Why O God Habakkuk - 1 Vs 12 - 2 Vs 4

Dear Lord, thank you for this day that you've given us. Thank you for allowing us to be here to congregate and worship your name Lord as we head into worship and sermon Lord Prepare our hearts so that it's focused on you so that we can better understand your character and live that out in our lives as.

Well, your name you're praying Jesus name. Amen.

Just a couple verses in Psalm 133. It says rejoice in the Lord Oh you righteous for praise from the upright is beautiful. For the word of the Lord is right and for his work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice.

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord and verse 8 is that all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him and as believers as we stand before a holy God We can't help but be in awe of how majestic he is because if we have a small view of God It's not good and it's not honoring of him, but we have to have a high view of our Lord.

So let's stand together. We're gonna sing. I stand in awe.

Lord I.

Guess I'd like to say that if you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ Haven't confessed your sins and accepted him as Lord and Savior that maybe this song can be your song today so dwell upon this pray upon this this song and Let's sing this together.

He is Lord.

A shepherd yet alive.

Scripture reading this morning is from the book of Hebrews Chapter 10 Verses 32 through 39 Hebrews 10 32 through 39 but called to remembrance the former days in Which after ye were? Illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions.

Partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilst You became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and Took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.

Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence which have great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise.

For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back My soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back under perdition.

But of them that believe to the saving of the soul. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his Holy Word. And may we praise and give thanks to the Lord today not just today but every day.

He's worthy of our praise and gratitude. Is he not?

Stand together again as we Lord my rock and my salvation. Most of you know this song that it's a. Again, it's a really beautiful picture of our Lord and what he endured and how he redeems us as he rose from the grave.

Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 12 to chapter 2 verse 4. So I don't have to fumble through it. I use the bookmark but Habakkuk is in the minor prophet section. Unfortunately, I didn't learn the song that Victor sang but After the Five first five books.

It's near the end of the Old Testament after the five major prophets. They're 12 minor prophets. I think it is the eighth one. So Flip through but not too quickly because these minor prophets are called minor prophets because the length is short.

Not because of their importance. They're extremely important. So the book of Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 12. So near the end of the Old Testament. 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 a purer 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 take up all of them with a hook they catch them in their net they 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.

I Will stand by a watch and set myself on the rampart. And watch to see what he will say to me and what how what I will answer when I am corrected. 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 and it will not lie though it tarries. Wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry. Behold the proud his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father we are grateful to be going over a back during this time. Thank you that you are God that you are sovereign. Your answer is always right and You do all things Justly and father help us to submit to you when things don't feel right.

Help us to surrender to you when things seem wrong knowing that you are still in charge and You have all of it under control and your redemptive plan will not be foiled.

In Jesus name.

Last week Habakkuk's complaint was that God isn't doing anything amidst so much wickedness in.

Judah.

After hearing God's response Habakkuk's new complaint is that God is doing the wrong thing. Last week Violence and Plundering murder all around and God is seemingly silent. And God's answer was you just watch.

I've been preparing an answer through the Chaldeans and knowing how brutal the Chaldeans are going to be. Habakkuk's complaint is You can't be using them. The key to Understanding Habakkuk's prayer is the word reprove or correct which book ends his prayer.

While Babylon is set apart to correct Judah the Prophet himself Submits to God for correction. We're not quite understanding his infinite wisdom. Habakkuk has two main problems with God's act of raising up the Chaldeans.

First.

The Chaldeans are more sinful than Judah. How could God use a more sinful people against his own people? This would be. I think I used this illustration before as if the United States had lost the Cold War Right back.

Then the United States was even more Christian Right. It was founded on a Christian principle. If you read the Constitution deck the Declaration of Independence They acknowledge God. While communist China just like any communist country, it's Godless.

They are atheistic or Soviet Russia rather. So if Soviet Russia had beaten the u .s. It would have been a similar Response, how could God do that? How could God use a more wicked godless?

Nation.

To punish a nation that was founded on Christian biblical principles. The second problem is that the Chaldeans According to my Old Testament professor were a military juggernaut. Unstoppable for Habakkuk.

It does not make sense to him. How could God Use the Chaldeans against Judah because there won't be any Judah left after the Chaldeans are done.

