"Lord, I Don't Quite Understand What Going On"

Introduction to the Sermon Series

There are seasons where sovereignty overrules our desires and prayers, and allows certain actions to occur. There are moments when God does things that baffle the human mind, and brings God’s sovereignty into question. God uses what he wills to chastise and judge his people, even enemy nations. Israel’s pattern of disobedience caused God to use rival nations to judge and punish them. Though God sovereignty is unchallenged, it still brings questions to the hearts for believers. Why would God use my enemy to punish me? Doesn’t God hear me? Does God not see what’s going on? Why aren’t you changing your mind God? Like the prophet Habakkuk, we’ve all had the same type of questions with the same type of response from God. This four part series will help believers navigate the season of uncertainty through maintaining trust in God and his sovereignty.

Where Was God?

During World War II, following word that an only son had been killed in action, a priest was called to the home of grief-stricken parents. The father, pacing the floor, weeping, in anger demanded, “Where was God when my son was being killed?” Silence prevailed. Then the ministering priest replied, “I guess where He was when

Introduction to Habakkuk

Habakkuk stands unique among the prophetic books of the Old Testament in form and content. Formally, Habakkuk’s book records a dialog with God and a concluding hymn. Instead of speaking to the people for God, Habakkuk spoke to God for the people. In content, Habakkuk focused on the problem of injustice in God’s world. He saw that evil never seemed to be punished and asked what God’s response to such evil and suffering was going to be.In his dialog with God, Habakkuk asked God directly how the wicked could go unpunished. God answered: You must wait to see the work I am about to do on the stage of world history. Next the prophet asked, How could God use an evil instrument like Babylon to punish his own poor people, who were surely more righteous than Babylon? Habakkuk’s message is set within a backdrop of real people facing real questions about real human suffering. The prophet’s questions prompted God’s revelation. The revelation centered in words that have repeatedly transformed the world: the righteous shall live by their faithfulness to God.

Habakkuk Questioned God’s Hearing

The opening “tension of unanswered prayer” sets the tone for the entire book. “Habakkuk here faces the dilemma that has confronted faithful people in every age—the dilemma of seemingly unanswered prayer for the healing of society. The prophet is one with all those persons who fervently pray for peace in our world and who experience only war, who pray for God’s good to come on earth and who find only human evil. But he is also one with every soul who has prayed for healing beside a sickbed only to be confronted with death; with every spouse who has prayed for love to come into a home and then found only hatred and anger; with every anxious person who has prayed for serenity but then been further disturbed and agitated.”The central theme is justice, the word appearing twice in v. 4 and signifying “that world order ordained by God for the society of the covenant people.… Habakkuk’s complaint is that the people of Judah … have abandoned the righteous order intended by God for their society, despite the fact that they renewed their covenant with the Lord and underwent a sweeping religious reform only twelve years earlier in the time of King Josiah.” The prophet’s first complaint states such evils as violence, injustice, wrong, destruction, strife, and conflict. Such descriptions can be summarized simply: “The law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails” (v. 4). The picture is a courtroom scene where the guilty party brings so many false witnesses to court that the judge eventually gives a false verdict. This happens in the earthly courtroom all too often. The situation calls for intervention from the divine Judge, who is always just and guarantees justice for his people and his world. The problem is that such divine intervention does not come. So the cry, How long? Habakkuk’s problem lay in what he knew about the Lord rather than in what he did not know. He knew that the Lord is holy and righteous. In the words of the great Old Testament text, Habakkuk knew the Lord to be a “compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Exod 34:6–7). This passage gives the fullest description in the Old Testament of the holy God. How could this holy, pure (v. 13) God leave the guilty in Judah and Jerusalem unpunished? How could God continue to turn a deaf ear to the prophet’s complaints? “The sorrow he felt on account of what he had seen had not been alleviated by any evidence of God’s care or concern.” Although Habakkuk asked a question to which he expected an answer, the question is primarily a complaint. The “how long” implies that the question had been troubling the prophet for a long time. The prophet cried to God for help, but God had not heard his cry. In the Old Testament, “hearing,” like most mental functions, implied more than simple hearing. It meant to hear and to respond. God had heard Habakkuk’s cry, but he had not responded to the prophet’s questioning complaint. The very sense of the question implies that Habakkuk expected that God would answer at some time in the future.

