jason’s first habakkuk sermon

Habakkuk - A Prophet with Big Questions

Jason Pamblanco / General

Habakkuk / Habakkuk 1:1–11

Habakkuk was likely written between the good days of King Josiah’s reforms (629BC) and the awful days of the invasion of Babylon (587/586BC). The good things that had happened under King Josiah (like restoring the temple and reintroducing the passover) were quickly forgotten, and all the prophet Habakkuk could see around him in Judah was violence, oppression and injustice. It raised in him burning questions that remain relevant even today: Will God punish evil? Will he put an end to the violence and oppression around us? Why does God let it happen and when will he finally punish wrongdoing?! God’s answer to Habakkuk was startling. It jolted the prophet into asking more questions that we’ll address in a future message. But for this Lord’s Day, I invite you to come prepared to seek an expanded view of God’s sovereignty, lordship over history, his wisdom, and his ultimate justice as we study the first eleven verses from this Minor Prophet’s oracle.

› children dismissed for Jr. Church

› get your Bible Timeline reference to use at the beginning

Please turn in your Bibles to Habakkuk chapter 1.

Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk…

While you’re flipping through the pages of your Bible to find this small book, allow me to give you a little bit of important historical background to this minor prophet. By the way, the term minor prophet does not mean to imply that Habakkuk’s prophecy is of any less importance than a major prophet like Isaiah, it’s just indicates the brevity of the writing in comparison to the lengthier prophetic writings.

› pull out Bible Timeline reference

If you’re like me, HISTORY is not my strength. Thankfully, I have up here a timeline of events that I carefully removed from the ESV Chronological Bible.  This is the Bible reading plan we’ll be following as a church family in 2025.

› explain the five year rotation, explain that you don’t have to BUY this Bible, but also explain the benefit of this timeline

On the timeline of events we are dealing in the period of biblical history best categorized as the DIVIDED monarchy. This means that Israel is no longer under the united monarchy of Saul, David or Solomon, and has entered into a phase of being divided into a kingdom in the north and in the south. In fact, Habakkuk was written after Elijah and after Amos and Jonah and after the Assyrian exile of the Northern Kingdom.

Not only is the Northern Kingdom out of the picture, but the Southern Kingdom has already heard the prophecies of Jeremiah and King Josiah had already made reforms in 629BC.   He had restored the temple and reintroduced the passover. But unfortunately, the reforms were short-lived and Judah quickly returned to its evil ways.

› put timeline down

Politically, Judah had long suffered under Assyrian domination, though not completely overtaken like the North, they were paying heavy tribute. However Assyria’s power was declining, and Babylon was rising as the next world power.

In verse six, Habakkuk is going to mention The Chaldeans, which was a group from southern Babylonia that rose to power in Babylon during the 8th century BC. Their leader, Nabopolassar, helped defeat the Assyrian Empire and founded the Neo-Babylonian Empire. And by the time of the prophet Habakkuk, “Chaldean” was synonymous with “Babylonian.”

Judah’s troubles got very bad after Josiah’s death. Egypt briefly controlled Judah until Babylon defeated them and the Assyrians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, and Judah fell under Babylonian rule by 604 BC. Habakkuk warned of Babylon’s devastation of Judah, which came after King Jehoiakim’s rebellion. Babylon besieged Jerusalem in 598–597 BC and destroyed the city and its temple in 587/586 BC after King Zedekiah’s failed rebellion.

Most scholars agree that Habakkuk likely wrote his prophecy during the reign of Jehoiakim (609–599 BC), between Josiah’s death and before Babylon’s major invasions.

It is evident from the first verses that we’re not in the good days of Josiah’s reforms, and we’re not yet to the invasion of Babylon, so we’re right there in the middle where a lot of bad things are happening in Judah and it feels like God is not really dealing with it. So there’s the background. Hopefully you are oriented, and now let’s stand and read the first eleven verses from this perplexed prophet’s oracle.

