A Prophet's Complaint
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A preacher went into a children’s class at church and asked, “What is faith?” After a bit of a pause, a little girl raised her hand and said, “Faith is believing God without asking any questions.” Though initially that answer might seem right to some of you, genuine faith actually has a lot of questions.
We might say that the opposite of faith is doubt, but in faith, there is room for doubt. The opposite of faith is actually unbelief. Just like temptation can lead to sin, but is not sin itself, doubt does not equal unbelief, but it can lead to unbelief.
Faith often goes hand in hand with doubt. We doubt God at times, and yet we worship Him. Sometimes we doubt and still serve. It is our response in doubt that will either strengthen our faith or slowly lead us to unbelief.
We are going to see this in action with the prophet Habakkuk. In this short book, only three chapters long, we are going to learn how to turn our doubts into faith. it would be a lesson that Habakkuk would have to learn personally.
Through this series, we are going to learn to “Pray… YET!!!” This is the overarching theme in Habakkuk. Think of praying yet in this way:
When Jesus called Peter to be a disciple, Jesus tells Peter to go to the deep part of the sea and let his nets down there to catch fish. Well, the thing is, Peter had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. Peter was the expert on fishing. He was a professional. But all night he had fished and caught nothing. Jesus comes along and says, ‘Go to the deep end and cast your nets out there.” Peter says, “Master, we have toiled all night, YET at your command, we will.” And when they did, there was a miraculous catch of fish.
There was doubt in Peter, but not unbelief. There was enough faith for Peter to obey, even in his doubt.
So let us set the scene for the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk lived and prophesied around the year 610 BC. This means that this is well into the history of the nation of Israel.
The nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for a period of time, lived in Egypt. They had garnered special favor there because on of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, had been instrumental in not only saving Egypt from a great famine, but also in empowering the Pharaoh and setting Egypt up with major wealth and commerce and giving it a start as a major world power.
But then, generations after Joseph had died, the Egyptian royals feared that the Israelites would take over and begin to control Egypt, and so that would not happen, the Egyptians enslaved Israel.
After 400 or so years of being in Egypt, God raises up a Hebrew man named Moses whom He uses to lead the Israelites out from Egypt and back into their homeland, the land of Canaan.
There in Canaan, the Israelites settle and they are unlike any other nation around them. They are not led by kings, they are led by God through the direction of judges. But after many judges, the Israelites desire for themselves a king. So, God gives them a king named Saul. Saul if from the smallest of the 12 tribes of Israel - Benjamin. At first, he is a good king and obeys God in all that he does. However, he later becomes selfish and greedy, obeying only when it is convenient for him to do so. He neglects God’s commands, so therefore, God tells the nation’s prophet at the time, Samuel, to anoint a young man from the tribe of Judah (Israel’s largest tribe) as the next king. That young man is David.
After Saul dies, David becomes king. He is a good king and is bestowed by God a phrase we have turned into a title - a man after God’s own heart. When he dies, Solomon, David’s son, begins to reign. However, though Solomon at first follows God with all his heart, he later departs from God. He takes to himself 1000 wives and concubines, a clear disobedience of God’s commands. But these wives turn Solomon’s heart from worshipping God to worshipping the false gods of their nationalities. Solomon ends up building altars to these other gods all throughout Israel.
God then speaks to Solomon a prophecy, that upon his death, God was going to divide the kingdom. Sure enough, when Solomon dies, his son Rehoboam ascends the throne, but shortly after, ten of the tribes in the northern part of Israel break off and install Jeroboam as their king. They are referred to as the Kingdom of Israel.
The southern kingdom, consisting of Benjamin and Judah, become the Kingdom of Judah.
Israel kings, starting with Jeroboam, are mostly evil kings. They serve false gods and many of those gods require human sacrifice and even child sacrifices. So after many warnings and after many prophets being sent to them telling them to repent and turn away from those false gods and evil practices, God allows the Kingdom of Israel to fall to the Assyrians after 210 years in 722 BC.
