Habakkuk 1:5-2:1 - Strength Por El Dia and God's Justice

Well, welcome back to Strength for the Day.

Is that what we call it?

It is. I thought about changing it to Spanish, but I don't know the word strength.

All right. I'm not. I was going to...

Strength for the Day. Okay. We're back to Strength for the Day.

That's what I'll call it. Studying the Book of Habakkuk. Yeah.

We've learned some things last week. We were in this book as we looked and learned just about God caring about our situation, inviting us into prayer. Yeah.

Of course, the Book of Habakkuk, you go back and listen to last week to get some of the history, but Habakkuk seen the evil going on around him. He takes this request of the Lord, like God, when are you going to step in?

When are you going to do something? The government is wicked. The people are wicked.

There's murder. There's violence. There's contention.

There's strife. All these things are happening in this kingdom. When are you going to help?

When are you going to do something about it? So that's what we covered last. And Bryon, why don't you tell us what we're going to next?

Or do you want to just jump into it?

Yeah. I'll just mention one thing. So Book of Habakkuk is kind of a prayer conversation.

It's written in kind of some Hebrew poetry stuff is going on. So it's a poetic prayer. Yeah.

So it's called a minor prophet.

Yes.

We talked about that.

But it's not a prophet like Daniel or Jeremiah, where they're bringing something to the people from God. This is more...

It's more personal.

I'm saying, man, God, we need to... Let's have a cup of coffee. We need to sit down and discuss some things.

Yeah.

And so this week, we're going to see God's response to, hey, there's evil, there's wickedness, there's violence. When are you going to do something? And we're going to read God's answer here.

Awesome.

Give it to it.

Look among the nations and watch. Be utterly astounded, for I will work a work in your days, which you would not believe, though it were told you.

For indeed, I am raising up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, a bitter and hasty nation, which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful.

Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead.

Their cavalry comes from afar. They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. They all come for violence.

Their faces are set. They're firm like the east wind. They gather captives like sand.

They scoff at kings and princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. Then his mind changes.

This is the Chaldean, the Babylonian. Then his mind changes and he transgresses. He commits offense, ascribing this power to his God.

So wait, let's keep reading.

Okay.

Okay.

That's Habakkuk's answer to God. Excuse me. God's answer to Habakkuk.

Yeah. And so I will summary real quick.

So Habakkuk, hey, God, evil violence, wickedness. When are you going to stop it? This evil violence in Israel.

God says, don't worry. I'm bringing the Babylonians. They're going to put an end to all of Israel's sin.

Yeah.

And Habakkuk would know who the Babylonians were. And that's where this next part is great. Yeah.

So then Habakkuk says, are you not from everlasting?

Oh Lord, my God, my holy one, we shall not die. Oh Lord, you have appointed them for judgment. Oh Rock, you have marked them for correction.

You are of pure eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness. Why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?

Why do you make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? They, the Babylonians, take up all of them with a hook. They catch them in their net and gather them in their dragnet.

Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet, because by then their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful.

Shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity? I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what he, God, will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected.

I just love it. Okay, so first, Bryon, I'm gonna ask you this.

Yep.

Explain that. What did we just read? Just simple thoughts.

Yeah.

And then we'll dive in to each section.

Yeah.

So we have already, you said, Habakkuk goes to God.

God, where are you? Violence.

Israel wicked, bad. God says, great, I'm gonna use the Babylonian, swipe them out. Habakkuk comes back and goes, but the Babylonians are more wicked than we are.

So like, you gotta judge them. They are worse. Like he says, you know, basically he uses the illustration of fishing and how the Babylonians would go through nations and just demolish everything.

Take away all of the royals. You can read the Book of Daniel. You take all of the smartest people, you make them Babylonians.

That's where he talks about like fish of the sea or like creeping things that have no king. It would basically just plunge nations into anarchy, who would then be taxed and whatever by Babylon.

