Good morning, church. Would you turn with me to the book of Habakkuk? That's page 737 in the Pew Bible.
737. Habakkuk is a book that helps us wrestle with God when we're in the midst of troubled times.
The book is structured around two complaints and a prayer. And in the first complaint, Habakkuk wrestles with God because he doesn't see evidence of God's justice in the world.
There's wickedness and unrighteousness, destruction and violence. Judah itself is filled with exploitative rulers, and it seems like God isn't doing anything.
And God's answer to that complaint that we saw last week was that his justice was indeed going to come. He was going to send the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, to judge evil.
And that brings us to Habakkuk's second complaint, which is what we're looking at today.
Habakkuk wrestles again with God, questioning how a righteous God could use such unrighteous means to bring about his purposes.
How could God use evil Babylon to punish his own people? That doesn't seem just at all.
So let's read together Habakkuk's complaint, and then we'll take a look at God's response.
This is Habakkuk chapter 1, starting in verse 12.
And we'll read the whole way through the end of chapter 2 to see all of God's response.
Habakkuk's second complaint begins like this. He says,
Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
He brings all of them up with a hook. He drags them out with his net.
He gathers them in his dragnet so he rejoices and is glad.
Therefore, he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet.
For by them he lives in luxury and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
I will take my stand at my watch post, station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me.
And what I will answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me.
Write the vision.
Make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time.
It hastens to the end. It will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it.
It will surely come.
It will not delay.
Behold, his soul is puffed up.
It's not upright within him.
But the righteous shall live by his faith.
Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who's never at rest.
Greed is as wide as Sheol.
Like death, he never has enough.
He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.
But shall not all these take up their taunt against him with scoffing and riddles for him and say,
Woe!
Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own.
For how long?
And loads himself with pledges.
Will not your debtor suddenly arise?
And those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be spoiled for them.
Because you've plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you.
For the man of blood and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.
Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm.
You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples.
You have forfeited your life.
For the stone will cry out from the wall and the beam from the woodwork respond.
Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.
Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that people's labor merely for fire and nations weary themselves for nothing?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink.
You pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order to gaze at their nakedness.
You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision.
The cup in the Lord's right hand will come around to you.
And utter shame will come upon your glory.
The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you.
As will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them.
For the man of blood and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.
What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it?
A metal image, teacher of lies.
For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols.
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake to a silent stone arise.
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver and there is no breath at all in it.
But the Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before him.
Let's pray together.
Father, would you be with us now as we take a few brief moments to consider this message that you spoke to Habakkuk so many years ago.
And continue to speak to us today through your Holy Spirit, by your word.
Grant us understanding that we might grasp these things and live in light of their truth.
Pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
So here then we have Habakkuk's second complaint.
This is chapter 1, verse 12 through 2, 1.
And then we have God's long response in chapter 2, verses 2 through 20.
You'll remember in chapter 1, verse 6, Habakkuk had heard of God's plan to use the Chaldeans,
that is to use the Babylonians, to bring justice upon evil Judean rulers.
But hearing that message now in our passage, the prophet's even more perplexed than he was at first.
How can a good God use evil Babylon to punish his own people?
Habakkuk is finding it difficult to reconcile God's character with his actions.
Look again at verse 12.
Here in verse 12, Habakkuk correctly affirms the many attributes of God.
God is eternal.
God is holy.
God is even powerful and sovereign over the nations, appointing them to do his will.
Habakkuk's even confident in what God's character means for God's people.
Knowing God to be eternal and holy and sovereign, Habakkuk says,
we shall not die.
But in light of all this, there's still a problem.
The prophet cannot understand why God would use the seemingly more evil nation of Babylon
to punish the seemingly less evil nation of Judah, God's own people.
Look at how he states this in verse 13.
He says,
You who are of purer eyes and to see evil and cannot look it wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
And make no mistake, Babylon was an unjust and fearsome nation.
Habakkuk here pictures them like an ancient fisher with a hook and a net,
just dragging humans off into exile as easily and as violently as fish would be dragged out of the sea and hoisted onto land.
And then to make it worse,
the Babylonians turn around and they worship their nets, as it were,
which is to say they worship their own power and wealth.
And Habakkuk ends by saying,
Is he, that is the Babylonians,
is he then to keep on emptying his net, God,
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
In other words, God,
this is how you're going to bring about justice?
