Reflection National Lockdown Saturday 08 August 2020

Habakkuk 1:12- 2:4              Psalm 9:8-12              Matthew 17:14-20

Good day dear friends

The message of Habakkuk can be summed up in the confession of faith as presented in the final verse of our text for today:  “the righteous live by their faith” (2:4). The rest of the book provides an argument that defines who the righteous are and what faith in the one, living, true God looks like. The prophet  questions God’s presence given the difficulties experienced by the people in the kingdom of Judah and communicates this as condemnation of  God’s people, who have not lived up to the vocation of being the Lord’s people.  He bemoans the fact that the wicked are allowed to surround the righteous and pervert justice. God answered the lament by demonstrating that God’s anger is not the absence of love but God’s punishment for wrongdoing and a way of correcting the sins of the people. God punishes those who oppress because God loves the oppressed. The prophet did not like the answer given and issued a second, renewed lament protesting that God’s act of judgment against His people is even more unjust than the injustice God is supposed to be punishing, coming from the enemy. In the second response God promises a vision, not right away, but eventually. The prophet and people are commanded not to give up, but to keep the faith and trust that the vision will come.

The reading then ends with a song of thanksgiving in response to this vision and its outcome.  This song is a second picture of what the life of faith is like.  The righteous, because they rely on God, do not rejoice only in times of plenty, but also in times of scarcity and struggle, in other words they trust in God at all times. God meets people in their suffering.

We too live in a world where the wicked surrounds the righteous and should trust in the coming of God’s new vision, particularly in our current health crisis. We ought to rejoice in God’s blessings even in our struggles and suffering as a sign of our love for God and not just as a display of love towards the blessings and gifts received from God.  God calls upon His people to love the giver and not just the gift made. We should know that live will inevitably bring moments of pain, need and suffering and not as a sign of abandonment by God, but rather as a sign of His presence as He finds us in our suffering. 

The psalmist wishes to remind the people that God does not deal with people in the same way the world and its courts do. Prejudice and respect of a person’s social status are foreign to God’s seeking what is right, just and fair for His people. God as the ultimate judge will act objectively when people sin and as security when they are insulted and troubled. God will never reward wickedness, but will surely defend his faithful and upright followers in their troubles, visited upon them by man or Satan. The place of escape will be God’s city of refuge where His people will have the security of God’s unbiased and gracious wings. It is the intension of the writer to warn the people that they should not trust in mortal man but upon God whose presence cannot be penetrated by evil. They are to show faith in God’s power to subject their enemies and to give them victory. The psalmist cautions against ignorance and encourage the people to seek knowledge on the features and appeal of God that will lead to grace and a true faith. Whilst it may seem as if God is absent in their oppression, they should know from personal experience in history that God will never completely or furiously forsake those who seeks after him. They will find comfort in the faithfulness and graciousness on offer to those who show trust and faith in Him. The psalmist wants to share his spirit of thankfulness with his hearers as an encouragement to continue their praise and glory of the one, only, true God. They should sing and praise God for everything they have received, but also in expectation of future blessings and grace. Honour shown towards God as deliverer will not just bring about a change in the conditions they suffer, but will be accompanied by the return of favour and blessings upon them. Those who suffered oppression for God’s sake will be remembered in the day of judgement and their cries will not be drowned by the wicked seeking relief or the deliverance of judgement on the champions of injustice. 

After his stay with the disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus ascended the mountain and is transfigured before three disciples, and then reaches the crowd and attempts a new approach to Galilee. Matthew presents these events as part of a spiritual journey undertaken by Jesus and the disciples. In this journey of faith, the community is gradually called upon to retrace that spiritual journey which marked the life of Jesus from Galilee to His passion, death and resurrection: a spiritual journey in which the power of faith plays a crucial role.

Jesus, after His transfiguration, returned and was approached by a man who begged Him to intervene in the evil that imprisoned his son. The explanation preceding the intervention of Jesus is really clear: this is a case of epilepsy with all its uncontrolled consequences on the cerebral abilities of the boy. Faced with such a situation in which evil forces far beyond human competencies are at work, the disciples find themselves powerless to heal the child according to Jesus, because of their lack of faith.  Matthew presents the case of the boy as a symbol, representing those who degrade the power of faith and who treats Jesus as a human and not recognize His divine power at work.  Knowing things about Jesus, casual relationship with Him is never enough and what is needed is a display of simple but truthful faith in Him and His abilities.

Jesus rebuked the crowd, requested that the boy be brought to Him and delivered him from the evil spirit that tormented him. This was not just simply a miracle of healing performed on an individual, but healing of the frail and unreliable faith of His closest followers.  The expectation is faith that can do the impossible and be identified with Jesus’s person, mission and power. The disciples who left everything to follow Jesus, on an earlier mission showed immense power in performing miracles, even claiming authority over evil spirits, failed to heal the epileptic boy due to a lack of faith rooted in relationship with Him. This is an incitement to be guided by the power of faith in action, particularly so in times of trial and suffering, and as a way of showing that true faith can do anything. Do we find that our faith help us to relate to Jesus as well as to others? • Do we feel committed to move the mountains that stand between our self-interest and the will of God?

Let us pray:

“O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3: 2).