What the Prophet Habakkuk Faced

GBCCR DATE 1/26/25

Catch- The best laid plans of mice and ____

The title "Of Mice and Men" originates from a line in Robert Burns' 1785 poem "To a Mouse," which reads "

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy!

It should be pointed out that the poem is written in an old Scottish dialect,

contains words that are rarely used nowadays, even in Scotland.

To “gang aft agley” means to “often go astray.”

The mouse, who had built herself a cozy nest and was no doubt feeling quite smug about it, was now flat out of luck, and that is simply the way life goes, not only for mice but for people, too.

One thing is planned, and yet something quite different actually occurs.

So, I think we get the context correct

Let me give you a couple you may have heard from Habakkuk

THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL LIVE BY FAITH

Habakkuk 2:4- “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.

Habakkuk 2:14- “For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 3:19- The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places.

This is not a good sounding quote for athletesß

And just like we do not remember the source of certain phrases that we might use today

We do not learn from the wisdom of God working past generations

There was a time when the things were better in this man’s country

There seemed to be a national revival where the people trusted God

But now those in power are abusing the people and taking the lord’s name in vain

They would even say God saved them, but then deny God by their actions

God answers prayers, but the answer seems to make things work

So, Let’s hear from Habakkuk

Reading the passage

When was the last time you read a whole book of the bible straight? (11 minutes)

We live in a distracted age, so it is hard to sit through even the smallest extended sections

Reading is not just a simple, cozy, nostalgic pastime that can be taken up or dropped without consequence.

And reading aloud is important

Silent reading of the sort we practice with our books and cellphones was once considered outlandish, a eccentricity.

Plutarch writes of the way that Alexander the Great perplexed his soldiers, around 330 BC, by reading without utter ance a letter he had received from his mother.

Augustine of Hippo witnessed Ambrose studying a manuscript.

Augustine was amazed…"When he read," Augustine marveled in his Confessions, "his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still.""

So let’s just read this all together… you listen while I speak

The Book of

HABAKKUK

Chapter 1

Chaldeans Used to Punish Judah

1The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

2How long, O Lord, will I call for help,

And You will not hear?

I cry out to You, “Violence!”

Yet You do not save.

3Why do You make me see iniquity,

And cause me to look on wickedness?

Yes, destruction and violence are before me;

Strife exists and contention arises.

4Therefore the law is ignored

And justice is never upheld.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

Therefore justice comes out perverted.

5“Look among the nations! Observe!

Be astonished! Wonder!

Because I am doing something in your days—

You would not believe if you were told.

6“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

That fierce and impetuous people

Who march throughout the earth

To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.

7“They are dreaded and feared;

Their justice and authority originate with themselves.

8“Their horses are swifter than leopards

And keener than wolves in the evening.

Their horsemen come galloping,

Their horsemen come from afar;

They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.

9“All of them come for violence.

Their horde of faces moves forward.

They collect captives like sand.

10“They mock at kings

And rulers are a laughing matter to them.

They laugh at every fortress

And heap up rubble to capture it.

11“Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on.

But they will be held guilty,

They whose strength is their god.”

12Are You not from everlasting,

O Lord, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge;

And You, O Rock, have established them to correct.

13Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,

And You can not look on wickedness with favor.

Why do You look with favor

On those who deal treacherously?

Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up

Those more righteous than they?

14Why have You made men like the fish of the sea,

Like creeping things without a ruler over them?

15The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook,

Drag them away with their net,

And gather them together in their fishing net.

Therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net

and burn incense to their fishing net;

Because through these things their catch is large,

And their food is plentiful.

17Will they therefore empty their net

And continually slay nations without sparing?

Chapter 2

God Answers the Prophet

1I will stand on my guard post

And station myself on the rampart;

And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,

And how I may reply when I am reproved.

2Then the Lord answered me and said,

“Record the vision

And inscribe it on tablets,

That the one who reads it may run.

3“For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

4“Behold, as for the proud one,

His soul is not right within him;

But the righteous will live by his faith.

