Habakkuk, a Minor Prophet

   How would you like being considered as "a minor prophet"?  Habakkuk was.  We concluded his short three chapter book this Monday.
   Minor means small or short, as are the last dozen books of the Old Testament.  Each is attributed to a different individual.  The longest is fourteen chapters, the shortest is just one, but most, like Habakkuk, are between three and four. 
   A prophet is someone who foretells, or proclaims the meaning of past, present and future events, as revealed by God.  The world is full of people hoping to tell us about the future, like economists.   Even ancient Israel had its schools of prophets, hopeful wannabees, who often believed it was better to tell people what they wanted to hear, rather than what God wanted them to hear.  In the Old Testament, however, these last twelve books are small time tellers of big time truths.


   Habakkuk is a good example.  We know next to nothing about him, except that he wrote during the height of Babylonian power, the decade between 608 and 598 B.C.  He speaks on behalf of the people of Israel who are crying out for deliverance:
   "O Lord, how long shall I cry to for help,
        and thou wilt not hear,
    Or cry to Thee 'Violence!',
       and Thou wilt not save?"
He also speaks on behalf of God, reminding them that these cruel invaders are nevertheless His instruments, surely not a welcome piece of information:
   "For lo, I am arousing the Chaldeans,
       that bitter and hasty nation,
   Who march through the breadth of the earth,
       to seize habitations not their own."


Habakkuk speaks also for himself, as a watchman waiting for news.
He has a word of warning:  "Behold, he whose soul is not upright shall fail;" 
And he has also a word of comfort: "But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness."
Was that a word worth waiting for?
   Paul thought so. 
In his letter to the Romans it is the gospel in a nutshell. (Ch. vs. 17)
In his letter to the Galatians it sounds the note of spiritual freedom. (Ch. 3, vs. 11)
In the epistle to the Hebrews it is a word of encouragement to persevere to the end. (Ch. 10, vs. 39)


Habakkuk finishes with a  hymn, addressed "to the Choirmaster with stringed instruments":
    "God the Lord, is my strength;
      He makes my feet like hinds feet,
      He makes me tread upon my high places."  Ch. 3, vs. 19
Are your feet secure on your high places?  This Hebrew prophet has scaled some pretty dizzying heights to give us a perspective, a glimpse, into the working of God's hand.  With him, we are like tightrope walkers, conscious of the awful abyss of destruction all around us, seemingly one misstep away, yet with our eyes on the hope set before us.  Habakkuk reminds us that the righteous shall live by his vision of God, if we can keep still enough to see it.
   "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge for the glory of the Lord,
        as the waters cover the sea."


Habakkuk's is a big message for a small book.
Some prophet!


  

Like many of you on this journey, I am reading from the King James Version of the Bible.  I have found several unexpected words and expressions during the course of our reading, and today brings another.  At first, a reader might think there has been a misprint, but no, "froward" is indeed a real word: 31The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out.        32The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh    frowardness.  Proverbs 10:31-32

We came across "froward" in one of our Bible studies, and it has appeared several times in these Bible Club readings.  From these verses, we can assume that a "froward" tongue is unjust, and that a wicked mouth speaks things that are unacceptable, but is there more to this particular word than I think? 

Time for a little Internet search.  According to one on-line dictionary* "froward" means "perverse, deceitful and false."  "Deceitful" and "false" seem straightforward.  What about "perverse"?  I kept searching.  Another dictionary** helped me with that: "turning from, with aversion or reluctance; not willing to yield or comply with what is required."  The definition of "perverse" also carries the idea of being ungovernable, disobedient, and even peevish.  Now we are getting somewhere.

When we speak with a froward tongue, we are doing so out of choice.  Not only are we unwilling to comply with what is wise or acceptable, we actively turn away from wisdom and acceptability with aversion.  We are reluctant to speak with other than a froward tongue.  We choose disobedience and peevishness (and the definition of that one isn't flattering either!). No wonder the froward tongue must be pruned!   No wonder Jesus warns us that what comes out of our mouths makes us defiled! 

Is your Bible study leading you on these "birdwalks", too?  I hope so.  They really make our readings come alive, don't they?

*http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/king-james-dictionary/froward.html

**  http://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/froward.html,  

  

 

A Lamentation

This should have been posted on Friday, when we read Lamentations 1 and 2.

