Scripture Reading: Habakkuk 1–2:1
the burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. O Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear? Even cry out to you violence and you will not save. Why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me. There is strife and contention arises. Therefore, the law is powerless and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous.
Therefore, perverse judgment proceeds. Look among the nations and watch. Be utterly astounded. For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you.
For indeed, I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards and more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead. Their cavalry comes from afar. They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. They all come for violence.
Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings, and princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
Then his mind changes and he transgresses. He commits offense, ascribing this power to his God. Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.
O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment. O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness. Why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?
Why do you make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with a hook. They catch them in their net. and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore, they rejoice and are glad.
Therefore, they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet, because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity? I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me. and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man.
And he does not stay at home, because he enlarges his desire as hell, and he is like death and cannot be satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations and heats up for himself all peoples. Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, as we come to this book, we pray for guidance and wisdom by Your Spirit. We pray, Father, that You would just lead us into the themes of this book, lead us into the type of faith exhibited by the prophet. Help us to understand Your glory and Your majesty and Your sovereignty. For certainly these things are set forth in all of their beauty in this particular book.
We just pray now, God, that You would help us, that You would lead us. For we acknowledge our utter dependence upon our great prophet, even Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.
Introduction
If Habakkuk lived in the 21st century, he certainly would not be numbered among the health, wealth, and prosperity ilk. He does seem to have the disposition more akin, more alike, Asaph, the psalmist, who often took up the very dark themes and the very difficult and perplexing issues with reference to God's sovereignty and His ways among the sons of men. Basically, what Habakkuk does here in the section that we read is give two laments. He gives two complaints, basically, and the Lord answers him.
And that's sort of the structure of the section that we read. There are three major sections in the book of Habakkuk. The first is the dialogue between Habakkuk and God, which we will take up this evening. The second are woes of judgment pronounced against Babylon.
The remainder of chapter 2 from verse 6 on to verse 20, there is a series of five woes pronounced specifically against Babylon, the one who would invade and destroy Judah. And then the third chapter is taken up with the psalm of the prophet, or the prophet's prayer. We see how he resolves all things. It is ultimately at the throne of grace in a disposition and posture of worship before our great God.
But before we look at the dialogue between Habakkuk and God, it is helpful for us to get some introductory things behind us.
Authorship and Historical Context
The first concerns the author. It is Habakkuk, but that's all we know about this man. There is nothing about who his parents are, nothing about his father, nothing about the city or the portion of Judah that he comes from. But when we study the book or we look into the book, we learn that he agonized over the prevalence of wickedness.
In other words, he was a man with godly concerns. He also acknowledges the sovereignty of God and he acknowledges truth about God. So he was genuinely orthodox in his understanding of who God was. He was genuinely concerned about the situation facing him in his generation, which we'll look at in just a moment.
And then he did what a godly man who is concerned ought to do. He went to the Lord in prayer. In many respects, Habakkuk was the first, or not the first, there are others in the Old Testament, but one of those who said, where is God when bad things happen? It's not always wrong to ask the question.
It is wrong when you're a pagan and you're simply looking to blame God. But when you're actually a godly man and there is that righteousness in you where you cry out to the Lord on behalf of the situation in your world, God not only doesn't reprove him, but He actually answers him when He offers up His complaints to the Lord. Now, when we look to date the book, or to put it in a historical setting, verse 6 is a tremendous help. The mention there of the Chaldeans.
As used here, the word Chaldeans is practically synonymous with Babylonians. in that the last and greatest dynasty to rule in Babylon was of Chaldean origin. So the Chaldeans are the Babylonians. They came to power, or they began to emerge as a world power in 626 B.C. Babylon assisted the Medes in defeating the Assyrian Empire, which culminated in the destruction of Nineveh in 612 B.C., as we saw when we studied the prophet Nahum.
Now, the situation that Habakkuk describes sounds like it was in a very spiritually and ethically dark time in Israel's history. I would locate the prophecy in about 608 to 605 under the reign of King Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was a son of Josiah. Josiah reigned from about 640 to 609, and he was a good king.
