WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.720 So we're starting our summer series tonight and I'm going to do everything I can to say 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:14.640 Habba Cook, but undoubtedly I will switch back and forth between the American style 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:19.719 and the British style, but I want to be all things to all people, so I'm going to try 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:26.320 to say Habba Cook as much as I can, but you will hear Habba Cook as well. 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:32.439 Let's read together from Habba Cook 1, 1-11. 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:37.359 So if you would like to have a Bible, there's a stack of Bibles there, feel free at any 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.679 time because we're going to, I'm going to try to treat this more like an inductive Bible 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:47.159 study together where I'm leading us through that instead of just a monologue, so it'd 00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:52.560 be great to have a copy even if it's on a phone to be able to see the whole time. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:59.920 So here we are, this is God's word, the oracle that Habba Cook the prophets saw. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:07.480 Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear, or cry to you violence 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:09.280 and you will not save? 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:14.280 Why do you make me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong? 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:20.480 Destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise, so the law is paralyzed 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:26.000 and justice never goes forth, for the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.760 perverted. 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:33.680 Look among the nations and see, wonder and be astounded, for I am doing a work in your 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:38.200 day, in your days that you would not believe if I told. 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:43.240 For behold, I'm raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who marched 00:01:43.240 --> 00:01:47.680 through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own, they are dreaded 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:54.080 and fearsome, their justice and dignity go forth from themselves, their horses are swifter 00:01:54.080 --> 00:02:01.800 than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves, their horsemen press proudly on, their 00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:06.920 horsemen come from afar, they fly like an eagle, swift to devour, they all come for 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:13.600 violence, all their faces forward, they gather captives like sand, at kings they scoff, and 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:18.840 at rulers they laugh, they laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:26.039 it, then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men whose own might is their God, 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:29.240 this is God's holy word. 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:34.120 So we'll try to work through this passage together, this is a really important book 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:41.599 for any age and season of history, because we feel the same weight that Habakkuk felt 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:42.599 here in this day. 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:46.919 So let me, I'm just gonna try to throw out some questions and see if I can just get 00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:52.479 one person to respond to these and we'll keep moving so we don't take too much time, but 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:57.919 if somebody would just be willing to say, after you looked at those verse 11 verses, 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:03.599 what do you feel like you could say about who this prophet is? 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:04.599 Anything? 00:03:04.599 --> 00:03:12.599 Ukrainian? 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:16.280 Okay, yeah, so you're connecting it already to the contemporary, absolutely, yeah. 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:19.000 What about in his own time and context? 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:26.120 No, but that's great, Brian, yeah, thank you. 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:33.159 So this question is a dirty little trick, because you can't really say anything about 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:34.879 him, can you? 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:38.639 Actually this is the prophet that we know nothing about. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:42.879 So you read the text and you get nothing. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.919 Unlike most of the other prophets where we have a sense of who they were, who their father 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.759 was, we don't get that with this person at all. 00:03:50.759 --> 00:03:56.680 His name means in Hebrew, it's the word embrace. 00:03:56.680 --> 00:03:59.479 Maybe that means something, but it's hard to say. 00:03:59.479 --> 00:04:06.399 He's being embraced by God here in a way, but that doesn't really tell us a whole lot. 00:04:06.399 --> 00:04:12.799 He's receiving an oracle that he sees, right? 00:04:12.799 --> 00:04:17.639 But the term oracle here very literally translated as the term burden. 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:24.319 So it could say something like the burden that Habakkuk the prophet saw, meaning the 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:27.039 burden that he bore to God. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:32.879 Okay, so it's not necessarily exactly as if he's hearing a vision or seeing a vision 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:36.800 or hearing something directly at the beginning from God. