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May 6, 2018 PM: Habakkuk Waits Habakkuk 2:1-4 Pastor Josh Sheldon
We'll turn if you would please once again to Habakkuk and we'll just look at the first four verses of chapter 2 this afternoon. Habakkuk Chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 just to remind you of the context here is now our fourth message in this So-called minor prophet though Lord willing you're seeing that there's nothing minor or insignificant about his prophecy.
It's application to us today so many thousand years later. But he has gone to the Lord in the first four verses and Received an answer then in the next Verses number 5 through 11 and then in 12 to 17 in the first chapter he Answers back to the Lord about his answer as it were and now He is going to again wait and see what the Lord will say.
So that's just the context that just to remind you what brought us to this point. So chapter 2 beginning at verse 1. I Will take my stand at the Y at my watch post 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 and the Lord answered me.
Write the vision make it plain on tablets so that so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time it hastens to the end. It will not lie if it seems slow wait for it. It will surely come it will not delay.
Behold his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him. But the righteous shall live by his faith. The very first verse of this entire prophecy in the first chapter. It tells us that what we have here in this entire prophecy is the oracle that he saw.
Very important to remember that it's something an oracle is an utterance an oracle is a word sometimes translated a burden and It's something not just a word. He heard but it's an oracle that he saw. It's a prophecy and while prophecy includes the direct word of God to him verse 1 through 5 1 5 Though it does not have thus saith the Lord it is clearly God's word answer.
In the opening that we have a word answer something he saw and yet a word from God so we don't have thus says the Lord and Yet the Lord said this to him and along with that Habakkuk saw. The answer saw what God was giving him in this afternoon's text our prophet says he's going to look out and See what God will say.
He's going to look and see what God says. Followed by his anticipation that he will have opportunity to answer back to God once again. Which is essentially the substance of the third chapter. I look and see what he will say to me and what I will answer.
Concerning my complaint. And when we get to chapter 3, that's the answer that he anticipates. And when he calls himself a watchman, he says I will take my stand at my watch post that seems to anticipate Ezekiel the prophet Ezekiel and his watchman status when he takes his stand at the watch post.
Seems to anticipate that from Ezekiel. In verses chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 he asked the Lord how it is that so much evil. Because he's speaking then of Judah of God's people how how so much evil is seemingly unnoticed much less ever punished.
The next seven verses produce a sort of horror in Habakkuk a people even more wicked than Judah the ones he's complaining about are on their way to bring about divine punishment. Then the six verses after that have an answering back to the Lord that this just cannot be surely God Who is holy and pure surely?
He would not sully himself with so cruel and so idolatrous a nation as the one he is sending which of course is Babylon the Chaldeans. So how can you do this? Lord How can you who have two pure eyes than they behold evil sin cannot dwell with you and yet to punish evil?
You're gonna use a people more evil than the ones who are doing the evil that you're punishing. How can you do this and a little less than a century after this prophecy? Ezra and we're familiar with his book.
Ezra would not allow Israel's enemies to help build the temple. He said to them you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God. But we alone will build to the Lord the God of Israel. So how much more should God?
Avoid the use of wicked men for his purposes. If a man a sinful man like Ezra a man with a spirit like ours Wouldn't allow wicked men to help in the building of the temple. How much more should God? The Lord himself avoid the use of wicked men.
So verses 2 through 5 in this chapter are the beginning of God's reply to him. And the next time we come to this we'll look at the rest of the chapter and it just to give you a little preview. It's five pronouncements of woe five woes of condemnation.
Against this very nation that caused such hot horror in Habakkuk the Babylonians. And part of the answer that we can anticipate even now. To give yourselves a trailer of sorts is God is aware God does not have evil dwelling with them.
He does not ignore it and he will punish it all today. We find that the answer To the Prophet the answer that God gives is to be made plain and it is to be published to all people. That's verse 2 and Second in verse 3 the vision is reliable.
Wait patiently for it. It will come to pass and again anticipating the next the rest of this chapter Babylon's victory and Babylon's eventually eventual defeat it will happen. Third verse 4 one of the better-known prophetic passages by faithful endurance comes life.
The righteous one shall live by his faith. It will talk a little bit more about that verse or that part of a verse later. And Fourth and finally the the ways of the wicked bring only temporary success.