He ruled well. He reigned well. He did a lot of good reforms in Judah. Remember, the northern kingdom is gone now.
We don't have the northern kingdom of Israel anymore. We're simply dealing with Judah, the southern kingdom. Well, after Josiah's reign, he tried to stop Pharaoh Necho and he was killed at Megiddo. And then the people took his son Jehoahaz and they put him on the throne.
Well, Pharaoh Necho deposed him and put his brother Jehoiakim on the throne. And this was in 609. Jehoiakim reigned until 597. The reason why I say between 608-605 is because Pharaoh Necho and Egypt was ultimately devastated at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 by Babylon.
So there's a bit of a window there where there's a wicked king, where the Babylonians are on their way up, and yet Egypt is still in the scene because they've gotten rid of Jehoahaz and they have put Jehoiakim on the throne. Now, Jehoiakim was not like his father Josiah. He was much more like his grandfather Manasseh. Manasseh sort of raised the bar for wickedness in Judah.
Remember that Ahab was sort of the poster child for bad kings in Israel. Well, Manasseh sort of took that legacy for Judah. He was wicked. He had a long and very ungodly reign, about 55 years.
So after him, Josiah reigns well, but then he dies, and then this Jehoiakim takes the throne. Jehoiakim was the man that burned the scroll that Jeremiah had written. Jehoiakim was a wretch. And so that helps us to understand the particular situation that Habakkuk is prophesying in.
The certainty of Judah's impending destruction had already been told by God It had been promised way back in Deuteronomy, if the people of God were unfaithful, there would be cursings along with the covenant. If they did not fulfill their obligations, there would be curses that would be poured out by God. Well, now the guilt has been filled up, and this is the stage. It is just about the brink of Judah's fall, ultimately, to Babylon.
So Habakkuk is living in very dark days. There's a bad king, there's lawlessness in the land, and so far as he can tell, God isn't doing anything about it. That's something of the historical context. Now, the theme.
Theme of the Book
Here's what a couple of other men say with reference to this book. Martin Lloyd-Jones calls his book on Habakkuk, From Fear to Faith. Because in this dialogue, as Habakkuk pours out his complaints to the Lord, we will see he is afraid. He is perplexed.
He is tried. But it ends with that solemn confidence and that resolution of Habakkuk 3.19, where he casts himself fully upon the Lord God Most High. He learned the very clear lesson that even though it may seem as if God is not active, God most certainly is active. God is in control.
He has not left His people. He has not abandoned the world. He is not the God of deism. Warren Weirsbe entitled his study in Habakkuk, From Worry to Worship.
You see a theme there. You start off, it looks pretty bleak, but it ends with worship. It ends in faith. Mark Dever comments, in short, Habakkuk is puzzled exactly because he knows and believes that God is both powerful and good.
His prayer is not merely an example of cosmic whining that somehow made it into the Bible. It is an inquiring prayer of a believer in anguish who knows he can approach the good and sovereign God with honesty. You see, when God says, cast your soul or cast your anxieties upon Me, I care for you, it doesn't surprise Him and it doesn't anger Him when we actually do that. When we come before the Lord and we do what Habakkuk does.
How long, O Lord? Why, O Lord? These are legitimate questions that faith will often have. As I cited this morning, O.
Palmer Robertson says, Habakkuk's was not a weak faith, but a perplexed faith. That's what tormented Habakkuk. So Habakkuk asks the questions that perplex many believers. In fact, I'd rather hang with a Habakkuk than one of these health, wealth, and prosperity guys.
These guys that think and say, everything is just great all the time. Well, that's not true. Everything isn't great all of the time. There are Christians suffering and being in prison and being executed for their faith right now.
Go tell them everything is to be healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. They need to hear that the prophet Habakkuk is in the Bible. They need to know that there are times when faith is perplexed, when faith is pressed, to the point of crying out. How can a righteous and holy God not vindicate His people immediately?
