Introduction
I
spent some time on the phone this past week talking to my sister about some
fairly significant changes and transitions going on in her life and the
struggles that are so often just part of daily life. Specifically, we talked
about character and integrity and the value of doing things the right way. I
was moved when she told me how hard it was to always try to do things right
without being rewarded for it. And that sometimes it just doesn’t seem like
it’s worth the heartache. I wish I could have had better words for her but I
know I have struggled with this same issue. I have no doubt many of you struggle
with it as well. Ironically, unbelievers rarely struggle as much with the
matter of why the events of life unfold the way they do. They can attribute it
to luck, karma, coincidence or chance. But for believers in a truly sovereign
God the struggle is real. Why, when people do what is right, aren’t they always
rewarded for it? Why, when someone works so hard, can they still lose their
job? Why, when a wife commits her life to her husband, does her husband leave
her for another woman? Why, when parents sacrifice everything for their
children, do some children rebel against their parents? Why, when a student
studies so hard, don’t his or her test grades always reflect the effort? Why,
when we believe things are just starting to go great, do we then find out we
have cancer? Why do cheaters so often win? Why are liars so rarely exposed? Why
do the wicked continue to prosper? When you don’t believe in luck, karma,
coincidence or chance then these questions inevitably arise. We pray and cry
out to God for answers. I’m not convinced we care all that much about why we struggle. I think we want to know
How Long, O Lord! You see, I don’t
believe we toil under the weight of our struggles because we don’t understand
them, we toil because they are heavy and knowing why they are heavy makes them
no less heavy. We want to know How Long,
O Lord until you do something to relieve the struggle. How Long, O Lord are you going to let injustice have the upper-hand?
How Long, O Lord do I have to live
paycheck-to-paycheck? How Long, O Lord
do I have to suffer? How Long, O Lord
_________________? You fill in the blank. These are very real questions that
long for answers that are too often left unanswered. But sometimes, sometimes
God lets us peek behind the curtain to catch a glimpse of his plan. Usually he
never seems to give us the complete picture or a map. Do you want to know why?
If you have a map or detailed plans, you won’t rely on Him and you’ll soon
think you can do everything without him—you won’t need faith, trust, or hope. You
may also tremble at what you see or hear. So we continue to question and seek
Him and hope that he will answer us when we cry out How Long, O Lord! In our lesson for this week, we’ll explore
another person who asked this very important question, the prophet Habakkuk.
Subject
Text
Habakkuk 1:1-3:19
1 The
oracle that
Habakkuk the prophet received. 2 How long, O
Lord, must
I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you
do not save? 3 Why do
you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and
violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is
paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that
justice is perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 “Look
at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something
in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. 6 I am raising up the
Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole
earth to seize dwelling places not their own. 7 They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to
themselves and promote their own honor. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than
wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They
fly like a vulture swooping to devour; 9 they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like
a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. 10 They deride kings and scoff
at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and
capture them. 11 Then
they sweep past like the wind and go on—guilty men, whose own strength is their
god.”
Habakkuk’s
Second Complaint
12 O Lord, are you not from
everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O Lord, you have
appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish. 13 Your eyes are too pure to
look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the
treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more
righteous than themselves?
14 You have made
men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler. 15 The wicked foe pulls all of
them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his
dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to
his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. 17 Is he to keep on emptying his
net, destroying nations without mercy?
2 I
will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see
what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
The Lord’s Answer
2 Then
the Lord replied:
“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may
run with it. 3 For
the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not
prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not
delay. 4 “See, he is
puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will live by his
faith—5 indeed, wine betrays
him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and
like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes
captive all the peoples. 6 “Will
not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “‘Woe to him who
piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must
this go on?’ 7 Will
not your debtors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then
you will become their victim. 8 Because
you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For
you have shed man’s blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in
them. 9 “Woe to him
who builds his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high, to escape the
clutches of ruin!
