Habakkuk 2:2-5, How Shall the Righteous Person Live?

 How Shall the Righteous Person Live? Habakkuk 2:2-5

This morning, I would like to continue our series from the Book of Habakkuk. This will be our third sermon in the series and there will likely be three or four more in this book then, when we have finished Habakkuk, we will go on to the book of Nehemiah.

The events in Nehemiah take place after the prophecies we are studying here in Habakkuk have been fulfilled; after the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were carried off by the Persians and the people of the southern Kingdom of Judah were carried off by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar.

The prophetic statement in Habakkuk 3:16 is fulfilled in 539 BC when the Persians defeated the Babylonians. We will dive into that a little deeper in a few lessons time.

Before we look at today’s passage let me ask you a question: How Shall the Righteous Person Live?

We saw in our previous lesson together that Habakkuk recognized the Holiness of God, and we examined together that holiness is one of the attributes of God that are transferable to us, and we are expected to live a life of holiness as followers of Christ.

We discovered that holiness does not mean sinlessness, it does not mean perfection. Holiness means obedience to God’s teachings. As young Joshua told us in his message in August, we are to strive to live like Jesus by avoiding people or situations that will cause us to sin. We are to resist old habits and temptations by keeping short accounts with God for our thoughts and actions.

How then, shall the Righteous Person live? Does our personal relationship with Jesus Christ impact our daily life? Does our relationship with Jesus cause us to live differently than our godless or pagan neighbor? Can we honestly claim, “I am a Christian, therefore I live differently than my lost friend or family member?” If not, maybe you need to ask yourself, “How can I turn my life around and start walking in the way of Jesus?”

In the passage that we are going to look at today, the LORD answers Habakkuk with an impactful statement that applies to us even today. “The righteous shall live by his faith”. Here is a bit of a teaser: That statement may not mean what you think. I will explain further when we get to that portion of the message, so stay tuned.

Today, we will look at the importance of faith in our daily walk with Christ. Even though this prophecy was written over 3,000 years ago, I promise there are timeless messages that still apply to us today.

Let us look together at the book of Habakkuk 2:2. This morning I will be reading from the NIV translation.

READ HABAKKUK 2:2-5

PRAY

We have seen in our previous messages that Habakkuk lived from 612 to 589 BC. He was a prophet to the Southern Kingdom of Judah like the prophets Jeremiah and Obadiah who were also alive in the time of Habakkuk. All three prophets were used by God to try and warn the people of Judah of the impending judgment that was coming to them, but the rulers and the people refused to listen.

In 605 BC, the first captivity of Judah occurred, and Daniel was taken… In 597 BC the second captivity of Judah happened, and Ezekiel was taken captive…, and finally, in 586 BC the Kingdom of Judah fell and remained in ruins for 50 years until 536 BC when some exiles were allowed to return and began to rebuild.

For the context of what the fulfillment of this prophecy from God looked like for the people of Judah, one can simply read the Book of Daniel to see what living in exile under the Babylonians looked like.

But all of that is yet to come for the people of Judah at the time of the writing of this book. By the time that the original audience would have been reading this part of the prophecy, they would have recognized that they had reached the apex of the book. God is going to answer both complaints and explain why the wicked rule in Judah and the more wicked Babylonians will also rule. Yahweh is about to instruct the prophet on how to speak to his congregation, and God does not want them to miss the apex either.

Look at what Yahweh says in verse 2, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.”

We see God giving the prophet clear instructions on what he was to do with this prophecy that Yahweh was giving to him. This was not a private prophecy that Habakkuk was to keep to himself. This was a prophecy to be shared with the whole Kingdom of Judah.

“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets”. The original Hebrew makes it obvious that this information is to be written in such a way that the information is to be plainly declared to the people.

Look at the second half of the verse. Some translations simply say, “so he may run who reads it”.

This brings us to the first of Pastor Paul’s Points: identify the pronouns. Throughout today’s passage, we will see a fair number of pronouns used, and some of them are used in the middle of a contrasting statement which will often make it difficult at times to follow exactly what the original author intended. I will show you exactly what I mean here in a moment, but for now, let’s take a quick turn through this passage and take a few moments to identify the pronouns.

This is not only helpful in this passage, but it is a great rule of thumb to use whenever you are studying scripture. This is a technique that I learned back in Bible College, and this is a technique that I taught and use in the weekly bible study that we hold in our home for young adults.

Let’s go through the verses and identify the pronouns. Starting at verse 2.

^“Then the Lord replied:” So far, so good. No pronouns here, just the name LORD in all-caps which represents what? The Tetragrammaton. In Hebrew was known as the four letters “YHWH” which denoted the Holy and personal name of God. Not exactly a pronoun, more like an alias as the Hebrews felt that God’s name was too Holy to actually speak or write down.