That's the heartbeat of the prophet. And if we had to look at the first lament, it seems to have more of an ethical edge to it. Of course, there's theology involved, but it's an ethical question. There's lawlessness in the land.
There's bad things going on. Ethics concerns the prophet. After God gives him the answer, the second lament is more directly theological in nature. Because after God answers, that creates an even bigger dilemma for the prophet that we'll see when we consider that second lament.
The Prophet's First Lament
Let's move on to the dialogue between Habakkuk and God. First of all, the prophet's first lament, the ethical issue.
The Ethical Complaint: Evil and Injustice
Notice in verses 2 and 3, he is distressed. He is in anguish. He is perplexed. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and You will not hear?
Even cry out to You violence and You will not save? Why do You show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble? You see the anguish of the prophet. He's not just supposed to go, everything's okay.
No, he takes it to the Lord in prayer. He unburdens his heart in the presence of our great God. And the fact that he cries out how long implies that he had spent some time in this disposition. How long implies that he had been crying out for vindication, and that for a period, the Lord was not vindicating.
The Lord was not visiting. We see these kinds of things again in the Psalms. We read Psalm 13, which is a cry of, how long? We see the same thing in Psalm 89.
We see a very pointed why question offered up by Jeremiah in 12-1. Why do the wicked prosper? We see it in Asaph's psalms. Asaph, in Psalm 73, he looks around and he sees the godly suffering.
And he sees the ungodly prospering. And he is perplexed about this. He is wondering why such is the case. When he goes into the sanctuary, everything is set in order, which again highlights the principle that prayer and worship are the best helps to an agonized soul.
And so he cries out with this distress. And notice the specifics. There is the presence of evil. Verse 3, Why do you show me iniquity?
Cause me to see trouble. For plundering and violence are before me. There is strife and contention arises. Sounds just like Amos and Micah before him.
Amos and Micah targeted the northern kingdom. And they cried out about the same sort of thing. This is the covenant people. This is the covenant community.
This is God's chosen nation. And yet, this is the kind of stuff that I see. I see iniquity. I see trouble.
I see plundering. I see violence. I see strife and contention. The godly man is agonizing with the Lord, almost as if to say, God, it shouldn't be this way.
It shouldn't be the case that people are a-whoring from you. It shouldn't be the case that people are following after Baal. It shouldn't be true that they're going after Asherah. It should not be the case, Lord, that when we come to walk down our streets, we're afraid to do so because we're going to get mugged or robbed or some other sort of injustice will be perpetrated against us.
You see, a godly man cries out because of those types of things. And not only is there the presence of evil, but it's the absence of justice. You see, if these things were going on, but we had a magistrate that was taking vengeance upon them in the name of God and for the glory of God, well, then that's okay. It's not as if there'll be no wickedness, but the law is powerless.
The law, NIV says, is paralyzed. One man says, the law is numbed. You see, when men don't do what the law says, it's as if the law is ineffective. They are not upholding it.
They are not applying it. They are not penalizing those who break it. That's what he says. Therefore, the law is powerless and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, a perverse judgment proceeds. You see why I say these are relevant messages for us today? I mean, who of us could not bemoan and lament the same things here?
Who of us, if we have just a little bit of perception, can't say, wow, that sounds exactly like what we're seeing? In essence, it's as if the prophet is saying the divine Word has exercised little effect upon its hearers. There is wickedness in Judah, God, and it seems as if you are not involved. There is unrighteousness rife in the community, and Lord, you are not dealing with it.
That's his lament. That's his agony. That is not typical of the Trinity Broadcast Network. That is not typical of much Christian teaching on the higher happy life.
You see, Christianity recognizes the presence of evil. I'm always amazed when people say, well, that's in the Bible. I thought the Bible was all about good and happy things. Who said that?
Whoever said God took Clorox and washed the Scriptures, our only claim is that it's true. And true means it's filled with things that are oftentimes offensive to people. You see, the very complaint of the prophet in terms of the ethical issue ought to be our complaint in the 21st century in North America. Do we not see trouble?
