Poem of Trust

Recap

Chapters 1&2 are letters of lament where Habakkuk complains of the injustice, an ineffective law, and a question of God’s absence. To which God responds I am permitting the Babylonians to punish my people. To which the prophet complains and asks, how can a just and Holy God use a people more corrupt than His people to correct wicked men? And God responds write the vision and make it plain for those that read it may run. The just will live by faith. Babylon will have their day.

background

The book of Habakkuk is written a couple of decades before the fall of the southern kingdom of Juda. Unlike traditional prophetic books, Habakkuk doesn’t address the people on behalf of God, rather we get to look in on back and forth dialog between God and the prophet.

The vision on the tablets are to be a warning both to the just shall live by faith, but also God will bring corrupt Babylon down. God may use the evil in this world to bring about His justice but he does not endorse evil or its practice.

The 5 woes

The first two Unjust economics - how rich people will charge ridiculous interest to keep poor people in debt

The third is slave labor - treating humans like animals and treating them with violence if they don’t produce

The fourth targets the use of alcohol by Israels leaders- while people are suffering the leaders are conducting frivolous spending

The last woe surrounded Idolatry - they have made money and power and nationality their gods

These practices are not unique to Babylon

This leads us to chapter three will Babylon or those that practice these violent nature always

Renew

Habakkuk 3:1–2 “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 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.”

Pleads with God for renewal

Mighty God

Habakkuk 3:3–7 “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. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.”

Future

Habakkuk 3:8–15 “Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. 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 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.”

1. A Future Exodus

Hope for the future

Habakkuk 3:16–17 “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. 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,”

With all that happens to the prophet, he will choose trust in the covenant promises of God over any and every situation and circumstances that come his way.

Romans 8:35–39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”