The.

Illustration that Habakkuk uses is fishermen. They're so good at fishing. There won't be any fish left in the ocean. God when they're done. What are what are we gonna do? Those are the two problems that Habakkuk raises up and For some of you you might have struggled with something like this.

The struggle is not that God has an answer it's that God has answered. He did intervene and it's not what you expected and it is worse than you thought. You may be asking God. How could you do this? How did you allow this and if that is you right now?

Habakkuk has an answer because he too also after hearing God's answer Was shocked you begged God to answer and he did yet the answer leaves in your mind how can God do that and if you've had that moment of Why did you do that God?

You're on the same boat as Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a great book that the modern readers need to read when they are Navigating in the seas of chaos and confusion. What do we do when God does answer and it does not fit our agenda?

What do we do when God does answer and it seems like it's the wrong answer. The main point of today's text is although God's plan may not fit our Mindset we trust in the Lord who will save the faithful.

Although God's plan may not fit our mindset or our plan. We trust in the Lord who will save the faithful.

First.

When God's plan does not quite fit our plans the proper response is to humbly submit to his plan. When God's plan does not quite fit our plans the proper response is to humbly submit to his plan. The Prophet Habakkuk starts his second complaint focusing on God's all attributes and.

If you've been coming to the Sunday school 930 Sunday school going through the Psalms and we just finished 118. So, you know, we've been there for years. Many of the Psalms whether lament or praise or a plea for salvation.

Many of the Psalms start with praising and celebrating God's attributes and.

Habakkuk is.

Professional prayer warrior and that's how he starts. In a way this psalm this prayer rather reads like a lament song. This is not a joyful celebration how it starts. But verse 12 calls out to God with these attributes.

Are you not from everlasting? Oh Lord my God my Holy One. There are two divine attributes here. God's eternality and his holiness. God's eternality means the fact that God is ever. God is uncreated. He is from everlasting.

He doesn't have a beginning. Which also means he doesn't have an end. He is not a figment of our imagination nor craftsmanship of the idol makers. He's not like the idols who have a beginning date and an expiration date.

God is from everlasting. Well, what that also means is because he is a real God who is not created by man. He is a God of history. He has delivered in the past. He has acted in the past on behalf of his people.

His deliverance has historical backing. And Habakkuk as a prophet is all too familiar with God's history. The God who has saved in the past is the God from everlasting. And This attribute reminds not only the prophet but God how he has been so covenantally faithful to his people in the past.

Will you be covenantally faithful to your people in the present? My Holy One is not only covenantal but also deeply personal. Consider God's holiness. It's a significant divine attribute. It is the only attribute in which.

It's repeated three times when the seraphim gather around God to praise him. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. That's how holy is. Every repetition is an exclamation mark. My Old Testament professor described it concisely.

God is utterly. God is utterly other. There is no one like him. There's no one like him in purity. You think your life is pure? Well, it's not like God's life. There is there's no one like him in justice.

You think your records clean? Well, it doesn't compare to God's justice. His standard of justice is above and beyond what humans can imagine.

And.

There's no one like him.

In his goodness.

His holiness encompasses and separates him from all things that are not God that makes him God and This title will continue in Habakkuk's complaint very soon. Yet lest his holiness distance you from his loving presence Habakkuk understands that the Lord is also personal.

Holiness does distance the Holy One from the unholy people yet. He is my holy one. There's a personal relationship. There there's a tension here. How can the Holy God have a personal relationship with sinners?

Of course, that's not quite smoothed out until Jesus Christ who deals with sin personally and. And Habakkuk Confidently cries out to God. We shall not die. Oh Lord, you have appointed them for judgment.

Oh rock. You have marked them for correction. We shall not die. It's the Confidence cry of the prophet in God's faithfulness. I know you I know you keep promises. We shall not die. You have a plan for your people.

You have a plan of redemption for your people. We shall not die and This is because Habakkuk is all too familiar with Israel's demise the northern kingdom in 722 BC When the ten tribes were deported from the promised land Because of their sin by the Assyrian Empire another brutal northern empire.

