It isnt right

I was reading an Old Testament book today - Habakkuk, before you switch off cos its OT just hang in there ...

Habakkuk was around at the time just before Judah was overrun by the Babylonians, he has seen what had happened to other countries and therefore what was coming for Judah. But something just did not fit for him, it wasn't right, that God was not defending his people, he was, to some extend blinded by the expectation that as God's chosen people, they would not fall foul of some marauding empire building nation. He, like most of Judah had not understood God's warnings of what would happen if they did not get right with him again and put down false gods and perverse ways.


This prophet complains not once but twice to God about what he see's - why is God not with his people? Why is God going to let a less righteous people overcome God's people?

Cholera compound - Congo

And what of us today? I see complaint after complaint in the news about the economy, about the health service situation (in the UK), about pensions - no one wants to loose out no matter who has to pay; yet in spite of our apparent troubles, we ignore the many in the world who have no money for food, no basic health care ( I saw children dying of malaria in the Congo a few years back, which should be preventable!) - exactly the kinds of things God says that his people were not doing.  

It isnt right  that we show so little concern for where our food comes from, how our pension funds increase in size (at whose cost?) and complain about our medical care while so many die through lack of basic medicine, clean water and food. Judah was concerned only about themselves and not about those struggling, with nothing - Justice and mercy were low on the agenda and I think, are in the western world today.

It is not until Habakkuk finally hears rather than just listens to God , that he understands the problem and he is able to put God back into the right place in his heart, God is sovereign and not Habakkuk or Judah or for that matter Babylon. When God is sovereign in our hearts we will see things more as he does and begin to feel as he does for the widow, the orphan, the homeless, those without medical care ...

When we start to care about others, our neighbours in this world, more than about our lifestyle, our spending power then we might more fully be called the people of God.