The Bible Series Habakkuk
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Transcript
This morning I would like you to open your bibles to the Minor Prophet book of Habakkuk… ugh more prophet books… they can be such a downer…
Do We Need This?
Do We Need This?
Do we need another prophetic book?
Do we need to hear again how God is upset with sin?
Do we need to hear about more grace?
Do we need to hear God warn His people… AGAIN!!!
SOOOO… many prophetic books… Do we really need another one?
Okay… we have now looked at, read, studied 12 prophetic books… let’s pause to take time to see WHERE ARE WE AT?
Where are we at?
Where are we at?
17 Sundays in the prophetic books… that is 4 months!!!
We have major prophets, minor prophets, those to Isreal, Judah, Gentiles…
and we are being warned about things in the past… and told about things that have not happened yet…
IS ANYONE MAYBE CONFUSED? DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS?
Picture this timeline with me…
Picture this timeline with me…
There may be 17 writing prophets… but NOTICE how spread out they are
Many are over 50 years apart
Some are to other nations or people
Each generation is going to hear… read… have opportunity
Look at the PATIENCE of our God!!!
We see a God of GRACE & MERCY
Consider the Five Prophets Left
Consider the Five Prophets Left
Three of them will be addressing a WHOLE NEW generation
The people will have new circumstances, focus, goals and dreams
Notice there is still almost 100 years between these!
It is interesting that Habakkuk comes after Zephaniah on timeline but not in our bibles
This may be due to the interesting nature of this book we are looking at today...
It does not address the people of Judah directly
It is a conversation between God and a prophet, most likely a priest ministering spiritually to the people
We see both Habakkuk’s heart and God’s heart expressed
Let’s briefly look at this book today… It may be more pertinent to our lives than you may think...
Habakkuk Overview
Habakkuk Overview
As we read the first 2 chapters we discover there is a conversation…
Habakkuk is asking Questions of God and we see God giving His Answers
I want to clarify… We DO NOT see Habakkuk QUESTIONING GOD rather we see him asking QUESTIONS OF GOD
In this book we see Habakkuk demonstrate FAITH in how he interacts and listens to God Almighty
QUESTION 1 ???
God why is the sin of the people going unpunished Habakkuk 1:2-4
How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.
NOTICE his concern… he sees sin, and it seems to grow
God have you ceased to address evil? Other prophets have spoke out against it, they said you would punish evil…
God why??? Habakkuk’s question is one you have most likely asked in your life.
Here is a man striving to follow God, concerned over the evil he sees.
Asking why and getting an answer is not always what we want to here...
Answer !!!
Judah’s sin will be punished!!! … AND I am going to use the Babylonians to do so. Habakkuk 1:5-7
The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.
These were fierce, violent people. Brutal in their takeovers.
IMAGINE: Crying out to God, oh God, have you not seen the horrors of our nation America, the violence, the evil sins of the people, justice is warped, people do every pleasure of sin in their hearts, right is wrong and wrong is right. Oh God!!! When will you do something???
And God replies… I will do something. I am sending in North Korea. They will wipe out all in their path, they will come and discipline your nation, they will be my tool of punishment for your people’s evil ways!!!
Ummmmm… God? Why North Korea? Ummm… are they not even worse than us?… This was basically Habakkuk’s next question...
QUESTION 2 ???
God! Why would you use such PAGANS to discipline your people? Habakkuk 1:12-13
O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?
Interesting how we are soooooo prone to playing the comparison game. We judge our own sin in comparison to another’s sin. If we are “better” sinners we somehow justify ourselves.
This is NOTHING SHORT of a works based salvation mindset!!!!
Man so easily can come to a point in his heart and thinking to think that somehow they deserve God’s favor, love due to how they live COMPARED to how another lives!
We see that Habakkuk does not understand God’s approach or ways fully… but ask a followup question Habakkuk 1:17
Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?
God graciously answers again and clarifies some things…
Answer !!!
Yes! I will use a PAGAN people, but I am Just and will punish them as well. Habakkuk 2:4
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
God addresses the proud heart and the heart that goes before God simply in Faith, knowing his sin and need for GRACE!!!
Paul would speak to this in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 as well as the writer of Hebrews 10:38
This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
God then addresses 5 WOES:
(these woes were not just spoken of concerning Babylon but later generations and other nations)
God is against Greed and Aggression
God is against Oppressors
God is against Violence
God is against Immorality
God is against Idolatry
Do we not see these very things in our own nation, among our own people, dare we say it… OUR OWN HEARTS AND HOMES.
With each WOE God would sum up by drawing man’s attention to who He is!
Habakkuk 2:20 sums up all these woes in a powerful statement:
But the Lord is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”
God is HOLY… when standing before a HOLY GOD man will be silent.
CHAPTER 3
The conversation is now over. Man has asked his questions, God has given His answers. Chapter 3 evokes a Psalm of praise from Habakkuk. It is a prayer, that Habakkuk states should be put to music (3:19).
In his praise he declares God crushes
Yet he also declares God saves!!!
I love how real Habakkuk 3:16;18-19 is in his prayer to God…
I trembled inside when I heard this; my lips quivered with fear. My legs gave way beneath me, and I shook in terror. I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us.
yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. (For the choir director: This prayer is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.)
Habakkuk praises in his prayer in Chapter 3 the PERSON of God, the almighty POWER of God, and even the PLAN of God.
He is able to come to a place where he has confidence in his God…
Trust God’s WISDOM When… You Don’t Understand His WAYS!
Trust God’s WISDOM When… You Don’t Understand His WAYS!
This requires RELATIONSHIP… knowing Him and who He is
We focus on WHO He is rather than figuring out all He is DOING
I asked as we started… DO WE NEED THIS?
The emphatic answer is Yes!… WE DO NEED THIS!
We need to know that we can go to our God
We need to know we can ask questions
We need to understand His answers
We need to see that God deals with sin, evil, and the PROUD
We need to come to a place we realize it is ONLY by FAITH we are able to have this relationship with Him
We need to REMEMBER:
To rejoice in our Lord
It is He who gives strength
It is He who will plant our feet
It is He who GIVES SALVATION… and that salvation come through FAITH
COMMUNION
COMMUNION
Communion simply refers to Our Common Union… which is our FAITH in the finished work of Jesus Christ!
Ephesians states that if we could work for our salvation we would become proud… BUT scripture states that those that are called righteous live by FAITH.
Our faith in the ONE who did the work. When we come to the Lord’s Table we REMEMBER that work
THE BREAD… His bodily sacrifice, coming as man, broken, beaten for your sin and mine
THE CUP… His blood, covering our filthy, wretched sin with His spotless pure holy blood. the blood of the Lamb Of God
Today may we too along with Habakkuk “REJOICE IN THE GOD OF OUR SALVATION!”