Facebook asks the question, “What is on your mind?”
I assume that what’s on our minds is similar, the war in Ukraine.
At the close of 2021, I asked the Lord about what was coming in 2022? The answer was, “change is coming”. In my personal context, I thought that referred to family changes and changes associated with Covid. Covid was still front and center in the minds of many of the nations of the world.
Most of us were not focused or even aware of what Putin was doing at the border of Ukraine. It was not that the world was ignorant of his troop and armament buildup but what was going on was not making ‘neon sign headlines’ that grabbed our attention.
It appears that the leaders of the world did not believe that Putin would launch his forces to crush Ukraine into submission. Looking in the rear-view mirror, there was ample time to weaponize Ukraine for a formidable response, if and when, Putin decided to attack Ukraine. How many times have we heard that discussed since the war began? What people saw was viewed with ‘blind eyes and what people heard was heard with ‘deaf ears’. What we are seeing and hearing now is the result of that blindness and deafness.
As of this moment (March 23, 2022), it has been 28 days since the start of the invasion. The world has witnessed death, destruction, and devastation at the hands of Putin. In spite of Putin’s relentless and ruthless aggression, Ukraine has resisted to the best of their ability, and cried out to the nations for additional assistance and aid. President Zelenskyy should not have to ‘beg’ for assistance from other nations.
The populace of the world has witnessed their nation’s leaders grappling with the proper response. Many, including my wife and I have asked, why the hesitancy? why the vacillation? why the reluctance? It seems the common reason is the fear of how Putin will respond to escalated interference by other nations, especially with Russia’s nuclear capabilities.
The more I listen to commentators discussing the war in Ukraine, the more I realize just how much the media synthesizes the information and then askes others, ‘what do you think?’ It is sort of like Facebook, ‘what’s on your mind?’
The truth is that most responses are speculation. Don’t completely turn a deaf ear to me, I have listened to many individuals who have shared insightful understanding and meaningful analysis. However, I confess that most of the commentary is redundant; therefore, I listen carefully and critically. I do not believe that is wrong.
What we do know to be true is being shown to us visually. The destruction is real; the desperation is real; and the devastation is real. What we are watching is reality in Ukraine. This is NOT a video game. (emphasis mine)
So, what is on my mind? Last Fall (2021), I joined a men’s Bible study. They were studying the minor prophets. They were concluding Habakkuk. Since then, we have completed Zephaniah, and now we are beginning Haggai.
In the past week, I have returned to the prophet Habakkuk and re-read his conversation with God about what he was witnessing in Judah. What motivated me to return to this portion of scripture? I have been reflecting upon the sovereignty of God.
Habakkuk was used by God to bring a message to His people in Judah. The Word of God, through the prophet is important; however, there is something else that takes place in this narrative. Habakkuk, the man, comes to an enlightened understanding about the sovereignty of God.
You see, I am asking the Lord about His sovereignty regarding the events that are happening in Ukraine. Do I believe in the sovereignty of God? Absolutely. Have I read about the sovereignty of God throughout His Word and seen His sovereignty at work in the lives of individuals and nations? Yes. Have I, like yourself, experienced the sovereignty of God in my life? Yes.
But…what I am witnessing is not being read from the pages of the Bible; it is not being read from a book about the history of a nation; it is not being watched as a documentary about a previous war; it is not being viewed on a newsreel; it is live, up close and personal.
What makes it personal? Christine and I were in Ukraine in 2004 on a two-week mission’s trip. We were in/out of Kiev. Kiev was where we entered Ukraine and from where we left Ukraine. We came to minister to orphan children at a summer camp for one week, and then to work with a church from Vinnitsia a second week ministering to high school students. Those children and young people probably varied in age from 4 to 18 years old. Now, 18 years later, they are 22 to 36 years old. What are they doing now? Are they fighting the war? Are they fleeing? Or are they hiding in their homes in fear? Probably all of the above.
[As I continue, please understand that I am not saying that Ukraine is God’s people, like Israel; nor am I inferring that Ukraine is ripe for judgment because of sin against God.]
I am asking myself, like Habakkuk, God where are you in all of this?
Habakkuk’s Headlines read, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? even cry out to You, Violence! and you will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? for plundering and violence are before me; there is strife and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” (Habakkuk 1:1-4, NKJV)
Like Habakkuk, I ask Lord, where are You in all of this? Why are You silent? Maybe, He is not silent; maybe we are not being told what He is doing in the midst of the devastation. I have heard about some of the Lord’s interventions. There was a report of Christian’s working with the refugees from Ukraine in Poland on a national news program. There have been stories of Christians and non-Christians who have come to this war-torn region to help in any way they can. Samaritan’s Purse has set up a field hospital to take care of injured refugees. God is at work. The Red Cross is front and center helping in Ukraine. I think most of God’s intervention is not being reported to the public; and in the course of time much more will be shared about the ‘miracles’ of God.
After Habakkuk makes his plea, God answers him; but Habakkuk does not receive the answer he wants to hear. God tells him that He is raising up a nation to invade His people’s land.
Whoa! God, I am witnessing that live, up close and personable, why? I don’t understand. Lord, I don’t understand what You are doing? I know You are sovereign. I know You rule over all the earth. You are Creator God. I have read about Your sovereignty and rule in the life of Job; in the life of Your people, Israel; in the conquering of the nations in the promised land; in the lives of individuals like Joseph, Moses, David, Saul of Tarsus, to name a few. Your sovereignty permeates the world. Father, I am having trouble understanding what is going on in Ukraine coupled with my understanding of Your sovereignty.