Continuing in verse 2, let’s see if we can find a pronoun, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets” stop right there. “Make it plain on tablets”, make what? The word “it” here is referring to the revelation that Yahweh is giving to Habakkuk. The LORD wants Habakkuk to write the message down that Habakkuk is receiving, on tablets in such a manner that the meaning will be clear to all who read it. The “it” being the revelation, the prophecy from God.

Carrying on in verse 2, “so that a herald may run with it.” Ok, in this little section we have two pronouns. I just mentioned earlier that in the original Hebrew, a pronoun is used to indicate the person reading the prophecy. The ESV translates the Hebrew as, “so he may run who reads it”. The Legacy Standard Bible says something very similar. The King James Version says, “That he may run that readeth it.” And the Christian Standard Bible says, “so one may easily read it” and the CSB doesn’t even mention running in the main body of the text. Yet the footnote that accompanies this passage says, quote “Literally: one who reads in it may run”. End quote.

So, I think that here, the NIV does a pretty good job helping us to determine who is running and why he is running. The man who reads the prophecy is running because that’s his job.

In ancient times, a herald, in a primarily illiterate culture, was like an ancient-day anchor on CNN. It was his job to go from town to town and proclaim the news.

But, what about the second pronoun here in this short section, the second “it” of verse two? This “it” is also referring to the prophecy that was written on the tablets. That was the news that the herald was running from town-to-town proclaiming. The prophecy that the LORD is about to dictate to Habakkuk.

Moving on to verse three,

“³For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.” OK, stop there for a second, another pronoun, another “it”. The LORD is still referring to the prophecy that He is dictating to Habakkuk. “The revelation awaits an appointed time”. Remember this line and we will come back here when I make my second point.

 Let’s continue with verse 3. Pay close attention here because the meaning of the word “it” is about to change. The subject of the pronoun is about to change. The LORD is about to move from referring to the prophecy and begin referring to the coming judgment that the prophecy represents.

 “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” “Though it linger”, with that phrase Yahweh has shifted the subject of the pronoun “it” in the sentence to His coming judgment. Yahweh is no longer speaking about the prophecy; He is referring to the actions that the prophecy is speaking about. The three pronouns, the three “its” if you will, all refer to the same thing and that is the punishment that God is about to pour out on the Kingdom of Judah.

 When we look at the words, “The revelation awaits an appointed time” from verse three and the words, “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”  These two sentences contained in verse three make the second point in today’s sermon. “The LORD’s promises are certain”. Yahweh is telling Habakkuk that though it may appear that my judgment is not arriving, though it looks like I’m delaying in delivering on my judgment, make no mistake, this promise is certain and will happen.

What God was showing Habakkuk here was… that the prophet needed to adjust his sense of timing. What Habakkuk needed (and received from Yahweh) was a larger and slower worldview, one that allowed for God’s slow-moving justice. God moves on His own schedule, and what may seem like a long delay to us, is God’s perfect timing.

 This thought reminds me of another passage that I was reading and reflecting on this week. Romans 9:22-23 says, “What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?  What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us,”. Paul is telling us here in the Book of Romans that God delays His judgment as a sign of mercy and to make God’s riches of His Glory known to us. His Patience is one of the biggest indicators of how much God loves us.

 Let me ask you something. Does that thought make you uncomfortable… the thought that God judges people or nations…and that He pours out His judgment and wrath on them? If we are being honest, it kind of makes a person squirm a little, doesn’t it? In this day and age when “anything goes” and we are constantly being told “not to judge”, or “it's not my place to judge” the fact that there is a Holy and Just God sitting and judging us makes us uncomfortable.

 The, ”it’s not my place to judge” excuse was used by a couple of people in the movie we watched Wednesday night. When the interviewer asked the question, “Is abortion wrong?’ a couple of folks tried avoiding answering the question by making the statement, ”it’s not my place to judge”. We avoid passing judgment on the actions of others because we want to avoid the thought that God is passing judgment on us.

 I mean if God is love, then He can’t possibly have a problem with the way that I am living right? I mean I’m a good person, especially compared to my neighbour, and you should see how he lives, so based on my neighbour I should be going to heaven, right?

 As sinners, we want God to be loving and not judging. Judging someone is unloving, at least that is what culture would have us believe. “Love is love” we are told, even when it is the most immoral type of “love” that mankind can imagine. Even if it is the most destructive type of love to the family and to society, we are told to accept it and not be judgmental because “love is love”.

 Being truthful is also being loving. Imagine, you see a young couple running through a meadow, laughing and kissing and holding hands and staring longingly in each other's eyes completely oblivious to their surroundings. They are so wrapped up in each other’s love that they don’t even know you exist.

 Would it be a loving thing to yell at them and break their trance, and bring them back to the real world? To scream at them like a madman and tell them to wake up and pay attention to the world? Would that be the loving thing to do?

 It would be loving, if… they were staring into each other’s eyes so intently that they didn’t realize that they were running towards a cliff and they were about to fall to their deaths. If they were about to “love each other” right off a cliff, the most unloving thing for you to do would be to remain silent and watch it happen.

