Habakkuk (Pt. 2)
Text: Habakkuk 1:5 – 11
Well good morning everyone… it’s good to see faithful people eager to hear what God would say to them. And we’re in the book of Habakkuk this morning. We started this series last Sunday, and we’re going to pick up right where we left off in verse 5. While you’re turning in your Bibles to that, let me just re-cap what we went over last time. If you remember last Sunday we said that Habakkuk was a man with a burden. He was burdened with the sin of the people… and he was burdened by what seemed like the silence or inaction of God. So Habakkuk was seeing all the sin and evil around him and he was praying and saying, “God how long are you going to let this go on?” So today, we’re going to see God’s answer to Habakkuk, and we touched on it last week, but today we’ll get to see it in its fullness.
(READ HABAKKUK 1:5-11)
Now maybe you’re like Habakkuk in the sense that you look around and you see the wickedness in our nation. Murder, rape, theft and robbery, corruption in politics, corruption in the highest levels of law enforcement, lawlessness abounds. These are all signs of the end times by the way… immorality, perversion, injustice, slander, false accusations, and real crimes that are left unpunished. And maybe you’re like Habakkuk in the sense that you’ve been praying. I hope you are… but we also know that some of the wickedness in our nation is with God’s people… within the Church there are some who are sinning just like the worldly person without Christ. Within the Church we have prayerless people, and people who don’t put God first in their lives. And when God’s people are indistinguishable in their sins from the world, we have a real problem. But maybe you’ve been going to the Lord, you’ve been lifting up your prayers and it seems like God has put you on hold.
Or maybe it’s more personal than that… maybe it’s in your life, or in your health, your marriage, or your finances… maybe it’s a loved one or a friend who is lost and you’re praying and asking God, “Lord where are you in this? Please do something about this situation I’m in. Please fix this…”
I was reading a story a while back about a lady who was struggling with a debilitating illness and it got to the point where she said, “I don’t even care if God heals me… I just want Him to show me that He’s here.” I mean, that’s almost to the point of hopelessness. Right? Have you ever felt like that? Maybe you feel like that right now. That God’s up there in heaven, but He really isn’t interested or that He doesn’t care about you, or about what’s going on down here on earth.
And I feel like I need to say this real quick… I know that there are some teachings out there that say something like, “Feelings don’t matter. You have to rely on faith, not feelings.” And I know what those teachers mean when they say that, but I think they’re forgetting something. You see; we’re created in the image and likeness of God, and that includes our ability to think, reason, and even our feelings. And while it’s true that if we’re purely emotionally, or “feeling” driven we can find ourselves being tossed about by every wave and every emotion out there, but at the same time, the Bible doesn’t tell us to deny our feelings or ignore them. It tells us that our feelings and emotions are often times what drive us to seek God so that we can be shaped and formed and strengthened by the Word of God. And so when those times come, when we feel like God is not listening, or that He’s not hearing our prayers, our feelings should drive us back to His Word and read something like Psalm 121:1 – 3, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.”, or 2nd Peter 3:9 which says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” And when we know God, and we know His Word, and we know His character, it helps us in those times, when God seems far from us, and in those times when it seems like He’s not hearing our prayers, or concerned with what is going on in the world. It helps us to remember that He is aware, and that He is working, and that He has a plan and a purpose, even in those times. And it reminds us that God is working and moving, and actively bringing His will and His plans, and His purpose to pass.
But the thing is… Sometimes He’s working out His will in a way that we would never imagine.
God answers Habakkuk’s prayer, but not in the way he thought He would. God says, “I’m aware of the wickedness and evil and sin you’re describing Habakkuk, and I’m bringing judgment, not revival.”
Let me read it to you again (READ TEXT) …
Now I want you to notice something here. The first thing God says to Habakkuk in verse 5 is, “Look around you.” “Look among the nations and see…” You see; Habakkuk was praying for HIS nation. He was praying for Judah, but God is the sovereign Lord over EVERY nation and people group. And He was saying to Habakkuk, “It’s not just about you. I’m doing something in the world, and you need to pay attention to it.” You see; sometimes our view is limited to just us… or just our small part of the world. Our view is local… or national. But God’s view is universal. It’s eternal. He sees all things and knows all things. We forget the song we used to sing when we were little… “He’s got the whole world – in His hands. He’s got the whole wide world – in His hands.”
Church, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but while our own nation is falling into godlessness, Christianity is spreading like wildfire in China (despite the persecution they face), it’s growing like crazy in Russia. China has an estimated 160 million Christians but it’s probably more than that because the government still tries to crack down on them, so a lot of them are underground. And just in March of this year, Christianity Today Magazine reported that 74% of Russians profess to be Christians. Whereas only 70.6% of American’s profess to be Christian; and that number is shrinking here in the US, while it’s growing in Russia. Christ is building His Church in the nations of Africa and India, and around the world.
