This is the transcript from the sermon I preached at Salem UMC in Pottstown on Sunday, October 31, 2010. Feel free to leave me some feedback or join in with some dialog.
The sermon text this morning comes from the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk may seem like a strange book of the Bible to preach from. In fact some of you may be thinking, is that a book of the Bible? Yes, it is. Habakkuk is right after the book of Nahum and just before the book of Zephaniah. He is considered one of the minor prophets and I feel that God has given me a word from this book to share with you this morning.
It would have been easier for me to pick the story of Zacchaeus and preach on that; the other passage from the lectionary this week. But I like a good challenge and sometimes, we miss an opportunity to take a more difficult passage of Scripture and study it learning valuable truths along the way. So this morning, I ask you to join me on a journey down a road that I believe we all have been down before. And rather than denying that we have been down this road, or wishing that we had not, we are going to dwell there for a bit to see what God has to teach us.
Let’s start with a bit of background. According to the ESV Study Bible commentary, Habakkuk was likely a contemporary of Zephaniah and Jeremiah, and possibly even of Ezekiel and Daniel, but none of the other prophets mention him. Historians place the date of this book close to 620BC. At this time in Israel’s history, they have been split into two kingdoms of people, Israel and Judah as a result of the unfaithfulness of King Solomon. Solomon’s heart had drastically strayed from God indulging in the idolatry that ran rampant in the surrounding kingdoms. Judah is long overdue for the rebuke and judgment they must have known would be coming. God made it perfectly clear when the Law was delivered to his people, Israel, that there would be blessings or curses as a result of their actions (obedience or disobedience). God was trying to draw them back to himself, redeeming and reconciling them, but they were resisting. The book of Habakkuk is unique because the prophet never addresses the people of Judah directly, but chooses to record the dialog between the prophet and God. I think you will notice some similarities to the book of Job, particularly the dialog between Job and God as it relates here to the dialog between Habakkuk and God.
I think the beauty of this book is the personal nature of the dialog, as if we are reading Habakkuk’s journal. I have grown to love it in the past few weeks because he shares personal, uncomfortable feelings that he may not have shared with others. Little did he know then that today his letter would be mass-produced and distributed to people to be read all over the world. This dialog between Habakkuk and God is raw, intimate and unguarded.
Let’s get into the text:
The letter begins with Habakkuk’s lament: [2] O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? [3] Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. [4] So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”
Habakkuk begins with a complaint to God. I like this because it is a reminder that we have the freedom in our relationship with God to express how we honestly feel, even if our feelings do not accurately depict reality. Speak to anyone who has done any sort of counseling and they will tell you that it is never productive to tell someone, ‘you shouldn’t feel that way.’ We cannot dictate the feelings of others. When someone feels a certain way, there is a reason. In this case, the prophet is airing his complaint to God about the plight of Judah.
If you are anything like me, you fear coming to this place before God. You are afraid that you are either being disrespectful to God to think or even say something like this. So we just push these feelings down and do not ever address them. They never reach the surface because you never allow them to. Here is some advice. Do not push those feelings, fears, doubts, complaints, frustrations further down or they will only get worse. God can handle them. He is the God of the universe. The Bible tells us that He knows our thoughts before we even think them. So that means that we can never hide from God. I am giving you permission this morning to bare all of your souls to God. He is big enough, not just to handle them, but to help you work through them and resolve them. Quite honestly, he already knows what is there despite our attempts to hide it. We may not always like or agree with His answers but a healthy relationship involves communication on both sides.
Habakkuk begins using the covenant name for God, “O Lord,” emphasizing the relationship between God and the prophet. A covenant is a promise and with this simple use of words, the prophet is reminding God of his covenant relationship with his people. From this we can gather that Habakkuk is insinuating that God is not being faithful to his promise. That is why context is a beautiful thing. Out of context, we could say, why is God sitting by and allowing this to happen? But we know the history. We know what Judah under the leadership of a number of ungodly kings had done to draw God’s rebuke and judgment and now He was telling Habakkuk that he was going to use an invading nation to conquer them and carry them off into captivity. Sound familiar? They had fallen into captivity in Egypt prior to the Exodus. We see this pattern repeated throughout Scripture as we see God teaching His people to live in obedience to Him was freedom and joy. To live in disobedience to Him was captivity and misery.
