The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

   
 
 
 

Chapter 12 Habakkuk - 610 B.C.

   
 

   
 

HABAKKUK

(610 B.C.)

12

 

Hab 1:2           How long, O Lord, shall I cry out
                        And you not listen,
                        Shall I shout to You, "Violence!"
                        And You not save?
                        Why do You (Lord) look upon wrong?-
                        Raiding and violence are before me,
                        Strife continues and contention goes on.
                        That is why decision fails
                        And justice never emerges;
                        For the villain hedges in the just man –

 

Hab 1:4           Therefore judgment emerges deformed…

 

Hab 1:13         Why do You (Lord) countenance treachery,
                        And stand idly by?

 

Hab 2:1           I will stand on my watch,
                        Take up my station at the post,
                        And wait to see what He will say to me,
                        What He will reply to my complaint?

 

     Indeed, what will He reply? The same question has been asked by many other prophets and people as well. Why is evil allowed to dominate the good? God answers:

 

Hab. 2:2           Write the prophecy down,
                        Inscribe it clearly on tablets,
                        So that it can be read easily
                        For there is yet a prophecy for a set term
                        A truthful witness for a time that will come.

 

Hab 2:3           Even if it tarries, wait for it still;
                        For it will surely come without delay:
                        Lo, His spirit within him is puffed up, not upright.
                        But the righteous man shall live by his faith and in
                        His faithfulness is rewarded with life.
                        The treacherous, arrogant man
                        Who has made his maw as wide as Sheol,
                        Who is as insatiable as Death,
                        Who has harvested all the nations
                        And gathered in all the peoples!
                        Surely all these (all the peoples) shall pronounce a satire against him,
                        A pointed epigram concerning him.
                        They shall say:
                        Ah, you who pile up what is not yours –
                        How much longer? –
                        And make ever heavier your load of indebtedness!
                        Right suddenly shall your creditors arise,…


                        You shall be sated with shame
                        Rather than glory:

 

     The answer to "Why allow evil to triumph?" is that those who live by faith are rewarded with infinity and those who choose evil also choose extinction. In addition, the prophet is told that justice will be achieved at the end of The Age, after the full harvest is reaped. Everything has its season, "even if it tarries, wait for it still." "Write down this prophecy, it will be a truthful witness for a time that will come." That time is now almost upon us. The prophecy will be fulfilled and thus it will be a "truthful witness" to God’s foreknowledge. Lets look at part of this passage from another source the Septuagint.

 

Hab. 2:1          And the Lord answered me and said. Write the vision,
Septuagint       and that plainly on a tablet, that he that reads it may run.
                        For the vision is yet for a (set) time, and it shall shoot forth
                        at the end, and not in vain: though he should tarry wait for
                        him; for he shall surely come, and will not tarry.

 

     I think the true flavor of this passage is caught in the Septuagint. The 'vision' is for a set time 'at the end' of the Age at which time it will 'shoot forth' by means of the interpretation of prophecy by the final prophet 'in whose heart God has placed understanding'.  This prophet must 'read' this prophecy from the already existing prophecy writings of the Olden Prophets, which has been sealed by God up until that set time. This final prophet must 'read on the run' for presumably he is busy with other activities.

 

     In 4Ezra God answers similarly this same question of why:

 

Ezra 4:27        …this age is full of infirmities and sadness. For the evil has
                        been sown but the harvest of it is not yet come.

 

     "Everything has its season", the "sun is made to shine on the good and the evil."

The Urantia Book teaches us also that potential evil is inherent in creatures that are both imperfect and have free will. Causes are allowed to have their true effects no matter how awful the results may be. If it weren’t so we would be hapless spectators in a show and not true participants in the creative process. In order for the universe to succeed, it must be allowed to fail. Also, consider what the angel who reveals to Ezra says next:

 

4Ezra 7:3         There is a sea set in a wide expanse:
                        so that it is broad and vast,
                        but it has an entrance set in a narrow place,
                        so that it is like a river.
                        If anyone, then, wishes to reach the sea, to look
                        at it or navigate it, how can he come to the
                        broad part unless he passes through the narrow part?…

 

4Ezra 7:11       When Adam transgressed my statutes, what had been made was judged.
                        And so the entrances of this world were made
                        narrow and sorrowful and toilsome; they are few

 

4Ezra 7:12       and evil, full of dangers and involved in great hardships.

 

4Ezra 7:16       …And why have you not considered in your mind
                        what is to come, rather just what is now present.