5“Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man,

So that he does not stay at home.

He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,

And he is like death, never satisfied.

He also gathers to himself all nations

And collects to himself all peoples.

6“Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him,

Even mockery and insinuations against him

And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his—

For how long—

And makes himself rich with loans?’

7“Will not your creditors rise up suddenly,

And those who collect from you awaken?

Indeed, you will become plunder for them.

8“Because you have looted many nations,

All the remainder of the peoples will loot you—

Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

9“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house

To put his nest on high,

To be delivered from the hand of calamity!

10“You have devised a shameful thing for your house

By cutting off many peoples;

So you are sinning against yourself.

11“Surely the stone will cry out from the wall,

And the rafter will answer it from the framework.

12“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed

And founds a town with violence!

13“Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts

That peoples toil for fire,

And nations grow weary for nothing?

14“For the earth will be filled

With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

As the waters cover the sea.

15“Woe to you who make your neighbors drink,

Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk

So as to look on their nakedness!

16“You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor.

Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness.

The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you,

And utter disgrace will come upon your glory.

17“For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

And the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them,

Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,

To the town and all its inhabitants.

18“What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it,

Or an image, a teacher of falsehood?

For its maker trusts in his own handiwork

When he fashions speechless idols.

19“Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’

To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’

And that is your teacher?

Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,

And there is no breath at all inside it.

20“But the Lord is in His holy temple.

Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Chapter 3

God’s Deliverance of His People

1A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

2Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear.

O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years,

In the midst of the years make it known;

In wrath remember mercy.

3God comes from Teman,

And the Holy One from Mount Paran.

Selah.

His splendor covers the heavens,

And the earth is full of His praise.

4His radiance is like the sunlight;

He has rays flashing from His hand,

And there is the hiding of His power.

5Before Him goes pestilence,

And plague comes after Him.

6He stood and surveyed the earth;

He looked and startled the nations.

Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered,

The ancient hills collapsed.

His ways are everlasting.

7I saw the tents of Cushan under distress,

The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.

8Did the Lord rage against the rivers,

Or was Your anger against the rivers,

Or was Your wrath against the sea,

That You rode on Your horses,

On Your chariots of salvation?

9Your bow was made bare,

The rods of chastisement were sworn.

Selah.

You cleaved the earth with rivers.

10The mountains saw You and quaked;

The downpour of waters swept by.

The deep uttered forth its voice,

It lifted high its hands.

11Sun and moon stood in their places;

They went away at the light of Your arrows,

At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.

12In indignation You marched through the earth;

In anger You trampled the nations.

13You went forth for the salvation of Your people,

For the salvation of Your anointed.

You struck the head of the house of the evil

To lay him open from thigh to neck.

Selah.

14You pierced with his own spears

The head of his throngs.

They stormed in to scatter us;

Their exultation was like those

Who devour the oppressed in secret.

15You trampled on the sea with Your horses,

On the surge of many waters.

16I heard and my inward parts trembled,

At the sound my lips quivered.

Decay enters my bones,

And in my place I tremble.

Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,

For the people to arise who will invade us.

17Though the fig tree should not blossom

And there be no fruit on the vines,

Though the yield of the olive should fail

And the fields produce no food,

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold

And there be no cattle in the stalls,

18Yet I will exult in the Lord,

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

19The Lord God is my strength,

And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,

And makes me walk on my high places.

For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.

Illustration point-

We must listen to these voices

Francis Bacon famously said Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested,"

So may we chew on these words

Application

I’d encourage you to start asking questions about this book

What do you think about taking your why’s to God while still having a strong faith?

What issues of injustice do you see in the world that you wonder God allows?

How can you humbly look for answers in God’s word?

Why is the assurance of God’s future judgment as comfort?

Are there any ways I put my trust in man made idols?

How does the promise of God’s salvation outweigh fear I may have of suffering?

Can I share with others ways I’ve seen God through in the past?

