Grams Writes

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet i will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

Lately I’ve been reading the minor prophets, not because I’m such a theologian, but because I was curious. Beginning with Hosea, I’ve just finished Habakkuk. I can’t say I understood everything I read, but I did get enough to understand that regardless of the time period the prophet was writing about, they all seemed to have one thing in common. God was displeased with His chosen people and judgment was soon coming unless they repented. The thing is, if anyone ever got the point, they didn’t hang on to it for very long. The next generation invariably picked up where their parents and grandparents left off. Oh, there might be a momentary sorrow because of the hard times they were in, but nothing lasting, nothing genuine.

It has always intrigued me how closely paralleled the moral decay of western civilization is to that of Rome in its last days. But in reading about the Children of Israel, the parallel continued. My conclusion is that man is inherently evil and if left to his own inclinations will wreak havoc on all around him.

While problems abound because sin abounds; while people search frantically for a way; any way just so there is one, they turn a blind eye to the only solution available to them. Just like Israel did; just like Rome did; just like mankind has done since God removed Adam and Eve from the Garden, man has refused to listen to the God of heaven and earth.

The pat Christian answer is always that we have the answer, and we do. But how do we get people to look our way, to listen to what we have to say? I think I found the answer in the last verses of Habakkuk. He says, basically, that if the fields are bare, if there is nothing to eat, if there is no way to make a living, if all is lost in this life, still he will rejoice in the God of his salvation. What would make a greater impression on the lost world today than God’s people relying totally on Him, on His care, and rejoicing because of Him and His great salvation? And that’s the difference. We may go through the same hard times; we may lose our jobs, our homes, our retirement, but this is not the end. We can rejoice in the God of our salvation!

Grams