We shall not die is hope is from Habakkuk's awareness of God's unchanging promise to his people we won't be completely destroyed or. Your plan of redemption will continue we won't be eliminated and Habakkuk totally understands.

This is not God having some violent moment, but this is for correction. He's correcting his people. He acknowledges that this judgment is quite necessary. After all the Chaldeans are appointed for Judah's judgment the hope is That maybe God would lessen the sentencing.

Could you could you make it lighter? Verse 13 introduces the theological dilemma that Habakkuk's Habakkuk has in mind. You are of purer 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. His complaint is based upon his knowledge of God's characteristic and attributes. How can this holy God? Whose eyes are so pure that he he how can he bear to look at this evil?

Not only bear to look at evil. But you such cruel and wicked people to judge a less wicked people. The theme of seeing plays out here again. Habakkuk is beautifully written right in Verse 3 of chapter 1 last week Habakkuk's complaint was God.

Are you seeing the evil that's happening in Judah? There's violence. There's plundering. There's there's the law when it it doesn't go forth, but when it does go forth it's perverted and Then God answers.

You look and watch. I've raised up the count every time there's a prayer and answer prayer and answer. There's the theme of are you seeing this God and ironically? Habakkuk now cannot see how God could be seeing all this play out a Wicked nation swallowing up a less wicked nation.

Right if your parents have multiple kids. It's like a kid who just called the other kid name and your other kid just punched his face. But then the guy who called the kid name is getting in trouble. Right.

It's is that fair to you God? How could you do that? You're not like this consider this. Let's say. Hypothetically, there's a church. There's a single church in a small town. There there's theologically weak.

But you know, they they still worship the triune God of Scripture. They still worship Jesus. Yeah, their worship services are based upon performance and feelings. Right, the songs are about me me me me and yeah there they started using lights and They started saying hip words and their pastor.

Yeah, he opens scripture here and there but yeah, he goes off-tangent. Who knows where he's going? Now some faithful believers a few of them they gather. They start praying to God to intervene after all.

The only person who can change the culture of the church is God himself and it is through the transformation of the hearts. That's it. So they start praying God. Can you intervene? We need you to step in.

For the sake of your people for the holiness of God. May your name be praised appropriately properly. And what does God do? The church goes bankrupt and they have to sell the building and it's sold to the Muslims and this this is this.

I think this would be the modern example and. Of course a less intense illustration because people are not going to be killed. Like the Chaldeans when they come in. It's just just when. When the godly they they bring the prayer requests to God and God does answer but their answer doesn't.

The answer doesn't quite fit what they had in mind and. And this is what I think Habakkuk is complaining about. He first complained that God's not doing anything. But now he knows what God is about to do.

He believes God is doing the wrong thing. Not like this God. What about the righteous ones who actually genuinely worship you that's who Habakkuk has in mind after all Judah wasn't all completely Degenerate.

After all, there's Habakkuk. Where will they go? What's gonna happen to them when the Chaldeans come in? And Habakkuk illustrates this in verses 14 through 17 the dire predicament of God's planned judgment.

Verse 14 sets the background how humankind is so fragile and vulnerable they're basically like fish and bottomless Crawlers, right? They have no leaders. They have no guidance. Right, they're fish and the crawling things with no Kings.

That's what it means. God. They they don't know what they're doing. You know, like do krill have leaders right do crabs have leaders now, right starfish don't have leaders. They're unaware. What danger is coming to them?

They're unaware of the Chaldeans who are coming to them in verse 15. They take up all of them with a hook. That's the fishing Metaphor here. They catch them in their net they and they gather them in their drag net.

I guess the difference between net and the drag net is it covers it. Encompasses all depth of the level of the sea, right? The net might be the middle part of the sea, but then the drag net they can drag it.

So it's not like the fishermen are sustainably catching fish, right? But rather they're taking everything in it anything that they can get they are. They're they're the gluttonous fishermen who will indiscriminately capture everything in sight.

The Chaldeans military prowess will leave no one secure. No one will be safe after them and the question is God. Are you going to enforce the fishing regulations? God, are you is there gonna be a stop button or is this the end.

And Habakkuk reminds God in verse 16 that in fact they're pagans. Therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag net. Because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful God, they don't even worship you.