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:40.920 He's coming to God with a burden and then hearing God's response. 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:45.600 So that gives us a hint of the kind of things he's going to talk about. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:47.280 Where is he? 00:04:47.280 --> 00:04:53.320 The only thing that we can say about that is in chapter 2 verse 20. 00:04:53.320 --> 00:04:56.040 This is where a lot of commentators will go. 00:04:56.040 --> 00:05:05.879 People say when he says the Lord is in his holy temple, it seems like probably he's 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:10.720 standing, Habakkuk may be standing where? 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:11.720 In the temple in Jerusalem. 00:05:11.720 --> 00:05:18.000 So it's very possible that Habakkuk is standing in the temple in Jerusalem, coming to worship 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:22.040 and bringing his burden before the Lord. 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:27.720 So he's probably from Judah and then when is he? 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:32.120 Now we can say a little bit more about when he is. 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:38.040 Just from your reading of the text, any ideas that might clue you in to when he's saying 00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:39.040 this. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:59.040 Yes, so well, God responds to him, doesn't he, and says, we're going to come to this 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:00.040 in just a minute. 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:07.280 I'm going to send the Chaldeans to Jerusalem if he's in Jerusalem, which we think he is. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:11.839 Meaning the Chaldeans have yet to strike Jerusalem, the Babylonians. 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:15.199 They're going to do that in 587 BC. 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:19.759 They're going to come in and destroy Jerusalem, destroy the temple. 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:24.079 We're going to see the last king of Jerusalem fall, of Judah fall. 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.319 So this is pre 587. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:31.479 But also we know at the same time that the Babylonians must be rising in power because 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:38.840 the entire section from five to 11 is God's description of the power of Babylon that's 00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:40.480 coming forth. 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:46.560 And the Babylonians come to power in the seventh century, the 600 BC. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:51.680 The Assyrians had been the absolute dominant force for hundreds of years across the ancient 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:52.920 Near East. 00:06:52.920 --> 00:07:01.560 But in 612, 612 BC, the Babylonians Nebuchadnezzar is going to go to a place called Kharkhamesh 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:05.080 in the north in Assyria and Defeat the Assyrians and destroy them. 00:07:05.080 --> 00:07:08.800 Then he's going to come south in one another battle in 605. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:13.160 He's going to destroy Samaria, the northern kingdom of Israel around that time. 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:16.160 And then he's going to keep marching south and south until he finally hits Jerusalem 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:17.600 in 587. 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:21.920 So if you were to pull open a newspaper in the day that he's writing, it's going to 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:30.040 say Babylon is the great power rising in the east to quote Gandalf about Mordor. 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:34.360 There's a great power rising literally in the northeast and it's Babylon and they're 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:35.360 coming. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:36.360 Okay. 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:37.360 All right. 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:43.040 Lastly, as just by way of, well a couple of things more about way of introduction. 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:45.000 What about this question? 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.960 See if I can get anybody to bite on this. 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:52.159 But in the most general simple sense, this is not a gotcha question at all. 00:07:52.159 --> 00:07:53.359 What is a prophet? 00:07:53.359 --> 00:07:56.000 What are prophets do? 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:57.399 Anything that comes to mind from? 00:07:57.399 --> 00:08:00.639 Intermediary between God and the people. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:01.639 Right. 00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:02.639 Intermediary between God and the people. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:03.639 Yeah. 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:04.639 Yeah. 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:05.639 Keep this way. 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:06.639 Bring it up. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:07.639 Right. 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:08.639 Absolutely. 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:09.639 So they're intermediator. 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:14.000 A lot of times the prophets are carrying messages from God as well to the people. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:15.000 Right? 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:21.519 So Isaiah, for example, famously does this Ezekiel very famously gets these visions from 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:25.839 God telling me exactly how to perform in front of the people. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:27.079 Right? 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:31.279 If you just, just the first 11 verses, you don't even have to read the whole book. 