The Twelve Minor Prophets: Habbakuk
Kurtis McCathern
Habbakuk
23 October 2005
Listen to this sermon.
I honestly find it hard to believe that I'm preaching on Habakkuk. When I told my folks that Jim had up and skipped town and I was left to preach on Habakkuk, my mother told me this story about when my brother was learning to say the books of the bible, and how I learned them about the same time, except that I would always get to the minor prophets and say: Micah, Nahum, tobacco...
Unfortunately, my troubles with Habakkuk don't end there. A few years ago Eric's small group ended up studying Habakkuk for a few weeks. I don't remember if Jackie chose for us to study Habakkuk because she was writing a paper on it at the time or it was coincidence (I'm sure they remember) but she unveiled for us all the twin truths of Habakkuk: first, that the book is pronounced HAB-a-KOOK, not ha-BACK-uk as we'd all been taught as kids (I'm probably still saying it wrong this morning... sorry Jackie) and second, that the Hebrew in the book is awful, and in large places just frankly doesn't make as much sense as our sanitized english translations want to make it seem.
That said, Habakkuk shouldn't be slighted among the minor prophets for its wrestling with the language of Hebrew, nor for its butchered pronunciation at the hands of American Christians. Habakkuk is a wonderful little book about God's working on this earth.
Habakkuk can be summarized into three sections. Chapter 1 is all about how Judah is corrupt, and God is going to send the Babylonians to destroy their nation and send them into exile. Chapter 2 is all about how, since the Babylonians will be terrible, violent people, God will destroy them in the end after using them as this tool. Chapter 3 is a song about the might, power, and wonder of God.
If you want to learn about the exile and the rise of Babylon, this sermon isn't for you. I'd like us this morning to look at Habakkuk like we do Jonah, as a story not so much about the people God is going to judge, but instead of the relationship of God to His prophet.
Chapter 1 opens with the prophet appealing to God:
"How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?"
I don't think this question is merely a rhetorical device used for the critique of Judah; it is question about injustice - the cause of suffering. Like all of us, the prophet wonders how a truly just God could allow so much injustice, especially when that God is also a loving God, and that injustice leads to such pain.
The problem of pain is paralyzing to modern culture. C.S. Lewis discusses this at length in his work, "The Problem of Pain", and if you haven't read it, let me recommend it to you. It is fascinating how, with the advent of anesthetics, modern man has learned to take his dislike of pain to the level of moral repugnancy. Writers and philosophers before the invention of analgesics could look at, for instance, the act of birth, and see the interplay of pain and blessing.
But not so modern man, and especially not this country. I am no different in that way, I would suspect, from many of you. I hate going to the dentist because, after the medicine wears off, I'm going to ache for a few days. I have trouble keeping an exercise schedule because each of the first few times I go I'm sore the next day. I felt terrible for Sharon throughout her pregnancy whenever she'd have a headache and couldn't take any medicine.
Habakkuk isn't so squemish. The pain that he is complaining about isn't the little pains common to life. Habakkuk's pain it is the direct result of injustice: injustice that is coming from the very people claiming to be the people of God.
God, in response, tells Habakkuk that if he will but watch and wait, he will be amazed by the coming judgement. The Babylonians (who, at this point in history, are nobodies, especially compared to the Assyrians who have just taken Israel and are making Judah pay tribute) are coming, and they will inflict terrible suffering on Judah for her sins. God says that even though they will trust in their own might as their God, in reality God himself is behind them, providing them their might that they might be used to judge.
Now, put yourself in the place of Habakkuk. This would be like praying for justice here for America, and God replying that the Toltecs of Mexico would return: swift and terrible would be their conquering, and their policy of human sacrifice ought to be just punishment for the sins of America. Not only would it be hard to believe (I mean, come on, the Toltecs?) but even if you did believe it, it would leave you wondering if God was thinking straight. A people more terrible and violent than the people who are being punished? It hardly seems a solution to the problem of pain and suffering in the world to cause more pain and suffering. What would you say?
