Judgment and Predetermined Grace

Habakkuk 1:12-17

12 Are You not from everlasting,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, You have marked them for correction.

13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?

14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?

15 They take up all of them with a hook,
They catch them in their net,
And gather them in their dragnet.
Therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net,
And burn incense to their dragnet;
Because by them their share is sumptuous
And their food plentiful.

17 Shall they therefore empty their net,
And continue to slay nations without pity?

The second question was con God’s sovereign predetermined will to discipline and judge the nation which He called to Himself.  He began by acknowledging the eternality of the LORD and His absolute holiness.  The holiness to admit God cannot do anything evil or wrong in how He deals with justice, judgment, and mercy just as with sin, righteousness, and judgment which He later spoke of in John 16:8-11 for all His called and chosen people given ears to hear.  He did not and does not punish those truly His with eternal death but places us under judgment until the final day when only Christ’s atoning blood of His sacrifice can keep us from anything but 5e righteous accountability of corrective chastisement.  Our solid Rock of righteousness and holiness disciplines those all those He loves (Hebrews 12:6-7)!  He is altogether righteous and cannot bear to behold sin lingering before His eyes in that purity, therefore He sees the unrighteousness of those given the call to follow Him and keeps silent until judgment is meted out after giving them a chance to turn in repentance from sin to Him.  Yes, though many worship the bounty given by God instead of the Creator and Giver of all goodness as our provision and all good providence, still He calls and waits before passing the final sentence due as spiritual death.  Since those fishermen who worshiped the work of their own hands and lived in ungodliness were to attack God’s people as part of His judgment, do we also remember the kindness with the severity of the Lord (Romans 11:22, Hebrews 3:14) to judge righteously in the end and so hold fast to endure correction when we also stray?  The question of judgment in light of His predetermined choice of us and His goodness holds the answer as to our forgiveness and reconciliation in His Son.