They will eventually collapse under their own weight. The vision Is to be reduced to words and to be inscribed on tablets. He says write the vision make it plain on tablets so he who run he so he may run who reads it.
Now tablets as you'd expect denotes to us permanency reliability. The tablets of the law the Ten Commandments is the most most obvious example. Isaiah and Jeremiah were both told to put some of their prophecy on Tablets twice in the book of Proverbs the heart is likened to a tablet as the place where Solomon's wisdom should reside.
So what's our prophet Habakkuk to do? He is to make a written record of the vision this word this Oracle that he's seeing. By inscribing it on a tablet. It might be a stone like the Ten Commandments. It might be hard black hard baked clay as the Babylonians in that time practiced.
But the idea is the same the Lord has decided and There will be no change. That you write down this vision that you are seeing this word this utterance this burden that you are actually Seeing. You write it down in the plain language that you're receiving it.
So that those who hear it or read it or have it proclaimed to them Can understand it do not subtract from it tell it like it is or tell it like it will be. It's really the message there. You see the Word of God is given to us to be understood.
Not all of it as is as plain as other parts of it. Often we need to roll up our sleeves and work hard to ferret out the meaning. The most modern scripture we have is some 2 ,000 years old and the oldest quite a bit older than that.
Some figures of speech and things that were once commonly known have been as obscured by the passage of time. So it does sometimes take a lot of work to get out the meaning of God's Word exegete is what we call X to draw out.
Meaning if the people who first received the word understood the metaphors and the figures more quickly than we do. The meaning is still accessible to us. We just have to dig a bit more as they would if they had to read our literature today.
The Lord got word of God's made plain it's not meant to confuse people it's not to be meant to be something where you hear that danger is coming as was clear in Habakkuk's prophecy and Then God complicates the what do I then do?
How do I save myself? What am I supposed to do about this? No, it's plain as given to be is given to us to be understood. God has protected this word in the many languages. It's been translated into and so we have a reliable word.
We can write it on tablets. It can be made plain and understand and understood but he says. So he may run who reads it and this running man is a bit controversial. I mean, is it the Israelite running from the coming danger who can only stop for a second?
Or is it the Herald who has a lot of stops to make and so he doesn't have much time. But has to make his point quickly. But in either case, it's really the same make the vision plain make it easy to understand today.
We might say accessible and the running Aspect of it whether it's the Herald who has to run from place to place because they have so many. Or it's the people running from danger and so they don't have time much to stop and read it.
But the idea does remain the same. It's dangerous coming. And you need to get moving here because this reliable word to be plainly understood has been declared to you. I would say the Herald is the one running with it.
That's just my take on it. The other if you think it's the people running away from danger who have only that moment to read it. It doesn't change it that much because there's immediacy to it. Why does he run.
The vision is hastening on to its divinely determined appointment. We consider the situation here. Babylon's incursions are becoming more and more menacing. They've defeated a Syria. They've defeated Egypt in something less than 20 years.
They'll be at the gates of Jerusalem scoffing at kings and rulers and laughing at walls meant to keep them out. Just as it said in chapter 1 that they laugh at all these things. You're a king. You're a ruler.
You're a prince. You're a general of a great army. You built a wall against us. They hold them in derision. Nothing will keep them away so there's not a lot of time for discussion if You sit and ponder it if you stroke your chin and consider alternatives if you saunter on home to consult with your wife and your kids.
No, they had no such luxury of time. What is being prophesied here? What is being told here warned of here is just too quickly around the corner. You know in Peter's day. Much long before us but long after Habakkuk in Peter's day.
It was the same men scoffed at the prophecies of doom. It says knowing this first of all the scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing. Following their own sinful desires. They will say where is the promise of his coming.
For ever since the father's fell asleep all things are Continuing as they were from the beginning of creation for they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. In other words God did. Exactly as he warns when he warns of these things he can point back to history and say this will happen in and the word is Reliable and your history your past tells us.
Or tells you that the future That I've declared to you is just as certain so do not let a few days or a few years or even a few decades or even a few centuries make you lackadaisical about this. Don't mistake God's patience for amnesia or worse for practical atheism.
