"HABAKKUK: 'WHY, GOD?'"

While the prophet knows that the Lord is sovereign, his daily experience appears to reflect something quite different. He is struggling to rightly interpret his daily realities.

Habakkuk 1:2–4 “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 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. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”

>>>This is Habakkuk voicing to God his frustration regarding the invasion.

>>>There is violence and cries for help, but it seems like God is not intervening. He is allowing the wrong to happen.

HABAKKUK: “WHY ARE YOU NOT INTERVENING?”

>>>The core problem:the wicked nation of Babylon is coming against the righteous people of God (referring to this later)

Habakkuk 1:5–11 ““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. 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. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 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. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!””

>>>The LORD responds to Habakkuk’s questions. He say that He is working out a plan that would be unbelievable if He said it.

GOD: “I AM WORKING OUT A PLAN.”

>>>God is fully aware of the Babylonians, but He is purposefully raising them up to bring Israel into exile.

>>>But even God sees their idolatry and calls them guilty.

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Habakkuk 1:12–13 “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. 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?”

Habakkuk 1:17 “Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?”

>>>Habakkuk knows that this invasion was for correction for Judah’s sins but says that God seems to be giving favor and victory to a nation who has been way worse than the people of God. This was unfair.

HABAKKUK: “THIS IS UNFAIR!”

>>>Going back to earlier, Habakkuk says nothing about why this is happening to Judah but how. Judah is deserving of punishment, but Habakkuk’s problem is that the Babylonians are the ones being used to do it.

Habakkuk 2:1 “I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”

>>>The claim of everything being unfair Habakkuk made was not immediately answered by God as the first question. But Habakkuk went to a watchtower to “look out” for the response God would give him.

*“look out” means “looks expectantly”. Habakkuk expected God to answer Him.

*HABAKKUK SOUGHT GOD.

>>>Habakkuk did not give up when God did not answer. He continued to wait on Him.

>>>All responses Habakkuk had to his circumstances was to turn to God.

Habakkuk 2:2–4 “And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 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. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

>>>God eventually responded to Habakkuk but with a vision, telling him that this prophecy will happen and to wait for it.

>>>Babylon is full of pride, yet God said their souls are condemned. It may seem hopeless, but the righteous people of God need to live by faith.

THE LORD: “HAVE FAITH.”

Habakkuk 2:5–8 ““Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.” Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!” Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.”

>>>God was going to use evil Babylon to punish Judah, but then evil Babylon would have punishment of their own for its wickedness.

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Habakkuk 3:2–3 “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. God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.”

Habakkuk 3:13 “You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah”

>>>Notice this is a prayer of Habakkuk-not continuing with His questions.

>>>The content of his prayer was reminding himself of all the ways God stood for him and his people and creation’s testimony of His glory.

Habakkuk 3:16 “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.”

>>>Habakkuk experienced God in a whole new way. His time with God affected his entire being. He will wait for the promise of God.

Habakkuk 3:17–19 “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.”

>>>Habakkuk-despite his circumstances and questions-was going to hold on to God, Who was his salvaton and his strenght.

HABAKKUK: “I WILL TRUST YOU.”

>>>Habakkuk does not end in a change in circumstance but a change in relationship-his relationship with God.

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1.) IT IS OKAY TO ASK GOD “WHY”.

2.) GOD WANTS TO MEET US IN OUT DOUBTS.

3.) THE OUTCOME OF ASKING “WHY GOD?” SHOULD BE TRUSTING GOD.