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Habakkuk: An Old Testament Prophet Moves from Questions and Anger to Peace

By Anita Mathias

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I dislike conflict, which means I used stuff resentment until I explode.

And I have trouble doing conflict with God too. I was introduced to the Charismatic Movement when I was 17, and truly do believe that one should try to praise the Lord, anyway.

Though that doesn’t preclude having it out with Him. But conflict with God is painful, because when I am angry with him, when I question and doubt him, I feel as if I have lost my last friend in the world.

And so sometimes, my heart is sad and cold and angry, while I say, most spiritually, “Well, I am sure God has a purpose in this. I am sure it will work out for good.” Which, well, yes, is true, but perhaps the heart needs to cry and cry, before it reaches “calm of mind, all passion spent” in Milton’s phrase.

                                           * * *

I just read the little book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk reaches peace and confidence, but not before puzzled and outraged questioning! Not before lamenting!!

He is disgusted by the injustice and violence he sees among God’s people, Israel.

Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted. 
(Hab 1 1-4).

God tells him that is justice will be done, through a new superpower he is raising up, the Babylonians. (An aside: Can we read China today?)

* * *

 

Habakkuk is even more outraged. The cruel Babylonians?

As men before and after him, he attempts to reason God into sense.

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?

* * *

 Catherine Marshall said, in the probably the first Christian book I ever read, Beyond Ourselves, that when we ask God to guide us we have to accept by faith that he is doing so. Similarly, when we ask God a question we need to remember we are not speaking into a void, but instead should remain attentive to what answer he might choose to give.

Habakkuk does that:

I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me.

And the Lord tells him to write down the vision, and make it plain.

“Oh the Babylonians are merely my instrument of discipline for Israel,” the Lord replies, coolly. “But they too will suffer the consequences of their wrong-doing.”

Has not the Lord Almighty determined

That the people’s labour is only fuel for the fire

That the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?

 

And that’s the end of the story. All this heaping and gathering and spending will come to nothing, and “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.”  Completely full, as the waters cover the sea!!

The Lord ends by reassuring his prophet,

“But the Lord is in his holy temple;

Let all the earth be silent before him.”

* * *

And then Habakkuk remembers: God! How the Lord rescued Israel from Pharaoh. How the Red Sea parted. How the sun stood still at Joshua’s command.

The Lord is in control, he realizes, and so he will wait for wicked Babylon to be judged just as wicked Israel will be. He decides to wait for God’s timing.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us
.

There are going to be dreadful times. Even though the Babylonians will devastate Israel, God is permitting it for a reason, as discipline. God is still in control. So he will rejoice in God by faith.

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,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God, my Savior.

                                                                                                                    * * *

I LOVE this—that we can choose to rejoice in the Lord, and be joyful in God, our saviour despite our circumstances. For always, though much is taken, much remains.

And, interestingly, when I remember to praise God by faith for the very things in my life or my family’s life which are difficult, it’s as if all the lights come on, and the sun shines!!

* * *

And here is the other reason Habakkuk resolves to rejoice through it.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to go on the heights. 

Whatever happens, God will give him strength, nimbleness and agility to go through it. Will take him to the spiritual (or worldly) heights, and strengthen him while he is there.

* * *

And this too is a movement in prayer, from restlessness, stress and discontent to peace and surrender. “Calm of mind, all passion spent.”

And perhaps we need to ask the honest, angry questions to hear the true answers, and move to a deeper faith.

Filed Under: Blog Through The Bible Project, Old Testament Prophets Tagged With: anger, doubt, Faith, Habakkuk, peace, Prophets, questioning, resolution, strength

“I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten,” Joel 2:25

By Anita Mathias

I read, years ago, in a book on gardening about  planting a herby lawn, a lawn with herbs interplanted with grass, so that as you walk they release their sweet fragrance. We did not succeed in establishing herbs in our lawn in Virginia, as our gardening skills were unequal to their scorching summers and freezing winters.

However, in England’s mild climate, even though we have been careless and distracted gardeners, it has worked. The apple mint we planted in beds (yes, silly us,) has spread all over the lawn. I can’t wait to mow the grass now, to smell tangy apple mint.

Mint all over the lawn. From what? A single wispy, unpromising cutting sowed 5 years ago. Wow.