It might seem slow, but it only seems to be that in fact The Word of God unfolds neither slowly nor quickly. It is neither fast or slow paced. What is the speed of the Word of God? What is its timing.
What is its pace? It comes about in exact accordance with his goodwill and pleasure. His good and perfect will is exactly how History unfolds according to his decree according to his word according to his timing.
Therefore the church can say perfectly without error without mistake without a hitch. That said for them that time was near. The people of Judah are being told that Babylon will be at their gates, and they're right around the corner.
Now verse 4 here makes a contrast between two receptions of God's Word. Behold his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him and then but the righteous shall live by his faith. So the first half is obviously the Babylonian horde that is coming.
God knows their soul is puffed up. God knows what Habakkuk is saying that yes, though they seem on the outward side. Anyway to be more wicked more evil. Further from you than the ones you're using them to punish.
The original language there when it says souls puffed up says that he's heedless. He gives no concern for anything except for his own desires. His soul's puffed up. And it is not straight in its paths.
Yes verse 1 9 says their faces are all forward as they go straight to the prize. His soul is not upright or straight. His desires are wrong. He goes straight for it. But for the wrong things he has no humanity has no regard for common decency much less God.
And we will see when we get to the five woes which are the rest of chapter 1. That he meaning Babylon is responsible for his choices. God will judge Babylon once they've served his purposes. Why did they even exist though?
Why is there Babylon. We can look further back in biblical history and say why? Why did Pharaoh exist? Well God takes full credit. God does not for a moment have to be abashed about his absolute sovereignty over all affairs.
What did he say to? Pharaoh what could he just as easily say to Nebuchadnezzar King? of Babylon. Or to any leader today any Leader in the future any leader in the past. For this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you that I may be glorified in all the earth.
It was one of the great antinomies of our faith you remember. An antinomy is simply a contradiction or a seeming contradiction between two true and valid statements and Here it's God's sovereign design of all things not taking away from human responsibility.
So truth number one God is for day for ordained all things whatsoever might come to pass. Truth number two borrowing from Romans. Therefore you have no excuse. Oh, man. You can't reconcile these two truths, but I can tell you that they're both equally true because God's Word equally affirms them.
He says. But the righteous shall live by his faith. Now this half of the verse is quoted in some of the most significant passages of our New Testament to the people then it was a promise he who heeds the warnings as the very Word of God and Submits himself to the coming chastisement.
That one that righteous one by that faith by his faith will live. Jeremiah the prophet Jeremiah tried to make this point over and over. He told Judah that the disaster was certain. But if they submit to Babylon as God's instrument they would live for Martin Luther.
It pricked his soul and ignited the entire Reformation. A man is not justified by his works, but by faith in Christ. He found this in his study of Romans 117 where Paul quotes it. And the emphasis there is on the result of faith.
Another significant passage is Galatians 3 11 the righteous shall live by faith and contrasts with true gospel obedience to legalistic requirements. The rules of the law justified no one for by grace you've been saved through faith.
Hebrews 10 38 quotes this passage. Hebrews 10 38 is a call to persevere in faithful obedience to God's will in times of personal trial. Now Hebrews 10 38 is an interesting one. From the Masoretic text the righteous shall live by his faith is a good translation of that.
When the author to Hebrews cites it he follows the ancient Greek translation of that Old Testament text. He says yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith and If he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him, so what's the idea there?
Do not shrink back from believing the Babylonians will come and prevail according to the Word of God. Do not shrink back from believing that your justification by faith in Christ is yours according to the Word of God.
Do not shrink back to obsolete regulations that never justified a single soul. But by faith believe God by his sons atoning sacrifice has justified you once for all. So what is this faith? When Habakkuk read the vision from the tablet some might have looked and said Who did you say is coming?
I mean look out over the rampart. There's no one there. You say Babylon's coming. They're too busy with Egypt to have time for us. He says you just shall live by his faith. The righteous shall live by their faith.
Faith believes. What the eye cannot behold? Faith trusts the Word of God despite the physical evidence that you might be able to take in and If Habakkuk is saying the Chaldeans are coming and you look out you say there's no one there therefore I'm safe.
That's the opposite of faith. Faith believes the word. Despite the physical evidence because the Word of God is better than anything we could see or taste or touch. He was 11 one. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen.
