Stephen
Terry, Director
Law and Grace
Commentary
for the November 13, 2021, Sabbath School Lesson
"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 dwellings not their own." Habakkuk
1:5-6, NIV
Habakkuk, the prophet, came to
the Lord with a question, "How can the Lord sit idly by while the wicked prey
upon the innocent?" Theologians call that question the problem of theodicy. If
God is good and loving, how can he tolerate the evil that abounds? Injustice
and bloodshed were rife in Israel in Habakkuk's day. Kings who should have been
examples of humility and obedience, instead filled Jerusalem with innocent
blood from one end to the other. Despite this, the Jews still considered
themselves to be God's people, favored by God because of the tablets of the
Law, hidden in the Ark of the Covenant within the Holy of Holies in the Temple.
No matter how wicked they became as a people, they felt that the Temple meant
God's presence in the Temple was evidence that they remained his people. But
those who truly had a godly heart were heartbroken to see how the people were
behaving toward one another. They reasoned that if they felt this way, then God
must surely be heartbroken as well. So why did he not do something about it?
God answered Habakkuk. He
assured him that he was indeed doing something. He was raising up the
Babylonians. Their king, Nebuchadnezzar, would eventually march his army up to
the walls of Jerusalem and level the city, killing many and taking others
captive back to Babylon, where they would spend seventy years in captivity.
This shocked Habakkuk. The Jews had the Law, the Ark, and the Temple. The
Babylonians had none of these holy things. How could God favor them over the
Jews? Despite the evil that had spread throughout the kingdom, he could not
reconcile this in his mind. Nonetheless, he decided that God is God, and he
would patiently trust him to work out his purposes on the earth. However, had
Habakkuk examined more closely God's dealing with evil, he would have seen the
pattern more clearly.
Centuries before, the
Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Eventually when the time was fulfilled and the
wickedness of the Canaanites had gone too far, God used Moses to bring his
people out of Egypt to claim Canaan, the Promised Land. The temptation for the
Israelites, a temptation that still besets even modern Christians, was to
believe that God allowing a people to have the victory and subdue another meant
that they could claim the moral high ground, and that their victory affirmed
their righteousness as a people. Yes, they had the Law, the Ark, and the
Tabernacle, but tens of thousands of bodies left in the wilderness and tens of
thousands more at Baal Peor testified that, as a people, they were anything but
righteous. God, through Moses and Joshua, men he called to lead the Israelites,
with great effort and never-ending frustration called the rebellious Jews to
punish the wickedness of the Canaanites, leveling their cities much as
Jerusalem would one day be leveled by Nebuchadnezzar. Despite this experience,
those ancient Israelites were unable to save themselves from the same fate as
the Canaanites. Presuming on the presence of the Temple, they plunged ever
deeper into evil and depravity.
The prophets, both major and
minor, attempted to steer the people in right paths. They tried to direct the
people from relying on the presence of the Temple, the Ark, and the Law and to
examine their own hearts, Isaiah, Chapter 58, is one example. The people felt
that making the ordered sacrifices and fasting was the path to righteousness,
but Isaiah shared that if one is not caring for their neighbor, loving them,
and seeing to their needs, one is not loving God either. This counsel and
others like it were ignored, and the prophets that spoke up were mistreated,
Jeremiah was placed in a dungeon pit, Zechariah was murdered, and even Isaiah
was sawn in two by Manasseh, who was arguably the most wicked king to reign in
Jerusalem.
Some might be tempted to think
that if the Jews had only obeyed the Ten Commandments, they would have been
saved. But the Commandments are powerless to save anyone. It is a heart matter,
not a matter of works. For instance, a person might never steal from their neighbor,
but nonetheless wish he had what his neighbor has, his car, his boat, or his
house. A man may never commit adultery with his neighbor's wife, but still
furtively look upon her with lust. One may never murder anyone, but still
silently rejoice when they die by disease or at the hand of someone else. These
examples and others reveal it is possible to keep the letter of the law and not
really keep it at all. Jesus tried to point this out when he said that lusting
for a woman was the same as committing adultery, even if the act were never
consummated.[i]
When we come to accept this understanding, we realize that outward obedience to
the Law can never save us. We come to the realization that our hearts are
persistently evil.[ii]
Our nature is to throw stones at others rather than love them, and where do we
find those stones? They grow in our own hearts, because we refuse to admit our
brokenness and come to God for healing. He is more than willing to replace our
stony hearts with hearts capable of loving others.[iii]
To our way of thinking, we must
first clean off the mud from ourselves so that we are clean enough to come into
God's presence and can then, in good conscience, ask for that new heart. But
that is like telling oneself that we must first lose our extra weight, before
showing up at a Weight Watchers meeting. Many find that they cannot lose the
weight on their own and may eventually realize that the purpose of Weight
Watchers is to help them get there. It is the same with God. He is not waiting
for us to clean ourselves up so that we can come to him. Instead, he wants us
to come to him so he can clean us up. Until we do, we can try by sheer will
power to legalistically achieve perfection. We can even make more laws in an
attempt to make ourselves perfect. We may prohibit activities on the Sabbath
that the Bible says nothing about. Rules like not going in the water any deeper
than would keep your pant cuffs dry being faithful Sabbath keeping are the
result of this kind of thinking. Jesus pointed out that we are exceptionally
good at making ourselves look outwardly faithful and perfect yet remain filled
with uncleanliness.[iv]
So, if we are powerless to save
ourselves, what should we do? Peter says we should repent.[v] In
the Greek, repentance means turning about and going 180 degrees in the opposite
direction. Instead of walking independently away from God, begin walking toward
him. We approach him as we would seeking a gift from a king, confidently
perhaps,[vi]
for he has promised that gift, but not arrogantly asserting our worthiness or
rank, for we have none.[vii] Then
we will receive the gift promised. The Holy Spirit will begin speaking into our
lives, sometimes through the small voice of our conscience as we learn from
experience and the tutelage of the Spirit, and sometimes through the voices of
others who are also surrendered to the Spirit and have the same love growing in
their hearts that we have discovered. At times, the voice of the Spirit may be
painful as it speaks contrary to our lusts, but it is a good pain like the ache
of muscles after exercising. As muscle pain can guide us into more effective
physical activity, so spiritual pain can direct us to effectively nourish love
toward God and others in our hearts. As we walk, our steps will become surer
and our purpose clearer.[viii]
When we encounter the Law, not
as dead words on tablets of stone, but as Jesus magnified it. We will be
touched by the Spirit of that Law that reveals intentions that the Law
condemns, not simply outward acts. We will realize our need to change and
respond by coming to God to effect that change. He will give us new hearts
capable of hearing the Spirit's guidance and of loving as we were created to
do. We no longer need to carry the burden of our wayward hearts and the guilt
and uncleanness we feel. We can instead find rest and hope. As Jesus invited,
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30) Who will come?