Habakkuk 1:5-11

[0:00] Again, the text is Habakkuk chapter 1, verses 5 through 11, page 762. Would you please rise for the reading of God's Word? Look among the nations and see, wonder and be astounded.

[0:22] For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

[0:36] They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press on proudly. Their horsemen come from afar.

[0:51] They fly like an eagle, swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh.

[1:04] They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. Guilty men, whose own might is their God.

[1:15] This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Donatello's Habakkuk, marble statue Habakkuk, that is, or Zucconi as it is more commonly called, was completed for the bell tower of the Duomo of Florence, Italy, somewhere around the year 1425.

[2:01] And it is a most powerful sculpture. Strong in every respect.

[2:13] Donatello's Habakkuk is chiseled with an intensity that captures the prophet's internal angst as well as his external outcry.

[2:27] And the overall impression you get when looking at it is one of urgent contemplation. Weighty matters seem to be emanating from the figure.

[2:43] That is, if such intercessory turmoil was possible coming from a block of fixed marble. You can almost envision Donatello's Habakkuk's voice.

[2:59] We heard it last week from the bell tower. How long, O Lord, and you will not hear. Violence.

[3:10] Literally, Hamas. And you will not save. Why must I see and you won't look? Your law has gone numb.

[3:25] In Israel. Your justice never is birthed. Within your people. What is right is only twisted.

[3:39] While we learn virtually nothing about Habakkuk by way of detail in verse 1.

[3:52] Other than his name. I don't know about you, but last week I felt like we learned a lot about the man through what he prayed. Verses 2-4.

[4:05] We suddenly understood the heart of the man. Habakkuk. Strong. But whose heart has been broken over the waywardness of God's people.

[4:20] Further, Habakkuk had no doubt due to his own intimacy with God that he could address God.

[4:30] He felt no shame in openly laying his heart bare before God. Habakkuk was a man as men should be.

[4:41] I found the fact that his lament last week in the first four verses should be concerned about the lack of righteousness within the family of God.

[4:55] Shocking. To put it differently, it was the church of Habakkuk's day. Not the culture that was comprised of people that were bent on twisting law.

[5:08] It was the sin of the insiders, the worshippers, not those outside in the world that gave rise to his heavenward cry.

[5:22] And on that truth, all week I have been meditating. Really, how many among us can claim the heart of Habakkuk for ourselves?

[5:38] How many Christians possess a heart that breaks over the apparent deafness and indifference of God in matters pertaining to the purity of his own people?

[5:52] How often is my heart broken over my own and our own lack of submission to his word as the sole construct for life?

[6:05] And now, verse 4.

[6:31] two major themes emerge on the backside of Habakkuk's heart cry. Two truths from the verses this week, and they center not upon Habakkuk and his heart, but upon God.

[6:49] In verse 5, the first theme is clear. We see that God does respond to Habakkuk's prayer.

[7:00] That's the first thing we observe in verse 5. God speaks. God responds to that kind of prayer. Take a look at it with me. Here's the response.

[7:12] Look among the nations and see, wonder, be astounded, for I am working a work in your days that you would not believe if told.

[7:24] You know, it's almost as if a voice has entered the bell tower of the Duomo.

[7:37] No, after all. As such, Habakkuk's accusation of divine deafness is already, by verse 5, contradicted.

[7:51] Now, there are subtleties in the grammar in verse 5 that hint to this change in speaker. Subtlety is a key word in Habakkuk for this.

[8:07] Take a look. It's not as though verse 4 ends with, quote, and Habakkuk finished his prayers. Nor does verse 5 start with, thus says the Lord, so that the reader can know a change in speaker has taken place.

[8:20] Rather, the language indicators that force readers to see a shift in speaker at this point, to see that God is now responding, is marked by the change in grammar.

[8:35] In the Hebrew text of chapter 1, verses 2 to 4, the one being addressed, namely God, is marked by a second person singular ending.

[8:47] At verse 5, though, things shift to a second person plural. We're no longer reading you singular in this section 5 through 11.

[9:02] Grammatically, something new is underway. You're reading you plural. So at a very wooden level, it sounds like this, verse 5. You plural, look.

[9:14] You plural, see. You plural, wonder. You plural, be astounded. All imperatives. In addition, biblical scholars would tell us that while it's not unusual in prophetic discourse for the prophet to address God in the singular, God more often than not will respond to the prophet in the plural.