The southern kingdom of Judah had, especially at first, Godly kings. But after a while, they too begin to drift away from God and not heed the warnings of the prophets like Israel. Even after seeing God punish Israel, the Judahites, or Jews, refused to repent.
God sent them many prophets, and one of these was the prophet Habakkuk. The last good king of Judah, King Josiah, had just died in the year 610 BC when Habakkuk brings his prophecies to Judah.
We need to make two observation about the Old Testament prophets like Habakkuk:
The prophets (major or minor) were the covenant watchdogs to God’s people. Part of God’s covenant was that He would bless the world through them and continue to bless them and keep them safe if they followed Him.
The prophets didn’t just design messages; they were messages. Very true of Habakkuk because his faith struggle would be Judah’s struggle.
-Habakkuk’s name means “to embrace.” He would have to embrace the ways of God even when he didn’t understand them. I have never had difficulty believing in the existence of God. It made sense that a design demanded a designer. But I have struggled to understand why God does, what he does, and when he does it.
-Habakkuk lived and prophesied around 610 BC. Good King Josiah had just died and God’s People fell back into deep sin. Along with the major prophet, Jeremiah, Habakkuk’s job was to get God’s people ready for Babylonian captivity in 587 BC.
The theme verse in Habakkuk would probably be this: Habakkuk 3:17-18
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls:
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
So all that is an introduction to Habakkuk. But before we look into the first chapter, let’s discuss some things.
1) How is it that within faith there is “room for doubt?”
2) In what way do prophets not only deliver messages but are messages?
3) What does “pray yet” mean to you?
4) God can handle your largest question. What is a “big” question you have for God?
Habakkuk’s Complaint
Habakkuk’s Complaint
As we go through this book, we are going to study this question - How do I stay faithful in trying times?
Habakkuk calls what “saw” an burden (1:1). Habakkuk 1:1
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
This is a word for inspired speech, i.e. prophecy. But it is a burden. It is a heavy vision that he sees.
We notice that he said “saw.” This message that he receives from God then can be understood as being at least partly visual. Regardless it means “inspired.”
FIRST COMPLAINT (1:2-4): Habakkuk 1:2-4
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me: And there are that raise up strife and contention.
4 Therefore the law is slacked [paralyzed], and judgment doth never go forth: For the wicked doth compass about the righteous; Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth [justice is perverted, corrupted].
If you are in the habit of marking your Bible, I would make a note by these three verses that this is Habakkuk speaking. As we go through the book, there is dialog between Habakkuk and God and we will note those so that it is clear who is speaking to whom.
-How long? That’s often the cry of believers who feel that the world is dissing them. It’s an honest cry.
Habakkuk sees the evil within his own people. Habakkuk’s world is filled with idolatry, immorality, violence, iniquity, and lack of justice.
Habakkuk is thinking that God is not paying attention to things. Does it seem to you that God is asleep on your deal? Remember the first story of the calming of the storm (Mk. 4:35-41)? Jesus is asleep on the job. The seeming inactivity of God is a problem for Habakkuk.
-Habakkuk knows that God’s People are being violent (a word used much in Genesis – Kings). He wonders why, as a prophet, he has to look at how bad things are. It’s as if God has made the prophet look at iniquity (moral impurity). Destruction and violence are everywhere and God seems to sit idly by. Strife and contention are running rampant.
-Habakkuk notices that the law (so special to the People of God—I mean this is one way they know who they are) “seems paralyzed.” The Torah is paralyzed (no formal law enforcement). Justice is lacking. The wicked seem to win—Ps. 73:12-14
12 Behold, these are the ungodly, Who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocency.
14 For all the day long have I been plagued, And chastened every morning.
-Habakkuk is having a “deistic” moment.
He is saying, “God, are you paying attention?”
God’s Response
God’s Response
Now we get to overhear what God is saying to Habakkuk’s complaint. This is an intimate thing. Habakkuk speaks to God, and God speaks back to His prophet.
