#84 “Great Intercessors of the Bible”

(Habakkuk - Embrace” or “Wrestle)

“God, how long do I have to cry out for help
before you listen?  How many times do I have to yell,

“Help! Murder! Police!” before you come to the rescue?"

(Habakkuk 1:1)

The Message (MSG) 

Although we could liken each of our great Intercessors of the Bible, to a modern day intercessor for me Habakkuk seems the most likely candidate for understanding what we face in our cities, nations and countries today.  There are only two or three accounts where I would say that the intercessor had to engage in a literal wrestling match with God in order to gain peace over a situation.  Habakkuk reminds me of Jacob wrestling with the angel and Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, wrestling, agonizing over a matter with God in an effort to hear some alternative verdict. 

 

As I reflect on his prayer to God I can’t but help reflect upon the state and condition of my own country and homeland America, “Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day? Anarchy and violence break out, quarrels and fights all over the place. Law and order fall to pieces. Justice is a joke. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung and stand justice on its head.” (Habakkuk 1:1-4)  Day after day night after night to look upon the sinful state and condition of affairs around us, man has no value for a human life weather born or unborn. “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)   This we see even this very day as our own Supreme Court debates whether or not marriage is a union between a man and a woman or between two men or two women.  Today we see people questioning that, which is moral, righteous and true; holding it in question because of one’s lifestyle or genetic make-up. What does on believe or what must we do or say to all these things.  

If we take a stand for righteousness then we are thought to be unloving and cruel.  If we declare what thus says the Lord then we are threaten with discrimination lawsuits. Does one hold their peace? These were some of the same things Habakkuk was facing in his day. Injustice, immorality, no respect for life human or animal, mankind’s cruelty is at a all time high, yet they are not through. Habakkuk confronts God with questions, “God, you’re from eternity, aren’t you? Holy God, we aren’t going to die, are we? God, you chose Babylonians for your judgment work? Rock-Solid God, you gave them the job of discipline? But you can’t be serious! You can’t condone evil! So why don’t you do something about this? Why are you silent now? This outrage! Evil men swallow up the righteous and you stand around and watch!” (Habakkuk 1:12-13)

How often do we pray and ask God to step in and change things and it seems that He hesitates before he acts, how long have we prayed turn us back to You Lord God, and had to wait yet longer. For Habakkuk it would seem God had turned a deaf ear to his prayers but then again he would not have been the only one. After all God closed his ears to the prayers of Jeremiah in fact He told him don’t even waist you time praying to me for this people.

He could not understand why God had not intervened in the matter and turned it around. But don’t worry, when someone start to wondering about the Love of God, the Compassion of the Father, be assured He has to speak. “What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst. I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I’ll wait to see what God says, how he’ll answer my complaint…”

But we must always remember that when it seems that God is doing nothing, you can believe He is up to something. “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. This is what God tells Habakkuk, “You would not believe if you were told.”  We as intercessor have to remember that in spite of how bad things look God has a plan and the day of reckoning will come for the wicked and the unjust; but in the mean time we continue to pray.

My Prayer: Father, we know that Your eyes are shut and Your ears and not deaf to the things going on down here in the Earth, as we lift up our voices in prayer hear us Lord God and make hast and move. Just as Habakkuk prayed and ask you how much longer we sometimes find ourselves asking the same question, but however long it takes we will continue to believe that You have the answer and You will respond to our prayers.  We give you praise and thanksgiving  Father in Jesus’ name we pray Amen!!!

Have A Bless Day…Go in God’s Peace! 

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