Questions for the Holy One

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:05.040 A gracious heavenly father. We do thank you for your word, we thank 2 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:09.189 you for your words of life and we ask that you would continue to speak 3 00:00:09.189 --> 00:00:13.949 words of life into our souls help us to see our savior. This morning. 4 00:00:14.589 --> 00:00:19.710 We pray this in Jesus name. Amen, please remain standing for the 5 00:00:19.789 --> 00:00:26.460 reading of God's word this morning from the Prophet Habacock, Habacock chapter one, 6 00:00:30.579 --> 00:00:35.380 though will be reading focusing on versus twelve through to the end of the chapter. 7 00:00:36.649 --> 00:00:38.810 We're kind of in the middle of a dialog and I think that be 8 00:00:38.850 --> 00:00:42.729 helpful for us to hear the entire conversation up to this point. So reading 9 00:00:42.729 --> 00:00:46.409 from Habacock, Chapter One, verse one. Listen, for this is the 10 00:00:46.450 --> 00:00:51.079 word of the Lord, the Oracle that Habacock, the prophet, saw. 11 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:56.159 Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? 12 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.359 Or cry to you violence and you will not save why do you make 13 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:07.030 me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction? Violence 14 00:01:07.069 --> 00:01:11.709 are before me, strife and contention arise, so the law is paralyzed and 15 00:01:11.909 --> 00:01:18.310 justice never goes forth, for the wicked surround the righteous. So justice goes 16 00:01:18.349 --> 00:01:23.540 forth perverted. Look among the nations and see, wonder and be astounded, 17 00:01:23.700 --> 00:01:27.900 for I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if 18 00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:33.890 told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and 19 00:01:34.049 --> 00:01:38.489 hasty nation who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their 20 00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:44.609 own. They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go forth from 21 00:01:44.650 --> 00:01:49.079 themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves. 22 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:55.359 Their horsemen, pressed proudly on their horsemen, come from afar. They 23 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:59.400 fly like an eagle, swift to devour. They all come for violence, 24 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:04.950 all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, 25 00:02:05.069 --> 00:02:07.469 and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they 26 00:02:07.550 --> 00:02:12.629 pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and 27 00:02:12.909 --> 00:02:19.740 go on, guilty men whose own might is their God. Are you not 28 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:24.259 from everlasting? Oh Lord, my God, My holy one, we shall 29 00:02:24.379 --> 00:02:30.169 not die. Oh Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and 30 00:02:30.409 --> 00:02:34.169 you, O Roc, have established them for reproof. You who are of 31 00:02:34.330 --> 00:02:38.490 purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. Why do you 32 00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:44.479 idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more 33 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:49.479 righteous than he. You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like 34 00:02:49.719 --> 00:02:53.159 crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a 35 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:57.280 hook. He drags them out with his net. He gathers them in. 36 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:01.030 Is a dragnet. so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore, he sacrifices 37 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:07.349 to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet, for by them he lives 38 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:12.900 in luxury and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying 39 00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:19.419 his net and mercilessly killing nations forever? I will take my stand at my 40 00:03:19.539 --> 00:03:23.379 watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he 41 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:29.610 will say to me and what I shall answer concerning my complaint. That's for 42 00:03:29.729 --> 00:03:31.409 the reading of God's word. May he bless it to us. Please be 43 00:03:31.490 --> 00:03:46.240 seated. I want to start this morning with a with a question. What 44 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:53.520 is a Theologan? What is a Theologan? Well, at theologan right is 45 00:03:53.840 --> 00:04:00.750 someone engaged in the study of theology. Therefore, a theologian is someone who 46 00:04:00.830 --> 00:04:06.469 devotes their time to understanding the nature of God. They're interested in the attributes 47 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:14.939 of God theologan is interested in the character of God. That's my second question 48 00:04:15.099 --> 00:04:19.180 is, what does a theologan look like? Hold it in your mind right 49 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:25.689 now. What's your picture of a theologian? Does he look like an academic? 