5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: For I will work a work in your days, Which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, Which shall march through the breadth of the land, To possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful: Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, And are more fierce than the evening wolves: And their horsemen shall spread themselves, And their horsemen shall come from far; They shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
9 They shall come all for violence: Their faces shall sup up as the east wind, And they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, And the princes shall be a scorn unto them: They shall deride every strong hold; For they shall heap dust, and take it.
11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, Imputing this his power unto his god.
-God says, “Actually I do know what is going on, and am going to do something about it.” The phrase, “I am doing a work” (1:5)—is literally, “a worker is working” (Hebraism)—heaping up the words for emphasis. “But you won’t believe it”—this is actually used by Paul in Acts 13:41. The work is a work of discipline, and if they do not respond, the Jews, though they hear the the news from witnesses, will find it hard to believe.
Habakkuk finds it hard to believe, but we’ll get to that later on.
What is this work that God is going to do?
Vs. 6 says that I am going to raise up the Babylonians to punish all this wickedness in my own people. The nation of Babylon is going to march against Judah. Look how that nation is described:
-Bitter and hasty (6)
-Good marchers (6)
-Steal - plunder (6)
-Dreaded and fearsome (7)
-They have their own definitions of justice and dignity - and it is very pagan, very contrary to the word of God (7)
-Their war ability is described as horses (like leopards and wolves [wolves are often used to describe false teachers]) and the riders (fast as eagles)—vs. 8
-They are fierce and intent (9)
-They gather enemies like sand - scoop them up easily (9)
-Foreign kings and rulers are nothing to them. They just scoff and laugh at them (10)
-They are as fast as the wind - it is a fast spreading empire (11)
-They are arrogant and worship their own might (11)
This causes an issue for Habakkuk. This is where doubt starts to set in. Why do you think that this plan, this work, that God has prepared for the kingdom of Judah would be problematic for Habakkuk? It could mean the destruction of God’s people (Israel has been gone now for a while, now only Judah remained) yet God had promised to preserve Israel forever.
It would be God using a nation that was far more wicked than Judah was to conquer Judah. This doesn’t make sense. The Chaldeans should be the ones getting conquered by Judah as punishment for their wickedness.
First Habakkuk had a problem with the seeming inactivity of God; now he has a problem with the activity of God. And this is the struggle of faith and doubt.
How do we “pray yet” when God’s ways seem so foreign to our way of thinking? Elie Wiesel said, “No faith is as good as a wounded faith.” Sometimes our faith has to take some wounds, has to be put through tests and trials for it to strengthen. It serves as a tempering of our faith.
-Here is a very disturbing text from the NT that lines up with Habakkuk’s doubt and complaints to God.—1 Pet. 4:17, “Judgment begins with the household of God. If it begins with us, imagine what it will be for those who do not obey God.”
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
“Judgment begins with the household of God. If it begins with us, imagine what it will be for those who do not obey God.”
Next session we will see how Habakkuk has a second complaint to God that is this - How could you possibly use the Babylonians to punish Judah? Well, judgment must begin in God’s house. Then, God will judge those that do not believe/obey the Gospel of God. And this is what would happen. God would judge Judah with Babylon, though not completely destroy them, but then, because of Babylon’s wickedness, God would judge them and allow them to be conquered by the Medes and Persians.
-We have to learn how to Pray Yet even when God’s ways seem most odd.
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls:
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
1) Deism is the belief that God made the world but then left it to its own. Does it ever seem to you that God has left you alone at times? How so?
2) Which poses a bigger issue for your faith, the seeming inactivity of God or his direct involvement? Habakkuk had a problem with God’s inactivity in that He wasn’t fixing Judah’s sin, until God announced His planned work to use a pagan nation to judge Judah, and then Habakkuk had a problem with that. Discuss.
3) Are there ways that you see God at work today through seeming evil people and systems?
4) Have you had a time when your faith has been wounded? What else was going on in your life when this took place?