[9:41] And this shouldn't be that surprising. After all, while the prophet spoke to God as a representative of the people, God is concerned to speak through the prophet back to the people, you plural, or a portion of the whole.

[9:59] And so this is exactly the construction that we have in our seven verses today. We find this plural you right on through verse 11.

[10:14] Now, glance down with me at the beginning of next week's text. You'll see that at verse 12, there is a shift again that is in play back to the singular, which leads observant readers to interpret that now Habakkuk is going to enter upon a second speech.

[10:33] And it won't be until chapter 2, verse 2. Put your eyes on the text. 2-2, a text where you finally get that identification without any grammatical subtlety.

[10:46] It's that obvious marking that we've come to expect. The writer says, Yahweh answered and said, and now you know who's speaking. So the first observation of our text, God responds to Habakkuk's prayer.

[11:06] Verse 5. What are we to make of this? What are we to make of the fact that God responded to that prayer? I've been thinking this week about the comfort we should receive from it.

[11:23] It was within this last week that I heard from someone concerning an individual in a church where all things were awry and law twisted and people taken advantage of.

[11:39] It's comforting to know that God hears when you bring those things to Him. When we see or hear of things going on within the church at large that should not be, and when our heart is broken to the point where we begin to pray prayers that call into question God's care, God's concern, God's awareness of all the things that you see, this very verse here, the fact that God is now speaking, be comforted.

[12:12] God is not deaf. God is not indifferent. You are not alone in enduring the scandal of sin within the family of God. God is not.

[12:22] God is not. God is not. God is not. God is not. So whether a husband or wife is falling away from faith, God knows. when any one of us may for a season disgrace the name of Christ in ways that should break our heart and bring us to prayer before Him God is big enough to hear your cry when people you love or you yourself have been hurt by church going believing folk God sees it and while some within the church seem to go on well enough without any desire for righteousness it is not as if God has been asking you to look on things that He cannot see Himself did you notice the strength and the irony underneath God's words in response I find it beautiful Habakkuk blurts out with language like why do I have to see but you don't look and then look how

[13:33] God takes those very same words that have been almost intercessory accusations and He comes back with those same words you look you see the change in speaker may come in verse 5 with grammatical subtlety but there's nothing subtle about what God says to Habakkuk's heart cry and what it would mean for you listen don't be afraid to take your gloves off with God He can take your fitful prose prose but don't be surprised when He comes back at you with a sequence of commands that arrive with the speed of a jab followed by cross followed by hook and then an uppercut that's what those floor imperatives are meant to do so be comforted when your heart breaks over the frailty and fallen nature of the church but also be warned there's an implicit warning in verse 5 that I want you to see the strong response by God takes on added significance when another aspect of Hebrew subtlety is unfolded namely the subset of people within Israel that God is addressing most directly in this verse 5 do you see the phrase among the nations

[15:15] I think I would prefer a translation that went something like this among the treacherous ones in Hebrew the difference between the two ways of interpreting that phrase come down to a difference between reading one word and one consonant within it so among the nations sounds like b-goyim but the treacherous ones would sound like bogadim and the first one translated as we have it in the ESV is the text variant that is found in the Hebrew manuscript of the 11th century but the second one you treacherous ones is the translation or the word choice that was found in a scroll the Dead Sea Scrolls the Hebrew pressure where it's interpreting this verse it's also the way it's interpreted in the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures and it is also the phrase

[16:19] Paul uses in Acts 13 beyond that that phrase the treacherous ones is going to reappear in chapter 113 and in chapter 2 5 now if I'm right in laying that out then you need to see who is fundamentally being addressed here it might very well be that the ones who are to look are among those who are the treacherous ones within the household of God who feel that their activity will never be judged so God's response is meant to apply most directly to those in Habakkuk's day that think they can get away with lax living and still remaining religious unrighteous behavior and a twisting of the law without repercussion God not only hears Habakkuk but in response he has some strong words for those who are living in sin those four imperatives hey hey you all live in life the way you're living it look see be astounded take wonder

[17:31] I'm going to do something in your day with your stuff wow and all the while I thought he didn't see nor heard nor that he would come and care like God says I've taken notice of the false facade and I'm going to do something about it I've been reflecting on that this week too it just makes me pause in my worst moments you and I might be tempted to think that we can get away with stuff let me put it as simply as possible that grace can be presumed upon without consequence you ever think that grace can be presumed upon without consequence be forewarned oh soul

