Prophets & Kings (Part 2)

So this will be part two of our study of the prophets and the kings and how they line up. And did the kings interact with the prophets? If so, who interacted with who? Who killed who in some cases? What some prophets had to say to some of the kings.

So we're gonna look at the next group of prophets. We'll probably have a part three, maybe a part four, but at least one more study. So we also wanna look at this and how does this apply to preachers and rulers today?

Or does it apply today? So we're specifically looking at the era of the prophets during the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. There was prophets before this, there's prophets after it in the New Testament, but this is a specific time period in the nation of Israel.

So who is the first king? Let's just do a little review. Who is the first king of Israel?

Saul.

Saul, okay. And at the time of King Saul, who was Israel's prophet?

Samuel.

Samuel, good. After Saul came David. David was the second king of Israel. And during David's reign, the prophet was a man named Nathan. So if you're familiar with the Old Testament, you remember that time where Nathan confronted David.

Remember, thou art the man. So Nathan rebuked David, Samuel gave warnings to Saul. Before Israel was divided, the third king of Israel was David's son, Solomon. And during that time period, Nathan was still the prophet during the reign of Solomon.

If you take notes, you can write this down in 2 Chronicles 9, verse 29. It says this, now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet? So we've heard of the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel.

Who's read the book of Nathan the prophet? Well, if you did, it's a forgery because it doesn't exist. So we don't know what Nathan said to Solomon. Presumably, Nathan rebuked Solomon as well, but it's lost to history.

Solomon was certainly worthy of rebuke, was he not? So David was, at least on one or two occasions, and Solomon was too. So here's the point. It's the job of the prophet to preach the word of God and to hold the people and primarily to hold the kings accountable to the word of God.

So that was the role of the prophet, to speak directly to the nation, but directly to the king. So when the king got out of line, whose job was it to deal with that?

The prophet.

So the kings have one task, the prophets, they have another role. However, both are under God. And you know, that's still true today. Even though I don't believe that there are modern day prophets today, preachers are still under God.

And this is what we lose sight of sometimes. I think we know better as born again believers, but kings, all world rulers are under God. Whether they acknowledge God or not, it doesn't matter. They're still living in God's world.

So how does this apply? Do preachers have an obligation to preach to the things going on today and to the rulers going on today? I think at least to a degree, they do. I wanna ask this question though, just to get your opinion.

Why are some Christians sort of adverse? They have a negative reaction anytime they hear something political coming from the pulpit. I know some people salivate over that. They're just waiting for those comments.

They love it. Other people, I think a lot, maybe the majority, they don't think it's appropriate or they don't like hearing it. Why is that? And I'm not saying there's any right or wrong answers, but I think that is what the answer would be to a lot of people out there would say, well, yeah, you shouldn't talk about politics because of the separation of church and state.

Okay, so what does that mean though? So, okay, separation of church and state, explain that to me. Well, if you look at the separation of church and state, originally what it meant is that the state was to stay out of the affairs of the church, not the other way around.

So really that doesn't really fly if you, of course today it's all backwards. Everything's backwards. So obviously this could turn into a whole discussion here. I'll just say one last thing. I'm more convinced now that there is no political solution to our problem.

It is a moral problem and the gospel is the only solution. That's why I'm less inclined to go in that political direction these days. But hey, right is right. And when there's a clear issue being pushed and promoted by the government or by a politician that's morally evil and opposes the word of God, then yeah, I'll say something about that.

Okay, moving on. So back in ancient Israel, during the reigns of David and Solomon, these were good times really when Nathan was the prophet. You get the sense that David and Nathan were almost like friends.

I don't know if they were friends,.

But they seemed to have a good working relationship even though Nathan did rebuke him. But these were good times in Israel. But once there is that division and there's Israel to the north and Judah to the south, when the kings became very wicked, then you're entering into a whole new era.

That's the time we're looking at, the era of the prophets, where their message essentially was to the kings, you better repent or else. The nation, the people, you all better repent or else. And what's the or else?

The or else was Assyria will destroy, conquer the Northern kingdom. And Babylon will conquer the Southern kingdom and take you away into captivity. That's one more thing on bringing this into modern times.