Do we not see iniquity? Do we not see plundering and violence? Do we not see strife and contention? Do we not see what appears to be a powerless law?
And then we get into the church, and we even begin to insist on the place of the law, and we're looked at as if we're lunatics. What do you mean? We're not under law, we're under grace. Well, for as long as that message has predominated in the Christian church, she has lost something of an ethical edge in terms of her place in society.
That's the prophet's lament.
God's Answer: The Chaldeans Raised Up
Notice the Lord's response. Verse 5, the astonishment associated with God's activity. Look among the nations and watch. Be utterly astounded, for I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you.
You know what we get from this? Well, that we should be astonished at what God's going to do. But do you realize the way the Lord answers God agrees with the prophet's complaint? God agrees with him, doesn't he?
God knows that he's telling the truth. See, the prophet thought, or the prophet concluded, that the prevalence of evil meant that God might have been on holiday. I don't think he really thought that way in terms of his doctrine and his commitment to the orthodox confession of Israel, but it was a seeming disparity. Get all this stuff going on, Lord, and you're not doing anything.
God, in His answer, agrees with the prophet. God in His answer sympathizes with the prophet because God's going to deal with the issue. And in fact, God's response tells us that He understood or perceived the problem even more deeply than Habakkuk himself. You see, Habakkuk looks around and he sees these things and he cries out to the Lord.
The Lord's answer is, oh yes, I want you to be astonished, because I'm going to work in your days that you will be amazed by. In other words, I'm going to take care of the situation. And this is how I am going to take care of the situation. The identification of His instrument of judgment.
Chapter 1, verse 6a. For indeed, I am raising up the Chaldeans. The Babylonians. Now, it's just amazing.
The reason I want to spend a little time on this is because you need to know, as you read through your Bible and you see Babylonians, they were obviously an instrument in God's hand. In fact, in the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord calls Nebuchadnezzar, my servant. You have to understand something about the Babylonians. Robertson, in his commentary, said this.
It's a great summary. It is rather remarkable to note the ascendancy to power of this nation, the extent of their domain, and their equally rapid decline in prominence. This whole international escapade underscores the prominence of the divine hand in raising them up and also bringing them down. Who would believe that a virtually non-existent entity could conquer the old capital of Assyria in 614, Nineveh in 612, Haran in 610, and rout the armies of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605?
They became the world rulers over Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, when 20 years previously they were hardly known to exist. We look at things right now, and we've got such just a tiny perspective. In twenty years, God raised up the Chaldeans. They went through the whole Mesopotamian region, enslaving people, dominating people, and in less than a hundred years from their rise, they were obliterated.
They were defeated by the Persians in 539. Let's go back. He says, yet their energy dissipated almost as rapidly so that they were easily overcome by Cyrus, king of Persia, in 539, just in time to fulfill the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning Israel's return in 70 years. Jeremiah 29, 10.
Astounding indeed are the ways of God among the nations. He quotes John Calvin here. Not by their own instinct, but by the hidden impulse of God do the nations rise and fall." Absolutely incredible. You see, Habakkuk looks around, he sees the problems, he sees the wickedness, he sees the evil.
God says, I hear you. We might put it in the vernacular. I feel you. I know what you're going through.
In fact, I perceive the problem at a level you haven't even begun to examine yet. You haven't even begun to think through all of the covenant implications. God says, I am raising up the Chaldeans. And then notice He describes this instrument of judgment.
He says, they are a bitter and a hasty nation. They march through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. What's this sound like? I hope it sounds like Deuteronomy.
I hope it sounds like the first five books of Moses, because God sent Israel to Canaan to dispossess the land, to take things that were not theirs. God says, I'm giving you vineyards, which you didn't plant. I'm giving you cities, which you didn't build. I'm giving you wells, which you didn't dig out.
