WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.280 and we're gonna read from page 785, chapter two, 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:05.480 verses one to four. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:08.179 Let's read together God's word. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:12.580 I will take my stand at my watch post 00:00:12.580 --> 00:00:15.000 and station myself on the tower 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.719 and look out to see what he will say to me 00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:20.039 and what I will answer concerning my complaint. 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:22.320 And the Lord answered me, 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:27.000 write the vision, make it plain on tablets, 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:30.160 so he may run who reads it. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:33.320 For still the vision awaits, it's a point of time. 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:36.000 It hastens to the end, it will not lie. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:40.200 If it seems slow, wait for it. 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:42.840 It will surely come, it will not delay. 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:44.439 Behold, his soul is puffed up, 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:46.280 it is not upright within him, 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:50.879 but the righteous shall live by his faith. 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:52.519 This is God's holy word. 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:56.240 Good evening. 00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:57.840 If you have a Bible, as Corrie was saying, 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.680 please keep it open at Habakkuk chapter two. 00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:05.200 And tonight we're looking at verses two to five 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:06.600 of that chapter. 00:01:06.600 --> 00:01:09.520 This is our third sermon on Habakkuk 00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:13.079 on this short three chapter long, 00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:16.280 very timely book from the Old Testament. 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.320 If you haven't been here for the first two sermons, 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:21.640 this is what you've missed out on. 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:24.920 This is the really quick recap, just so you know, 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:27.719 as I push you into the deep end of the swimming pool. 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:32.359 So it's a book that's set 600 years before Jesus, 00:01:32.359 --> 00:01:34.960 and it's about this man, this prophet Habakkuk, 00:01:34.960 --> 00:01:38.920 who lives in extremely bad times, 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:42.599 in the international fallout of a world war, 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:45.640 and where he can see that there is an oppressive, 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:50.439 unjust empire, the Babylonians, who are about to arrive, 00:01:50.439 --> 00:01:51.400 and they're about to take over. 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:54.920 They're about to assimilate his people. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:59.800 And that means that they expect everyone around them 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:02.400 to adopt their values and their beliefs, 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:04.760 their lifestyles, their ethics. 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:07.320 And Habakkuk is someone who doesn't want to do that 00:02:07.320 --> 00:02:12.080 because he already has beliefs and values and ethics 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:15.520 and a lifestyle that all comes from a relationship, 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:17.719 which is his relationship with the Lord, 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.159 with the one true God. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:24.639 And the book shows us this guy in this really terrible 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:28.599 fraught context where he's wrestling with God, 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:30.079 where he asks God, where are you? 00:02:30.079 --> 00:02:31.159 What are you doing? 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:32.919 As this is all about to happen, 00:02:32.919 --> 00:02:36.039 as the world starts to fall apart around me. 00:02:37.079 --> 00:02:40.840 And when he asks God, what are you doing? 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:44.039 God starts off his answer to Habakkuk with, 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:45.039 well, in the first place, 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:48.000 you are not going to believe it when I tell you, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.319 but here's what I'm doing, I'm raising up the Babylonians, 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:53.199 these people that you're terrified of 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:54.759 and I'm sending them to you. 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:56.439 And that's where God stops. 00:02:56.439 --> 00:02:58.599 And Habakkuk is left to wonder, 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.240 how can that be the solution? 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:04.120 What kind of an answer is that? 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.159 But then he prays to God, 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:12.360 comparing God to the Babylonian king. 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:16.039 And he says to God, aren't you supposed to be eternal? 00:03:16.039 --> 00:03:17.520 Aren't you supposed to be good? 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:20.480 Aren't you the one who made us? 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:25.120 And then you let this evil oppressive king come along 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:29.439 and enslave us and destroy the world that you have made. 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:35.600 But then as Habakkuk asks that, he tells God, in effect, 00:03:35.600 --> 00:03:38.080 and this is really verse one of that reading there, 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:40.600 where he says, I set myself on a watch tower. 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:43.040 When he does that, it's like he's saying to God, 00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:46.040 okay, what you've told me is the start of your plan, 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:47.400 but it can't be the whole thing. 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:49.800 There must be something beyond this, so I'm listening. 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:52.319 I want the, I'm climbing up onto a watch tower, 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:54.680 so to speak, because I want the bigger picture. 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:56.200 So he's still listening to God 00:03:56.200 --> 00:03:58.800 and he's asking for God to keep talking. 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:04.040 But before, and God is going on to do that, okay, 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:06.480 and that's what we're gonna focus on next Sunday night. 00:04:06.480 --> 00:04:08.439 But before God does that, 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:14.360 God tells him what kind of person Habakkuk needs to be 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:18.759 Habakkuk needs to be, to live in this kind of context, 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:23.319 to face evil times, and actually to flourish within them. 00:04:24.960 --> 00:04:29.560 And that is that he is going to have to be a just person 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:31.240 who lives by faith, okay, 00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:33.040 and that's this great line from the book of Habakkuk, 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:35.280 the righteous person or the just person 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:37.920 shall live by his faith. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:39.360 And that's a line that gets quoted 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.560 at different points in the New Testament, 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:44.040 and we're gonna be thinking about that tonight. 