For the 19th Sunday after Pentecost on October 7, 2007, the three assigned readings are Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 (Burdens of the prophet); 2 Timothy 1:1-14 (Saved by grace) and Luke 17:1-10 (Unprofitable servants). Chosen to elaborate on is Habakkuk 1:3, “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.”
Normally when we think of the purpose of the Law in the Church, it is to accuse us of our sins in preparation for a hearing of the Gospel. But the Law is much more than information about our fallen nature; it also reveals the fallenness of nature itself. Habakkuk is not burdened only with his own sin but also with the inquity, plundering, violence, strife and contention in the world.
Werner Elert speaks of nomological existence. The term “nomological” comes from the two Greek words of “nomos” meaning “law” and “Logos” meaning “word.” Nomological existence is therefore a word about how the Law impacts us. Unlike other religions that hope for a better world, Christianity is a revelation from God Himself about the fallen nature of not only me but also of creation.
Here’s how Romans 8:19ff puts it, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”
In a sense, this is a comfort to the Christian. For when we experience the sufferings of this world, this reminds us that it is not because God is taking out His justice against us but that this is how the fallen world is. Our hope is not in straightening out this world into some kind of utopia but rather in focusing on the Day of Judgment when this mortal will put on immortality. If for this world we only have hope, we are of all men most miserable.
Hakakkuk reminds us of both the Law and the Gospel. The Law mirrors not only our sinful condition but the fallen condition of the entire creation. The Gospel is not that things will get better prior to the Day of Judgment. Rather, the promises of God will sustain us through whatever we experience as part of this fallen world.
That Gospel promise comes through clearly in the closing verses of Hakakkuk, chapter 3, verses 17-19, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock be 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.”
Name:Tom Baker