That is God’s normal, the law of increase. Small good deeds yielding a mighty harvest. An abounding harvest from what seemed like the wasted, unpromising years.

Multiplication, the exponential power of multiplication, is God’s normal way of doing things, 5000 fed from 5 loaves, seeds scattered bringing forth 30, 50, 100 seeds.

Bless and establish the work of our hands, O Lord!

Filed Under: Blog Through The Bible Project, In which I play in the fields of Scripture, Old Testament Prophets Tagged With: restoring the years the locusts have eaten, the law of multiplication

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Anita Mathias: About Me

Anita Mathias

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My Books

Wandering Between Two Worlds: Essays on Faith and Art

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Francesco, Artist of Florence: The Man Who Gave Too Much

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The Story of Dirk Willems

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Premier Digital Awards 2015 - Finalist - Blogger of the year
Runner Up Christian Media Awards 2014 - Tweeter of the year

Recent Posts

  •  On Not Wasting a Desert Experience
  • A Mind of Life and Peace in the Middle of a Global Pandemic
  • On Yoga and Following Jesus
  • Silver and Gold Linings in the Storm Clouds of Coronavirus
  • Trust: A Message of Christmas
  • Life- Changing Journaling: A Gratitude Journal, and Habit-Tracker, with Food and Exercise Logs, Time Sheets, a Bullet Journal, Goal Sheets and a Planner
  • On Loving That Which Love You Back
  • “An Autobiography in Five Chapters” and Avoiding Habitual Holes  
  • Shining Faith in Action: Dirk Willems on the Ice
  • The Story of Dirk Willems: The Man who Died to Save His Enemy

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What I’m Reading

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Barak Obama

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H Is for Hawk
Helen MacDonald

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Tiny Habits
B. J. Fogg

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The Regeneration Trilogy
Pat Barker

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anita.mathias

Writer, Blogger, Reader, Mum. Christian. Instaing Oxford, travel, gardens and healthy meals. Oxford English alum. Writing memoir. Lives in Oxford, UK

Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford # Images from walks around Oxford. #beauty #oxford #walking #tranquility #naturephotography #nature
So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And h So we had a lovely holiday in the Southwest. And here we are at one of the world’s most famous and easily recognisable sites.
#stonehenge #travel #england #prehistoric England #family #druids
And I’ve blogged https://anitamathias.com/2020/09/13/on-not-wasting-a-desert-experience/
So, after Paul the Apostle's lightning bolt encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he went into the desert, he tells us...
And there, he received revelation, visions, and had divine encounters. The same Judean desert, where Jesus fasted for forty days before starting his active ministry. Where Moses encountered God. Where David turned from a shepherd to a leader and a King, and more, a man after God’s own heart.  Where Elijah in the throes of a nervous breakdown hears God in a gentle whisper. 
England, where I live, like most of the world is going through a desert experience of continuing partial lockdowns. Covid-19 spreads through human contact and social life, and so we must refrain from those great pleasures. We are invited to the desert, a harsh place where pruning can occur, and spiritual fruitfulness.
A plague like this has not been known for a hundred years... John Piper, after his cancer diagnosis, exhorted people, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”—since this was the experience God permitted you to have, and He can bring gold from it. Pandemics and plagues are permitted (though not willed or desired) by a Sovereign God, and he can bring life-change out of them. 
Let us not waste this unwanted, unchosen pandemic, this opportunity for silence, solitude and reflection. Let’s not squander on endless Zoom calls—or on the internet, which, if not used wisely, will only raise anxiety levels. Let’s instead accept the invitation to increased silence and reflection
Let's use the extra free time that many of us have long coveted and which has now been given us by Covid-19 restrictions to seek the face of God. To seek revelation. To pray. 
And to work on those projects of our hearts which have been smothered by noise, busyness, and the tumult of people and parties. To nurture the fragile dreams still alive in our hearts. The long-deferred duty or vocation
So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I So, we are about eight weeks into lockdown, and I have totally sunk into the rhythm of it, and have got quiet, very quiet, the quietest spell of time I have had as an adult.
I like it. I will find going back to the sometimes frenetic merry-go-round of my old life rather hard. Well, I doubt I will go back to it. I will prune some activities, and generally live more intentionally and mindfully.
I have started blocking internet of my phone and laptop for longer periods of time, and that has brought a lot of internal quiet and peace.
Some of the things I have enjoyed during lockdown have been my daily long walks, and gardening. Well, and reading and working on a longer piece of work.
Here are some images from my walks.
And if you missed it, a blog about maintaining peace in the middle of the storm of a global pandemic
https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/  #walking #contemplating #beauty #oxford #pandemic
A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine. A few walks in Oxford in the time of quarantine.  We can maintain a mind of life and peace during this period of lockdown by being mindful of our minds, and regulating them through meditation; being mindful of our bodies and keeping them happy by exercise and yoga; and being mindful of our emotions in this uncertain time, and trusting God who remains in charge. A new blog on maintaining a mind of life and peace during lockdown https://anitamathias.com/2020/05/04/a-mind-of-life-and-peace/
In the days when one could still travel, i.e. Janu In the days when one could still travel, i.e. January 2020, which seems like another life, all four of us spent 10 days in Malta. I unplugged, and logged off social media, so here are some belated iphone photos of a day in Valetta.
Today, of course, there’s a lockdown, and the country’s leader is in intensive care.
When the world is too much with us, and the news stresses us, moving one’s body, as in yoga or walking, calms the mind. I am doing some Yoga with Adriene, and again seeing the similarities between the practice of Yoga and the practice of following Christ.
https://anitamathias.com/2020/04/06/on-yoga-and-following-jesus/
#valleta #valletamalta #travel #travelgram #uncagedbird
Images from some recent walks in Oxford. I am copi Images from some recent walks in Oxford.
I am coping with lockdown by really, really enjoying my daily 4 mile walk. By savouring the peace of wild things. By trusting that God will bring good out of this. With a bit of yoga, and weights. And by working a fair amount in my garden. And reading.
How are you doing?
#oxford #oxfordinlockdown #lockdown #walk #lockdownwalks #peace #beauty #happiness #joy #thepeaceofwildthings
Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social d Images of walks in Oxford in this time of social distancing. The first two are my own garden.  And I’ve https://anitamathias.com/2020/03/28/silver-and-gold-linings-in-the-storm-clouds-of-coronavirus/ #corona #socialdistancing #silverlinings #silence #solitude #peace
Trust: A Message of Christmas He came to earth in Trust: A Message of Christmas  He came to earth in a  splash of energy
And gentleness and humility.
That homeless baby in the barn
Would be the lynchpin on which history would ever after turn
Who would have thought it?
But perhaps those attuned to God’s way of surprises would not be surprised.
He was already at the centre of all things, connecting all things. * * *
Augustus Caesar issued a decree which brought him to Bethlehem,
The oppressions of colonialism and conquest brought the Messiah exactly where he was meant to be, the place prophesied eight hundred years before his birth by the Prophet Micah.
And he was already redeeming all things. The shame of unwed motherhood; the powerlessness of poverty.
He was born among animals in a barn, animals enjoying the sweetness of life, animals he created, animals precious to him.
For he created all things, and in him all things hold together
Including stars in the sky, of which a new one heralded his birth
Drawing astronomers to him.
And drawing him to the attention of an angry King
As angelic song drew shepherds to him.
An Emperor, a King, scholars, shepherds, angels, animals, stars, an unwed mother
All things in heaven and earth connected
By a homeless baby
The still point on which the world still turns. The powerful centre. The only true power.
The One who makes connections. * * *
And there is no end to the wisdom, the crystal glints of the Message that birth brings.
To me, today, it says, “Fear not, trust me, I will make a way.” The baby lay gentle in the barn
And God arranges for new stars, angelic song, wise visitors with needed finances for his sustenance in the swiftly-coming exile, shepherds to underline the anointing and reassure his parents. “Trust me in your dilemmas,” the baby still says, “I will make a way. I will show it to you.” Happy Christmas everyone.  https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/24/trust-a-message-of-christmas/ #christmas #gemalderieberlin #trust #godwillmakeaway
Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Look, I’ve designed a journal. It’s an omnibus Gratitude journal, habit tracker, food and exercise journal, bullet journal, with time sheets, goal sheets and a Planner. Everything you’d like to track.  Here’s a post about it with ISBNs https://anitamathias.com/2019/12/23/life-changing-journalling/. Check it out. I hope you and your kids like it!
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