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:47.160 But to think about this sermon, 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:48.360 it has two points really, 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:51.040 and they're both, just to help you think about this, 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:54.080 and they're both things that God told Habakkuk. 00:04:54.080 --> 00:04:58.560 So the first point is that God tells him to wait in hope, 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:00.720 okay, and for that we're looking at verses two and three, 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:03.040 and the second thing is that he tells Habakkuk 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:05.759 that there are two ways to live in this world, 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:07.320 and that's verse four. 00:05:08.320 --> 00:05:10.560 So the first thing when God tells him, 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:12.800 which is that he has to wait in hope, 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:15.560 God tells him, so the Lord answers him, 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:19.120 write the vision, make it plain on tablets 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:21.439 so he may run who reads it. 00:05:23.520 --> 00:05:26.720 Again, this is set a really long time ago 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:30.519 in a very different world and culture to ours, okay? 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:32.879 But when God tells him, write this down, 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:35.480 write this vision down on tablets, 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:38.600 what God is telling him to do is to use 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:42.640 use the technology of the Babylonians 00:05:42.640 --> 00:05:45.760 to describe the downfall of the Babylonians, 00:05:45.760 --> 00:05:48.560 because in that world, if you want to write stuff down, 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.920 you take wet clay and you flatten it out, 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:55.640 and because it's wet, it's impressionable, 00:05:55.640 --> 00:05:57.920 so you take a reed and that's your pen 00:05:57.920 --> 00:05:59.920 and you write things down on it. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:02.400 And if you're doing this just, 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:04.879 if you're going to the Babylon market 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:08.000 to buy your onions and coriander, 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.319 you can take wet clay and then you let your shopping list 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:14.040 dry out and then when you're done, 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:16.560 because it's just for you to use, 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:18.560 you then put it back in water and you soak it 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:19.399 and you can flatten it out 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:21.120 and you can reuse it over and over, 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:23.360 but if you're a Babylonian, 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:25.399 you can use the same technology 00:06:25.399 --> 00:06:28.120 to write a message for other people, 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:32.360 a message that will endure, a message to the future. 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:35.040 Okay, and even now, in 2024, 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:37.240 you can go to museums all across the world 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:40.199 and there are about 10,000 clay tablets 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:43.879 from Babylon that still exist, messages to the future. 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:45.079 Okay, so what you do with that is 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:47.720 you write down your message on this wet clay tablet 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:51.120 and you bake it, you put it in a kiln and it goes hard 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:53.759 and then that message can be taken all over the world 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:57.480 and way into the future, it's something that will last. 00:06:57.480 --> 00:07:00.879 And that's the kind of thing that God tells Habakkuk 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:02.480 to do with the vision that he has, 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:05.480 that he has to write it down on tablets. 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:09.640 So this is God saying to him at the beginning, 00:07:09.640 --> 00:07:14.640 you have to take a long view of what I'm doing here, 00:07:15.640 --> 00:07:20.640 because this isn't just a note to self 00:07:20.960 --> 00:07:23.200 that will self-destruct in five minutes. 00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:25.759 This is God telling him, use technology 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:27.319 to write to people who will live 00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:29.480 way after you were around. 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:31.759 That's the kind of long view that you have to take 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.759 to understand the kind of person you have to be right now. 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:38.079 So he has to write this message down 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.680 or this vision down on a clay tablet for people, 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:42.120 other people in the future. 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:46.759 So Habakkuk is, and God telling him, 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:48.039 this is what you need to do. 00:07:48.039 --> 00:07:49.680 It's like God is telling him, 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.240 okay, this is a hint for you Habakkuk. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:55.159 These bad times will outlast you. 00:07:55.159 --> 00:07:57.120 This isn't gonna get better in a hurry. 00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:59.560 It'll get worse before it gets better. 00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:04.560 And you are writing on these tablets 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:06.800 to give strength to people, 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:08.519 to give encouragement to people, 00:08:08.519 --> 00:08:11.519 to tell people who will come after you 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:14.439 that they have to be righteous people who live by faith, 00:08:15.980 --> 00:08:18.360 well after your lifetime. 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:22.240 It's kind of like the difference between, 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:26.160 like if I told you, take a picture, okay, 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:29.279 and send it on Snapchat, okay. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:31.119 Message for the, half of the people here 00:08:31.119 --> 00:08:33.679 will know what that is, okay, maybe. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.360 So you take a picture and you send it to someone 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:37.559 and then it disappears. 00:08:37.559 --> 00:08:39.679 It's the social messaging service 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:42.759 for the picture is only ever there for a second. 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:45.279 And then I tell you, in fact, no. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:47.839 Take a picture, paint a picture, 00:08:47.839 --> 00:08:51.039 hang it in the Louvre in Paris. 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:52.079 It's a completely different thing. 00:08:52.079 --> 00:08:55.000 You're thinking in a completely different timescale 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:56.759 about the picture that you're making, right? 00:08:56.759 --> 00:08:58.559 That it'll be seen by a lot of people 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:01.919 over a really long time after your lifetime. 