Habakkuk's Complaints and God's Answer.

Pastor Jonathan Hansen

Habakkuk • Sermon • Submitted a month ago • Presented a month ago

Habakkuk 1:1–2:1

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Opening:

It is a beautiful thing to open the Word of God on the Lord’s Day.

Introduction of the Passage:

This morning we are beginning our study of Habakkuk. We will be in chapter 1:1-2:1. Last week we did a bit of an overview of the central themes of this book. This week we are beginning our true study of the depth contained in this book.

Once you have located the text, I would ask you to stand with me out of reverence for the Word of God.

Reading of the Passage:

Habakkuk 1:1-2:11 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

and you will not save?

3 Why do you make me see iniquity,

and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

strife and contention arise.

4 So the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

so justice goes forth perverted.

The LORD’s Answer

5 “Look among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

For I am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth,

to seize dwellings not their own.

7 They are dreaded and fearsome;

their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,

more fierce than the evening wolves;

their horsemen press proudly on.

Their horsemen come from afar;

they fly like an eagle swift to devour.

9 They all come for violence,

all their faces forward.

They gather captives like sand.

10 At kings they scoff,

and at rulers they laugh.

They laugh at every fortress,

for they pile up earth and take it.

11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

12 Are you not from everlasting,

O LORD my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

why do you idly look at traitors

and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

15 He brings all of them up with a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

for by them he lives in luxury,

and his food is rich.

17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2 I will take my stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

Behold, the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God, let’s pray.

Prayer:

Oh Lord, we ask for your blessing upon this time. We commit it to you. Would you open our hearts to hear from your Word this morning. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.

Need:

Human wickedness is rampant in the hearts of all men. It is a common observation that the wicked trample over the righteous. And the question comes to us, “why?” Why is this? Why is it that the good are abused by the wicked?

These are the questions Habakkuk is asking. How long will this go on? How long will the righteous be abused by the wicked? Why do the evil within God’s people get away with such wickedness? These are honest questions. And in this book, God answers. We have in this book the divine answer to these questions.

Text Idea:

In our text this morning we see Habakkuk’s Questions and God’s answer. Habakkuk questions God on how long He the wicked to abuse the righteous in his nation. God then answers declaring the judgement is on the way. Habakkuk ends with a final question.

Sermon Idea:

This morning we will dive into the depths of this passage. There are deep beauties and uncomfortable truths, but it comes down to this: God is sovereign and He will punish evil.

Transition:

So let’s dive into this. Let’s examine Habakkuk’s first complaint.

Habakkuk’s First Complaint.

Habakkuk 1:1–4“1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”

Explanation:

Habakkuk opens with asking the question “why?”

“Why?”

Habakkuk was a prophet of God in Judah, and Judah was filled with wickedness. The heart of Habakkuk was broken. He saw every day how evil the people had become. And his first recorded words are”O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?” This is the question of “Why don’t you hear my prayers? Why don’t you save me?” Habakkuk has clearly been in prayer for a long time. We do not know how old he is, but he has clearly been praying for a long time. His heart has been breaking over the wickedness of God’s people. He has watched day in and day out as God’s people fall deeper and deeper into evil. And he has been before the Lord begging for help. And the opening of his complaint is asking God why He does not help Habakkuk or the righteous.

Next he asks “Why do you make me see iniquity?” He is asking “why am I forced to look at the evil in God’s people day in and day out? God, why do you allow such evil to run rampant in your people? Why is the worship of God corrupted? Why do you allow your people to blaspheme you?” Habakkuk is at a loss. Habakkuk even asks God why he looks at evil without doing anything. He asks God why He idly looks at wrong. Here again is the why. Why does God seem to be so distant from the needs of the righteous? Why does God seem to be looking at this wickedness and not doing anything?

Habakkuk then pivots. He complains about how God’s Law is abandoned.

God’s Law is Abandoned.

He says halfway through verse three that destruction and violence are before him. Habakkuk and the righteous are being actively persecuted by the wicked among God’s people. There is an abundance of strife and contention. There is fighting everywhere. But then Habakkuk hits the heart of this complaint.

