From God’s Patience to God’s Patients
“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.
I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not their own.
They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
Habakkuk 1:5-7 (NIV)
On December 8, 1941 the United States officially declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy and entered into World War II. Up until the day before, the US had been trying to stay out of the war, the belief was the Atlantic and Pacific oceans would protect the United States and there was no reason to enter into the war. Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the patience of the United States snapped. The consequences were severe. When the smoke finally cleared, Germany and Japan were broken nations, countless were dead, and the nuclear age began with a mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Scripture tells us that God is patient, but He is also holy. And His holiness must be satisfied. Eventually God, like Habakkuk, will become so outraged at the sins of His people that He will act. And like the US entering World War II He will act with devastating consequences. God was sending the Babylonians after Israel. The Babylonians were a people to be feared. They made a habit of attacking other nations to carry off the people as slaves, and to make the property of those people their own. And they were virtually unstoppable. I can imagine Habakkuk’s reaction to this. His heart pounding in his chest, unable to speak, standing there just stunned at the idea. Imagine! God’s holy people conquered by dirty pagans! “Sure”, Habakkuk must have thought, “God’s people aren’t acting very holy right now but they’re still better than the Babylonians. How could God do this?” Of course he probably thought that right after he thought, “Oh no. My family, my friends and I are all going to be dead or slaves.” Without God the Israelites didn’t stand a chance against the Babylonians and Habakkuk knew it. In fact later in the chapter Habakkuk compares the Israelites to fish being hauled up into a fisherman’s boat. The fish don’t stand a chance of defeating the fisherman and so the Israelites don’t stand a chance against the Babylonians.
This is the nature of justice. It demands a cost from the person who has violated it. Justice is something that God requires. And it cost the Israelites big. Eventually they make their way back to their homeland after being carried off as slaves. But they are never again a super power as they were under Kings David and Solomon. In fact, they never again exist as an independent nation until 1948. This is the story of humanity. All of humanity has sinned against God. And the price that is demanded by God’s holiness is even steeper than the one the Israelites paid. The price demanded by God’s holiness is to forever be apart from God. God cannot tolerate sin around Him and so all of us sinners can’t be in his presence. Unless someone else pays that price. Ultimately God offered Himself up to His own justice via the sacrifice of Jesus. Because He paid the price for our sin we don’t have to. All too often we think of sin as being something God doesn’t really like but really not a big deal, and something that doesn’t have much in the way of consequences. But the reality is that God hates sin. He despises it. And it has grave consequences. It resulted in God breaking Israel as a nation. It resulted in countless deaths when the Babylonians swept in. It resulted in numerous people becoming slaves to the Babylonians. It resulted in the death of Christ on the cross. When we truly realize the horrible results of sin then we will begin working towards removing it from our lives. Romans 12:1ff gives the process for doing this. By daily renewing our minds through prayer and scripture our lives can be transformed. The process of change does not start with an act of will, or even an action. The process of change begins with our attitudes and our mindset. If we renew our minds with prayer and scripture our attitudes and mindsets will become Godly, and those will in turn affect our wills, which will in turn affect our actions. But it all begins with the renewal of our minds, if we do that, then like a row of dominoes the rest will fall as well. But if we don’t begin by renewing our minds then its a long and hard process of pushing over each individual domino rather than setting into place a chain reaction that results in change.
- And Justice for All
- Fruit can be bitter, even if the farmer has worked hard
- Marriage is more than not divorce
- Salvation comes from God
- Mistakes Were Made
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