Habakkuk 1: 1 – 11 & 2:1 - 4

Habakkuk was a prophet in Judah 600 years before Christ. And as you know, a prophet job was to bring God’s Word to the people. [PAUSE] However, the book of Habakkuk is not like most of the prophetic books. Habakkuk is not addressed directly to the people but rather the book of Habakkuk gives us a collection of Habakkuk’s prayers and God’s answers to Habakkuk’s prayers.

During the earlier part of Habakkuk’s life there had been wonderful spiritual reforms instituted under the leadership of King Josiah. But when Josiah died in 609 BC spiritual decline set in and Judah reverted to ungodly, evil, worldly ways. [PAUSE]

It is against this backdrop that Habakkuk poured out his heart to God. Habakkuk loved God and Habakkuk loved his people. We need to know this if we are to understand the questions raised by the prophet Habakkuk.

Habakkuk seemed frustrated the Jewish people were not following the law. They were far from God and they disregarded God’s repeated warnings. It appeared to Habakkuk that God was indifferent to Judah’s sins of violence, injustice, and ungodliness. Habakkuk did not understand. [PAUSE]

In Habakkuk’s first recorded prayer, Habakkuk asks God the question, "How long will you allow violence, strife, iniquity, and injustice to continue?" Habakkuk wanted to know why God didn’t do something. Why didn’t God punish His people for disobeying God’s law and disregarding God’s instructions? [PAUSE]

This is an age old question and it is a current question. It is one you may have asked. We live in an unjust ungodly world where the odds seem to favor wickedness, violence, and terrorism. Why doesn’t God do something? Doesn’t God want a peaceful world? All you have to do is pick up the newspaper or watch the 6 o’clock news and it is filled with shootings, stabbings, rape, kidnapping, embezzlement, families splitting up, and injustice. And sadly, there is no distinction between the righteous and the wicked. So we ask the same question Habakkuk did. "How long will this continue? Why don’t you do something, God?" Fortunately we have the book of Habakkuk to answer our questions. The book of Habakkuk is one of the most helpful portions of scripture to help us make sense of our world situation today. [PAUSE]

Last week Dave answered the question "Is it alright to get angry with God" And … today you may be asking is it OK to ask God "Why" How long" Well, first of all, let me say this, yes it is okay to ask God why? [PAUSE] And why not? I asked my earthly father why about things all the time. So why shouldn’t I be able to ask my heavenly Father about things I want an answer to. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to ask, seek and knock. There’s nothing wrong with asking God why about things as long as we keep in mind who God is and who we are. [PAUSE]

We find God’s answer to Habakkuk’s tough questions, "How long" and "why" in verses 5-11. In these verses God tells Habakkuk that He is working even though Habakkuk cannot see it. In fact God says He is doing something. ….. Something so amazing and so incredible that Habakkuk would not believe God even if God told him.

God said I’m going to send the Babylonians to strike my own people. Now the Babylonians were godless people and in verses 5-11 we see the descriptions of the Babylonians paints a pretty discouraging picture in Habakkuk’s mind.

The Babylonians were ruthless and bitter. They were a dreaded people. Everybody was afraid of them and they were not afraid of anybody or anything. Our text goes on to describe their horses as having the speed of leopards and them being as ferocious as wolves, and their troops swooped down on their prey like vultures. Their army swept across the desert like the wind and gathered and deported prisoners the way a man digs sand and ships it off to a foreign land. The Babylonians had no respect for authority and when they came to city that was well fortified they just laughed at it like it was nothing and overran it. The Babylonians served the god of power, not the all-powerful creator God of The Bible. The Babylonians seemed unstoppable. The Babylonians were a people with one purpose in life and that was to conquer and enslave other people. [PAUSE]

Habakkuk wonders why in the world God would allow such a horrible thing to happen to God’s own chosen people. [PAUSE]

While Habakkuk can not comprehend the workings of His God, … in verse 12 Habakkuk declares his complete faith and his trust in His God. [PAUSE] As Habakkuk recalls the unchangeable, holy character of God Habakkuk assures himself that Judah would not be completely destroyed. Habakkuk understands that the Babylonians were coming to discipline Judah, but the Babylonians were not coming to destroy Judah. [PAUSE]

So what lessons can we learn from Habakkuk?

