So many things to write about, so little time.
The Old Testament Equip class is coming up this Friday and Saturday, so I'm deep into the detritus of the meaninglessness of Ecclesiastes, Abishag's significance and the structure of Obadiah.
In the midst of all this, though, I'd like to share how half of a verse from the second chapter of Habakkuk changed the world.
Now Habakkuk 2 happens to be one of my favorite chapters in the Bible - yes, class, I know I say that about any chapter I'm reading at the time, but this time I mean it. What's not to love about it? It starts out by quoting Bob Dylan (wait, who came first? Dylan or Habakkuk? I think they knew OF each other, but were not FB friendly.) "I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower," which is a clear allusion to “All Along the Watchtower.” The balance of the chapter is a condemnation of the Chaldeans, and lists five woes upon them.
And you know how I love a good woe. Don't get me started on Jesus' seven woes against the Pharisees in Matthew 23. Dead men's bones. Priceless.
Habakkuk's first three woes have to do with venal wealthy and powerful, and that's its own bit of wonder. Then the fourth woe is one for our time - a woe upon drunken perverts. (I haven't forgotten my main point - the half verse - but I have to go one more step off the track for a second). For all the family values folks out there who are looking for an explicit condemnation of drunken perverts, and find that some of Paul's lists of sins (“the sexually immoral”) doesn't really have the teeth they are looking for, turn ye to Habakkuk 2: 15-17. Fifth woe? Don't make idols. Ho hum. But the first four are cracklin' good. They pop!
That's why I love Habakkuk 2. Woes for our time. But you don't change the world criticizing the rich and powerful - necessarily - nor at poking fun at drunken perverts. You change the world by shaking up the religious establishment of your day, by creating new religions and stuff.
Top two candidates: Jesus and Martin Luther.
There are some who say that the most important moment in Luther's life was not nailing/posting/stapling/post-it-ing the 95 Theses on the Door of Wittenburg, his defense at the Diet of Worms, the publication of the New Testament in German or marrying a nun. Some say the most important moment of Luther's life was his Tower Experience, in which he read Romans 1:17 (“For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”) in a completely different light. Some say that when Luther read that, his vision of God changed from Angry Judge to Loving Father.
Who are these "some" who say that?
One of those "some" is Martin Luther.
He wrote: "Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement that "the (righteous) shall live by faith." Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before "the righteousness of God" had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.”
For Luther, Paul’s verse was a gate to heaven. But who gave Paul the verse?
Habakkuk.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.” Hab. 2:4
A half verse by a minor prophet inspires Paul, who inspires Luther, who inspires me.
Is this what they mean by “the inspired Word of God?”
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