God Hears our Prayer and provides an answer of peace

Verses 5 and 6 have a 3 + 3 meter, though v. 5a could be read 3 + 2. The expected form would be an oracle of salvation answering the preceding lament. Normally a priest or cult prophet would deliver such an oracle to the one offering the lament, but Habakkuk’s response came directly from God. Furthermore, that response involved not an oracle of salvation but an announcement of God’s action in raising up a mighty, powerful, godless people to action. This is presented in two parts: a call to look among the nations (v. 5) and a description of the Chaldeans (vv. 6–11). As Smith says, “one is left to assume that the coming of the Chaldeans is to punish Judah for the evil described in 1:2–4.” Verse 6 “sets forth the character of the Babylonians (‘ruthless’), their conduct (‘who sweep’), and their motivation (‘to seize’), each element being elaborated in vv. 7–11.” In the Hebrew text the first four verbs are plural imperatives (“be utterly amazed” translates two Hb. verbs which are different forms of the same root). The use of the imperatives emphasizes the urgency of the command as well as the incomprehensible nature of the revelation of the Lord. Such use also shows that God directed his answer to a group of people supporting the prophet, not just to the prophet himself. Prayer for help was and is the occupation of more than one person in God’s community of faith. The Lord instructed the prophet to look among the nations. This must mean that God’s work already could be seen by the person attuned to the “strange work” of the Lord (Isa 28:21). Does this imply that Babylon already had begun to move against the nations? Practically any date between 612 B.C. and 605 B.C. would fit such a context. God told Habakkuk to “be utterly amazed.” God would do a work “in your days,” that is, soon or in the prophet’s lifetime, which would astound him and all who witnessed the events from the perspective of the nation Judah. “I am going to do something” can be rendered more literally either “a deed is doing” or “doing a deed,” supply (as the NIV) God as the subject. The verb is a participle that can refer to present, continuous activity or the immediate future. The point is that God is already at work. Habakkuk and his hearers would be surprised at the Lord’s answer. Who could expect that the Lord would use such a wicked instrument to judge a nation more righteous than they? Habakkuk argued in just this way in his next question (1:12–17). The Lord’s answer indicates his sovereignty. He is not bound by the listener’s whims or by their standards of “fairness.” He responds according to his sovereign will. He is the Lord of history who works in history to accomplish his purpose.Habakkuk’s questions reflect the questions of many people. Especially when we deal with personal affronts, difficulties, and disappointments, we desire to know where God is and what he is doing. Habakkuk reminds us that God is at work. He is the Lord of the universe who works to accomplish his purpose in his world and in our lives.

