*Written for 20th Sunday after Pentecost, but not preached.* Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen

The Old Testament Reading from Habakkuk 1 &2

In the Name of Jesus

Our readings the last two weeks have left me feeling a little depressed. Don’t get me wrong, last weeks epistle gave a us a great message. It gave us the joyous news of the victory of Michael and his angels over the great dragon and his angels. Yet at the same time it ended by telling us how the devil was thrown to earth and is now wandering around seeking Godly victims to devour and tear away from the One True God.

Now this week we are left to contemplate the words of rarely read prophet Habakkuk. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

Such depressing words. What must have things been like his Habakkuk’s day. What would make a man of God desperately pray these words? Is his faith just week that he doesn’t trust God’s presence at his time, thinking that God has simply let the devil he cast out from heaven control the world?

Have you ever cried out these words? If you haven’t spoken them out loud, surely you have thought them to yourself. Look at the world around us, how could you not feel like Habakkuk? What rules the day?

What is the news and internet even for? Don’t they just seem to be ways to allow horrible news to spread like wild fire? Think about it. When was the last time you saw a breaking news story for someone hold the door open for another or for warning someone of upcoming danger? It is not how things work. The people who work at the news know what is going to get you to turn the channel or click on their website. The love the fear factor, they love to scare people, they love to play with our emotions.

But who to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. The devil has an easy time scaring us, of leaving us in fear, of making us cry out. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? How long will violence and evil rule the day? Why does lawlessness seem to be what drives the country, even the world? How long will our Lord let such things like the spilling of innocent blood by aborting children? How long will he allow the moral laws that he has written on our hearts to be muddied and wiped away? How long will he allow us who are persecuted for adhering and speaking up against such detestable things as same sex marriage and abortion? How long O Lord, how long?

You will notice that there is a gap in between verses for our Old Testament reading. This gap offers little to no comfort to us today, yet these words might be of importance. The Lord replies “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.  Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.  At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

God is always at work in the world. By these verses we see that it might be to raise up some to punish his children. But his real promise comes to us in the second half of the Old Testament reading. Habakkuk cries how long and the Lord replies “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Just as has been promised to Habakkuk and to us all through the mouth of the Lord the last day, the judgment day is coming. The gospel today is that the destruction of the world is coming. Wait, what? Is that really what our Lord is saying? Is he really telling us to sit back and wait for the Final Day, let everything play out and wait for Jesus to come again?

The end, the final destruction, the Day of the Lord is coming. It will come like the thief in the night as Jesus says in the New Testament. But how will you be judged that day? We should expect to be repaid what we deserve. But trusting in God’s word we know what we will be saved. We know that it will be a day of payback for those who have persecuted the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. But for one who is God’s child that will be a day of celebration and not sorrow. It will be a day of rejoicing as we are brought into the Kingdom of God.

No more will evil rule for it will finally be thrown into its hellish cage for an eternity. It will be a day to celebrate because finally the kingdom will have come. All that was promised, all that was written plainly in stone will be completed, that includes the good work that God has been begun in you.

The wickedness, the lawlessness will stop and the command of the Lord. Like I said last week, the devil has to stop because he has been cast out. When we enter the gates of heaven, the temptation, the tears, the sorrow, the illnesses will cease for eternity, he cannot follow us in.

We have been taught of this separation. We have read it plainly in the Holy Bible. We can’t escape its declaration. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

The Lord will stand before us on the last day as the supreme judge. To those who confess his, he will usher into the gates of heaven. As the ways of the world continue we wonder how many there will be that have confessed his name. Thank God we are not the judge of our neighbor.

I would be interested to know if Habakkuk would see anything different now that from when he uttered his words to the Lord, How Long? We will never know. But one thing is certain. Just like God told Habakkuk that he needed to be patient in waiting for the judgment to come, so the same thing is told to us. Be patient for the coming of Christ. Remember he works in his time, not ours. Don’t give up hope in the world as you see God’s Word, His house, even his members attacked. But boldly stand up for truth of God’s word. Take the time to share that word with others so that when we admonish them, we can also teach them and bring them into the Word of Truth.

While things didn’t necessarily turn out the way Habakkuk thought they would, eventually evil met it’s match, when Christ came, born of a woman, born under the Law to redeem those under the Law. So now we wait. For evil will be conquered again in the same way. God keep us steadfast until the final day when all who are marked with the sign of the cross will gather together in the eternal feast of heaven. Amen .