Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.