What if a Christian minister went on television and gave a similar message? This president is wicked and unless America repents, then God is going to destroy this nation or turn us over into the hands of the Chinese.

What if a pastor got on TV and said that? Well, a certain segment of the church would be like,.

Amen, yes.

And then a lot of people would be really upset. Well, that's kind of the way it was back then, right? The preacher, this is not a popular message. Hey, Judah is gonna be taken captive into Babylon. Nobody wanted to hear that, obviously, but they needed to hear it.

And that's why God told Jeremiah to go and tell them these things. So I only say that to give you an idea of how the Old Testament prophets were perceived and how they were treated. While they were alive, the majority of people were against them.

The false prophets, however, were loved because they preached peace, peace, when there was no peace. The true prophets were hated while they were alive. And it wasn't until they had been dead for a few hundred years that, oh, we love, we love the prophets.

Yeah, well, you didn't love them when they were alive. Because here's the thing, when a prophet is dead, he can no longer point the finger. He's safely in the grave and people aren't afraid of him. But when he's alive, whole other situation.

So that's the way it works. Okay, we ended last time with the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. We looked at the prophets that were primarily to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Now we're gonna be looking at the prophets who ministered to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

And there were a few prophets who did both. They preached to the North and to the South. One of those, the next prophet we're gonna look at is the prophet Isaiah. So this is one of the larger books. Is it the largest book of prophecy in the Old Testament?

I think it is. Here's how his book begins. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So this is helpful because it starts out by saying, hey, these are the kings that were alive during this time period.

So Isaiah ministered from 760 BC to 673 under several kings that we just read. Isaiah in chapter six, he has that great vision of the Lord high and lifted up, and he makes it a point of saying that it was in the year King Uzziah died.

So that's how they often kept track of history that, okay, this king was alive at this time. Tradition says that King Manasseh had Isaiah killed by what method?

Sawing him in half.

Yeah, sawing him in half. Apparently, he tried to hide in a tree, and they're like, that's fine, let's just cut through the tree, and cut the prophet in half. Can we say for certain that happened? There is a reference, I think, in Hebrews of them being sawn asunder, the prophets.

So it seems pretty credible. So Isaiah's prophecy contained some of the most, really the most incredible prophecies of any of the prophetic books, contained foreknowledge in great detail about the Messiah's birth, as well as his suffering and death.

Isaiah 7 .14 speaks of Christ's birth. He says, therefore, this is the verse we read around Christmas time, right? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name, what?

Emmanuel.

Then Isaiah 53, maybe the greatest chapter in all of the Old Testament, one of the greatest, gives great details about Christ, not only his suffering, but his death and resurrection. I'll just read verse 10.

It says, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days. So Christ suffers, he dies, and yet God causes him to live on.

And all of this was predicted 700 years in advance. So this is just very clear of what he's talking about. Amazing stuff. The book of Isaiah also tells of the future reign of Jesus Christ. In chapter nine, verses six and seven, another passage we read around Christmas says that the government will be upon his shoulder, and he will be called Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Okay, so this is not just a prophecy. It's not just this prophecy for the future. The purpose of the book of Isaiah was to call God's nation, the nation of Judah, back to faithfulness. God calls Isaiah to declare not only condemnation, and that's usually how we think of the prophets, right?

It's just condemnation upon condemnation upon, and there's a lot of truth to that. But ultimately, Isaiah had a message of great hope, because in chapters 56 through 66, Isaiah writes of a time where everyone's looking forward to, right?

The new heaven and the new earth. So this is the great reward for all those who trust and obey God. Now, this is interesting. I wanna know how many of you have heard this. The book of Isaiah has been called the little Bible, right?

There's a phrase like that, I think, the little Bible. Does anyone, does this sound familiar?

Okay.

Well, how many chapters in the book of Isaiah? 66. Well, gee, that number sounds familiar. How many books in the Bible? 66. So some Bible scholars regard the book of Isaiah as a miniature Bible for the following reasons, 66 chapters and the 66 books.

