Welcome to
Pastor Tom's Place

“Tale of Two Preachers”

It has been an observation of mine that all of God’s people don’t handle things the same and certainly don’t have the same amount of wisdom in their decisions. There can be a myriad of factors to weigh and I can see how people, even Christians, could be overwhelmed. But, what about preachers? They are supposed to be super-saints, super-wise with just the right counsel, and always bat 1000% in their dealings with God. I do think that preachers should be good saints. Saint simply means “holy ones.” I do think preachers should give good counsel. It is my firm belief that all my counsel should start with the scripture and then go outward from there. But what about the times when you see things happening in the world and you are bothered greatly? What about when you as a preacher don’t understand the silence of God on a matter? Why doesn’t the Lord just come on back and close this show down? Those types of questions can be on the mind of a man of God. You may be thinking, “Is something going on in your mind Pastor Tom? Are you having a crisis of faith?” No, but there are things, lots of things, I don’t understand and would love for the Lord to let me know.
The reason for this blog is simple. The past couple of days I have been studying Habakkuk. I am praying about preaching from Habakkuk this Lord’s Day. He was a great prophet. Yesterday, just after lunch, I ran by the office for a few minutes to grab some notes and a book. I began thinking about him and bam, another thought popped into my head. What about Jonah? He wasn’t even on my radar for my upcoming message. Then the thought became clear. They both had a mission, but they didn’t approach things in the same way. One preacher made the right call and the other made the wrong call. I believe that Habakkuk was smarter than Jonah.
1. Both these prophets had a dilemma. We also have dilemmas and things bother all of us. I alluded to things I don’t always understand a few sentences ago. None of us have perfect understanding in the ways of God. His ways are always above ours, but that doesn’t stop us from questioning the situation, does it? What was Habakkuk’s quandary? The Babylonians, aka Chaldeans, were a wicked bunch and yet they would be allowed to bring judgment. In his little three chapters he complains to the Lord twice. First about evil in the world and second about God using a more wicked people to judge Judah. What about Jonah? He was bothered that God was telling him to go preach to the Assyrians. They too were a brutal bunch and yet the Lord said go tell them to “repent.” Jonah hated them and didn’t want them to receive mercy; he wanted them to die.
2. Both of these prophets had a response. Let’s start with Jonah. A funny outline for this little four-chapter book is: One, “I won’t go”. Two, “OK I’ll go”. Three, “I’m here”. Four, “I told you I shouldn’t have come.” When he receives the word to go preach to the great city of the Assyrians, Nineveh, he rebels and runs in the opposite direction. The story of Jonah is legendary and may I add historically true. Not an allegory. Jesus attested to this very historical event in the gospels. It took a great fish and likely him dying in the fish to get his attention. Habakkuk on the other hand deals with it entirely different. He prays. The entire third chapter is him praising the Lord. We don’t always understand the ways of God. “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;” (I Corinthians 1:27).
What was the powerful insight that Habakkuk had that Jonah didn’t? Besides a softer heart, he had a truth that the Apostle Paul and the writer of Hebrews both knew. Likely both these New Testament writers added it to their books after learning it from him and of course, the Holy Spirit. One verse is found in Romans 1:17 and the other is Hebrews 10:38. Habakkuk penned those very words over six-hundred years before Paul or our unknown Hebrews author. Notice Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: “but the just shall live by faith.” The first part of the verse is about the proud Babylonians whose lives aren’t anywhere godly and they are contrasted in the latter part of the verse to those Israelites that just trust God. I choose to follow the example of trusting Habakkuk rather than Jonah. When things bother me and I don’t know what the Lord is doing, I simply live by the learned knowledge that God does all things for my ultimate good and His glory. That’s the ticket for the people of God. I can tell God I don’t understand and I think it is alright to voice your displeasure as long as it is done with reverence and respect to the Lord. He knows we are but flesh. But after our little gripe and complaint session we simply say, “Not my will but thine be done.”