Yet: The inexplicable peace of God"
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The Text
The Text
17 Though 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, 18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 19 The 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.
Habakkuk. In-between Nahum and Zephaniah
What a beautiful expression of trust in God.
A dialogue between man and God.
Hab 1:2-
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.
Questions: Why does God allow evil? Does God not listen to our prayers? Is God in control? Does God cause events that we describe as “bad”.
These are important questions to ask.
Habakkuk’s questions:
“How long shall I cry for help and you will not listen?”
“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?”
Habakkuk’s accusations:
Destruction, violence, strife, and conflict.
The law is paralyzed and there is no justice.
Excellent questions.
Habakkuk was distressed by two things.
Before this book was written, Josiah had been King of Judah. Josiah had implemented widesweeping social and moral reforms, destroying strongholds of idol worship and child sacrifice that had existed for centuries.
Josiah’s reign was brought to an end when he marched his army against Pharoah Necho of Egypt. Josiah was killed in the battle, and his brother Jehoahaz was named king in his place.
Now it was common practice for a victorious nation to disrupt the kingly line in order to have their own puppet in the throne.
So Pharoah Necho placed Josiah’s son Eliakim on the throne. And changed his name to Jehoiakim.
Now Jehoiakim was a wicked man. Weak leader who flip flopped allegiance back and forth between Egypt and the Chaldeans. Facilitated the brutal taxation of the people.
Jehoiakim moved away from the reforms of his father and returned to the sins of Manasseh.
What a sad time for Israel.
Talk about Topheth. The remnant would have always been distressed about this. And when Josiah desecrated it the remnant would have rejoiced.
Instantly after his death, the nation returns to sin.
11 years of reign take place.
Israel in the north had been taken into captivity some hundred years before. Judah has been plunged into sin, Judah is being taxed heavily by Egypt on one side, and on the other side the Chaldeans are rising in power and beginning repeated attacks on both Judah and Egypt.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Habakkuk and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Decade
Try to identify with how frustrating this must have been for someone who loved God and knew the blessing that Israel could be experiencing instead.
A Conversation Between Man and God
There are rich things to be gleaned from these pages.
God allows very difficult questions/accusations to be leveled at him.
God engages in real time conversation with men and women throughout history for His purposes.
Habakkuk was representing the cry of many. So God’s purpose in conversational revelation was to disclose His nature and will to many, through one.
God’s Response
God responds to Habakkuk’s cry.
5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
God says, “I do not pervert justice, indeed I have raised up a nation to enact my perfect justice on Judah.”
So here we are learning that God can and will use violence, evil, terror, and suffering for His purposes.
This is a difficult pill to swallow.
Habakkuk struggles with this.
Look at his next response!
“God you exist in eternity! You’ve made these wicked men a judgement for Judah, but what about the righteous?”
This is similar to the conversation that Abraham had with a pre-incarnate Christ looking over Sodom.
A pleading for the righteous.
God said he would not destroy Sodom for the sake of even 10 righteous people.
Evidently there were not even 10 people who loved God in Sodom.
There were definitely more than 10 righteous people in Judah at this time.
And God says this barbaric nation is coming to destroy.
Habakkuk says, “God, this nation keeps plundering nation after nation and then worshipping false gods in thanks. How can you let this happen?!”
Habakkuk describes himself then as a man standing in a watchtower waiting for a messenger.
1 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.
What follows in Chapter 2 is a damning series of woes from God to the Chaldeans
This reveals another interesting feature of God’s justice.
God ordains that the Chaldeans will plunder Judah, and at the same time ordains that the Chaldeans will be punished for doing so.
Embedded in this terrifying rebuke of Judah’s enemies is a promise...
2 vs 4
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Faith here is contrasted with pride.
Humility is an act of faith.
This was the ultimate demise of King Josiah!
He was possessed with this desire to enter the fray of battle. A battle that wasn’t even his.
The Chaldeans were extremely prideful of their warfare abilities and wealth.
When Habakkuk points this out he is told by God. YOU will live by faith.
What does this faith look like?
The book of Habakkuk is completed with a beautiful Psalm of trust and joy in the Lord.
Habakkuk acknowledges some things about God that are not things that we normally think about God.
2 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. 3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. 5 Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. 6 He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.
Hab 3:2
God is depicted as the warrior king here.
The warrior king who comes to deliver His people.
Plague and pestilence are at his front and back and His lightning like arrows crush the heads of His enemies.
Habakkuk says:
Hab 3:
16 I hear and my stomach shakes; my lips quiver at the sound; infection enters my bones; that which is beneath me trembles; I wait quietly for the day of trouble to come upon the people attacking us.
God’s wrath is terrifying.
However...
The Righteous Will Live By Faith.
17 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 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.