 But that is exactly what too many people, and dare I say it, too many churches with too many complacent preachers are doing right now in our country. They remain silent while our society is loving itself right off a cliff.

 Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am not judging anyone because I think I have it all together and I am so perfect. The exact opposite is true. I’m just as much of a mess as they are. My answers and my wisdom do not come from me, it comes from God’s Word and His Holy Spirit. It is only because of His intervention in my life that I am no longer running towards the cliff with the rest of them.

 And, of course, I still sin. Every day, I commit some type of sin against God. I am a constant disappointment to myself in my lack of perfection. But I am not a disappointment to God. I serve an all-powerful and all-knowing God, who chose to love me enough to show me the truth of my life.

 He loved me enough, to reach out to me in a very personal way and save me from running off the cliff. Jesus loved me enough, to wake me up and knock me off the path of destruction and hell, and He loved me into heaven and an eternal relationship with Him. He knew every sin I had committed and every sin I would commit after He saved me, but He still chose to love me enough to save me.

 Stay with me here, I know it seems like I lost my way. The uncomfortableness that we experience when we feel that God is judgmental and is judging our lives and the way that we are living… is the wake-up call of a loving Father using the Holy Spirit to knock us off the path of destruction.

 When we feel uncomfortable with our actions and the thought that God is judging us, that is the Holy Spirit yelling at you to wake you out of the trance of self-love as you run towards the cliff. Society tells us, “Love is Love”. Bookstores are filled with books in the self-help section on how to “love yourself”, and even preachers are telling you that “God is Love” and the preacher stops there because they want you to be happy.

 I want you to be happy too. But I don’t want you running blindly off a cliff happily on your way to hell!

 God cannot love us so much that He violates His own character. He cannot love us enough to ignore our sins and thus ignore His Holiness and His perfect Judgement. But what He can do is find a way, to love us back to Him without having to rely on His own stubborn children to find a way on their own. What is that way? I’m glad you asked.

 The way back for us sinful children… to come back to a loving relationship… where we will be accepted, unconditionally by the Father… is through the completed work of Jesus on the cross.

Only by trusting in His work completely, and not on any of our actions to earn favour with the Father, can we be restored to God.

 It is a thing called Grace. God sees the sin of man… God judges man… God must condemn man to hell.

 God came up with a plan before the foundations of the world were laid. Before He even made the first man. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made a path back to Him. God sent His Son, to be born of a virgin, to add humanness to His eternal Godliness, and to live a perfect and sinless life. Only then, could Jesus be offered up as the perfect lamb without blemish and be sacrificed as an atonement for all those who accept the gift of Grace.

 This sacrifice was done on the very day that all of Israel were making their yearly sacrifices at the temple in an attempt to be right with God.

 The sacrifice of the blood of Jesus was so perfect that God the Father no longer required the blood of innocent animals to be offered to Him as a way into a relationship with Him. The Father was pleased with the work of the Son and accepted His sacrifice on our behalf.

 All that we must do, is to repent, to change our attitude and actions from sin toward obedience to God. Place our trust in the completed work of Christ and then we will receive His righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus, and be clothed in that so that we may stand before God as heirs and adopted children of His.

 If you do not know Jesus is this way, if you are not secure in your Salvation and relationship with Jesus, then please come and talk to me after the service. It doesn’t matter if this is your first day in church or if you have been coming to church for forty years, if you don’t have security in your relationship with God, then you may not know the True and Living God and we should have a discussion. A judgment-free discussion.

 Alright, let’s get back to the pronouns in today’s text. Verse 4 and the first half of verse five continues, ⁴ “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness-- ⁵ indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest.” Stop right there for a moment. The break in the verse here is at an unfortunate place. Verse 5 should have started after this period right here. This entire passage is one thought with a contrasting thought in the middle. We have a lot of “he’s” and “him’s” and they do not all refer to the same person.

 First, let me point out the contrasting statement in the middle, “but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—” this is a new person that is introduced into the thought and is referring to someone different from the rest of the sentence. We will come back to this in a second.

 The first and last part of this verse refers to the enemy, the Chaldeans, also known as the Babylonians whom God is about to unleash on the Kingdom of Judah. God is warning Habakkuk that the people of Judah are about to experience unholy terror in their nation.

 I use the word “unleash” here very intentionally. God is about to “unleash” the Babylonians. He is not causing them to sin, the LORD is simply removing His restraining hand from the hearts of the Babylonians and turning them over to their own sinful and lustful intentions unhampered by the influence of God.

 Look at the remainder of verse five, “indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.” Again, the pronouns here are all referring to the Babylonians. The thought and meaning behind the reference to wine was seen as the unsavoury practice of plying someone with much drink for the express purpose of taking advantage of them in a sexual manner.

Isn’t it interesting that the greed and the lust of the Babylonians are compared to the grave? In the original Hebrew, the words would have been “as wide as Sheol” as the ESV translates it into English. This thought relays the message that “as wide as” was an ever-expanding area and Sheol represented death and the grave, so the passage conveys the thought that the grave never “fills up” and just as the grave is never “full”, the greed and the lust of their natures are never filled, the Babylonians are never satisfied.