And Babylon had all of their various gods that they worshiped. Much of the Old Testament is dedicated to talking against Babylonian gods and things. And he says, Habakkuk likens all of the weapons of their warfare to like a dragnet.

And so the Babylonians had their god of war and things that they worshiped. He says, okay, so basically, they entrap people, they use warfare to plunder all of these nations, and then they worship that god of war.

He says they're worshiping the fishing pole, if you will, that they catch the fish with. Okay, God, that doesn't sound like you're doing justice. It sounds like you are endorsing more wickedness than even is happening here in Israel.

What's going on?

Yeah, I love, okay, so, number one, first, our listener and watcher today, like there's so much.

All one of you.

All one of you, yeah. Maybe two, there might be two.

There could be.

Your dad might watch it. I don't know. He doesn't.

But anyway, here's what I think. There's a lot we can take from it. Sure.

So, real quick, just kind of like bullet thoughts. Like, number one, we can go to God. Habakkuk goes to God and is concerned.

Number two, God cares and God sees what's going on. God's not oblivious to our situation. That's at first like, oh yeah, I see it, and I'm gonna take care of it.

Number three, God has a plan. He can work through anything. Yep, right.

But here's one thing that just, I think is super cool, is the end of Habakkuk's reply back to God.

You can't use that.

Using Babylon, they're just as bad as we are. They're worse than we are. They're not even your people.

Don't correct us with them. I love how, and this is where we talked about this last week, we see Habakkuk's heart.

Yeah.

Because Chapter 2, Verse 1, he just had this discourse with God.

He says, no, totally wrong.

Yeah, God, you are wrong in this.

I love the, in Verse 12, the we shall not die is very akin to Genesis, Garden of Eden, where he goes, where Satan goes, you shall not die or Peter in the New Testament where he tells Jesus, oh, you're not going to die. You're wrong.

Yeah, that's his accusation.

Yep.

But this is where how back up's heart comes in. In Chapter 2, Verse 1, he says, okay, I've made my complaint. I'm I will stand my watch.

So it's like a someone on a watchtower or a guard that's waiting for a response. So the idea would be you're standing. Okay.

The idea would be you sent a messenger with word to another kingdom. Yep. And now the king or maybe a guard is standing and watching for that messenger to bring something back.

So that's what Havakkuk is picturing. Yeah. I'm going to be the guard waiting.

And I love what he says in the end of Verse 1 of Chapter 2. And he says, and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected. And he's already like, all of us have been there.

You ever said something and you know, I'm wrong. Like I'm very much wrong in what I'm saying. So yeah, let me have it.

That's Havakkuk in this. And I, again, I know we're going to talk down different avenues on this podcast today, but I just really like his humility. Like I do.

I mean, I think a lot of people can have some accusations about Havakkuk, but I think he went to God with true desire for God. Yeah. Like, God, I really want you to work.

And we see it here. Like, God, that's so messed up. You are wrong.

I'm going to wait until you correct me because I know you have an explanation for this. So I'm just going to wait here.

Yeah.

I love the humility that's there. So I don't know. That's something that jumps out at me real quick.

But yeah.

What do you think when you read these verses?

What's some thoughts you have?

Yeah. I see Havakkuk's being very real with God.

Yeah.

He's not holding it back. He's not doing like a pretense thing. Right.

Okay. Yeah. I am very holy and I, you know.

Yeah.

No, he's not there.

The truth is when we encounter God's thoughts and God's ways, it runs contrary to how we think and what we do. Because he is God, he is holy, and we are not.

And while we're made in his image, and so there are aspects of every person that, you know, you don't have to be saved to love your wife or something like that. Yeah, there's some common grace.

There's some morality in most people.

Yes. But when it comes down to some of the big questions in life, we run completely counter to how God thinks. When it comes to our salvation, our natural bent is, I will do.

Yeah. Whereas God's solution is, no, it's all Christ, and you just submit in faith and believe in what he's done. So all of that's happening, Habakkuk's being real.