The problem we tend to have here in the US is that we base our theology, and our eschatology on our nationalism. In other words, we tend to think: “If America is doing well, then God is moving, and God is working, and God is active… but if America is headed the wrong direction, we tend to think that this must be the end, the rapture is about to take place, and the end of all things is at hand.” And don’t get me wrong. I love our country. I desperately want to see God move and bring revival to the United States. I want to see men and women, young and old, return to Jesus, and see godliness and holiness and righteousness return to this nation. I want to see revival. But at the same time, we have to be aware that God is working in this world. We have to understand that the United States of America could crumble and fall, and fade into obscurity, and God is still God, and He is still King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and He is still sovereign and good and in control of all things. He is the God who raises up nations and He is the God who casts them down.
And that is what the Lord is saying to Habakkuk… He says that He is going to raise up the Chaldeans. We know them better as the Babylonians. They’ve been around as long as the Israelites have. They were the descendants of Abraham’s brother Nahor. We learned that in Genesis 22… And they weren’t good people. They were wicked and evil and violent. Their capital city was Babel, and later on it was called Babylon. And from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation, it’s used as a symbol of human society that tries to live independently from God. It’s a symbol of worldliness, and godlessness, and materialism, and hedonism. In one sense, you might say that we’ve already been over-run by Babylon in our day.
And God describes them to Habakkuk… He says in verse 7 that they are “dreaded and fearsome”. In verse 8 He says, “Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves.” And then in verse 9 God says, “They’re only coming to do violence and to take slaves.” And that’s what they did. They would kill all the fighting men, and take the women and children captive. That’s how Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would all end up in Babylon later on. They were taken captive, and removed from their homeland and their families and brought to Babylon.
I said this last week and I’ll say it again. What God is telling Habakkuk would be like God saying to us, “I am bringing Isis, or the Taliban to America, and they’re going to over-run the United States, and all they want to do is kill non-Muslims, and take the women and children into slavery.”
Now can you imagine that? Can you imagine God saying that? How could you do that Lord? How could that even be a possibility? I’m sure that’s what Habakkuk was thinking… this would have been shocking to him. It would’ve been mind boggling.
But if we’re going to rightly understand this Old Testament book of Habakkuk, we’ve got to understand that this is exactly what God is saying He’s going to do, and it’s exactly what God did do!
And if we’re going to understand how God can do something like this, we’ve got to come to understand what Habakkuk would’ve had to come to understand… and not only Habakkuk, but all the believers throughout the Bible.
Turn with me to Hebrews 11:8 – 16, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. FOR HE WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CITY THAT HAS FOUNDATIONS, WHOSE DESIGNER AND BUILDER IS GOD. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore; from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles ON THE EARTH. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire A BETTER COUNTRY, that is a HEAVENLY ONE. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.”
Now do you catch what this passage is saying? All of these people had faith… everyone who is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11… they had faith. They had faith in God. They had faith in God’s promises. And part of that faith included the fact that they came to realize that this world is not their home.
Let’s look at how John says it in 1st John 2:15 – 17 (READ).
So God has to get Habakkuk to see that this world is not his home… and even the land of Judah… it’s not his real home. It’s just his temporary duty station. It’s just where he’s been deployed to. It’s not his real home. And yes, God has specific plans for specific people… and God has specific plans for specific places. He has a specific plan for Israel… but He also has a specific plan for the rest of the world and the people of the world. His plan was to send Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of all people. People of every nation, tribe, and tongue. His plan from the beginning was to send Jesus to reconcile and redeem humanity, and save us from our sin.
And remember this Church… God is not unjust when He brings this judgment upon Judah… the people of Judah had rebelled against God, and sinned, and had turned their backs on God. God is just and right to judge them. Just like He was just and right to judge the Babylonians later on, and the Persians after them, and the Greeks and Romans after them. God always does what is just, and right, and good. And we don’t know what God is going to do with the United States of America… we don’t know if He’ll bring revival or judgement. But what we can know… and what we should know is that whatever He does it will be the right thing.
PRAY THAT HE BRINGS REVIVAL! Because if it’s not revival, it most certainly will be judgement.
But in the meantime, know that this world is not our home. We are looking for a far better kingdom, whose Builder and Maker is God.
And ask yourself – do you belong to that kingdom? Have you been adopted into the family of God? Have you trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior?
CLOSING