I'm giving you all of this because I'm sovereign and I love you and I want you to have it. What do we have but a role reversal? What do we have but an eye for eye? What do we have but now the Babylonians coming in, dispossessing Israel of their land, casting them out and taking over?
That, my friends, is the judgment of God Most High. Robertson again on this statement of them possessing dwelling places that are not theirs. He says in a very real sense, Israel is being placed in the role once occupied by the Canaanites before them. As those people once were driven away from their possessions because their iniquity was full, so now Israel must be driven away from its possessions because its iniquity is full.
Their place of comfort, enjoyment, pleasures, relaxation, security, and refreshment shall be taken from them. You see, Habakkuk sees the problem. Habakkuk cries out to God, and God essentially says, oh yes, I've seen the problem. I understand the problem, and I'm going to deal with the problem.
You see, there's a lesson for us there. We often get just a little bit, and we cry out to God, what are you doing? God has it all under control. We need to keep that in our minds firmly.
We need to remember that. There may be perplexing, there may be trial, there may be difficulty, but if we keep that fundamental thought in our head, we're learning from the prophet of Achaic. Maybe we won't have to have that kind of a perplexed faith because the prophet has taken pen to paper on our behalf and has instructed us. He goes on to describe this nation.
They are terrible, verse 7, and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses, also, are swifter than leopards and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead.
Their cavalry comes from afar. They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. Deuteronomy 28, 49. So many of these things come from the curses of the covenant.
So many of these things come right out of Deuteronomy. God, through Moses, told the nation that if you do this, this will be your reward. Notice, they all come for violence. Their faces are like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand. Deuteronomy 28, 41. They gather captives like sand. What did they do?
They took the people away from Judah and they led them into Babylon. They deported them. They exiled them. They confused them.
They threw them off kilter. It was the way of the invading nation. Get them out of the place of comfort, happiness, and joy, and put them over here, and we'll use them as slaves. You see, this was the judgment of God.
Verse 10, they scoff at kings, and princes are scorned by them. No buffer state is going to save Judah at this point. No buffer state is going to be able to send off Babylon when they come for Judah. You can't rest on Egypt.
You can't rest on Assyria. There's no more northern kingdom, Judah. There is none to save you. There is none to help you.
There is none to protect you. In fact, these guys are so brazen, they scoff at kings, and princes are sworn by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. Their military conquests are amazing.
This is what they live for. This is what they're about. This is what makes them tick. I don't understand verse 11.
Then his mind changes and he transgresses. He commits offense ascribing this power to his God. Various views in the commentaries. I don't know that I understand what he means by this particular statement, but the rest of it is crystal clear.
The prophet agonizes. The prophet laments. The prophet cries out to the Lord. And in the Lord's response, he highlights the fact that he agrees with the prophet, he sympathizes with the prophet, and that he perceives the problem more deeply than the prophet himself.
The Prophet's Second Lament
And that brings us to the second lament. This one is even more difficult.
The Theological Crisis: God's Holiness
Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have appointed them for judgment. O Rock, you have marked them for correction.
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness. Why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he? God is from everlasting. God is the Holy One.
Because of that truth, He says, we shall not die. God appoints men for judgment. God is the rock. Oftentimes, God is called rock in the Scripture.
Stability and immutability. Stability and unchangingness. God is the rock. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4.
God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness. You see, this is Habakkuk's confession. which becomes the source of Habakkuk's problem. That's what he says. God's holiness.
God, if you're this pure, how could you use something so impure to bring judgment on someone that's not as impure? You see, he's moved from just the ethical confusion in Judah to this problem that God is going to take a wickeder than Judah and judge them. Now Habakkuk says, Lord, wait a minute. It's almost as if he's saying that the cure here is worse than the disease.
You ever heard one of those commercials that says, here's a nice medication for the flu. Take this and it will deal with your flu symptoms. Be advised there are some side effects. You may get diarrhea, dizziness, Shortness of breath, heart failure, and death.
What's the answer? I'd rather have the flu, thank you. You see what this has done to Habakkuk? God, I agree.
