Habakkuk - Part 3

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Once again, let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Habakkuk. One of the minor prophets, as you'll remember, towards the end of the Old Testament between Nahum and Zephaniah.

And I know for some of you that doesn't help much, so you will just go to the table of contents and look up the page number. But that's OK, too. And listen, don't let the term minor prophets fool you.

It does not mean that the prophecy is any less important. It's mainly called that because the books are shorter. So you may remember from last time the prophet Habakkuk was perplexed. He saw the sin of the nation and he wondered why the Lord was not doing anything about it.

Judah had a covenant with God, and that covenant agreement was obey and be blessed or disobey and be cursed. And they were most certainly disobeying. So the prophet saw that and he wondered why God wasn't acting.

Why was God not chastising the nation? So he asked that question. Look at chapter one, verse two. He says, Oh, Lord, how long? How long shall I cry? And you will not hear even cry out to you violence and you will not save.

And then the Lord responds by telling Habakkuk that he would indeed judge the nation and he would use a nation more wicked than them to do it. Look at the Lord's response in verses five and six. He says, 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, a bitter and hasty nation, which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

And this is where we pick up in chapter one last week. I think we ended in verse 12, so we will read verse 12 again and then go forward. But verse 12 begins the prophet's second question. Habakkuk responds to the Lord by saying, 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.

So 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 the fish of the sea? So he goes into this analogy here, like creeping things that have no ruler over them.

They 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 them, their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity? So as we said last time, Habakkuk, he knows the Lord and he remembers the promise that God made to the descendants of Abraham.

So he knows that the Chaldeans, which is just another term for the Babylonians, he knows that they are not going to annihilate Judah. He knows they're not going to wipe out the people forever. Instead, this judgment, and it was a judgment, but it would be temporary.

And that the Chaldeans, the Babylonians were being used by God to correct the people of God. And that's a hard concept to understand sometimes. And that was hard for Habakkuk to understand. So the thing he couldn't get was how could the Lord use a nation like Babylon?

And what does he say in verse 13? Lord, you are of purer eyes than to behold evil. I mean, God can't even look upon wickedness. So how can he use the Babylonians and seemingly prosper the Babylonians when they are so wicked?

So Habakkuk, he's basically saying, yes, the Jews are in sin. That's true. He acknowledges that, yes, the Jews are sinning, but they're not nearly as bad as the Chaldeans. So how is this justice? How is it justice to allow the Babylonians to devour a people more righteous than they?

And you can probably understand that question. Can't you put yourself in that situation? Hey, maybe we'll find ourselves in that situation. So this seems like a legitimate question. And then Habakkuk uses this analogy.

Some of you might have been wondering, what's this with the fish and the net and the dragnet? What does that have to do with anything? What's that all about? Well, he's using this analogy and questioning God, why he's allowing Babylon to prosper, devouring all these tribes of people that are being compared to the fish.

And what are the Babylonians doing or what are they not doing? They're not giving God any credit for all that. They're blessed with their advances, the lands and the people they are acquiring. They don't give God credit for anything.

Instead, they are glorifying. What does he say? Sacrifice to their net.

What does that mean?

Burn incense to their dragnet. The net and the dragnet is symbolic for their military power. So their military might is their God. They are praising themselves. They are glorifying themselves in their military power.

So the people and nations of the world are compared to fish. The Babylonians just gather them up in their net and then they empty the net and go. Let's go out and take some more. And they do it without pity.

So again, the question is, Lord, how can you do this? How can you allow this? How can you allow the Chaldeans to prosper in light of their wickedness? And look at chapter 2, starting in verse 1. Habakkuk says to the Lord, I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart.

And the Hebrew word matzor, translated rampart, can be translated as a watchtower, a fortress. Habakkuk is the prophet of Judah that is acting as the watchman on the wall. Very important job. We need some watchmen on the wall.

Judah needed a watchman on the wall. That was Habakkuk. And I love what he says. Look at this. I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart or the watchtower and watch to see what he will say to me.

What's God going to say? How is God going to respond? And what I will answer him, what does it say? When I'm corrected. So he knows he needs to prepare himself now because he knows the Lord's response might not be pleasant.

And you remember last time, last week, we compared the book of Habakkuk, some of the stories to the book of Job. You remember what Job did? Job had some questions. And just like Habakkuk, you can understand why he asked the questions that he did.

But do you remember what the Lord said to Job after he went through all of that? The Lord finally responded in Job chapter 38. You remember what the Lord said to Job? Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Like, who are you to question me? And the Lord tells Job, now prepare yourself like a man and I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? So God, what did he do?

He basically put Job in his place. And presumably the prophet Habakkuk knew the story of Job. Most people agree. Most scholars and commentators agree that the book of Job is the earliest, maybe the first book of the Bible written.

So I suspect Habakkuk knew the story of Job. So he says, I will stand my watch. I will set myself in the watchtower and I'll wait for my answer. And it might be, might be harsh. God will probably correct me.

But you know what? That was the right attitude. That was the right attitude for him to have.

Why?

Because he needed some correction.

Okay.

But we all need some correction. We are creatures. We don't correct God. God corrects us.

All right.

So as long as a person can understand that they're in a good place, we don't correct God. He corrects us. Now, in the case of Job and the case of Habakkuk, when these men questioned God, because there's two different ways to question God.

But when they did it, I don't believe there is any malice. I don't think there is anything like that going on. But there are basically two ways to question, well, anyone, but to question God. The first one, the first way to question God is more like an accusation.

You've had people do this to you, right? They ask you a question, but it's not really a question. They are accusing you of something and they're calling you to account for it or to defend yourself.

Okay.

So you can ask God a question that is really an accusation. God forbid that we do that. But I don't believe that's what Habakkuk was doing. Instead, this was an honest, sincere question. And we often question God with honest, sincere thoughts and questions we bring before him.

Maybe we know that we're wrong in some of our thoughts and ideas, but we're just begging God. And that's what Habakkuk is doing. He's begging God to give an answer. He's just trying to make sense out of all of this.

So there's no malice. There's no pride involved. And again, he fully expects to be corrected. Now we get the Lord's response. So Habakkuk gives his response in verse one. Now chapter two, verse two, the Lord responds.

It says,.

Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak in a will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. He says in verse four, and this is a great verse.

Underline it.

Mark it down.

Remember it.

Behold the proud. His soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. The just shall live by his faith. Now that last statement is quoted three times in the New Testament by the apostle Paul.

Romans chapter one, verse 17. Galatians chapter three, verse 11. And Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. Now that caught some of your attention because you said, Well, we don't know that.

What do you mean?

The apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. Who had that thought?

Okay.

Listen, I admit I cannot be dogmatic about Paul being the author of Hebrews. But remember, it is the traditional view.

Okay.

It is the traditional view of the church. And I could have a whole defense and argument about this, but it is certainly my position. And I'll show you in a moment why this is very, very important. Now, let's turn to Romans chapter one.

We're going to look at two of these quotations of Habakkuk two, four. So turn to Romans one. And without question, there is no man more responsible for the spread of Christianity than the apostle Paul.

Well, let's take a look. Romans chapter one, verse 16. And then verse 17. Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Remember that for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. And where did Paul get that idea?

Did he come up with this on his own? Is this something that he just thought of? No, he got it from who? He got it from the prophet Habakkuk. Where did Habakkuk get it from? Straight from straight from God.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, with the grace of God be with you.