From the prophet Habakkuk, to the disciples in Christ’s day down to our age, we ask these perplexing questions of God.
Habakkuk, in his day of around 605 BC, was concerned about ‘violence, iniquity, trouble, plundering, strife, contention, the law is powerless’ (Habakkuk 1:1-4). He cried out to God, “O Lord, how long shall I cry.” He saw the dying nation of Judah. He saw Babylon becoming the dominant world power. And he knew prophetically from God that Judah would soon feel Babylon’s destructive force.
Some 600 years later in Christ’s day His disciples were equally inquisitive: “When will these things be, What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). Almost 2,000 years on, we echo similar thoughts today about the looming crises on our horizon.
The front page of The Bulletin magazine for May, 1977, stated: BRITAIN HAS SUNK. She hadn’t and still continues. The front page of Newsweek for November 1979 asked, HAS AMERICA LOST ITS CLOUT? It hadn’t then and thirty years later still continues.
Pivotal Scriptures.
“And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven like iron and your earth like bronze” (Leviticus 26:19).
“All the people soon heard the message, Ephraim and the citizens of Samaria. But they were a proud and arrogant bunch. They dismissed the message, saying, “Things aren’t that bad. We can handle anything that comes. If our buildings are knocked down, we’ll rebuild them bigger and finer. If our forests are cut down, we’ll replant them with finer trees” (Isaiah 9:9-10, The Message).
“Therefore so says the Holy One of Israel, Because you have despised this Word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rest on them; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant” (Isaiah 30:12-13).
“His watchmen are blind; ……….Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough; and they are shepherds who cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, to his own end. They say, “Come, let us take wine, and let us gulp strong drink; and tomorrow shall be like today, and much more abundant” (Isaiah 56:10-12).
