the right way, coming to the Lord in humbleness often, staying in righteousness, even tithing above what I need to do. Are you there God?! Do you hear me? Habakkuk had felt somewhat abandoned, I think. The righteous were suffering, and they were calling for help, but no help was coming. 

Sometimes, when God hears our complaints, it is our job to wait and listen for Him. Have you ever wanted something badly, but had to wait on it? Either it hadn’t been released, or else you had to save up for it? The payoff for something you truly have to wait on is usually greater than the instant gratification if someone just gave it to you, isn’t it? In this entire book of the Bible, God shows to Habakkuk that the coming salvation of the people is going to be great, but that Habakkuk has to hold on. I was reading this week for this topic, and I read an outline that stated that ‘preachers, churches, and Christians must sometimes pray and wait long for an answer.” James 5:7 says “be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.” That might be the best picture that we have here for us today. What happens when you eat fruit that is not quite ripe? Either it tastes awful (think about the bitterness of red blackberries), or it will make you have terrible indigestion. Being patient for God is a difficult thing to do, especially when you are waiting on an answer. We live in a society today that we expect instant gratification. We have apps on our phones and computers that when we put in a comment, we can have people ‘like’ or ‘love’ those comments immediately. And the downside to that is that if we come to expect that all the time, even of our Lord, then we might be disappointed! Sometimes, we have to wait for the late rains before the fruits can be harvested. 

God’s response to this first complaint from Habakkuk is one that surprises the writer, as well as us. God gives us one of the greatest verses in the Bible, chapter 1, verse 5, which I read earlier but I think it’s good to hear one more time. It says “Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” God promises to Habakkuk that something amazing is going to happen. It’s a double meaning right here. The first amazing thing, right then and there, is that God was going to use the Babylonians to punish His people. The Babylonians! Think of the people you dislike the most, the most anti-God people you can think of, and then think about them just overrunning where you live. And think, too, you haven’t done anything really to anger God personally. You’ve asked forgiveness of your sins, you’ve accepted Jesus as your personal savior, but yet God is still allowing this to happen. You can imagine what your response to God would be if you could talk to him face to face, right? Well, that’s not far off from what Habakkuk does in the latter part of this first chapter. He is indignant to God! He says in verse 13 “your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” Habakkuk is frankly offended personally by God’s choice of tool here, and wouldn’t you be, too? These are idolaters, they sacrifice children to their gods, they are horrendous people! But God is not done yet. Remember, I said that this would have a double meaning, right? We have a salvation coming. 

 

3. Salvation of Sinners

God continues in chapter 2 of this book, almost as if Habakkuk had interrupted God. I have a bad habit of talking too much, as y’all well know. I also try to be conscientious about not stepping over people’s words when they are talking to me. I think this is one of those times where Habakkuk really had just stepped right over God’s words in his indignant state! But God talks to him in a way that a father would talk to his child when the child is indignant towards the parents for what they perceive as injustice. God says in chapter 2 verse 3 that “the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certain come and will not delay.” God says to wait, Habakkuk. I understand that you can’t fully understand this right now. But please know that I am fully in control, and that your salvation is coming, and the salvation for all who are righteous is coming.

This reminds me of Psalm 37:7-9, which says “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.” Our anger at God, our worry, our fretting over the why of God’s devices when not put into a frame of faith will inevitably lead us into sinfulness. I know that it is hard for us to not worry about the seeming success of those who go against God’s word and teachings. I’ll give you a personal example. One of my favorite actors is Stephen Fry. He’s a British actor, and is a fine one at that. He has been in Sherlock Holmes movies, he is a very talented voice actor, and is generally seemingly a good person. That said, he is an avowed atheist. In fact, he gives a great deal of money to atheist causes, and has been quoted as saying that he will do everything in his power to stop the ‘brainwashing of people’ to this ‘fairytale of heaven and hell.’ When I found that out, and found out that in his great influence that he had convinced others to abandon their faith in Christ, it grieved me. I stopped watching his movies, stopped supporting his art. But even beyond that, it somehow personally insulted me that he would go out of his way to support causes that went against God’s teachings. Now, does Stephen Fry know me from Adam’s housecat? Absolutely not! Would it matter one whit to him that I was offended by him? Likely not. In fact, he would likely dismiss me outright and ridicule me. Now, does this mean that we are to do likewise to those that are like that, not even the rich and famous? Absolutely not. God’s edict here is to not fret over it. God’s revelation, his judgement, and his mercy always comes. It will certain come and will not delay, and those who wait for the Lord will inherit His riches. 

