Habakkuk 2
Notes
Transcript
Main Idea: God never fails to fulfill His promise; just believe and wait for it.// When our heart is completely for God, God will be completely for us.
Intro: next week is our last midweek.
Hook: When I was a kid, if my sister and I got in trouble for the same thing, i always felt like I got the worse punishment….
Context: Last week we looked at the start of this conversation. Habakkuk was making his second complaint when the chapter ended. Chapter 2 starts out with a posture of patience.
I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
Habakkuk is frustrated. He doesn’t believe it to be fair that God is using an ally of Satan to judge His people. He takes out his frustrations as we read last week and ends with this verse. He is going to wait for God’s answer to decided how he is going to continue to feel about this situation. Which we often fail to do. We talked last month about how we often let our feelings lead, here we see Habakkuk is putting how he feels in the passenger seat and he says, this is what i see, this is how I feel, this is how i disagree, but I’m going to wait on God before I say anything further.
God Isn’t Surprised & He is Just
And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
“Moreover, wine is a traitor,
an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
and collects as his own all peoples.”
God agrees with Habakkuk
When we see something happening to us or around us that just doesn’t seem to make sense, or we think is unfair. God is not so far away that we can’t bring those things to Him. He’d rather hear from us then not at all.
If God is just, then the things that happen that are unjust would be seen that way as well.
We also have to recognize that we often view the world in terms of consequences.
We would see this situation of why are the bad things happening to God’s people. The right thing to happen, would be for only the good things to happen to His people and the bad to happen to the idol worshippers.
Yet, we cannot see all of the outcomes and knowing that God knows all and exists outside of time, there are outcomes and timings beyond our understanding that God sees.
We may see “it would be better if this person lost, and this person won”
But God can see for generations, and that in order to accomplish His ultimate goal and good, He’s going to allow evil to happen. So, just because we see something in the present, God can see so far beyond that to see the ultimate good pan out.
God proceeds to tell him all of the things he has against the Chaldeans and that their punishment will not allude them.
This is a practice in faith. If we truly believe God is who He says He is, then how do we respond to things in our day to day. This is a part of our growth in faith and learning more about Him.
2. God is Still our Source For All Good Things
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.
Habakkuk responds in prayer.
He says, God I hear you, and I fear you. As you pour out the wrath, remember mercy. Do what’s best but don’t leave us.
His whole posture is now openhanded. He had made his concern known and he got his answer.
Habakkuk knew what was coming, and he was afraid. He was scared about what he and his people would go through. Yet, he ends his prayer this way:
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,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
no matter what may happen, our joy comes from the Lord. Our strength comes from the Lord.
Closing:
God always keeps His promise. We don’t look for God to change, we change our heart and mind to align with God.