Habakkuk 1:1–11 ESV

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 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. 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!”

› be seated, pray

Have you ever asked the question, or heard someone ask, “If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil and suffering in the world? Why doesn’t God do something about it? Is he really there? Does he even care?”

The prophet Habakkuk deals with what I’m calling

A great big  question

This is obviously NOT a question that was unique to the prophet, or unique to his time. All of us will at one time or another need to deal with the question of God’s sovereignty and the existence of injustice in the world. Will God punish evil? Will he put an end to the violence and oppression around us? Why does God let it happen and when will he finally punish wrongdoing?!

What we’ll learn as we study this prophet is that Habakkuk highlights God’s sovereign greatness, hidden justice, and calls for faith and trust in His plans even when we don’t understand his ways. He emphasizes that God is living, eternal and powerful, even capable of raising up nations to fulfill His purposes.

Although His justice may seem hidden at times, Habakkuk assures us that God is holy and just. He may allow evil to prevail temporarily, even using wicked nations to punish others, but ultimately, all wickedness will be judged, and the righteous will see His justice.

Oh, God is going to answer Habakkuk’s great big question, but his answer is not an easy one to  digest. As we’ll see, it stretches and expands our vision of who He is and leads us to a place of deeper trust and faith in Him.

Perhaps that is why Habakkuk called this vision he saw

A great big  burden

In verse one, Habakkuk begins by calling this “the ORACLE” that he saw.

Oracle is an english translation of a common word for “burden” (the Hebrew: massa’).

When used in the Prophets it may more specifically mean a prophetic oracle. The relationship between burden and prophetic oracle could come from the way both Jeremiah and Amos  suggest that once God gives a message, it becomes a “burden” until the prophet announces it.

Now step back just a minute and consider what kind of burden this was. Like so many of the prophets, Habakkuk’s vision is not the kind of one that people are really going to want to hear! He is called to declare with faithfulness the utter destruction of his own people and land. Talk about an unpopular message.

In a sense, I suppose we can all appreciate to some small degree what the prophet Habakkuk felt. Although the gospel is good news to share, the good news only becomes apparent if people understand the bad news, right?

Like John 3.36 can be a burdensome passage to share with your friend, coworker, or neighbor if they reject the free gift of eternal life found in Jesus Christ.

John 3:36 ESV

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

As Christians, we are taught by Scripture to have a vision of God that includes his justice.

Evil will not go unpunished, and God will ultimately save His people. So let us feel with Habakkuk that the burden of the coming judgment remains for us as we herald of the gospel.

In Habakkuk the judgment of God was coming through the Chaldean invasion of Judah, but ultimately it will come for every individual at the end of the age. For those thinking it will never happen to them, unfortunately they are likely part of

A great big  problem

For Judah, it was rampant wickedness that surrounded the righteous on every side.

Look again at verses 2-4 where Habakkuk cries out to God:

Habakkuk 1:2 ESV

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?

Habakkuk’s fundamental lament and complaint before God is expressed in one word, violence. Interestingly, if you follow the headlines, you know the Hebrew word for violence already. It is (ḥāmās, 2–3). This word occurs six times in the prophecy, and is a key word in this book. It ‘denotes continued oppression or a flagrant violation of the moral law by which man injures primarily his fellow-man.

This morning we lit an advent candle signifying peace. And while we recognize that Jesus came to usher in the peace of his Kingdom, we confess today that the peace we have is already and not yet. Already, because we have peace with God, and Jesus Christ has brought peace amongst his people. But not yet, because the fullness of the peace of Jesus Christ has not yet come to rest upon the nations. Jesus told us before he left that there would be wars and rumors of wars. Jesus also said in John 16.33

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

We do experience tribulation, and we lament with the prophet Habakkuk - that violence tarries far longer than we would ever wish to countenance. It is evident from the text that the prophet had not been praying for a short time. He had been continuously crying out to God about the strife and lawlessness and perversions of justice he had seen. WHY GOD? WHY do you let children die in war and permit horrible tragedies of violence among mankind?