 

     This is very similar to the statement in the Urantia Book that the biggest deprivation of our world is the partial loss of the biologic uplift program of Adam and Eve. (This program was designed to augment the natural evolution of the human species so as to provide for increased creativity and increased capacity for spiritual experience and spiritual qualities of character.) This loss of 'biological uplift' has resulted in a humanity that still has deep roots in the "animal tendencies" of evolutionary origin. We are full of fear and worry and negativity. Disorders such as anxiety syndrome, depression, various phobias and compulsions are strongly hereditary. The neurological wiring and chemistry in these conditions has a biologic-genetic substrate and can be treated by medications, which alter this chemistry. Our fearful natures are the single largest impediment to happiness and spiritual growth. And where fear leaves off, pride takes over. Together, pride and fear conspire to usurp the divine potentials within. In verse 7:16, God reminds us to think of "what is to come," as well as what is now, to obtain proper balance of outlook.
     Consider the following from John Hogue’s, Millennium Prophecy.

 

The Inner Workings of Man

Millennium
Prophecy         The new humanity will have an ecology in which nature is
Pg. 298            not to be conquered, but lived and loved…the new man is an
                        absolute necessity. The old is dead or dying…cannot survive long.
                        And if we cannot produce a new human being, then humanity will
                        disappear from the Earth.


                                                            OSHO (l986) (John Hogue)

 

                        Up to now man has survived without transformation because there was
                        no urgency for change…but I still hope that the danger of global death
                        will be the shock that awakens humanity.
                                                        OSHO (l987) (John Hogue)

Pg. 305            There’s a Sufi metaphor about identification. Misery doesn’t come
                        to us; we unconsciously seek it out and hold on to it, like flinging our
                        arms around a pillar. As we squeeze tighter we yell, "Oh if I could only be
                        rid of this misery and pain!" This misunderstanding is our choice.
                        As American mystic Adi DaShentosa ouce remarked, we "do"we misery,
                        "do"expectation. Hell is not a place we "do" it. We "do"
                        predictability. We make prophecy work because we are so damned
                        predictable…we have repeated again and again the behaviors that
                        make it easy for our seers to prophesy unto us doomsday…there is a
                        need for a global awareness of how, from the moment we emerge
                        from the womb, we are programmed to imprint concepts that are totally
                        divorced from our deepest natural understanding. (John Hogue)

 

Pg. 323            Our minds are so polluted with garbage and fears that have been
                        passed on from generation to generation, that we have forgotten who
                        we are. Our spiritual path is not complex, it is quite simple. It is not
                        easy; it is not a romantic sacrifice to look at oneself, to be able to
                        celebrate life. Yet with this comes a sense of joy, a sense of being,
                        and a connection with the flow of the universe.
                                 Good Horse Nation (l985), Visayan Medicine Man (John Hogue)

 

                        Roles and patterns are keeping you in a straitjacket. Freed from
                        these you will come into contact with your inner being; with the one
                        who doesn’t see any limitations, who sees only possibilities.
                                                            Ambres (l986) (John Hogue)

 

Pg. 289            Prophecies from many different traditions say that America is
                        destined to become the seat of the next spiritual evolution…one of
                        America’s greatest attributes is its ability to give social and religious
                        experiments a chance.
                            (John Hogue, Millennium Prophecy)

 

Pg. 291            America, as the Sioux medicine man Good Horse Nation says,
                        must wake up. To do that, America will have to suffer a most
                        difficult weaning – from what is false or destructive about the
                        American Dream. (John Hogue)

 

Pg. 298            A peculiar generation now exists on this earth, which does not
                        
carry an inner urge for growth but only death for the whole race.

 

America

 

          And when we wake up we will realize that these bereft beings are running the political and financial centers of the world. And that no mere human effort will be able to correct this problem. This is why divine intervention will be needed; otherwise everyone and everything would be destroyed. Hyperbole?  No, simple and honest logic. If nations had nuclear weapons when Rome fell – none of us would be here today to discuss this problem. Do we really think that when things start to turn sour for our world that force will not be seen as the answer. Does anyone really believe that thousands of nuclear weapons will never be used? Mankind has never invented a weapon that he has not subsequently used. Does anyone look upon the world scene and not see the progressive danger that we are entering? China and Russia are building up their military (with our money and technology) and staking out their territories. America suddenly is the bully of the world, using its military might in an aggressive, self-serving way rather than as a defensive stronghold of peace. We have lost all respect and goodwill in the eyes of the world’s nations. They will accept our money, but no longer look up to us as a moral force in the world. And yet America notices nothing, as long as the stock market stays up and the material goods keep flowing. We have ceased to use our minds and think for ourselves, our opinions are those of the last newspaper article we have read. We take our media and information sources at face value, without question. When the "wagging heads" of the experts wag so do ours – glassy-eyed, inured, and asleep. The prophets have said "our people are stupid." We only see what we want to see. Where is the thirst for truth? Prophets pull no punches; they live and die for the truth and only truth. Our own leaders prepare before us the rudiments for the destruction of an entire world. What does God say about America’s world leadership of weapons technology sale, and exportation to an entire world? When did it become acceptable to export destruction so that our richest people can become richer? Is it acceptable? What do we do? What do we say? The answer is a resounding nothing. History and God will hold America accountable for the deaths of tens or hundreds of million lives. But as long as we still have our cozy lives and our wants fulfilled – we see nothing. And so, not until our toys and possessions are taken away from us will anybody notice that there are a lot of bully’s that have moved onto the block. Then will America cry and then will America open her glazed-over eyes. And so, we will finally realize, that which we have had ample opportunity to understand; Man needs God to guide his steps! By himself he is a miserable and obvious failure.

