I Object! Series

I Object!

Habakkuk 1:12-2:3

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

First Baptist Chenoa

5-12-19

I Object!

Several years ago, I was pulled over on my scooter because Austin was swinging his feet. Instead of paying the fine, I went to court and represented myself. I cross examined the police officer and the judge said that he didn’t even really understand the case. A lawyer friend told me afterwards that I actually won the case but everyone in the courtroom knew I didn’t understand that. So I ended up paying a $50 fine (instead of $75) and I got to experience being a lawyer for a day! The one thing that I didn’t get to do was stand up and say, “I object!”

We learned last week, that Habakkuk asked God some very pointed questions. When God answered him, Habakkuk jumped up and said, “I object!”

Review

Habakkuk was one of the minor prophets. This doesn’t mean his message was less important it just means that his book is shorter than the major prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. His name means “to embrace” or “to wrestle.”

This is a great description of a prophet that wrestled with frustrating questions and embraced God’s love for him despite the answers. He was believed to be a temple musician. Chapter three is actually a song that he wrote.

The structure of the book is very unique. Usually, God would speak to a prophet and then the prophet would declare to the people what God said. In Habakkuk, there is a series of dialogues between Habakkuk and God. Habakkuk asks a question and God answers. Habakkuk asks more questions and God answers. But the answers that God gives aren’t always what Habakkuk expected.

The main questions are “why?” And “how long?”

The theme of Habakkuk is that we can trust God even when we don’t understand what He’s doing.

In the opening verses, Habakkuk is very frustrated with God. He uses six words to describe Judah and asked God why He makes him look at this mess - injustice, wrongdoing, destruction, violence, strife and conflict.

Judah has become a culture full of idolatry, immorality, greed, deception, lust, hatred, injustice, hypocrisy, and oppression.

The society is falling apart and he wonders out loud if God even cares. God doesn’t seem to be listening. He sees the violence that had become rampant in Judah and he asked why doesn’t God do something about it?

God’s answer will amaze and astonish Habakkuk. God says that if He thought things were bad in Judah, then he aint seen nothing yet!

He is planning on using the Babylonians to chastise His wayward people. The Babylonians were a brutal, bitter, violent people who were like ISIS on steroids. They feared no one and raped, killed, and conquered their way across the Middle East.

Habakkuk puts his head in his hands and says, “You’ve got to be kidding! I know we are bad but the Babylonians are ten times worse! This doesn’t make any sense.”

This bring us to the verses for today. Turn in your Bibles to Habakkuk 12.

Prayer

Theological Musing

Read Habakkuk 1:12-13.

Habakkuk’s respond is honest, blunt, raw.

He begins by acknowledging that God is eternal. He is everlasting.

David said the same thing in Psalm 90:

“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)

If you are eternal, then why would you allow this? The Babylonians deserve more judgement than Judah.

His questions come out of deep faith and he is wrestling with the deep things of God. How do we know that?

Look at how he describes God? “Lord,” “my God,” “Holy One,” and “my Rock,” which is his grounds of confidence.

He understands that God is sovereign. This is just a big theological word for the fact that God is the King with absolute and complete control over everything, with nothing being left to chance.

God has “appointed” and “ordained” the Babylonians to execute judgement and bring punishment on Judah. Habakkuk just doesn’t understand how this lines up with what he knows about God’s character.

Too Pure

Read verse 14.

Habakkuk states that this doesn’t seem to line up with who You are God. If God is too pure to look on evil and doesn’t tolerate wrongdoing, then why the Babylonians?! Why do you tolerate the wicked? Why don’t You answer? Why do you allow these brutes to swallow up, which means to completely annihilate, everyone in their path?

But Habakkuk, and the people knew, that God had done this in the past. When the northern kingdom refused to return to God and continued with their idol worship, God sent Isaiah with a message:

“Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. (Isaiah 10:5-6)