God identifies the exact sins that are driving the Babylonians: pride drives their desires and arrogance; lust also drives their desires; and finally, greed is also driving their actions in the invasion that is about to happen. These are the impulses that Yahweh is about to remove His restraining hand from and to give them over to.

Now, for the final point of today’s sermon, let’s go back to the contrasting point in the middle of verse four, “but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—”. The author of Habakkuk, who of course is God Himself, really throws a curveball here. There are two pronouns in this little statement and at first glance one would think that they are referring to the same person, the righteous person. I’m going to show you that they are not referring to the same person. We are going to use Scripture to interpret Scripture.

First, the righteous person as applied to us today, is referring to those who have placed their trusting faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ. They are righteous, not because of what they have done, but rather, because of the righteousness of Christ that is bestowed on us when we accept the gift of Grace.

Paul, in his second letter to the church in Corinth, said this of Jesus, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” What Paul is saying is the “righteousness of God” is essentially the covenant dealings between God and his people, who are given a new humanity. Their heart of stone is replaced by Jesus with a heart of flesh. The covenant represents a sacred and binding relationship between God and His people.

The righteousness of Christ does not make us perfect or sinless. Rather, we are clothed, or covered if you will, in the righteousness of Christ so that our sins are no longer held against us by the Father. Because Jesus paid the price, we can enter a rightful relationship with God as heirs and adopted children of the Father.

That is who the righteous person is, the one who is in a proper relationship with God the Father because of the actions of Jesus Christ the Son on the Cross at Calvary.

So now that we have identified the righteous person, who does the pronoun “his” represent when God is telling Habakkuk about “faithfulness”? “but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—”.

First we must define the word “faithfulness”. In the original Hebrew, the word used carries with it the meaning of trustworthiness and integrity in a moral sense. Because it is used in a moral sense, it is used to reveal God’s character, and it is often used in a sense of praise towards God.

So who’s faithfulness is God referring to here?

Well, we know that God is not referring to the Babylonians. Yahweh had just finished telling Habakkuk that “the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright.” That certainly doesn’t sound like a righteous one or a person of faithfulness.

God is not referring to Habakkuk the prophet. God did not say, “But the righteous person shall live by your faithfulness”. Nor, is God referring to the faithfulness of the scribe who wrote down the prophecy, nor of the herald who ran with the prophecy from town to town.

As a matter of fact, would you want to rely on the faithfulness of any man? Would you want to depend on the faithfulness of a friend, spouse, or relative to ensure your righteousness?  Who then is this person on whom we should rely on their faithfulness?

Again, using Scripture to interpret Scripture, turn with me to Galatians 2:20. Paul makes it clear whose faithfulness we are to live by.

READ GALATIANS 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

The one who trusts God in faith lives faithfully by his Word. Conversely, the one who is faithful to his Word also clearly trusts it and has faith in the One who gave it. Jesus is the only one who is trustworthy enough to be faithful and thus deserving of our faith.

I’m running out of time here so let me conclude with these thoughts.

CONCLUSION

The enduring message of Habakkuk is carried in the words “The righteous will live by his faith”. These words are quoted three times in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). The original Hebrew is “the righteous will live by his faithfulness,” or, possibly, “the righteous will live by its faithfulness” referring to the word of God given to Habakkuk in this “revelation,” that we looked at today.

The righteous will believe what God is about to say and live by trust in his word and thus in Yahweh himself. The meaning of this text (and its use by people of faith through the centuries) relies on the relationships between the faith and faithfulness of the believer and the faithfulness of God.

 Finally, these forms of judgment are not swift. Like history, they take time. God’s delay is a sign of His patience and love for us.

 Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit to interpret and understand your Word. What a marvelous gift you have given your adopted sons and daughters.

We thank you for your faithfulness and your unchanging Nature. You are the same today as you were yesterday and as you will be tomorrow and for all of eternity.

We can build our faith and lives on the firm foundation of You and Your Son. It is in the completed work of Jesus that we can rest assured that we have Salvation and that we will spend eternity with You.

Because of this, we thank You for Your Grace and for Your Love, Amen

Finally, let me send you off with this benediction:

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

 Colossians 3:17

 

Have a blessed week.

Habakkuk 1:1-11

July 2, 2023

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

God’s Divine Judgment

This morning, I wanted to continue with a theme I started in my last message here at Mountain View EMC. In my message from Father’s Day, we examined a bit of the life of Job and how he handled the suffering that he experienced in his life. We also discussed that Job was never told the reason behind the suffering that he had to endure. In life, we will have to endure suffering, and at times, in His Wisdom, God may choose to withhold the reasons for the suffering from us. At other times, God does make clear the reasons for calamity in our lives.

Today, we will be looking at just such an example in the scripture that we will be looking at together.

