Our Perspective Vs. God's Perspective
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your Bible let me invite you to open with me to the book of Habakkuk.
Habakkuk is a minor prophet, meaning it is one of the smaller prophetic books.
It is only three chapters taking up two and half pages in my Bible.
So feel free to use your table of contents to locate it.
We just completed the book of Romans last week…,
We will be in this book for just four weeks Lord willing,
After that, we will begin another long journey on Easter Sunday which will take us through the whole Gospel of Mark.
So why, the short series in Habakkuk?
We pause here as a church for a few weeks, because I believe that Habakkuk is asking questions that all of us either have asked or are asking in our lives.
Questions that the whole world has been asking especially in light of the year we just had, and in light of how this year is beginning.
The whole book of Habakkuk is a series of conversations between the prophet Habakkuk and God.
Habakkuk asks a question, and then God responds.. and Habakkuk records God’s response.
So not only do we get to see someone else asking the hard questions we all ask.... we get to see how God responds…
So our aim in studying this book, is to learn what Habakkuk learned from this experience.
So lets read, and pray toward that end.
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
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.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
Pray
Habakkuk is a book about perspective.
We are created beings, living in a created world,that has been dramatically effected by the curse of sin and death.
As created beings living in this created world we look back up at our creator to give us answers to our problems.
From our perspective as creatures, we look up at our Creator and we think he has a lot of explaining to do.
He is not ruling the world how we would rule the world.
He is not acting as we think he should act.
And thus we question him.
In Habakkuk, God fields the questions and he provides some answers… but the answers are designed to put things in perspective for Habakkuk.
They are not necessarily, the answers that Habakkuk wants,
but they are the answers Habakkuk needs…
and in the end, we will actually see that Habakkuk comes to the right perspective as a creature living in a fallen world ruled by his creator.
The book begins with these words.
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
We know very little about the prophet Habakkuk.
This is the only time he shows up in the Biblical story and the only description that we have of him is that he is was a prophet.
He was a spokesman for God....but the word from God that he had to speak was heavy.
From the very first sentence, we are struck with the nature of Habakkuk’s message.
The Hebrew word for “oracle”, can be translated as a “burden” or a “weight”
For example, Moses uses the same word when he cries out to God about the burden of leading the people of Israel.
11 Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
Like Moses, Habakkuk had a burdensome ministry to carry out.
Habakkuk’s message is heavy, weighty, and concerning.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
Truth #1 From Habakkuk’s Perspective: God is not Listening
Truth #1 From Habakkuk’s Perspective: God is not Listening
“how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?”...
Apparently, Habakkuk has been praying for something for some time now....
And not just praying… he has been “crying out” for help.
He has been crying out for God to save...
And apparently… he has, thus far, gotten no response.
It feels like God is not listening, or like he is busy with something else.
so in frustration and helplessness.... he cries out...
“how long shall I cry?
In other words, are my prayers even working?
are you listening or am I wasting my time here?
Habakkuk writes from the perspective of great need for God to act, but God is not acting in the way Habakkuk thinks that God should act.
Or at least he is not acting in what Habakkuk considers a timely manner.
Truth #2 From Habakkuk’s Perspective: God is Not Timely
Truth #2 From Habakkuk’s Perspective: God is Not Timely
Habakkuk is praying for a very good thing.
He is praying for salvation of the righteous and judgment for the wicked.
The Israelites have been doing Violence to one another, and Habakkuk wants God to put a stop to it.
We will see that more in the next verse… but for now… I just want you to feel the weight of Habakkuk’s assumption.
Habakkuk thinks God should have already done something about this by now.
He thinks that God should have already disciplined those in the wrong and vindicated those who are righteous.
Thus, the cry, “How long?”
How long is this going to go on?
In verse 3, Habakkuk adds another question.
3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
So this is the situation in Israel.
Iniquity, destruction, violence, strife and contention are overwhelming not from the outside by the hand of foreign enemies, but within the nation of Israel.
The law is “paralyzed” or you could say the law is “numbed
One of God’s greatest gifts to Israel was the law revealed through Moses.
It was given to them for their good so that they could have a thriving society in relationship with each other and with God.
Yet, the law is useless to them.
It serves no purpose, because it is disregarded.
And because it is disregarded, justice never goes forth.
This means that the poor are oppressed, the weak are taken advantage of, and the strong go on acting wickedly and never suffering consequences.
In fact, it is more prosperous in Israel to be among the wicked, then it is to be among the righteous.
“The wicked surround the righteous” so there are more evil-doers thriving in Israel than there are righteous people.
And because of all this, justice goes forth perverted.
The Israelite nation was supposed to be a light to the dark world.
The justice, compassion, love, and care for one another in Israel was suppose to go forth like a shining representation of the God they worshipped.
The pagan nations were supposed to gaze upon Israel, and how they treated one another, and the unbelievers of the world were supposed to gain an understanding of the Justice of the one true God.
If Israel refused to represent God in this way, God had said very clearly that curses were going to fall upon them.