Through them?
Shouldn't God's instrument for the accomplishment of his purpose
reflect something of his own purity and righteousness?
The Babylonians display the same evil qualities as those against whom they were executing God's judgment.
The Judean rulers at the time of Habakkuk were very wicked,
and yet the Babylonians were wicked on an even greater scale.
It seemed as if the cure was going to be far worse than the disease.
And that didn't make any sense at all.
And indeed, many of God's ways don't seem to make sense in this life.
We often see the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer.
We often see one unjust system or government collapse,
only to be replaced by one that's even more unjust.
And in the midst of it all,
we can feel like fish in a net,
just being dragged against our will
through the waves of human greed and selfishness.
And it seems like there's never an end in sight.
How can God allow this to go on?
How can God use and allow such evil things when he is righteous?
Well, God's answer to Habakkuk
and God's answer to our own questioning hearts
comes in two halves in his response.
On the one hand, God reminds Habakkuk
that evil will never ultimately prosper
because God is still providentially orchestrating history
for his own righteous purposes.
We actually see this in the second part of chapter 2.
We're going to look at that first.
That's verses 5 through 20
where God pronounces five woes upon Babylon
in Habakkuk 2, 5 through 20.
God's reminding Habakkuk here
that evil isn't going to ultimately prosper,
that he is still providentially orchestrating history
for his own righteous purposes.
So he gives Habakkuk a preview of the woe
that is the ultimate sorrow and judgment
that is coming upon those who ignore God
and who multiply injustice and evil,
regardless of the plan that they might play
in the unfolding of history.
As we scan over these five woes,
we see that the first woe is a woe to the empire builder.
And the second woe is a woe to the exploiter.
The third woe is a woe to the arrogant slave driver
who would use humans like capital to build up wealth.
The fourth woe is a woe to the demoralizer.
And the fifth woe is a woe to the idolater.
And these woes reveal God's judgment,
not just upon the Babylonians,
but upon any human power
that sets itself up against God's reign and rule.
The reality is every generation will see kingdoms
that achieve a measure of temporal earthly success.
From the tower builders of Babel
to the empire builders of Rome,
down to the nation states of today.
Every generation will see kingdoms
that achieve temporal earthly success.
And God may even use some of these earthly kingdoms
to achieve his purposes.
Consider God used the Tower of Babel
and the scattering of their languages
to populate the earth
and to spread them out, which was his will.
God used the Pax Romana during the Roman Empire
as a time when communication and travel
was very easy to spread the gospel.
God continues to use different nation states
and political movements
to seemingly advance some of his purposes.
God still can do that.
But none of these earthly kingdoms
will ultimately prevail or escape God's judgment.
God's righteousness will triumph in the end.
God's glory.
And it is his glory
that will cover the earth
like the waters cover the sea.
It was once said that the sun never set
on the British Empire.
But friends, that was just a parody
and at times even a mockery
of God's glory
that will truly cover the earth
like the waters cover the sea.
And any nation or political movement
who thinks that they're going to spread their glory
and bring in a reign of peace and justice
will be surprised on the last day
when it collapses.
So what God wanted Habakkuk to see
and what he wants us to see
is that the prophet lived
in between the times.
Habakkuk lived between the already
and the not yet.
Already God's kingdom had begun to take shape.
Already God's kingdom was on the move.
We were seeing glimpses of his righteousness,
his justice, his mercy, his advance.
But it was not yet fulfilled and completed
all the way.
The rise and fall of earthly empires,
the seeming prosperity of the wicked,
the seeming confusion of God's purposes and plans.
God wanted Habakkuk to see
that none of that was the last word.
Yes, Babylon would be an instrument in his hands,
but they too would face judgment.
Yes, God might use them for a short time
to achieve his purpose,
but they too would fall
before his perfect justice.
It would not be their glory
that covered the earth.
It would be God's glory.
And this promise of worldwide glory,
of God's glory covering the earth,
that was a promise that God
would one day fulfill
and will one day fulfill
in Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2 says that one day
every knee will bow in heaven and on earth,
and under the earth,
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
You see, it's not through earthly empires
that God's glory will spread.
It is in Christ's sinless life,
his sacrificial death,
his victorious resurrection,
and his vindicating reign,
that is how God's righteousness
is finally revealed
to all humanity over all the earth.
