{"id":5931,"date":"2020-07-05T15:38:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-05T19:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=5931"},"modified":"2020-07-05T15:41:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-05T19:41:53","slug":"when-my-country-falls-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=5931","title":{"rendered":"WHEN MY COUNTRY FALLS APART"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Richard Jones<\/h3>\n

rec 07-05-20<\/a><\/p>\n

WHEN MY COUNTRY FALLS APART<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Habakkuk Chapters 1-3<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE CONTEXT\u00a0 \u00a0Jeremiah 22: 13-19<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWoe to him who builds his house by\u00a0unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice,
\nwho makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,14\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>who says, \u201d\u02dcI will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,\u201d\u2122who cuts out windows for it,
\npaneling it with cedar and\u00a0painting it with vermilion.15\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Do you think you are a king\u00a0because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink\u00a0and\u00a0do justice and righteousness?\u00a0Then it was well with him.16\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He judged the cause of the poor and needy;\u00a0then it was well. Is not this\u00a0to know me?\u00a0declares the\u00a0Lord.17\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But you have eyes and heart\u00a0only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood,\u00a0and for practicing oppression and violence.\u201d18\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Therefore thus says the\u00a0Lord\u00a0concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:\u201cThey shall not lament for him, saying,\u00a0\u201d\u02dcAh, my brother!\u201d\u2122 or \u201d\u02dcAh, sister!\u201d\u2122 They shall not lament for him, saying,\u00a0\u201d\u02dcAh, lord!\u201d\u2122 or \u201d\u02dcAh, his majesty!\u201d\u212219\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>With the burial of a donkey\u00a0he shall be buried,\u00a0dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.\u201d<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16<\/h3>\n

All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0that he had made holy in Jerusalem.<\/h3>\n

15\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>The\u00a0Lord, the God of their fathers,\u00a0sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But they kept mocking the messengers of God,\u00a0despising his words and scoffing at his prophets,\u00a0until the wrath of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0rose against his people, until there was no remedy.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

THE COMPLAINT\u00a0\u00a0 Habakkuk 1: 2-4\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

O\u00a0Lord,\u00a0how long shall I cry for help,\u00a0and you will not hear? Or cry to you\u00a0\u201cViolence!\u201d
\nand you will not save?3\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Why do you make me see iniquity,\u00a0and why do you idly look at wrong?
\nDestruction\u00a0and violence are before me;\u00a0strife and contention arise.4\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>So the law is paralyzed,
\nand justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous;\u00a0so justice goes forth perverted.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

THE COUNSEL\u00a0\u00a0 Habakkuk 1: 5-11<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cLook among the nations, and see;\u00a0wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days\u00a0that you would not believe if told.6\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For behold,\u00a0I am raising up the Chaldeans,\u00a0that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth,\u00a0to seize dwellings not their own.7\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>They are dreaded and fearsome;\u00a0their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Their horses are swifter than leopards,\u00a0more fierce than\u00a0the evening wolves;\u00a0their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar;\u00a0they fly like an eagle swift to devour.9\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>They all come\u00a0for violence,\u00a0all their faces forward.\u00a0They gather captives\u00a0like sand.10\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>At kings they scoff,\u00a0and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress,\u00a0for\u00a0they pile up earth and take it.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,\u00a0guilty men,\u00a0whose own might is their god!\u201d<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

THE CONFUSION\u00a0\u00a0 Habakkuk 1: 12-13<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Are you not\u00a0from everlasting,\u00a0O\u00a0Lord\u00a0my God, my Holy One?\u00a0We shall not die.
\nO\u00a0Lord,\u00a0you have ordained them as a judgment,\u00a0and you, O\u00a0Rock, have established them for reproof.13\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>You who are\u00a0of purer eyes than to see evil\u00a0and cannot look at wrong, why do you \u00a0idly look at traitors\u00a0and\u00a0remain silent when the wicked swallows up\u00a0the man more righteous than he?<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

THE CONVERSATION\u00a0\u00a0 Habakkuk 2: 1-4\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I will\u00a0take my stand at my watchpost\u00a0and station myself on the tower, and\u00a0look out to see\u00a0what he will say to me,\u00a0and what I will answer concerning my complaint. 2\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And the\u00a0Lord\u00a0answered me: \u201cWrite the vision;\u00a0make it plain on tablets,\u00a0so he may run who reads it.3\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For still\u00a0the vision awaits its appointed time;\u00a0it hastens to the end\u201d\u201dit will not lie. If it seems slow,\u00a0wait for it;\u00a0it will surely come; it will not delay.4\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cBehold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
\nbut\u00a0the righteous shall live by his faith.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

THE CONSEQUENCE\u00a0\u00a0 Habakkuk 2: 8-14<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Because you have plundered many nations,\u00a0all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
\nfor the blood of man and\u00a0violence to the earth,\u00a0to cities and all who dwell in them.9\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cWoe to him who gets evil gain for his house,\u00a0to\u00a0set his nest on high,\u00a0to be safe from the reach of harm!
\n10\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>You have devised shame for your house\u00a0by cutting off many peoples;\u00a0you have forfeited your life.11\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For\u00a0the stone will cry out from the wall,\u00a0and the beam from the woodwork respond. 12\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cWoe to him\u00a0who builds a town with blood\u00a0and founds a city on iniquity!13\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Behold, is it not from the\u00a0Lord\u00a0of hosts that\u00a0peoples labor merely for fire,\u00a0and nations weary themselves for nothing?14\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For the earth will be filled\u00a0with the knowledge of\u00a0the glory of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0as the waters cover the sea.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

THE CONFIDENCE\u00a0\u00a0 Habakkuk 3: 16-19\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I hear, and\u00a0my body trembles;\u00a0my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones;\u00a0my legs tremble beneath me. Yet\u00a0I will quietly wait for the day of trouble\u00a0to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom,\u00a0nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail\u00a0and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold\u00a0and there be no herd in the stalls,18\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>yet I will rejoice in the\u00a0Lord;\u00a0I will take joy in the God of my salvation.19\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>God, the Lord, is my strength;\u00a0he makes my feet like the deer’s;\u00a0he makes me\u00a0tread on my\u00a0high places. To the choirmaster: with\u00a0stringed\u00a0instruments.<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n