The theory goes that the content of each chapter in Isaiah, and I get that chapter and verses were added later, but still this couldn't, if it's true, it couldn't really be a coincidence either way. But the theory goes that the content of each chapter in Isaiah closely parallels the content of the corresponding book in the Bible.

For example, Genesis 1 corresponds with Isaiah chapter 1. The book of Exodus corresponds with Isaiah 2 and on it goes. Just as the Bible is split into Old Testament 39 books and the New Testament 27 books, the book of Isaiah is split into two as well.

Chapters 1 through 39 are seen as the books of judgment or the chapters of judgment. Sort of like the Old Testament, there's a lot of judgment in the Old Testament while the final 27 chapters of Isaiah are known as the book of comfort, just as the New Testament gives a comforting message of hope and the gospel.

So if you want homework, some of you do, some of you don't, but this is your homework, go and read through the chapters of Isaiah and let me know what you think. Does it line up? Some people see it and it's very clear, which would really be a miraculous thing.

Others, they don't see it as much. So just kind of an interesting side note. All right, if there's no questions on Isaiah, we'll move on to the next prophet. So Isaiah had a lot of words of condemnation, but a great message of hope as well.

And he was killed by King Manasseh. All right, the next prophet is Micah. Micah was a prophet to Judah who ministered from 738 BC to 698 BC. He begins in chapter one, verse one, the word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

So we see that there's some overlap, right? So some prophets were alive and ministering at the same time. So the book of Micah was to, the purpose of it was to proclaim warning and judgment to both the Northern and Southern kingdoms.

So his message was similar to Isaiah. And again, it's written around the same time period. Micah described the impending judgment that would eventually exile the nation. So sometimes we have the idea like Samuel was the prophet in Israel or Elijah was the prophet, but really was there only one prophet?

Was it Elijah who had the, was it the school of the prophets, right? So it doesn't have to be just one, but one is usually the primary messenger. In chapter five, verse two, Micah miraculously predicts the birthplace of the Messiah in Bethlehem.

That's another Christmas verse. The key verse of the book, probably the one that everyone knows is Micah chapter what, verse what?

Six, verse eight.

Good, who wants to, who knows it?

He has shown me, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.

Okay, so chapter six begins with the superscription above the chapter. It says, God pleads with Israel. And of course, God is pleading with them through who? Through Micah. Remember, the prophet basically is a mouthpiece for God.

So when God pleads with the nation, he's pleading with the king because of the wickedness in the nation. It's usually from the top down. So Micah is speaking the word of God to the king and the kings are usually the problem, okay?

You know how this is. And again, I don't wanna get into like, let's bring this into the modern day right now. But it's true that it's usually top down. Not that the people are innocent, but problems usually are top down.

Just one obvious, you know, when it's obvious, I feel like I have to say something. It wasn't until the US Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that all this rainbow pride stuff kind of kicked into overdrive.

I mean, it was around, it's been around for a long time, but now it's just shoved down everyone's throat. That didn't start to happen until the Supreme Court ruled. So the government made a decree and the majority of people, or at least half the people have followed suit.

So the people, and we know that because 40 years ago, the percentage of people that believe that way or were saying they believe that.

Was like very small percentage.

So usually it's top down. Here's the thing, and I've said this before, I'll say it again and it's true. People are what? People are sheep, fallen. Yeah, people are fallen, people are sheep, right? And we're sheep too, right?

We're a flock, the church is a flock. We're either following the good shepherd or you're following the zeitgeist. What does that term mean? The spirit of the age. Well, the Bible says he is the God of this age.

So you're either following after God or you're following after the alternative. I mean, there's really not a lot of middle ground, but chapter six, verse eight, he has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you?

And I sort of envisioned Micah saying these words to the king or directing this message towards the king. So if the ruler of the nation would uphold justice and love kindness and walk humbly with their God, now that is a nation that God can bless.

But how many rulers, and this can apply all over the place, how many rulers really walk humbly with their God? It's not really the main character trait of rulers. And you think of the, what?

They don't say they do.

Yeah, but even the great powerful rulers throughout history, humility is not exactly their strong suit.

No.

But if it were, if they walked humbly before God, I mean, that's a nation that God can really use. And David, despite all the flaws and the mistakes he made, he really was a humble man. He was a man after what?