So for the church today,
we too need to hear
what God says to Habakkuk.
The kingdoms of this world
are not everlasting.
They will fall.
Even when God chooses to use
an unrighteous instrument
for his purposes,
that doesn't mean they will escape
his ultimate justice.
One day,
every knee will bow to Christ.
One day,
woe will come
upon all who choose
to exploit others
or worship false gods
or ignore God's commands.
And the only way
to safely come through
God's judgment
is to willingly
bow our knees to Christ
and confess him as Lord.
You know, friend,
perhaps today you enjoy
privilege
or power
or success
of some kind.
But you know,
in the end,
none of those things
will save you.
Being highly educated
won't save you.
Being a citizen
of a certain country
won't save you.
Even doing lots
of good deeds
won't save you.
Perfect justice
is coming.
God's righteousness
will prevail.
And the only thing
that will save us
is the righteousness
of Christ.
In Jesus Christ,
God became a human being
and he lived the life
that you and I
should have lived.
And he died the death
that we deserve to die.
So that God's justice
could be satisfied
and so that we could
be accepted
on the basis
of his works
and not our own.
That is the only way
to escape
God's coming
perfect justice
and to stand
before God
in a right relationship
with him.
So this is the first part
of God's answer
to Habakkuk.
When his ways
seem inscrutable
and when we can't
understand how
a just God
could be at work
in an unjust world,
God reminds Habakkuk
and us that we aren't
at the end of the story yet.
That his justice
will be vindicated
and will be seen.
And living in light
as we are
of the New Testament,
seeing what God
has done
and is doing
in Christ,
we know that God's justice
will ultimately
be demonstrated
because we've seen it
happen in Christ
and we have the promise
that he will fulfill it
in the future.
So this leads us
to the second thing
that God wants
Habakkuk to know.
First,
they have to know
that evil isn't going
to ultimately prevail
but second,
this means that
God's people
are called
to live
by faith.
We see this
in verses 2-4
of chapter 2.
Habakkuk says,
And the Lord answered me,
write the vision
and make it plain
on tables
so he may run
who reads it
for still the vision
awaits its appointed time.
It hastens to the end,
it will not lie.
If it seems slow,
wait for it.
It will surely come,
it will not delay.
There God is saying,
look,
the time of justice
is coming,
write it,
publish it,
hold on to it.
If it seems slow,
wait for it,
it is coming.
And then he says
in verse 4,
before,
behold,
his soul is puffed up,
it is not right within him.
He's sort of looking
at a hypothetical person
who doesn't trust God,
like the Babylonians.
But then in the second half
of verse 4,
he says,
but the righteous
shall live
by their faith.
Though the timing
of God's just purposes
may seem slow,
God reminds Habakkuk
that it is surely coming.
And although some
will remain puffed up
with pride,
God's people are called
to live
not in pride,
but in faith.
That is,
we're called
to trust God
and to keep
on holding on
to his goodness
and his righteousness
even in trying
and troubled times,
even when God's ways
are not clear.
Habakkuk says,
the righteous,
God's people,
this is how they're
to live in this
in-between time,
through faith,
trusting God.
But keep in mind,
this path
of trusting God,
it's not a sort of path
of just blind faith,
right?
It isn't just
wishful thinking.
No,
what Habakkuk
invites us into
is a deep-rooted
trust
in the eternal,
providential,
ever-present
God.
We're called
to trust
in God
and who God's
revealed himself
to be.
You know,
on the one hand,
what Habakkuk
seems to want
in this second complaint,
what he seems to want
is just a quick answer
to his perplexing
circumstances.
God,
help me sort this out.
But you know,
that's not what God
gives him.
He doesn't give him
a quick answer.
Instead,
what God invites
Habakkuk into
is a deeper knowledge
of God himself
to trust him.
It's a lot like
the book of Job,
you know.
You know,
you remember
the story of Job.
Job was sort of
the wealthiest man
of his day.
But then suddenly
he loses everything.
Loses his wealth,
he loses his family,
he loses his physical health.
And for many chapters,
Job wrestles with God.
And then Job's friends
wrestle with him.
And many of Job's
questions to God,
you know,
they remain unanswered
by the end of the book.
But the amazing thing
about Job
is that whereas Job
doesn't get answers,
what he does get
is God himself.
