The reason they would not choose this book as their favorite is because they do not know that much about the book of Habakkuk.
Let me share a few things with you about this precious book of the Bible and it might become your favorite.
Let’s look at…
I. THE BOOK
Out of the sixty six books of the Bible...
1) This little book was written just before the world caved in for the people of Judah.
2) If you don’t know where to find Habakkuk, look in the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament.
3) There are 17 prophetic books in the Old Testament, divided between the Major Prophets (5 books) and the Minor Prophets (12 books).
4) The three chapters of Habakkuk is squeezed between Nahum and Zephaniah.
5) Habakkuk is called a “Minor” prophet. These prophets are not called “major” and “minor” because of their respective importance but because of their size.
Illus: For example, in one of my Bibles:
• The five Major Prophets take up 191 pages
• The twelve Minor Prophets take up only 61 pages.
• We’re talking about a short book here. Habakkuk contains 56 verses spread over 3 chapters.
6) Habakkuk is unlike the other prophetic books (major or minor) in that it records a dialogue between one man and God.
7) Whereas Isaiah contains a message from God, Habakkuk records a conversation with God.
Illus: Have you ever wish that you could be a fly on the wall and listen in on some conversations of two people carrying on a conversation.
Did you know that eavesdropping is more popular than most folks think.
Illus: My wife and I have a favorite restaurant that we always enjoy going there. But as we go there we have to be careful because they have a waitress that can hear a pin drop in the next zip code.
Eavesdropping is something done by cab drivers, barbers, waitresses and many more.
I have to admit when Habakuk and God was having this conversation in the book of Habakuk I think we would have all enjoyed being there and listening to this conversation.
But actually this is what we have in the book of Habakuk, a conversation between God and the prophet Habakuk.
We have looked at THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK but now let us look at…
II. THE PROPHET
If you’ve ever felt like you had a few questions for God, this is the book for you.
Illus: Howard Hendricks called Habakkuk “the man with a question mark for a brain.”
Illus: Habakkuk makes me think of my granddaughter who has lots of questions.
Some people think it is wrong to question God.
God’s Word tells us otherwise, Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
In times of NEED we do not need to be fearful to come to God and ask Him things that concerns us. He tells us we can come boldly anytime we are in need.
Habakuk had some real concens…LET ME SHARE WITH YOU WHY HE HAD SO MANY QUESTIONS?
Let’s look at the background why he had some questions to ask God.
Here’s a bit of the background. The year is 605 BC or thereabouts.
Judah had been blessed with a good king named Josiah. After he died in 609 BC, the nation of Judah plunged headlong back into the cesspool of corruption, immorality and idolatry that had plagued it for so many generations.
This time the people seemed hell-bent on their own destruction.
Illus: Instead of edging toward the cliff, they seemed determined to plunge over it going full speed. It was as if the nation had a death wish and no use for God at all.
It was at this time that Habakkuk came on the scene.
Who was Habakkuk?
This man Habakkuk we know almost nothing. We assume he was around 30 years old, but that’s just a guess.
When he saw the terrible moral decline of Judah, he prayed for God to “do something.”
Habakkuk had been faithfully praying and even crying out to God and had received no answer.
The country was in a mess and he wanted God to do something.
Look at Habakkuk 1:1-2 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
Habakkuk asked the Lord two questions:
1) “How long must I pray before You answer?”
2) “ Why do You permit such injustice?”
Illus: Something we all forget is two things:
(1)First, we treat God as if He created the mess that surround us.
(2)Secondly, we treat God as if He is indifferent to the plight of His people,
King Josiah’s reforms hadn’t really changed things. The priests and prophets were liars and extortionists, and the nation desperately needed to repent and turn to God.
Habakkuk uses words like strife, violence, iniquity, injustice and wrongdoing to describe the society of his day.
The judges were selling themselves to the highest bidders.
In his mind he no doubt thought that God would raise up another good king like Josiah to lead the people in the right direction.
Little did he know that God’s answer would come by way of the hated Babylonians.
As you read through the book of Habakkuk you will see a transformation taking place in his life. In this book he moves from-
• Fear to faith,
• Burden to blessing,
• Perplexity to praise,
• Confusion to confidence, and
• Worry to Worship.
Illus: J. Vernon McGee says that Habakkuk begins with a question mark and ends with an exclamation point.
Habakukkuk was really frustrated with the way things were going.
Illus: It reminds me of the young man that went to the store, and said…
• I bought a wooden whistle, but it wooden whistle.
• So I went to the store again, and I bought a steel whistle, but it steel wooden whistle.
• After a lot of frustration, I went to the store again and I bought a lead whistle.
• I was really mad at this point. It steel wooden lead me whistle!
Illus: A young man wrote this letter to his pastor. The letter read, I am exhausted with life, and I would kill myself if it weren’t for the fact that I am a coward as well and I don’t have the guts to carry it out. I see therapists and psychiatrists but they don’t help. They stuff me with drugs and send me on my way. Why is God silent?! Why does He not act?!! Where is my Lord?!!!