After God's own heart. He really did put God on top and first, and that's what made Israel great.

Yes.

The reason why humility is so important is because God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. And every person on planet earth through all of history needs God's grace.

Yeah, yep.

So Micah, he pleads with Israel in chapter seven, he sorrows over their sin. In chapter seven, verse 18, he says, who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession.

He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. So Micah proclaimed that even though there is this judgment coming, God still has a plan and a purpose for his people.

Why?

Because of God's love for them.

What chapter and verse was that again, please?

Seven, verse 18.

18?

18. Seven, 18, yes. Okay, so any comments or questions about Micah? He's kind of one of those prophets people forget about, don't talk about too much, but every prophecy is important. The next prophet is Nahum.

His ministry lasted from 658 to 615 BC. And Nahum really has a connection with another prophet, who knows, he's unique in the same way Jonah was unique. Why was Jonah unique? Because he wasn't really called to prophesy to Israel's king, he was called to prophesy to who?

Nineveh and those people and their king. Same with Nahum. So Jonah preached to the city of Nineveh first and they actually did repent, but did it last? No, it never lasts. See, when there's a revival, like a real revival,.

It doesn't last.

So Nahum's purpose was to pronounce the final warning and judgment upon that great city of Nineveh. And he also addresses the rest of the Assyrian empire. So they returned to their wickedness shortly after the days of Jonah.

So within 50 years, Nineveh would be completely decimated and utterly wiped from the face of the earth. Nahum warns that the mountains will quake and the hills will melt. He then goes on to speak of hope for the Southern kingdom of Judah because of the coming judgment of Nineveh.

He says in chapter one, verse 12, thus says the Lord, though they are at full strength and likewise many, even so they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer.

So Nineveh is just finished forever. Was that ever said about Israel? I know there's people out there, Christians, who actually believe Israel is finished and there's no future for them. I don't see that.

But Nineveh, yeah, they're done. Israel's gonna go through captivity and they're really living in unbelief today, but there's always that message of hope for Israel. In chapter three, Nahum says to the king of Assyria, your nobles rest in the dust.

Your people are scattered. There is no hope for you. Your injury has no healing. Your wound is severe. And here's the part I wanna focus on. All who hear the news of you are going to clap their hands.

What is he saying? When they hear of your destruction, people are just gonna be like, yes, they're destroyed. Now, I think if a pastor got up today and said something like that, when these people are destroyed, we're gonna clap.

People would be offended at a statement like that. Well, if you don't have a word from God and that's just your opinion, okay, maybe there's a reason to be offended, I don't know. But this is a word from the Lord.

People are going to rejoice. Although I suspect after World War II, when we found out that the Nazis were destroyed, I suspect a lot of Americans were clapping their hands. I don't think any Christians were complaining about that.

When Osama bin Laden was captured, whatever, and dumped into the sea years ago, there was that big celebration. I didn't hear too many people complaining. So there is a time and a place for that kind of a thing.

What's that?

Oh, okay.

But yeah, there are a lot of statements by the prophets that today, if a preacher said something like that, it would be, people would probably find it a little questionable. So now on the other hand, I do wanna use this opportunity to say this.

Just because a prophet in the scripture says something, that does not give a pastor license to say the same thing. Here's why. Again, there may be a time and a place, but here's the thing. The prophet is speaking to one audience.

A pastor is speaking to a different audience. So Nahum was told to bring this message to Nineveh. They were wicked.

They're gonna be destroyed.

I mean, that would be inappropriate for a pastor to come into a church on Sunday morning and give that same message to the congregation. It just doesn't fit, right? So the point is just because a preacher in the Bible says something, that doesn't give us license to just say the same thing.

I've heard this when people are really harsh or they come off really harsh. Well, we're just doing what the prophets did. Well, maybe that's legitimate. Maybe not, not always. But this raises a question.

And I think we touched on it a little bit last week. Are there modern day prophets today? Because if there were, and God gave them a message to deliver to a king or a country, then they would be completely justified in saying whatever God told them to say, right?

