At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a
sermon series entitled When God Speaks. During this series we are spending our
time together looking at these letters that we
often have a tendency to skip over, which are referred to as the prophets. We
are going to discover who these letters that we have a
tendency to skip over were written to. We are going to discover what these
letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about who we are. We are
going to discover what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over
reveal about the nature of God and God’s activity in history.
As we go through this series, our
hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our
heads, hearts and hands so that we understand and embrace the timeless and
timely truths that these letters that we often skip over have for our lives. This
week, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a letter that
is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of
Habakkuk, which is the next letter that was written by a prophet
chronologically, which is not necessarily the order that they are found in the
Bible, where they are organized by size. So let’s look at the man and the
message of the Book of Habakkuk, beginning in Habakkuk 1:1:
The
oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
The book
of Habakkuk was written by the prophet Habakkuk during the decline and fall
of the Southern Kingdom of Judea, which occurred between 626-586 B.C. This letter was written during the times described in a
section of another letter in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the book of
2 Kings, in 2
Kings 21:1-16. Most scholars and historians believe that the book of Habakkuk
is a type of spiritual diary that describes the prophet's spiritual struggles
over a long period of time, possibly beginning as early as 626 B.C. and
continuing as late as 590 B.C.
During this time in history, the
Jewish people enjoyed their last bit of prosperity under King Josiah, who died
in 609 B.C. After Josiah’s death, conditions during the life of the prophet
progressed from excellent—with considerable material prosperity and even
promise of spiritual revival— to the height of desperation as the prospect of
conquering captivity was drawn closer and closer around the capital city of
Jerusalem.
As we discovered last week when we
looked at the prophet Nahum, in 612 B.C., the Assyrian Empire was conquered by
the Babylonian Empire, who began to establish its dominance over the middle
east. Eventually in 586 B.C., the Babylonian Empire would conquer Jerusalem and
the Jewish people would be taken into exile.
Now the
book of Habakkuk is one of the most simply arranged, practical, and spiritually
stretching letters in in the Bible. This letter could be described as “two
questions, two answers, and a prayer”. The reason why the book of Habakkuk is
so practical is due to the fact that the questions Habakkuk asks are the same questions
that are still being asked today. So let’s look at these questions together,
beginning in Habakkuk 1:2-4:
How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And
You will not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save.
3 Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are
before me; Strife exists and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law
is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore justice comes out perverted.
Here we see Habakkuk ask 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?
When will you judge? When will you exercise justice against the violence,
wickedness, and conflict that is occurring? How long will you allow your
commands to be ignored and justice to be perverted?
Now 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 wrongdoing and injustice to go unpunished? We see the Lord’s
response to the prophet in verse 5-11:
"Look among the nations! Observe! Be
astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing
something in your days-- You would not believe if you were told. 6
"For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous
people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not
theirs. 7 "They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and
authority originate with themselves. 8 "Their horses are swifter
than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come
galloping, Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. 9
"All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives
like sand. 10 "They mock at kings And rulers are a laughing
matter to them. They laugh at every fortress And heap up rubble to capture it. 11
"Then they will sweep through like
the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength
is their god."
The Lord’s answer to Habakkuk, if communicated in the
language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this:
“Look around, because I am about to do something that you would not believe
unless you heard it from Me personally. You see, I am going to use the
Babylonian Empire as my instrument to exercise justice and judgment against the
wrongdoing and injustice of the Jewish people. 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?
Tomorrow we will see Habakkuk’s response…
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