50 00:04:27.529 --> 00:04:32.050 Does she look bright and intelligent? Are they carrying around a stack of 51 00:04:32.129 --> 00:04:35.889 books with lengthy titles? Or maybe, better yet, are they standing in 52 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:43.319 front of an tire bookshelf, a wall of books? Yet, how many 53 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:47.800 of us picture in our heads an Old Testament prophet? How many of US 54 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:54.110 Picture Habakuk, whatever he may have looked like? Because in what I just 55 00:04:54.269 --> 00:05:00.509 read, Habacock is engaged in theology. He is deeply interested in the character 56 00:05:00.990 --> 00:05:06.860 and the nature of God, and it's not just out of some idle or 57 00:05:08.019 --> 00:05:14.339 intellectual curiosity. It has an immediate importance on what is going on around him. 58 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:23.689 Who God is matters for what he sees, for how he's responding to 59 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:28.889 what he sees. For you see, when Habacco began this book, he 60 00:05:29.050 --> 00:05:32.050 began by crying out to the Lord, describing all the injustices that he has 61 00:05:32.089 --> 00:05:38.439 witnessed. And yet, rather than form this as a prayer or as a 62 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:43.800 request, he puts it in the form of a complaint. He speaks out 63 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:46.839 to God. Why do you make me see iniquity? Why do you idly 64 00:05:46.920 --> 00:05:51.310 look at wrong? For you see things are upside down, the righteous are 65 00:05:51.389 --> 00:05:55.709 suffering, the wicked or prospering, and God, God, seems to be 66 00:05:55.829 --> 00:06:00.509 silence. God seems to be inactive. He's longing for God to respond, 67 00:06:00.550 --> 00:06:06.540 he's longing for God's to act, he's longing for justice. And in the 68 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:14.779 Lord's response to the Prophet, we see how shortsighted Habacic truly is. For 69 00:06:14.899 --> 00:06:17.569 in verses five through eleven, the Lord says that he has not been inactive, 70 00:06:17.970 --> 00:06:21.410 he's not been blind to the wickedness of Judah. Rather, he has 71 00:06:21.449 --> 00:06:28.689 been at work among the Babylonians, among these Chaldeans. God has been doing 72 00:06:28.810 --> 00:06:32.759 a work too unbelievable for words. He says, I'm doing a work in 73 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:36.560 your day that you would not believe if told. Behold, I am raising 74 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:42.240 up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the breadth of 75 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:47.230 the earth to seize dwellings not their own. And he describes how swift they 76 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:51.310 are, he describes how they are brutal, they are violent, they are 77 00:06:51.509 --> 00:06:58.750 ruthless and like a tornado, they will swoop down quickly, leaving only destruction 78 00:06:59.230 --> 00:07:03.980 in their wake. And so now in our passage, and quickly becomes obvious 79 00:07:04.139 --> 00:07:11.060 to Habacic, this unbelievable answer to the prophets complaint was not what he had 80 00:07:11.259 --> 00:07:16.850 in mind. He was complaining about too much violence in Judah, and now 81 00:07:17.009 --> 00:07:23.370 the Lord is about to send even more. He was complaining about too much 82 00:07:23.410 --> 00:07:29.970 in juice in Judah, and now the Lord will send even more. And 83 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:34.240 so the Lord's solution only raises more questions. And these are more than just 84 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:40.959 questions. These are further complaints from Habakach. And yet this is no longer 85 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:46.550 just a onesided complaint, now that the Lord has responded to the Prophet. 