I want to read a passage from Deuteronomy because it will help you understand all the more Habakkuk’s complaint.
Habakkuk would certainly have been familiar with these words in Deuteronomy.
14 And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice:
15 “ ‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
16 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
17 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
18 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
19 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
1 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
This is the background… yet now Habakkuk feels as if God is totally overlooking what he said would do.
And remember Habakkuk is living in the midst of this.
He is seeing the faces of widows and orphans going hungry.
He is hearing the stories of murders going unpunished.
He is walking by the idols and the false gods being worshipped.
His people, his nation, his home, was spiraling in to deeper and deeper sin.
Real suffering and real injustice and real idolatry is happening and God seems to be doing nothing about it.
Truth #3 From Habakkuk’s Perspective: God’s Decisions Don’t Make Sense
Truth #3 From Habakkuk’s Perspective: God’s Decisions Don’t Make Sense
Twice Habakkuk writes, “Why?”
Habakkuk does not understand God’s reasoning for his delay.
Why does God allow what he allows?
Why doesn’t God bring change?
Thus far, the only voice we have heard, has been Habakkuk’s…,
but in verse 5 that changes.
God answers.
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.
The verbs in verse 5 are not in the second person singular.
They are in the second person plural.
So God answers not jsut for Habakkuk’s sake, but for the sake of all whom he will prophesy to
He, thus commands the whole nation of Israel... to look, to see, to wonder, and to be astounded.
And then God affirms two realities to the people of Israel.
I am doing a work… and you wouldn’t believe it if I told you.
In other words, I am working, and you cannot see it or understand it from your perspective.
In fact you refuse to believe it.
Truth #4 God is Working in Ways Beyond Habakkuk’s Understanding
Truth #4 God is Working in Ways Beyond Habakkuk’s Understanding
In all of Habakkuk’s groaning, and crying out to God, and in all Habakkuk’s accusing of God that he was “idly” looking on at the wickedness in Israel...
God was doing something.
He was not passive. He was active.
He was bringing things into being,
He was working out the details of a plan that far surpassed Habakkuk’s ability to comprehend.
While Habakkuk was groaning that there was no justice in the land… God was assembling what would become the most powerful military force in their day.
While Israel was going on ignoring Gods law as if God would never punish them...
God was raising up a military force that could sweep through the wicked Israelite kingdom and bring upon them all the curses that God had promised would come.
The rest of our passage this morning describes what God was working.
Habakkuk was asking for justice to be served… but I don’t think Habakkuk had in mind the intensity and extremity of what follows.
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.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
The Chaldeans or the Babylonians, were a vicious group of people.
This is why they are described as a bitter and hasty nation.
They are quick to inflict harm on others and to seize dwellings that are not their own.
God describes them as dreaded and fearsome.
Their dignity and justice go forth from themselves. In other words they set their own rules.
They don’t submit to the rules of war or to any one else’s rules of morality.
They are only concerned with exercising their power to devastate and exploit their enemy.
And at the time of this writing, they had been successfully overcoming kings and nations laughing at any fortress or king that stand in their way.
This was a wicked people.
This was a guilty people.
This was an idolatrous people.
This was a people who had no interest in doing the bidding of YHWH God of Israel.
Yet God says in verse 6, Habakkuk 1:6 “behold I am raising up the Chaldeans”
God is claiming sovereignty over this most powerful nation in the world at the time… and God describes them as if they are a pawn in his hand to move and do with as he pleases.
God raises up this irreverent wicked nation, and he simply tasks them to do his bidding without them even knowing it.
While Habakkuk complains that there is no punishment overtaking Israel…
God already had the plan in motion to bring the judgment upon them that he had promised would come if they forsook his law.
Now, this is 100 % consistent with the picture of God that we see in the Bible.
God has a plan.
He is not sitting by idly, but he is providentially moving history along toward a particular end.
And God has both the authority and the power to do as he pleases, even putting wicked people to work for his own purposes totally unknown and unseen to them or his followers.
This is consistent from Genesis to Revelation.
As we have said before, It is the statement that brings the whole book of Genesis to conclusion.
The concluding message of Genesis is that God’s plans cannot be thwarted.
He uses even the evil intentions of man’s heart, to accomplish his purposes.
Joseph’s brothers acted wickedly by selling him into slavery in Egypt,
But because Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt,
he would rise to second in command in Egypt, and be in a position to where he actually could protect the land and his whole family from the famine that was coming.
In hindsight, Joseph looks at his own brothers who had betrayed him and said these famous words.
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
God was sovereignly working through the wicked actions of men.
The God of the Bible is not overthrown, slown down, or challenged by anyone or anything.
He has all authority, and all power to bring his plans into being.
In fact, you might say that the whole Biblical story is about a Creator God who is sovereign over his creation, and who accomplishes his will in the lives of his creatures, despite their rebellion.
The whole message of the Bible is that there is one King, one God, one ruler and there is no other.
Your Christian life is a progressive learning this great reality.