 If we are just casually reading our Bibles, it may be hard for us to imagine the destruction of Jerusalem.  Those events seem distant and far away.  Clips from this summer's nightly news, however, give us a clearer picture of what the destruction of a city looks like.  With those images in my mind, phrases like "How doth the city sit solitary" and  "how she is become as a widow"  [Lam 1:1] become more powerful than before.  They take my breath away. 

The children say, "Where is corn and wine?" [2:12] from a mountain top in northern Iraq.  Children and elders, mothers and fathers have "swooned as the wounded  in the streets of the city" [2:12] in Africa, in Syria, in Jordan, in Missouri, and in the Holy Land itself.  It does seem to us as though "the enemy prevailed" [1:16], even though we are not always sure who or what the enemy is. 

The poet tells us that Jerusalem weeps; her friends have been treacherous; her gates are desolate; she is bitter.  When we are grieving, most of us feel much the same.  We need to weep, to question, to blame and to be in distress.  We may feel distant from God and  question what we perceive to be God's silence.

All of this makes me think of Elijah in the wilderness.  He didn't find God in the clash and bang of wind earthquake and fire [1 Kings 19], but in the silence.  Out of the silence, God commissions Elijah to go and do.  What commission do you think God has for us in our grief and  in these times? 

Enemies

   Overheard on the VHF radio band during the annual Cutler Harbor Fourth of July boat race was this:
  "I always knew you was a slipp'ry customer."
Who hasn't had to face enemies?  From sibling rivalries to the bullies we encounter at school, to teenage competition and adult challengers, from what St. Paul calls enemies without, to enemies within, we ask, Why do we have to face such hostility?


   Many of our Psalms lately have dealt with the subject of enemies.  As Psalm 57 aptly describes them, they are like lions, greedily devouring their prey, their teeth are sharp like spears and arrows, and their utterances like sharp swords.  They are often far subtler than we are, laying traps not just for our feet, but for our very souls, and are obstacles to all progress.  As the Psalmist wrote in verse 6 :
   "They dug a pit in my way."


    What did I do to deserve such opposition?  Was it on account of my misdoings and mistakes?  The Scriptures tell us even Jesus found opposition from the devil, and one of his own disciples betrayed him into the hands of sinful men.  What more poignant description of Judas's kiss could we find than these words from Psalm 55:
   "My companion stretched out his hand against his friends,
        he violated his covenant.
     His speech was smoother than butter,
       yet war was in his heart."


   The Psalmist reminds us that we must never forget God is sovereign over all these things, our enemies included.  Sandwiched between verses 4 and 6, in Psalm 57, and repeated at the end, is this wonderful declaration: 
   "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let Thy glory be over all the earth!"
Jesus showed us how to handle our enemies.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Love your enemies, and do good to those who hurt you.  We His servants are to do so also, remembering that, in the end, the victory is God's alone, and that our enemies will become a footstool for His feet.
  

Hearing and Seeing

After reading today's passage from John, I went back into Matthew, the source of recent readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, to review some of the references to eyes and found, among others, these: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matt 7:5); the story of the healing of two blind men (Matt 9:30); and "But blessed are your eyes: for they see; and your ears for they hear." (Matt 8:16)  There are also many references to light and darkness, seeing and not seeing, understanding and missing the kernel of truth threaded through these passages about eyes, and the like.


I say this because verse 16 stood out to me today.  So often, we think that all of the Pharisees opposed Jesus; this passage says "some" felt he was not of God because he did not keep the Sabbath day.  Others wondered why a sinner could do miracles.


In every age since the story of the healing of this blind man took place, most of us have gone along, doing our worship of God in almost the same way we have always done it, feeling right about it, feeling comfortable.  And every once in a while, someone or something enters the picture and shocks our vision.  In this case, the upstart itinerant preacher from the Galilee performs miracles on the Sabbath day in the name of the one who sent him.  The villagers, the Pharisees, and even the man's parents were comfortable with the man's blindness.  He was a beggar and outsider, but they were used to that.  They were uncomfortable with his ability to see and how he came to see...some of the Pharisees cast him out. 


Jesus had told the disciples early on in the story that "neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (v.3)  Jesus was showing all of the characters here a new way to understand and that caused division among the Pharisees (v.16).    It takes courage to see with new vision.