Judah needs to be, the herd needs to be thin. Some corrective discipline is fit, is worthy, is meat. In fact, that's what Habakkuk is crying out for. But utter devastation, utter dispossession, utter dissolution of the Jewish state by the Babylonian hordes.
The prophet sees the holiness of God and he says, how can you, Lord, as the Holy One of Israel, do this? If your eyes, or if you are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and you cannot look on wickedness, why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?" Do you see it? Do you feel it there, brethren? Do you see what he's doing?
He's starting to think theologically. What began as a simple complaint to God, there's a lot of problems in Judah. God's saying, oh yeah, I know. And I'm going to raise up the Chaldeans, and I'm going to dispatch them.
And I'm going to call Nebuchadnezzar my servant. And I'm going to take every curse of the covenant, and I'm going to inflict it on those people. For I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. So now Habakkuk with this new information says, wait a minute, you're holy.
How can you take something that's so wicked and use it to chastise and devastate and destroy something that's wicked but not as bad? So the holiness of God presents for Habakkuk a real issue here. Corrective justice indeed the prophet desired for Israel, says Robertson. But utter destruction at the hands of the Chaldeans seemed to be Far too much.
God's Sovereignty and Human Helplessness
Notice not only God's holiness, but God's sovereignty. That's fleshed out there in verse 14. Notice, why do you make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? For the outdoorsman finds a comfort in the God of heaven and earth in chapter 1 of Habakkuk.
The imagery of hunting in God's first response and the imagery of fishing. in Habakkuk's second lament. You ever heard that old phrase? It's like shooting fish in a barrel. They've got no control.
They've got no protection. They've got no fortification. They've got no help. He says to God, why do you make men like fish of the sea?
He's no Arminian. He's no open theist. He's no Mormon. He understands God is absolutely sovereign.
And he's connecting the dots. And he says, why do you make men like fish of the sea? Like creeping things that have no ruler over them. He's not living in a chance universe.
He's not living in a universe driven by fate. He's living in a universe that he knows all too well is governed by a sovereign God. And so he asks God very specifically, why do you make men like fish of the sea? He highlights the intensification of the problem in verses 15 to 17.
What is he doing here? He says, they're brutal, God. He's afraid for his people now. They're brutal.
They take up all of them with a hook. They catch them in their net and gather them in their dragnet. That's literal. The Assyrians did it and the Babylonians followed suit.
When they would go in to take the exiles away, they'd put a hook through their lip or a hook through their nose and they'd put them on a piece of line and they would lead them that way. They're brutal. God Himself has said they're a bitter and a hasty nation. Notice He says they're sensual.
They are sensual, therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet, because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. These are a pagan people. These are a godless people. These are a people that worship the net.
These are a people that are oblivious to the reality that God has raised them up for this hour and is using them. Very similar to what we find in Isaiah 10. God uses Assyria. And He uses them to chase in Israel.
And then He turns in judgment against Assyria. The prophet here is genuinely perplexed. And then he highlights their relentlessness in verse 17. Shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity?
I hope you're appreciating. I really do. My prayer and my intent was for you to see what's going on in this passage. This is where we're at, man.
Especially as Calvinists. Especially as Reformed Christians. When we understand God's comprehensive and absolute sovereignty. We know men don't get into the White House because they're better.
We know men don't get into Ottawa because they're wiser. God raises men up, God puts them down. God has His purposes. God ordains all things for His glory and for the good of His elect.
God may at times chasten His elect. God may at times reprove. God may at times discipline. God may at times scourge.
And this is what the prophet is having to encounter. And this is what the prophet is crying out to the Lord about. These are genuine, real, live, ethical, and theological issues which, no doubt, if you're honest with yourself, have perplexed you in the past as well. I know we all like to stick our chests out.
We all like to think of ourselves like we're the big, strong Calvinist that has all the answers and has everything down. But you know, in your heart of hearts, there are certain things that take place that make you want to cry like a bat that can say why. Why? And then God gives the answer, and then you say, why?
