Approaching the Lord

Background

History lesson: The nation of Israel enjoyed prosperity both physiaclly and spiritually under the leadership of David as king. As Solomon took over the throne, the nation built a house to the Lord and enjoyed the peace for maybe the first time in their history. Sadly as the clost comes to Solomon’s life, the nation begins a devastating spiritual decline as Solomon gives way to the worship of other gods. As the nation takes its eyes off the Lord, they begin to pursue their own personal gains. After Solomon, the nation divides itself into two kingdoms, the Northern kingdom led by Jeroboam I, whose sins agianst the Lord would mark the Northern Kingdom for their entire existence and the Southern Kingdom led by Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.

722 BC, the Northern Kingdom is taken into captivity by the nation of Assyria after the Lord sent prophet after prophet to warn them to the coming judgment for their unfaithfulness.

In 716 BC, Hezekiah takes the throne in the Southern Kingdom, also known as Judah and prepares to face the Assyrians as well. Micah, Isaiah and other prophets warn the Southern Kingdom of their coming fate unless they repent and turn back to the Lord. Hezekiah heeds the words of the prophets and brings about religious reforms in the nation. As Assyria marches against Jerusalem and seeks to lay siege to the nation in 701BC, the Lord supports His people and the Assyrians are turned back and the nation of Judah is spared from captivity.

Over the next 100 or so years, Judah continues to be a nation led by some good kings but sadly, more kings that took the nations focus off the Lord. This all leads to Babylon taking Judah into captivity in 598BC -587BC.

Before this occurs, the Lord continues to send prophets like Jeremiah and Habakkuk to His people to warn them, but as we see in Jeremiah, God knew that the hearts of His people had become so hard, they would be unwilling to hear His words.

The sins of the nation continued to abound and grow as a people. They worshipped the false gods of Baal and Asherah. The nation had divided internally just as it had nationally. The nation was full of the haves who oppressed, stole from and exploited the have nots. There was a disparaging gap between the two segments of society. The nation had abandoned the commands of the Lord to care for one another, to look after orphans and widows.

Habakkuk

Habakkuk is unlike any of the its comtemporaries in the books of the minor prophets. When we think of the writings of both the major and minor prophets, we think of a messenger of the Lord who is sent to the nation or a wrongdoer to inform them of their need to repent. Habakkuk is unique amongst these books because Habakkuk is not sent to the people. Instead, Habakkuk sees the worngdoing of His people and he goes and confronts the Lord about their sin and His role in correcting His people. The book therefore is a chronicling of a conversation between the prophet and the Lord.

The Brokenness of Man

Habakkuk 1:1–4 NIV

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 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. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

Habakkuk looks out at the nation and he sees sin, brokenness, violence, strife, conflict abounding. He sees the devastation that is running rampant in his land. It is so preverse that even the institutions that should be in place to correct these things are paralyzed by the emensity of the problems and likely because of the corruption that has made its ways into the very infrastructure of the nation.

The Response

Habakkuk 1:1–4 NIV

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 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. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

Habakkuk turns and cries out to the Lord. Habakkuk will confront God with his concerns. Where should we turn when we see brokenness, sin and violence running rampant? We should be on our knees in prayer, we should be crying out before the Lord.

God desires for us to engage with Him in open and honest relationship. God is going to answer Habakkuk, not in rebuking, but in compassion.