How Are You Silent?

Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Habakkuk 1:12-17

12 [Art] thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. 
13 [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [and] holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth [the man that is] more righteous than he? 
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, [that have] no ruler over them? 
15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad. 
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion [is] fat, and their meat plenteous. 
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) Who had the Lord ordained to bring judgment (correction) to His people? (v.6, 12)
2) How did the prophet describe the Lord? (v.13)
3) What did the prophet ask of the Lord? (v.13-14)
4) How did the prophet describe the enemies of God's people? (v.15-16)
5) What was the prophet's final question of the Lord in this Scripture passage (v.17)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
6) Has the Lord ever allowed prolong periods of distress in your life? If so, please describe one such time.
7) If you answered positively to the previous question, what was your response to the Lord if your distress did not lessen, but increased?

PRINCIPLES
8) The Lord may, at times,  allow our chastisement to be more severe than our transgressions.
9) The Lord's actions (or inaction) are (is) always just and righteous, whether we understand them or not.
10) The Lord owes no one any explanation for judgment against His disobedient children.