“Write down the vision...for the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfilment, and will not disappoint...” Habakkuk 2:2-3
I always get excited reading the daily scriptures. Like the prophet Habukkuk and many before and after him, I too ask why God allows evil, why He does not put a stop to all the billion peso corruption scandals and injustice and immoral leaders... The list is long and I know these questions have troubled many and have even caused many to abandon their faith.
Habakkuk asks: “Why do You gaze on the faithless in silence, while the wicked devour one more just than himself? ....Shall he then keep on brandishing his sword to slay peoples without mercy?”
When we read a great novel or admire an artist’s masterpiece, everything makes perfect sense when we see the whole and not just a part of it. The same is true with God’s great work of heART. We do not understand why He permits a 6.9 earthquake in Cebu displacing 80,000 people, or Muslim jihadists to terrorize tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria. We can be sure God has a greater good in mind for us and His creation.
I am reminded of Charles Templeton, a charismatic evangelist who would hold successful crusades around Europe in the 40s and 50s with Billy Graham. But he became an atheist partly because of this same complaint. How can a good God permit all the misery and violence and evil in this world?
God answers Habakkuk: "Write down the vision clearly...for the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it...The righteous shall live by faith." (Habakkuk 2:2-4)
I think the key is the last verse. We need the eyes of faith because faith looks beyond the circumstances and rests on God's wisdom and His promises. The world has not changed much since the prophet’s time. Listening to the news about all the rape and killings in the most beautiful cities in the world can drive us to despair. What is God doing? Why does He allow any of it? Why did God allow Jesus to be humiliated and crucified?
I like the answer of Peter Kreeft, a Roman Catholic theologian. He compared Calvary to Judo: “The enemy’s own power is used to defeat him… Satan’s end was God’s means. God won Satan’s captives – us – back to himself by freely dying in our place.”
So I try not to question God and His ways. I will just trust and have faith. Our God knows all the answers. We do not need the “answers” to our questions or the challenges life gives us, as much as we need God Himself! When we have nothing left but God, God is enough.
Remember that Jesus did not sugarcoat anything, He gave it to us straight and true. He never hind the fact that people who choice to follow Him would suffer just as He did. They will suffer rejection and persecution just like He did, which finally cause some to demand His death on the cross. He didn't die because He did anything wrong, He died because He was hated. This world is filled with people that hate Christians, it's nothing new. Remember Stephen the first martyr, Peter and Paul, remember how Nero used Christians as human torches to light his garden. These things have been going on for centuries.
ReplyDeleteAlso remember that Stephen's face was shining . . . He doesn't promise that life will be easy or that bad things won't happen, but He does promise to be there will us, if we ask Him in.
The world is filled with sinners. Every single human is a sinner. Jesus came to save the sinners. By acknowledging the fact that we are sinners and asking the Lord for His forgiveness and then choosing to follow Him . . . We Are Saved! He died that we might be saved, saved from eternity in outer darkness (hell). He came to earth knowing the cross was His to bare, He had the power to stop everything and refuse that terrible death, but instead He chose it because He loves us that much. What an amazing thing to be loved my God so much that He sent His only Son to save us. God . . . just think of it, the one true God, the God that created the earth and everything in it, the universe, every star, every flower, everything . . . and He loves us!