 When we read the newspapers or watch the news, it may seem like a very tumultuous time we are living in. It may seem like the world is spinning out of control. We had a tornado south of town yesterday. We have a war in Ukraine… this past week we saw riots in France, Belgium, and now Switzerland…and we are continually reading about shootings and other violence happening in schools, malls, and gas stations.

We have just finished an entire month dedicated to celebrating what the Bible declares to be a sexual sin. This has become the new secular religion. Laws have been passed to silence our criticism of their perverted ways. If you dare to publicly speak against the symbol of this new religion, the rainbow flag, you will be punished.

I was just reading this week about a minister in Yorkshire, England who committed this cultural error. The minister’s bank sent him a questionnaire requesting some feedback regarding their services. He simply asked, “Why are all the branches festooned with Pride Flags? Why doesn’t the bank stick to its knitting and leave politics out of the branches?” For his honest feedback, four days later Reverend Fothergill had his bank account closed and now the Yorkshire Building Society refuses to do business with him.

 This is the new secular religion. When do we celebrate a month dedicated to adultery? Or which month celebrates thievery? Which is the Gluttony Pride month? Is May, or March Murder Month, I get those two confused. This is why I speak out against it so much, to emphasize the fact that one particular sin is being promoted so strongly by government, education, business, and other institutions. We need to be aware of the direction that our society is being guided towards.

 For the record, I do not hate homosexuals or people struggling with gender identity issues. I am a Christian, and Jesus forbids me to hate anyone. I am told to love and pray for my enemies. I am held to a higher standard than those who do not know Jesus.

But, at the same time, I cannot accept their sin and their blatant rebellion against God. I cannot “affirm” their sinful behavior and tell them that God is OK with their actions. Their sin is no greater than any other sin. Their sin is no worse than the sin that I have in my life but telling them that it is OK is not the loving thing to do. I refuse to “affirm” any sinning individual on their way to Hell. They need Jesus not affirmation. They need Jesus just like I needed Jesus when I was living a sin-filled life apart from God.

I want all sinners to know the peace and the love that a Heavenly Father has to offer them when they submit their lives to His Rule. Telling this to all sinners is the loving thing to do. Mankind does not get to set the boundaries of acceptance in this relationship. The sinner does not get to tell the Sovereign God what is and is not acceptable sin.

It is not my job to convict them of their wicked ways. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is my job, it is the work of all Christians, to introduce people to Jesus Christ, and the Lord and the Spirit will do the rest. Only the Holy Spirit can change a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 is this very famous saying, so famous that even those who do not know the bible often quote it as a piece of secular wisdom. It says, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Everything in my introduction has pointed to the simple fact that as a Nation, we have walked away from God. These sins are so appealing because we are now able to set ourselves up as our own Gods. When we reject God and His teachings in the Bible, we then step into that void and become the rulers and diviners of what is and isn’t acceptable.

 To quote the words of Solomon once more, “What has been done will be done again”. This morning, we will look at a time when God’s chosen people did the very same thing that we are doing today. We seem to be living in a time of injustice just as Habakkuk did in his time. Yahweh brought a time of suffering on His people as a correction, and as a means to bring them back to Himself.

 The Book of Habakkuk, chapter one, verse one. Habakkuk is what they call, one of the minor prophets, not because what he wrote was not as important as other prophets, but rather it refers to the length of the book that was recorded.

 READ HABAKKUK 1:1-11

 I wish we had several consecutive weeks to carefully go through this book. There is so much relevant information in this book that is directly applicable to the events of our time. This is why the Bible is referred to as, “The Living Word of God”. Habakkuk was written over 2600 years ago, yet the lessons are just as true today as they were six centuries before the birth of Jesus.

 Habakkuk lived during the reign of the interloper King Jehoiakim in the southern Kingdom of Judah. This is after the reign of King David and the reign of his son, King Solomon. After Solomon’s death, the promised land separated into two kingdoms about the year 930 BC: the northern kingdom known as Israel, and the southern kingdom known as Judah. After the death of Solomon, the successive kings in both kingdoms swung back and forth between pagan worship and the worship of the one true God, Yahweh.

In 722 BC the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians. and in 605 BC the Babylonians invaded Judah and took it captive. The Babylonians took nobles captive such as Daniel back with them to assimilate them away from their Jewish culture and to become more like the Babylonians.

Habakkuk takes place in the years between 640 and 605 BC. The prophecy that God gives to Habakkuk in answer to his questions, happens in 586 BC when Judah falls, and Jerusalem is destroyed.

Habakkuk sees violence and injustice happening around him, and he cries out to God in prayer respectfully seeking answers for the issues that he was seeing in his time.

Look with me at Habakkuk, chapter one, verse one. “The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.” The ESV translation uses the word “oracle” instead of prophecy. The book opens with a declaration that this is a prophecy or an oracle that the prophet Habakkuk received from God. After the initial statement, however, the next few stanzas are a series of statements and questions being posed by Habakkuk regarding the situation that the people of Judah were finding themselves in the middle of.

