Today’s Chaldean Chastisement

A recent visual verse on my Logos app was Habakkuk 1:5, “Look among the nations and see; be astonished and astounded. For a work is about to be done in your days that you will not believe if it is told.” I was struck by the word “astounded.” It made me want to re-read the book; so, I did. In summary, the book details Habakkuk’s lament and God’s answer. The prophet wanted to know why God didn’t seem to be doing anything, and God’s response was to explain that He was using the Chaldeans to accomplish His work. His work was to chastise Judah. Habakkuk might have been sorry he asked.

I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet (as they say), so what I am about the suggest should not be misconstrued. I am not 100% sure even the application is correct, but it makes sense to me, so I will let the reader beware and take it with a grain of salt. I am toying with the idea that there may be a near parallel situation in our day, and I am wondering if it is safe to assume that God may be responding to it in a similar way to Habakkuk’s day.

Habakkuk wrote between the time of the virtual extermination of the ten northern tribes (Israel) and the coming captivity of the southern tribes (Judah). God’s judgment on His people was in response to their repeated infidelity or wickedness. The irony is that God was using a “wicked” nation, the Chaldeans, to punish those who should have been righteous. Habakkuk noted this irony in the first chapter. If you are at all familiar with the Old Testament prophets, you know that God repeatedly used foreign nations, wicked nations, to chastise His people.

This raises a thorny question: in what sense does God use “evil” to accomplish His purpose? I covered this at some length in an earlier post (Finding God in COVID 19). The uncomfortable conclusion is that God does, in fact, use what the Bible sometimes calls “evil.” As I wrote previously, the Hebrew word translated “evil” is broader than our English meaning of moral evil. The Hebrew encompasses ideas like calamity, distress, or adversity. It should not disturb us to know that even “calamity” is under God’s control; our reaction should be relief knowing that we are not beyond God’s reach even in the tough times.

Nor should we be surprised that God disciplines His own. The history of the nation of Israel is full of disciplinary incidents from the wilderness wandering to the captivity in Babylon. Habakkuk and many other prophets warned of God’s coming judgment. In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews makes the point that any loving Father uses discipline to bring out “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” in His children. We may not like the thought, but as the writer of Hebrews suggests, the discipline itself is proof that we are children of a loving, disciplining Father.

This brings me back to the contemporary application of the Chaldean chastisement. When I first saw the possible application, I thought of the actual modern-day Chaldeans – the Iranians. The radical Islamic clerics leading Iran call America “The Great Satan.” Rather than be offended, perhaps we should try to see what the clerics base the title on. Adultery, fornication, abortion, support of homosexual lifestyles, lewdness, crudeness and all manner of moral evil abound in this country. Perhaps the Muslim clerics see us more clearly than we realize.

 The sad truth is that the preceding list of evil deeds is descriptive of many who call themselves Christian. How far out the limb am I to suggest that God could be using the Islamic jihad to chastise His people? His people are no longer a nation that can be treated as one entity; military defeat or captivity don’t apply anymore. The “war” initiated by the Islamic terrorists is not directed at any nation in particular; instead it is aimed at destroying what was once called “Christendom,” Western society generally. Nominally, these are God’s people.

Another method God has used to discipline His people is to bring a plague on them. The plague that struck Israel in the wilderness and the one in David’s time come immediately to mind. The HIV-AIDS epidemic certainly seems to be a type of judgment on unrighteous behavior. I would not go so far as to say that COVID 19 is that type of judgment, but as I wrote before, calamity should push us to a deeper reliance on the God who is in control.

Maybe I am wrong to equate the present Islamic terrorists with the ancient Chaldeans. Maybe I am wrong to suggest that COVID 19 is more than just the result of living in a fallen world. In any case, I do believe that the proper response to terrorism or this pandemic is to get on our knees, repent, and turn more fully to God and away from the powerful attractions of our “wicked” society. The last three verses of Habakkuk are poignant: “Though the fig tree does not blossom, nor there be fruit on the vines; the yield of the olive tree fails, and the cultivated fields do not yield food; the flock is cut off from the animal pen, and there is no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in Yahweh; I will exult in the God of my salvation. Yahweh, my Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer; he causes me to walk on my high places.”