It’s a hard thing to do, though. We see our friends, our family, our neighbors suffer through terrible things. We wonder “why is God allowing this?” I will tell you that sometimes, God does judge us. But other times, it is because of the actions of others that God punishes. Other times, it is because he is putting us through the crucible to refine us. And even other times, it is because Satan is attacking us. But here is the secret of all of these scenarios: God is still completely in control of all of it. In chapter 2, verse 4 of Habakkuk, God’s word says “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright- but the righteous person will live by faithfulness.” God then goes on through the rest of this chapter and shows the effects of living in an unrighteous manner. In verse 10, their house is shamed, and their lives are forfeited. In verse 16, their nakedness is exposed by their drunkenness, not necessarily fully from alcohol, but also from the drunkenness of excess, and in the next verse, God covers them in disgrace over their glory. In verse 20, God gives his ultimate showing that He is still in control of everything, even if we are being attacked, where He says “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” When we have to wait for the answer to prayers, when we have to suffer through the terrible things of this world, through the unrighteous benefitting while the righteous suffer, God is still in control of it all. And we turn back to Him no matter what, just like Habakkuk does in chapter three. 

4. A final prayer

The final chapter of Habakkuk comes to us as a song. As I mentioned, we don’t know for certain if Habakkuk was a priest, a choirmaster, or just a Levite. But we know that he put into this last chapter the notes for this to be sung. One commentary put it this way, that Habakkuk 3 has these literary notes for the Temple choir such as appear in the Psalms. Either the psalm was recited by Habkkuk from memory as a result of participation in Temple worship or the psalm was recognized by collectors of scripture as a familiar Temple psalm. Either method enabled the choir to conclude the public reaching of Habakkuk with a song. Habakkuk’s prayer thus became the congregation’s song. It became a song of the people for God’s blessings. Interestingly enough, at least to me, is that after this chapter, God does not respond immediately to Habakkuk. You might imagine that after God had promised salvation from the enemies, Habakkuk must have calmed down. Perhaps he had a peace that God gave to Him. 

Habakkuk responds with righteousness and with the right kind of humbleness to God. in verse 2 of chapter 3, Habakkuk says to God “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” He is begging God to repeat the blessings that He has shown to His people once again, but this time instead of asking it in an impatient way, in a way that shows anger and shows immaturity, he shows that he understands that God’s timing is not his timing, and knows that God is completely in control. Habakkuk, I believe, still doesn’t understand completely why he is in such a bad state. He doesn’t understand why bad things continue to happen, but he has determined himself to follow God and to do what is right, what is holy, and what God’s will is. Verses 16-19 gives us a clear picture when it says “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” The sovereign Lord is my strength and enables me to tread on the heights.

Have you ever had a mountaintop experience, either physically or spiritually? Sometimes it’s like when we go on one of Bud’s hikes, and we get to one of the outcrops and see the valleys below us. It’s quite a sight, isn't it? Or what about when we go to a conference or have a great Bible study where you have that natural spiritual high and you just don’t want to come down off of it? What makes it so special? Would it be so special if we could just stay there all the time? Or if it didn’t take much work to get there? Or if we didn’t experience the valleys while going to the top? God can place us on the mountaintop at any point, but in his great and infinite wisdom, he has us go through the valleys sometimes as well. Psalm 23, one that was probably the first Psalm you ever memorized, tells us that we will talk through the valley of the shadow of death. What are we to do in it? Fear no evil, for God is with us; his rod and his staff comfort us. What does it say at the end of that Psalm? “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” We have goodness and mercy, and the ultimate reward of dwelling in the house of the Lord when this life is through. Habakkuk asks “why do we have to suffer, Lord?” We have to wait sometimes for that answer, but even when waiting, we cling to God, knowing that he will take us to even greater heights, and show us even greater things than we can even imagine. 

5. Conclusion

We don’t always understand God’s timing, or even God’s methods. We can’t. As Paul put it, we are looking at glory like through a clouded mirror. Do we have troubles? Absolutely. When we are sinful, can God punish us? Yes. Do we get attacked by the enemy? Completely. In fact, in October, we’ll talk extensively about five different ways that Satan attacks us, and what we can do about it. But what are we to do about it? What can we do about it? What Habakkuk does at the very beginning is right, even if it’s done in a way that is impetuous: Habakkuk still goes straight to God. We are always called to go to God. I am reminded of a story of a man who took his daughter hiking with him up a steep mountain. As they started, the man told his daughter to go ahead of him, that he would be right behind her. At first, she zestfully began to climb. She was glad to show her father how intrepid she was, and how strong and capable. But the trail got harder. It grew steeper and more difficult. She slipped and fell. Thorns cut her. Tears came on her cheeks, but still she persisted. She had a strong will, and she was determined not to fail. She had a strong will, and she was determined not to fail. But at least the task became completely impossible, and after the most cruel fall of all, she turned weeping to her father. He took her tenderly in his arms, and they climbed to the top of the mountain together. He never had intended for her to do it alone. 

We are never intended to climb to the top of the mountain alone. The whole experience was meant to teach us that our life is to be supplemented by our Lord. Even though we want things in life to be perfect, to be free of heartache, of suffering, and free of worry and woe, we have this in our lives. But God provides us the relief only. Why do bad things happen to good people? Because there is sin in our lives. Because Satan wants to do terrible things to us to try to draw us away from the Lord and to impact our witness in terrible ways. But most of all, why do bad things happen to us as Christians? Because sometimes God allows those things to happen to us so that we will turn to him, have the Father take us in His arms and take us to the mountaintop together. Let’s pray.