What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Habakkuk 1:1-11
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
First Baptist Chenoa
5-5-19
Caller, You’re on the Air
What if you could talk to God? I know prayer is talking to God. But what if God had a call-in radio show. What would you ask Him if you had the chance?
I put that question out on my FaceBook page and received a lot of questions:
Will we know our families in heaven?
Can they hear us?
Can I talk to my daddy just one more time?
Are we the only ones or is there life on other planets?
Have I done enough to hear “good and faithful servant?”
Here’s one of my favorites:
Do dogs go to heaven or are they just angels in fur suits?
But the majority of questions that people would ask started with two questions:
Why is there so much hate and pain in the world?
Why did my baby die?
Why did my grandpa get cancer?
Why does God allow evil?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why do hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes happen?
And
How long do I have to live?
How long do I have to wait for a wife?
How long will it be before my son comes back?
How long will you be silent?
How long before you come back and set this mess right?
God doesn’t have a call-in radio show but He has given us His Word. This morning we are going to tune into a little book called Habakkuk and listen in on a conversation between God and a very frustrated prophet.
Turn in your Bibles to Habakkuk 1.
Why Habakkuk?
Since I started full time in September of last year, we have studied the Beatitudes, a handful of Old Testament heroes, participated in an Advent Conspiracy and walked verse by verse through the Lord’s Prayer. This morning, we begin our first book study. At FBC Chenoa, we believe that God’s Word is living and active. Paul wrote to one of his young pastors that he was mentoring:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
This little Old Testament book is full of gems and sounds like it was written yesterday. It is just 56 verses and takes less than 10 minutes to read. I think you are going to find it very helpful in your spiritual journey with Jesus.
Habakkuk who?
Habakkuk is one of the minor prophets. This doesn’t mean he was under the age of eighteen or that he wasn’t very important. There are three major prophetic books, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. These books are very long. Then there are twelve minor prophets. These books are smaller but no less important.
Habakkuk is found between Nahum and Zephaniah and was a contemporary of these two prophets and Jeremiah. We don’t know much about him. His name can mean 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.
Other than that, we really don’t know anything about him.
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 theme of Habakkuk is that we can trust God even when we don’t understand what He’s doing.
History Lesson
Before we begin the study, I need to set the context for the book.
In I Samuel, the people ask the prophet Samuel and God for a king “like the other nations.” God calls this treason and rightly so. He was their leader but they wanted a king so He gave them Saul, who ended up being a huge disappointment. Then David ascended the throne. He was a man who experienced incredible moral failures but God still called him a “man after God’s heart.”
He desired to build a Temple but he had too much blood on his hands so it would be Solomon that would be build the Temple. This would be the zenith of Israel’s power. From there it was basically all downhill.
The nation was divided into the Northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah. God sent prophet after prophet to call the people back to Himself. But each king was more wicked than the next. The people abandoned God and worshipped idols.
At this time, there were three main world powers - Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. In 722 B.C. Assyrian invaded the northern kingdom and carried them off. The northern kingdom was no more.
You would have thought that their southern brother Judah would have paid attention. But the idolatry continued unabated.
That is until Josiah ascended the throne. He was eight by the way! At age 16, Josiah called the people to repentance and started to rid the land of the idols. At this time they were cleaning out the Temple and found a scroll that was most likely the Torah.
He wept has he read it and called the people to weep and mourn over their sins.
It was truly a revival of biblical proportions!
Neco, Pharaoh of Egypt, sent Josiah a letter asking for permission to take his army through Judah to fight the Assyrians. Even though Judah was the size of Rhode Island, Josiah wasn’t having it and said no. Neco ignored him and set out to march through any way. Josiah actually disguises himself as common soldier and less his men to meet them. During this battle at Megiddo, Josiah is killed.
Neco sets up Jorobam, Josiah’s son, as a temporary king and when he returns three months later takes him back to Egypt where he dies. Jerohakim, another son, is put on the throne. He is no more than a vassal, a puppet ruler.