Even more. Lord, your holiness. Lord, your sovereignty. Lord, what's going on here?
To be a Calvinist doesn't mean you're to neuter your emotions. You're to worship, you're to praise, you're to adore. And from this book of Habakkuk, you're to learn that God has everything under control. Habakkuk didn't have Habakkuk to turn to.
Job didn't have Job to turn to. Do you realize that, right? Job, when he was tried to the very core of his being, didn't have friends that say, you need to read the book of Job, and you need to be encouraged. You need to understand.
You need to learn. He didn't have it. God used Job for us. I mean, for other things to be sure, but one of the reasons God used Job was so we can turn there.
One of the reasons Habakkuk, this we know nothing about prophet, was raised up and sent to Judah in the late 7th century B.C. was so that you and I will know that God has everything under control. Even if it doesn't look like it, as far as we are concerned. Notice in chapter two, verse one, I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected.
The Just Shall Live by Faith
I'm going to stop our exposition there and, God willing, pick up the Lord's response next week because it is a multifaceted response, a glorious response, where he highlights the place of faith, the disposition necessary. Notice in chapter two, verse four, A text that hopefully is very familiar to you as New Testament students, the just shall live by his faith. Romans 1.17, Galatians 3.11, Hebrews 10.38 and 39. S.
Lewis Johnson said this concerning this wonderful text, the just shall live by faith. It is without question near the soul of Pauline theology. Habakkuk's great text, with his son Paul's comments and additions, became the banner of the Protestant Reformation in the hands of Habakkuk's grandson, Martin Luther. So we want to spend a bit of time on that section there.
But
Application
I just want to draw out a few lessons at this point, and then we'll close. The first is this. We do see here that a mark of a godly man is that he is concerned. I know that seems to be quite elementary.
I know that seems to be quite basic. But it is something that we need to be reminded of. It is no mark of piety. It is no mark of godliness for us to walk around oblivious to the evils of society.
In fact, it betrays godliness and righteousness and piety when we are not concerned. The psalmist said, rivers of waters run down from my eyes because men do not heed your law. Jesus Christ taught us to pray first and foremost for the glory of God. He said, pray, hallowed be thy name.
Pray for the glory of God's name. And then pray for the coming of God's kingdom. And then pray for the doing of God's will on earth as it is in heaven. When we walk day to day in Chilliwack or in Abbotsford or in Surrey or in Vancouver or in Timbuktu and we as Christians see iniquity and trouble and plundering and violence and strife and contention, I hope and I pray that we are concerned.
It's not godly to be oblivious to these things. It's godly to be concerned. It's godly to be informed. It's godly to be prayerful.
It's godly to go to the throne of grace and pray that the Lord would stop the abominations that fill our land. That's the essence of the petition, that the will of the Lord be done on earth as it is in heaven. Revelation 20-22 does not describe a city wherein there are abortion clinics, or where they have gay marriages, or where drive-by shootings occur all the time. or where there is theft and robbery and all those things that continue on. No.
God's will is righteousness. We say, well, it's impossible to ever have that on earth. Well then, pray more fervently. The concern of a godly man.
Secondly, the legitimate expression of that concern. is a place to cast your burden upon God. There are other legitimate expressions, living in a situation where you're free to write to your congressmen or your members of parliament. Those are all legitimate expressions of that concern. But you know, the primary place is at the throne of grace.
We go to the Lord God Most High. We call upon Him. We ask Him as the psalmists do, as the prophets do, as our apostles do. Lord God, intervene for Your great name.
A third observation that comes from the passage is, of course, the sovereignty of God. He appeared to be inactive. He appeared to be indifferent. But when he answers Habakkuk, we find out he's not indifferent, he's not inactive, and he actually is more concerned about the lawlessness that is rampant in the earth than Habakkuk was.
We are not holier than God. We are not more concerned than God. We are not somehow better than God. God knows everything, and God will tend to it.
