“Would We Believe What God Is Going to Do in the Final Judgment 我們會相信神在最後的審判中所將要作的嗎？“（Habakkuk 哈巴谷書 1:2-5）
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. ‘Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. …’
耶和華啊！我懇求，你不垂聽，要到幾時呢？我向你呼叫“有狂暴的事”，你卻不拯救。你為甚麼使我看見惡行？有奸惡的事，你為甚麼見而不理？毀滅和強暴在我面前，紛爭和相鬥常常發生。因此律法不能生效，公理無法彰顯。因為惡人把義人包圍，所以公理顛倒。‘你們當看列國，要定睛觀看，就會大大驚奇，因為在你們的日子，我要作一件事，即使有人說了出來，你們也不會相信。…’
When someone like Habakkuk really believes God, yet looks around and sees that the world does not seem to match up with how God wants it, questions come up for answers. Here, God’s answer was allowing the enemy of His people to be His instrument of judgment on their rebellion against Him! This was something ‘too bad to be true’ that Habakkuk would have a hard time believing it. God allows us to see iniquity in ourselves to keep us humble and submissive to Him in the hour of trouble as well as to make us value salvation even more. God allows us to see iniquity in others to show us what we might have been ourselves, to make us see the wickedness of sin and admire God’s grace when He saves sinners and to set us more earnestly to work for God using us to save others and extend God’s kingdom.
當有人像哈巴谷一樣真的相信神，然而環顧四周卻發覺，這世界似乎與神想要它怎樣並不相符時，疑問就産生而有待回答。在這裡，神的回答就是容讓祂子民的仇敵，成為祂審判他們叛逆敵對祂的工具！這是「太糟糕不會是真的」事，使哈巴谷會一時間覺得困難去相信。神容讓我們看見在自己裡面的過犯，要使我們保持謙卑，並在患難的時刻中對祂順服，與及使我們珍重救恩更多。神容讓我們看見在別人裡面的過犯，要展示給我們自己或許曾經是那樣的，使我們看見罪的危害和羨慕神拯救罪人時的恩典，並使我們開始更認真地為神作工，用我們去拯救別人和擴展神的國度。
Prayer: Sovereign God, we often hesitate to believe something either ‘too good to be true’ or ‘too bad to be true’ but could be easily deceived by twisted or faked ‘truth’ circulating around in marketing/political propaganda or rumour. During this trial period of waiting for Christ’s return, may the love of Jesus Christ and the illumination of the Holy Spirit enable us to stand firm in faith granting us strength after strength and grace after grace. Amen.
禱告: 至高無上的神啊，我們往往遲疑去相信某些「太好不會是真的」或「太糟糕不會是真的」事，卻可以容易地被周圍流傳的市場/政治上宣傳活動或謠言中，扭曲和造假的「真相」欺騙。在這等候基督的再臨、經歷試煉的時期中，願耶穌基督的愛和聖靈的光照，使我們能夠在信心/信仰上站立得穩，賜予我們力上加力、恩上加恩。阿們。
