Well, welcome back again for another podcast of Struggling Well. we're glad that you have joined us. And for the next couple of weeks, we're going to turn our attention to another minor prophet. A few weeks ago, we did the prophet Jonah, who was an interesting case. And, and now we're going to look at the prophet Habach. And, Habach also is an interesting prophet. first of all, we love the minor prophets because their books are short and we're not going to take on Isaiah or Jeremiah. but Habach's interesting in the three chapters. He never really addresses the people of God. He's in Judah, the southern kingdom, just before the Babylonians. come in and take them captive. but he doesn't address the people. His struggle is with God. How can a good God be there when there's so much evil in the world? And what I love about Habach, and this is where I want us to jump off, Suzi, is Habach was honest enough to face his confusion about the way God was operating.
And I really appreciate that about Habachok. And because I tend to be super honest oftentimes unfiltered. And some of you that know me know that my filters are dropping with every birthday. but what I love about it is that, his honesty was raw and it was real and God didn't strike him down because of his honesty, but he listened to his honesty. And I think in our church world nowadays, we're afraid to be honest. And, can I skip to something today that What's going on?
Well, okay. I was going to read. Do you not want to? No, I was going to read from the beginning.
I think we're going to have our first on air
fight
fight. Let me just read. Let me read the opening complaint that Habach has with God. And then I think then skip to today there. Yeah. So, his complaint to God is this. How long, oh Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Violence is everywhere. I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Must I watch all this misery? What version are you reading from?
I'm reading from the NLT.
Okay. And mine it says the ESV, "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 idally 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." And I would say for me in today that fits perfectly about how I feel. I don't think that we ever have to look too far in the news of what's occurring in the world to see that it feels like there's violence everywhere. And a lot of people, a lot of believing people are saying, "God, where are you?"
Yeah. I mean, and again, we're going to do two different versions and that's fine. The NLT, I'm surrounded by people who love to argue. and fight. The law has become paralyzed. And I really what I believe what Habach's talking about there when he says the law is the neglect of the Torah.
So in our case today, the Bible gets neglected.
Yeah.
And we don't look to the Bible and we don't see what God is doing. And so there is his complaint really in a form of a lament. He sees the current situation. He doesn't see God at work. And he needs something to bridge the gap for himself as to why that is.
And Doesn't that feel like today? I know we're about two weeks away from the horrific events that took part in Nashville, took place in Nashville and but I can't my heart isn't moved away from it yet. I doubt if most people are. I met a lady this weekend who is from Nashville and she said that the mourning and the sadness is just like a fog over the city.
Yeah. I and I think it typifies the injustice that we see when You look at again the horrific stuff that happened there, but in particular for me, it's three nine-year-old children
who I'm not going to say they're innocent, but they were not certainly the cause of this person going off and shooting and their lives are cut short. and I don't know where God is in all that.
Yeah.
And that's where I think the struggle comes in. And that's what I again go back to what I love about Habach. He's honest enough to face his conf confusion,
right?
And I want to be honest enough to face my confusion that I don't understand God's timing. I don't understand God's solution. And that's exactly what Habach is bringing before the Lord.
So, can I bring some of my honest
sure
feelings about that because you know I'm going to whether you give me permission or not. No, that's not true. I am extremely just a perfect wife in every way and I'm going to do a podcast on perfection as soon as I figure that out. But in the me time. I know for myself as I look at all these different acts whether it be a shooting in a school, a shooting in a street, someone's life being abruptly ended by something evil, is that I feel this very subtle yet on the other hand also obvious rage. And I hesitate to say that because that sounds so inflammatory, but I definitely have felt that the last couple of weeks. I felt that over the fact that six innocent people whether somebody disagreed ideologically with the person who took these lives or not. the fact that it got to that place where somebody felt that they had the right to come in and take another's life because of whatever. And there have been a lot of theories as to what has happened and we're not here for that by any means. But I know that I have felt this rage like how can this go on? How can it feels like evil is ramping up and I had a sweet friend say recently, it feels like the enemy is winning. And when you're in a situation, when you view a situation like this, like Habach, when he says, I cry to you. There's violence everywhere. Why don't you save? It's like, God, why do you not jump in here and stop this?
Yeah. And I think that there's a sense in which as we unfold this over the next couple weeks, Ak and what he has to say. And Babylon, which was the arch enemy that he was facing, is really just an arch type of the world.