We need to understand something too. While God doesn't answer his question, it's interesting in the second response. He doesn't say, well, I'm not sovereign. I really don't do all those things.
He doesn't do that. God's not an Arminian or an open theist either. God is every much a Calvinist is the best of Calvinists. He affirms His absolute sovereignty.
He affirms the fact that He is in charge of these things. He doesn't directly answer the prophet and say, well, my holiness is protected because of this, that, and the other. My sovereignty is protected because of this, that, and the other. He gets to the heart of the issue.
Habakkuk, you need faith. There's some troubling times coming, and the way that you're going to live is by faith. That's what you need. But you know, from outside the context of Habakkuk 1, we learn from other places a couple of things about God using certain means.
Sometimes He uses very strange means, doesn't He? I mean, would you have thought of the Chaldeans to be the instrument of judgment against Judah? A surgeon uses means, doesn't he? I hope he does.
If you ever go in for surgery, make sure you glance and see a table full of tools. I don't want a surgeon with his bare hands going in there, rip, rip, take, take, fetch, fetch. He's using instruments, right? God uses instruments.
The only thing different is that the instruments God uses aren't sterile, because there is none righteous, no, not one. Not as if God just creates a holy and spotless people to be the scourge upon His wicked ones, and then puts them back. You see, judgment can oftentimes be a nasty affair. When God goes to accomplish His means, He'll raise up the Chaldeans.
He'll dispatch them to Judah. He will use them to do His bidding. He will bring them back and then cause them to fall to the Persians and be wiped off of the historical map in 539 B.C. And you know, the second thing we need to remember about judgment and about God's sovereignty involved in judgment?
Judgment is not supposed to be pleasant, is it? We don't get to say, well, Lord, we'd rather have a very kind and gracious people come in and make our beds and tell us stories and urge us on to better morals. That doesn't work. You see, Habakkuk's issue is a reality, but the Bible provides answers for it.
God uses instruments. has never promised that judgment will be a happy affair. And then the fourth thing that we need to learn is from Habakkuk 1.12, that doctrine, that solid theology. There is some question as to a statement there, we shall not die. Some translate it because of a variant reading, you shall not die.
God is from everlasting. God is the Holy One. You shall not die. I don't think that's what He's affirming.
I think He is taking the doctrine, the orthodoxy, the truth that He has, and He is resolving, and this is an expression of His faith, we shall not die. Oh, there will be judgment. There will be purging. There will be destruction.
There will be a surgery that is very bloody. But we, the remnant, We, the covenant people, we, the faithful, we shall not die. God will not obliterate His church. God will not take them from the face of the earth.
God will not. dispossess His people. We need to have that kind of theology, that in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, we will be able to comfort ourselves with that reality, with that truth. We need to see God as the rock. Because that's the kind of stuff, brethren, that will get you through your Habakkuk experiences.
It's that kind of stuff that will take you through the trials and the perplexities that your faith will eventually meet in a sinful world where God doesn't always immediately make everything better. It is sound theology. It is trust in the living and true God. The just shall live by His faith.
Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for this prophet and for the teaching of your Holy Word. And God, we pray that we would learn from this prophet that prayer and worship and being in the presence of God is the best help for our perplexity. We pray, Lord God Most High, that you would help us to comfort ourselves with the truth of the Scripture, that you are from everlasting, that you are the Holy One. that you are our rock. And God, I pray that you would comfort each of my brothers and sisters here, and that you would indeed teach us from these books of the Old Testament.
God, we pray as well for our nation. We pray that you would have mercy here. We pray that judgment would begin in the house of God, that you would revive your people, that you would conform us more and more to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Make us a people committed to the truth of God, for certainly that is the best, best service we can offer our generation, is to point clearly the way of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.
We pray that you'd go with each one of us now, Lord, that you would watch over us and protect us. Thank you for bringing Fran Frew home safely. We just pray for her and all of her difficulties with family being ill and the various trials that she is facing. We pray that you would sustain her and bless her and comfort her.
And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.