Minor Prophets 8: Habakkuk
You Can Read and Understand...the Minor Prophets • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 17:17
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3. Living in unsettled times like our own, Habakkuk complains to God.
2. God answers that even though the Babylonian juggernaut will come, Babylon, too, will be punished and the righteous shall live by his faith.
1. In fact, this Law and Gospel applies to all nations, then as now.
Whatever Era and Place People Live, “The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith.”
Sermon
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save? (Hab 1:2)
Maybe you’ve heard the old saying, “Be careful what you ask for; you might get it.” Well, Habakkuk—and some of the other prophets—got what they were asking for, the destruction of Assyria. That was the enemy that overran the whole Old Testament world. But in the year 605 BC, Assyria was defeated by the Babylonians, as was Assyria’s ally Egypt. The bully on the block to the north was gone, and so was the bully to the south.
For a little while after these bullies were out of the picture, Judah, where Habakkuk lived, was relatively free from outside oppression. How did the people use this interlude of peace? Not well. That’s the subject of that complaint you just heard Habakkuk raise to the Lord. There was destruction, violence, contention, strife, and injustice—kind of like in larger cities today. It seemed that the governing authorities were paralyzed, unable to do anything to enforce the law. So Habakkuk complained to God.
Here’s how his little book is organized: There’s Habakkuk’s first complaint you just heard, then God’s answer. Next comes a second complaint by Habakkuk, followed by God’s much longer answer. This is like God having the last word, which Habakkuk then acknowledges in a long psalm. Most of the psalm speaks of God’s amazing power in creation and history. Then it concludes with Habakkuk proclaiming that, whatever happens, he’s going to rejoice in Yahweh.
3.
Habakkuk isn’t mentioned in the Bible outside of this book, except in the apocryphal book Bel and the Dragon, if you accept that. Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah and maybe Nahum. They all lived in an unsettled time when kingdoms and empires were changing hands and God’s people felt threatened.
It was kind of like today. Our country is seeing huge changes in culture and politics. Traditional Christian values are being tossed out. The nation is about as divided as Israel and Judah were. On the world scene, the power of America is being challenged by China and its allies. Things don’t look good. It’s a scary time, just as it was in Habakkuk’s day.
So Habakkuk did the only thing he could do. He complained to God.
Let’s look at Habakkuk’s first complaint. He’s unhappy with the lawlessness that’s going on around him in Judah. The people are not behaving nicely at all. So Habakkuk unloads on God about it and accuses God of turning a blind eye to evil.
God answers with both barrels. He says, “I am raising up the Chaldeans” (Hab 1:6). That’s like the nuclear option when Habakkuk just wanted Judah’s knuckles rapped. Chaldeans is another name for the Babylonians. Here’s how God describes them: They’re bitter, hasty, fearsome, and dreaded. They seize dwellings. Their horses are swifter than leopards. They fly like eagles, they come for violence, they sweep up people like sand, they laugh at fortresses, and their own might is their god. In short, God is sending the Babylonians to thrash Judah thoroughly in answer to Habakkuk’s complaint.
Which gives rise to Habakkuk’s second complaint. Essentially, it’s “God, you’re going to use such a wicked nation to swallow up a people who are more righteous?” It doesn’t seem fair to Habakkuk. His complaint reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw that said, “If God doesn’t punish America, he’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Those cities got obliterated. Did the owner of that car want the same thing for America? Or just a good scolding? As I said earlier, be careful what you ask for.
2.
Well, God answers by telling Habakkuk that the Babylonian juggernaut is on its way. “It will surely come; it will not delay” (Hab 2:3). But don’t be afraid, Habakkuk, because “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4).
If this verse sounds familiar, it is. It’s quoted by St. Paul in Romans 1:17. In that context, Paul says he is not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Even though all have sinned and God is angry, “the righteous shall live by faith.” Why? Because God himself, in Christ Jesus, took those sins upon himself to the cross. In other words, even if the whole world perishes because of sin, those who are righteous by faith in Christ’s cross will live. Martin Luther rediscovered this truth five hundred years ago, and that’s the centerpiece of Lutheran teaching today. The righteous will live by their faith.
That’s what God is telling Habakkuk and you and me. God may use bad guys to punish wickedness even among his people, but though we’ve sinned (and we all have), we are made righteous and saved by our faith. Habakkuk didn’t know all the details of the fulfillment yet, but, even for his day, Jesus Christ, who was still to come, died for Habakkuk’s sins and saved him by faith.
By the way, though Habakkuk complains about God using the wicked Babylonians to punish not-quite-as-wicked Judah, God says Babylon will get it next. God is fully aware of Babylon’s sins; they won’t go unpunished. You can probably predict the list of Babylon’s sins without even reading them. Each one is prefaced by a “woe.” Woe means “affliction, calamity, trouble beyond description.” Here are those sins:
Woe to Babylon for heaping up plunder from the nations.
Woe to Babylon for cutting off many people so he can set his house on high, thinking his fortress is invincible.
Woe to Babylon for building towns with blood, towns that will be burned up.
Woe to Babylon for getting people drunk in order to engage in sexual immorality.
Woe to Babylon for making idols and trusting in them rather than in the Lord.
It’s pretty typical stuff. All nations do it. It sounds like what a career Air Force officer once told me: “The purpose of the military is to break things and kill people.” Plunder, conquest, fortress building, drunkenness, sexual immorality, idolatry—what else is new? God didn’t like it then. He doesn’t like it now. He tells Habakkuk he will punish Babylon for it, just as he punished Assyria.
1.
With God’s reply to Habakkuk’s second complaint finished, Habakkuk writes a psalm. It takes up all of chapter 3. Psalm just means “song.” And that’s what this is. It follows a traditional form, even including instructions as to how it’s to be used in worship. In the temple, which was still standing when Habakkuk wrote this, a choir would sing Habakkuk’s song and musicians would accompany the singers on stringed instruments.
Basically, it’s a generalized recitation of the power of God in history. A few place names are referenced that people of Habakkuk’s day would remember. So are events that showed God’s omnipotence, as when he made the sun stand still so the armies of Israel could prevail against the Amorites.
Some of the psalm seems to be echoed in our patriotic song “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Here’s a familiar stanza:
Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage
where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning
of his terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Julia Ward Howe wrote the hymn during our Civil War. Clearly, she drew upon themes from Habakkuk and from St. John’s Book of Revelation. It’s a great song if your sympathies lie with the Union Army, which is what the song celebrates. The North is God’s nation. The South is the devil’s.
That, of course, is a fallacy. Neither the North nor the South was God’s nation during the Civil War. As Christians, when we read biblical blessings and curses on this people or that, we need to remember that the true kingdom of God is not political. It’s not ethnic. It’s not national. It’s a spiritual reality. All people of every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ are members of the kingdom of God.
When we read Habakkuk or any of the prophets, we should keep that in mind. We’re not to replace the names of countries like Babylon and Judah with names of countries today and say that’s who the prophecy applies to. America is not Israel or Judah. Assyria and Babylon are not Russia and China.
Law and Gospel don’t have borders. God’s Law applies to everyone. The Gospel applies to everyone. Everyone today who lives according to the evils practiced by ancient nations is under God’s wrath. In the same way, all who repent of sin and trust in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, as their Savior by his death on the cross are under God’s grace and mercy now.
It’s exactly as is written in Habakkuk and Romans and as proclaimed by Martin Luther:
Whatever Era and Place People Live, “The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith.”
We pray: Lord, you have the last word. Help me listen to it. May my comfort and hope not be in politics or nations, but in Jesus, my Savior. In his name I pray. Amen.