 

The Inner Workings of Man

 

     Now, returning to the underpinnings of the animalistic, negative aspects of human nature, the Adamic inheritance would have greatly improved our fearful nature and our spiritual receptivity. Fear is loud static to a mind that needs to tune into the wavelengths of God and Eternity. And since hatred is merely the shadow of fear, it has had fertile soil in which to grow. Man’s external world is a reflection of his internal world. The inner world creates the outer, just as M.C. Escher’s picture of two hands drawing themselves from out of the plane of the paper nicely illustrates. The causes for our problems are inside and invisible to the eye, but are very real nevertheless. And so the higher the hill that our will must climb to get beyond negative factors of nature and nurture, the less probable statistically, that we will succeed. On the environment side of the equation, childhood upbringing is also very important. And yet if we truly desire, God tells us that there is nothing that can ultimately keep us from finding Him. Rather, these physical and environmental factors can only delay the eventual success. God is a Father and as all good fathers, he requires only that we do our best. Ultimately, this planet’s handicaps will be overcome and our material, social, and spiritual milieu will be attuned and harmonized, providing conditions that will sustain optimal and balanced human development. Nevertheless, our failings and weaknesses also work to our good for "all things work to the good of those who love God." And we can all bear witness to this when we look back on our hardest experiences and see the deep changes that they have wrought within. We are smelted, purified, and refined in the flames of affliction; flames that are appeased and regulated by the wisdom and mercy of God. And the wide sea, still not visible, is just beyond the great rapids directly ahead. Habakkuk tells us further –

 

Hab 3:3           God is coming from Teman,
                        The Holy One from Mount Paran.
                        His majesty covers the skies,
                        His splendor fills the earth:
                        It is a brilliant light
                        Which gives off rays on every side –
                        And therein His glory is enveloped…

                        You make the earth burst into streams,
                        The mountains rock at the sight of You
                        Sun and moon stand still on high.
                        You come forth to deliver Your people,
                        To deliver Your anointed.

 

     Teman is in the mountains of Jordan, just South of Bozrah mentioned previously. "God" here, is Melchizedek, note the brilliant light he radiates and that "he covers the skies." How could his "majesty cover the skies?" He has come to deliver His people – those who love God. The messianic setting is indicated by the "earth bursting into streams," the "mountains rock," and "the sun and moon stand still on high." The streams could issue forth as a result of the tectonic activity that "rocks the mountains." For the "sun and moon to stand still" earth would have to stop spinning on its axis or undergo a shift of the polar axis. Are these literal or figurative prophecies or both?

 

Hab 3:17         Though the fig tree does not bud
                        And no yield is on the vine,
                        Though the olive crop has failed,
                        And the fields produce no grain
                        And no cattle in the pen.
                        Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
                        Exalt in God who delivers me.

 

     My impression of the above is that there is severe drought in the trial period. Crops fail and cattle die. Drought has played a consistent role in the Bible, signifying God’s displeasure. Joseph foretells a drought and stores up food for Egypt in advance. Elijah prophesies drought in connection with God’s displeasure toward the Israelites. There is now a severe drought developing in the Middle East, China, and even parts of America. If my timetable is correct, this drought should become progressively worse and play an enlarging role in the increase of famine and disease, as well as worsening political hostilities and war in the Middle East, which will conclude with "all the nations" coming against Modern Israel. Drought will not improve until Melchizedek arrives and "streams burst forth" from the earth. Lack of water leads to physical death, just as lack of spiritual influx leads to soul death. Water and spirit are therefore tightly linked to one another symbolically.
     Spiritual disease has physical effects on our environment. Our seemingly separated universe of matter, mind and spirit is unified and integrated on higher levels of reality not visibly apparent in the material plane. The American Indians and many other indigenous people already possess and use this wisdom that is so neglected by "modern man."
     Now, a final thought on the existence of evil and we move on to Ezekiel (600 B.C.), the next prophet in our chronologic line.

 

Emily Dickinson    All circumstances are the frame
Poem #821             In which His face is set –
                               All latitudes exist for His
                               Sufficient Continent –
                               The Light His Action, and The Dark
                               The Leisure of His Will –
                               In Him existence serve or set
                               A Force illegible.

 

     The idea of evil as the "leisure of God’s Will" captures evil’s evanescence and ultimate unreality; as a shadow cast by God’s grandeur. However, ultimate unreality does not affect transient, time-space, temporal impact. Pain and suffering are real to us, even if washed clean by the tides of eternity.

 

 

Said the Master

 Jesus Christ

 

 

   
 

   
 

 

Quote from "The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand" by Ed at MEEKROAR@aol.com