Like hypothetically, we would agree. If God told them to say this, then they're right in saying it. So let's just ask the question. Are there modern day prophets today?

Yes.

No.

Jesus was the great prophet. We have his word. He is the living word. We have the written word. We have what we need.

Right.

Anything that would arise would not be anywhere comparable to what he brought.

Right.

He's the prophet, the priest, and the king.

Okay.

Okay.

You can't improve upon perfection. I would argue personally, and I know people disagree with this.

Some people would.

1 Corinthians 13, when it talks about tongues will cease and prophecies will fail. It says that will happen when the perfect comes. I believe the perfect is God's New Testament revelation. So when John finished the book of Revelation, that was it.

There's no more prophecy after that. No more prophets after that. And John, at the very end of Revelation, just so happens, right? That he includes that statement. And no one shall add any words to the prophecy of this book.

And I believe that's symbolic for you. No more adding to the Bible. Because really, if there was a prophet today receiving a direct word from God, why couldn't you add that to the Bible? I mean, that's a good question.

I say that because someone left a comment on my YouTube channel and disagreed with me. And they said, no, no, no, there are prophets today. And God is still giving new revelations today. And I have a Pentecostal charismatic friend who told me the same thing.

There are prophets today, Mike, and there are still revelations being given. And I always, my response is always the same. Who is it? This prophet, give me their name. What's this prophecy, this word from God that they have?

Tell me the name of the prophet and what is the specific prophecy? You know, no one's been able to do that. Because here's the thing. As soon as they say, yeah, well, it's Benny Hinn. And here's this great prophecy.

As soon as they give the name, then I can go and I can test it. And then I can usually show that they're a false prophet. But no one's been able to give me the name of a true prophet. So that's the position I have, the position of this church.

And it's not the position of the church because it's my position. It's always been the position of Morse Corner Church and most Bible-believing churches that I know that there are no modern-day prophets.

Well, I mean, this is how we get to the Book of Mormon. This is how we got Mary, Baker, Eddie. They've all written their own books saying that you can't, that the scripture needs to be explained further.

And of course, what's really happening is it's just trying to erode the perfect, as you say.

Yeah, you have that with the cults, right? The Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. You have the Old Testament, the New Testament, and then the New New Testament of the Mormons. Even with Catholicism, the Pope supposedly has papal infallibility and he can make a decree or write an encyclical.

And that can be just as authoritative in their system as what the Bible says. So, I mean, either you hold to this view that the Bible is the word of God and nothing can be added, that that's the final authority.

Once you open it up to other things like the charismatics do, I mean, it's a slippery slope.

But, okay.

How did I get off on that?

I don't know.

It's probably my fault.

No.

It wasn't any prophets.

Yeah, we're talking about the prophets and the kings and it's a relevant question of whether or not there are modern-day prophets. Okay. Any questions on that before we move on?

Well, they do have apostles, too. They say there's modern-day apostles.

Yeah, if you say there's modern-day prophets, you're gonna probably say there's modern-day apostles. And again, I said, well, who are they? What are their name? And you can't find agreement on that.

So, this is a juicy subject I'd like to continue, but we have a lot more to get to. All right. Next, the prophet we're gonna look at is Zephaniah. Zephaniah was the prophet to Judah administered from 640 to 609 BC during the reign of Josiah.

Now, what's different about Josiah? Josiah was a godly king, right?

He was made king when he was a boy.

Yeah, that usually doesn't work out too well,.

But with him, it did.

He was a good boy.

Yeah.

Even though there was a revival, however, under Josiah's reign, it would not be enough to hold off judgment forever. So, Zephaniah's prophecy begins with these words, the word of the Lord, which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushiah, the son of Gedoliah, the son of Amoriah, the son of Hezekiah in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah.

He says, I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land, says the Lord. I will consume man and beast. I will consume the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked.

I will cut off man from the face of the land,.

Says the Lord.

And he says, I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place. Now, you wouldn't expect a prophecy like that from a guy who's living under a good king, and yet you get it.

Why?

Because they had been worshiping the Baals up until that point. Josiah brought in a lot of reformation, got rid of Baal worship, tried to. But what about all the stuff that happened until then? See, God still had to deal with all of it.