Do you join with the prophet and lament the violence our country permits against unborn babies? Violence against women and children? Violent oppression of the weak by the strong? We live in a violent world, and we suffer from a great BIG problem.

› slight pause

Thus far in my study of this book, I have benefited greatly from the New International Commentary on the Old Testament by O Palmer Robertson. In it he says appropriately shifts the perspective of Habakkuk’s question, “how long…?” He writes,

Perhaps it might have been some consolation to the prophet if he had recalled that the Lord himself was the first to cry “How long?” Long before Habakkuk had begun his struggle with the problem of the prevalence of evil, oppression, and injustice, the Righteous One had asked “How long?” The God of grace had asked “How long?” when Israel ignored the goodness involved in his granting a double portion of manna on the day before the sabbath in Exod. 16:28. When the people showed their unbelief by accepting the report of the skeptical spies, the Lord had asked “How long?” in Numbers 14:11. Without doubt the Lord entered sympathetically into the agonies of his prophet. Although his own longsuffering explains his delay in the establishment of justice, he nonetheless agonizes with his people in their grief.

I found that so helpful and so true. I believe it is exactly the right perspective, because you’ll notice that after Habakkuk brings his emotional and question-filled lament before the throne of God, that God does not rebuke him for his complaint! The Lord himself is fully in sympathy with the prophet’s agony over the suffering righteous ones. Disarmingly, God simply replies by giving his people

A great big  vision

I say “his people” and not “his prophet,” because you need to know that the four commands in verse five are given in the plural. Isn’t it comforting to know we are not alone as a faithful remnant of God’s chosen people? The prophet was not alone in his complaint. He was a singular voice that cried out to God but the Lord’s reply indicates that he knows this is not a problem Habakkuk is facing alone. He says (if I may translate in the New Southern Translation)

› Y’all look among the nations, and y’all see; y’all wonder and y’all be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. In other words, y’all need to brace yourselves.

Habakkuk 1:5 ESV

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.

Habakkuk, faithful remnant… are y’all sitting down for this one?

Here is a vision you aren’t even ready for. The problem is bigger than you could have ever imagined. God’s vision of this problem and understanding of the depth of the violence nad destruction and disobedience of his people is far more complete and far more accurate than Habakkuk could see. And thus his resolution to the problem appears overwhelming at first to the prophet and God’s people.

What is God up to? Well, he’s going to use

A great big  enemy

to come in and punish the people of Judah.

Now let’s just recap real quick. Habakkuk asks, “God, how will deal with injustice?! And God’s reply is essentially:

“Have a seat for a minute Habakkuk. Brace yourself. Because I am going to utilize a nation that is more evil and more unjust than you can imagine to put an end to the evil and injustice in Judah. THEN, (and this is borrowing some from the next sections of the book)…I will utterly destroy and righteously punish that great evil power that I wielded for my sovereign purposes.”

We’re going to come back to that statement again, but for now let’s just observe how the Lord describes this great big enemy.

I liked the alliteration and explanation of the Christ Centered Exposition Series about this.

So check it out: in

Verse six, the Babylonians are hostile

Verse seven they’re haughty.

Verse eight they’re hasty

Verse nine they’re harmful

Verse ten they’re hardened and

Verse eleven they’re hell-bent.

Hostile, in verse six, because they knew how to inflict intense harm on their enemies and had developed a reputation for doing so. The word bitter translates a Hebrew word that could also be understood to mean “fierce.” This reflects the imagery of the savagery of a wild animal that will attack anything. The parallel word hasty probably doesn’t mean they would act without first thinking or planning, but rather it most likely describes the speed and efficiency with which the Babylonian military was capable of deploying its troops.

Haughty in verse seven, because the second half of the verse indicates that they were a law unto themselves. They did not recognize the territorial sovereignty of other nations, nor did they recognize the gods of other territories. We could use the word “autonomous” to describe their self-perception. They did what THEY wanted to do.

