The Worst Is Yet To Come Hab. 1

When we think of Nahum right before Habakkuk, Nahum preached Israel had been taken to captivity by the Assyrians and he preached that Assyria would face its doom one day as well. Judah had lived in relative safety for a hundred years and Israel was taken captive. But their time was coming and Habakkuk was letting them know. To let you know, I spent some time in Jeremiah yesterday. Jeremiah was a prophet in the same period and preached of the judgment to come.

I read about half the book. It's a big book. I wrote down several verses and maybe we'll look at them in weeks to come. But I wanted to start just in Nahum for a bit, just to read who God is and who the prophets knew him to be, who maybe the people had forgotten him to be. He says in chapter one, verse two of Nahum, right before Habakkuk, a jealous and avenging God is the Lord, Yahweh.

The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. Notice he said, for his enemies. The prophet knew that God would judge his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. The Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

In a whirlwind and a storm is his way, and the clouds are the dust beneath his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. He goes on mountains quake because of him and the hills dissolve. Even the earth is up heaved by his presence and the world and all its inhabitants in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by him. Verse seven, the Lord is good. a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knows those who take refuge in him, but an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end to its site and will pursue his enemies into darkness."

Habakkuk knew this God. Habakkuk was a prophet of faith, but like us, his faith sometimes struggled. His faith sometimes came into despair. He saw the righteous afflicted. The wicked seemed to prosper. And he couldn't make sense of why this would be so. Seems to be a common condition that the saints feel. You are not alone, believer, if you have felt at times, why is this like it is? Things seem upside down. Shocking and perplexed we are. Faith, it is really faith perplexed. It's not faith that is gone. It's not faith absent. It's not doubting. It's not unbelief. No, but it's perplexed in our faith.

But what does the prophet do? What does the prophet Habakkuk do when he faces this experience? It's a lesson for us. Do you see it in the text from last week? He goes to God, he prays, he calls upon the Lord. This is good for us. This is what we all ought to do in our time of perplexity and despair. the preacher Charles Spurgeon, he spoke regarding prayer. He says, the best thermometer of your spiritual temperature is the intensity of your prayer. Even as I read this, I think of the lacking in my own prayer life, even this week. We need to go to the Lord in prayer. We need his presence. We need communion with our God. How often we think, well, I can do this. Just pursue, persevere, press on. Well, we need the Lord to help us.

Habakkuk was a man whose spiritual temperature was white hot. He prayed with passion. He prayed fervently, even in light of the answer he would receive. For the answer he would receive, he says, Lord, things are so bad. And it seems the answer he received was, the worst is yet to come. Lord, I didn't ask for this. I came to you in prayer. He says, the worst is yet to come.

Let's hear from this book. And we're going to see today Habakkuk's inquiries or his questions. And thankfully Yahweh, the Lord, answers. He hears you when you pray to him and he answers the prophet Habakkuk in this passage. And so we'll be looking at this back and forth really as the prophet is writing to you and I, to God's people, Let's read the first chapter together, the first verse in chapter two as well, and we will conclude. Hear the word of the Lord. The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

How long, O Lord, will I call for help, and you will not hear? I cry out to you, violence, yet you do not save. Why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me. Strife exists and contention arises. Therefore, the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, justice comes out perverted. Now God is answering, verse five, Look among the nations, observe, be astonished, wonder, because I am doing something in your days that you would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. They are dreaded and feared. Their justice and authority originate with themselves.