86 00:07:46.589 --> 00:07:53.589 We're in the midst of a dialog. HABACO's words here reflect that he isn't 87 00:07:53.629 --> 00:07:59.220 just repeating his complaints from before like some child who's throwing a fit. His 88 00:07:59.379 --> 00:08:03.980 complaint now changes in light of what's been revealed. And can you see why 89 00:08:05.139 --> 00:08:11.779 Habakok would be complaining now, after the Lord has responded to him? You 90 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:15.329 see, it's this. If he's just been told that they're hiring drug dealers 91 00:08:15.410 --> 00:08:20.370 to hand out speeding tickets, it's as if he's just been told they're hiring 92 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:26.839 serial killers to stop shoplifting. This solution doesn't make sense. How is it 93 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:33.919 that God could use such a wicked nation like Babylon to judge his own covenant 94 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:41.279 people? After all, he's been complaining about injustice. He's going been complaining 95 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:46.669 about the brutality of Judah, but surely the brutality of Babylon is worse, 96 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:52.190 and the Lord says so himself. He's not raising them up for their abilities 97 00:08:52.269 --> 00:08:58.299 to listen. He's not bringing them to Judah because you know they're strict but 98 00:08:58.460 --> 00:09:05.899 fair. No, it's because of their relentless might and greed that the Lord 99 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:11.769 is using them for this judgment. And here is precisely then, where the 100 00:09:11.889 --> 00:09:18.730 prophet shows us that he's a theologian, for even in his complaint he's answering 101 00:09:18.850 --> 00:09:26.519 the question who is God? Here's his theology at work as he struggles to 102 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:31.000 reconcile what he's just heard from God with who he already knows God to be. 103 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:37.559 Just notice all the divine names and and descriptions which he falls back on 104 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:46.070 in the midst of his despair. He addresses God as Oh Lord. Here 105 00:09:46.149 --> 00:09:52.980 he refers not to a title but to the name Yahway he calls upon the 106 00:09:52.059 --> 00:09:58.460 Covenant Name God gave to his people when he rescued them from Egypt. This 107 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:03.419 is the name God gave to Moses to tell the people exactly who is redeeming 108 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:09.809 them. Therefore, this name goes to the heart of what is unique about 109 00:10:09.409 --> 00:10:15.490 Judah as a nation, as a people. What makes jude different from the 110 00:10:15.610 --> 00:10:22.120 Babylonians and from every other nation is their covenantal relationship to Yahwe God had this 111 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:31.600 relationship with no other nation, only Abraham's chosen offspring. He refers to God 112 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:37.669 as my God, as this is even more heavenence in how he describes him. 113 00:10:37.710 --> 00:10:41.230 Oh Lord, my God. He addresses him not just as a god 114 00:10:41.309 --> 00:10:46.389 or the God, but my God, and this is in direct contrast to 115 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:52.620 the idolatry, then of the Babylonians mentioned just prior to this in verse eleven. 116 00:10:52.659 --> 00:10:58.820 God calls the Babylonians guilty men whose own might is their God, because 117 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:03.769 the Babylonians don't worship the Lord, they worship themselves. They don't praise God 118 00:11:03.970 --> 00:11:09.850 for their victories, they simply praise themselves. And so, when calling out 119 00:11:09.889 --> 00:11:13.330 to God as my God, do you see how the Bacach is drawing this 120 00:11:13.450 --> 00:11:20.919 distinction between Judah and the nations. And then there's the further name my holy 121 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:28.320 one. The Prophet reference is not only God's covenant with his people. He 122 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:33.830 now calls upon the very holiness of his God as opposed to all the slaughter, 123 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:37.710 as opposed to all the bloodshed all around him, both in Judah and 124 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:41.509 Babylon, as opposed to the wickedness, to the pride, to the greed 125 00:11:41.909 --> 00:11:48.460 present both in Judah and now coming from Babylon. The Lord, my God, 126 00:11:48.220 --> 00:11:56.179 My holy one, and stands separate, my holy one, stands apart. 127 00:11:56.419 --> 00:12:01.690 He alone is holy, he alone is undefiled, as the Prophet himself 128 00:12:01.730 --> 00:12:07.769 says in verse thirteen, you who are of pure eyes then to see evil 129 00:12:09.049 --> 00:12:15.370 and cannot look at wrong. So he knows of God's holiness, he knows 130 00:12:15.409 --> 00:12:20.960 of his perfections, he knows that God is so entirely pure, so entirely 131 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:28.320 holy, that he cannot tolerate sin. And yet not only does God seem 132 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.269 to be tolerating it, not only is he seemed to be allowing it, 133 00:12:31.789 --> 00:12:41.389 he is raising up wicked Babylonians to carry out holy justice. Do you see 134 00:12:41.429 --> 00:12:46.539 how this confuses the prophet? Do you see why this situation throws the Prophet 135 00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:54.940 back upon his own theology, for he's not reevaluating his theology, he's revealing 136 00:12:54.019 --> 00:13:00.049 it. He's saying, this is what I know to be true of you, 137 00:13:00.250 --> 00:13:03.809 God. You are Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac Jacob. 