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:03.879 So God is telling him at the beginning, 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:05.639 you are writing down a message 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:08.279 for the benefit of people who will live after you. 00:09:09.639 --> 00:09:10.679 And you have to start thinking 00:09:10.679 --> 00:09:13.679 about being a person of faith, a righteous person. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:19.559 And this is an endurance challenge. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:22.000 So God tells him to do this. 00:09:23.239 --> 00:09:27.359 And then God says, so that the person who reads it, 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:30.680 who reads this message on this tablet may run. 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:33.800 Now this is part of the challenge 00:09:33.800 --> 00:09:36.240 of reading the book of Habakkuk. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:38.840 Commentators who write about this 00:09:38.840 --> 00:09:43.440 aren't completely unanimous about what they think this means. 00:09:44.680 --> 00:09:47.159 Some commentators think that it means, 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:49.879 well, people read the message on the tablets 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:54.879 and they run with the message, they spread the message. 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:58.240 They're so struck with hope by what they have read 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:00.320 that it actually sets them in motion 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:01.960 and they run off to tell others. 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:04.000 It could be. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:07.159 Or the other way that commentators read this 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:11.480 is also to talk about ways that the world 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:13.200 of the Babylonians worked, 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:15.559 which is that if you want to send a message 00:10:15.559 --> 00:10:19.240 to the next city alone, here's what you do. 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:22.440 You take a clay tablet, you write your message, 00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:25.400 and you bake the tablet so that it's hard, 00:10:25.400 --> 00:10:27.640 it's not just gonna turn to mush in someone's bag, 00:10:27.640 --> 00:10:29.680 and then there's a specific kind of job 00:10:29.680 --> 00:10:32.480 that you can have in that world, which is herald. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.840 And to be a herald, you have to be good at two things. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:37.920 You have to be good at reading, 00:10:37.920 --> 00:10:39.760 okay, and that's not a skill everyone has 00:10:39.760 --> 00:10:40.600 and all that at that point, 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:42.760 and you have to be a really good long distance runner. 00:10:42.760 --> 00:10:44.600 So you take these tablets, you put them in your bag, 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:46.800 and you actually run from city to city, 00:10:46.800 --> 00:10:50.640 and when you get there, you read what you've been told to read. 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:54.720 So that's the other possibility. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:59.720 But at one level, the key point is the same, 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:03.519 that this message that Habakkuk has told to write down, 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:07.279 this message of hope in really evil times, 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:08.679 it's not a message just for him, 00:11:08.679 --> 00:11:12.360 it's a message that God wants everyone to hear. 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:14.519 God wants this message to spread. 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:19.519 Now, I've already said that when God tells Habakkuk 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:26.840 to use a tool or technology that will outlast him 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.439 to leave behind a message for future generations, 00:11:29.439 --> 00:11:32.919 God is already preparing Habakkuk 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:34.519 for what he's about to tell explicitly, 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:39.199 which is what you have to do now in these awful times, 00:11:39.199 --> 00:11:42.159 in this unjust world is you have to wait and hope. 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:44.879 This is, you have to have a completely different perspective 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:48.480 on time to flourish in evil times. 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:52.240 So God is directing Habakkuk towards that implicitly 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:54.679 before he tells him explicitly. 00:11:55.719 --> 00:11:58.079 But I was trying to think of a good way 00:11:58.079 --> 00:11:59.919 to illustrate this for us, okay? 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:02.799 Because this could seem again just really so alien 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:06.639 and hard for us to latch onto in Habakkuk's world. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:10.600 But think about it like this, across Europe, 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:14.360 we have lots of Gothic cathedrals, 00:12:14.360 --> 00:12:17.440 amazing buildings built in the Middle Ages. 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:19.840 So if you go to Paris and go to Notre Dame 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:23.800 or if you go to Milan and go to the cathedral, the Duomo, 00:12:23.800 --> 00:12:26.279 you find all these buildings that took 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:28.800 unimaginably long periods to build. 00:12:28.800 --> 00:12:30.360 Like in the cathedral in Milan, 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:33.120 took 600 years to finish. 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:36.519 Notre Dame in Paris took over 100 years. 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:39.200 And if you were to go back to medieval Europe 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:42.080 and find a stone mason who's working 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:43.480 in one of these buildings, 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:47.360 and you're trying to find a stone mason 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:50.200 and recruit someone or a builder or something like that 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:51.680 to work on this project. 00:12:51.680 --> 00:12:55.080 You tell this person, I want you to start working 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:59.240 on a project that will never be finished in your lifetime. 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:02.759 It won't be finished in your children's lifetime, 00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:05.240 maybe not in your grandchildren's lifetime, 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:07.640 but I want you to give the rest of your life to that. 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:09.319 That's the job I'm offering you. 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:13.480 And eventually it'll be finished, 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:17.039 but history will remember the building, 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:18.439 but it won't remember you. 00:13:18.439 --> 00:13:21.159 And that corner of that pillar that you chipped away on 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:24.000 to make it beautiful, that tiny detail 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:25.919 in the top and the back of the ceiling 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:27.559 that you will know is there, 00:13:27.559 --> 00:13:31.159 but maybe no one else will ever see. 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:33.360 And that's the job I'm offering you, 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:35.080 to invest your life in that. 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:39.120 And the amazing thing with people back then 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.040 is that, you can tell from all the buildings around us, 00:13:42.040 --> 00:13:46.360 a lot of them said, yes, I'll use my life for that. 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:50.320 And I'll devote my life to that. