Why do the wicked prosper?

The prophet Habakkuk is the only one whose book isn't about a message God had sent to people and the prophet is conveying the message. Instead, it is the prophet himself struggling with "Why do the wicked prosper? Is God going to do anything about it?"

In 1980, 2100 Productions of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship made a multimedia presentation on this book. Unfortunately, the original slides and presentation for this is lost, but they have put the soundtrack up here, so I have extracted some of the audio and put together a new presentation, based on the current situation in Malaysia.

Habakkuk's question is still as relevant in 2019 Malaysia, as it was relevant in 1980 USA, and 7th century BC Judah.

How wise was Solomon, anyway?

S: Ecclesiastes 1

O: How wise was the Preacher, actually? He failed in the most important wisdom of all -

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10

And if the Preacher is the same person as Solomon, the same person who compiled the book of Proverbs, how even more ironic!

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and didn’t go fully after Yahweh, as David his father did. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. So he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Yahweh was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he didn’t keep that which Yahweh commanded. 1 Kings 11:5‭-‬10 WEB

How did such a wise man fall into such an "obvious" sin?

It probably didn't start full-blown. A little bit at a time, slippery slope.

Solomon was powerful, confident, and Yahweh had blessed him.

So when it seemed expedient to marry yet another pagan wife in spite of the law against it - He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Deuteronomy 17:17 WEB - he started sliding down that slippery slope. Well, David also violated that law, but he didn't slide down it, so maybe Solomon thought he could also get away with it.

But then one wife after another started persuading him to worship her god, and slowly, slowly, he gave in and gave in.

A: There's the warning for me. Sin creeps up. I will not just jump into a big sin from my current state as a follower of Jesus. But a little bit here, a little bit there... I have to beware the slippery slope!

P: Father, let me not start down the slippery slope. Let me be alert when temptation beckons, and flee. In Jesus' name, amen.

What is the Temple of the Holy Spirit that secret sins affect?

16/2/2019

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 New Living Translation (NLT)
¹⁸ Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. ¹⁹ Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

I'm sure you have all read these verses many times, and didn't realize something because English doesn't have singular and plural anymore for "you". So I'm going to share with you the King James Version, which is an older form of English where there was still singular and plural for "you":

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 King James Version (KJV)
¹⁸ Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. ¹⁹ What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? ²⁰ For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

I do not usually use the King James Version for my Bible studies because the English language has changed since that translation was made, which makes reading it difficult.

However, this time, I need to refer to the King James Version, or another language like German, which distinguishes between the singular and plural "you". You see, in the form of English used back during the time of King James, they used you/ye for plural and thou/thee for singular. Greek has this singular/plural distinction so the KJV is translating the original Greek, but this is lost in the modern English translations.

Do you see that? All the "you" are plural. That means that the Temple of the Holy Spirit that is affected by our secret sins is not only our singular personal self but the corporate body.

We have a tendency to hide our "secret sins" thinking, "It's only my own problem." But our sin affects our families, our church, people around us.

May this be additional motivation to flee temptation.

Have we been misinterpreting Jesus' intentions regarding the Widow's Mite?

[Picture source]
Passage: Mark 12:40-44 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

One of my old friends from the University of Illinois, Brant Hansen, is now a Christian Radio talk show host, while working for CURE International (a Christian medical mission group). His Brant & Sheri Oddcast has a Christian radio version as well as a podcast version; I listen to his podcast version. It’s a blend of comedy and spiritual insights I enjoy a lot.

Towards the end of a recent podcast, starting at 12 minutes 20 seconds, he pointed out that we may been misinterpreting what Jesus was teaching with the Widow’s Mite incident.

Luke 21:1-4 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

We usually take this passage to mean, “We must give everything like that widow.” And sometimes unscrupulous people try to guilt trip people to give to their ministry even if they can’t afford to give, saying God will bless them if they do that.

However, just before that passage, Luke 20:45-47, he just warned against the religious leaders “who devour widows’ houses”.

So Brant pointed out, maybe Jesus was actually teaching people not to put a guilt trip on people to make them give when they cannot afford to give? There is also the principle of how Jesus scolded the religious leaders for telling the people that they should give to the ministry even to the detriment of supporting their parents (Mark 7:9-13)

So, a very interesting interpretation of this passage, which I had not thought about before. As I mentioned earlier, Brant works for CURE International and often does fundraising for them, so he admitted he may have used this passage in the wrong way as well.