10 You have plotted
the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. 11 The stones of the wall will
cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. 12 “Woe to him who builds a city
with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime! 13 Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s
labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for
nothing? 14 For the
earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters
cover the sea. 15 “Woe
to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they
are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. 16 You will be filled with shame
instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the Lord’s right hand is
coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. 17 The violence you have done to
Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For
you have shed man’s blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in
them. 18 “Of what
value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches
lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that
cannot speak. 19 Woe
to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it
give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it. 20 But the Lord is in his holy
temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”
Habakkuk’s
Prayer
3 A
prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. 2 Lord, I have heard of
your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in
our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, the Holy
One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the
earth. 4 His splendor
was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden. 5 Plague went before him; pestilence
followed his steps. 6 He
stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The
ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are
eternal. 7 I saw the
tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. 8 Were you angry with the
rivers, O Lord? Was
your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode with
your horses and your victorious chariots? 9 You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You
split the earth with rivers; 10 the
mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and
lifted its waves on high. 11 Sun
and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the
lightning of your flashing spear. 12
In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the
nations. 13 You came
out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader
of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. 14 With his own spear you
pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as
though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. 15 You trampled the sea with
your horses, churning the great waters. 16 I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the
sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait
patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. 17 Though the fig tree does not
bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the
fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in
the stalls, 18 yet I
will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he
makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
Context
For those of you who are a
regular part of this learning community, you know that I generally teach on a
single idea within a biblical text (unless I get distracted by the voices in my
head that lead me down a rabbit trail occasionally). So before you freak out
about how long the subject text is for this week’s lesson, it really represents
a single idea so stick with me as we go through it. Context for this particular
lesson is really the key to understanding the text so let’s get that out of the
way up front.
Habakkuk’s biblical
contemporaries were Nahum, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Habakkuk’s
oracle was most likely written sometime in c. 608 BC-598BC. Remember from a
previous lesson (Title: Their Blood Cries
Out To Us!; Label: Pastoral Care; Date: 11/7/12) that the nation of Israel
was divided at this time into two kingdoms; Israel in the north and Judah in
the south. The northern kingdom of Israel was captured by the Assyrians in 722
BC and the southern kingdom of the Judah would fall, in part, to the rising world
super-power Babylonians in 597 BC. For the most part, military might during the
time of Habakkuk belonged to Assyria, Egypt and a brutal, massive and still
growing Babylon. The Assyrian capital of Nineveh was destroyed by the
Babylonians in 612 BC. Three years later, Egypt feared Babylon’s continuing
advancement and set out to oppose Babylon at Carchemish. Pharaoh Neco tried to
march his army north through Judah but king Josiah of Judah tried to stop him.
Josiah was a good king in God’s eyes but fell in battle against Neco. Jehoahaz
became king of Judah but only for three months which is when the king of Egypt
removed him and took him to Egypt and installed Jehoiakim as Judah’s king.
Judah was then required to pay massive tribute to Egypt. Neco moved on to
Carchemish and fought alongside Assyria against the Babylonians for 4 years.
Egypt and Assyria were soundly defeated at Carchemish in 605 BC. Babylon was
firmly in control and held the distinguished titled of being the world’s
unrivaled super-power. Babylon also began its systematic deportation of Judah
at that time. Judah’s fall to Babylonians was completed and the temple and
Jerusalem were destroyed in 586 BC. The prophet Jeremiah actively opposed
Jehoiakim’s evil rule. Jeremiah presented him with a scroll detailing all the
things God spoke to Jeremiah that God had in store for Judah because of its
disobedience. The hope was that when Jehoiakim and the people read the scroll,
they would repent of their wicked lives. Instead, Jehoiakim burned the scroll
and sent his people to find and arrest Jeremiah. It is upon these events that
we can overlay Habakkuk’s prophetic writing.