138 00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:09.490 You are my God because you have made yourself knowable to your covenant people, 139 00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:15.200 because You yourself promised to be our God and you made us your people. 140 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:20.440 You are my holy one because you have have revealed your purity, you revealed 141 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:26.240 your holiness. In all of your statutes and all of your ceremonies. We 142 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:31.429 see that you are holy, you are free from defilement, and yet we 143 00:13:31.470 --> 00:13:37.230 are filthy, we are covered in our shame and guilt. Do you see 144 00:13:37.230 --> 00:13:43.820 them that? The confusion that a pacock is wrestling with who God is seems 145 00:13:43.860 --> 00:13:50.700 to be at odds with what God is doing and allowing for this prophet, 146 00:13:50.899 --> 00:13:56.330 the judgment doesn't seem to fit the crime. He goes on to describe Judah's 147 00:13:56.690 --> 00:14:05.289 powerlessness before this approaching enemy, and he uses the metaphor of a fisherman using 148 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:11.240 his nets to endlessly catch and drag fish from the sea. The fish cannot 149 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:16.799 fight back. The fish have no defenses. They are hopeless, utterly vanquished 150 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:22.080 at the hands of the fisherman. He says, you make mankind like the 151 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:26.350 fish of the sea, like cawling things that have no ruler. He brings 152 00:14:26.470 --> 00:14:28.230 all of them up with a hook, he drags them out with his net, 153 00:14:28.509 --> 00:14:35.990 he gathers them in his dragnet. so he rejoices and is glad to 154 00:14:35.070 --> 00:14:41.299 the point where he sacrifices to his nets. He makes offerings to his dragnet, 155 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:45.539 because by them he lives in luxury and he has which he has, 156 00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:50.580 his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his nets and 157 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:56.169 mercilessly killing nations forever? The Prophet asks. Now, compare this wickedness of 158 00:14:56.250 --> 00:15:00.769 the sins of Judah. Judah has still been chosen by the one true God, 159 00:15:00.889 --> 00:15:05.169 whereas the Babylonians simply worship their strength, they worship their might. They 160 00:15:05.250 --> 00:15:13.559 get away with great brutality. And who do the Babylonians think? They sacrifice 161 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:20.440 to their nets. So not only are they brutal, they're also stupid, 162 00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:26.990 as if a sacrifice will make the rope stronger or their weapons better. These 163 00:15:28.110 --> 00:15:33.230 brutal men are are pagans and they're dumb. How can it be that they 164 00:15:33.309 --> 00:15:39.740 are to triumph over Judah? How can they be the staff used by God 165 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:46.539 to judge his own covenant people, these unchosen Pagans who boast in their nets 166 00:15:46.620 --> 00:15:52.129 or their might, and the holy one is going to use them and bring 167 00:15:52.330 --> 00:15:58.330 them success? His own chosen people have been sinful, but do they deserve 168 00:15:58.450 --> 00:16:04.200 this? How can this be happening? And so Habakuk, the theologian, 169 00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:11.759 he he complains because these actions don't seem to match the character of God. 170 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:18.549 He's wrestling with the conflict between God's nature and his activity, which is why 171 00:16:18.549 --> 00:16:26.350 he concludes with the question will this go on forever? Is he then to 172 00:16:26.389 --> 00:16:33.100 keep on emptying his nets and mercilessly killing nations forever? And don't you see, 173 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:37.659 then, it's this concept of eternity, this forever, which brings another 174 00:16:37.700 --> 00:16:44.779 layer to these complaints. The way back at the beginning of this line of 175 00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:51.049 questioning, when the Prophet calls out to God by these divine names and titles, 176 00:16:52.610 --> 00:16:56.850 there's a context for these names. They arise in the midst of a 177 00:16:56.889 --> 00:17:03.119 question in verse twelve. Are you not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my 178 00:17:03.359 --> 00:17:11.319 God, My holy one, don't you see that fundamental to the prophets struggle 179 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:15.589 is not only that God is holy and pure, but that God is eternal. 