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Jesus Explains True Meaning of Habakkuk's Prophecies
I am here, Jesus:
Now the second part of the answer deals with the fate of the wicked. This answer is fairly long and covers verses 5 to 20 in Chapter 2; that is to the end of the chapter. It states very clearly that wickedness creates its own destruction, and where goodness forgives, evil brings on retribution and vengeance, or, as I say, in spiritual language, evil creates evil conditions, and the man of evil is finally devoured by his own evil and the evil it has brought into existence against him.
This iniquity eventually destroys an evil man in his prosperity, bringing on illnesses and diseases of mind and body, and if by some material law, this does not happen, the evil man pays for his sins and iniquities when he becomes a spirit and his soul undergoes the tortures of the Spiritual Law of Compensation. This is the answer to the problem of evil and I intend to say more about this when I write you a sermon on the Book of Job.
Habakkuk wrote as he did because he saw that God ruled the world through moral law, which makes itself final in the spirit world, but which is also operative upon the soul in the world of the flesh. God was not to be worshipped as a diety of war or as a founder of food or health, as the pagans worshipped their gods of wrath, of agriculture or of fertility - - - this was religion on a low primitive level. Were Jews to worship Jehovah simply as a protector in battle against mighty nations? Were Jews to forsake God because His people were like bits of wood tossed about on the ocean of the power politics of the day? A Hebrew nation conscious of its justice and righteousness could, and would, attract great spiritual forces, manifesting themselves in quiet confidence, resolution and courage, as well as worldly assistance, to preserve the integrity of the country and the people, but the country filled with individual, as well as corporate, hatred, drunkenness, violence, deceit, spilling of blood, covetousness, and worship of the molten image, could not find help from a God whose eyes were averted from such abominations, and its meager material strength would falter irrevocably before superior might, and go down to defeat and destruction.
Habakkuk stressed that righteousness in a man, as in a nation, instilled courage born of trust in God's help, and pointed out that faith in God meant moral and ethical conduct, by which man and nation had to live, as the way to meet and overcome the assaults of the powerful wicked nations of the times. Habakkuk helped to provide his people with a greater trust in the Lord who, at the appointed time in the future, would crush the enemies of the Hebrews, and give them their God-given place and peace. This could be accomplished on earth, but unquestionably was to be fulfilled in the land of the souls. And because Habakkuk knew that the answer to safety, life and happiness on earth, as well as in the spirit world, rested with faith in God and its conduct of justice and righteousness, he saw the day when God would eventually triumph and the earth would be "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Chapt. 2, verse 14).
Habukkuk fled from Jerusalem in 586 and stayed in Egypt until the Chaldeans withdrew. He did not survive by more than five years the destruction of the Holy City, to which he returned; and he died 580-581 in his early sixties, in a place called Keilah, 18 miles to the southwest of Jerusalem.
Jesus of the Bible
and
Master of the Celestial Heavens