Habakkuk wrote in a time of international crisis and national corruption. Babylonia had just emerged as a world power. When the Babylonians rebelled against Assyria, Judah found a brief period of relief reflected in the reforms initiated by the Israeli King Josiah.

The Assyrians were forced to devote their energies to stopping the Babylonian rebellion. The Babylonians finally crushed the Assyrian Empire and quickly proceeded to defeat the once-powerful Egyptians. A new empire was stretching across the world.  There was a brief respite for the people of Judah as the bigger boys on the continent worked things out amongst themselves. Soon, the Babylonians would overtake Judah and carry its inhabitants away into captivity. On the eve of this pending destruction, a period of uncertainty and fear arose, and it was at this time that Habakkuk wrote his message. 

The crisis internationally was serious. But of even greater concern was the national corruption. Great unrest stirred within Judah. Josiah had been a good king. When he died, Josiah’s son Jehoahaz rose to the throne. After only three months, the king of Egypt invaded Judah, deposed Jehoahaz, and placed his brother Jehoiakim on the throne. Jehoiakim was evil, ungodly, and rebellious. His exploits are recounted in 2 Kings 23:36–24:7. We do not have time to turn there today, but the passage is in your notes if you wish to do some further reading. Shortly after Jehoiakim ascended to power, Habakkuk wrote his lament over the decay, violence, greed, fighting, and perverted justice that surrounded him.  2 Kings specifically mentions the shedding of innocent blood done by these kings, and God taking offense to this. Sound familiar?

 In our time we see similar things. Russia invading Ukraine. Progressive judges are undermining the justice system by refusing to impose the proper level of sentencing on criminals in the name of social justice. Unchecked and unvetted immigration is causing problems from housing shortages to an increase in criminal and gang activities. I am old enough to remember when Canada only accepted the best and the brightest from other countries, but until recently, anyone who could buy a plane ticket to the U.S. and cross a dead-end road in upstate New York was welcomed into the country without any qualifications being imposed on them.

We have seen moral decay in Western society since we have removed prayer from school and the discussion of God from the public square. Elected officials lie with impunity to get elected, lie even more while they are in office to maintain their power, and seem to be punished when they speak the truth against the radical ideologies that the lobbyists push to enact. In the ESV translation, Proverbs 12:22 puts it this way, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” The Lord hates lying lips. Do you find that convicting? What a change we could affect in our country, if we first stopped lying, and then we expected the same from our political leaders. If we rewarded honesty instead of trying to cancel those who tell us uncomfortable truths. What a difference that could make!

When we remove any discussion of or recognition of God from public discourse, we fail to understand the moral component of the legal system. We tend to concentrate on just the punishment aspect of the courts, and we fail to understand the connection between moral training or retraining and the prison system. Moral guidance and shaping are among the reasons that God gave us the law. Sure, from a personal and individual perspective, if we find ourselves standing in front of a judge, it is natural to wish for leniency for our crimes, but, prolonged minimum sentencing undermines the whole justice system and our societal values.

 I am going to wade into some controversial waters now. I am going to say some things that may make some of you upset. I will say that I am not judging anyone here, or any family members who may have had to make difficult decisions in the past. But I must address some things that… just because they are legal, does not mean they are morally right, or that God approves of them. Several times in the Old Testament, God makes it clear that he hates the shedding of innocent blood. In ancient times, there was the worship of Molech. Children, usually first-born males were sacrificed to win favor from this pagan and false deity. Leviticus 18:21 makes it clear that God detests and forbids this behavior. It is written in Leviticus, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.”

Today, we continue to sacrifice children, but we use euphemisms such as “health care” and “reproductive rights”. But, in reality, aren’t we just sacrificing our unborn on the altars of selfishness and convenience? And now in Canada, we have Medical Assistance in Death, or MAID. What a more palatable name for suicide. Actually, we are acting like God in determining the time of our death. Several times in the Old Testament, the Bible makes it clear that God knows the length of our lifetime. Psalm 139, verses 13 to 16 really tie these two thoughts together well. 

      "13 For you created my inmost being; 

         you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

      14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

         your works are wonderful, 

         I know that full well. 

      15 My frame was not hidden from you 

         when I was made in the secret place, 

         when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 

      16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; 

         all the days ordained for me were written in your book 

         before one of them came to be."

This passage gives me such comfort because it reminds me that I serve an all-knowing and all-powerful eternal God. He knit me together in my mother’s womb. Not some random process like evolution. I am fearfully and wonderfully made! As are you! We are image-bearers of God, fearfully and wonderfully made in His image, by Him. This is not some distant and cold deity that we worship on Sunday mornings. The Bible does not describe some watch-maker type of God, who creates the Universe and winds it up, and then sets it loose to go on ticking without Him.

 God desires a personal relationship with each and every one of us. The Good News is that in addition to creating each of us, He has constructed a way for each sinner to return to Him and be cleansed. Those who have sexual sin in our lives or our past, those who have committed sins of theft, those who have told lies, and even those who are in prison and have committed murder can find refuge in Jesus Christ and a restored relationship with God the Father.