180 00:17:18.509 --> 00:17:23.109 And surely Habaka realizes that he's brushing up against his own limits even as 181 00:17:23.150 --> 00:17:30.539 he complains. But that's the point. God is eternal and we are not. 182 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:37.619 We live in time, we are bound by time. God is not. 183 00:17:38.740 --> 00:17:42.900 So we don't have God's eyes on the situation. We don't have God's 184 00:17:42.940 --> 00:17:48.769 understanding of event us which occur in time. God is infinite, eternal and 185 00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:59.640 unchangeable, even when this world seems so finite and flexible. And so habaca 186 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:06.119 theology breaks forth in a in a surprising way when, after asking are you 187 00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:11.279 not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my God, My holy one, he 188 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:21.029 concludes we shall not die. Did you catch that? In the midst of 189 00:18:21.069 --> 00:18:30.500 his confusion, there is a tiny, hopeful cry of faith. Having just 190 00:18:30.779 --> 00:18:40.180 heard the news of terrible, inescapable judgment, his only response is by stating 191 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:49.289 that death will not win, death will not ultimately conquer God's people. Given 192 00:18:49.329 --> 00:18:55.130 everything he knows about who God is, and despite the circumstances which appear to 193 00:18:55.250 --> 00:19:04.079 be the end of everything, God cannot deny himself. The circumstances are temporary. 194 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:14.269 Yet God's Word is forever, his promises are certain, his promise us 195 00:19:14.269 --> 00:19:21.269 says, are secure and eternal. And so, despite the unbelievable words of 196 00:19:21.390 --> 00:19:26.779 devastation coming upon Judah, is the knowledge that God will not revoke his word, 197 00:19:27.740 --> 00:19:33.900 he will not remove his promise. F I'm sure you've all heard the 198 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:38.130 line from from Isaiah forty, verse eight. The grass withers, the flower 199 00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:45.569 fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. But are you 200 00:19:45.690 --> 00:19:49.250 so familiar with the context of those words? Just a couple verses earlier, 201 00:19:51.690 --> 00:19:56.720 the Prophet says all flesh is grass and it's beauty like the flower of the 202 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:02.160 field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord 203 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:07.750 blows on it. Surely the people are grass. And yet even as the 204 00:20:07.829 --> 00:20:15.069 grass withers and the flower fades, the word of our God will stand forever. 205 00:20:18.230 --> 00:20:22.339 So let me return to that earlier question. What does the theologian look 206 00:20:22.339 --> 00:20:30.539 like? Well, look in a mirror. You're a theologian. Ores sprout 207 00:20:30.619 --> 00:20:34.660 tiled one of his books. Everyone's a theologian, and that's so true, 208 00:20:36.970 --> 00:20:41.089 because everybody has an understanding of God, everyone has an awareness of God's character 209 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:47.730 and awareness of his nature, and the question becomes not should you be a 210 00:20:47.930 --> 00:20:52.279 theologian, it becomes what kind of a theologian are you? For even the 211 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:56.559 person who believes all religions are made up or the person who believes that all 212 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:02.920 religions are equally true, they they both have a theology and they both live 213 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:07.670 out that theology. So the question is our is our understanding to be shaped 214 00:21:07.750 --> 00:21:14.349 by God's eternal word, or are we just creating a god in our own 215 00:21:14.710 --> 00:21:22.539 image? What kind of a theologian are you? Hardships have a way of 216 00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:26.380 revealing what kind of theologian we are. Hardships have a way of revealing our 217 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:33.849 theology better than any exam ever will, better than any paper could. Turmoil 218 00:21:33.890 --> 00:21:41.490 always brings out our most basic, fundamental convictions about who God is, whether 219 00:21:41.529 --> 00:21:48.799 it's saying a quiet prayer during a turbulent flight