First God is control of the entire universe, the nations of the world, and all people. God is seated on His throne, and all the nations of the earth and all authorities are under His sovereign rule. We see this in God’s reply to Habakkuk where he said to him, "I am raising up the Babylonians" (1:6a). Every nation on earth is under the hand of God. There is absolutely no authority or government that is not ultimately controlled by God. Things are not what they appear to be. It seemed that the military ability of the Babylonians had brought them to power. But it was not so, for God had raised them up for a purpose and God would bring them down. God is Lord of all. God created the universe and us and God controls the universe and we are all accountable to Him. We must never ever lose sight of this crucial truth. [PAUSE]

After God answers Habakkuk’s first question of "Why don’t you do something" in verses 13-17 Habakkuk asks another question. "Why would the Lord use a wicked nation like the Babylonians to judge Judah which was a more righteous nation?" [PAUSE]

Habakkuk got an answer but it was not an answer he wanted to hear. And I’ve found that to be true in my life also. We all question why God allows things to happen in our lives? Many times we just do not know and … I do not think we are supposed to know all the answers. That is the second lesson we can learn from Habakkuk. We are not supposed to understand everything God does and …we are not mentally capable of understanding everything God does. If we could we would be God. [PAUSE]

God is at work in our life but it is not always easy to see. God’s answers to our prayers are not always what we wanted to hear. But we can always be assured that God loves us and God wants the very best for us. [PAUSE]

After Habakkuk asks his second question he waits on God’s answer. In verse 1 of chapter 2 we see that Habakkuk compares himself to a watchman on the city wall. This speaks of the prophet’s persistent watching and waiting for God’s answer.

That is the third lesson we can learn from Habakkuk. We are to go to the Lord in prayer and wait patiently but also expecting God’s answer. [PAUSE]

God’s answer is in verses 2-4. God told Habakkuk to write down His answer so that all who read it would surely know that God is in control of the universe and God’s Word would come true. God said He would also judge the Babylonians for their evil. From history we know God raised up the Meds and the Persians to destroy the Babylonians. The final judgment will come when Jesus will establish His eternal kingdom on earth. Then God will right all wrongs. God will restore the goodness to human life that He planned from the beginning. [PAUSE] The fourth lesson we can learn from Habakkuk is that God’s time is not man’s time. The world is on God’s timetable, not ours. [PAUSE]

If we are honest with ourselves we all tend to tell God how He should answer our prayers. [PAUSE] When we see a certain situation we think that God should act in a particular way. And we wonder why God does not follow our advice. The next lesson we can learn from Habakkuk is that sometimes God allows allowing things to become much worse before they become better. God may do the complete opposite of what we anticipate. God may overwhelm us by confronting us with a Babylonian army or a terrorist attack or another natural disaster. [PAUSE]

Habakkuk asked some tough questions that most of us have asked, "Why does God seem to be so unconcerned?" "Why Lord?" [PAUSE] Do you ever feel like Habakkuk? [PAUSE]

The sixth and final lesson we can learn from Habakkuk is in the last part of verse 4 which tells us how we are to live until Jesus comes again. "The righteous will live by his faith." No matter what the situation, no matter how much evil, violence, and injustice are around us, we are to remain faithful and we are to trust in The Lord. We are to remain faithful by loving God, obeying His commandments, and trusting in His promises.

Why does God let things happen to us? [PAUSE]
I don’t know but I do believe God and I trust Him with my life. Remember God’s wonderful promise to us recorded in Romans 8 :28 "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

Let us bow our hearts and our heads in prayer.