Habakkuk 1:1-4
Notes
Transcript
Title of the series is when God doesn’t. — Develop why
Are there times and situations that we think God doesn’t respond or even see?
Does he never look down to see the violence and chaos in our world?
How can a good God allow such gratuitous violence and injustice God on?
This is where Habakkuk was when he cried out to God.
1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
This is the word of God…
The time in which Habakkuk lived was time shaken by violence. In Judah society was filled with injustice from the unrighteous.
The city of Jerusalem had sunk deeper into disobedience toward God and indifference to the Old Law.
So the fabric of Jewish society in Judah was unraveling.
The Building Tension
The Building Tension
There was a tension building in this time.
It was a time where there was a build up of the coming invasion of Judah by the Babylonians in 606 BC.
With all the violence and injustice Habakkuk directs his passion and despair to God.
He was burning with zeal for God as much as pain for his people.
He will poor out his heart to God in prayer.
Habakkuk is foremost a prophet of reverence and awe-filled faith, serving as the soul and center of his life.
The subject Habakkuk prayerfully brings to the presence of God is the affliction of the righteous amid the prosperity of the wicked.
Does this sound vaguely familiar?
Psalm 73 is a Palm written by Asaph.
Habakkuk and Asaph share the same struggle.
When Habakkuk says, “the righteous person will live by his faithfulness..” (Hab. 2:4) it occupies the same place as Psalm 73:24 does for Asaph.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
What is Unfolding?
What is Unfolding?
What is unfolding in the prophecy of Habakkuk goes back to the mistake a king of Judah made.
Hezekiah showing the Babylonian envoy around — develop
God had something to say about this — Isaiah 39:5-7
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty:
6 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord.
7 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
The time of the fulfillment of this prophecy is drawing near and how it will unfold is at least partially being revealed to Habakkuk.
The beauty of the prophecy of Habakkuk is a declaration of God’s deliverance of his people at all times.
The prophecy includes the Babylonians and each great empire which is in opposition to the Kingdom of God.
Declaring to every generation as God delivered His people in the past, He will deliver them in the end.
The Historical Setting
The Historical Setting
The book of Habakkuk is set in the years following the reign of Josiah when Jehoiakim succeeded him as king in 609 BC.
Josiah had been a just king, known as a reformer bringing the people back into relationship with God.
Josiah ruled and administered justice in the Spirit of Israel’s covenant law.
Jehoiakim didn’t inherit any of his father’s qualities.
As king he exploited his subjects for his own increase in power, wealth, status, and prestige .
Jehoiakim had no concern for justice or mercy.
His subordinates, governors, and judges, took their cue from the king.
All of this led to wide spread oppression, injustice, and violence.
Given the time he lived in Habakkuk asks timeless questions about the problems of evil and violence in conjunction with the character of God.
These are questions people are still asking.
The problem from the human point of view is the oppressiveness of unrestrained violence and the silence of God.
Develop — When God doesn’t
Even now, 2 1/2 thousand years after Habakkuk our own society is being torn apart by violence.
“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within”
― Will Durant
It happened to Judah is 586 BC, and we see it happening now in our own country
Conclusion
Habakkuk’s first subject is faith struggling under the oppressive sight of the sufferings of the good from the evil within God’s people.
The second subject is the sufferings at the hands of those who are God’s instruments to avenge that wickedness.
The third subject is that of a great hymn Habakkuk wrote about faith, not jubilant to the end but victoriously praying, believing, in the triumph of God’s loving kindness.
We don’t know much of anything about Habakkuk except that he was a contemporary of Jeremiah and a man of vigorous faith rooted deeply in the religious tradition of Israel.
