Sermon Tone Analysis

There we go.

If you have been with us the last two Sundays, then you can check off that you read through an entire book of the Bible in church this month.

Habakkuk began with a complaint/question before God—namely, why does God continue to tolerate corruption and injustice?

God provided a response by declaring that the Babylonian army is coming to wipe out Judah.

Habakkuk then repeats his complaint/question since the Babylonians are even more corrupt and unjust than the leaders in Jerusalem.

God again provides a response declaring his sovereignty in the matter.

And now in chapter three we see Habakkuk come to his final conclusion on this back-and-forth confrontation with God.

I think it will be helpful for us to understand Habakkuk’s concluding prayer by working through the progressions he makes in these verses of chapter three.

Look Back

Verses 2-13 begin with Habakkuk looking back upon all that God has done for his created world in the past.

It is not quite like some of the Psalms which recount specific acts of God in Israel’s history—like parting the Red Sea or providing manna in the wilderness.

Habakkuk uses language that is much more poetically generic.

But his words would have certainly conjured up images of God’s powerful actions on behalf of his people in the past.

It would bring to mind in his audience remembrances of delivery from Egypt by the power of the plagues, conquest of the mighty inhabitants of Canaan by God’s power displayed in battle.

Habakkuk is reminding his audience of the many times in the past when the entire earth stood and trembled in terror before the awesome majesty and power of the Most High God.

Recalling God’s faithfulness to his people in the past

His prayer begins with this language as a reminder of who God is and what he has done for his people in the past.

This is important for Habakkuk to recall and remember these things.

he needs to look back because he knows Judah is facing a time when they might easily forget these mighty acts of God.

Habakkuk knows he is living in a time when seeing this awesome power of God on full display for the entire world might be difficult.

Remembering what God has done before gives wider perspective on what God is doing now

It’s as though he begins this prayer with a moment of remembrance so that the people do not lose track of God in the days coming ahead.

In times when those around him may hold a bleak outlook, Habakkuk is pressing into a reassurance that God has not abandoned his world and has not abandoned his promises.

He begins with these statements of God’s majesty to a people barely hanging on to hope.

He is declaring, “Let’s not forget who it is we are talking about here!”

Do not forget who God really is.

That’s good instruction for us.

In times when every single one of us might find ourselves questioning why it seems that God appears silent, it is good to remind ourselves as well of who God is.

Are you able to do that?

Habakkuk demonstrates something here for us.

He is able to stop and pause for a moment in the midst of whatever else is going on.

He is able to carve out enough time to look back upon his past and call up all the times God has been there before.

This is Habakkuk’s way of spending a few minutes scrolling though Time-Hop on his facebook feed and seeing all those pictures from years ago and saying, “Oh yeah, I remember that time.”

It is all those moments from the past that are so important in shaping where we have been and who we have become.

Sometimes we forget those things and it is good to be reminded.

Two or three major events in my past in which God showed his faithfulness

So, what does that list look like in your life?

What are the two or three major events that bring you back to remembering where God has shown his faithfulness in your past?

Look Around

Habakkuk uses this backdrop of looking to his past as a foundation for surveying what he sees around him at the present moment.

After taking time to look back, he moves his attention in this prayer to look around.

Picking it up again in verse 13, Habakkuk turns his focus towards the fate of those in power who lead with corruption and unjust purpose.

This is the point in which Habakkuk’s questions from chapter one come full circle to an acknowledgement that God’s faithfulness to his people continues.

And it happens by widening his view to look and see what God is doing around him.

From narrow self-centered focus to bigger picture beyond myself

You see, the original complaint Habakkuk brings in chapter one is very narrow in focus.

His complaint about the corruption and injustice he was experiencing was just that—something he was experiencing.

It was a narrow critique of God’s actions based on a single time, in a single place, from a singular group of people.

And God’s responses to Habakkuk have now led him in chapter three to widen his perspective and acknowledge that God is, in fact, acting according to his righteous purposes.

We all tend to do this in our relationship with God from time-to-time.

We all have moments of viewing the circumstances of our world with blinders that block out every other perspective but my own.

We all have situations in which we cannot or will not see beyond my own time, and my own place, and my own perspective.

It is the principle of peek-a-boo-ology.

When kids are somewhere between infants and toddlers it’s fun to paly peek-a-boo.

The child covers their eyes with their hands and suddenly everything and everyone else in the room disappears and is completely gone.

The kid removes their hands from their face and now it is all magically back again.

That’s just a ridiculous and silly game for babies, right?

Of course, we all know that the people don’t really completely disappear when kids cover their eyes.

I mean, their singular perception of what they experience in that particular moment is not actually the collective experience of everyone.

That’s just babies who are too young to know better.

Or is it?

I always get a chuckle whenever I hear someone on a bitterly cold day make some comment about how climate change and global warming is a myth.

Now I know some people are just joking about the weather on a cold day.

But there are others who actually believe it.

They fully believe that if a singular isolated collection of people, at a singular moment in time, in a singular place on the globe experience a cold day then that must somehow be the common experience of all people all over the world over an expanse of time.

It’s fully grown adults trying to use peek-a-boo as an explanation for what’s going on around them.

That is exactly what Habakkuk gets caught doing in chapter one.

He is not looking around him to see the bigger picture of what else God might be doing.

Even in the bigger picture, my concerns matter to God

Now here is the interesting thing about God’s responses to Habakkuk.

God does not push him away or dismiss him.

God doesn’t just shut him down as asking questions based on misguided arrogance.

Even though Habakkuk is one single human being in a single place during a single time, the eternal sovereign God gives an answer to his questions.

Habakkuk and his concerns matter to God.

That’s helpful for us to see.

It should be a comfort to know that my life matters to God.

But it should also be a comfort to know that God is concerned with so much more than just me.

Maybe it is just my selfishness that only ever thinks about God’s attention to me or to my needs, or to my church, or my church’s needs, or to my community right now, or my country right now.

A step back to look around makes me realize that it is, in fact, so much better that God has then entire scope of cosmic history dialed into his purposes.

What else is God actively doing around me in the lives of others?

What else is God doing around me, even beyond my own circumstances?

If I take some moments of reflection to see the experience of others around this world, how might my perspective of God’s activity change?

Look Within

In verse 16 Habakkuk moves his focus again.

After looking back and after looking around, now Habakkuk returns to look within—but this time with an altered perspective.

No longer does he look within himself being blinded by a narrow and self-centered focus.

Now Habakkuk sees himself within the larger perspective of God’s divine purpose.

Guided by humility before God

I am not the center of God’s universe, I do not make the rules for God

This is a look within that is guided by humility before God.

It is a realization that I am not the center of the universe and that God’s perfect plan and purpose for creation is about something much larger than just my comfort.

Now Habakkuk understands this.

He comes to accept that God will indeed remain faithful to all his promises even if Habakkuk does not always like the way God goes about keeping his promises.

I have to admit, it’s pretty easy in our world to slip into a selfish view of religion.

It’s easy to convince ourselves that God’s primary concern ought to be about whatever it is that captures our own anxieties.

It’s pretty easy to have a look within that tries every day to squeeze God inside of my plans and my purposes and my preferences.

A new look within - may God complete his purpose for me no matter what that looks like

But it is a much different look within which longs for God to complete his divine purposes in me and in my life no matter what that ends up looking like.

It is a look within that says to God I will go where you want me to go, I will do what you desire me to do.

This is a look within that declares to God and to the world an assurance of God’s presence with me every day.