Let’s keep reading the world Habbakuk by finds himself it

The timeline of this is debated because of disagreements over who the Chaldeans are in chapter 1

The Babylonians slowly rose to power, so if it is them, here is the timeline:

687 bc

Manasseh’s reign begins

642 bc

Manasseh’s reign ends

640 bc

Amon’s assassination, Josiah becomes king

622 bc

Josiah finds the Book of the Law

612 bc

Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, is destroyed

609 bc

608-605

Josiah dies, Jehoiakim begins to reign

Habakkuk is writen

605 bc

Babylonians, under Nebuchadnezzar, defeat the Egyptian-Assyrian forces at Carchemish in Syria

598 bc

Babylonians march against Judah, Jehoiakim dies

587/6 bc

Fall of Jerusalem

Let’s look at what Jeremiah said about the king at the time

Pharaoh Neco made Jehoiakim king over Judah in 609 BC. He was twenty-five. ‘He did evil in the eyes of the LORD his God’ (2 Chronicles 36:5).

Jeremiah accuses him of unrighteousness, injustice, dishonesty, shedding innocent blood, oppression and extortion

Jeremiah 22

Messages about the Kings

13“Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness

And his upper rooms without justice,

Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay

And does not give him his wages,

14Who says, ‘I will build myself a roomy house

With spacious upper rooms,

And cut out its windows,

Paneling it with cedar and painting it bright red.’

15“Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar?

Did not your father eat and drink

And do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him.

16“He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;

Then it was well.

Is not that what it means to know Me?”

Declares the Lord.

17“But your eyes and your heart

Are intent only upon your own dishonest gain,

And on shedding innocent blood

And on practicing oppression and extortion.”

18Therefore thus says the Lord in regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,

“They will not lament for him:

‘Alas, my brother!’ or, ‘Alas, sister!’

They will not lament for him:

‘Alas for the master!’ or, ‘Alas for his splendor!’

19“He will be buried with a donkey’s burial,

Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20“Go up to Lebanon and cry out,

And lift up your voice in Bashan;

Cry out also from Abarim,

For all your lovers have been crushed.

21“I spoke to you in your prosperity;

But you said, ‘I will not listen!’

This has been your practice from your youth,

That you have not obeyed My voice.

22“The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,

And your lovers will go into captivity;

Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated

Because of all your wickedness.

You probably noticed Jeremiah say His father had been a righteos king

The last good king

2 Kings 22

1Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

2He did right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of his father David, nor did he turn aside to the right or to the left.

In verse 8 they find The Lost Book of Moses

8Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it.

9Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.”

10Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

11When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.

2 Kings 23

Passover Reinstituted

21Then the king commanded all the people saying, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this book of the covenant.”

22Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.

23But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem.

24Moreover, Josiah removed the mediums and the spiritists and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.

25Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.

This was a joyous time, but then Josiah Dies in Battle

2 Chronicles 35

20After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt came up to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to engage him.

21But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, “What have we to do with each other, O King of Judah? I am not coming against you today but against the house with which I am at war, and God has ordered me to hurry. Stop for your own sake from interfering with God who is with me, so that He will not destroy you.”

22However, Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to make war with him; nor did he listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to make war on the plain of Megiddo.

23The archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded.”

24So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in the second chariot which he had, and brought him to Jerusalem where he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

25Then Jeremiah chanted a lament for Josiah. And all the male and female singers speak about Josiah in their lamentations to this day. And they made them an ordinance in Israel; behold, they are also written in the Lamentations.

So now, there is an evil king

Habakkuk remembers the promises previously made about evil

Deuteronomy 28:15–20- “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. “Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. “The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me.

2 Kings 23:26–27- However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. The LORD said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the temple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”

Habakkuk must simply wait for God’s justice and mercy to fall

Therefore

Since we have seen (Cohesion)-

A unique prophet that speaks to God instead of speaking to us from God

So we see his struggle

And we see his example of faith

We know we must (Resolution)-

May our goal be then… How can I trust this God over the next few months as we learn from the revelation of this prophet?