How Long?

Intro: When our older two kids were little, we had to travel a distance for anything except the necessities. It was 45 miles (and 45 minutes) to the closest McDonald’s, Walmart other things that we have closer than we have here. So, on many of those trips the questions would arise: “Are we there yet?” and “How much longer?” I learned quickly that “No, we are not there yet” nor “About 40 minutes,” were not sufficient answers to those questions, as the kids had no concept of minutes nor miles. So, I learned that there was an appropriate answer to both questions, “It is one episode, or two, or however many was appropriate, of Blue’s Clues, Bob the Builder of Dora the Explorer; these the kids could understand.

Though they were not on a road trip at this point in their history, Habakkuk, on behalf of Judah, seems to be asking God similar questions. In this instance, Habakkuk is noting that there is an overwhelming since if injustice and wickedness in the small nation that is Judah, her capitol Jerusalem, and the leadership of the people. This morning we are going to look at Habakkuk’s questions and God’s answers and consider their importance for us today. If you have a Bible turn with me to Habakkuk 1, and then keep it open as we are going to read the passage as we go along this morning

I. How Long?

A. Habakkuk’s question – Hab 1:2 – 4

Habakkuk 1:2–4 NASB95

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.

1. Will evil prevail?

- Habakkuk complained to God that the prophet dwelt in the midst of a people without moral restraints or abiding values. Does God have anything to say when society appears to be disintegrating? Is there a message from God for a wicked age? These became the questions of Habakkuk. Where is God and why is he not doing something? (Waylon Bailey in Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 298–299.)

2. Will you restrain from action?

3. Our Questions in life are the same or similar

a. We might be afraid to use “Lament”

Lament is a cry of sorrow and grief.

Added to that it contains an address to Yahweh, hymnic praise, description of devastation, complaint, and plea for help F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, “Lament,” ed. David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 785.

b. The prophet has no hesitation to accuse YHWH

4. “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.”[ Achtemeier, Nahum–Malachi, 35] Quoted in (Waylon Bailey in Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 294-295.)

B. God’s Answers – Hab 1:5 – 11

Habakkuk 1:5–11 NASB95

“Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told. “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs. “They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves. “Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. “All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand. “They mock at kings And rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress And heap up rubble to capture it. “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.”

1. A little while longer

2. But not as you think

3. “No longer than it takes to send the Babylonians against Jerusalem.”

II. Why Them?

A. Habakkuk’s Question – Hab 1:12 – 2:1

Habakkuk 1:12–2:1 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. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they? Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them? The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net; Because through these things their catch is large, And their food is plentiful. Will they therefore empty their net And continually slay nations without sparing? I will stand on my guard post And station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved.

1. Chaldeans, Really?

2. How can you use such an evil people?

3. How can you use … Are you not better than that YHWH?

4. Paul was given a messenger of Satan – 2 Cor. 12:7-8

2 Corinthians 12:7–8 NASB95

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.

5. Jesus was asking a similar question in the Garden Mt. 26:39

Matthew 26:39 NASB95

And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”

B. God’s Answer – 2:2 – 17 (actually 20, but we are going to be looking at 18 – 20 next Sunday)

1. You really think that you are good?

2. 5 Woes 6-8, 9-11, 12-14, 15-17, 18-20

3. “Even though I use them, they will ultimately be held accountable.”

4. My strength 2 Cor. 12:9

2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB95

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

5. Jesus, we know, drank the cup of suffering, or judgment, in His going to the Cross.

Conclusion: We might not be facing defeat and deportation by a foreign nation because of our turning away from God, but we do have situations that cause us to question God’s goodness, His justice and even His power. The message of Habakkuk is that God does hear, He is concerned, and He is in control of history. His is good even when He allows what is, or appears to be, overwhelming evil to come into our lives. With Habakkuk we need to learn to be honest with God and use the Biblical approach of lament with God.