Habakkuk Questioned God’s Nature and Sovereignty

The verses function as a resumption of the lament in vv. 2–3, but they have neither the meter nor the formal characteristics of a lament. Instead, the content is that of a confession of faith describing the characteristics of God. Even this form is altered by the use of interrogative mood and negative statements. Rudolph dates this a year or so after 605 when Nebuchadnezzar made regular military marches westward. In explaining the text Rudolph relies on a major exegetical rule: a prophet or whoever speaks must be understood by his original audience. Habakkuk’s complaint indicates the prophet’s familiarity with both the Lord and the Babylonians. Israel’s prophets showed an amazing understanding of how the world worked. They demonstrated knowledge of geography, history, and politics. They also served as conduits and tutors for who the Lord is and how he works in the world. Can the modern-day pastor be any less conversant in any of these areas? As Moses attested, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets” (Num 11:29). The prophets taught the people the ways of God, particularly concerning the current situations of the day. Because Habakkuk knew so much of the Lord, he appeared incredulous concerning God’s work among the nations. How could the holy and righteous God use an unholy instrument to punish Judah? Did this fit Habakkuk’s understanding of God? The lament does not fundamentally deal with a situation in the outside world such as sickness or war for which the prophet can ask for a specific divine act. The heart of the problem is that the outside world of history contradicts the interior certainty of the nature of God himself. A holy, righteous God cannot endure the godless acts of a ruthless oppressor, can he? Has the divine Rock lost the power to protect and serve as a refuge for his people? Habakkuk thus turned to lament to address God. Rudolph notes the contrast to Jeremiah, who in the same time period of the Babylonian victory at Carchemish in 605 recognized God’s decision to use Nebuchadnezzar as a “servant of Yahweh” and to judge all nations and all prophets by whether they surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar or not (see Jer 27). Habakkuk’s question dealt with the nature of God. “O LORD, are you not from everlasting?” Habakkuk used the covenant name of God in his address. The “I AM WHO I AM” (Exod 3:14) is the God who promised to be with his people. As God has been in the past, he will be in the future. The covenant name indicated eternal faithfulness and should “elicit confident dependence” from those who call on the name of the Lord. Habakkuk’s question fits the use of the covenant name for God. The Lord is not a Johnny-come-lately God. He is from everlasting. The Lord always has been God. The Hebrew term for “everlasting” focuses particularly on God’s past acts in Israel’s salvation history. God, being Israel’s “eternal” God, knows the thoughts of human beings and works his righteousness in the world. Knowing these things about God made Habakkuk perplexed. God is holy. Among the prophets Isaiah gave new emphasis to the holiness of God. While other nations thought of their gods as holy in the sense of “otherness,” that is of being god and not flesh, Isaiah added the idea of perfect moral purity to the holiness of God. Other nations could speak of the otherness of their gods, but their gods might not be “good.” Isaiah and Habakkuk knew that God is deity and not flesh and that he is perfect moral purity. Such holiness is unchanging, separating all humans and all creatures and thus all sin from God. Nothing evil can stand before his holy purity. As Rudolph notes, he cannot distance himself even for the blink of an eye from his holiness. If this is the case, the true description of God, how can he stand silent and inactive before the horribly evil and violent Babylonians? Should the text read “we will not die” or “you will not die?” “We will not die” indicates the prophet’s certainty that God would leave a remnant though the Babylonians would take the land. As Patterson phrases it: “despite Israel’s certain chastisement, God will remain faithful to His promise to the patriarchs (Gen 17:2–8; 26:3–5; 28:13–15), to Israel (Exod 3:3–15; 14:1–6; Deut 7:6; 14:1–2; 26:16–18), and to the house of David (2 Sam 7:12–29).” “You will not die” parallels the earlier statement that the Lord is from everlasting. This continues to describe the nature of God. He is from everlasting to everlasting. The second half of v. 12 continues the description of the nature of God. Two vocatives begin the discussion of God’s work with the Babylonians. The Lord is addressed as Yahweh, the covenant name discussed in the preceding paragraphs, and as the Rock, a common address for God in the Old Testament. Both “LORD” and “Rock” evoke feelings of permanence and stability. The Rock was the protector of the covenant people. The New Testament applied the title to Christ (1 Cor 10:4; 1 Pet 2:6–8). These two descriptions of God cut directly to the problem Habakkuk encountered. God had “appointed” and “ordained” Babylon to execute judgment against Judah and to punish the wicked in Jerusalem.

How could the holy and everlasting God do such a thing? “Instead of reproof it appears that the Babylonians aim at extinction of their victims.”The modern reader of the Bible might ask similar questions. How could God set up a godless nation to punish a nation filled with Christian churches? This was something of Habakkuk’s dilemma. Habakkuk saw that the Babylonians had been established by God to do this. The Lord controlled history and worked his will among the nations. “Man may determine by his conduct how he will encounter God’s sovereignty, but he cannot escape it!” As Achtemeier reminds us, “International relations are understood to be always under the sovereignty of God. World history does not take place by chance, according to the Scriptures, nor are human beings ever the sole effectors of it. Human actions result in particular events, to be sure, but human actions are always also accompanied by God’s effective actions as he works out his purpose.”1261:13 Verse 13 consists of two statements about God followed by two questions addressed to God. It begins and ends with a comparative statement: (lit.) “Purer are the eyes than seeing evil … when the wicked swallow those more righteous than them.” The Hebrew term for wicked picks up the same term used for the guilty parties in Israel in v. 4b. Similarly, the word for “tolerate wrong” repeats from v. 3.Habakkuk continued to describe God according to his holy nature. How could the holy God use the wickedness of a pagan people to punish Judah? How could God tolerate the wickedness of Babylon? God’s “eyes” are too pure to look on evil. Here the eyes stand for the whole person. God is holy and cannot tolerate wrong. Yet God did tolerate the unrighteous and in fact used evil nations to accomplish his sovereign purpose. No wonder Habakkuk felt confused!The prophets saw that God works in history to accomplish his purpose, even using godless nations to perform his designs. God used Assyria as the “rod of his anger” to chastise Judah in Isaiah’s day (Isa 10:5–15) and worked through the designs of Cyrus the Persian to deliver those exiled to Babylon (Isa 44:28–45:7).

