Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Context
Please open your Bibles to Habakkuk 2.
It’s around 605 BC.
Things do not look good for Judah
In fact she is falling to pieces.
Under the leadership of Jehoiakim, the nation is failing morally.
They are spiritually deteriorating.
To the south, Judah, was watching Babylon move.
Under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians were marching south.
Habakkuk was a prophet witnessing this decay.
In chapter 1 of Habakkuk he repeatedly cried out to God.
The book begins opens with an exhausted prayer, Habakkuk 1:2 “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.”
Perhaps you’ve made a similar plea to God.
There are things in your life that seem to never change.
You find yourself having the same prayer over and over again, so it appears your prayers go unanswered, “How long O God …?”
To which God doesn’t respond in a way that you would expect.
Habakkuk 1:5-6 God answers Habakkuk by saying, “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.”
Essentially, “You think things are bad now?
You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
God goes on to describe what He will allow the Babylonians to do.
He describes their strength and might.
They are unstoppable.
He describes the motivations of the Babylonians.
They aren’t the good guys, they are evil.
They boast in themselves.
Verse 11, “They whose strength is their god.”
Habakkuk hears what God says and he doesn’t believe it.
God is holy.
God is good.
There’s no way God would allow the Babylonians to do what He says they will do.
Verses 12–13, Habakkuk responds, “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?”
Habakkuk’s argument is one of complete disbelief.
God is too good to use the Babylonians.
“God you are wrong.
This isn’t who You are.”
Many prayers are just like Habakkuk’s.
People become angry because God doesn’t respond to prayer they way they wanted Him too.
That’s why today’s text is so important.
It helps us in our approach to prayer, specifically in what we do after prayer.
Let’s look at Habakkuk 2:1–4.
This is Habakkuk after prayer.
Read Habakkuk 2:1-4.
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.
Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run.
“For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
“Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.”
What do you do after you pray?
Habakkuk gives 3 actions for you to take after prayer.
First, Faithfully Wait for God’s Reply (v. 1)
It appears that some time has passed since Habakkuk’s prayers in chapter 1 and chapter 2.
In the first chapter he spoke bluntly.
After praying what are we to do?
You watch and wait for what God will do.
Look at verse 1, “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.”
Tucked away in this verse are 2 components to waiting after prayer.
First, he says, “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,”
This is similar language to the Levites who would guard the Tabernacle.
There is an aspect of alertness.
He says, “I will stand on my guard post.”
He doesn’t say, “I will sit at my guard post.”
He stands
Why is he standing?
Because there is an expectation of action.
If a guard is sitting he’s not ready to act.
He is expecting God to do something, so he stands alert.
He becomes like the watchman on a watchtower.
The watchman was someone who gazed out on the distance looking for coming danger.
He would climb to the top of the walls of the city.
If there was a tower, they would go into the tower, high above everything else and look for approaching armies.
This was a constant job.
The watchman was vigilant even when the city slept.
The prophets acted like watchmen, but instead of looking for oncoming armies, they waited for God to communicate.
Spurgeon called this an attentive attitude.
You pray to God.
God is real.
He hears prayers.
Your prayer is not mindless mantras or mutterings to the wind.
Prayer is a dialogue, a one way conversation between the believer and God.
After you speak to God in prayer, which He hears, then you wait for Him to respond.
You pray, then you go onto the watchtower, eagerly expecting God to act.
After prayer there is an expectation.
The second part of waiting after prayer is to be careful with what you say after prayer.
Sometime has passed from chapter 1.
I’m not sure how much time.
But Habakkuk has a different mindset from chapter 1.
In chapter 1 he spoke quickly and impulsively.
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