ISN’T THIS THE IRONY of IRONIES? The instrument God chose to accomplish his sovereign will  was thoroughly convinced that NOBODY TELLS THEM what is right or wrong. NOBODY tells the Babylonians what to do. How instructive is this about the intersection between man’s will and God’s sovereignty.

Let me share with you this preacher’s burden. Because it is unpopular to say this. But the false god of autonomy did not die with the Babylonians. It is very much alive and well. We must never believe that we are the masters of our own destinies and that we as God’s creatures exercise ultimate sovereignty. I agree with James Boice when he said, “Nothing has ever happened that did not flow in the channel God dug for it.” That’s biblical.

Proverbs 21:1 ESV

1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

We must move on to more about this great enemy. Not only were they hostile and haughty, they were

Hasty. In verse eight, the Lord compares the swiftness of their horses to “leopards” and their ferocity to “wolves.” They were by all accounts an efficient military machine.

In verse nine, the describing word is harmful. They sought to inflict the greatest harm on their enemies and their victims. In verse 3 Habakkuk complains that violence and oppression are everywhere around him, but now God will bring a far worse violence on Judah from the Babylonians. In other words, God is going to give Judah a large dose of its own medicine as a means of discipline, correction, and judgment.

Then in verse 10 we see that the Babylonians were battle hardened. They were unafraid of other nations who had reputations for military might.

The CSB translates this verse quite well

Habakkuk 1:10 CSB

10 They mock kings, and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture it.

(that’s what “they pile up earth means).

Then, look lastly to verse 11 where Eric Redmond describes them as hell-bent. He says, “The Babylonians were known to sweep through like a hurricane-force wind and pass on, having left a heap of death and devastation in their path. This is a challenging verse to translate, but it seems that one basic idea is that the Babylonians trusted in themselves and their superior military might. They idolized their own strength. They were hellbent on conquest and trusted their own strength to subdue other nations.

Needless to say, this was not exactly the answer that Habakkuk was looking for. In fact, it only left him with more questions that we’ll deal with next week.

But for today, we need to step back a moment and try to begin to wrap our minds around

A great big  God

The struggle of Habakkuk mirrors the struggle in our own souls as we approach these great big questions and deal with the great big vision God provides. It is all designed to stretch our minds and may stretch our theology too.

A few verses come to mind when we step back and capture this expanding vision of God and how he operates.

First of all let’s just soak in a little

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither 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.

If there’s one thing Habakkuk teaches it’s that there is a God in heaven and we are not Him. We must disavow ourselves of any false notion that we can always know exactly how God will deal with world events. If you think you’ve got God’s plans all figured out, brace yourself to be surprised by how surpassingly higher God’s thoughts are about the subject than yours.

Paul said it well in Romans 11:33-36

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Mind you, he says this at the end of one of the most difficult and humbling texts of Scripture in all of the Bible. During the winter and spring of the next several years, we’re going to be diving into Paul’s theological magnum Opus, Romans. It is the greatest letter ever written. His theme verses in chapter one draw from Habakkuk and that is no accident. Because both Habakkuk and Romans stretch us to capture an expansive vision of the sovereignty, justice and mercy of God! Even the first few chapters remind us of a theme from Habakkuk we’ve already uncovered - that proud people, whose strength or ingenuity is their god, will come to a woeful end, even though they may enjoy prosperity for a season either as God’s chosen ones in Judah, or as the victors over Judah. Put differently, all the proud, whether Jew or Gentile, will perish in the judgment. That basically summarizes Romans 1:18 to the end of Romans 3.

One commentator insightfully says that “the beauty of Habbakuk is that the reader is allowed the unique privilege of witnessing the progress of the prophet himself in submitting to a new concept of the Lord’s purposes among Israel and the nations. The idea of growth or maturing in faith is essential to appreciating the genius of this prophecy. Trust in the purposes of the Lord despite confusing perceptions of precisely what he is doing lies at the center of the thought of Habakkuk.