Habakkuk 1:4 “4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.” The Law of God is abandoned, rendering no true justice. Habakkuk says that the Law is paralyzed. Now does he mean that God’s law is flawed? Is the Law of God not fitting to address this? No. God’s Law is the perfect Law. The flaw is not in the Law but in the abandonment of the Law.

Do you want to know the source of the problems Habakkuk is addressing? The wicked have abandoned the Word of God, and God’s proper worship. They have abandoned God’s Law. They have worshipped false gods and idols rather than the one true God. They have abandoned God’s Word and the proper worship of Him.

Because of this, there is no justice. There is only perverted and evil “justice.” Why are the righteous abused? Why is evil rampant? Because God and God’s Word are rejected. You see, outside of God’s Law, there is no justice.

Argumentation:

How do we know what is right? How do we know what is righteous? What is good? What is evil? Let me make it very clear. Good is what God says it is. Evil is what God says it is. So what is justice? Justice is right treatment according to God. So how do we know what God says is right and wrong? He has told us. He has told us in His Word. This means that wherever the Word of God is obeyed, there is justice. But it also means that wherever the Word of God is abandoned, there is no justice.

Why are the righteous suffering? Because the people of God have abandoned God’s Law. This is why Habakkuk says that justice goes forth perverted. When the people of God abandon God’s Revelation, the only justice that can be given is perverted and vile. It is a “justice” that is unjust and therefore is not justice.

This is a central point:

People are mistreated and abused because God is mistreated and abused.

To hate God is to hate others. You cannot hate God and love anyone. You cannot hate God and give justice. It is fundamentally impossible. You cannot hate God and at the same time love people made in His image. A judge or ruler who hates God and God’s Word will by nature be unjust. They will by nature be corrupt. Their judgments will by nature abuse the righteous and reward the evil.

And this is exactly what is happening in Judah in Habakkuk’s day. This is why He is complaining to God. He is bringing this before God and begging God to do something. You can hear Habakkuk’s cry. “Save the righteous, spare the innocent, do something Lord. Please, God do something.”

Transition:

And to Habakkuk’s awe, God answers. Let us now look at God’s Answer.

God’s Answer.

Habakkuk 1:5–11“5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. 10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!””

Explanation:

The awe of God answering is likely quickly eclipsed by the confusion of what God’s answer is. We can divide this into two parts. God answers and He tells Habakkuk what He will do.

God Tell’s Habakkuk What He Will Do.

What is it God will do? Something Habakkuk would not believe even if he were told. Something astounding. Something that will make his jaw hit the floor. What is it? God is raising up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. God is actively giving them victory over their foes. God is strengthening the Babylonian army. How will God punish the wickedness in His people? He is giving power and might to the Pagans. He is sending in an invading army to crush Judah. Safe to say, I believe Habakkuk’s jaw probably did hit the floor.

Habakkuk is begging God to do something, but this is likely not exactly what Habakkuk wanted. See, Habakkuk is probably a lot like we are. We see the evil of our day, and we want God to act. But when we say we want God to act, we want Him to act in very specific ways. When we pray for God to help our nation, invasion is not really the answer we want. Habakkuk likely wanted God to bring about revival. He was probably wanting God to raise up another righteous king like Josiah. Give us a man who would love the Lord to rule us! Habakkuk probably would have settled for a Jehu. If God doesn’t want to give us Josiah, maybe He will give us Jehu. Maybe someone who doesn’t love God but would at least do some of the right things! Habakkuk wants to see the Law of God reinstated. He wants to see revival. But God is sending an invasion filled with death and slavery. And we see that in the second part of God’s answer.

So what is God doing? Raising up the Chaldeans. But now, God describes the Chaldeans.

God Describes the Chaldeans.

God spends the next verses describing this nation coming in to crush Judah.

He says they are bitter and hasty. They are not a good people. They are bitter. These are not sweet people. They are harsh and rash.

He says they march throughout the earth and take what is not theirs. They are thieves and pillagers. They are stealers of homes. They are like the vikings. They pillage and plunder everywhere they go.

Their horses are fast and fierce. Even their animals are vile and fearful. God is saying this to describe their tools of war. In our day it would be like saying “Their tanks and jets are better than yours.” They posses superior cavalry and arms.

Their horsemen come from afar and like the eagles who devour. Nowhere is safe. The Babylonian army has a long reach. They travel from far away and devour all that is before them.

