Our son’s home has been plagued by plumbing trouble. Twice, his family has had to abandon ship and come here to escape the stink.

Both times, a plumber came and faithfully worked on the issue that no amount of money could pay him enough to do. He’s gotta be part saint along with full-time plumber.

Which has me wondering…what do a backed up toilet and a heavy heart have in common? Both need dumping, so they can make way for the “something better” that’s coming–the clean up that flushing brings, the joy that comes in the morning.

This is something of what today’s passages are about.

Habakkuk

“Help!  Murder!  Police!”  Habakkuk hollers alarms to God, but God doesn’t rescue.  Life goes on as it always has with “anarchy and violence break[ing] out.”  Habakkuk asks God why he doesn’t take Israel to task for how “the wicked hamstring the righteous and stand justice on its head.”  What gives?  Ha 1:1-4 MSG.

God lets him in on what he’ll do about it, “I’m about to raise up Babylonians to punish [Israel]…fierce and ferocious.” Babylon will come against them in judgment, a pagan nation to discipline a godly one, or one more godly than the Babylonians, anyway, Ha 1:5-11 MSG.

Habakkuk’s even more distraught and accuses God with, “You can’t be serious!…Evil men swallow up the righteous and you stand around and watch!” But God’s undaunted. He says what he’s planned will come right on time, and Habakkuk’s the one who’ll write the warning “in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.” God is bringing judgment, and he tells why in detail so graphic, you’ll have to read it for yourself, Ha 1:12-17, 2:2-19 MSG.

Habakkuk stops his lament long enough to be silent, and in that “holy silence,” Habakkuk listens. Maybe he got hold of a scroll from the temple, because somewhere between chapter 2 and chapter 3, his tone completely shifts. He remembers what God’s done for his ancestors, and he’s “down on [his] knees,” repenting, Ha 3:1-16 MSG.

While he was full of complaints, now he’s convinced that God has their backs, just as he always has. He knows God is motivated by love, so he tells God to go ahead and do what he thinks best, “and as you bring judgment, as you surely must, remember mercy,” Ha 3:1-3 MSG.

By the end of his book, he’s swallowed up in joy and singing, and he’s not pretending. Those whines in chapter one bear witness to his honesty.  When he expressed them openly, he found space to remember God’s faithfulness. And he was moved to repent and trust because of it, Ha 3:17-19.

Rather than ending in the bewilderment he started with, Habakkuk enters into worship and joins the party, “I’m singing joyful praise to God…Counting on God’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer…I’m king of the mountain!” Repentance has lead him right into joy, Ha 3:18-19 MSG.

When I started my Bible journal a few years ago, I started with how rotten I felt. I couldn’t read God’s words in the Bible until I’d dumped the load in my chest. Turns out, this was a good idea according to Habakkuk, because this is just what he did.

I still do it. I pour out. I tell God how I’m feeling. Sometimes I tell him I don’t like what he’s doing, but that I’ve come to him anyway, because he’s the King of Kings, and I want to go straight to the top and speak to the Boss. There’s nowhere else to go—I know at least that much.

By emptying, I’ve got room for what he says, and I really want to read his words after this. Evidently, God can handle me, just where I am. Habakkuk unloaded like this, and his book still made the cut to be included in the Bible.

God doesn’t stiff arm Habakkuk for asking hard questions or for accusing him of being unfair. He gives him a glimpse of who he is, the One who’s always been right there taking care of things—ruling the nations, bringing good out of every mess. When Habakkuk sees God like this, he’s undone and “turn[s] cartwheels of joy,” Ha 3:18 MSG.

Joy comes from celebrating God’s nearness.

Revelation 9

At first look, there’s not a lot of joy in this chapter.  The 5th and 6th angels blow trumpets, and two more dooms are unleashed on the earth in the form of locusts that sting and an army of horsemen that numbers 200 million.  Their purpose is the same:  to torture and kill those who refuse to repent Re 9:1-21. 

But here’s the silver lining peeking out from this storm: despite the fact that they’re murderers and demon worshippers, idolaters and thieves, occultists and promiscuous, God’s offer to them is still open. This is why the dooms come after all—to shake folks awake to their need for God, to bring them to their knees to repent of their sin, Re 9:20-21 MSG.

You’d think after all that happens here, they’d be ready to do whatever it takes to join up with God so the apocaplyse will stop, but surprisingly, they’re not. Those who weren’t killed, “went on their merry way…There wasn’t a sign of a change of heart,” Re 9:20-21 MSG.

That’s the thing about sin. You continue in it long enough, and you lose your ability to turn yourself around, even when your world is coming apart at the seams. I know, because I’ve been there. Willful sin made me blind, deaf, and dumb, and then it broke me down.

And his words ring with urgency—it’s today, not tomorrow, that you need come, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” and “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Why the hurry? Because you might be deaf and won’t hear him tomorrow. Don’t put it off—there’s joy in getting right with God, He 3:15, 2 Cor 6:2, Lu 15:22-24, 31-32 NIV, emphasis added.

There’s more to come in Revelation of the ways in which God tries to break through hard hearts. It’s astonishing that they don’t respond to his judgments, but it’s even more astonishing that God still wants them to.

Joy comes from repenting when the Spirit nudges.

Psalm 137

Here’s another dark cloud in a post about joy. The context for this psalm is what happened when Israel was taken captive to Babylon. They’re grieving as they work beside the river, maybe the Tigris, and their captors demand they sing happy songs as they mock them, Ps 137:1-3 MSG.

God’s people wonder they can sing praise songs to God in front of their oppressors. Having been forced to leave Jerusalem, they’ve left behind everything that was dear, and now they’re heartbroken. They vow never to forget their homeland, and if they do, may their fingers fall off and their tongues “swell and turn black.” Singing is just not where their hearts are, Ps 137:4-6 MSG.

But here’s another silver lining: they haven’t lost God, and they haven’t forgotten him. While they might forget what it’s like to live in Jerusalem, they haven’t forgotten to turn to God in sorrow. They tell him to remember those who destroyed Jerusalem, and to bring enemies in to smash the Babylonian babies’ heads with rocks, Ps 137:7-9 MSG.

Yikes.

It’s hardly the right attitude, but it’s an honest one that God preserves for us to read in the Bible. What’s more, God avenges Israel as they’ve asked him to. Eventually, Persia comes in and overthrows Babylon, and Israel is allowed to their home towns.

God promises to avenge us, too, if we leave our enemies to him. He says we’re to forgive them, not delight in their misfortunes. We can leave the dirty work to him, and focus on the clean work of forgiveness, a work that brings life and thriving everywhere it touches. Ro 12:19; Lk 6:27.

Joy comes from forgiving those who injure us.

Prayer

God, I’m glad you can handle who I really am and what I’m feeling. Thank you for your words that meet me right here and lead me to you. Thank you for handling my enemies, too, and enabling me to forgive them. Thank you for so. much. joy.

In Jesus’ name.

Proverbs 30:10

Don’t bad mouth a coworker behind his back. Even if it’s true, it’ll come back to bite you.

Passages in Habakkuk, Revelation, Psalms and Proverbs are selected for today in The One Year Bible.