Those who see only the short term always miss the significance of the work of God. Habakkuk, focusing on the short term, questioned how God could do such a thing.God appeared to be doing the opposite of what Habakkuk believed of God. The God who is too pure to look on evil in fact tolerated the treacherous and stood silent while the wicked swallowed up the righteous. “Sometimes the silences of God can be explained by the people’s sins and their failure to repent. But that is not always true.” Judah, of course, could not be described as righteous (Hab 1:2–4), but in comparison to Babylon, Judah lived as a righteous nation. The Hebrew text uses a device for the comparative degree to show the contrast between “wicked” Babylon and “righteous” Judah. Habakkuk used the metaphor of “swallowing up” to describe the wicked actions of Babylon, an apt description of the swiftness of the Babylonian army in overrunning other nations. God appeared to watch silently as these atrocities occurred. Habakkuk knew God, and he knew the events of the day. The argument thus runs: God, you made us like helpless fish without a leader; the enemy Babylonians took advantage of the situation; the natural result is his rejoicing, his self-worship because he is so prosperous so that we must ask if he is allowed to keep this up forever. The continuing problem of evil in the world and God’s involvement in it raised theological concerns for Habakkuk. Habakkuk knew that the Lord is the Sovereign of the universe. The Lord had made men like fish of the sea and like crawling things without one to guide them. Had the Creator now forgotten his creatures? Had the powerful Babylonians become so powerful they exercised control over what God had created? Are these godless people being rewarded more and more for their godless actions? Habakkuk’s point seemed to be that people of the earth (Habakkuk uses the word ʾādām for human beings) are no less than the fish of sea, subject to the whims of the more powerful. Habakkuk’s word translated “sea creatures” refers to swarming things in general whether in the sea or on land (“crawling things,” such as ants, locusts, or other swarming insects, RSV).132 These swarming things had no ruler and stood defenseless. “This is a forceful picture of the way other nations were helpless before the Babylonian armies.”

Continuing the thought of the previous verse, the prophet compared the people of Judah to the fish of the sea. Before the wicked foe the people of Judah would be as defenseless as fish caught on a hook or trapped in a net and dragged onto the shore. The Babylonians rejoiced135 at their good fortune, catching men in nets. The “net” referred to a small net cast by one person while the “dragnet” would require a number of people to cast the net and pull it in a semicircle through the water. How could God allow such behavior to go on? How could God cooperate with a people who had no consideration for other people but treated them as the lowliest of creatures (cp. Gen 6:20; 8:19; Ps 8:8–9) without anyone to protect them (Prov 6:7; 30:27) and whose capture brings no risk or danger. According to Achtemeier, Habakkuk’s point is that such divine behavior does “not hasten the coming of God’s order. It simply replaces a chaotic society with one that is totally godless—with the rule of a foreign people that makes it own might its god (1:11) and that worships that might as the source of its life (1:16).… [God] has seemed to move even further distant from the goal of the establishment of his right order in the world, and Habakkuk cannot understand that any more than can we.”

The same Hebrew root (ʾkl) connects this verse (“enjoys food”) with v. 8 (“devour”). The same two words for “net” and “dragnet” are used in v. 16 as in v 15. Most peoples of the ancient Near East practiced sacrifice and the burning of incense. The Hebrew word for sacrifice is used to describe a peace or communion offering (Lev 3). The worshiper brought the peace offering to the priest, who took part of the offering for himself and offered part to God. The remainder went to the worshiper who ate the offering with the priest while the offering went up in smoke to God as “an aroma pleasing to the LORD” (Lev 3:5). Burning incense symbolized prayer going up to God. Habakkuk described the Babylonians as sacrificing to the net and burning incense to the dragnet. The symbolism is quite clear. The Babylonians lived by the plunder of helpless peoples. In effect, the net and the dragnet became their gods, supplying the people of Babylon with the finest things that plundering the world could bring. “The Babylonian rejoices and shouts for joy because of his success. Then he worships those things that make him rich and successful. How prone are people today to worship whatever makes them rich and successful?” In this context Habakkuk’s complaint takes on profound meaning. How long can a holy, pure, immortal God remain silent? Can God use the Babylonians as instruments of his wrath? How long can Babylon continue to empty its net? “As will be evident, his views of God were right (cf. Ps 82; Isa 57:15), but his perspective was too limited. He had looked for the punishment of the wicked so that the prosperity of his people could be assured, but God, who knew the end from the beginning, looked for the punishment of Habakkuk’s people so that they could be restored to fellowship.” Habakkuk has two alternatives now. “He can allow his doubts to be either destructive or creative. He can use his doubts, struggles, and agonizing questions to turn from God and to renounce his faith. Or he can keep his hold on God, trusting him for an answer.”