I think looking at how God views justice is enlightening to us.

Yeah.

Because we often question, why is there evil in the world? As we're recording this, several wars going on in the world.

There's, even as Habakkuk's prayer was, there are instances in our own country where we see wickedness and violence and plundering and strife and contention. All of that is happening here.

And we can have the same prayer that Habakkuk had of like, God, when are you going to take care of it? And we don't realize that like, when God takes care of it, it is complete.

Yeah.

It is. And God does not view justice in the kind of individualistic way that we do. Of we want, when we pray, hey, God, take care, like, we want you to purify and judge America.

We want like individual little lightning bolts on all of the people that we think need judgment.

Yeah.

And that's not how God views it. You look at Daniel's prayer when he's praying to God and he asks for forgiveness. He says, I and my people have sinned.

Well, Daniel was just like a little kid and he wasn't, you know, killing people. He wasn't offering stuff to idols. He wasn't doing any of that.

But there is a corporate element in God's justice and how he deals with people.

You look at all the conquests of the land of Israel, Palestine or whatever, Philistia that you would have back then in the Book of Joshua, where you have this total destruction. And you can see God's mercy in everyone that turned to him.

He completely said, no, okay, great. Rehab, you're going to be one of Jesus' ancestors. Gibeonites, you're going to be basically functional Levites.

So we can see some of those cool things happening, but you don't get to pick and choose who God's judgment comes onto.

And so the fact that God has not completely judged America and wiped out all evil from America, doesn't mean that he doesn't see the wickedness.

Honestly, it's a 2 Peter 3 that his forbearance, he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And so the fact that he has not judged America for all of our sin yet, in the way that we deserve to, like Israel, you know, 586.

Yeah, well, I think real quick, like, I love the point. We don't view justice the way God does, but I think it's because we view justice through a selfish lens. Yeah.

And God views it through a holy God glorifying lens and a loving lens. Yes. Right, so why does the Lord do just justice?

Like, why does he avenge and take out that? The purpose is because of what you just said, he's not willing that any should perish. So we all deserve instant justice.

Like, we're all sinners before a holy God. But his view of that is, I'm going to wait because I love you.

Yes.

I want to draw you to me. Our view is, don't wait, I'm right in this. Judge, strike them, strike, do it now.

Yep.

But God's view is always holy and perfect.

Yep.

Right.

So I love that thought. It's a good thought.

I'm jumping over here real quick, just along those lines, because you mentioned something last week that I had kind of forgotten about a little bit, that it was several generations before, during the time of Hezekiah, that God had initially said,

hey, judgment's coming. Like, Judah's been wicked. You guys have done terrible things. You have served up the gods.

You have, like, killed your kids, sacrificed them on altars to idols. You have done all of these wicked things. But it was Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amun, Josiah, Jeconiah.

I think there's one other super wicked king that was in there as well that it specifically said, hey, like, I'm taking your name out. So you have, like, five generations later, after God had initially said, hey, Hezekiah, I'm bringing judgment.

And Hezekiah goes, okay, God, I repent. I'm asking for, you know, mercy, all of that. God then waits five generations to bring the judgment.

Right.

Like, God is so incredibly patient and loving with us.

Yeah.

He is just.

But when His justice comes, like, you know, it's a worldwide flood.

Yeah.

It is, you know, at the end of time, it is Christ coming back and literally, like, His words tear the armies of the world asunder. Like, it is frightening and horrifying. It would be, you know, Hebrews.

It is a tear. What is it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God? Yeah.

So we pray, we ask for God's justice, but we should realize whenever we pray for God's justice, that we can at the same time, thank God for His long suffering.

Yeah.

Because like Habakkuk here praying, Hey, you know, God, there's there's violence in Israel. I'm asking you to do something. He goes, Oh, I'm going to do something.

And then Habakkuk immediately goes, Oh, that was so much more severe than I thought that it was going to be. That is much more full, complete judgment than I was anticipating. What are your thoughts?