We progressively learn to trust God’s plan rather than our own.
We progressively learn that God is God and we are not.
Just listen to Scriptures testimony from different points on this reality.
1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
4 The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27 For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
God is Working in Ways Beyond Our Understanding and he does so unfailingly.
There is no moment in history where God’s working through the wickedness of the world is as mind boggling as the moment of the cross.
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Lawless men sought to destroy God’s plan by killing God’s son, and in the process fulfilled God’s plan perfectly.
Did sinful men nail Jesus to the cross? YES
Was it God the Father’s plan that Jesus be nailed to the cross? YES
God is sovereignly working to bring about his purposes even in the darkest of hours, in ways that we could never imagine.
From our perspective it may seem like he is not listening
It may seem like he is not timely.
We may not understand.
But the guarantee of the Bible.... is that God is in fact working and there is no situation that he doesn’t use to accomplish his purposes.
God is Working.... and you would not believe how even if he told it to you.
God is Working through a global pandemic.
God is Working through the loss of your job.
God is Working through the death of your loved one.
God is Working through the sickness that won’t go away.
God is Working through the sin that you are fighting.
God is Working through the loneliness you are feeling.
Habakkuk cries out “how long O Lord?” and “Why?” and the answer God gives is, “I am working in ways you don’t understand.”
Now, for some, this is a comfrrting reality, for others, it is a frightening reality.
Habakkuk was asking for God to discipline the Israelites… but he did not expect the gravity of the judgment that God was going to bring upon them.
God’s working was to bring about a massive day of reckoning for those who had rejected him.
God’s absolute power, authority, and sovereignty is only good news, if God’s working is for us rather than against us.
The people of Israel, were about to understand what it is to be on the wrong side of God’s sovereign working.
They were warned repeatedly that the judgment was coming… but just as God predicted… they did not believe even when it was told of them.
But what about us?
God’s word to Israel was clear. He told Habakkuk and the whole nation of Israel that this was going to happen in “his day” so it was coming soon… but Israel did not repent.
The Apostle Paul saw a parallel in Habakkuk for how so many rejected Jesus after his resurrection.
Jesus so clearly revealed what God was doing, and that judgment was coming upon any who rejected him… but so many continued to reject him.
38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,
39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about:
41 “ ‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’ ”
42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.
43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.
46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
The Israelites in Habakkuk’s day thrusted aside the word of the prophets that warned of coming judgment… and judgment came just as God had promised.
The chaldeans swept the land and devestated Israel.
And now there is a new warning about new day of judgment to come.
And God has made clear that all people must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
But so many are thrusting aside the word of God, and as Paul says here, “they are judging themselves unworthy of eternal life.”
I pray that would not describe anyone in this room....
God is working, and his work is for salvation of those who trust him, and judgment upon those who refuse him...
And I believe there are people listening to this sermon right now, whom God has sovereignly brought to thsi place that they might hear this warning and respond.
As we will see throughout the rest of this book.... the Judgment of the Babylonians that was coming upon Israel is only a shadow of the judgment that will one day sweep across all nations and all peoples....
And on that day the only escape will be the salvation that God has provided in the person of Jesus who took all the curses and all the judgment upon himself so that we might be saved.
Trust him this morning. Maybe whatever you are going through in your life this morning, God is using that to accomplish the most important things in your heart - that is deeper faith in him.
Lets conclude with just a few takeaways
Takeaways:
Consider the limitations of your perspective
Be reminded this morning of how little who really know and understand about what is going on in the world.
You are geographically limited - meaning you can’t be all places at one time.
You are intellectually limited - meaning you do not and cannot know all things.
You are spiritually limited - meaning your motives are not and cannot always be right. In fact they are usually wrong.
You are morally limited - meaning you don’t even know what is right and wrong in many situations.
You are chronologically limited - meaning you do not and cannot know the future, nor can you remember fully and accurately the past.
You are physically limited - meanig your are not all powerful, and your body reminds you every day of your limitations when your head hits the pillow at night and you need sleep in order to function.
Now,
Consider the limitations of your perspective
Consider the limitlessness of God’s perspective
He is all places at all times.
He knows all things
He is the source and standard of all morality and spiritual goodness
He is the beginning and the end, knowing the future and the past perfectly, and bringing time to completion according to his purpose.
He is unlimited in his power to accomplish what he pleases. He is all powerful.
When we shake our fists at God and say, “how could you?”, “how long?”, “why?”
We are created beings speaking from our limited perspective demanding answers from an unlimited God.
Consider the limitations of your perspective
Consider the limitlessness of God’s perspective
Trust him
That will be the message of Habakkuk.
God is working in ways that Habakkuk does not like, but this whole book over the next several weeks will echo the same response - Trust him.
This is what God is graciously and compassionately leading Habakkuk to do from the beginning to the end.
Trust him with your salvation
Trust him with our country
Trust him with your family
Trust him with your life
Trust him with the wickedness of the world
Trust him with the injustice in the world.
Trust him.
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.
Lets Pray