Yes, you might have empowered them you might have raised them up for this purpose. But they're not giving the credit to whom credit is due They will pet themselves on their backs. They won't praise you in fact the luxury of Babylon is Ridiculous.

Babylon.

Might have been one of the wealthiest empires in human history by the time of Nebuchadnezzar. He He just plated what used to be plated with silver such as gates and temple with gold. Their luxury was so unspeakable that he.

We believe Nebuchadnezzar built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon one of the seven wonders, right? We. I think it's it's foolish to think that the ancient people had low technology. I think they had greater than what we can imagine.

The fact that they could build something like that back then is spectacular and. Did they credit God the Lord for that? Not at all. It was their own strength. That's that's what it means to worship their dragnet and burn incense to it.

They are crediting themselves. It's kind of what what Nebuchadnezzar would say in Daniel. I look at this Palace look at this kingdom that I have built. Ironically after God has given the vision that Your kingdom is not gonna last and verse 17 brings up the second problem.

Shall they therefore empty their net and continue to slay nations without pity? Who will actually survive after this God? God you're not like this. You're sending a bulldozer To break down a blanket fort.

God this is an overkill. You're sending a dynamite To get rid of an anthill notice. This is not how Habakkuk ends his prayer. Many may end their prayer like this after an unsatisfactory answer and maybe not talk to God for a while.

Not this prophet turn to chapter 2 verse 1. I Will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart as a prophet. His job is to watch for God's next move kind of like the watchman waiting For what's coming ahead.

He is actively waiting for God's next response and notice. He is not bitter. He's not angry at God. He has just surrendered his two problems with God raising the Chaldeans now. The prophet will trust God that he will answer.

There are two common responses.

To.

Unsatisfactory answers to prayer that Christians often fall into one is I'm gonna cover it up. I'm gonna minimize it, you know, I don't like the answer. But I'm gonna still smile and say well praise God.

But deep inside I'm gonna hold that bitterness and deep inside. I'm gonna know that it's it's God who did. It's it's God's fault. But I'm not gonna say that on Sunday morning. I'm gonna still say yes.

God did take that away from me. But you know praise God praise God. Right, that's one. The second one is this. You do an emotional vomit on God's lap and Then it's all his fault and then you leave the church.

Right. I don't want anything to do with the church. I don't want anything to do with God who answers that way. That's not the Prophet Habakkuk. He honestly brings the problems that he has with God's answer.

But with those sentiment of bitterness nor anger he submits it to God. After all take a look at this and Watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected. He knows God will answer his prayer because he has done so.

But not only that when he answers God will reproof. God will correct. God will discipline my wrong thinking. He humbly submits to God's Reproof. He understands that when he has a problem with God's answer.

It is not God who is wrong, but he is the one who needs to learn. When he disagrees with God he knows he needs to change. Not God. When is the last time we prayed like that? Sometimes. When God answers our prayers We're actually dissatisfied with his answers because his answers did not fit our answer choice.

You know God I gave you ABCD, but you have thrown me an.

Elephant and.

Sometimes when God does answer our prayers, we're dissatisfied dissatisfied with his answer because his answer does not fit our ethics. Our moral standard and this is the danger of placing God in a box.

We draw boundaries around God right draw a box around God. God. You may not cross these lies because if you do. Then that's wrong. Right. God can answer this way, but don't cross this line. God or the modern man's favorite argument against God.

I cannot believe in God who judges. I Cannot believe in a God who sends anyone to hell. You might have seen this. Ironically by saying that you're judging the judge yourself. To this I paraphrase my favorite Old Testament professor.

We cannot safeguard God's morality with our standard. We cannot safeguard God's morality with our standard because that presupposes our standard is higher than his and my New Testament professor would say that.

D. God's God and Your deified self. You're putting yourself above God's throne. It is just not our job to tell God what he is able or not able to do. God is not a puppy to be locked up in a crate. If we don't like God's action in history, it is not God who has to change it is our posture that needs to change it is our hearts that need to change and That sentiment is often so missing and not only in the world, of course but in the church and that leads to a lot of disappointed and even depressed Christians because their Expectation of what God is and what God is supposed to do are unmet.