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:52.000 And I think part of the reason for that 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.520 is that they thought about time, 00:13:55.520 --> 00:13:57.080 really differently to the ways that we learn 00:13:57.080 --> 00:14:00.040 to think about time in our culture. 00:14:00.040 --> 00:14:02.840 And that they thought about time in relation to eternity, 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:05.399 more than we do. 00:14:06.519 --> 00:14:09.840 And they thought about the world in relation to God, 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:11.879 more than we do. 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:13.879 And that's a really hard mentality 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:15.720 for people in our age to imagine, 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:17.320 even if we are Christians. 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:21.920 Because our culture teaches us 00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:25.440 that we are the main characters in our lives, 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:27.200 and that time is short, 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:29.920 and that the things you invest your life in, 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:31.759 how foolish to invest your life in something 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:33.600 that will never be finished in your lifetime, 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:36.000 and that you will get no credit for, 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.080 no one will ever applaud you. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:39.840 Right, that's the kind of mentality 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:42.600 that we absorb in our day. 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:46.639 And so the buildings that we put up go up in a hurry. 00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:49.279 Usually then they end up under scaffolding, 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:50.200 under not too long, 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:52.200 and then we spend ages trying to do them up, 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:53.279 walk around this part of town, 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:54.319 you'll see a lot of that. 00:14:54.319 --> 00:14:56.679 And then they fall down in a hurry as well. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:14:59.679 And the builders move on with the time 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:01.639 that they have left in their lives. 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:04.159 You know, in effect, 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:07.039 what God is saying to Habakkuk is 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:10.079 that to respond to his own evil times, 00:15:10.079 --> 00:15:12.319 to the state of the world in his day, 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:17.919 he has to remember that the world isn't everything, 00:15:19.079 --> 00:15:21.599 and that there is a God in heaven, 00:15:21.599 --> 00:15:25.240 and that empires rise and fall, 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:28.199 and times come and go, 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:29.800 but there is a God in heaven. 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:35.879 And that's just a hard thing for us to step into in 2024, 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:37.879 because the norm around us everywhere else 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:40.400 is people who imagine that there isn't a God in heaven, 00:15:40.400 --> 00:15:42.000 or they act as though there's not, 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:46.120 and that time doesn't happen in the light of eternity. 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:51.280 One of my favorite illustrations for this is, 00:15:51.280 --> 00:15:52.840 it's a science fiction film, 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:54.600 it's called In Time, 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:55.840 starring Justin Timberlake, 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:57.600 if you're a Justin Timberlake fan, 00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:59.000 in which case I feel bad for you, 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:01.159 but it's a science fiction film, 00:16:01.159 --> 00:16:06.159 and it's set in a world where time is how you measure wealth. 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:11.279 And everyone has this digital reading on their forearm, 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:14.800 a number, and that's how much time you have, 00:16:14.800 --> 00:16:16.960 how many days you have left to live, 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:20.040 and the wealthier you are, the higher the number, 00:16:20.040 --> 00:16:22.639 and the poorer you are, the lower the number. 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:24.920 And in the film, it's like the global, 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:28.919 you know, 0.5% of super wealthy people, 00:16:28.919 --> 00:16:31.120 somehow they have rigged the system 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:33.519 so their number is always going up. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:35.559 And the really poor people start off 00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:38.479 with quite a small number and it only ever goes down. 00:16:38.479 --> 00:16:41.000 But the film is about this character 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:44.240 who somehow manages to hack the system, 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.759 and he manages to steal a huge amount of time, slash wealth, 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:50.439 from some super rich person, 00:16:50.439 --> 00:16:52.159 and he goes from being really poor all of a sudden 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.639 to having this huge bank balance of days, 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:56.360 that just goes up and up and up. 00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:58.600 And he moves into the world of the super wealthy, 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:00.600 which means the people who have literally 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:02.159 all the time in the world, 00:17:02.159 --> 00:17:06.039 and tries to pass himself off among them as one of them. 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:10.319 But the thing that gives him away is very subtle, 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:12.519 but it's that he moves around too quickly. 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:15.200 He's in too much of a hurry, 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.440 and because all the people who have all the time 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:20.359 and all the wealth, they're not in a hurry to do anything, 00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:22.599 because time just goes on and on and on. 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:27.599 And at one level, so the film is reflecting 00:17:27.919 --> 00:17:31.480 on what's fundamentally a deeply Christian question. 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:35.639 It's a question that Christianity has given to our culture, 00:17:35.639 --> 00:17:39.919 which is how differently would you live in this life 00:17:39.919 --> 00:17:43.000 if you knew that your life was eternal? 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:46.240 How differently would you face devastating news? 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:49.839 How differently would you face failures? 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:53.000 How differently would you face your successes 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:56.240 if you knew that this life is only the beginning, 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:58.839 and actually that eternal life, 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:00.799 the number of days only ever goes up? 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.480 And in a way, isn't that the kind of question 00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:11.199 that Habakkuk gets from God in verse three? 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:15.439 The vision, for still the vision awaits, 00:18:15.439 --> 00:18:17.399 it's a pointed time. 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:20.440 It hastens to the end, it will not lie. 00:18:20.440 --> 00:18:23.720 If it seems slow, wait for it. 00:18:25.040 --> 00:18:28.240 It will surely come, it will not delay. 