That is the power of Grace. That is the power of the redemptive work that Jesus did on the cross nearly two thousand years ago. Our sinful nature draws us to the darkness rather than the light.

John 3:16 states, "16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

The familiar passage in John chapter three starting in verse sixteen summarizes this amazing truth for us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Even atheists know this passage. “For God so loved the world”, but many make the mistake of thinking that God is only Love.

It is true that God loves us, He loves us so much that He has determined a way, for us to be in a right relationship with Him based solely on His actions. God loved the world so much, that He gave His only Son as a sacrifice to appease His wrath.

 But the Good News doesn’t end at verse sixteen. John goes on to proclaim in verse seventeen, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Jesus did not come to condemn. Jesus had no need to condemn us, we, have condemned ourselves! Our sinful nature is all the condemnation that we need when we stand before a Holy and Just God. I will get to that part in a bit. Jesus does not condemn us, and that is why I cannot and do not condemn anyone who is repentant and in need of forgiveness from God.

 It is not loving to tell someone it is OK to remain in their sin, and that God loves them and it’s all going to work out in the end. That’s not loving! It is much more comfortable for me and much easier for me to ignore their disobedience to God’s teaching and do a little “wink, wink, nod, nod” and tell them that they are not a bad person and God loves them and that there is no day of judgment coming when they will have to give an account for their actions.

The verses 18 to 21 in John chapter three, really drop the hammer on us, which is probably why these verses are not quoted as much. John 3:18 states, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” This is the part that makes the “God is Love” people so uncomfortable. But let me tell you the truth, they are not worshipping the true God of the Bible. They are worshipping a false God of their own making. A limited God! A one-dimensional “God-is-Love” idol of their own making.

 John continues in verse 19, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” Scripture tells us that our deeds are evil. Not our neighbors’ deeds, but our deeds are evil. Verse 20, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” Verse 21, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

 That’s the God that we worship! Our sinful nature causes us to stay in the dark, where we think that our sins will remain hidden from a God who judges. But verse 21 tells us that He already has seen what our sins are, and He still chooses to love us and forgive us when we accept the completed work of His Son on the cross.

When we abuse the gift of Grace by trying to add our works to it or worse when we try to rely on our own righteousness to pay our own way back to the Father, that sacrifice… that sin offering… is rejected because it falls so short of what is needed. Keep in mind the warning from verse 18, “but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

 I have said all of that so far this morning for two reasons: First, to show that in our modern arrogance, we tend to think that we are so sophisticated, and our society is so advanced that we are above the sins of the primitive people of Bible times. We are exactly like the people of Judah in the time of Habakkuk. Second, to show you that despite our wicked and sinful nature, Jesus has provided a way back into a right relationship with God. Our hope for this lies in Jesus Christ alone.

 OK, let’s turn back to today’s passage in the Book of Habakkuk and look at the rest of the text in some greater detail. I chose this text as the other side of the coin to our Father’s Day sermon. Job did not receive an answer from God for the reason for his suffering. But here, in the Book of Habakkuk, we will see that God does inform Habakkuk that the suffering that God is about to bring onto the Kingdom of Judah is a form of judgment on them and it is being done in the hopes of them coming back to Yahweh and back into obedience to Him.

READ HABAKKUK 1:2-4

Initially, Habakkuk takes His concerns directly to God. He cries out to God in the form of questions, respectfully waiting for an answer from God. Not in such a manner that God owes Habakkuk an explanation, but rather as one who has a faith-filled relationship with a close and personal God.

 In these verses we see Habakkuk taking his concerns about the violence and injustice that I was speaking about earlier, to God and asking for help in understanding why these problems were not being addressed. Notice, that it never occurs to Habakkuk that God is powerless to do anything, he just wants to know when God is going to interrupt this cycle and bring balance and order back to His people.

We can do the same today. As Believers in Jesus, we have something that not even Habakkuk had as a prophet of God, we have both Jesus and the Holy Spirit acting as intercessors for us with God the Father taking our prayers and concerns to Him and interceding on our behalf. Jesus and the Spirit take our needs to the Father on our behalf and advocate for them for us. We should follow the example of Habakkuk and prayerfully take our concerns to God and ask for relief, help, and even for divine intercession into our world once again.

Let me ask you a question: When you are finished praying, do you sit quietly waiting for an answer? Do you make a point to be deliberate in searching for answers, or are you simply venting to God? Are you spending time in God’s Word and giving the Lord an opportunity to answer you?

I find most of my answers in the Scriptures. I find when I read the Bible, it is like God is speaking to me. We see from Habakkuk’s example here, that prayer is actually a two-way conversation with the Lord.

This brings us to the LORD’s response. Look back with me at verse 5.

READ HABAKKUK 1:5

Stop right there for a moment. I would like to point out a couple of things. God answers Habakkuk and lets him know that He, God, is about to do something. God alone is responsible for the coming judgment on Judah.