Now, how can Habakkuk surrender to God's plan even though he has problems with it? He doesn't hide the problems. He tells us plain and simple. The Prophet is fully aware of God's character in nature. That's it the answer to his ability.

Habakkuk's ability to submit humbly to God's future plan despite not knowing where it's all going is because of. How he started his prayer. The Lord your God of everlasting. Your resume is Thicker than mine.

You've lived longer than me. You've done better things. You've delivered more than me. How can a more mere mortal prove him wrong and he is my holy God? How can a sinful man correct his ways? He is our rock.

How can we just distrust his protection and security which he has provided for his people for?

Centuries.

God is faithful to his people until the end because he never goes back on his promises and Knowing all of that Habakkuk Surrenders the future to God not because God made it clear. Well after the Babylonians do this I'm actually gonna send them back 70 years later.

And then they're going to build the king temple a new temple. But that temple that's not gonna be a lasting temple because I'm gonna send the Messiah and he's the one who's going to say Destroy this temple and no Habakkuk doesn't find out all of that.

That's not what gives him peace. That's not what gives him security at night to sleep despite knowing what God is about to do destroy Judah. What gives Habakkuk peace at night? What allows Habakkuk to sleep at night is not knowing and having control over the future history.

Which is only hidden and only known to God. But rather than knowledge of the great God and Redeemer and His full trust and his character in nature. I Can surrender to God even though the immediate future seems bleak and dark?

Knowing that the one who has it in his hand is Pure and light his intentions are better than mine and for Christians We actually have a greater advantage a Better reason to trust this God. Because this God My holy God Came extremely close.

He became man. And this God dwelt among us. People actually got to experience his compassion and faithfulness in person and not only that although innocent because of Extremely evil people with a lot of power.

He was crucified. He was humiliated Bearing all of our sin. Facing the judgment That he didn't deserve but we did. He could have been The one easily crying out in justice. God. Jesus Christ could have said could have said.

This is unjust. You're not like this God an innocent man on the cross. But what this Christ? Cry out instead. We've heard it a couple of months ago, maybe a couple weeks. Father into thy hands. I commend my spirit.

That is his last cry not injustice not unfairness. But father into thy hands. I commit my spirit more than anyone else. Jesus the Son of God knew the heart of his father the best and He understood God's will is greater than what the world could see and what he is experiencing at that moment on the cross.

He understood that God can sovereignly work his redemptive plan through such torturous suffering at the hands of extremely wicked man. Habakkuk never had to bear the Chaldean rampage. He probably died before seeing that Christ however suffered the full wrath of God for our sake yet He commits his spirit to his father even until the last moment and So on the third day the father fully vindicates the son by raising him from the dead.

Christians Christ is the reason why we can surrender to God's plan. Even if it does not make sense to us in the moment. Christians Christ is the reason why we can surrender to God's plan despite this injustice that we see.

Because we know his sovereignly in control over what he is About to do to unfold his redemptive plan. Now, how does God respond to Habakkuk's prayer? We must urgently proclaim God's redemptive plan that gives life to the righteous by faith.

Yet will judge the proud. We must urgently proclaim God's redemptive plan that gives life to the righteous by faith yet will judge the proud. After Habakkuk submits to God the Lord answers then the Lord answered me and said Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it.

God's answer is so sure and so secure that he commands it to be written. There are speculations to what this vision that he has to write. I Think it's verse 4. I think the content of the vision is verse 4.

Because that is what needs to be going around the faithful ones of Judeans who will listen to give them hope. The fact that God's answer must be written on tablets tells us of a couple of important factors of God's Word about God's Word.

First.

God's answer is unchangeable. It is literally set in stone in this book right in this case. He has to write it on the stone tablets. You cannot erase what is engraved on stone tablets. God will not err.

God's answer will not change God promised. God's promises cannot be altered. That's important. You having a rough week. You having an especially sinful week. Cannot change the promise of God that he promised in Jesus Christ.

That is reassuring. Second. God's answer must be proclaimed. This is not a private vision for Habakkuk. Just so that the Prophet can you know feel secure. After all God loves the Prophet Habakkuk. He does answer.