00:18:31.040 --> 00:18:36.040 So God asks Habakkuk to experience time differently 00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:40.840 because of eternity, because there is a God in heaven. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:47.080 And God asks him to experience what feels slow 00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:48.919 as though it actually feels fast. 00:18:50.879 --> 00:18:53.439 So he's told to write down his vision 00:18:53.439 --> 00:18:55.839 for future people to read. 00:18:57.079 --> 00:18:58.559 But here's an important question 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:00.559 as we read through the book. 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:02.079 What exactly was the vision? 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:08.599 Maybe it was what he saw in chapter one, which is, 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:11.359 the Oracle that Habakkuk saw, for God says, 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:15.399 I am rising up at the Babylonians. 00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:18.080 But there's a problem with that as we read the book, 00:19:18.080 --> 00:19:20.320 which is that the beginning of chapter one says 00:19:20.320 --> 00:19:25.320 that Habakkuk saw an Oracle, or a burden. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:29.440 And there's a specific Hebrew word for that in the original. 00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:33.000 But what God tells Habakkuk in chapter two, 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:35.280 verse two is to write down something different, 00:19:35.280 --> 00:19:36.840 a different word, a vision. 00:19:38.040 --> 00:19:41.040 Not an Oracle, but something bigger. 00:19:41.040 --> 00:19:43.120 So something bigger is a vision. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:45.559 It's not an Oracle, but something bigger. 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:47.479 So something bigger that includes the Oracle, 00:19:47.479 --> 00:19:50.879 which is the bad news, the bad times are about to get worse. 00:19:52.759 --> 00:19:55.199 But for the vision is something bigger than that. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:59.439 A vision that shows how God takes things 00:19:59.439 --> 00:20:01.279 that people mean for evil, 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:03.879 and somehow God is able to use them for good. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:10.119 Where God somehow can permit an unjust empire to arise, 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:14.039 and God somehow can use that to end injustice. 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:16.799 A vision also that shows you the kind of person 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:18.639 you need to be in the midst of all of that. 00:20:19.639 --> 00:20:22.719 Someone who lives by faith, a just person by faith, 00:20:22.719 --> 00:20:25.839 a righteous person by faith in an unjust world. 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.199 So the vision is bigger than just what he saw in chapter one. 00:20:30.399 --> 00:20:33.519 And some commentators have said, and I think that they're right, 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:37.559 that when God told Habakkuk to write down the vision, 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:42.440 God was telling Habakkuk to write what we call the book of Habakkuk, 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:44.919 chapters one, two, and three, the whole thing. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:48.559 God tells him to write down the Oracle in chapter one, 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:50.559 and how he wrestled with God in chapter one, 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:54.559 and God tells him to write down how he's engaging with God in chapter two, 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:57.039 and what God tells him he needs to be in chapter two, 00:20:57.039 --> 00:20:59.839 and then write down what he's going to say in chapter three, 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:02.440 which is that he bursts into song, 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:05.240 and that he's able to praise God even in the worst of times. 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:10.240 And if that's what God means when he tells him to write down the vision, 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:15.240 then the penny drops for us in Edinburgh tonight as we read this, 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:23.240 because what God tells Habakkuk is that God wants these three chapters to be written down, 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:27.240 not on like a soggy wet tablet that'll just last for a day, 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:31.240 but on hard-play tablets written for the future, for future generations. 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:36.240 This means that God wanted Habakkuk to write down these three chapters for you, 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:41.240 for people in the future to read this in their own evil times, 00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:43.240 when we go through the worst of times, 00:21:43.240 --> 00:21:46.240 so that we can wait in hope, 00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:52.240 so that we can let eternity flood into how we think about, 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:54.240 how we experience the times that we go through. 00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:57.240 So God tells him to wait in hope, 00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:01.240 secondly, God tells him that there are two ways to live. 00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:03.240 So we're looking here at verse four. 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:08.240 Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him, 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:11.240 but the righteous shall live by his faith. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:14.240 Now if you're reading through the chapter, 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:18.240 the shift from verse three into verse four might feel really abrupt, 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:20.240 because God has just been telling him, 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:23.240 get these tablets, write it down, you're in for the long haul, 00:22:23.240 --> 00:22:27.240 but you're waiting in hope, think about people in the future beyond you. 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:32.240 And then all of a sudden God shifts into talking about someone else, 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:34.240 his soul is puffed up. 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:40.240 But what God is doing here, when he says this to Habakkuk, 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:45.240 is that God makes an abrupt shift, 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:49.240 and he goes into talking to Habakkuk by saying, 00:22:49.240 --> 00:22:54.240 and he goes into talking to Habakkuk by a kind of comparison, 00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:58.240 where the comparison, the God says to Habakkuk, 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:03.240 is a comparison between the Babylonian king and Habakkuk, 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:06.240 and the kind of people that they are. 00:23:07.240 --> 00:23:10.240 The Babylonian king, his soul is puffed up, 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:15.240 but it is not upright within him, and Habakkuk, 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:19.240 but that buts the contrast, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:22.240 And here's a way to understand this. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:24.240 If you were here last week, you'll remember this, 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:29.240 if you weren't, this is in, it's just slightly before this in the book. 00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:33.240 In the chapter before, Habakkuk is wrestling with God in prayer. 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:37.240 He's asking God, what are you doing about this world of injustice? 00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:41.240 And he begins that prayer by saying to God, 00:23:41.240 --> 00:23:43.240 aren't you supposed to be eternal? 00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:46.240 And then he was on to compare God with the Babylonian king. 