Habakkuk 1

Perplexity ~ faith wavers

Pray

Intro

√ The book (intro borrowed from J. Ronald Blue ~ great stuff!)

Our little blue-green planet may look marvelous from space, but for those of us who live on this dusty globe things tend to look rather grim!

Increased turmoil, rising threats of terrorism, more frequent and destructive natural disasters, deepening trials, and an unprecedented economic crisis cast dark shadows on us earthlings.

The world looks more and more like some ominous black sphere with a very short fuse, like a time bomb ready to explode!

Is it any wonder then that thinking people begin to ask questions like…

“Why is there so much oppression?”

“Why do evil men prosper?”

“Why do the righteous suffer?”

“Why doesn’t God do something?”

“Why doesn’t God fix this mess?”

These questions are not new! In fact, hundreds of years before Jesus visited this planet an ancient prophet looked around the world and cried out to God…

“Why do you make me look at injustice?”

“Why do you tolerate wrong?”

“Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up the righteous?”

The prophet not only asked the mysterious “whys” that plague mankind…

…he also received answers to his questions!

The answers given by the Creator of the universe are carefully recorded in this little book titled “Habakkuk”!

Habakkuk is unique among the prophetic books of the Bible because unlike the other prophets who declared God’s message to the people…

…this prophet talked with God about people.

While most Old Testament prophets proclaimed divine judgment…

…Habakkuk pleaded for divine judgment!

The benefit of the book for us is that Habakkuk has recorded God’s answers to some of life’s most difficult and perplexing questions.

Good questions that have answers!

Christians today more than ever need to know how to answer the questions, and doubts of this next generation or they will be lost to the rising tides of atheism and human philosophy.

Ap. Very relevant to our own time

In view of the rapidly changing world in which we live, and the very difficult and challenging times that may be ahead…

…I think we’ll find once again that God’s word has all that we need to safely navigate the trials and tribulations this world may throw at us!

The Prophet (vs. 1)

Hab. 1:1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

√ The prophet

Not much is known about Habakkuk as he is not mentioned in any other book in the Scripture.

His Name is thought to mean “embrace”, but Bible students disagree as to whether it is active or passive…

…that is, is he the “embracer” or the “embraced”?

Perhaps both since those called by God to minister to His people serve both to…

Embrace God on behalf of His people…

…and embrace God’s people on behalf of God?

The only other thing we know about this man is his occupation, “prophet”, but as to his family, his home, to whom he ministered we are left to speculation.

√ Timing

As Habakkuk does not provide a date to the writing of his message we are left to do some Biblical sleuthing to try and come up with a reasonable date.

Vs. 1-4 ~ Habakkuk complains about the oppression of the righteous by the wicked.

Vs. 5-11 ~ God speaks of raising up the Babylonians as a tool of His judgment against the wicked.

That would place his ministry during the reign of king Jehoiakim (609-589 B.C.) who rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, oppressed the godly (like Jeremiah) and was the king of Judah when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.

An Unanswered Prayer (vs. 1-4)

Hab. 1:1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

Hab. 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry,

And You will not hear?

Even cry out to You, “Violence!”

And You will not save.

Hab. 1:3 Why do You show me iniquity,

And cause me to see trouble?

For plundering and violence are before me;

There is strife, and contention arises.

Hab. 1:4 Therefore the law is powerless,

And justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

√ An unanswered prayer

Habakkuk looked around and saw that the wickedness of God’s people had reached epidemic proportions…

They were violent.

They stole from one another.

They outnumbered those who sought to serve God and twisted God’s law so as to oppress the righteous and to deny them justice.

It was more than he could stand so he prayed that God would intervene and save the godly remnant from their oppressors, but it seemed as if God wasn’t listening…

“O LORD, how long shall I cry,

And You will not hear?” ~ vs. 2

Habakkuk longed to see God bring revival to His people and judgment on the wicked…

…but his prayer seemed to go unanswered, or so he thought!

Ap. Unanswered prayers

I’m sure that Habakkuk’s experience is only theoretical to you all!

No here knows what it’s like to feel like God isn’t listening…

…right?!

Right! We’ve all experienced times in our personal life, and in the corporate life of the Church, when we’ve prayed fervently and…

See nothing

Hear nothing

It’s then that we begin to feel as if the heavens are brass and that God has cast us off!

The reality is that nothing is further from the truth!

God is listening, He will answer, yet it will be in His perfect timing.

While we wait for God’s answer we can find encouragement from our brother Habakkuk who was anointed by God as a prophet…

…yet questioned God’s care and experienced times when God didn’t answer his prayers when he wanted.

√ When your prayers seem to go unanswered

When our prayers go unanswered we’re tempted to think (wrongly) that God doesn’t care of that He doesn’t love us.