As the book opens, Habakkuk is confused and agitated as this young man who wrote this letter. Three issues haunt him:
I. Unanswered Prayer
Look at Habakkuk 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
Sooner or later we all wonder where is God when we need him?
• A godly mother prays for her wayward son. He was raised in the church, he went to Sunday school, he knows the Bible—but when he left home, he left it all behind. For many years his mother has prayed for him, but to this day he remains a prodigal son.
• A wife prays for her husband, who left her after twenty-three years of marriage for a younger woman. He seems utterly unreachable, and the marriage heads swiftly for divorce.
• A husband prays for his wife, who has terminal cancer. She has six, maybe seven months to live. None of the treatments stop the rampaging tumors. The elders anoint her with oil and pray over her in the name of the Lord. She dies five months later.
• A young man prays fervently for deliverance from an overpowering temptation, but the struggle never seems to end. The more he prays, the worse the temptation becomes.
And so we cry out with the psalmist, "Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1).
Habakkuk is going through some trying times and he is having to deal with… Unanswered Prayer.
Also, he is having to deal with…
II. Unexpected Answer
We have to be careful what we pray for because God may not answer it the way you expect Him to answer it.
When God did answer Him, he misunderstood him.
Look at Habakkuk 1:5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
Taken by itself, those words might lead Habakkuk to think that God is going to send a mighty spiritual awakening to Judah, a revival that will rid the nation of idolatry and bring them back to God.
In fact, sometimes preachers take this verse of scripture out of context and use this verse as a basis for praying for revival in our day. While I certainly think we ought to pray for revival, that’s not what this verse is all about. God is going to send something, but it’s not a revival.
Look at Habakkuk 1:6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
This raised the question: “How can you punish your own people by bringing against them a people more wicked than they are?”
God answered Habakuk but His answer caused him to have another question.
God’s choice to use Babylon puzzled Habakkuk even more, and he again questioned God: how could God use such a violent, idolatrous group of people to carry out a righteous judgment
Look at Habakkuk 1:12-13 Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
God answered Habakkuk by assuring him of the judgment the Babylonians themselves would face at a later time.
Habakkuk 2:8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
Nothing God said could have surprised Habakkuk more than this.
He knew about the Babylonians. Everybody knew the Babylonians. They were the most hated and the most feared nation on earth. Under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar, their armies plundered the nations around them.
• No one could stand against them.
• No one could defeat them.
They were crucial, vicious, in their appetite for destruction.
• If they wanted a city, they took a city.
• If they wanted a province, they took a province.
• If they wanted a nation, they took that nation.
In Dan. 4:31-37 Nebuchadnezzar’s boast “Is not this great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
No sooner had he spoken those words when the king became like a beast, and for seven years he ate grass like a beast and even looked like a beast.
God humiliated him (Dan. 4: 31-37).
It is hard for us to fully understand how the Jews felt about the Babylonians. They swept across the Ancient Near East with a cruelty hitherto unknown.
• If a conquered city was considered insufficiently submissive, they might put a pile of skulls in the city plaza as a warning not to rebel against them.
• They poked out the eyes of conquered kings and marched the rulers off in chains, sometimes with hooks through their jaws.
Look at how God describes them in the next few verses:
• Ruthless and impetuous (v. 6)
• Feared and dreaded (v. 7)
• Law to themselves (v. 7)
• They are swift as leopards, ravenous as wolves, and they swoop on their prey like eagles dropping from the sky.
• They gather prisoners like sand.
• They mock kings.
• They laugh at fortified cities.
• They never stop.
Here is God’s ultimate indictment of them:
“Whose strength is their god” (v. 11).
The point is, these are evil people, and God knows how bad they are. When God decides to judge Judah, he picks the meanest nation on the earth to do the job for him.
Nothing about that made sense to Habakkuk.
Illus: It’s as if God said, “I’m going to raise up Al Qaeda to judge America. Because you did not respect my law, you will now live under Sharia law.”
As shocking as that sounds to us, that’s exactly how God’s message sounded to Habakkuk. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
Very often in the Bible, things had to get worse before they could get better.
Illus: I talked with a distraught father through his tears the father said, “She’s going to have hit rock bottom, I guess.” We prayed together that God would do whatever it takes to open the eyes of her heart so that light from heaven could come flooding in
I can tell you what happened in America after 9/11. We turned toward God but we didn’t turn to him.
Habakkuk prayed during some trying times. He was hoping and praying for a revival where Judah would come back to God. But God knew for that to happened He had to allow the most viscious nation on earth be used to get them to return.
What will God have to do to get our nation to return to Him?
There’s a big difference. We turned in his direction, but we did not repent of our national sins. Turning toward God is good but it never lasts. Only turning to God can change a nation.
Conclusion:
Habakkuk moved from worrying in the valley of defeat to singing on the mountains of victory because he waited on the Lord,
We have looked at:
I. Un answered prayer
II. Un expected Answers
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger preach some of these sermons on Youtube. Just type…YOUTUBE LYKESLAND