Pretty grim picture. But it gets worse.

They set their faces to do violence. These are not peaceful people. They are bloody and ready to do unspeakable violence.

They are slavers. They gathers captives and slaves like grains of sand.

No authority scares them. They mock kings, they laugh at rulers, they chuckle at fortresses. There is no obstacle or authority that strikes fear into this army. They are fearless.

God ends by saying they are guilty men and they are idolators. God says they are guilty. They are wicked and evil. Guilty. And they are men who worship their own strength. The Babylonians worshipped evil gods. They worshipped gods of strength and wickedness. They bowed to demons and themselves. And God is here saying that this army is guilty of the idolatry of self. They worship their own strength and might.

Transition:

This is how God is answering the wickedness of His people. God gives no explanation beyond this. Simply, “Here is what I am doing. Here is who I am sending.” Nothing else. And it sits in our gut like a brick. And it should. And it did for Habakkuk as well. Hear now Habakkuk’s second complaint.

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint.

Explanation:

After hearing God’s answer, Habakkuk is clearly confused. And justifiably so. And he answers back to God. He gives another complaint. But this complaint is fascinating. It begins with statements and then moves to questions and ends with him waiting. Let’s look at Habakkuk’s Statements.

Habakkuk’s Statements.

Habakkuk 1:12 “12 Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.”

Habakkuk is a righteous man. He begins by acknowledging the eternal nature of God. This may seem to be phrased like a question, but it is a rhetorical question. It is making a statement. God is eternal. Upon receiving an incredibly confusing answer, the first thing Habakkuk does is acknowledge who God is. First, God is eternal. Literally, God is above and beyond us. Habakkuk has that brick sitting in his gut, so what does he do? God is bigger than I am. God is beyond me. God is beyond us. God is eternal. We are finite. God is infinite. We have such a small picture. But God is in control of all. God is bigger than we are. This is known as the transcendence of God. God transcends us and our perspectives. He is beyond us.

Then Habakkuk calls God, “Oh Lord my God.” Habakkuk uses personal language. He is intimately relational. Habakkuk is speaking to the eternal God of the universe. But that God is Habakkuk’s God. God is transcendent, yes. He is beyond us. But He is also immanent. He is here. He is with us. He is there with Habakkuk. Habakkuk can call him “Lord my God.” And Habakkuk continues with this language.

He calls God, “my Holy One.” What a title! In the midst of utter confusion and shock, what does Habakkuk confess? He confesses the relationship he has with God, but beyond this, he confesses the holiness of God. God is holy. Habakkuk is saying that God is holy. He does not understand, but this is what he knows, God is holy. There is no corruption, no evil, no darkness, no sin in God. Literally what Habakkuk is saying here is that whatever God does, it is RIGHT. God is right, Habakkuk is wrong. What a way to speak.

So often we are so flippant with God. We cry out, “What do you think you’re doing, God?” We are arrogant and flippant. But Habakkuk is a holy man. He is a righteous man. He falls to his face and the first thing he says is God is eternal, personal, and holy. Oh that we would have a faith like that! In the midst of unspeakable news, would that we would fall before God and confess that He is above us, with us, and utterly holy. I long for faith like this. I long to see faith like this in the church. May we be like Habakkuk!

He then confesses the truth of God’s promises. He says, “We shall not die.” We shall not be destroyed. Now if we are not careful we may read this as a form of denial. But that is not what this is. Habakkuk is not saying that God is wrong. Habakkuk is not in denial of what God just told him. No, Habakkuk is reminding himself of God’s covenant promises. He is confessing the truth of God’s covenants with Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and David. God had promised that His people would not be utterly destroyed. And Habakkuk knows this, God ALWAYS keeps His promise.

So Habakkuk says, “Yes Lord, you have ordained the Babylonians as a Judgement and reproof for us, but we will not be destroyed.” We will not be done away with. God will judge Judah but He will not utterly wipe them out. You see, Judah has rejected God, but God will not utterly reject them. He will crush them, but not destroy them. He will punish them, but not eliminate them. God is not breaking His promises. And in the midst of confusion on God’s answer, Habakkuk reminds himself of the promises of God. I wish we had even one percent of Habakkuk’s faith.