Text Analysis
In 1:1-4,
Habakkuk opens with a complaint wondering how long God was going to ignore king
Jehoiakim’s evil leadership. Habakkuk complains that there is violence, strife,
conflict and injustice yet God remains silent. At first glance, Habakkuk’s
complaint doesn’t seem completely unreasonable but let’s not forget that this
leadership structure is precisely what Israel asked for when they demanded to
be led by a king like “the other nations” instead of recognizing God as their
king as I taught in a previous lesson (title: We Want A King!; Label: Pastoral Care; Date: 8/1/12). “The
substance of the prophet’s complaint centers on unanswered prayer. He has cried
for relief from injustice; he has not been answered. A previous historical
situation explains in part the perplexities of this circumstance. At the time
of Israel’s insistence on the establishment of the monarchy, the Lord warned
them through his servant: ‘You will cry out for relief from the king you have
chosen, and the Lord will not answer you
in that day’ (1 Sam. 8:18). The consummate consequences of their rejecting God
as king is that a wicked monarchy would bring them into a state of oppression. Then
the Lord would not hear their cry for relief. The prophet cries, but the Lord
does not hear. The wickedness brought in by Menasseh and his predecessors has
sealed Israel’s fate. Left to themselves, they suffer endless abuses.”
Nevertheless, in response to Habakkuk’s complaint that God hasn’t answered his
prayers, God answers. I wonder, though, if Habakkuk wishes God hadn’t answered
when he heard God’s answer.
In 1:5-11,
God responds to Habakkuk’s complaint but in accordance with his own agenda not
Habakkuk’s agenda. God informs Habakkuk that he will, in fact, judge and punish
Judah’s sinful behavior but not the way Habakkuk must have hoped for. God
informs Habakkuk that he is raising up the feared Babylonians to carry out
divine judgment against Judah. In case Habakkuk was unfamiliar with their
reputation for brutality, God reminds him what the people can expect at the
hand of the Babylonians. It is important to remember that the Assyrians were
described as the most brutal and oppressive empire of all time—until the
Babylonians who conquered the Assyrians and eclipsed the Assyrian brutality
with unmatched military might and brutality. “Nebuchadnezzar demonstrated his
military aggression following the battle of Carchemish (605 BC) by pursuing the
defeated Egyptian army more than one hundred and fifty miles to crush them
completely. Once the Babylonians had defeated both the Assyrians at Nineveh
(612 BC) and the Egyptians (605 BC), no one could stop them. They could ‘scoff
at rulers.’ Once they controlled trade routes, they could ‘laugh at all
fortified cities,’ building earthen ramps to go over city walls.”
You can picture the advancing Babylonian warriors as a massive tornado too fast
to out-run and powerful enough to destroy anything and everything as it moves
along its path of destruction. The measure of Babylonian strength was measured
not just quantitatively but qualitatively. In other words, military strength
was demonstrated not only in how many nations were conquered but the degree to
which those nations were devastated—their strength was their god!
When
we read the text, we jump right in to Habakkuk’s second complaint in 1:12-2:1
but consider for a moment what just happened. Habakkuk has been crying out for
God to do something about Judah’s evil and injustice and God’s solution is to throw
Judah to the lions. There is no way Habakkuk expected, or wanted, God to solve
the problem this way. I remember once when my girls were very small, one of
them got a Christmas gift that the other one wanted to play with and the two of
them fought constantly about it. I would intervene a few times to get them to share
but the situation would always eventually disintegrate into more fighting and
crying. Finally, when one came to me complaining about being treated unfairly
with respect to this toy, I quietly took the toy and threw it in the trash. I
told them that if they couldn’t figure out how to share each others’ toys
better, I would begin throwing them all away. They were stunned! They
complained and wanted relief but what they really wanted was for me to rule in
their favor respectively. Losing the toy altogether never even crossed their
minds. Suffice it to say, no more toys found their way to the trash but the
lesson learned to get to that point was painful and dramatic. This is precisely
Habakkuk’s reaction in 1:13a when he says that if God can’t tolerate the
“wrong” of Judah then how can he tolerate the treachery of the Babylonians? And
then, in 1:13b, Habakkuk does the same thing that many of us do when God is
disciplining us for our sin; we point to others in comparison and try and
defend our actions by pointing out that there are others who are far worse than
we are. Habakkuk goes on, just like we would, to question how God could use the
ungodly to judge and punish the less ungodly (I know that sounds stupid but how
do you think it sounded to God?).
