Purpose: To assure believers that God will ultimately use the wicked for our good and His glory.
Aim: I want the listener to hate their own sin and pray for revival in our country.
INTRODUCTION: The book of Habakkuk is unique. This prophet does not speak to his own people or to a foreign nation, he speaks only to God. We know nothing about this prophet except his name and that he was probably a Levite who wrote music, because chapter three is a beautiful psalm.
Habakkuk does not deliver a message as much as he solves a problem. In chapter one we hear a sob, but chapter three ends with a song. Habakkuk's struggled with the same kind of problems we deal with today. Why doesn't God punish the wickedness we see every day? Why do wicked people get away with being wicked?
One of the main lessons of this book is that there is a line nations (and people) can cross where there is no longer any hope of avoiding God's judgment. Judah had now crossed that line. The prophets Joel and Zephaniah offered hope to the Jews if they would repent. The book of Habakkuk, on the other hand, only explains how God will judge Judah, but it does not offer any way that they could avoid it.
Many years earlier God had sent Amos to warn the northern kingdom of Israel that if they didn't repent of their sin God would bring the hated Assyrians down on them as their conquerors. That prophecy was fulfilled 130 years before Judah, the southern kingdom, was defeated by the Babylonians. So, Judah watched their sister country go into slavery, but they learned nothing from Israel's failure.
"The best conclusion seems to be that the prophecy was written toward the end of the reign of Josiah (640 609 B.C.), preferably after the destruction of Nineveh by the combined forces of the Babylonians, Medians, and Scythians in 612 B.C. This time seems plausible for two reasons.
"One is that the prophet seems surprised to learn that the Chaldeans are God's choice to punish disobedient Judah; after all, was not good King Josiah pro Babylonian in his political sympathies in that he sought to hinder Pharaoh necho's march to fight against the Babylonians in 609 B.C.?" [1]
Habakkuk lived at the same time as Jeremiah the prophet. Many years earlier, when Assyria was the dominate world power, Isaiah predicted to king Hezekiah that the then lowly Babylon would one day take Judah captive (Isaiah 39:6-7).
The book of Habakkuk was written many years ago to a country thousands of miles away from ours, and yet it applies to us today.
We live in a pleasure mad society. Family life is crumbling and crime is soaring; churches are worldly; drugs and divorce prevail; the worst kinds of immorality are considered normal. In short, real faith in God seems to be almost non-existent.
Just as the once powerful Jewish nation was now immoral and just as pagan as the other nations in the world, so is America. The government of Judah was corrupt and its leaders were wicked. Sound familiar?
Just this last week a bill was introduced in the state of California that would make biblical counseling about homosexuality illegal. In fact, parents who try to persuade their own children to abandon a homosexual lifestyle could be arrested for child abuse.
The wickedness in our country today should motivate us to do two things. We should pray earnestly that our nation would repent and turn to God before it is too late, and we should turn away from the sin we see in our own lives.
If we love God then we will feel much like this prophet did many years ago.
►Vs.1-4 I. A Righteous Cry of Distress
► Vs.1-2 A. God seemed indifferent to prayer "I cry... Yet You do not save"
Lit. "Scream unto you, Violence" Like how a person might yell, "Fire" or "Help" when they are being robbed.
Job 19:7 "Behold, I cry, 'Violence!' but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice. (NAU) Psalms 13:1 2 1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? (NAU)
Psalms 74:9 10 9 We do not see our signs; There is no longer any prophet, Nor is there any among us who knows how long. 10 How long, O God, will the adversary revile, And the enemy spurn Your name forever? (NAU)
Psalms 94:3 How long shall the wicked, O LORD, How long shall the wicked exult? (NAU)
Revelation 6:10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (NAU)
► Vs.3-4 B. God seemed unconcerned about sin "justice comes out perverted"
Asaph struggled with similar feelings. It is hard to see wickedness triumph. We cry out for God to right the wrongs and it often seems that God is silent. Psalm 73:3-9 3 For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat. 5 They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they plagued like mankind. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them. 7 Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot. 8 They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high. 9 They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue parades through the earth. (NAU)
Being horrified with sin is a good thing. But seeing sin constantly will tempt us to think that living a holy life is not possible. Psalm 73:13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence; (NAU) Woe to us when we lose our ability to blush at sin.
When we are surrounded by sin, it either grieves our hearts or we become calloused and discouraged. Those are the only two choices! Jeremiah expressed these two options when he surveyed the sin that was around him. Jeremiah 9:1-2 1 Oh that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people! 2 Oh that I had in the desert A wayfarers' lodging place; That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men. (NAU)
►Vs.5-11 II. God's Reply
The Lord responds to the prophet's cry with three important truths.
► Vs.5 A. God works in surprising ways "Look...Observe! Be astonished! Wonder!"
Habakkuk probably expected God to send another revival among His people so that they would turn to God from their false worship. God had done that many times before.
The Lord is preparing the prophet to hear something totally unexpected, something that He had never been done to Judah before.
