Habakkuk 1:12-2:1 Sermon

Juan Carlos Morales

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Introduction

Main Idea: God's righteous judgments are good. Even when we do not understand.

What many have struggled with when it comes to an all powerful all knowing God is:

“How can there be evil if God exists?”

“Isn’t God powerful enough to stop evil?”

“How can there be a God with all this suffering in the world?”

There are many questions that people have, especially when faced with suffering, hatred and evil in the world.

What gets challenged most is the righteousness and justice of God.

We live in a time where people, even people in the visible church, have become preoccupied with justice that they have even abandoned the truth of God’s just and righteous character.

There can be such a thing as wanting justice without God.

There can be such a thing as wanting temporal answers to a problem without God. The God who has the answer and cure to our core problem.

Not only do we not go to God for justice, we question whether God cares at all about the injustices happening in the world.

We have thought only of temporal fixes to an eternal problem.

People want answers for this life only. But Scripture makes it clear. So clear that even if we had Christ, for this life only, we of all people should be pitied!

1 Corinthians 15:19 NASB95

If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

1 Corinthains 15:19

Is evil real? Yes.

Is suffering hard? Yes.

Is injustices evil? Yes.

But what is true?

What is good, so good that we can look at our present sufferings and say, not my will but yours be done?

Evil was real in the time of Habakkuk.

Injustice happening amongst men was real.

Suffering was real.

But what the prophet needed was, “what is true?”

The book deals with real evil and suffering happening in and to God’s people.

It brings us back to the truth which is vital for us as God’s people.

Background

The Book of Habakkuk was likely written between 610 and 605 B.C.

The book of Habakkuk was written at a time when there was much sin and trouble in Judah.

Prior to the book being written, King Josiah brought significant spiritual reform. We see this in 2 Kings chapters 22 and 23.

He put away idolatrous practices where the words of the covenant were read in public and the temple was being repaired.

Josiah was killed in battle which left his throne to 3 sons making Jehoiakim King. Jehoiakim would revert to evil and bring God’s judgement because of his and the people’s sin.

Around this time, Jeremiah the prophet prophesied a 70 year captivity which was a message of Judgement against Judah.

Judah had many idols that were set up in high places and they were engaging in practices that were clearly forbidden by God.

Jeremiah Prophesies a 70-Year Captivity Jeremiah’s primary calling from God was to preach a message of judgment to Judah. Judah had set up many high places of worship to idols, engaging in practices that were explicitly forbidden by God. In 605 BC, Jeremiah prophesied that because of Judah’s sins, God would send Nebuchadnezzar (r. 605–562 BC), the king of Babylon, to destroy Jerusalem and take the Jews captive to Babylon (modern-day Iraq) for seventy years ().

Because of Judah’s sins, God would send Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king of Babylon, to destroy Jerusalem and take the Jews captive to Babylon for seventy years ().

Prior to the book being written, King Josiah brought significant spiritual reform. We see this in 2 Kings chapters 22 and 23.

He put away idolatrous practices where the words of the covenant were read in public and the temple was being repaired.

Josiah was killed in battle which left his throne to 3 sons making Jehoiakim King. Jehoiakim would revert to evil and bring God’s judgement because of his and the people’s sin.

The Assyrians were on the decline in power. Nineveh had been destroyed and the Babylonians were rising in power.

Habakkuk lived in troubled times where he witnessed the decline of God's covenant people who had given themselves to idolatry and sin. And he witnessed the invasion by the Babylonian armies.

He witnessed the invasion by the Babylonian armies because of their sin.

The book of Habakkuk deals with what is called theodicy.

gotquestions.org defines theodicy as:

"a branch of philosophy dealing with the issue of evil in light of the existence of God. If God is just and holy and good, then how do evil and misery exist? That’s the question theodicy wrestles with."

The book of Habakkuk deals with the issue of evil in light of God's existence.

Habakkuk offers insight as to how these two can exist.

It helps us to embrace the truth of God's holiness and just character in the midst of what seems to be God being silent and uninvolved with His people.

Which is a much needed message today.

We see evil every day.

We see suffering every day.

We see injustices every day.

So what we need most, is not freedom from evil or pain. What we need most is not justice for the wrong done.

What we need most is God.

Outline

1: First question about God being everlasting (v.12)

a. The rhetorical question. (making a point)

b. "We will not die"

c. God appointed them (Babylonians) to judge and correct

2: Second question about God’s favor and silence (v.13)

a. The prophet's statement of God's purity

b. The question about God's purity

c. The question about God's silence

d. "The wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?"

3: Third question about how God made men (v.14-17)

a. The prophet asks a question about why God made men like fish and creeping things (v.14)

b. The Chaldeans catching fish (v.15)

c. The Chaldeans offer a sacrifice (v.16)

d. The prophet asks a question about The Chaldeans (v.17)

4: The Conclusion (2:1)

a. The prophet stations himself

The Prophet's Second Complaint

b. The prophet keeps watch to see what God will say

1: First question about God being everlasting (v.12)

c. The prophet keeps watch to see how he would reply when reproved.

a. The rhetorical question.

Habakkuk 1:12 NASB95

Are 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.

Hab

The prophet in what is called by some “his second complaint” asks a rhetorical question.

A rhetorical is asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply.

Its a question asked to make a point, not to get an answer but to get a point across.

His question: “Are you not from everlasting?

First, we know this is rhetorical because he’s asking God.

Second, he knows that God is everlasting or eternal.

Essentially he is pointing out that God is forever. Meaning that God is eternal, indeterminate and unending. He is pointing out how God is not bound by time.

He also points out God’s holiness. Acknowledging God’s set apartness from everything else.

The prophet in question form points out God being everlasting. Why?

It comes from the prophet’s first interaction prior to our passage.

Habakkuk 1:1–4 NASB95

The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. Why 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. Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.

Habakkuk 1:

Then we see God’s reply where essentially He is pointing out how He raised up the Babylonians to be strong and to take over Judah and how evil they are in taking captives.

And how evil they are in taking captives and

The point of Habakkuk addressing God being everlasting is to say “Lord, you have always been God.”

“Lord, you have always been God.”

You have always been the Lord. You have always been God, the Holy One.

David J. Clark and Howard A. Hatton, A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Habakkuk, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), 82.

What I see going on here is Habakkuk’s second reply is coming because of God’s first answer where He is declaring His use of an evil people to take over Judah.

He then goes on to His holiness.

The prophet’s reply is trying to bring forth God being God even when using, not allowing, but using a pagan nation to take captive God’s people.

His eternality is being brought forth because the prophet knows that God has always been God. God does not change being God.

What we see here is that God can maintain being righteous and holy while using a pagan nation for His ultimate purposes.

But what God will also do is preserve His people even when faced with judgement, suffering, injustice and evil.

Isn’t God everlasting

The NRSV Reads it,

Habakkuk 1:12 NRSV

Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O Lord, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.