Be Careful What You Pray For

Be Careful What You Pray For

Habakkuk 1

The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

The Prophet’s Question

² O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
³ Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.
⁴ Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

Habakkuk is clearly troubled by the sight of the righteous suffering, and even more so at the thriving of the wicked. This is present in all unrighteous nations. From a grieved heart, he 

The Lord’s Reply

⁵ “Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
⁶ For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
⁷ They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
⁸ Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.

⁹ “They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
¹⁰ They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
¹¹ Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
Ascribing this power to his god.”

Verse 2, the word for violence is chamas in Hebrew. It is also used for the militant Palestinian organization Hamas that governs on the Gaza strip. 

Gesenius has a couple of entries:

Chamas is defined in number 2 as that which is gained by violence and wrong.  It expresses the idea of wealth or pleasure obtained through violence, oppression, theft, etc. Chaman even involves little things like overcharging for services and products. Treasures of the Deep, Chaim Bentorah

Gain by violence and wrong. 

I had gone to the store and bought some blueberries. At home my husband mentioned the container being smaller than the last time we bought them. I said: “They get more (money/profit) and we get less (blueberries). Profits matter in time of inflation.

On a social media app, someone complained about making a purchase of beef. The meat was fully wrapped in red plastic and Beef was printed on the package. She opened the package and posted the contents of it. It did not look like the ground up, the rippled meat we were used to seeing in the beef department. It looked like pressed Armour’s Potted Meat, or Liverwurst. However, she paid for this pressed material as if it was beef. I posted a comment that crickets and meal worms were now packaged to replace meat. I commented that all the poultry, and cows had been killed over the summer. One should question if what is being purchased is actual meat. It was on a news network that fast-food restaurants were using processed meal worms and crickets as hamburger. You still have to pay for it as if it is real hamburger. I have no idea what meal worm burgers should sell for, but the cost should not be comparable to real hamburger. 

War also makes the rich wealthier. During the Irag war, Halliburton made millions by outsourcing military duties to the private sector. Investors love war. It doesn’t matter if war leaves behind widows, or children; or if it creates an empty space in a family of parents or siblings. It does matter if the treasuries of the wealthy enlarge daily off the suffering of others. Anything that disrupts that conveyor belt to the bank will get noticed; and the IRS, FBI, and propaganda networks will be dispatched to oppress those who raises objections. 

I remember when Lee Iococa worked for Ford in the 1960’s-1970’s, and an issue came up with selling the substandard Pinto. “The National Highway Safety and Transportation Administration (NHSTA) noted the large number of fires and deaths of drivers and passengers in which Pinto participated. The investigation revealed that Ford was doing crash tests back in 1970 and out of 11 specimens tested, as many as eight ended up in fires.”

How Ford rationalized profit over human life: “The investigation also revealed that the position of the Pinto tank was just behind the bumper, leading to numerous fires when another car struck the rear. Several tests showed that the problem was quite cheap to fix, between five and nine dollars, but Ford had other plans. Specifically, human life was estimated at $200,000 while fire damage was valued at $67,000. Ford considered that if he had an average of 180 deaths and 180 more injured people that he would have to pay $49 million in damages while withdrawing so many Pintos ​​from the streets (which at that point was about two million) would cost as much as $137 million.” Money matters, therefore, money wins.

Ford Pinto (1970 – 1980) – Model History – MLFREE

These are just a few examples in our society where wealth is generated through dubious means. Chaim Bentorah adds church leaders who exploit their positions in the church: “Using a promise of God’s blessing as a tool to enhance your own power or wealth base, like giving an offering to get more from God rather than giving out of a sacrificial heart of love is chaman [chamas].” Treasures of the Deep. 365 Daily Hebrew Word Studies, pg. 118 Chaim Bentorah

Habakkuk feels overwhelmed by all the flagrant injustices he sees in Judah, and even though they are called to repent and return to God—they refuse. They are stiff-necked and hard of heart.  

God had been taking notice of Judah’s transgressions, and He is also hearing the frustrated prayers of Habakkuk. And He responds by saying: 

⁵ “Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
⁶ For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
⁷ They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
⁸ Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.

⁹ “They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
¹⁰ They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
¹¹ Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
Ascribing this power to his god.”

Habakkuk may have thought: Oh no! Surely not the Chaldeans! These people are more wicked than Judah! Maybe I should have prayed differently, because this is terrible!

For clarity I use the English Standard Version 

¹² Are you not from everlasting,
    O Lord my God, my Holy One?
    We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
¹³ You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
    and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴ You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
¹⁵ He brings all of them up with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;

   so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
    and his food is rich.
¹⁷ Is he (Babylonians) then to keep on emptying his net
    and mercilessly killing nations forever?

Judah will be like fish in the net of the Babylonians. They are at a great disadvantage now with no power of their own. The leaders have turned to other gods and transgress the Torah by no longer practicing righteousness. In consequence God is permitting Judah to be dragged off as fish to fry. 

Habakkuk is concerned about the righteous: “why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?”

God assures Habakkuk that the just in any generation shall live by faith.

Habakkuk 2:4

Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith (not by sight). The unjust will not survive. 

Chapter 3:17-18

Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls – Yet, I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Habakkuk resigns himself to God’s wisdom even though he does not fully understand God’s ways. He will live by faith. 

Habakkuk is distressed by the transgressions of Judah, and he desires to see repentance, and a returning to God and His righteousness. Yet, Judah ignores the invitation. Like so many of us today, he is crying out for God to correct the nation; and God said He is going to do something about it. He is going to send the brutal and unmerciful Chaldeans to lay siege, to invade, to attack, rape, pillage, kill, and to take as slaves those that were able to have survived all the above. Habakkuk will have his prayer answered, but I do not think in the way that he desired. A nation more ruthless than Judah will overcome them. 

This is a repeated pattern in the rebellious nations who do not recognize Adonai as God. Eventually they all fall.

Deuteronomy 28:49

The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor the young. 

America has transgressed against God. She has left her first love, and has thrown aside her covenant with God, her husband, just like Judah. Our politicians will not stop killing the unborn, stop the idolatry, stop the love of money, stop fornicating, stop sex trafficking of children, adultery, stop practicing homosexuality, transgenderism, stop pedophilia, zoophilia; the nation will not repent of its sorcery, and witchcraft. 

The earth is saturated with the blood of the innocent and the blood cries out to God for justice. Like Judah, this nation will be overcome by other nations. As far as I can tell, it will be Russia, the Asians (perhaps China), Germany, and Muslims. If this nation would repent now and turn from its wickedness, the correction that would come would be limited. God is merciful. 

God is calling all men to repentance. He is calling humankind to Himself. We are in a serious hour. Let us turn to God while there is opportunity. We are fast approaching the Feast of Yom Kippur on October 4, 2022, the day of judgment; and I have yet to witness the nation repenting and afflicting itself before the LORD. 

Prayer: God, have mercy upon Your righteous people, and remember their good works. Help us to stand in the evil day. Help us to be firm in our conviction that Adonai is God. I pray for the spirit of repentance to saturate the nation(s). Grant Your faithful the Holy Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, might, counsel, fear of the LORD. 

Bring repentance, Father, to this nation. Let it be far from us that the nations will bring such devastation and humiliation. God have mercy upon us. We believe in Yeshua, His sacrifice, His resurrection, His blood, His soon return.