He is a wicked man. He kills innocent people refuses to pay the poor laborers. The priesthood was corrupted and he had Uriah the prophet killed for prophesying that Judah would meet the same fate as Israel. When the prophet Jeremiah wrote a prophesy against his wickedness, he torn it up page by page and threw it in a fireplace. He was a terrible leader and Judah is led into deeper chaos than they’ve ever known.
This is the context that we begin with in chapter one, the corrupt reign of Jehoiakim from 609-601 B.C.
What in the World is Going God?!
Read Habakkuk 1:1-4.
The book begins by say that Habakkuk receives a prophecy. The word is actually an “oracle.” This word literally means a “burden.” Prophets were given messages to give to their people and they were often heavy words of condemnation and destruction. The message was a burden that Habakkuk carried until he would share it with the faithful in Judah.
Habakkuk begins with our two words that we looked at the beginning of this message - How long and Why?
Habakkuk has been faithful in prayer. He has been crying out to God. He asked how long he must keep calling for help? The society is falling apart. Habakkuk is confused why God doesn’t seem to listen. He sees the violence that had become rampant in Judah and he asked why doesn’t God do something about it?
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 law, which could mean the Torah or the law courts, or probably both are numb, powerless. The bad guys are winning and Habakkuk wants to know what is up with that?
Don’t we ask the same thing? God what are you doing? Terrorism, mass murder, human trafficking, pornography, political upheaval, abortion on demand, sexual abuse by priests and pastors and the list could go on and on. What in the world is God doing? Why isn’t He stopping this madness? Why does He seem to be silent and sit idly by while the bad guys keep winning?
Before we move on to the next section, let me pose a question for us to think about. Do we have the same passion and concern that Habakkuk has for sin?
Right now, the most popular series on TV is Game of Thrones. It is in its seventh and final season. If you read the parental advisory of the content of this series, it becomes clear that the only way to describe accurately is porn. There is graphic, incredibly explicit sex scenes. Strong language and sexual dialogue are present throughout every episode. It is actually rated TV-MA for strong brutal medieval warfare and violence throughout including rape and torture, incest, grisly and gory images, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language and alcohol use.
I rarely talk about specific shows or movies but I think in the context of our study this morning we need to think about whether we are disturbed or amused by this culture’s depravity.
So Habakkuk begins by asking God what in the world is going on?
Be Amazed
Habakkuk cries out to God. He laments. He prays. He paces. He is frustrated. He is questioning God.
So God strikes him with lightning. End of story. Let’s pray.
Nope. God answers him. But the answer is beyond comprehension.
Read Habakkuk 1:5.
God gives three commands - look at the nations, watch, and be utterly amazed. These are in the plural form. Habakkuk asks as one person. God responds to the whole nation. He says that the answer will be completely unbelievable to the people. They wouldn’t believe Him even if He told them. The word “amazed” means to be astonished, to marvel at.
God doesn’t seem to answer Habakkuk’s question. Habakkuk is concerned with the chaos in Judah. God’s answer is more big picture than that.
The Big Bad Babylonians
What is this unbelievable news? You think it’s bad now? It’s about to get a lot worse!
Read Habakkuk 1:6-11.
God says that He is going raise up the Babylonians to do His work of correction in Judah.
The Babylonians, or your version might call them the Chaldeans, were from the area of modern day Iraq.
They were a little known group of people until they conquered the old capital of Assyria in 614, Nineveh in 612, Haran in 609, routed Pharaoh Neco of Egypt in 605. They ruled Babylon, Assyria, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Twenty years earlier no one even knew who they were.
They were barbaric. They were Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Al Shabab combined on steroids. They were a ruthless, bitter, ill-tempered people who swept across the whole earth with tremendous speed and ferocity.
They had no respect or fear of other countries or their sovereignty. They don’t acknowledge any law but their own.
Judah thought it was safe because Babylon was so far away. But they their horses were like leopards and they were like wolves on the hunt. Distance didn’t matter. The calvary would be the modern equivalent to a tanks and no one could stand in their way.
They were unbelievable violent. Habakkuk cried out about the violence of Judah. God says you aint seen nothing yet.
