Islam has turned this world into a giant horror movie. On six of the seven continents Muslims are chopping off the heads of Christians, Jews, and anybody else that refuses to convert to Islam. They are burning people alive, and shooting them down like ducks in a shooting gallery. Have you, like me, prayed and prayed begging God to put a stop to this epidemic of evil? Do you wonder why God doesn’t seem to hear, or doesn’t seem to care?
Thousands of years ago Habakkuk wrote lucidly as he experienced the same dilemma: “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!” I can’t say it any better than Habakkuk did.
But Habakkuk didn’t stop there, and we shouldn’t either. He analyses the cause and effect relationships in his current events: “. . . for spoiling and violence are before me: there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.” ‘For spoiling and violence’—does that sound like our “riots” and “demonstrations” and “protests” from Watts in 1965 to Ferguson in 2014? ‘that raise up strife and contention’—-does that sound like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the ACLU, SPLC, DNC, and Eric Holder? So he has named the cause of all the strife and contention: professional rabble rousers, not peacemakers.
What is the result? Habakkuk names four tragic consequences. (1) The law is slacked. Policemen hesitate to do their duty. If I arrest this guy will I be accused of racial discrimination? If I stop and search that guy will I be charged with racial profiling? If I shoot that thug to stop him from killing me will I lose my job, even be sent to prison? Or be lynched? If I testify against that crook, will he get a light sentence and come after me when he gets out of prison?
(2) Judgment doth never go forth. Not always, but almost, things are either right or wrong, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which. But because of the threat of strife and contention, law makers and law enforcers often strain to find some even ridiculous excuse to justify the wrong and condemn the right.
(3) For the wicked doth compass about the righteous. The righteous are rendered impotent by putting them in legal cages. Preachers aren’t allowed to preach against graft and corruption in our government. Parents aren’t allowed to spank their misbehaving children. Schools must socially promote failing students. Rural homeowners aren’t allowed to dam the creek and make themselves a catfish pond. Etc. etc.
(4) Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. Therefore it is the bad decisions that get accepted and become “the law of the land.” Roe v. Wade, Obamacare, same sex marriage, separation of church and state (to name just a few).
I think Habakkuk would be amazed that we have the same problems he experienced, and we are doing only the ineffective things to solve our problems.
In the remainder of Habakkuk’s book God answers him and tells him why he allows all this strife and contention to continue. I recommend that all Americans should study these pages.
For one example, God allows it to continue because the Children of Israel have stopped worshipping Him. Instead, they worship their jobs and the tools of their trades, the things that they credit with making them prosperous and comfortable.