For me, it seems, almost too easy to simply resign this event to the answer that God is sovereign, and He does what He pleases. I know that’s true, but…how many kings, rulers, or people, did God ‘stir their hearts’ to give them the impetus to do or set into motion something that He wanted to be done? One example, Ezra 1:1 (NKJV) “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by mouth of Jeremiah the prophet might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus kind of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing saying…”. God stirred Cyrus to make a degree that Israel could return to Judah. Jeremiah had prophesied that Israel would be in exile for 70 years. Now it was time for them to be released and return.
As I pondered God’s sovereignty, I remembered these words, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV), the verse continues, “…declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Ok, Father, I receive that. God is not obligated to explain what He is doing, allowing, or permitting.
There are a lot of well-meaning men of God sharing what they believe this act of aggression in Ukraine means scripturally; how it fits into end time prophecy; and how it anticipates the second coming of Christ.
What they ‘see’ maybe true; but I confess, I’m not there. Like Habakkuk, who received a response from God, I will pursue his stance in relation to God’s answer.
Habakkuk 2:1-4, (NKJV), “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what He will say to me, and I will answer when I am corrected. The Lord answered me and said: Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. for the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak and not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, I will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by faith. (emphasis mine)
Let us consider these words from the passage. stand, watch, listen, wait, live by faith. Let us take this same stance. (emphasis mine)
Following Habakkuk’s stance before the Lord, he pronounces a list of woes to the nations surrounding God’s people. Please read, Habakkuk 2:5-19.
At the conclusion of the litany of woes, Habakkuk 2:20 (NKJV) says, “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” [my thought: maybe, this is a time for us “to be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) or “be quick to listen and slow to speak” (James 1:19),]
The words of Habakkuk reminded me of Psalm 62:1,2,5-8 (NKJV), “Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved…My soul wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved (shaken). In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.” (Insert mine)
Chapter 3 of Habakkuk begins with a prayer. Habakkuk 3:2 (NKJV) says, “O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O lord revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of years make it known; “in wrath remember mercy.” [ my prayer emphasis, yes Lord, in wrath remember mercy.]
Habakkuk knows the time will come when what God has shown him will come to pass. It is inevitable. Habakkuk continues addressing God, calling to remembrance how He came to His people; how His Presence overwhelmed His creation; and how He sovereignly protected Israel. (Read Habakkuk 3:3-13)
Habakkuk 3:13 (NKJV) says, “You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your Annointed. You struck the heart of the wicked, by laying bare from foundation to neck. Selah.”
What effect did Habakkuk’s interaction with God have upon Him?
Habakkuk 3:16 (NKJV) says, “When I heard, my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; rottenness entered my bones; and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. When he (the invading nation) comes up to the people, he will invade them with his troops.” (insert mine)
However, because of the grace of God, Habakkuk has changed from a perplexed prophet, who as a man, is bewildered about what God is doing, to an individual who has had a revelation of the sovereignty of God that has led him from being perplexed too now being able to offer praise to God in the midst of the situation that he finds himself, even to the verbalization that he “might rest in the day of trouble.” (Habakkuk 3:16 above) What a transformation!
Let us read Habakkuk’s praise, (Habakkuk 3:17-19 NKJV), “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the field yield no food, though the flock maybe cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls–yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.”
Judah was an agrarian nation. As such, Habakkuk is offering praise to God even though the entire economic system be decimated.
Habakkuk is confident that God IS sovereign. He is resigned to God’s will being done “on earth as it is in heaven”. And he has come to a place of “rest in the day of trouble”. (Emphasis mine)
As I mentioned earlier, like Habakkuk, I have wondered about God’s part in all that is happening in Ukraine. Being sovereign, how can He not be involved? As a believer in Christ, I must rest in the sovereignty of God. It is not my place to question God’s integrity, nor insinuate that God is instrumental in acts of evil. Read James 1:12-15. God is not the originator of evil, sin, or death.
Like yourself, my hope rests in the return of Christ. Recently I saw these words on a t-shirt, “Normal is not returning, Jesus is!” How true. We want normal to return, whatever, that means, but our world proceeds forward living out God’s sovereign salvific plan that includes the second coming of Christ. Are we there yet? No, but each day is one moment closer.
The scripture never says that living in the last days will be easy. In fact, Jesus said in the Upper Room discourse to His disciples, John 16:33 (NKJV), “These things I have spoken to you, that in me, you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation (the Greek word is thlipsis, it means- pressure, oppression, stress, anguish, tribulation, adversity, affliction, crushing, squeezing, distress) but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” How Lord, I ask? At the cross (John 17-21) (inserts mine)
The Apostle John, I John 5:4, NKJV, writes, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.” In Christ we are born of God; Christ said He overcame the world; therefore, in Christ, we overcome the world, how? by our faith. We have come back to Habakkuk 2:4, “the just shall live by faith“. Habakkuk realized that personally. We, too, know that. (Emphasis mine)
In this time of TENsion ,(play on the Greek work thlipsis, it had 10 different meanings), let us be at rest in Christ, and rejoice like Habakkuk in the sovereignty of God.
Therefore, as we stand, watch, listen, wait, and live by faith, let us PRAY. (Emphasis mine)
Pray for Ukraine. Remember we are wrestling against Satan, the “prince of the power of the air”(Ephesians 2:2); and “… against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”(Ephesians 6:10-18 NKJV)
Resting in the Sovereignty of God, a brother in Christ, deo
Living Words of Encouragement 