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:33.440 What do you notice about this? 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:34.679 This is called a prophet. 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:37.120 This is one of the prophets. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:40.879 But you've got something very different happening here. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:47.159 You don't have him in any sense bringing a word from God to the people or really from 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:49.240 the people of God. 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:56.799 But his role here is completely one of speaking directly to God in lament. 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:57.799 Okay. 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:02.360 So it's not prophecy in any traditional sense of the word. 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.879 Like you would normally expect prophecy to be. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:10.600 It's a, actually, a man lamenting before the Lord with a carrying of burden. 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:14.960 And the reason it's a prophet is simply because God does respond. 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:20.240 God opens his mouth and speaks in the temple space to Habakkuk. 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:21.240 Okay. 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:25.600 So it's very different than the rest of the prophets in that way. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:28.480 So that's something to be on the lookout for. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:30.480 All right. 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:35.639 Let's look together then for just a second at verses two to four. 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:41.559 He says, Oh, Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear section two to 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:43.519 four versus two to four? 00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:46.720 What is Habakkuk lamenting? 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:47.720 What is he lamenting? 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:48.720 What is he crying out about? 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:52.720 What is he upset about to God? 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:57.879 By the end of July, people are going to be talking if it takes that long, but that's okay. 00:09:57.879 --> 00:09:59.120 Even if it does take that long. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:00.120 What is it? 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:01.120 Just anything. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:04.240 What is he crying out about? 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:05.799 God's not listening. 00:10:05.799 --> 00:10:06.799 Yes. 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:07.799 Exactly. 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:08.799 God's not listening. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:09.799 Okay. 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:10.799 God's not listening to what exactly? 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:11.799 Yes. 00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:12.799 Yes. 00:10:12.799 --> 00:10:13.799 What are you doing about? 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:24.799 Why are you not doing something about the situation? 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:25.799 Right. 00:10:25.799 --> 00:10:31.720 So he's crying out to God and saying, God, you're not doing anything about the situation 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:36.200 that is very clear and obvious to me. 00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:38.240 And that assumes a couple of things. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:43.879 One of the things that that assumes is he has been asking for something already. 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:49.680 So when he says, Oh, Lord, verse two, how long shall I cry for help? 00:10:49.680 --> 00:10:54.639 We assume that he has been crying for help for a long time. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:58.639 He's been asking God for a season to do something. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:02.919 But how long now he's, so it's likely that Habakkuk has come. 00:11:02.919 --> 00:11:06.639 This is me creating perhaps a fiction around Habakkuk. 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:14.039 But this is how you might be that he's come to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, perhaps three 00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:15.039 times a year. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:20.360 Every faithful Israelite would come to Jerusalem for a pilgrimage. 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:25.159 And perhaps he's been praying farther out wherever he might live. 00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:27.720 Lord, when please come and intervene. 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:28.879 And now he's in the temple. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:30.759 He's finally come to the temple. 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:35.840 And now he's bowing before God in the temple itself and saying, I've been praying and I've 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:40.720 been praying and you haven't done anything. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:42.480 What exactly is the thing? 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:43.480 That's the question. 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:49.840 What is it that he's asking for God to do something about what do you, what can you gather 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.360 from the clues here in verses two to four? 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:57.320 We don't get specifics, but just in general, what, what has happened? 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:08.879 What might be happening? 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:14.000 You can even just read the words back like destruction. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:16.560 There's one violence. 