The Prophet's Lament and the Lord's Answer

Jim Butler

Habakkuk's two laments to God — one ethical, one theological — expose the perennial tension between a believer's knowledge of God's holiness and sovereignty and the apparent triumph of wickedness. The first complaint concerns lawlessness rampant in Judah under Jehoiakim; God's answer, that He is raising up the Chaldeans as His instrument of judgment, only deepens the crisis: how can a God of pure eyes employ a nation more wicked than the one He is chastising? The sermon situates these laments historically, traces their covenant-theological logic through Deuteronomy's curse-sanctions, and draws out four applications: godly concern for societal evil, prayer as the primary outlet for that concern, confidence in God's sovereign control, and the doctrinal anchor that the covenant remnant shall not perish.