As a believer in Christ we can be sure that isn’t true because Jesus promised us that when we pray to the Father in His Name that the Father…

…listens and responds!

So, why might the answer not come?

Could be delayed by spiritual warfare ~ Daniel’s experience as recorded in Daniel 10:11-13.

Could be for a greater purpose ~ as when Jesus delayed His response to Mary and Martha’s request that He come and heal their brother Lazarus (John 11:1-6).

Could be that your sins have hindered your prayers ~ as Peter describes in I Peter 3:7.

But, we can be confident that God hears and that He will respond in His perfect timing.

An Unexpected Plan (vs. 5-11)

Hab. 1:5 “Look among the nations and watch—

Be utterly astounded!

For I will work a work in your days

Which you would not believe, though it were told you.

Hab. 1:6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans (Babylonians),

A bitter and hasty nation

Which marches through the breadth of the earth,

To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

Hab. 1:7 They are terrible and dreadful;

Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.

Hab. 1:8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards,

And more fierce than evening wolves.

Their chargers charge ahead;

Their cavalry comes from afar;

They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.

Hab. 1:9 “They all come for violence;

Their faces are set like the east wind.

They gather captives like sand.

Hab. 1:10 They scoff at kings,

And princes are scorned by them.

They deride every stronghold,

For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.

Hab. 1:11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;

He commits offense,

Ascribing this power to his god.”

√ An unexpected plan

God answered Habakkuk’s prayer, but the answer wasn’t anything like he could have imagined!

God tells Habakkuk that He is going to judge and discipline the wicked people of Judah…

…but that He’s going to do so by using the pagan nation of Babylon to invade and destroy Judah and carry off the survivors as captives!

God knew that blow Habakkuk’s mind, thus He tells him…

“Be utterly astounded!

For I will work a work in your days

Which you would not believe, though it were told you.” ~ vs. 5

Ex. Your prayers for God’s intervention & revival in the US

What if God told you that He was going to use Communist China to chastise the USA!!??

I would have trouble getting my mind around that because it would be hard for me to understand why God would use a nation dedicated to atheism as His tool of discipline!

That example drops you into Habakkuk’s sandals!

√ God’s ways

From a human perspective the invasion of Judah by Babylon and the captivity of the people would seem a great tragedy.

Yet, it was God’s work!

He had a plan and while in the short term it looked grim for the Jewish people…

…ultimately God would use it for their good.

Ex. He preserved the righteous from the wicked

Jeremiah, Daniel, Azariah, Hananiah and Mishael were all preserved from the wicked in Judah by the intervention of the Babylonians.

Ap. An unexpected plan!

We’ve seen our share of heart breaking tragedies in the last month (Jeremy & Preston).

I have to admit that when the second call came in just a day after Jeremy’s death I had a pretty difficult time seeing any “good” that God might work out of either tragedy.

I spent a good day mulling over what I would even say if someone asked me about their deaths.

Like Habakkuk I almost lost my faith, but then I was encouraged by the Holy Spirit that…

“But the just shall live by his faith.” ~ Hab. 2:4

That it simply isn’t possible for me to always know or understand God’s plans…

…but that I can trust in His goodness and that He doesn’t allow anything into the life of a believer except that which will produce good.

Ex. The Cross and Resurrection

Serve as an example of how God’s plans are impossible to discern until after He’s finished with His work!

So it is with the tragedies that pass through out life, we may not see God’s goodness until we’re in His presence.

An Unsolved Problem (vs. 12-17)

Hab. 1:12 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.

Hab. 1:13 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?

Hab. 1:14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,

Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?

Hab. 1:15 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.

Hab. 1:16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net,

And burn incense to their dragnet;

Because by them their share is sumptuous

And their food plentiful.

Hab. 1:17 Shall they therefore empty their net,

And continue to slay nations without pity?

√ An unsolved problem

Now that Habakkuk understood God’s plan to bring an end to the wickedness that he complained about (vs. 1-4), he has a new dilemma and question…

…how can God use a wicked nation to punish His chosen people?

Back to our illustration of Communist China.

So he prays to God for an answer but all he gets is silence!

“Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,

And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours

A person more righteous than he?” ~ vs. 13

God will answer Habakkuk (chapter 2), but once again it won’t be the answer he expects…

…but first he has to stop talking so that he can hear the Lord speak!

Ap. An unsolved problem ~ listen

God isn’t threatened by our questions, our doubts, or even our angry outbursts toward Him when we don’t understand what He’s doing (or allowing) in our lives.

We can be sure that He will answer our questions.

But, we have to first stop talking long enough to hear what He has to say!

Close

√ Perplexity ~ faith wavers

I’m reminded by Habakkuk’s experience that we need to spend more time listening to God instead of talking!