It seems Habakkuk is distressed because God seems to be ignoring his prayers. Yet God clearly displays to the prophet in His response that He is already answering Habakkuk’s prayers. Habakkuk just cannot fathom that God is answering them in this way. Can’t we all relate to this? We have a picture in our minds of the ideal way in which we expect God to answer our prayers and often times we pray to God to that end. When God does not answer our prayers in the manner we expect, we are left feeling he did not answer them at all (because we cannot see the answer) or we are disappointed with his response because it does not match our ideal picture.
The passage continues with God’s response:
[5] “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. [6] For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.[7] They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.[8] Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. [9] They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. [10] At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. [11] Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
God’s response is assuring justice through bringing judgment on his own people through the wicked Chaldeans or Babylonians. We can already imagine Habakkuk’s response.
Here is a taste of his second complaint: [12] Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.[13] You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” Can you hear the tone of self-righteousness here? He is clearly comparing Judah’s wickedness with that of the Chaldeans/Babylonians and saying, this is not fair. We are not as wicked as they are. Why would you use them to punish us? Paraphrasing Habakkuk’s second lament, he seems to be asking the age-old question, ‘God, why does evil seem to go unpunished?’
We need to hear God’s response here in Chapter 2: [2] And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.[3] For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. [4] “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
God goes on in the rest of this chapter to assure Habakkuk that He will punish all the wicked at the right time. You know what line jumped out at me while reading this? “Wait for it.” In context, God says, “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
This is also a difficult place for us to dwell. None of us like to wait. Often times the biggest cause for distress is God’s timing as it relates or does not relate to ours. We feel that prayers are not answered if they are not answered in our timeframe. We can see that Habakkuk has grown weary of waiting for his prayer to be answered. Hence his lament and complaint. But God is telling him that everything is done in his perfect and sovereign timing. This reminds me of the passage in the Book of Revelation where the fifth seal is opened and John saw, “under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. [10] They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” [11] Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”
This is the tension we live in as followers of Jesus. We long for and cry out for justice. We know it will come. But as Paul said, “to live is Christ and to die is gain. [23] I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. [24] But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” Philippians 1:21, 23-24.
We have work to do. Let me rephrase that: Jesus has work to do through us. We must press on, we must be encouraged knowing that God is just, God is true, God is love. He will bring justice and mercy. He will put the world right. Our task is to push back the darkness in Jesus’ name until he returns and makes all things new as they were meant to be, but even better, because we will dwell with him in paradise for eternity basking in his glory and light. Living in this tension is living by faith. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
So what is our take-away? Being honest and open with our feelings is the sign of a healthy relationship. But we also have to realize that they are only our feelings and often times they may not be reality, especially in God’s eyes. God knows our hearts, let’s not hide them from him. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to lay us bare before him and grant us the honesty to have raw, real dialog with Him as we grow in our relationship. I still find it hard to believe that we have the privilege of knowing the God of the universe, but more than that, that he desires to know US. How great, how great is our GOD! Let’s also learn that we walk in faith because we cannot always see clearly what God is up to or understand it.
In the end of the book of Job, just as Job learned and grew from his experience and conversation with God, here we see Habakkuk does too. He ends with a prayer and I will just share the beginning of it from Chapter 3: “[2] O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk knows what God will do must be done, he acknowledges that, but his prayer focuses on a plea, “in wrath remember mercy.” Even while you are executing your judgment God, remember mercy. Although God is just, he is merciful. If he was not we would have no hope. We would never be able to stand before God without being killed. He is holy. We are not. But that is the beauty of the Gospel and that is what I will leave you with today. Habakkuk’s prayer here is answered in the cross of Christ. In God’s judgment upon all our sin, he poured out his judgment on the sacrificial lamb, the Messiah, our Jesus. And in doing this, he remembered mercy, because in that moment all of us who believe in the name of the Lord Jesus and who call upon his name, were shown mercy. But God showed us so much more than mercy. Having mercy is ignoring a wrong that someone has done. God displayed grace. Grace is not just ignoring a wrong, but it is also being given something that is undeserved. God is gracious and just. That is the tension we find ourselves in. Dead in our sin, we have been pardoned, with Jesus taking the full weight of our punishment and then giving us life abundantly, to begin living this “Kingdom life” now while on earth to display His glory. I pray that as we leave here today, we will be more real in our dialog with God. I pray that He will open our eyes to see how he is already at work among us and that we will join him in that work. I pray that He will help us live in the tension between faith and sight. Amen.