Well, I agree with everything you just said.

And I think it's good for us to be reminded of the long suffering of God and his patience with us.

But I think like an application I'm taking away today, maybe one that we could as readers or as listeners, is that when we, okay, when we pour our heart out to God, right? We learned this last week. God invites us to it.

When we pour our heart out to him, at the end of the day, at the end of that prayer, there has to be an element of trust. Yeah. Right?

To say, okay, God, like I don't understand it, can I trust you?

Yeah.

And that's where I think Habakkuk ends up, is like, God, like this doesn't make sense to me. I'm going to sit here and wait for an answer because I know I'm wrong. Like I know my thinking is sued.

Yeah.

So God, I trust you.

That is one thing we talked about it, about David. You know, David always poured his heart out to the Lord and he complained to God. Like, God, why?

Why are you doing? Like, why are you allowing this and all of these things? But at the end of just about every one of his questions toward God, he always came back to the answer of God.

I will trust you. And that's where I think maybe for us today, as we think about this week, you know, this is Monday launching and we have a lot going on. I don't know what you're going to face this week.

I don't know what I'm going to face this week, but I do know that we have a God we can trust in this week. And I think that's a very good reminder to just remember every day.

Like, God, I may look around and not see, not understand, but I'm so glad I can trust.

It's like, I don't know if you have the stories, but when you're a dad, when you were a little kid, do you ever have your dad, you know, if you can remember, you're seven, eight, nine years old, and your dad just says, you know, BJ, trust me.

Like, just trust me. And you're, man, I don't even understand what I'm trusting. Like, I don't know.

But you look back, and now you know, as, you know, a young man who's in his twenties, like, I totally had a dad I could just completely trust. And I'm reminded of my dad in a pool, saying, son, jump to me. Just trust me.

I'll catch you. Just trust me. And you're so scared.

But man, that's amplified in a magnanimous way with God. Like, an unimaginable way. We really do have a God we can trust.

So I think even in the situations we don't understand this week, being able to step back and say, God, I don't understand this, but I trust you. That's kind of the, I don't know, simple application. I know that is, that's elementary.

Trust God.

You can trust.

Just walk, but I need that. I need to be reminded of that all the time. Like I look around and I want justice my way.

Yeah.

But at the end of the day, I need to be like, go back to say, God, I don't understand, but I trust you.

Yeah.

With whatever situation I'm facing in my life.

So kind of the one thought I'm walking away from this with, kind of on a different side.

So with God, you're saying, Yeah. With what God's saying of, hey, I'm going to use the Chaldeans to bring justice, to wipe out evil, is a big challenge to my heart. Sometimes we can say, hey, I must be right with God because I'm doing stuff.

Or like, hey, it doesn't really matter how I do things as long as the end result is good.

And we're the picture of godliness ourselves. I'm close to God.

And I think from that, one thing that God kind of challenges me with is, okay, just because I use something doesn't mean it's right or it's good. And we'll read more about that next week.

But I find that a challenge to my heart of like, hey, I can use you whether or not you are right with me.

Yeah.

And so I want God to use me. But even more than that, like, I want to be right with God. I want to have that heart of Habakkuk that says, okay, God, I've got my thoughts.

I've got my opinions on what you're doing and how you're doing it. But at the end of the day, like, I'm not God, you are. And so I'm going to rely and trust on you.

And I think that would be a good thing for all of us to say of God, you will work no matter what I do, but I want to be on your side. I want to be right with you and what I'm doing and saying and thinking.

So I think some of those things, trusting and having that desire to be right with God so that when he works, he's working with us, not despite us.

That's right. So, yeah, it's a great thought. Yeah.

Well, thank you for tuning in and God, wow, next week is going to be fun.

It is God's answer to Habakkuk's going, no, you can't use them. They're super wicked.

It's a great path, great part of it.

Yeah. And looking forward to that. So, hope to see you or listen to you.

Hear from you.

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Thanks for tuning in and see you next week.