God doesn't forget about all this stuff. So Zephaniah was God's method in bringing a stern warning of the day of the Lord. So this is a day of darkness, a day of judgment. Chapter one, verses 14 and 15 says, near is the great day of the Lord.

A day of wrath is that day. But at the same time, like the prophets often did, they had a message of hope along with that, that the nation of Judah would be restored. So when Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, were they restored?

Well, yeah, because when Jesus comes along hundreds of years later, nation's still there. I mean, they're under Roman occupation, but the nation is still there. So in chapters one and two, Zephaniah, 20 years before their captivity, foretells about the looming judgment that awaited Judah if they did not turn back to the Lord.

The book ends with the Lord giving a message of hope that a remnant would be brought back into the land after the Babylonian captivity. And we know that happened. So with Zephaniah, here's the point that I wanna make about this.

We see that just because there was a righteous king in power that doesn't mean that, oh, everything now is gonna be okay. All of the sin up until that point had to be dealt with. It's like in the New Testament in Romans chapter two that Paul says that the unbeliever is storing up wrath for the day of wrath.

So in making application, we know the things that our country has done, right? And the way that our nation has rebelled against God. Let's just say hypothetically, next year or later this year, there is a revival and reformation like this world has never seen in America just completely turned back to God.

Does that mean that, hey, we're set going forward or we have nothing to worry about now? Would that mean that?

No.

Why?

Because what about all the stuff that happened until then? God still has to judge that. Now we say, well, Jesus has taken away all sin. Well, that's for individuals who trust in him. Jesus doesn't take away all the guilt of a nation.

He takes away the guilt of the individual. So whatever happens and highly unlikely there's gonna be a revival like that. But whatever happens, this nation, every nation, this whole world is gonna face the great tribulation and nothing's going to change that.

So the best a nation can hope for is that judgment is delayed. So for the sake of my children and my grandchildren, I would like to see it delayed. But I know it's unavoidable because we know the battle of Armageddon, the end times, we know that's gonna happen at some point.

Yes.

Well, the truth is that all sin must be judged. All sin will be judged. The good news for us is all of our sins were judged by our Savior. All our sins were placed on him. He took the judgment. But still, all sin has consequences, too.

And we will not escape the consequences. The wages of sin is death. What you're gonna earn, you wanna get what you earn? You want your wages? Well, you're gonna get death. And that means death in relationships, that means death in all sorts of areas of life.

Well, life itself.

Hmm.

So Zephaniah's ministry ended around 609, and a little over 20 years later, Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and destroy Solomon's temple. So the Jews, they did get a few good years under Josiah, but God's judgment was still looming overhead.

That's why Zephaniah was sent, just to let them know, hey, you didn't get away with this. The nation, it's still, this is still gonna happen. Okay, the next prophet, this will be the final prophet that we look at, the prophet Habakkuk.

He's one of my personal favorites. He ministered from 608 to 598 BC, under the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. So very similar, Chin versus Kim, okay. So Assyria had already conquered the north. Babylon has now conquered Syria, and Judah is in the process of their downfall, soon to be conquered by Babylon.

So the book begins, here's why the book of Habakkuk is really interesting. It begins with questions going back and forth. So he's questioning God, God gives him an answer. He doesn't really understand the answer.

He questions God again. So Habakkuk, he begins the book by denouncing the sins of Judah. And he's wondering, Lord, why aren't you doing anything about the sin of Judah? And God's like, well, I am gonna do something, and I'm gonna use the Chaldeans to do it, the Babylonians.

And then Habakkuk's like, how can you do that? They're more wicked than the people of Judah. So Habakkuk comes to understand that God will not utterly destroy Judah. There is still a future for them. And then he asks in his prayer, realizing that God is gonna do this, and it's not gonna be changed.

He says, Lord, in your wrath, remember mercy. And that's the good news, really, that God has wrath, and he's gonna pour out his wrath. But in the midst of your wrath, Lord, remember mercy. And who gets the mercy?

Those who trust in the Lord by faith. And this is really the great verse from the book of Habakkuk, found in chapter two, verse four, where he says, behold, the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.