Judah's righteous and faithful one would believe in Babylon success and also by the same word their own survival. That is to say their faith looks forward. They could look out and see the dust being raised by Babylon's army even before that army wheeled away from Egypt.
There they are. Says the trusting child of God. What are you seeing acts asked the doubter all I see is clear skies. The answer is that he knows they're coming because the vision made it plain and his Reliances in the vision in the Word of God and not the sight of the eyes.
So what do we have here, but that faith comes before seeing? Faith comes without seeing at all. It is trust in the unseen God who tells of events as yet unknown. Our faith today looks two ways. We look back to a cross that we cannot see.
But we know by faith that existed because God's Word on which we rely is a plain tablet that tells us so. We see our Savior. Physically visible for only a few decades so long ago and now in heaven where we cannot see him.
Where those who actually did see him could no longer see him. And what do we see? By faith. We see him on a cross. We see him bearing in his own body our sins as he hung on the tree. Do you believe this?
Because there's no one in this room who could say Amen, I believe this that is the content of my faith that Christ died for my sins that he went to Golgotha. Do you believe this? Because no one in this room who believes that can see it.
Not with these eyes. But with the eye of faith with the eye of Habakkuk 2 for the righteous shall live by his faith. The Apostle writes therefore haven't been justified by faith. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Can you see? Justification. Can you can you handle it? Can you taste it? Can you touch it? What do you do with this peace? Well faith this righteous man's faith looks two ways at once back to the moment when God by his spirit gave you faith to believe.
And forward to the day when our faith shall be sight the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. All of that is faith now that is Habakkuk 2 for living by faith trusting this word. Relying on this tablet that made it plain to you.
So that it's the herald run by and could only tell you a few things. This saying is true and worthy of all faith. Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am the chief. So you have time for believe that put your trust in that put your hope there.
Because he's got to get on tell somebody else quickly. I think as I look at this verse and I think of this back and forth between the prophet and God. Answering plainly to the prophets and saying make it plain and the prophet answering back to God say that can't be what you mean.
I had to have gotten that wrong. You couldn't use them and God's going to say as we go through the rest of chapter 2. Oh, yes, I am. And you didn't make this just as plain this table that we come to this afternoon.
Is one of these affirmations of our faith? The Apostles instruction does just what I was saying a moment ago about faith looking two ways. We look back to the cross as we come to the table. We have the broken bread.
Which is his body broken for us? We have the wine before us his blood poured out his life poured out for us for us. What does faith say? What is this faithful declaration we're making as we come to this table it says that that which I cannot see I believe.
And why do I believe this? Because of the God who declares it because of the God who declares it. And so we look back upon this Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and know that he died for me. That's faith. That's a visible Visual representation of the gospel.
And it's faith that what these elements represent what they bring back to mind and spirit is In fact true. It really did occur in time and history. Jesus who loved me gave himself up for me. And we look ahead.
At this same table we look ahead to a day unseen and a place that's still invisible to the eye. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes back to the cross and forward to our final salvation back 2 ,000 years when our salvation was won by Jesus Christ on the cross and forward to whenever he returns and Our salvation shall be made final and complete.
Faith says these things Are true. When we come to this table We are as something more than just a liturgy just a habit. When we come to this table We are proclaiming our faith that the Lord who's suffering substituted for our own will come back and bring us to himself.
Most people look up in the sky and see clouds stars that sort of thing as The righteous of Judah in Habakkuk's day saw the army's dust long before they came. So we when we turn our eyes upwards. What do we see?
Maybe we're looking at the cloud. Upon which Jesus Christ will stand when he returns and all eyes will see him. We look up in the sky say that's the sky that will one day present to my eye. If I should be alive when he returns Jesus Christ coming back in glory Jesus Christ said I Go to prepare a room for you.
If it were not so would I not have told you? Where's heaven? Look up. Why do we look up? It's just sort of what we do. And when we look up because that's where heaven is wherever up is. We know that it really is there even though we can't see it.
We don't even know if looking up is the right thing to do, but it's up. It's there. Faith says yes, it is. And faith said there's a Savior there in the flesh Who ascended from this earth having justified us by his sacrifice on the cross and he will welcome us home.
We look both ways. Back to what we did What he did and forward to what he will do so we will.
