Prayer For Justice (2)

Habakkuk 1:1–4 NET

The following is the message which God revealed to Habakkuk the prophet: How long, Lord, must I cry for help? But you do not listen! I call out to you, “Violence!” But you do not intervene! Why do you force me to witness injustice? Why do you put up with wrongdoing? Destruction and violence confront me; conflict is present and one must endure strife. For this reason the law lacks power, and justice is never carried out. Indeed, the wicked intimidate the innocent. For this reason justice is perverted.

Habakkuk 1:12–14 NET

Lord, you have been active from ancient times; my sovereign God, you are immortal. Lord, you have made them your instrument of judgment. Protector, you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment. You are too just to tolerate evil; you are unable to condone wrongdoing. So why do you put up with such treacherous people? Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour those more righteous than they are? You made people like fish in the sea, like animals in the sea that have no ruler.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God Chapter 1. Dialogue with God (Habakkuk 1:1–17)

Habakkuk 1:1–17

1. Dialogue with God

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 1. Preface (1:1)

The Hebrew word maśśā, translated oracle or ‘burden’, has the literal meaning of something that has been lifted up and is being carried.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

2. Habakkuk speaks to God (1:2–4)

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

How long will God stand back and do nothing, say nothing? Habakkuk cries for help (2).

Habakkuk 1:2 NASB95

How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save.

hab 1:2

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

God’s personal intervention is their only hope. But thou wilt not save (2).

Habakkuk 1:2 NASB95

How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save.

hab 1

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

God is not listening (thou wilt not hear, 2).

Habakkuk 1:2 NASB95

How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

The prophet is at the point where he doubts whether God is interested in sorting out the situation.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

The word comes six times in the prophecy, fourteen times in the Psalms, and seven in Proverbs.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

He is now completely overwhelmed by the situation in which he lives. ‘He was living in the midst of terrible anarchy—violence abounded, cruelty was rampant, crime was flagrant, lust was everywhere.’

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

fourteen times in the Psalms, and seven in Proverbs. It is, therefore, a key word in this book. It ‘denotes flagrant violation of the moral law by which man injures primarily his fellow-man’, or ‘continued oppression’.17

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

He is now completely overwhelmed by the situation in which he lives. ‘He was living in the midst of terrible anarchy—violence abounded, cruelty was rampant, crime was flagrant, lust was everywhere.’

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

The word comes six times in the prophecy, fourteen times in the Psalms, and seven in Proverbs.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

The prophet lived in a violent society. He chose to speak in general terms about the endemic, systemic violence all around him. No

Violence against women in Canada is a “serious, pervasive and systemic problem”, according to a United Nations envoy who recently wrapped an investigative trip to the country.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 2. Habakkuk Speaks to God (1:2–4)

He is now completely overwhelmed by the situation in which he lives. ‘He was living in the midst of terrible anarchy—violence abounded, cruelty was rampant, crime was flagrant, lust was everywhere.’

Dubravka Šimonović, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women, applauded the Canadian government, led by Justin Trudeau, for its commitment to championing the rights of women and girls – but she urged officials in the country to do more.

Justin Brake APTN News A coalition of women’s rights organizations is demanding action in Ottawa following the release of a United Nations report that highlights what it says is Canada’s failure to address violence against women.

In particular, UN Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women Dubravka Šimonović draws attention to her finding that “Indigenous women from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities face violence, marginalization, exclusion and poverty because of institutional, systemic, multiple intersecting forms of discrimination not addressed adequately by the State.”

Dunblane school massacre

SCHOOL SHOOTING, DUNBLANE, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM [1996]WRITTEN BY: Patricia BauerSee Article History

Dunblane school massacre, event on March 13, 1996, in which a gunman invaded a primary school in the small Scottish town of Dunblane and shot to death 16 young children and their teacher before turning a gun on himself.

The gunman, Thomas Hamilton, lived in the town. On the day of the massacre, he drove into the school parking lot at about 9:30 in the morning. He cut the cables on a telephone pole and then entered the school, carrying four handguns and 743 rounds of ammunition and wearing shooting earmuffs. He fired a couple of shots as he made his way to the school gym, where teacher Gwen Mayor had just taken her 29 Primary 1 (equivalent to American kindergarten) students for their physical education class. Hamilton entered the gym and immediately opened fire, wounding physical education teacher Eileen Harrild and teaching assistant Mary Blake and injuring and killing several children. Harrild and Blake took shelter inside a cupboard in the gym, bringing as many children with them as they could, as Hamilton continued his fusillade. When an adult and an older student tried to look inside the gym to find out what was going on, Hamilton fired toward them and then left the gym, firing toward the library cloakroom and into a mobile classroom, where the students lay on the floor at their teachers’ instruction. Hamilton then returned to the gym, dropped the gun he had been using and chose another one, which he used to kill himself. The entire attack took place over a period of less than five minutes. Mayor and 15 children were killed outright, and another child died in the hospital. A further 15 people, the vast majority of them children, were wounded.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 3. God Replies to Habakkuk (1:5–11)

3. God replies to Habakkuk (1:5–11)

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 3. God Replies to Habakkuk (1:5–11)

of seeking God’s explanation of his ways, have not been given that opportunity … What Habakkuk has recorded here is something extraordinary: a dialogue in which he twice complains to God about the world’s injustice, and twice God answers him.

The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 3. God Replies to Habakkuk (1:5–11)

By the time he had begun to absorb something of the implications of God’s reply to his initial lament, he realized that he had walked into something of immense and intense significance. His ‘burden’, rather than being lightened and lifted, became frighteningly heavier.