God reveals himself
to Job
in the midst
of his suffering
as sovereign,
as wise,
as good.
And for Job,
that is enough.
In the end,
Job says,
I humble myself
before you, God,
and I remain silent.
I trust you.
And is it interesting
that here in Habakkuk
we read at the end
of chapter 2,
but the Lord
is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth
keep silence before him.
Things may be going
completely,
to our perspective,
chaotically
in the world around us.
But the Lord
is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth
keep silence before him.
Consider what the temple
meant for God's people
in the Old Testament.
The Lord is in his temple.
Consider what the temple
meant.
You know,
the temple was the place
of God's symbolic presence
in their midst.
But it wasn't just that.
It wasn't just sort of
the place where God
dwelled.
For the Israelites,
the temple was the place
where God provided
atonement for his people.
It was where the sacrifices
happened
for the atonement
of their sins.
So the temple then,
it wasn't just God's holiness
that was revealed,
his holy presence,
but also his mercy
was on display there.
God's holiness
and mercy
were shown to them
in the temple.
And we're told,
in Hebrews,
we see this,
and also there's echoes
of this in the Old Testament
as well,
that the earthly temple
was just a sort of
figure of God's heavenly temple
where his holiness
and his mercy
were on infinite display.
The Lord is in his
holy temple.
And it is faith,
it is trust,
in this God,
the holy and merciful God,
that Habakkuk calls us to.
And we are called to trust
that this God,
the holy and merciful God,
unfolds all things,
even the difficult
and inexplicable things,
according to his wise
and compassionate purposes.
You know,
this part of Habakkuk
reminds us somewhat
of Psalm 73.
Do you remember Psalm 73?
In Psalm 73,
the psalmist kind of struggles
to reconcile
what he sees on the one hand,
which is the prosperity
of the wicked,
and on the other hand,
God's apparent inactivity.
The psalmist sort of sees
all these unrighteous people
prospering,
and God seems to do
nothing about it
as they get richer
and richer and richer
through evil and injustice.
But then in verse 17
of Psalm 73,
the psalmist,
he says,
he goes to the sanctuary,
to the temple,
and he realizes
what the end will be.
In the temple,
the psalmist is assured
of God's providential rule
over all things
and that the wicked
will not ultimately prevail.
God will be merciful
and righteous.
He will vindicate himself
and his people.
Now, friends,
can we find that assurance today?
Can we, like Habakkuk,
see God in his holy temple
and be silent before him
in trusting faith?
Can we, like the psalmist
in Psalm 73,
behold God in the sanctuary
and be assured
that his mercy
and justice will prevail?
Well, you know,
we don't have the temple
anymore, do we?
But we do have something better.
Because we know the one
who fulfilled the temple.
We know the one
that the temple
merely prefigured.
Because Jesus Christ,
God's Son,
is God's ultimate temple.
When Jesus said
in John's Gospel,
destroy this temple
and in three days
I will raise it up,
he was saying
that in his own person,
in his own body,
he was the true temple.
He was the true place
where God's holiness
and mercy were realized.
Destroy this temple,
Jesus said,
and in three days
I will raise it up.
What was Jesus
talking about there?
Well, he was looking ahead
to the cross
and to the empty tomb.
And today,
when we look to the cross
and when we look
to the empty tomb,
when we behold God
in the incarnate sanctuary,
in the true temple,
the crucified
and risen Jesus,
you see,
then our faith,
friends,
isn't just blind faith
or wishful thinking.
Then it's faith
in who God really is.
And it's a sure faith.
And it's a certain faith.
And it's a persevering faith.
And this is the assurance,
this is the trust
that can see us through
the most trying times.
Romans 8, 31 through 32
says it best.
Paul says,
What shall we say then
to these things?
If God is for us,
who can be against us?
He who did not spare
his own son
but gave him up
for us all,
how will he not also
with him
graciously give us
all things?
Paul looks to Christ,
sees his circumstances.
We're like sheep
led to the slaughter,
Paul says.
And yet he can look
at Christ and say,
no.
If God did not spare
his own son,
how will he not also
with him
graciously give us
all things?
God's justice
and mercy
will,
they must prevail.
Faith in the God
who provided
his only son,
that is the foundation
for living with confidence
and hope
in a fallen world
filled with many trials
and tears.
others.