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:48.240 God, you're supposed to be eternal, 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:52.240 and you're supposed to be so different to this king who's ruining the world. 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:58.240 This king who oppresses people, this king who enslaves people, 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:02.240 this king who makes himself rich by making us poor, 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.240 aren't you supposed to be different to him? 00:24:05.240 --> 00:24:09.240 So Habakkuk has already said rhetorically to God, 00:24:09.240 --> 00:24:11.240 aren't you supposed to be eternal? 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:14.240 Aren't you supposed to be different to the Babylonian king? 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:19.240 But now when God replies, he actually flips this, 00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:22.240 and God turns the tables on Habakkuk. 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:26.240 And it's like a rhetorical question. 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:29.240 God compares the Babylonian king to Habakkuk. 00:24:29.240 --> 00:24:31.240 And here's the thing that you need to see. 00:24:31.240 --> 00:24:34.240 When Habakkuk compares God to the Babylonian king, 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:37.240 he begins by saying, aren't you supposed to be eternal? 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:39.240 Aren't you supposed to be different to him? 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:42.240 But then when God flips this round in his reply, 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:46.240 he says to Habakkuk, aren't you supposed to live in the light of eternity? 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:50.240 Aren't you also supposed to be different to the Babylonian king? 00:24:54.240 --> 00:25:02.240 So what would it look like for Habakkuk to be different to the Babylonian king? 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:05.240 And this is something that next Sunday night sermon 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:08.240 will be focusing on more, because that's what's about to come next in the book. 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:13.240 When God gives his own sort of diagnosis of Babylon, 00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:16.240 and why you can't build a life of flourishing there, 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:20.240 and why Babylon is doomed from the beginning. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:24.240 But before God does that, God focuses Habakkuk 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:28.240 on the kind of person that the Babylonian king is, 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:30.240 and he's just the epitome of that whole world, 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:32.240 and all that it could offer Habakkuk, 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:35.240 and what Habakkuk is meant to be like. 00:25:35.240 --> 00:25:39.240 And when God, in one line, 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:46.240 it's this devastating portrayal of the Babylonian king. 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:49.240 God, in just a few words, sums up his whole life 00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:51.240 and pulls the rug out from under his feet. 00:25:51.240 --> 00:25:54.240 And there's this easy detail to miss here, 00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:57.240 but it's really important that you don't. 00:25:57.240 --> 00:26:02.240 It's why God starts off with, we have this in English as behold. 00:26:02.240 --> 00:26:05.240 Okay, look at this, don't miss this. 00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:07.240 Okay, check this out. 00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:11.240 His soul is puffed up, it's not upright within him. 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:13.240 Okay, there are two things that God says here 00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:17.240 that sum up this whole man at the head of this empire, 00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:19.240 really powerfully. 00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:22.240 His soul is puffed up, it's not upright within him. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:24.240 What does that mean? 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:28.240 Well, it means that most fundamentally, 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:32.240 he is proud of himself. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:37.240 It means that if you were to ask him to justify his existence, 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:42.240 to tell us, why are you acceptable as a human being? 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:47.240 Why are you worthy of a place in this world? 00:26:47.240 --> 00:26:52.240 All of his answers would be self-referential. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:54.240 They would all be things about himself. 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:57.240 He would talk to you about things he owns, 00:26:57.240 --> 00:26:59.240 people he owns, 00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:01.240 countries he owns, 00:27:01.240 --> 00:27:03.240 things he has done. 00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:06.240 He would talk to you about his achievements in life, 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:10.240 how he deserves his place in this world. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:14.240 And even in his mind, how he deserves the approval of his gods 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:17.240 because of all the things he has done. 00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:19.240 And there's a voice, 00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:22.240 there's a voice that constantly whispers in his ear, 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.240 achieve this and then you'll be good enough. 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:29.240 Win that and then you'll be good enough. 00:27:29.240 --> 00:27:31.240 Find acceptance from this group and that group 00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:34.240 and then you'll be good enough. 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:36.240 Belong to the right empire. 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.240 Be Babylonian and then you'll be good enough. 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:42.240 And when you ask him to justify your existence, 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:46.240 all that whispering really comes out in a roar of pride, 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:51.240 of arrogance, of self-righteousness, 00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:54.240 self-justification. 00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:58.240 And above all, there's really no God above him 00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:00.240 who keeps him humble. 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:03.240 He's the captain of his own soul. 00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:09.240 And that same voice whispers in your ear and mine as well. 00:28:09.240 --> 00:28:11.240 In Edinburgh in 2024. 00:28:11.240 --> 00:28:15.240 In a place like Edinburgh where achievement matters so much 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:18.240 and group acceptance matters so much. 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:20.240 It's often it's not just the gentle whisper, 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:22.240 it's the kind of mantra of our lives, right? 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:25.240 It's the unspoken assumption that you have to justify yourself 00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:27.240 and your place in this world. 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:31.240 You have to be good enough. 00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:36.240 But when God looks at the king of Babylon, 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:39.240 God sees that that's all a facade, 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:43.240 that the pride is just an illusion. 00:28:43.240 --> 00:28:45.240 It's how he presents himself to the world, 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:48.240 but his inner life is a mess. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.240 His soul is puffed up. