Habakkuk 1:1-11
MTP: Welcome to, "Meet the Press." We're fortunate to have with us one of the rising stars in prophetic circles: Habakkuk. Do you pronounce your name Ha-bak-kuk or Habak-kuk?
Habakkuk: Either is fine. Most people just shorten it to "Kuk" (Kook).
MTP: Uh…OK. Well, Mr. Habakkuk, first tell us a little bit about yourself. Not much is known about you.
Habakkuk: No.
MTP: No?
Habakkuk: No. I won't tell you anything about me. Being a prophet of the Almighty God isn't about me. It isn't about getting to know me. It's about God. Getting to know who God is.
MTP: Well, this should be interesting.
Habakkuk: Probably not.
MTP: Right. OK. Let's get started. You've been attracting a lot of attention lately for your law and order messages. Tell us more about that.
Habakkuk: (Pauses for a long time staring at the correspondent.) Basically, I'm just sick of it all. With our rulers, the scarcest commodity is the truth. Religious nut-jobs killing people for religious reasons. Our police have a "stab first, ask questions later" attitude. Drunkenness. Drug addiction. Children are mistreated by parents. Babylon. Assyria. Egypt. All trying to take over the map. My eyes soak up corruption and violence. It leeches its way into my pores. It's becoming a part of me and I'm sick of it.
MTP: It's just the way the world is.
Habakkuk: No. I don't believe that.
MTP: You can't deny reality.
Habakkuk: But that's what's so frustrating! I can't deny reality. And I hate this world's reality. I hate being lied to. I hate looking people in the face, them smiling or with some smug expression of authority, and lie to me through those faces. Why can't people just tell the truth, take their lumps for telling the truth if they have to. At least they'd be holding on to some integrity.
MTP: (said with a smiling, lying face) I feel your pain. But like I said—It's reality.
Habakkuk: There has to be another reality! There has to be something better going on in the world than mayhem, crime, and cruelty.
MTP: Aren't you one of those believers in God? Certainly your God must be doing something good in the world. You say you speak for God—you're a prophet. What does your God have to say about all the injustice?
Habakkuk: (Sits and stares at MTP person again with a long, sobering expression.) God.
MTP: Yes, God.
Habakkuk: Well, that's a good question. I've been asking God those kinds of questions for so long.
MTP: Get any answers?
Habakkuk: Yeah, but I didn't like them. I know you and your audience isn't going to like them either.
MTP: Try me.
Habakkuk: (Another long pause.) Well, I asked God why God allowed all these lies and all this violence to just go on and on and on. God said, "Me!? Why do you and everyone else allow it to go on and on!" God said, "You're the ones living with it. Why don't you do something about it!?"
Then God said, "You never challenge all this violence and lies. All you do is get used to it. You throw up your arms and say, 'We just cant do anything about it. Guess we'll just have to get used to it.' That's what make me sick."
MTP: And have you ever wondered if your God is all wrong? Maybe some of what's going on in the world isn't that bad. It's progress!
Habakkuk: (Stares at MTP and shakes his head.) That's the attitude that caused God to say the other thing.
MTP: "Other thing?"
Habakkuk: Yeah. About punishing our nation.
MTP: God's going to punish our country!? How, pray tell?
Habakkuk: God's tired of the mess we've made of this nation. Tired of our waywardness. Tired of the people living as if God didn't exist. Tired of indifference. Tired of people drifting away from God's churches. No one listens any more in this country. No one cares. God is tired of being 8th or 9th or 10th on people's priority list. So, it's time for a little attention getting—a little punishment.
MTP: How is God going to do that?
Habakkuk: God's going to send a foreign army. Maybe the Babylonians. Or the Egyptians. Or both.
MTP: God's going to send the Babylonians as punishment?
Habakkuk: (Nodding his head, yes.) They're going to sweep across this land in numbers like the sand on the beach, with the ferocity of a locust swarm. They will make us all look like a pathetic laughing stock as they strip us bare and spank us.
MTP: (Snickering) Really? That's going to happen? God's going to use the Babylonian armies to spank us?
Habakkuk: (Folds his arms, leans back and stares at MTP.) People in this country need to see how serious God is about cleaning up all the corruption, violence, and lies.
MTP: So God's going to clean up the violence in our country using violence, inflicted by another country's army? That makes no sense. Why does God need to use some other country's Godless army? Why doesn't God just do it himself?
Habakkuk: To alter your phrase from earlier, "It's just the way God is." (Pause) Maybe some day, God will come to earth and take care of our violence, lawlessness, crime, and cruelty in a personal way.
MTP: What if…
Habakkuk: Yes?
MTP: What if we changed? What if we were sorry?
Habakkuk: (Looking at MTP, again for a long time, but smiling; then leaning in to MTP) You have no idea how long I have hoped for that—how I have dared to think that such a thing was do-able. Do you think…
MTP: Do I think it's possible…that a country can change? That God would change God's mind and save us all? I don't know. You're the one who's in the God business.
Habakkuk: I'm one of those hopeful kinds of people. And I do the whole prophet thing backwards. I know I'm supposed to listen to God, and speak God's words to the people. But I end up listening to the people and making their case to God. And I just think, if there's going to be a change in our nation, it has to start somewhere. With a small group of believers. Start making the change, living the change, and multiplying the change.
MTP: Interesting…
Habakkuk: People are so fascinating, don't you think? At least they are to me. I keep telling God we're all a mix. We definitely aren't all good, be we as individuals aren't all bad either.
MTP: So how does God separate out the one from the other?
Habakkuk: That's what I keep asking God! Human beings are infinitely more complex. (Pause.) I keep telling God to give us a break, cut us some slack. It's really hard to figure out this being human thing. And God ought to know that, since God made us all.
MTP: How does God respond?
Habakkuk: God's a good listener, despite the times He says He's going to wipe us all out with some other country's army! I told God once He ought to jump into our world as a human being and try it out. It's not as easy as it looks, being human.
MTP: Interesting suggestion. What did God think?
Habakkuk: God said, "You're way ahead of me."
MTP: What did that mean?
Habakkuk: I'm not sure, but I got the idea God has a plan.
MTP: So, is God going to sweep our country clean with some army?
Habakkuk: That's probably still going to happen.
MTP: Well, folks, time to start packing. Get out while you can. That according to our guest, the prophet Habakkuk—the one who speaks for humans to his fiery God. Let's hope Habakkuk can get a good word in for us all. See you all next week. Maybe.
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