And you know,
it's only through faith
that we can live.
The Apostle Paul
will quote this verse
from Habakkuk 2.4
when talking about
the very heart
of salvation.
When talking about
the very heart
of our salvation,
Paul will say,
it's not by works
that we're saved.
It's not by our own
good deeds.
He says,
the righteous live
by faith.
Don't you remember Habakkuk?
Now we might think,
man,
is Paul kind of
quoting that out of context?
I thought Habakkuk 2.4
was about persevering
in trying times.
Now he's saying
it's about justification
by faith.
But Paul sees
that it's the same,
it's two sides
of the same coin.
It's trusting God
above all else.
Faith isn't just
the path
to persevere
in trying times.
Faith's the only way
to embrace God's
saving grace
in the first place.
So as we wrap up then,
how about you, friend?
Perhaps you're here,
you're a Christian
and you look around
at the world
and you maybe look
at your own life
and maybe you don't see
much evidence
of God's righteousness,
of God's goodness,
of God's mercy,
of God's faithfulness.
Habakkuk is here
to remind us
to keep trusting
God.
His righteousness
will prevail.
His kingdom
will come.
It might not be clear
how or when,
but we can know
it will.
And how can we have
that kind of assurance?
We consider
the true temple
of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's faithfulness
and as we ask,
as we ask
with Habakkuk,
can God use,
how could God use
unjust instruments
to accomplish
His just purposes?
Is God losing control
when the wicked
seem to prevail?
When as believers
those questions
crop up in our hearts?
Friends,
we look to the cross.
Have you considered
that the cross
was the most unjust
and wicked act
ever perpetrated
by human beings?
We literally
killed
the Lord
of life.
But through
this unjust
and wicked act,
God sovereignly
brought about
forgiveness
and justification
and salvation
for all
who believe.
look to the cross
and trust
that God
is working
all things
for good
for those
who love Him
and are called
according to His purpose.
Perhaps you're here
and you're not a Christian
and you know,
friend,
the invitation
is actually
the same for you.
It's a call
to trust.
It's a call
to faith.
The righteous
shall live
by faith,
Habakkuk says.
And you know,
the funny thing is
when you think about it,
we all place our faith
in something,
right?
I guess at the end
of the day,
the question isn't
whether we believe
or not,
whether we have faith
or not.
The question is,
what do we put
our faith in?
What do we put
our trust in?
Is there a worthier
object of your trust
than Jesus Christ?
Who else loved you
enough to die for you?
Who else is willing
to forgive you
and restore you
and bless you
though you've done
nothing to deserve it?
You can try to earn
God's favor
or work for your salvation
or try to sort of
build a righteousness
on your own
so you have something
to offer back to God,
but it won't work.
Your best efforts
can't sustain
the weight
of your whole life
and they certainly
won't sustain
the weight
of God's perfect justice.
But Jesus can
and he's done it
for you.
So trust him.
Trust him
and you will
live,
God says.
Let's pray.
Father, hearing
Habakkuk's call,
your call
through Habakkuk
to live
in faith,
we at times
feel like
the man
who came to Jesus
with the son
who was suffering
and who said
to Jesus,
Lord, we believe.
Help our unbelief.
So in these
quiet moments here,
we look to you,
Lord Jesus,
saying,
help our unbelief.
We know you're good.
We know you're righteous.
We need your spirit
to come
to strengthen our faith
once again
as kingdoms rise
and kingdoms fall,
as the unjust
and the wicked
seem to prosper,
as we get so confused
who to trust,
which end is up?
Lord, recalibrate us,
realign us
to you.
And would we walk
in faith
and trust in you?
God,
and as we do so,
we pray
that we would experience
the great gifts
of faith,
that trusting you
in trying times,
we would find joy.
We would find peace.
We would find
perseverance.
We would find
compassion for others.
We would find wisdom.
Lord,
and as we walk
in this way,
we pray
that it wouldn't be us
who get the glory,
who get the praise.
Lord,
we don't need people
to look at us
and say,
my,
how stable they are.
No,
God,
we want people
to see you
and how stable
you are
and how good
you are
to all
who come to you.
Lord,
indeed,
our hope
is built
on nothing less
than Jesus'
blood
and righteousness.
amen.
Amen.