Scattered Like Dust
Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!"
HABAKKUK 1:11
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Scattered Like Dust
That is what all ungodly tyrants do. They judge God's grace by temporal fortune or misfortune. . .. They cannot imagine that their god and their cause are sheer deviltry, because they note the success attending them and the misfortune besetting the Gospel. But they do not know that the God and the cause of these same persecuted Christians are right and that God has given these Christians into their hands, just as He did Christ Himself and all the saints. And so they also continue and proceed to blaspheme, saying: "Now, where is your Christ? Have Him help you!" . . . However, they will come to an ugly end. Now that they have sown their honey, a very sharp mustard will grow up. For since they do not fear God in His judgments and works and do not humble themselves, He lets them rush confidently along to ruin, attended abundantly by victory and good fortune, and makes fools of them in their smartness and smugness. Now they fill the measure of their sins and become hardened until the hour strikes when He will tend to them as He did to the Babylonians and the Jews and all such tyrants. For where are they now who said to Christ (Matthew 27:43): "He trusts in God; let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him"? Where is their god to whom they ascribed their victory? Christ has remained, but they are dispersed and scattered like the dust of the field.
From Lectures on Habakkuk (German text) (Luther's Works 19:176-77)
HABAKKUK 1:11
+
Scattered Like Dust
That is what all ungodly tyrants do. They judge God's grace by temporal fortune or misfortune. . .. They cannot imagine that their god and their cause are sheer deviltry, because they note the success attending them and the misfortune besetting the Gospel. But they do not know that the God and the cause of these same persecuted Christians are right and that God has given these Christians into their hands, just as He did Christ Himself and all the saints. And so they also continue and proceed to blaspheme, saying: "Now, where is your Christ? Have Him help you!" . . . However, they will come to an ugly end. Now that they have sown their honey, a very sharp mustard will grow up. For since they do not fear God in His judgments and works and do not humble themselves, He lets them rush confidently along to ruin, attended abundantly by victory and good fortune, and makes fools of them in their smartness and smugness. Now they fill the measure of their sins and become hardened until the hour strikes when He will tend to them as He did to the Babylonians and the Jews and all such tyrants. For where are they now who said to Christ (Matthew 27:43): "He trusts in God; let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him"? Where is their god to whom they ascribed their victory? Christ has remained, but they are dispersed and scattered like the dust of the field.
From Lectures on Habakkuk (German text) (Luther's Works 19:176-77)
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