[18:35] God hears God sees God will not suffer himself to be mocked and while we may think he turns a deaf ear or a blind eye in reality his response will be swift and without warning the first half of the sermon God responds to Habakkuk's prayer be comforted be warned in verses 6 through 11 we see that God will resolve the problems that Habakkuk raised how God goes about resolving the ongoing sin pattern within Israel of his day is amazing I mean it's one thing for us to say as God does in verse 5 I'm going to deal with it in a way that you wouldn't even believe it's another thing to be told exactly what he will do and verses 6 to 11 he does that and

[19:40] I want to make two points on this that will carry us through the day how will he do it with an outside power how does he communicate it through the genre of poetry now we're going to come to those the first one is clear within the text beginning at verse 6 he's going to use an outside power for behold I am raising up the Chaldeans that bitter and hasty nation who marched through the breath of the earth to!

[20:14] dwellings not their own God promised in Habakkuk's day to resolve the ongoing sin within the church by punishing her with the Chaldeans or literally the Kasadim a term that would refer to the early ruling class within the nation of Babylon who was at that very moment a recent upstart to the one world power Assyria which by the way is the great hint as to the timing of this book at all somewhere as Assyria is about to be overrun by Babylon God says I'm using this power you won't even believe it because nobody knows they're so close to being able to be in that much control and I'm going to bring them on the world and history proves that that's exactly what happened and through Nebuchadnezzar Babylon came and swept through the whole land and the rule of Assyria was decimated now what does that mean for us those within the household of God need to know that when you reject his ways he will overthrow you with another whose ways are equally if not more so unjust than your own think of the man in the church who professes

[21:43] Christ who begins to live illicitly in relationship with another person the other person could be outside the church outside faith his own destruction within the body of Christ is being wrought by his willingly laying down to the outsider who is even further under God's judgment happens every day the way God works let me let me tell you what's interesting Paul quotes this verse five in Acts 13 it's a post resurrection sermon I find what he did with this text fascinating for in Habakkuk's day the treacherous ones in Israel were told that God was going to use the ungodly Babylon to instruct them since they would not learn from him willingly in

[22:48] Paul's sermon this same verse is quoted to warn the Jews of his day that if they reject Jesus like Israel of old they will be overrun by the Gentiles who will accept him the outsider will be the instrument of judgment upon the insider and so Paul says to those in his synagogue congregation that day be forewarned let me tell you how God works it's not long before the insider is the outsider and the outsider becomes the insider now there's something here for all of us if you have heard the gospel and you fail to embrace it know that others will take your place at the wedding supper of the lamb not only that the transfer will come at a great and everlasting cost to you for your day of catastrophic judgment awaits when

[23:54] Jesus comes not on like a horse of the Babylonians but on a horse like in Revelation 19 ready for war God will resolve the pattern of ongoing sin in his own house and the blind and the lame will enter first and he says I will use all means available to me now are you beginning to notice how these speeches first one in Habakkuk last week and then God this week they're nothing like our coffee shop I think about going to ZNH you know where I'm at two or three times a week they're nothing like your dorm room discussion on the nature of the problem of theodicy right half of you say huh some of us have no problem sitting around discussing

[24:58] God in the abstract we pose God as being all loving all powerful all knowing and then we present the problem of the presence and the persistence of evil in the world or we go further and we begin to speak about what does it mean to be a God who is all loving and all powerful and all knowing not only to allow the presence of evil in the world the persistence of evil in the world but let's say something like Habakkuk where he actually makes use of the evil in the world to overthrow his own people and then the response is underway and 45 minutes of stimulating intellectual dialogue follows God hey this is nothing like that this this book doesn't take up these things in the abstract this is a relationship of the most intense and close kind God will take every means necessary to protect the purity of his home the second observation

[26:08] I want you to see not only that he do it with an outside power remember we're looking at 6 to 11 how he will resolve the problems Habakkuk raised I want to take note regarding the truth that God resolves those issues in a way in a kind of language in other words he does all this through poetry verses 5 through 11 are poetry they're Hebrew poetry actually almost the whole book is poetry we need to stop and think about that just for a moment let me show you some of the poetic nature of this text he uses poetry to show the speed with which he will accomplish this reversal look at verse 6 the bitter and hasty nation who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own look at the speed that you find in verse 8 their horses are swifter than leopards more fierce than the evening wolves their horsemen press proudly on they fly like an eagle swift to devour see how the poetry is presenting speed it's also presenting power the power that will belong to