I want to make something clear here, God does not cause someone to sin. What we know about God’s character is that He is Holy and Just and verse 13 explains, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” If God does not tolerate wrongdoing, He certainly cannot be the author of wrongdoing. So how do we square this in our minds?

In Habakkuk’s day, God had been restraining the Babylonians, holding them back, curbing their natural evil tendencies, and now He was ready to let them loose on Judah. Mankind does not need God’s help to sin. As we read earlier from John’s Gospel, “People loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” That is our natural state, left unchecked by the Holy Spirit, we are drawn to the darkness.

I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty or bad here. I really am not. What I am trying to do is to hold a mirror up to ourselves and have each one of us take a good long look in the mirror and make an honest assessment of who we are and why we need Jesus. Believe me, I am preaching to myself here every bit as I am preaching to you. Being aware of our sins brings God that much more Glory for saving us from that life.

The second thing I want to point out is that in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul quotes this verse from Habakkuk when he is preaching in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. You don’t have to turn there but let me read four verses from Acts chapter 13.

Paul has just finished explaining the history of the relationship between the Israelites and their God, from the exodus out of Egypt to the establishment of the Mosaic Law, through to King David and Paul shows that Jesus is the Messiah because he comes from David’s line. Then Paul shows how all have fallen short in their own righteousness and then he delivers the Good News. He doesn’t do it in the way that so many present-day preachers do in that God is all love. Paul shows that God does love and has provided a way to reconcile with God and that it comes with a warning about refusing the offer. Acts 13: 38-41 reads, “³⁸Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. ³⁹ Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” There was the Good News, the Gospel, and next comes the warning. “⁴⁰ Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:⁴¹ “‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.’” The warning comes straight out of today’s passage.

Let’s look at the next few verses in Habakkuk.

READ HABAKKUK 1:6-11

God says that He is “raising up the Babylonians” or some of your Bibles may use the name “Chaldeans”, the names are interchangeable and refer to the same people. God is “raising them up” by removing His restraining hand.

Gosh, I wish we had more time to spend on this book. The parallels between Judah and our time are so striking. Are you starting to understand what is happening in our society today? When we, as a nation, turn away from God, He begins to remove His restraining hand from our culture, and because of mankind’s sinful nature, we are drawn to the darkness of sin and debauchery.

We don’t want to shine the light on the sin of others because we worry that some of the light might expose our own sins. We hope that by staying in the dark, God will not see our sins. John 3:21 blows up that argument, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” God has already seen what you have done and what you are going to do, and He still loves you enough to choose you and to draw you to Himself.

 So, what, now what? You might be asking yourself. Let me give you some advice and some hope. We should handle ourselves just as Habakkuk handled himself. This leads us to sermon point number three:

 As I said, I wish we had more time to spend with Habakkuk, but for the final point, turn with me to the third chapter of the book. We are only going to look at a few verses, but I think that we will draw some comfort from the attitude and example that the prophet displays for us. Turn with me to Habakkuk 3 verse 2.

READ HABAKKUK 3:2

 We see from verse one, just above that Habakkuk is praying again to God. But now Habakkuk is no longer questioning God but rather praising Him and taking comfort in the knowledge of God’s unchanging character. Habakkuk lets God know that he does know who God is and what He has done in the past and Habakkuk finds comfort in that knowledge.

 Jump down to verse 17 and the next few verses.

 READ HABAKKUK 3:17-18

 Verse seventeen describes the conditions of famine which often accompany war. Food shortages are often the first felt effects of war. Supply chains are disrupted, stores fail to be restocked, invading armies pillage locally found food to feed their war machine, and civilians suffer.

 Look at verse eighteen and Habakkuk states how he will handle such adversity, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” How is this possible? What kind of lunatic will “rejoice” during these times of suffering?

It is possible if you have placed your faith in your God and Savior. If you recognize that He finished His work on the cross, that He repaired the relationship between God and Mankind, when we accept the gift of Grace and stop trying to earn God’s favor, then we have the assurance of eternal life with God in His Kingdom. Compared to eternity, the years of suffering we may have to endure here on Earth will be but a blink of an eye.

The present reward for Habakkuk for his faith?

READ HABAKKUK 3:19

The sovereign LORD was his strength. That strength made Habakkuk able to move through the difficult times of war.

One commentator put it this way, “The Sovereign Lord gives triumph over circumstances to those who trust Him. The way to get out from under the load is to get right under the Lord. To be under the Lord is to be over the circumstances.”

I want to give you a bit more insight into the account from the Book of Acts in chapter 13 when Paul and Barnabas were in Pisidian Antioch. After the first sermon, Paul and Barnabas were invited back to the synagogue to share more teachings. On the second day, the Jews began to reject Paul’s teaching, so they went outside and began to preach to the assembled Gentile crowd. Acts 13:48 records their response, this time from the ESV, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”

Rejoicing should be our response.