00:12:16.560 --> 00:12:17.879 What else? 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:19.200 Corruption. 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:20.200 Yes. 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:21.200 Yes. 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:22.200 Right. 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:28.080 Verse four, the law is paralyzed, he says. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:34.080 Torah, Genesis, Deuteronomy, the law code of Israel that all kings are supposed to follow 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:35.240 is paralyzed. 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:36.240 It's not working. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:37.240 Right. 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:39.440 In other words, he's injured. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:40.840 He's likely in Jerusalem. 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:42.640 He's likely in the temple. 00:12:42.640 --> 00:12:51.280 And it likely means that the king and the officials of the land have become completely 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:53.399 corrupted. 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:57.879 And so violence is dominating. 00:12:57.879 --> 00:13:04.559 Justice, Mishpat here, the Hebrew term that he uses is not being had. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:08.240 Those who are righteous and obedient are being crushed. 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:11.319 Those who are wicked are being glorified. 00:13:11.319 --> 00:13:12.600 The king is evil. 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:14.799 The king is corrupt. 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:22.719 Now if we're right about where he is and if we're right that he's actually complaining 00:13:22.719 --> 00:13:31.559 about Judah and the evil of a corrupted king, then it's very likely that we can say probably 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:40.399 of more exactly when this is because Israel had gone through a season, Judah, of great 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:44.319 renewal under King Josiah. 00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:50.720 King Josiah had ruled for 30 years in the 600s, the mid-600s. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:55.879 And unfortunately King Josiah was shockingly killed in battle. 00:13:55.879 --> 00:14:03.400 And he was a great young king that had brought the land of Judah back under the law and 00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:06.160 cast the idols out of the temple and all sorts of things like that. 00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:10.920 And then immediately the next king, well there's a short one in between, but the main king 00:14:10.920 --> 00:14:14.160 that comes to the throne is King Jehoiakim. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:19.679 One of Josiah's sons and he becomes king in 608. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:26.879 And remember Babylon had defeated Assyria in 612 and then more fully in 605. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:30.759 Jehoiakim became king in 608 in Judah. 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:36.399 So it's likely that we're sometime between 608 and 597. 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:40.199 And Jehoiakim has completely corrupted Israel. 00:14:40.199 --> 00:14:43.120 He's put idols back into the temple. 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:47.799 He's put idols, statues all across the land. 00:14:47.799 --> 00:14:50.039 He's not following the law in any sense. 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:54.960 He punishes the righteous, wicked and evil go rampant in the streets. 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.200 There's violence everywhere. 00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:58.720 Completely broken society. 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:03.799 So that's very likely exactly what Habakkuk is seeing. 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:14.319 Now if you were to try to phrase his complaint in brief to God, I think it would be something 00:15:14.319 --> 00:15:16.599 like this. 00:15:16.599 --> 00:15:23.919 God what are you going to do about evil in Judah and why have you not done anything yet? 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:29.679 Lord, what are you going to do about this broken society that's all around us and the 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:34.719 corruption and why haven't you stopped it yet? 00:15:34.719 --> 00:15:45.159 And that means that Habakkuk expects actually holiness and law abiding from the people of 00:15:45.159 --> 00:15:52.839 God on the one hand and that he's been hearing what one theologian calls the maddening silence 00:15:52.839 --> 00:15:59.199 of God for a long time in his life as he's prayed about this. 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:08.600 Okay, now if you flip over just for a second to chapter 3 verse 1, you're going to see 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:15.759 it circle around to the beginning again and at the very end Habakkuk is going to sing 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:21.879 a song before God and say verse 2, Oh Lord, I've heard the report of you and your work. 00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:25.040 Oh Lord, do I fear? 00:16:25.040 --> 00:16:27.840 And the rest of it is a praise to God. 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:35.800 So Habakkuk is going to come around to see in God's point but he's not there in chapter 00:16:35.800 --> 00:16:36.800 1 at all. 00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:39.200 He's not there at all in chapter 1. 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:46.019 Okay, now this brings up some universal and timeless questions. 00:16:46.019 --> 00:16:49.759 This book does and this complaint. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:59.200 Every single person, especially for Christians, can look out at the world and say the world 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:08.759 as I find it and the world that I've been promised are not exactly the same thing. 