Habakkuk Series

August 28, 2021

Virtually nothing is known about Habakkuk. He was in active ministry in Judah during the final years before the Babylonian Exile and he is the only one specifically identified as a “prophet”.

Which brings us to My Favorite Thing About HABAKKUK – The candid and open conversation between this prophet and God.

Most of the content of the “Minors” flows in one direction – FROM God to the people - calling them to account for their faithlessness, infidelity and disobedience.

Habakkuk is different. He complains TO God ABOUT the people.

Habakkuk knows how much God loves justice and hates oppression, but all around him all he sees is unparalleled apostasy, violence and lawlessness. Wickedness appears to be winning and Habakkuk is completely baffled and angry and is struggling to understand why God doesn’t do SOMETHING:

• Habakkuk 1:2-4 - How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

And you know what? God willingly enters into the conversation:

• Habakkuk 1:5-11 - "Look at the nations and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. 6 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. 7 They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; 9 they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. 10 They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and capture them. 11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on-- guilty men, whose own strength is their god."

God’s response creates an even bigger problem in Habakkuk’s mind. How can a good and just God use a nation more wicked than Judah as His agent of judgment?

• Habakkuk 1:13 - Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

But then Habakkuk does something amazing, He says:

• Habakkuk 2:1 - I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

There is a certain amount of confidence and boldness in Habakkuk’s response. “I’m going to wait right here to see how God is going to respond to me”, which, I think, puts a smile on God’s face.

God let Habakkuk know that while Babylon will be God’s instrument of discipline against Judah for HER infidelity and disobedience, that doesn’t exempt Babylon from being held accountable for HER sins:

• Habakkuk 2:9 - Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high, to escape the clutches of ruin!

• Habakkuk 2:12 - Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!

• Habakkuk 2:15-20 - Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. 16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. 17 The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed man's blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. 18 "Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. 19 Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it. 20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.