But he is still confused. So he brings his questions to God.

Habakkuk’s Questions.

Habakkuk 1:13–17“13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? 14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. 15 He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. 17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?”

Habakkuk’s is confused. So he asks God. Habakkuk confesses the truths about God but then seeks an answer for what he does not understand. His first question is this: God is holy, how can He use the wicked? Now so many have abused this verse. Habakkuk is not literally saying that God cannot look at evil. I’ve heard it said so many times that when God turns away from Christ on the cross, it is because “God cannot look at sin.” That isn’t true. God looks at sin always. God sees all of our sin. What Habakkuk is saying is that God is holy. God is so holy that sin is fundamentally an assault on Him. He is so pure that even the sight of sin is repugnant. So how can God look at the wickedness of the Babylonians? How can God use them?

How can God ordain the Babylonians to judge Judah? See, Judah is evil, but Babylon is even more evil yet. So how can God allow “the wicked to swallow up the man more righteous than he?” Habakkuk knows God is holy, but he does not understand why God is doing what He is doing. So he asks the Lord.

And Habakkuk then, in very poetic form, paints a picture to ask another question. He says that God makes mankind like the fish of the sea. And the wicked come in with nets and catch the righteous and kill them. The wicked rejoice in their catching of the righteous. They profit off of destroying the righteous. They even begin to worship their own nets.

And Habakkuk uses this picture to ask God is this will go on forever? Will the wicked triumph over the righteous forever? Specifically, will the Babylonians go on devouring nations forever?

See Habakkuk’s questions boil down to this: Why is God using such wicked tools of judgement? Why does God allow the wicked to swallow up the righteous? And Will the wicked ever be punished? And Habakkuk is not being flippant. He is humbly asking God these questions. He genuinely does not understand, so he is humbly going before God and asking God to help him understand. You can almost hear him, “Lord, help me. Will Babylon go on destroying the righteous forever?”

And now Habakkuk waits.

Habakkuk Waits.

Habakkuk 2:1 “1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”

The questions have been asked. And Habakkuk sets himself up on a tower, and waits. And we do not know how long he waits. But we leave Habakkuk this morning, waiting.

Argumentation:

This passage should bother us. It should cause us to squirm a little. There are hard questions here. And we, like Habakkuk must wait. God will answer, but we must wait.

And as we wait, let us really take to heart what this passage teaches us. Let us dive deep into the truths of this Word. As we go this week, let us learn from God’s Word. First, we learn in this that God punishes the wickedness in His people.

God Punishes Wickedness in His People.

This is a hard truth, but God’s people can reject Him. Now, the Bible is clear, those who are truly saved can never fall away. But the reality is that His people can reject Him. We see this again and again in the Old Testament. The covenant people of God reject Him. You see, not all those in the covenant people are truly saved. Judah was the covenant people of God. They were in the covenant. They were the children of Israel, God’s people. But they had rejected God. And God punished them.

We see this happen again in the New Testament. The Jews were warned by Christ and Apostles what would happen if they rejected Christ, the Messiah. Listen to Paul’s words in Acts 13:38–41“38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41 “ ‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’ ””

Paul quotes Habakkuk 1:5. He quotes the words of God to Habakkuk to the Jews warning them that if they reject Christ, judgement was coming for them. And it did come. This time it was not Babylon, it was Rome. God raised up Rome, that bitter and hasty nation. And Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. fulfilling Christ’s prophesy and Paul’s prophecy.

And we should take this as an intimate warning. If there is one thing we learn from Scripture, it is that rejecting God and His Word leads to judgement. This did not go away in the New Testament. Paul warned the Jews of this. And judgement fell on them. John warns some of the 7 churches that if they continue in sin, God will judge them. Rejection of God or His Word brings judgement.

So how do we protect against this? I think it should be obvious that massive sections of the church in our culture have rejected the One True God and His Word. And this is bringing judgement. So what do we do? First:

Never Become Discouraged in Obeying God.