00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:18.879 I see the world as it is and I know the world that I read about in the prophets, the hope 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:23.160 and they don't square, they don't match up. 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:30.280 And so this is a prayer that any person from any age of history, of course, can pray over 00:17:30.280 --> 00:17:32.360 and over and over again. 00:17:32.360 --> 00:17:38.600 Why and how long will you continue to let the corruption carry forth? 00:17:38.600 --> 00:17:43.240 Why and how long will you continue to let what looks like evil reign in the land? 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:48.480 It's a prayer that all of us have felt to some degree and in some way and people feel 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:53.079 it in different ways at different times, in different spaces, in different places that 00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:57.079 they live especially. 00:17:57.079 --> 00:18:03.079 How can God sit back and allow injustice to reign, especially within Judah, His covenant 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:06.480 people? 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:11.880 Another Gandalf quote, I'm reading the two towers right now so I've got a lot of these. 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:20.800 Gandalf says at one point to one of the hobbits, many live that deserve death and some die 00:18:20.800 --> 00:18:24.560 that deserve life. 00:18:24.560 --> 00:18:32.920 Exactly the complaint, many live that deserve to die and many die that deserve to live and 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:37.480 that's exactly what Habakkuk sees here and he's asking about. 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.880 Now there's a second issue as well. 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:44.440 We're going to come back and say something about and ask what do we say to these things 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:45.840 in a moment. 00:18:45.840 --> 00:18:50.400 But let's get the second issue on the table very quickly and then we can wrap up. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:57.320 In verse 5 to 11, God responds and he says, I am doing something. 00:18:57.320 --> 00:19:06.120 So Habakkuk's complaint is you are not doing anything and God says, no I am. 00:19:06.120 --> 00:19:10.680 Why do you think the Babylonians are moving from north to south? 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:18.240 The Babylonians are coming for Judah and Jerusalem and 587 BC is about to come and 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:22.759 the Babylonians are going to come in and absolutely destroy the city, tear down the 00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:31.160 temple, dethrone the last king of Israel and carry off multitudes of captives to Babylon 00:19:31.160 --> 00:19:33.279 in the midst of killing many. 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:36.039 So that's coming. 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:39.400 They are the rising power of the east. 00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:43.759 Now we don't have time to work through every single section of this but God is telling 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:48.880 us in poetic form here exactly of the power of Babylon. 00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:53.880 But note what does God also say about them morally? 00:19:53.880 --> 00:20:01.040 How does God speak about the Babylonians morally here in terms of their ethic? 00:20:01.040 --> 00:20:06.880 What kind of a people they are? 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:09.440 So verse 6 happens a few times. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:12.520 Verse 6 would be one space. 00:20:12.520 --> 00:20:15.680 It says that they are what? 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:22.360 Bitter and hasty nation who march through the breath of the ark to seize dwellings that 00:20:22.360 --> 00:20:23.960 are not their own. 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:32.600 So he labels them as thieves and criminals, evildoers and says, and they are what I am 00:20:32.599 --> 00:20:39.599 doing, they are what I am sending to crush the corruption of Judah. 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:40.959 Alright? 00:20:40.959 --> 00:20:46.399 So level one, Habakkuk's complaint. 00:20:46.399 --> 00:20:50.159 I've been praying and praying and praying and corruption reigns in the land and you're 00:20:50.159 --> 00:20:51.879 doing nothing. 00:20:51.879 --> 00:20:55.439 God says I am doing something. 00:20:55.439 --> 00:21:02.559 Level two complaint would be what? 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:03.559 It's worse still. 00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:08.599 Okay, well if that's what you're doing then how can that be justice? 00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:16.399 So you're going to take evil and use it to crush evil and so evil reigns because evil 00:21:16.399 --> 00:21:22.000 plus evil equals evil, right? 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:28.279 And so the question is thrown back a level, is thrown back a stack if you will. 00:21:28.279 --> 00:21:29.960 So we could put it like this. 00:21:29.960 --> 00:21:35.759 The first question, how can God sit back while people living righteous lives or suffering 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:39.000 under the corruption of evil, right? 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:46.160 But then the second level, based on God's answer, how can God be just and in control 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:52.160 of the world and yet let Babylonians have a free hand to terrorize and dominate his 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:54.279 own people? 00:21:54.279 --> 00:21:59.240 How can he use such a nation as his instrument to punish his own people? 00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:07.079 That's how John L. Mackay, the old OT professor across the street put it in his commentary. 00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:13.000 So God says here I'm using the wickedness in the world for my purposes of justice. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:17.759 Habakkuk is going to come next week and say is that justice? 