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:53.240 It's not upright within him. 00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:57.240 So we have this expression here, 00:28:57.240 --> 00:28:59.240 the soul is puffed up. 00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:01.240 If you want to understand what this means in the Bible, 00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:05.240 Paul in the New Testament uses a picture, 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:07.240 the same kind of picture, and he uses it quite often 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:10.240 when Paul writes about what it means to be arrogant, 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:13.240 what it means to be proud or to be puffed up. 00:29:13.240 --> 00:29:18.240 And when Paul does this, he uses, through the kind of medical term, 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:20.240 it's a term to think about your body, 00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:23.240 something that is inflated, 00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:25.240 that really you don't want to be inflated, 00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:28.240 filled up with air that shouldn't be filled up with air, 00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:33.240 and filled with nothing, in a sense, as well. 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:35.240 And if you apply it to your body, 00:29:35.240 --> 00:29:38.240 it's actually a sort of disease term. 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:40.240 So think of a distended stomach. 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:42.240 Think of, and it's full of air. 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:44.240 You're meant to see this and think, 00:29:44.240 --> 00:29:47.240 this is swollen, this is pained, 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:50.240 this is something that's ready to burst. 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:53.240 And in the Bible, that's what it means when it says, 00:29:53.240 --> 00:29:55.240 do not be arrogant, do not be puffed up, 00:29:55.240 --> 00:29:58.240 do not be filled with nothing. 00:29:58.240 --> 00:30:03.240 And the nothing really is the kind of myths of your self-righteousness, 00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:06.240 your self-justification. 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:11.240 So although he says that he's great, 00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:14.240 that he is, the greatest thing you could say at the end of his life is, 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:17.240 I am so proud of myself, and I give no glory, 00:30:17.240 --> 00:30:20.240 like none of the glory rises higher than that in my life. 00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:24.240 I am the end of the story for me. 00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:28.240 That's what he says, but actually you're meant to look at this 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:31.240 and kind of feel sorry for him, 00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:34.240 in the way that you'd feel sorry for someone who has this pained, 00:30:34.240 --> 00:30:45.240 distended picture to cope with. 00:30:45.240 --> 00:30:50.240 So his inner life is a mess, his soul is not upright within him. 00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:54.240 But what comes next is that God compares the Babylonian king to Tabakuk. 00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:59.240 The king may be like that, he may have this bloated life of pride and arrogance, 00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:02.240 a pained life to look at. 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:07.240 He talks about himself as though there's no perfect God to confess his sins to, 00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:10.240 his forgiveness he needs to seek, 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:13.240 and he can really be his own justification. 00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:18.240 But when God compares the two of them together, Habakkuk and the king, 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:20.240 it's as though God is saying to Habakkuk, 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:22.240 aren't you supposed to be different to that? 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:30.240 But, okay, this is the contrast, the righteous person shall live by faith. 00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:33.240 Or shall live by his faith in Habakkuk. 00:31:33.240 --> 00:31:38.240 Now if you were Habakkuk and you're hearing this, obviously in Hebrew, 00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:43.240 thousands of years ago, there's a really important point here, 00:31:43.240 --> 00:31:46.240 that I just need you to focus, and that's late in the Sunday night, 00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:49.240 but focus for a moment on what I'm going to say here, 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:54.240 because it's really important about how Habakkuk hears this in Hebrew. 00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:58.240 You know how some words have a double meaning? 00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:00.240 Like in English, the word bark. 00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:02.240 It can be the stuff that grows on a tree, 00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:04.240 it can be the noise that a dog makes, 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:08.240 and the double meaning is really obvious, which is which. 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:10.240 You don't need much context at all to say, 00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:15.240 you know, I heard a bark, or I grazed my knee on some bark. 00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:17.240 You know which is which. 00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:23.240 But there are also words that have a double meaning, 00:32:23.240 --> 00:32:25.240 and it's a bit more ambiguous. 00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:30.240 Even you need a good bit more context to know which is which. 00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:33.240 So let's take the word draft. 00:32:33.240 --> 00:32:36.240 If I tell you that tomorrow you'll be sitting in your office 00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:41.240 and a draft will come in, you don't know from that, 00:32:41.240 --> 00:32:44.240 does that mean that the window's open and some wind will come in, 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:48.240 or that someone's going to put some unfinished work on my desk? 00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:50.240 So you need more context. 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:53.240 But in some languages, there are some words that have a double meaning 00:32:53.240 --> 00:32:57.240 that's really close, closer than that example. 00:32:57.240 --> 00:33:02.240 And where you do, you need context to know what's what. 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:04.240 But when the double meaning is so close, 00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:10.240 you can also use that word ambiguously to say both, both the meanings. 00:33:10.240 --> 00:33:13.240 And the word that we have for faith, 00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:19.240 the righteous person shall live by his faith, is a word like that. 00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:22.240 And this is something that you might have noticed without realizing it. 00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:25.240 For example, we're reading this from the English Standard Version, 00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:27.240 where the English translation is, 00:33:27.240 --> 00:33:29.240 the righteous person shall live by his faith. 00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:32.240 But if you've got an NIV Bible, 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:36.240 what you will see is that the righteous person shall live by his faithfulness. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:40.240 And this one Hebrew word has that ambiguous double meaning. 00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:46.240 It can be faith, which is something that latches on to something other than itself. 00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:50.240 But in lots of points in the Old Testament, it's faithfulness. 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:53.240 It's actually what you do consistently. 00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:55.240 And those are two different things. 00:33:55.240 --> 00:33:58.240 They're very closely related, but they're not the same thing. 