Habakkuk 1. 1-4; 2. 1-4 …ACKNOWLEDGING Christ in each other

By Revd. Debo Adelaja

(sermon at the beginning of Black History Month)

Let us Pray - Living God, give me the courage to speak your message to this congregation. Amen.

Habakkuk lived through a period of national revival followed by a period of spiritual decline. He received a message of delayed judgement from God, and he wondered why the delay while evil continues to prevail, contention arises, and human law seems powerless.

In our world today, just as in the days of Habakkuk and during the 400 years of Trans-Atlantic slave trade when about 2 million died during the voyage and 15 million where victims - we wonder where God was, and why God did not set things right.

Why does God allow us to see iniquity in ourselves?

- is it to keep us humble?

· is it to keep us submissive to Him in the hour of trouble?

· is it to make us value salvation even more?

Why does God allow us to see iniquity in others:

· is it to show us what we might have been ourselves?

· or to make us see the wickedness of sin, that we might pass by it and hate it, and not indulge in it ourselves?

My siblings in Christ, is it to make us admire the grace of God when He saves sinners?

Is your experience to set you more earnestly to work that God can use you to save others and extend God’s kingdom?

Habakkuk saw trouble and sin everywhere, from personal relationships to the courts of law. This distressed him so much that he cried out to God and asked God why He didn’t bring judgment and immediately correct things. My fellow Christians can you see similar situation all around you or are you so much embedded in division and ostracizing that it has eaten you up.

In the second segment of today’s message, Habakkuk was implored by God to record and make plain this “question and answer” time for the benefit of others.

Any minister of the Scripture and indeed any follower of Christ must make the word of God known. We must seek to make God’s truth relate to the real life of those who listen. Habakkuk vision spoke of the consequences of what had been done and a delay in judgement. A delay that could serve as a period of self-assessment and renewal.

Today we look at the consequences of what came out of the 400 years of Transatlantic slave trade, the consequences of introducing the slave bible to suppress rebellion. The Slave Bible excludes 90 percent of the Old Testament as well as 50 percent of the New Testament. Absent are all the Psalms, that talk about hope for God’s liberation from oppression, as well as the entire Book of Revelation

For instance, the King James Bible has 1189 chapters while the Slave bible has 232 chapters. In the Old Testament there was no story of ‘Moses and let my people go’. Galatian 3:28 which says - There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus was expunged. Religion was used by humans to cover and sustain the horror of slavery. The cover-up is so intense that twisting the Scripture is not even a bother. The pride of man moved beyond the physical to engross the Spiritual.

Habakkuk wondered why Babylon – a nation even more sinful than Judah – would be used to bring judgment against Judah. In answering the prophet, God said He saw pride in His people, pride that removed them from His favor. 

My Sibling in Christ pride is everywhere and takes all manner of shapes.

• the rich man, proud of what he has.
• the poor man, proud of his “honor” in having less.
• the talented man, proud of what he can do.
• the man of few talents, proud of his hard work.
• the religious man, proud of his religion.
• the learned man, proud of his intelligence and
•  the simple man, proud of his simplicity.

If there is a sin that is universal, it is PRIDE.

…It is found among the highest and loftiest in the world, 

 …found amongst the poorest and the most miserable.

Pride is a strange creature; it never objects to its lodgings. It will live comfortably enough in a palace, and it will live equally at its ease in a dump. Is there any human in whose heart pride does not lurk?”

 “Wherever pride is found, it is always hateful to God. But God cannot bear pride, it is the territory of Lucifer and his cohorts.

In contrast to the “proud”, there are the just. The principle of their life is faith, instead of pride that looks to self. True faith looks outside of self to God.

This brief statement from the prophet Habakkuk in chapter 2 verse 4 says but the just shall live by faith. This is one of the most quoted Old Testament statements in the New Testament. Paul used it to show that being under the law is not the way to be found just before God, only living by faith is. If you are declared just – that is, approved – before God, you have been accepted because of a relationship of faith…undaunted faith in the Scripture. The Scripture says in Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:31 - thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Let us therefore relate to and care for one another. The Scripture says each of us is known to you Lord, each of us bears the image of Christ and we belong to each other.

Heavenly Father helps us to acknowledge Christ in each other. Amen.