I suspect you would say much of what Habakkuk says to close Chapter 1. You might say, wait a minute God. I wanted you to strike down the unjust, not bring others more unjust and sinful upon us! Don't you see that these people who will destory nation after nation will merely praise and worship themselves and their power instead of you? How will that be better?
But here, in what I think is the linchpin of the book, is where Habakkuk earns his place as prophet in the starting lineup, and we have to sit on the bench. Here it is in Chapter 2, Verse 1:
"I will stand watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint."
See, Habakkuk puts his faith on the line. We pray things like "oh Lord, please bring justice to Darfur" and maybe we even burn with fervor as we pray. Maybe we even pray incessantly, daily or even hourly bringing it before God in repetition.
But we don't always *really* think the Lord has an answer you'll understand. You think "His ways are higher than my ways", and in your mind you give the Lord the cop-out. God doesn't *have* to explain it to You; after all, he's God and you're not, right?
But Habakkuk doesn't give God this way out. Habakkuk goes and watches at the ramparts. He's waiting. He's telling God, "look, this seems wrong to me. But you're God, and you can give me peace with it if you want."
It may be that that peace comes exactly as it did to Job, without an answer, but Habakkuk's faith is strong enough to know that God will still come, even if it is just to rebuke Him.
Now, that may not seem like a good thing, but it is. See, we assume God doesn't want to tell us, and so we never ask. Or maybe, what we're really afraid of, is that the answer God gives us will be one we won't like. Maybe our God isn't really as loving as we think He is (don't worry, he is) or he is lax in his view of injustice (don't worry, he isn't) and so rather than meet with God and have our view of God change, we just never ask the question, and keep worshipping the God in our heads, rather than the God above our heads.
Habakkuk puts it on the line. God, this doesn't make sense to me, so I'm gonna tell you about it, and then I'm gonna stand my watch. You have an answer, so come and give it to me. God, You can help me see more of who You really are.
God honors this! God not only tells Habakkuk the answer to His question about the Babylonians (which is don't worry, I will punish them too), he uses the opportunity to reveal His wonderful plan to His prophet. None of these events, and none of Habakkuk's complaints, have caused an emergency meeting in heaven to strategize and change the plans to this new information. No, quite the contrary:
"...the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it: it will certainly come and will not delay."
Write it down, God tells Habakkuk, as if to say, "if you don't write this in stone, then people will not believe I told you. Right now it is so unbelievable that no one would believe this is what I am going to do, because I'm the only one who can see the future. But then, you see, it will seem like the natural course of events, and no one will believe I actually caused it. See Habakkuk? I play the long game, and I'm playing both sides of the board. Everything will come to pass exactly as I want."
What a message! God even contrasts it with the idolatry of the time. What is the point of an idol, which can't even speak! God not only can speak, in the sense of what he speaks coming to pass, he is the only one speaking, and, like it says in the closing of Chapter 2, "let all the earth be silent before him."
What is there left to say? Habakkuk spends Chapter 3 praising the God of heaven for the way he has worked in Judah's past, and promises at the end to rejoice in the Lord despite the lack of blessing he sees in Judah's immediate future. It is an amazing passage, and I encourage you to reread it this week in worship to God.
Not only are God's fingerprints all over the creation we see... they are all over the creation we haven't yet seen. And I'm not just talking about heaven. I'm talking about the next five minutes, the next five years, the next five decades.
And when we look back, it'll almost seem like there was nothing to worry about. It'll be so obvious that God was in control that it will almost seem like there was no need for faith: that somehow we should've just been able to see it. God's control is so complete, so vast, so overwhelming, that it is almost simple, underwhelming even. Yes, God can make the sun stand still, but he also can simply orchestrate events to work out the way He wants.
Spend some time this week praying and meditating about what question it is that God wants you to pose and then stand your watch. Maybe you're a PhD candidate, and its about your continued research or study. Maybe you're in a relationship, and its about your future. Maybe you're confused about some pain or loss in your life. I'm not promising that God's answer will be one you're expecting. But I am promising you that God will hear your question, and God will show up. God will meet you, and he will guide you, through His masterful plan by His awesome power, into His glorious rest.
Let us pray.