God again
answers Habakkuk in 2:2-20 by reminding him that no offense goes unnoticed—by
anyone! God instructs Habakkuk to record the future indictment, judgment and
sentencing of Babylon for its evil and unrighteousness. Then in 2:4 God says
something that seems like an afterthought in the Old Testament but is on
prominent display in the New Testament—“the righteous will live by his faith”
(cf. Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:37-38). “The precise meaning of these
verses is difficult, but the basic thought is clear—the sharp contrast between
the faithful righteous and the proud, debauched, and bloodthirsty Babylonians.
The conduct of each group determines its fate: the Babylonians fail; the
righteous live.” What
follows as a description of God’s indictment of Babylon can be found in the 5
“Woes” starting in 2:6b. But when you read the indictments, do any of the
warnings make you uncomfortable? Some of them make me feel uncomfortable, like
maybe they could apply to me. In a bit of divine irony, I think that is the
point. Remember that even though the biblical text has just one meaning, it has
multiple elements of significance and I believe this is one of those elements
of significance. Are our achievements above reproach? Have we tried to insulate
ourselves with lies and deception? Have we built our lives through illegal or
illegitimate means? Have we taken advantage of the weaknesses of our family,
friends or neighbors for our own gain? Have we set anything up in our lives in
the place that should belong only to God—i.e. money, sex or power? In any
event, this was God’s future indictment of the Babylonians. 2:20 makes an
extremely important observation—in all situations: God is sovereign; God is in
complete control; God can and will use whatever means necessary to accomplish
his will. You will notice that although God fully recognizes the sinful
character and actions of the Babylonians, he has no intention of stopping them
from carrying out the providentially ordained judgment against Judah. However,
it is not for the purpose of annihilating Judah but disciplining Judah and
purging it of unrighteousness. “Habakkuk had begun his dialogue in an effort to
understand the mysterious ways of a holy God with sinful people. Now he stands
in the presence of the Lord’s holy temple, hushed in reverential awe. He may
not have grasped fully all the implications of the divine answer to his query.
Yet he stands assured of the abiding lordship of his God, of his justice in
prosecuting all violators of his holy law, and of his infinite mercy in
granting life to all who will trust in him and in the provisions he has
promised for the sinner.”
Habakkuk
ends his prophetic writing with what comes naturally—praise. Chapter three is
essentially a psalm or poem or song that gives praise to God for his
sovereignty, provision and faithfulness. The beginning of the chapter recalls
God’s salvation work in Israel’s past and asks God to once again be merciful to
his people even in his anger. Habakkuk has abandoned his focus on what he
thinks God should do about the peoples’ unrighteousness and how he should do it
and has once again begun to focus on the person and character of God. The psalm
alludes to God’s faithful care and salvation during David’s military conquests (3:13)
as well as God’s faithful care and salvation of his people during the Exodus
(3:15). The text also anticipates God’s future care and salvation from the
Babylonians (3:16). But most important of all is Habakkuk’s final attitude
recorded in 3:17-19. Therein, Habakkuk acknowledges that no matter the
circumstances that currently surround him or that will surround him in the
future, he will unswervingly put his full faith and trust in the Lord to care
for him and to save him. Habakkuk praises not with an attitude of defeat and
sorrow but with complete confidence and joy. “The prophet has clearly borrowed
from Israel’s hymnic tradition to express his confidence in God’s ultimate
salvation, but in so doing he expressed a profound truth about eschatological
existence. In the certainty of that coming salvation, Habakkuk appears to say,
one is both able to stay on the path, as precarious as it may seem, and, what
is more, to experience in the interim some foretaste of that coming victory
over the powers of evil.”
