A second timeless question that people tend to ask God...

This week we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Habakkuk. Yesterday, we looked on as Habakkuk asked God a timeless question: How long? How long will you allow the wickedness of Jewish people to continue? Why don’t you do something about the wrongdoing and injustice that is happening?

We looked on as the Lord answered Habakkuk’s question by explaining the He was going to use the Babylonian Empire as His instrument to exercise justice and judgment against the wrongdoing and injustice of the Jewish people. The Lord basically said to Habakkuk “I am going to use an irritated and ill-tempered Empire and their awesome and agile army to bring My justice and judgment against the unjust rebellion of the Jewish people against Me. I am going to use an Empire who has a ravenous appetite to destroy and who arrogantly view themselves as being equal with Me to conquer the Jewish people and take them into exile.”

Now imagine yourself as Habakkuk. Place yourself in his shoes. You ask the Lord why He withholds justice and judgment against the wrongdoing and injustice that is being committed by the Jewish people.  And the Lord responds to your question by explaining that He is going to use an enemy army that arrogantly opposes the Lord to bring justice and judgment upon the Jewish people. You are Habakkuk; what would you be thinking? How would you feel about the Lord’s answer? How would you respond? We see Habakkuk’s response in Habakkuk 1:12-2:1:

 ¹² Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. ¹³ Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they? ¹⁴ Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them? ¹⁵ The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. ¹⁶ Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net And burn incense to their fishing net; Because through these things their catch is large, And their food is plentiful. ¹⁷ Will they therefore empty their net And continually slay nations without sparing?

2:1 ¶ I will stand on my guard post And station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved.

Here we see Habakkuk ask the Lord a second timeless question: “How come?” How come the Babylonian Empire? Habakkuk basically asks the Lord “How can you use the Babylonian Empire to judge the Jewish people? After all, you are the Lord, the everlasting Creator of the universe who is perfectly right and just. You are perfectly pure in your character and conduct. So how can you approve of the Babylonian Empire? They are more wicked than we are; they are treacherous than we are, they destroy nations and peoples without pity and without mercy. How can you allow such and evil people to be the instrument to bring your justice and judgment upon us? You know that they are going to treat us in a way the will humiliate and dehumanize us. You know that they are relentless in their brutality and excessive in their sensuality. So why would you choose to use them?"

Again, here is a question to consider: Are these not the same questions that people ask God today? How often do we question God as to why He would allow evil empires to expand? How often do we question God as to why He would allow arrogant leaders and nations to exploit and dehumanize other nations that are not nearly as evil? We see the Lord’s response to the prophet in Habakkuk 2:2-5:

 ² Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. ³ "For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. ⁴ "Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith. ⁵ "Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, So that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations And collects to himself all peoples.

Here we see the prophet record the answer that he received from the Lord. The Lord’s answer to Habakkuk, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this:

“Get your pen and paper, get your computer keypad; get your mobile device up and ready; open your evernote and get ready; however you choose to record my answer to your question, make sure you record my answer. Because I am about to tell you why I am using the Babylonian Empire against you and what will happen in the future. And what I am telling you will happen in the future will certainly happen in the future. You see, the root of the problem, the root of all selfishness and rebellion against Me, is pride. The root of the rebellion of the Jewish people, and the Babylonian Empire, is a selfish and self-centered prideful love that places one in opposition to Me and that acts out of that selfish love and pride to do wrongdoing and injustice against Me and others. And that selfish love and pride reveals the reality that they are not living in a right relationship with Me. However, the person who is living in right relationship with Me will live a life that places their confident trust in Me and will live their day to day life in a way that trusts in Me.” 

The Lord then pronounced the first of five different woes that reveal the prideful and arrogant nature of the Babylonian Empire that revealed their opposition to the Lord. What is so interesting is that these five woes were also evidenced in the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people that resulted in the Lord using the Babylonian Empire as His instrument to exercise His justice and judgment against them. We see the first woe pronounced by the Lord in verse 6-20:

"Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, Even mockery and insinuations against him And say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his-- For how long-- And makes himself rich with loans?' ⁷ "Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. ⁸ "Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you-- Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants. "Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house To put his nest on high, To be delivered from the hand of calamity! ¹⁰ "You have devised a shameful thing for your house By cutting off many peoples; So you are sinning against yourself. ¹¹ "Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework. ¹² "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence! ¹³ "Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts That peoples toil for fire, And nations grow weary for nothing? ¹⁴ "For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. ¹⁵ "Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness! ¹⁶ "You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the LORD'S right hand will come around to you, And utter disgrace will come upon your glory. ¹⁷ "For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, To the town and all its inhabitants. ¹⁸ "What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols. ¹⁹ "Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, 'Awake!' To a mute stone, 'Arise!' And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it. ²⁰ "But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him."

Here we see the Lord proclaim to the Jewish people and the nations that would experience the Lord’s justice and judgment at the hands of the Babylonian Empire that they would someday pronounce the same woes against the Babylonian Empire. You see, the prideful selfishness and rebellion of the Babylonian Empire that led to the Lord proclaiming these five woes was the same prideful selfishness and rebellion that was evidenced in the Jewish people. The issue of selfish pride transcends ethnic, socioeconomic, or national boundaries. Selfish pride is a universal problem that transcends time.

The first woe that the Lord proclaimed against the Babylonian Empire, that was also present amongst the Jewish people, was a woe against prideful ambition.  The second woe that the Lord proclaimed against the Babylonian Empire, that was also present amongst the Jewish people, was a woe against covetousness.  The third woe that the Lord proclaimed against the Babylonian Empire, that was also present amongst the Jewish people, was a woe against violence.  The fourth woe that the Lord proclaimed against the Babylonian Empire, that was also present amongst the Jewish people, was a woe against a lack of moral shame.  The fifth and final woe that the Lord proclaimed against the Babylonian Empire, that was also present amongst the Jewish people, was a woe against idolatry. 

You see, through these five woes, the Lord wanted to communicate a crystal clear and timeless message to Habakkuk, so that Habakkuk could in turn communicate that message to all of humanity who wrestle with the timeless questions of “How long?” and “How come?” and in these verses, we see the Lord communicate three timeless realities to humanity throughout history.

First, as we see in verse 4, the Lord wanted humanity throughout history to clearly understand that He rightly opposes selfish pride and that a right relationship with the Lord requires the faith that confidently trusts in the Lord. Second, as we see in verse 14, the Lord wanted humanity throughout history to clearly understand that at the end of God’s story, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, because He is the ultimate end of history. And third, as we see in verse 20, the Lord wanted humanity throughout history to clearly understand that Lord is in His Holy Temple; let all the earth be silent before Him as He is large and in charge of all history.

In the Lord’s answer to Habakkuk’s questions “How long?” and “How come?”, we see the Lord basically say to the prophet “You need to trust Me. You need to look at the end of history and the end of My story. You need to see where I am; I am still in charge and in control, regardless of your circumstances. So trust Me, shut up and realize who I Am and where I am.”

Friday, we will see Habakkuk’s response to the Lord and discover a timeless truth about the Lord…