{"id":5139,"date":"2014-03-18T00:05:19","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T07:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2014-03-17T10:29:02","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T17:29:02","slug":"unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/03\/18\/unfair\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Then the Lord replied:
\n\u201cWrite down the revelation
\nand make it plain on tablets
\nso that a herald may run with it.
\nFor the revelation awaits an appointed time;
\nit speaks of the end
\nand will not prove false.
\nThough it linger, wait for it;
\nit will certainly come and will not delay.

\n\u201cSee, he is puffed up;
\nhis desires are not upright\u2014
\nbut the righteous will live by his faith\u2014
\nindeed, wine betrays him;
\nhe is arrogant and never at rest.
\nBecause he is as greedy as the grave
\nand like death is never satisfied,
\nhe gathers to himself all the nations
\nand takes captive all the peoples. (Habakkuk 2:2-5)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s not what you do that makes you a good person. It is what God has done to you. Paul quoted God\u2019s words from Habakkuk, pointing out that the righteous live by faith, not by works.
\nHabakkuk lived in the time before the Babylonians came to punish Israel for their idolatry. He had wondered why God hadn’t done something about the wickedness of the Israelites; he saw the problems of idolatry\u2014unfaithfulness to God\u2014and oppression\u2014injustice to people\u2014that plagued his nation. Given the nature of God\u2019s covenant with Israel, Habakkuk thought it peculiar that God hadn’t done anything and didn’t look like he was planning on doing anything. <\/p>\n

God reassured Habakkuk that he had the situation well in hand: the Babylonians were coming to punish the Israelites. The news did not encourage Habakkuk, who rightly pointed out that the Babylonians were far worse than the Israelites and needed judgment themselves so much more. How could God use people so wicked to judge the more righteous Israelites? It made no sense to him, but he chose to trust God anyway.<\/p>\n

Tablets were small, pillow shaped clay slabs that easily fit in the palm of a scribe\u2019s hand. A scribe could write out the words easily and just as easily carry them with him wherever he went.<\/p>\n

Just as God\u2019s use of the Babylonians made no sense to Habakkuk, so salvation by grace through faith makes no sense to many of us. Jesus was punished for our crimes and now we get off scot free. There\u2019s nothing we have to do, or even can do, to earn God\u2019s love and salvation. We live by faith. It\u2019s so unfair. But that\u2019s how God is: he punished the righteous in order to save the unrighteous. It was the only way to save them. Just as Babylon had to punish Israel in order for God to save them.<\/p>\n

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Then the Lord replied: \u201cWrite down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}