[27:27] Babylon look at verse 7 they are dreaded and fearsome their justice and dignity go forth from themselves all of their might all of their righteousness or look at verse 11 they sweep by like the wind and go on guilty men whose own might is their God the power that they have within them take a look at the complete nature of the destruction they are going to bring it's going to be comprehensive verse 6b they march through the breadth of the earth take a look at verse 9 they all come for violence all their faces forward they gather captives like sand I mean the metaphors are amazing I mean it's just comprehensive they're gathering kingdom at kings they scoff at rulers they laugh they laugh at every fortress where they pile up earth and take it you almost have the imagery of a fortress that's there and the

[28:31] Babylonian armies who come and they're just mounding earth up to the wall unafraid of any arrows that would come forth and they mound the earth up and they go over the top and they take it speed power completeness all within the medium of poetry now imagine what this means I began to think about this week almost all of the prophets are utilizing poetry it's not prose it's not narrative it's poetic are you kidding me destruction judgment passages from the mouth of God through the hard meted out medium of poetry imagine what this means God has not only been looking down from on high while Habakkuk thought he couldn't see a thing but now I come to learn that he's been sitting up there in the heavens behind a desk with a pen in his hand doing the painstaking work of writing poetic lines that would stun the listener and the particular choice of a metaphor and the brevity of words to communicate all of it

[29:46] Habakkuk I haven't gotten you for a while I'm working on a poem says God what kind of studied creator and lover is this that would put pain to parallelism hey here's what I thought only one who loves deeply and has lost those are the kind of people that write poetry today they determine to put things in writing in a genre that can not only be heard but felt poetry gives you an intensification in other words God wants us to know that he really cares

[30:48] I mean how different is that than a discussion about the discipline of God and the abstract I care so much that you have been leaving me with your life that I am going to sit and I am going to write until I have in as few words as possible and as strong a force as possible something for you to read that perhaps your marble like heart might break God is not merely a creator he's a jilted lover God is not merely some medieval first cause or first mover he is the mover that is most moved by what you do with your life he is the kindest of

[31:53] God the tenderest of God the Bible gives us in this genre of poetry in a sense an imprint on Habakkuk on all the prophetic discourse is that he just wants you to say God is love have you ever read it like that that's what poetry does Mark Flanagan has a piece on poetry where he writes that Wordsworth defined poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings or Emily Dickinson said if I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me then I know it's poetry Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn what makes my toenails twinkle what makes me want to do this or that or nothing I love Flanagan's own representation poetry is the chiseled marble of language here you got

[33:00] Donatello chiseling Habakkuk and raising his questions and God comes down with the chiseled force of language and it's the language of love the love of one who has suffered loss poetry is the best medium for uniting loss to language in ways that are commensurate with the depths of the human heart in this way when you experience loss and you start writing you're actually reflecting the imago dei when you write poetry to find a way to say something that is deep down that is analogous to the very personhood of God and he did it long before you did and he planted it in you so that in your own work and in your own life and in your own words and in your own loss you are emulating the very creator who knows that kind of depth of relationship with his people this is why

[34:08] I hope Holy Trinity Church just like spawns writers and musicians and poets and the arts visually and otherwise that we would be ensconced with a people who know what it is to feel what God feels if you could speak in that way and so for a brief moment and with this I close this makes me think about what God did in the cross work of Christ poetry beyond words or the word the word God chiseling his word into human history not with pen but with blood this confounds me this is nearly beyond belief this is something to look at to see to be astounded to wonder that the purifying of his own people should be done by such divine resourcefulness to evil that God in Christ utilizes all of

[35:30] Satan's strength and humanity's own waywardness and wields it as an instrument against his own son that our guilt might be purged are there words for that truly this must penetrate our heart of stone and bring lifeblood into my marbled self Donatello's Habakkuk stands in the Duomo and according to our text today God with the chiseled language of poetic discourse has come down he's responded to the prayer and he has promised to resolve the problems raised so take comfort and be warned our heavenly father we thank you for this ancient text may it shape our lives and help each one of us to just be reading and re-reading this discourse this week may you minister to our body that we would be ready to receive your word and live under it we thank you in wrath oh lord remember mercy for christ's sake amen