We must always be prepared to expect the unexpected. Isaiah 55:7--9 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. (NAU)
Paul quotes this verse in his sermon in Acts 13 and warns us that it can apply to us today: Acts 13:38--41 "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. 40 "Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: 41 'BEHOLD, YOU SCOFFERS, AND MARVEL, AND PERISH; FOR I AM ACCOMPLISHING A WORK IN YOUR DAYS, A WORK WHICH YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE, THOUGH SOMEONE SHOULD DESCRIBE IT TO YOU.' " (NAU)
Jesus warned the religious leaders of His own chosen people that they would be judged if they didn't repent. Matthew 23:33-37 33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 "Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. (NAU)
"They [the Jews] had a false sense of security, thinking that being the chosen people of God was purely a matter of external relation. Under the reign of Josiah there had been a return to the prescribed ceremonies of the Temple, but not necessarily a return to the Lord who dwelt in the Temple. Ceremonialism readily becomes a foe of true spirituality." [2]
"Such is all pride. It sets itself in the place of God, it ceases to think of itself as God's instrument, and so becomes a god to itself...." Albert Barnes [3]
Deuteronomy 29:24-27 24 "All the nations will say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?' 25 "Then men will say, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 'They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. 27 'Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; (NAU)
Perhaps, one day, historians will say that America fell from her greatness because she embraced wickedness.
► Vs.6-11a B. God uses the wicked to punish wickedness "I am raising up the Chaldeans"
"The Chaldeans shall be the instruments of the destruction threatened, and, though themselves acting unrighteously, they shall execute the righteousness of the Lord and punish the unrighteousness of Israel." [4]
► Vs.6 God manipulates nations to do His own will. World leaders think they are carrying out their own plans, but in reality they are only doing God's will. Isaiah said this about the Assyrians. Isaiah 10:5-7 5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, 6 I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. 7 Yet it does not so intend, Nor does it plan so in its heart, But rather it is its purpose to destroy And to cut off many nations. (NAU)
Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes. (NAU)
"Since they will not be brought to repentance by the long suffering of God, he will take another course with them. No resentments are so keen, so deep, as those of abused patience." [5]
► Vs.7-8 "Evening wolves are probably those which have hunted all day without success and are the more ravenous as evening draws on." [6]
"They shall fly as the eagle, or better, perhaps, as the vulture. ... Vultures are also known for their ability to see or scent food from great distances. They fly very swiftly to secure it, and in eating it they tear it voraciously." [7]
In Jeremiah 4:13, it is said, speaking concerning Nebuchadnezzar, "Behold, he goes up like clouds, And his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!" (NAU)
"Oppian, speaking of the horses bred about the Euphrates, says, 'They are by nature war horses, and so intrepid that neither the sight nor the roaring of the lion appalls them; and, besides, they are astonishingly fleet.'" [8]
► Vs.9 AS THE EAST WIND. "In Palestine the wind from the east blows in from the desert, gathering sand in its path. Such winds were the terror of the inhabitants of Palestine because they blasted the crops and were very destructive." [9]
► Vs.10-11a The Jews scoffed at the issue of right and wrong, notice verse 4. Proverbs 14:9 Fools mock at sin, . . . . (NAU) Proverbs 19:29 Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And blows for the back of fools. (NAU) Psalm 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! (NAU)
► Vs.11b C. God will punish the punishers "they will be held guilty"
God will punish those who see no need for God since they think they have the power they need within themselves. An example would be the most famous king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. He said in Daniel 4:30, . . . 'Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?' (NAU)
Pride was Israel's problem and God was going to use a people with great pride to punish them. Proverbs 16:18-19 18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. 19 It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud. (NAU)
" 'Violence' had been the sin of Judah (Hab 1:3 4), and now violence shall be her punishment." [10]
CONCLUSION: "Years ago, the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin took two years' leave of absence from the concert stage. He was at the very zenith of his international acclaim. His reason, in his own words, was this: 'One of the dangers which beset all artists is staleness. I simply wanted to do the best for myself and for my audience. That is why I retired for two years, to remain for a while alone just me and my Stradivarius.' Just as a great violinist needed time alone to overcome staleness, Christians need to be alone to be renewed by God. Quiet time for Bible reading and prayer helps to create a secret place to encounter the Spirit of God." [11]
We often experience problems in our lives that we don't understand. Sometimes it's pain and suffering, sometimes it's the loss of a loved-one, or a hurtful comment from someone we thought was our friend. Difficult circumstances can tempt us to doubt God's love for us, but even worse sinful actions and thoughts can keep us from experiencing the peace of God that we so desperately need.
Oh, that we might always keep our hearts humble before God so that we would avoid His hand of discipline. We live in a very wicked world. I wonder how much of it we tolerate? For example, how do you decide what entertainment to watch? How many references to adultery , sensuality and fornication will you allow a TV program or movie to inflict on you before you turn it off? Maybe you should set a number like 2 or 3 and when you hear or see more than that you will turn it off or walk away.
Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for its companion, and death for its wages. Thomas Watson [12]
[1]From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press
[2]From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press
[3]From Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft
[4]From Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
[5]From Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.c
[6]From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press
[7]From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press
[8]From Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft
[9]From The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press
[10]From Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft
[11]From Upper Room, submitted by David Waggoner, Minister of Cisne Christian Church, Cisne, Illinois
[12]I.D.E. Thomas, The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations, electronic ed., 260 (Simpsonville SC: Christian Classics Foundation, 1996).