No, it must be proclaimed. It must be carried around and distributed. Notice the urgency in which God's message must be proclaimed that he may run. Who reads it the reader of the vision must run. You better get out there to spread the news spread the message.

Third.

God's answer is clearly understandable. In in the age of post-modernism or post post-modernism wherever we are. Whatever they're going to call us, right? Where oh, it's whatever you think it's whatever you mean.

What it means to you and then in a in a you know a Bible study of ten people you get ten different answers for one verse and. Then we throw out the notion that way. What about what God meant? Well here it tells us.

What God meant has to be clearly understandable and It will be. The message that God is sending out is not some cryptic new agey Eastern mysticism or Gnostic cultic. Only reserved for a few elite people in the group.

Rather it is proclaimed clearly Understandably to anyone who is willing to listen. God's Word is not about a secret knowledge for the few. But a perspicuous proclamation for all. It is clear as crystal anyone who gets in the way of.

That must be promptly removed. Now verse 3 commands God's people to wait patiently before the vision unfolds. For the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end it will speak and it will not lie.

Though it tarries and wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry. When it says though it tarries, I like certain translation that rather says though it seems late. Then it makes sense right because it says though it tarries wait for it.

But at the end it says it will not tarry. Well, what it's what it means is if God's vision seems like it's not unfolding right now. It seems slow. Well, it's not. You got to wait for it because it doesn't tarry when Jesus Hasn't come back and he doesn't come back in our generation.

He's not late. He's appointed time is perfect. God's timing is never a second light in the end. God has the prerogative to choose when his redemption and judgment occur and God will not be pressured. He will do his own thing in his own time.

And as God's people the proper response is wait. Faithfully. Despite the way God guarantees that his vision will unfold it does not lie. That's important. God does not lie. God cannot err and in our foolishness people say doesn't that make God, you know, you know, not perfect.

No, actually the fact that he can't lie makes him even more perfect than us. Our ability in our fallacy our fallibility. The fact that we have to lie sometimes I mean not have to we just end up lying because we're sinful.

That's actually not good. That's not a character trait you want on your resume. The fact that God is incapable of doing that makes him God and divine and This is where we get scriptural inerrancy and infallibility.

Many foolish modern scholars have attacked scriptural inerrancy. The fact that scripture has error infallibility. The scripture Has no potential to err, right? It's not just it has it doesn't have error.

It had it can't err. They have said it's the doctrine of a Western mindset. Are you Western hubris, right? How dare you put that in scripture? Actually, it's not true. Scriptural inerrancy is a biblical mindset.

It comes from scripture. It comes from the character of God that he can't lie. If God has given us scripture and it comes from God because it's God breathed. Then it can't have a lie in it. It's totally dependent on God's character in nature of honesty and faithfulness and immutability.

He doesn't go back on his words. When God Promises something he is powerful faithful and wise to fulfill it to its intended end to the dot. When God speaks and is written down it cannot be wrong. That's scriptural inerrancy.

You can't find error in its original writing. Now, what is the content of the tablets? Verse 4 is the vision. Behold the proud his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Verse 4 is divided into two parts concerning two different groups of people.

The first deals with the proud. Look at the arrogant his being is crooked from within and. This part of the verse will be unpacked next week immediately following this section verses 5 through 20. That song that's that that section that follows will be a mockery song.

Look how it turned out for you. Oh Chaldeans. What's ironic is God has a judgment song ready even. For the Chaldeans who are going to be used for judgment. Because they have foolishly and arrogantly judged Judah.

Their judgment coming for the judgment the last part of the verse addresses the righteous. But the just shall live by his faith and this is the answer to Habakkuk. Second question. How can anyone survive after the Chaldean rampage?

That was the question in verse 17. They're gonna be over fished. Who's gonna be left? Oh God. But the just shall live by his faith. God answers when the judgment against the wicked occurs, the righteous will not just barely survive.

When God's promised judgment comes the righteous will not somehow hang in there. Rather God promises that his righteous ones will live and in the Old Testament to live is more than just barely getting by.

Living is Thriving in the Old Testament right in in the book of Ezekiel when when God passes by as Israel is wallowing in its blood and it's helpless. It's vulnerable. It's dying. What's God's command live?