Habakkuk 3:17-
Habakkuk is only able to reach this declaration of trust in God by faith.
But this faith is based on reality.
The reality that the righteous WILL live.
God ALWAYS redeems His people.
What Habakkuk came to understand was that God’s timeline and method for redemption was not the same as Habakkuk’s
At the beginning of this book Habakkuk is pleading for and solely focused on
At the beginning of this book Habakkuk is pleading for and solely focused on temporary needs and concerns.
Injustice.
War.
Famine.
Oppressive regimes on all sides.
By the end of the book he has moved into an eternal perspective of God’s salvation.
He describes this experience like being given the feet of a deer.
Have you ever seen a deer or a mountain goat scale a mountain?
Hunting example.
Deer...
Me...
Josiah...
A deer can traverse seemingly insurmountable terrain to reach safety.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength.
Understanding God’s sovereignty in history, and in salvation is absolutely paramount to navigating the insurmountable afflictions of our daily lives.
We too have mountains of doubt and pain that stand between us and joy.
We see wickedness rewarded, and sorrow racks our own lives.
One of the main themes of Job, that we see echoed here in Habakkuk
Does God pervert justice?/God punishes the wicked.
This comes from a faulty understanding of God’s time. We demand justice now and expect it of God.
12 Look at them—the wicked! They are always at ease, and they increase their wealth. 13 Did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing? 14 For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning. 15 If I had decided to say these things aloud, I would have betrayed Your people. 16 When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless 17 until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny. 18 Indeed, You put them in slippery places; You make them fall into ruin. 19 How suddenly they become a desolation! They come to an end, swept away by terrors. 20 Like one waking from a dream, Lord, when arising, You will despise their image. 21 When I became embittered and my innermost being was wounded, 22 I was stupid and didn’t understand; I was an unthinking animal toward You. 23 Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me up in glory. 25 Who do I have in heaven but You? And I desire nothing on earth but You. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever. 27 Those far from You will certainly perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. 28 But as for me, God’s presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all You do.
This psalmist understood that God’s justice exists outside the realm of OUR timing. And that the true reward of those who love God is fellowship with Him in eternity. *Gospel
This psalmist understood that God’s justice exists outside the realm of OUR timing. And that the true reward of those who love God is fellowship with Him in eternity. This is the Gospel.
BUT WHAT ABOUT SUFFERING
Rabbi Harold Kushner is an American Rabbi who wrote the book “When bad things happen to good people.” A book that was published in 1981 after the death of his young son who was afflicted with progeria.
The book attempts to answer this question, while pondering how a good God could allow suffering.
His answer to the philosophical problem is that God does his best and is with people in their suffering, but is not fully able to prevent it.[2]
This is a popular notion that has gained traction over the last few decades in various forms that falls under the umbrella of “open theism”.
The idea that God has limited Himself in time, and cannot prevent all evil, and is not involved in the bad things that happen to people.
In contrast...
“The sovereignty of God must be a deeply held conviction. When my son was dying of leukemia, a friend wrote, “I don’t know how this tragedy came about, but I do know that it did not come from God. God is not in the business of killing little children.” As I pondered his observation, I concluded that if God did not kill my son, then I have a far greater problem than my son dying. I worship a god who is not in control. God was not sitting on the edge of the universe chagrined over the disease that ravaged my son’s life. As I held my son in my arms while he slipped into eternity, I knew that I was experiencing the beautiful handiwork of God.” Walt Henrichsen June 2018
Family, we must reconcile the relationship of the sovereignty of God, and suffering.
We see death as the end!
21 For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Not long after this book would have been written Judah was overwhelmed by the Chaldeans, and through a series of sieges by Nebuchadnezzar, thousands were taken into captivity to Babylon.
Habakkuk never saw the earthly peace he longed for.
But he acquired heavenly peace.
He acquired gospel peace.
This should be the peace we look for friends.
Gospel peace starts with the understanding that their are no good people.
A rabbi should know this.
Goodness is not inherent to the heart of man.
22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
We have been given an immeasurable gift in Christ and His redemptive blood.
We have been given Christ.
This is the gospel.
Yet.
Yet.
Yet.
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Habakkuk, a man tormented by the corruption of his own people and the oppression of foreign nations, was found in Christ through faith.
He speaks of salvation, but it was not a temporal salvation. There was no salvation to be had in Judah.
But the righteous were saved by faith.
Habakkuk, and anyone who had ears to hear, understood the Chaldeans were not the inherent problem in Judah.
The inherent problem was sin.
And God was about the salvation business, setting the stage for His son, the Messiah by bringing Israel into captivity.
Habakkuk found peace, realizing that temporal circumstances have NOTHING to do with the joy and peace that is found in placing faith in God as savior.
Stand and read vs 17-19 together to close.