or whether it's singing praises to 220 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:59.880 God during a funeral. Suffering reveals our most closely held convictions, because suffering 221 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:07.150 reveals where our hope is truly found. Martin Luther broke it down into two 222 00:22:07.150 --> 00:22:14.269 categories. He says you're either a theologian of glory or you're a theologian of 223 00:22:14.390 --> 00:22:21.059 the cross, where a theologian of glory builds their theology on their own expectations 224 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:26.299 of what God must be like. A theologian of the Cross recognizes that God's 225 00:22:26.339 --> 00:22:33.930 power is demonstrated in weakness. At theologian of the Cross recognizes that God reveals 226 00:22:33.049 --> 00:22:41.609 his power, he reveals his might in the suffering of Christ. Therefore, 227 00:22:41.690 --> 00:22:49.319 a proper theologian relies upon God's strength, which is most evident in weakness and 228 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:57.589 frailty. For you see, for us, suffering rarely makes sense. For 229 00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:04.589 us, we rarely get a divine perspective on why tragedy is happening or why 230 00:23:04.750 --> 00:23:11.390 someun suffer while others prosper. However, in the judgment of Judah, were 231 00:23:11.430 --> 00:23:15.859 given a glimpse of the judgment of Christ. And we ought to be theologians 232 00:23:15.900 --> 00:23:21.140 of the Cross, because at the cross where shown who our God truly is, 233 00:23:22.859 --> 00:23:29.289 that there, in the midst of abundant sin and suffering, our God 234 00:23:29.369 --> 00:23:34.369 reveals himself to be the Lord over sin and over death. And yet his 235 00:23:34.609 --> 00:23:40.250 is a victory that did not side step suffering, it did not side step 236 00:23:40.450 --> 00:23:47.519 the grave. Jesus entered the grave and was raised victorious through it so that, 237 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:53.839 whatever the circumstance, however unfathomable the trial that is before you, however 238 00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:00.789 severe the diagnosis, you can utter with Hebaccic, the briefest of phrases, 239 00:24:02.349 --> 00:24:06.430 with the deepest of convictions, and say, oh Lord, my God, 240 00:24:06.509 --> 00:24:14.619 My holy one, we shall not die because we know who our God is, 241 00:24:14.940 --> 00:24:18.180 because we know what our God has done. We can pick up our 242 00:24:18.259 --> 00:24:23.140 cross with that same conviction, knowing that death is swallowed up in victory, 243 00:24:23.180 --> 00:24:26.930 as Paul says, Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, 244 00:24:27.009 --> 00:24:32.369 where is your sting? The sting of death is sin. The power of 245 00:24:32.450 --> 00:24:34.569 sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the 246 00:24:34.650 --> 00:24:44.519 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rarely does our suffering makes sense to us. 247 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:51.279 Therefore, let's find comfort not in our understanding of the circumstances. Let 248 00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:56.430 Us Find Comfort in Christ and His crucifixion, in his death and his glorious 249 00:24:56.470 --> 00:25:11.140 resurrection. Amen, let's pray a gracious heavenly father. We come to you 250 00:25:11.180 --> 00:25:17.259 from the midst of a world that that rarely makes sense to us, where 251 00:25:17.259 --> 00:25:25.250 we see suffering all around, where we see sin and wickedness praised, where 252 00:25:25.289 --> 00:25:30.609 we see the righteous sufferer, where we see the wicked prosper. And yet, 253 00:25:30.609 --> 00:25:33.490 father, we thank you. We thank you that in the midst of 254 00:25:33.569 --> 00:25:40.720 these we have such an enduring hope, such an enduring word, such wonderful 255 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:47.680 promises that, because of Christ, this world is not our home. We 256 00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:51.230 do think you that your kingdom does make sense. We think you that your 257 00:25:51.269 --> 00:25:57.549 kingdom is righteous, that your kingdom is holy and that your people are righteous 258 00:25:57.549 --> 00:26:03.150 and holy in Christ, for we confess, we would deserve the same kinds 259 00:26:03.190 --> 00:26:07.259 of judgment that would be poured out upon Judah and Babylon were it not for 260 00:26:07.420 --> 00:26:11.940 our savior. So help us to come to you in him, clothed in 261 00:26:12.019 --> 00:26:18.460 his righteousness, in the midst of the severities of our trials, in the 262 00:26:18.539 --> 00:26:25.529 midst of our bouts with depression, father or doubt. help us to cling 263 00:26:25.650 --> 00:26:30.089 to the cross, help us to see in Christ your love for us and 264 00:26:30.329 --> 00:26:37.039 your protection of your people. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. 265 -->