(Audio version; Music: "While I'm Waiting" by: John Waller and "Bring The Rain" by: MercyMe)
Introduction
I
read a great story this week about a professional basketball player from the
Golden State Warriors. I’m not a huge basketball fan but I am a huge Stephen
(“Steph”) Curry fan. Aside from being a basketball phenom, all indications are
that he is a great young man and a devout Christian. Anyway, Steph has a
practice of writing a particularly important Bible verse on the outside of his
basketball shoes before a game. Well most high-profile basketball players
partner with big-name sports apparel companies to wear and advertise their athletic
apparel for which the athlete gets paid a mind-boggling amount of money—often
tens of millions of dollars every year. In this case the sponsor involved was
the sports giant, Nike. They contacted Steph and told him that if he was going
to represent them by wearing basketball shoes with their name and company logo
on them, he could no longer write Bible verses on the shoes. With millions of dollars
to lose, Steph had a decision to make—stop writing Bible verses on his
basketball shoes and keep collecting Nike’s sponsorship money or maintain his
character and integrity by honoring God the way he was and lose all that money.
So what did Steph do? He contacted Nike and cancelled his agreement with them.
He honored God be demonstrating through his actions that his Christian witness
is not just words written on his basketball shoes. Shortly after cancelling his
agreement with Nike, Steph was contacted by Under Armor, another sports
equipment and apparel giant, about partnering with them to promote their
product. When they learned why Steph cancelled his contract with Nike, they assured
him that not only could he have any Bible verse he wanted on his basketball
shoes, they would custom print the verse on the shoe for him.
Steph’s decision to be true
to what he believed and especially his Christian witness was quickly rewarded.
But it doesn’t always work that way does it? Do character, integrity and the
doing things the right way really matter, especially when we don’t seem to be
rewarded for it? Sometimes it just doesn’t seem like it’s worth the anguish and
heartache. I wish I had the perfect words to encourage you in your struggle but
I know I have often struggled with this same issue. 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, do 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 that effort? Why, when you believe things are just starting to
go great, do you find out you 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?
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 around 608 BC-598BC. Remember 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,
superior 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 the 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
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.
Habakkuk
opens with a complaint in 1:1-4
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
last week’s lesson. “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 Manasseh
and his predecessors has sealed Israel’s fate. Left to themselves, they suffer
endless abuses.”[1]
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.
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.”
God
responds to Habakkuk’s complaint in 1:5-11
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.”[2]
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. Babylonian military 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!
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.
Before
we jump right in to Habakkuk’s second complaint in 1:12-2:1, 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?).
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.”
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.”[3] 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.”[4]
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.
Habakkuk
ends his prophetic writing in 3:1-19
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.”[5]
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. 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?” from 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. And 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 that 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!”[6]
[1] O.
Palmer Robertson, The Books of Nahum,
Habakkuk and Zephaniah, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co., 1990), p. 138.
[2] Mark J.
Boda and J. Gordon McConville, eds., Dictionary
of the Old Testament Prophets, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
2012), p. 296.
[3] William
S. Lasor, David A. Hubbard and Frederic W. Bush, Old Testament Survey, The Message, Form, and Background of the Old
Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), p.
324.
[4]
Robertson, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah,
p. 211.
[5] J. J. M.
Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah,
(Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991), p. 158.
[6] Dr.
Larry Crabb, 66 Love Letters-A
Conversation With God That Invites You Into His Story, (Nashville, TN:
Thomas Nelson, 2009), pp. 170-172.
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