1. To me Habakkuk 3:17-19 is one of the greatest passages in the Bible about faith. Basically, Habakkuk says that God does not have to reward him or pay him for having faith in Him. If things go great, that’s good. If things go terribly, that’s okay too – unpleasant but okay. Habakkuk will have faith in, worship, and serve God no matter what is happening in his life. Lots of television preachers talk about how God will bless people materially if they follow Him and, of course, give to their ministry program. That is called “prosperity theology.” We give to God and God is obligated to give to us, especially with material blessings like wealth and health. What do you think about “prosperity theology?” Are people who follow God always blessed with wealth and health? How do you think those who follow God are blessed by Him?
2. When we read the Book of Job, we focus on what Job lost as if he is the only victim in the narrative. But when the four servants report to Job that his possessions are gone and his children are dead, that means there was a lot of collateral death. Servants were caring for those possessions and serving Job’s children and they died too. Wives lost husbands. Children lost fathers and perhaps mothers too. Fathers and mothers lost adult children. Job had a lot of servants to care for what he had so several thousand could have died. That is a lot of death just to test one person’s faith. What do you think about this? Did God go overboard? We can say and often do that God can do whatever He wants, but does that mean that whatever He does is good and moral? God has given us a sense of morality and what is right and wrong. How do we understand God when He seems to contradict what He tells us to do and not to do?