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:27.640 Okay, let's wrap up by asking very briefly what can we say to these things? 00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:33.880 How do we respond to this difficult issue and these questions that come up very clearly 00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:34.880 here? 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:39.800 All right, let me say three things. 00:22:39.800 --> 00:22:45.920 One, let me, this is preliminary before the one. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:51.080 No, we're not going to fully answer the problem tonight, okay? 00:22:51.080 --> 00:22:54.000 If you can fully answer it at all. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.000 But let's say a few things. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:04.119 Now, note the difference here in what Habakkuk does in the modern problem of evil as it's 00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:05.119 often expressed. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:11.440 Okay, so people today really struggle with believing in God and believing in Christianity 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:16.960 in particular and oftentimes one of the central reasons is the problem of evil. 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:23.279 The problem of evil is probably the greatest argument against faith in any deity and it's 00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:27.440 the most common thing to see in the public square. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:31.920 The modern problem of evil essentially says this. 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:38.799 If God exists, then he's not punishing evildoers or delivering victims in a just way. 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:47.759 And that means that either God is just but not powerful enough to stop injustice or God 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:51.519 is powerful but he's not just so he doesn't. 00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:52.519 Okay? 00:23:52.519 --> 00:23:54.240 So that's the modern problem of evil. 00:23:54.240 --> 00:24:01.799 I just want to say that Habakkuk is not coming to God to present to God the problem of evil. 00:24:01.799 --> 00:24:05.200 That's not at all what's happening here. 00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:13.879 Instead, what he's doing is he's appealing to God to ask why. 00:24:13.879 --> 00:24:20.519 In other words, Habakkuk is stepping into the holy place of God, the temple, in faith 00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:28.200 and saying how long ago Lord and why oh Lord, Lord help my unbelief. 00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:36.639 He's not saying the problem of evil is forcing me to question your character. 00:24:36.639 --> 00:24:37.720 Those are very different things. 00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:42.720 On the one hand, he's doing what we're all called to do, which is why this book is in 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:43.920 the Bible. 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:50.920 And that's the Christian's duty is to be a person of faith seeking understanding. 00:24:50.920 --> 00:24:53.640 And he's doing that before the Lord. 00:24:53.640 --> 00:24:55.120 I have faith. 00:24:55.120 --> 00:24:57.279 I don't have understanding. 00:24:57.279 --> 00:24:58.640 And so I'm appealing to you. 00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:00.320 I'm lamenting before you. 00:25:00.320 --> 00:25:04.720 That's very different from the modern problem of evil, which begins apart from faith and 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:11.680 without faith and questions the possibility of God by questioning the character of God. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:14.960 Those are very different tasks. 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:16.120 So I just want to point that out. 00:25:16.120 --> 00:25:20.880 He's bewildered at God, but he believes in God deeply. 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:21.880 All right. 00:25:21.880 --> 00:25:27.200 Secondly, of three, just to address each question very briefly. 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:30.120 Question one, which is our second point here. 00:25:30.120 --> 00:25:37.440 How can God sit back while people living righteous lives are suffering and people living evil 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:39.440 lives are flourishing? 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:43.840 So the problem of evil in the world that we see all around us, why is God not putting 00:25:43.840 --> 00:25:45.880 it into it today? 00:25:45.880 --> 00:25:47.759 That's Habakkuk's question. 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:48.759 It's our question. 00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:54.720 That's the same question that we're struggling with. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:02.640 The Bible comes, I think, and tries to say over and over and over again and to drill 00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:08.680 into the human mind and heart something that is very difficult for us to receive. 00:26:08.680 --> 00:26:18.799 And that is that ever since Genesis chapter three, justice has always been stayed, not 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:19.799 delivered. 00:26:19.799 --> 00:26:26.320 In other words, ever since the beginning of human history and our sin, God has always 00:26:26.320 --> 00:26:31.759 been patient to never give us what we deserve. 00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:36.640 That's exactly the fundamental ground that we've got to stand on to be able to wrestle 00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:38.880 with a question like this. 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:43.759 When we say, Lord, why is it that the evil seems to be increasing and getting worse all 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:51.400 the time, but you have the power to fix it and you're not? 00:26:51.400 --> 00:26:54.960 Habakkuk shows us that's a prayer you can pray. 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:57.120 How long, oh Lord? 00:26:57.120 --> 00:27:02.320 But the ground that you're walking on has got to have this. 00:27:02.320 --> 00:27:06.000 God has never given us what we deserved. