Really God?

Habakkuk — January 2024

Wednesday Nights at MFBC

Message One of Series

01/17/2024

ETS: Habakkuk questioned God’s lack of response to the wickedness of the nation Judah.

ESS: We need to trust God’s plan, timing, and methods of dealing with injustice even when they do not match our own.

OSS: [Devotional] {I want the hearers to pledge their trust in God knowing that He will not allow injustice to go unaddressed.}

PQ:

What lessons can we learn from this Passage?

UW: Lessons

Intro.:

TS: Let us examine together a few hopes of Habakkuk as he begins communicating with God.

God does not always respond in the timeframe we expect or desire him to act. [vv. 1-4]

Habakkuk expressed his frustration with God because he expected God to have already responded to and dealt with the wickedness of Judah.

King Josiah, a righteous king, is dead. Now, his successor, King Jehoiakim, reigned with “injustice (Jr. 22:13) so that God’s law (Hb torah) ceased to be honored.” [1]

Habakkuk’s beginning cry in this record is similar to that of David is Psalm 13:1 “1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

The key question in this section is this: “Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” Behind the question is the frustration of Habakkuk that God had not responded and addressed Judah’s wickedness and the injustice in a timely manner.

God does not always respond with the plans we expect him to execute. [vv. 5-11]

God’s plans do not always equal our plans. His plans are always right and good, though.

Is. 55:8-9 “8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

My Plans < God’s Plans

Much is said metaphorically about the Chaldeans and the method of which they operated as a militant people. “Comparisons with predatory animals (leopards … wolves, and eagles) illustrate the speed, brutality, and efficiency of the Babylonian military machine.” (Sprinkle)

Because Judah had been violent and inflicted violence, they would experience violence at the hand of the Chaldeans (v. 9) “In other words, God is going to give Judah a large dose of its own medicine as a means of discipline, correction, and judgment.” [2]

The Chaldeans feared no one, and they prided their own military might.

God does not have the limitations that we have. [vv. 12-17]

God can use whatever or whoever he wants to for whatever purpose he intends to because he is God.

Habakkuk was puzzled by God’s plan to use the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to punish and deal with the nation of Judah because “…one who is wicked (Chaldeans) swallows up one who is more righteous (Judah) than himself”

“Habakkuk is struggling to reconcile his theology of God with the word of God that has just been revealed to him by God.” [3]

Recognizing the purity and holiness of God, the prophet is struggling to understand how he could tolerate such a wicked people like the Chaldeans, and more specifically, not only tolerate them, but use them as an instrument of his discipline towards another group of lesser wickedness.

In the last verses of this passage, Habakkuk deals with the success of the Chaldeans as they have arisen to wealth and power as a result of great military strength, obviously boasting in and worshipping their military.

Reflective Questions:

[1] As you observe the injustice of the world, currently- racism, abortion, homicides, rape, abuse, slavery, lack of morality and biblical values, lack of integrity, idolatry, adultery, etc.- have you found yourself impatient with God? Frustrated with God?

[2] Do you trust that God has a plan to deal with the sins of the world, even those that we witness and are perhaps harmed by daily?

[3] What hinders you from trusting that God is working in His own time, in His own way, and according to His power and strength- not our own- all of which are good and perfect?

Bibliography:

[1] Joe Sprinkle, “Habakkuk,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1430.

[2] Eric Redmond, William Curtis, and Ken Fentress, Exalting Jesus in Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2016), 190.

[3] Redmond, 192.

[4] David W. Baker, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 27, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988).

[5] Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes, New Edition., vol. 4 (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, 2014).

[6] E. B. Pusey, Notes on the Old Testament: The Minor Prophets: Micah to Malachi, vol. 2 (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1885).