But, it is easy to be discouraged. It is a sad thing to see the wicked consuming the righteous. And often that is exactly what we feel in our day. Being faithful to God in our current church culture means that we will face the hatred of much of the church. Many of the major denominations will hate you. You will never be invited to the cool kids table. They will slander you, lie about you, call you all sorts of names. And this is sad. As Matthew Henry said in his commentary “It is sad to see bad men warming their hands at those flames which are devouring all that is good in a nation, and stirring up the fire too.” Clearly we see this in our nation, but we also see it in the churches.

I know that as a pastor, if I hold to the Word of God with stubborn fervor, I will never be asked to speak at the cool conferences, I will never be invited to the inner denominational groups, I will likely face being lied about, and I will likely be rejected by most of the institutions of our day. But we must first and foremost never be discouraged. We as a church must never compromise because the cool kids say we should. We must plant our feet on the Word of God and say, “Here is my standard. I will not recant, so help me God.”

So we must never become discouraged in being faithful. Never, ever let the masses abandoning faithfulness shake you. We stand on the Word of God. That is first. Never become discouraged in obeying God.

Second:

We Must Always Be Reforming.

One of the mottoes of the Reformation was “Ecclesia Reformata, Semper reformanda.” Meaning, “Church reformed, always reforming.” What this means is that as we follow Christ and His Word, we must always hold ourselves to the Word. We must always be examining our own lives and the life of our church and asking, “are we obeying God here?”

See, most the time “change” in a church is a bad word. It instantly makes people nervous. And honestly, rightly so. So many preachers come into churches and change things purely based on taste. They say things like, “we need to change the music in order to attract a bigger crowd!” Or “If we got rid of liturgy, the young people would enjoy church more!” These changes always seem to be motivated to please people. “We should change to please the culture” seems to be the motto.

But our goal is not to please the culture. We are not called to give people what they like. We are called to obey God and give people the Word of God. So often change is a bad word in church for good reason. But there is a good kind of change. And that is reformation. We must ALWAYS be reforming back to the Word of God. And this is because we desire to please God, not people. And this means that as we study the Word of God, we will by necessity come across things we need to change. But that change is motivated by love for and obedience to God. We will see things in the Word that we are not doing, or are doing wrong. We must be always willing to change and obey God.

Transition:

So how do we survive a time where God is judging the wickedness in His church? Never become discouraged in obeying God. And always seek to please God by reforming to His Word.

But there is one more thing I want us to walk away from this passage with. We ought to look at the faithfulness and righteousness of Habakkuk and act as he did. See:

Even When God Sends Punishment, Remember Who God Is.

If anything stands out to me in this text, it is Habakkuk’s second complaint. He is lost and confused. But the first thing he does is remind himself of who God is. As we look at the state of our nation and the church, we can see God is judging us. We are a nation and people under judgement. But in that, we must remember who God is.

I love how one commentator put it: “We must not think it strange if wickedness be suffered to prevail far and prosper long. God has reasons, and we are sure they are good reasons, both for the reprieves of bad men and the rebukes of good men; and therefore, though we plead with him, and humbly expostulate concerning his judgments, yet we must say, “He is wise, and righteous, and good, in all,” and must believe the day will come, though it may be long deferred, when the cry of sin will be heard against those that do wrong and the cry of prayer for those that suffer it.” — Matthew Henry.

You see, we live in age where wickedness is prevailing in the World and in the Church as a whole. But we can have hope. We don’t understand what God is doing, but we can still have hope. How? Remember who God is.

He is eternal. He is above us. He is beyond us. He is the one who made all, who governs all, who is sovereign over all. Remember this.

He is our God. We are His people. He has bought us with His own blood. We belong to Him. He is personal. He loves us. Remember this.

He is holy. There is no sin in him. Everything He does is good. There is no darkness in Him. Remember this.

He has promised that the darkness will not win. He has promised that the gates of hell cannot stop the advance of the church. His church will never be destroyed. Remember this.

Conclusion:

I know we are leaving this on a bit of cliffhanger. But that is good. God promised Habakkuk that judgement was coming. God was raising up the Babylonians against Judah. And Habakkuk still has questions. And likely so do you. But we, like Habakkuk must take our place of waiting. We do not fully understand what God is doing in our day. But we trust God. We will obey His Word. And we will wait. Let us wait upon the Lord, and see what He will say. Amen. Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer:

Offering:

Offertory Prayer:

Benediction:

Habakkuk 2:1 “1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”