They were battle hardened. Kings and rulers were nothing to them. Fortified cities, usually the safest, were a joke. They simply build mounds of dirt against their walls and marched right over.
They raped and killed their way through cities and countries. And to let everyone know they had been there, they would stack the skulls into a pyramid outside the city gate.
Their own strength is their god. They do not acknowledge God but He is going to use them to correct His wayward people.
To all this, Habakkuk puts his head in his hands and says, “What?! You have got to be kidding!” He isn’t happy with this answer. Who would be?
Chuck Swindoll says it is like having termites and the company comes and starts pouring gasoline all over your house. You say, “What are you doing?” They respond that they are going to rid of the termites. By burning down my house?” you reply. Well, it will get rid of the termites, won’t it?
What can we learn?
We will study Habakkuk’s second complaint next week, but needless to say that he is completely confused. Yes, Judah was bad but good grief, the Babylonians were far worse. But that will wait.
1. I want to just review the fact that Habakkuk asked questions, hard questions, and God didn’t strike him down.
I remember reading about an interview with Brian Warner. He said when he was 12 years old, he had a lot of questions about God and the Bible. A Sunday school teacher told him, “Just shut up and believe.” He grew up to be the shock rocker Marilyn Manson.
Questions and faith are not mutually exclusive. Remember doubt is not the opposite of faith, unbelief is.
When the disciples brought Jesus a young boy who had been tormented by an evil spirit:
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:21-24)
A mature believer can express questions and faith at the same time. In fact, questions are a way that we grow in our faith (sanctification).
If we ignore the questions, we end up pretending to love God more than we do, that our spiritual life is deeper than it is, that our marriages are more together than they really are, that are kids are in a better place than they actually are.
David didn’t pretend. In the Psalms, he asks “why? And “how long?” Again and again. While at the same time, affirming God’s goodness and sovereignty, sometimes in the same Psalm!
“ How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant?” (Psalm 94:3)
“Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, “My foot is slipping, your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” (Psalm 94:17-19)
2. One of the main themes of Habakkuk Is God’s Sovereignty. 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.
“The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” (Psalm 33:11)
Looking through human eyes, Habakkuk thought that God didn’t care and His actions weren’t fair. But Habakkuk, and me and you, don’t see the entire picture. The Babylonians thought that their strength was their God but they were merely being used as a tool to correct God’s children. As we will learn, the Babylonians will be punished in the end.
3. I want to introduce you to the concept of the “dip.” Seth Godin first used this diagram in talking about economics and leadership principles. Craig Groeschel took it and applied it to spiritual growth.
We all start off our Christian journey on a high. Everything is amazing and we zealously share with everyone how good God is. Then, we hit what many call a “crisis of belief.”
For me, this happened in seminary. There was a third year student whose wife had cancer. They were in their 30s and had four small children. We prayed for her. She was brought before the elders and anointed with oil. I’ll never forget the day I got the news that she had died. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I didn’t understand it. We did everything we were supposed to. I was sad, mad, and confused.
It is in this dip that many people simply bail on Jesus. They feel that they were sold some swampland in Illinois and that it was a fun ride while it lasted.
As we will see in the coming weeks, this crisis of belief is incredibly important. It is in those times of struggle and doubt that our faith in deepened and strengthened.
Paul dealt with what he described as “thorn in the flesh.” He prayed and asked God to take it away. But God didn’t.
Through the thorn, Paul learned that God’s “grace was sufficient” in a way he would have never learned on his own.
If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you have experienced the dip. It’s what you do in the dip that makes all the difference.
Through All of It
We have been studying the book of Ephesians verse by verse in the Wednesday morning Bible study. Paul highlights God’s sovereignty in the very first section of the letter:
“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:11-12)
God is working everything out for our good and His glory. We may not like it, we may not understand it, we might not think He’s fair but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still trust Him.
Take your questions, doubts, anger, and frustration to the foot of the cross.
The cross is a perfect example of God sovereignty. What seemed to be an absolute disaster was actually the greatest victory ever!
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” (Acts 2:22-23)
We are going end today by watching a video of a song by Colton Dixon called “Through it all.”