00:33:58.240 --> 00:34:03.240 And if you're a Habakkuk, what you've just heard from God in Hebrew is 00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:08.239 that you're not like the king of Babylon, you are a righteous person. 00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:12.239 And what that means is that you live by your... 00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:18.239 and you hear two things at once, faith and faithfulness. 00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:21.239 And this is why translators... 00:34:21.239 --> 00:34:24.239 If you've ever tried to translate something and it has a double meaning, 00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:27.239 it's really difficult to get that across in another language, 00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:30.239 unless other language also happens to have exactly the same double meaning. 00:34:30.239 --> 00:34:32.239 That doesn't usually happen. 00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:36.239 So that's why translators, when they're translating Habakkuk into English, 00:34:36.239 --> 00:34:38.239 go for either faith or faithfulness. 00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:43.239 But the double meaning is really important, and this is why. 00:34:43.239 --> 00:34:48.239 If what this means is you have to live by your faithfulness, 00:34:48.239 --> 00:34:53.239 well, that's really emphasizing that to be a truly righteous person in this world, 00:34:53.239 --> 00:34:58.239 one way to do that is you are perfect. 00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:03.239 In this unrighteous world, in this evil world, everything you do is good. 00:35:03.239 --> 00:35:06.239 You live by your faithfulness. 00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:10.239 But if what it means is that to be a righteous person in an unrighteous world, 00:35:10.239 --> 00:35:14.239 you live by faith, a faith that latches on to something that's not you, 00:35:14.239 --> 00:35:16.239 that's not the things you have done, 00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:21.239 that sounds like a really different message, doesn't it? 00:35:21.239 --> 00:35:26.239 So why does God say something that sounds so ambiguous to Habakkuk 00:35:26.239 --> 00:35:30.239 when he's trying to work out, how do I live in these evil times? 00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:34.239 Here's how the New Testament resolves this, 00:35:34.239 --> 00:35:40.239 most directly when it's addressing you and me. 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:46.239 So in Galatians, Paul explains it like this, quotes this verse, 00:35:46.239 --> 00:35:50.239 and he says that nobody can justify themselves before a perfect God 00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:53.239 through their own religious moral performance. 00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:55.239 God is perfect and we are not. 00:35:55.239 --> 00:36:00.239 So we can't be justified by the law, and that's why. 00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:05.239 And then he quotes Habakkuk, the just person shall live by faith, 00:36:05.239 --> 00:36:08.239 not by their works and their efforts. 00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:12.239 Because your own life is imperfect, the thing that you have faith in 00:36:12.239 --> 00:36:15.239 is Jesus' perfect life and his death in your place 00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:21.239 and his resurrection to new life so that you can have a new life. 00:36:21.239 --> 00:36:25.239 But here's where I think that there's kind of a beauty in this, 00:36:25.239 --> 00:36:29.239 in the double meaning in Habakkuk, 00:36:29.239 --> 00:36:36.239 which is that if we are Christians, we're made just by our faith in Jesus, 00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:43.239 but Jesus is truly the righteous one because of what? 00:36:43.239 --> 00:36:45.239 Because of his faithfulness. 00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:49.239 So he's the true fulfillment of Habakkuk 2.4, 00:36:49.239 --> 00:36:58.239 the true righteous person who lives by his faithfulness. 00:36:58.239 --> 00:37:02.239 Is it that the righteous person shall live by his faith or by his faithfulness? 00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:06.239 The gospel actually brings these two things together, 00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:10.239 and that it tells you and it tells me that we can be made righteous before God 00:37:10.239 --> 00:37:16.239 by our faith, but that faith is faith in Jesus' faithfulness 00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:18.239 and him as the faithful one. 00:37:18.239 --> 00:37:24.239 And if you grasp that, if you believe it, 00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:29.239 then immediately you become a completely different kind of person 00:37:29.239 --> 00:37:33.239 from the get-go than the king of Babylon, 00:37:33.239 --> 00:37:38.239 where life is all about me and the things I do and my achievements, 00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:44.239 or I'm defined by my failures to achieve the things that I think I need to be 00:37:44.239 --> 00:37:48.239 in order to be justified in this world, in existing. 00:37:48.239 --> 00:37:52.239 And I've got this facade of being proud of myself, of boasting in myself, 00:37:52.239 --> 00:37:56.239 of all the glories staying with me and are somewhere in this world. 00:37:56.239 --> 00:38:00.239 The gospel actually, in giving you faith and the faithfulness of Christ, 00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:03.239 gives you a completely different way to be. 00:38:03.239 --> 00:38:06.239 It's a different source for how to live from day to day. 00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:11.239 Now I just want to say this closing point, closing statement. 00:38:11.239 --> 00:38:15.239 Maybe you're hearing all this and you think the Babylonian Empire, though, 00:38:15.239 --> 00:38:17.239 who is the king of Babylon to me? 00:38:17.239 --> 00:38:21.239 You know, I live in Edinburgh in 2024, and that was thousands of years ago. 00:38:21.239 --> 00:38:26.239 If that's you, and you happen to read through the New Testament, 00:38:26.239 --> 00:38:30.239 and you get to the last book, the Book of Revelation, 00:38:30.239 --> 00:38:35.239 what you will see there is that actually we all live in Babylon. 00:38:35.239 --> 00:38:39.239 If you were to ask, the Book of Revelation, this guy, John, 00:38:39.239 --> 00:38:42.239 when he's on an island called Patmos, and God gives him a vision 00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:47.239 and tells him to write it down, and the vision is very like Habakkuk. 00:38:47.239 --> 00:38:50.239 It's that God says, I'm raising up Babylon. 00:38:50.239 --> 00:38:55.239 Babylon the Great, and it's actually the whole world as it sets itself against God. 00:38:55.239 --> 00:38:59.239 And Babylon the Great will fall, and God is making all things new, 00:38:59.239 --> 00:39:01.239 and there are two ways to live. 00:39:01.239 --> 00:39:08.239 So the Bible actually says that Habakkuk and Babylon, we all live there. 00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:14.239 And we're just as much surrounded by Babylon here in Edinburgh as Habakkuk was. 00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:18.239 So what we're going to see next week, going through the rest of chapter 2, 00:39:18.239 --> 00:39:23.239 is God's diagnosis of Babylon, and why we can't find our ultimate meaning, 00:39:23.239 --> 00:39:27.239 our ultimate fulfillment, our ultimate joy in this world. 00:39:27.239 --> 00:39:30.239 And yet what we're going to see in the rest of the book of Habakkuk 00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:33.239 is that that is where God has called us to be here and now, 00:39:33.239 --> 00:39:37.239 and through the gospel, people who are made righteous by faith, 00:39:37.239 --> 00:39:40.239 in Christ's faithfulness, we're able to rejoice, 00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:43.239 even in the worst of times, in the here and now. 00:39:43.239 --> 00:39:46.239 Amen. Let's pray. 00:39:46.239 --> 00:39:49.239 Father God, thank you for the hope of the gospel, 00:39:49.239 --> 00:39:53.239 for all that it offers us in newness of life, 00:39:53.239 --> 00:39:58.239 and being able to be made righteous, not because of ourselves, 00:39:58.239 --> 00:40:03.239 but through the righteousness, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. 00:40:03.239 --> 00:40:08.239 So Lord, give us fresh hope, help us to lean into that new way of living 00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:12.239 and being in the light of eternity through what we've heard. 00:40:12.239 --> 00:40:16.239 Thank you for this in Jesus' name, amen.