In other words, you and I are invited to journey with Habakkuk from lament to praise as we capture a greater vision of God.

Part of that grander vision of God must include seeing the broader canvas of how the Lord is at work in History.

Shortly after World War II, the great Welsh preacher Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached a series of sermons on Habakkuk in response to the anguish arising from that conflict. They were later published in a book called From Fear to Faith. It was a classic study of Habakkuk, where he suggested that four lessons emerge in the opening exchange between God and his questioning prophet.

First, history (regardless of how it seems to us) is under God’s control.

Lloyd-Jones writes: “Every nation on earth is under the hand of God, for there is no power in this world that is not ultimately controlled by him. Things are not what they appear to be. It seemed to be the astute military prowess of the Chaldeans that had brought them into the ascendancy. But it was not so at all, for God had raised them up. God is the Lord of history. He is seated in the heavens, and the nations to him are ‘as grasshoppers, as a drop in a bucket, or as the small dust of the balance.’ The Bible asserts that God is over all. He started the historical process, he is controlling it, and he is going to end it. We must never lose sight of this crucial fact.”

Second, history follows a divine plan. The events of history are not accidental, though they may appear so to us. They follow God’s plan. “There is a purpose in history, and what is now happening in this present century is not accidental. Remember that the church is at the center of God’s plan for all history.

Third, history follows a divine timetable. This comes out at several places in Habakkuk’s prophecy. In chapter 1 God says, “I am going to do something in your days,” that is, not before or after but precisely when he wanted it to happen. In chapter 2 the point is made even stronger in verse 3: “The revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay”.

And fourth, history is bound up with the divine kingdom. “The key to the history of the world is the kingdom of God. The story of the other nations mentioned in the Old Testament is relevant only as it bears upon the history of the Christian church. What really matters in the world is God’s kingdom.

The psalmist said this about God’s sovereignty over the nations and history:

Psalm 46:6–10 ESV

6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. 10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

There is one name that will be exalted above every name and every nation and every power. The name of Jesus Christ.

Which leads us to our last lesson we can learn from the first part of Habakkuk. I said we’d come back to it.

Remember the great big question: “God, how will deal with injustice?!

And God’s reply is essentially:

“I am going to utilize a nation that is more evil and more unjust than you can imagine to put an end to the evil and injustice in Judah. THEN…I will utterly destroy and righteously punish that great evil power that I wielded for my sovereign purposes.”

Listen to the ESV Study Bible note on verse 5:

“The unbelievability of God’s use of a wicked people, the Chaldeans, prefigures the unbelievability of the way in which the injustice of the crucifixion of Christ is used by God for salvation.”

I believe there is no clearer explanation of this than in Acts 2:22-23 where Peter says:

Acts 2:22–23 ESV

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Could it not be said of the Israelites and complicit Gentile executioners that “their justice and dignity went forth from themselves?” They did exactly what THEY wanted to do when they crucified our Lord!

And yet, Peter makes it plain that though they were responsible and bore the guilt for the most incredible injustice to ever take place in all of history (in crucifying the innocent Son of God), that they did so ACCORDING TO THE PLAN AND DEFINITE FOREKNOWLEDGE of GOD.

Loved ones, Habakkuk’s prophecy is your theological warm-up for the main event of the cross of Jesus Christ. Because we come to understand through it that God can employ the vices of wicked men with his hidden power to accomplish his sovereign will and simultaneously be unstained by sin in himself. He directs the will of those who are doing what they want, to ultimately accomplish exactly what he ordains without a HINT of injustice on his own part.

God not only deals with the injustice of his own people who are deserving of wrath, but he sovereignly employed the willing injustice of a greater enemy - yes, even Satan himself - to accomplish this purpose. We the redeemed will forever celebrate his wisdom, mercy and sovereign grace. We will rejoice at the end of the age when the saints will no longer cry, “how long?” because (Paul says) the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet.

Romans 16:27 ESV

27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.