Yeah.
Corrupt governments, corrupt nations, and what's God's response going to be? And if Habach is struck by the fact that all this is going on and basically saying, "Lord, where are you?" That's really what he's saying.
When he gets God's response, he's going to be even more confused because what God says later on in that first chapter in verse 5, Look around at the nations. Look and be amazed. I'm doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe, even if someone told you about it. I'm raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They'll march across the world and conquer other lands. They're known for their cruelty. Their horses are swifter than cheetahs, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Chariators charge from afar. Like eagles, they swoop in to deliver their prey. And they're bent on violence.
These are brutal people.
These are brutal people. And so God says, "Hey, your an the answer to your question, how long, oh Lord, I'm going to answer it this way. The Babylonians." And I think that adds further confusion to what Habach is feeling.
There's no there's no hymn about this, is there? About the Babylonians like we're singing in church, "Yay, God, the Babylonians are coming." I mean, this is bad news. It feels like bad news.
It is. And it's just like it causes, I think, Habach to be even more confused. And so sometimes I if I bring that forward to us, we do wonder where God is. We do wonder how long are you going to allow this violence to go on? and again the sad part about what happened in Nashville. I mean obviously the sad part is people lost their lives.
But the sad part is by the next day it was no longer the headlines because something else had happened somewhere in the world and that brought more confusion. And then over this past week or So the tornadoes that have hit, so the nature is going out of control and people lost their lives because of natural disasters. and so all this confusion going on gets compounded when God says, "Well, here's what I am going to do." And Habach's like, "I don't get this and I don't get you." And I think that's where we find ourselves doing battle with our faith and trust in a God who is acting in ways we don't expect him to.
I think right now If we could have a little mood music in the back and then you could say, "But I have 10 steps so that you'll understand God fully.", and tie this up in a nice bow would be just perfect. Our listenership would expand. We could probably go on TV.
Well, maybe. But that's not, you know, I can't do that cuz I don't believe that.
I know that. I know that.
So, so it leads into the second complaint that Habach has and he says, "Oh, oh Lord, my God, my holy one, you are eternal. Surely you do not plan to wipe us out. So he's God's announced that he's going to use the Babylonians and Habach knows their reputation and he goes to God surely you're not going to do that. you're pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they are. And so Habach's now going to do a comparison. Hey, I know we're bad here in Judah, but there were worse than we are. And certainly you're not going to let them wipe us out. they're worse than we are. And that's what leads to then Habach saying this in the beginning of chapter 2. I'm going to climb up on my watchtowwer and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint.
Wow. If I could interject something because as I look at this and I you know the question of evil comes up. So why is all this happening? I mean, why has God seemingly allowed, well, he has allowed evil to be rampant the way it is? And what's the bigger purpose? What's the what's what part in the meta narrative does this story take,
right?
and that's where I get a little squirly in my head, like why does God allow evil? And I go back and forth, and I think we all do, like, God, why didn't why did you even create man? if man was going to turn on you the way that they did the way we do and what I've seen in scripture consistent with scripture is that when there's evil it is typical of the absence of God the absence of good because when God is being followed and obeyed and we are yearning to know who he is that's good and when people don't allow God, I don't know if that makes sense, but when people don't allow God into their lives, there's room for evil because there's the absence of God in their lives.
Yeah. there's a sense that the source of evil comes from the absence or the refusal to give God a place in life and to give God space to work. And so then we put all that together and Habach goes, "All right, I know we're bad. They're worse than we are. Certainly, you're not going to allow them to wipe us out and to stamp us out because of who you are, God. And that's when he then says, "I'm going to get up and I'm going to watch." And watching means he has to wait. He's I love that verse because what he does is he act he actively goes to a place and he waits and watches. He's putting himself in a position to be alert to see God, which is not usually what I do when things are bad. I'm so immersed in the evil what's happening that I'm not looking for God.
Yeah. And then so that's a great that's a great point is in the world we live in today. So bring it forward from Babylon and Judah just before the fall of Judah and bring it into our world. Our focus many times like you said tends to be on the evil world around us. We see the different things that unfold on the news and we read about them and we see them and our focus is there as opposed to like Habach does. getting up to a place where he's going to look not to the evil, but he's going to look to see what God's going to do next. And as we pick it up again next week, we'll see what God's response is to Habach's two complaints.