Application
Dr.
Larry Crabb in his wonderful book, 66
Love Letters-A Conversation With God That Invites You Into His Story,
provides the perfect application for this lesson and he is far more eloquent
than I am so let me use his words to apply our subject text to our lives. As
part of the format of the book, Dr. Crabb supposes that God responds to the
question of “What are you teaching me in this book?” in each of the “66 Love
Letters” representing the 66 books of the Bible respectively. Dr. Crabb asks
God what he is trying to say through Habakkuk. God responds:
“Never
ignore your struggle with how I do things. Ask every question that arises in
your heart as you live in this world. But prepare yourself to struggle even
more with My response. You must stumble in confusion before you dance with
Joy…Like you, Habakkuk saw problems in the church of his day, problems that I
opened his eyes to see and then did nothing about. Through my letters so far, I
have opened your eyes to see what bothers you and appalls me in today’s
Christianity:
v Surface worship that
provides excitement but no power to change;
v Recognition-hungry spiritual
leaders who remain blind to their insecurity-driven ministry and, therefore,
are unable to call people to true brokenness;
v Cheapening views of the
cross that reduce My Son’s death to an affirmation of people’s value and a call
to similarly affirm others;
v A postmodern revision of
Christianity into a kingdom-building story told on a foundation of either
truth-denying uncertainty or unknowable truth—resulting in a religion of moral
flexibility the weakens the demands of holiness;
v A pride-enhancing emphasis
on size, activity, and celebrity that corrupts church into a merely inspiring
event and moves it away from a supernatural opportunity to know Me, and to know
oneself and others with a painful realism that drives My people to
ever-deepening dependence and trust.
“Habakkuk prayed for
brokenness in his people and revival through My Spirit. He saw neither. Now
hear me well as I unfold the dialogue I entered into with My frustrated
servant. It’s the dialogue I long to have with you. I permitted Habakkuk to
continue the mystery of My silence until he was worn out. Only when false hope
is abandoned will My strange but true hope be embraced.
“I shattered his false hope by
revealing My plan for Babylon, a nation more evil than Judah, to rise up and
discipline My people. And I made it clear it would all happen under My
direction. I want you and all My people to know that nothing catches Me off
guard—not even Adolf Hitler or Osama bin Laden. Nothing has happened or ever
will happen that I am not using for My purposes.
“But what I allow seems to
contradict My holy and pure character. I required Habakkuk, as I require you,
to live in the tension between the evil that prospers, whether in the church or
in secular society, and My plan to restore the beauty of My character in this
world. It is that tension that shifted Habakkuk’s focus away from frustration
with what he saw in the world toward the mystery of how I execute My plan. With
that shift, Habakkuk was silenced and I spoke.
“It was then I revealed My
plan that everyone must wait and see unfold. People respond in one of only two
ways to My requirement to wait. Either they refuse to wait and instead try to
manage life according to their desires; or they live by faith in My character,
confessing their own selfish ways and yielding to My plan and to My timetable
to get them to My party.
“Know this: those who live
by faith will struggle in ways that those who live to make their lives work
will never know. It is that struggle, to believe despite desperate pain and
confusion that a good plan is unfolding, that will open your eyes to see Me
more clearly. Is that what you want? Will you pay the price?
“The price is this: you will
tremble in agony as you live in a sinful, self-prioritizing world as a sinful,
self-prioritizing person, knowing that no sin will go unpunished even though,
for a time, I will appear to be doing nothing.
“You will learn to wait in
emptiness and frustrated desire for My plan of love to reveal itself. With
confidence in Me and hope in My plan, you will not only feel the pain of living
in the valley but also see My glory from the mountaintop of faith. Only those
who struggle in confusion and wait in hope will be strengthened to struggle
well and wait with confidence. This is My message to you…Struggle well! Wait in
hope!”