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:10.440 And that's the assumption that carries forth from the beginning to the end of Scripture 00:27:10.440 --> 00:27:14.480 that none of us have ever actually received justice. 00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:19.839 So when Habakkuk says, well, why aren't you doing justice? 00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:22.799 He doesn't want to hear what God could say. 00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:27.960 Which is, do you want justice? 00:27:27.960 --> 00:27:31.279 Do you have a good want justice? 00:27:31.279 --> 00:27:33.559 And the answer when you wrestle with that can only be no. 00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:36.079 I don't want what I deserve. 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:37.399 And we've never gotten it. 00:27:37.399 --> 00:27:40.039 If you've drawn a breath, you've never gotten what you deserved. 00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:42.720 Sin deserves death. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:47.519 And the ground that we walk on, in other words, to live, to even be able to say, look at the 00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:49.919 corruption is actually mercy. 00:27:49.919 --> 00:27:54.000 That we're all, every single person in the world is walking on the ground of mercy to 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:55.559 even live life at all. 00:27:55.559 --> 00:27:58.679 And so that's the assumption that we have to keep. 00:27:58.680 --> 00:28:03.960 That's the biblical motif that comes up over and over again is that even in the judgments 00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:07.480 of the Old Testament, there is mercy. 00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:13.279 The ground that people walk on is mercy before justice. 00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:14.600 Okay. 00:28:14.600 --> 00:28:16.120 All right. 00:28:16.120 --> 00:28:18.560 Now these are half answers, by the way. 00:28:18.560 --> 00:28:19.560 We're leaving it. 00:28:19.560 --> 00:28:22.279 We'll try to flesh these out over the course of July. 00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:26.400 Thirdly and finally, and we'll finish. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:32.560 That issue is then God comes back and says, well, I'm sending Babylon, right? 00:28:32.560 --> 00:28:41.360 Is God just to use Chaldea, Babylon, who is itself an unjust evil power for his purposes 00:28:41.360 --> 00:28:45.560 of justice? 00:28:45.560 --> 00:28:49.880 We've got to keep in mind what we just said, right? 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:51.160 And a couple other truths. 00:28:51.160 --> 00:28:54.440 God never does evil. 00:28:54.440 --> 00:28:56.240 God never does evil. 00:28:56.240 --> 00:29:01.839 God in his grace actually restrains evil throughout history. 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:04.359 We call that God's common grace. 00:29:04.359 --> 00:29:12.279 And so another way to read Habakkuk's complaint or to read the context and the situation is 00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:16.839 to say something like this, to see something like this. 00:29:16.839 --> 00:29:25.920 God has been showing mercy to Judah for many, many, many years. 00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:34.759 Judah has broken the covenant over and over and over again for hundreds of years, all 00:29:34.759 --> 00:29:41.039 the way from when Abraham and Moses walked the planet to this time hundreds of years 00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:46.600 later, Judah has been given mercy after mercy. 00:29:46.600 --> 00:29:52.880 And so the same thing prevails, that Judah has never gotten what it deserved. 00:29:52.880 --> 00:29:58.040 And so when Habakkuk complains, it's both true what he says. 00:29:58.040 --> 00:30:02.720 God, you could wipe this off the face of, you could stop corruption. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:08.520 And then God, it's also true that God can say, I've been patient with all of you and 00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:13.960 especially Judah for century after century after century. 00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:20.240 You, I've revealed myself in physical form to you and you keep putting up Asherah polls 00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:24.240 in the temple and worshiping and bowing before them. 00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:28.960 He's been patient and he's been patient and he's been patient. 00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:38.079 And at the same time, we come to this and the last thing I'll say is that the book isn't 00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:46.240 really here, however, to treat these things exactly at an intellectual level. 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:51.480 So we could work through these issues with, I could pull out a whiteboard, might do that 00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:59.440 one week and put a philosophy, if you will, of why it can make sense that God can be just 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:01.519 and these things happen at the same time. 00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:06.359 Now we can make that work using some of the assumptions I've just talked about and other 00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:08.640 things, other biblical ideas. 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:14.279 But what this book actually is doing, I think, is trying to step into our shoes, God and 00:31:14.279 --> 00:31:23.359 His mercy and giving this to us in His kindness because suffering is a lived reality. 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:29.799 The pain of wickedness and evil and corruption all around us in micro ways and macro ways, 00:31:29.799 --> 00:31:34.639 the ways of daily interaction and the ways of government evils. 00:31:34.639 --> 00:31:40.599 This is a lived reality for every human being and for some of us a lot more than others. 00:31:40.599 --> 00:31:45.959 And I think that this book is trying to help us see that God's own servant here is wrestling 00:31:45.959 --> 00:31:50.480 with a deep existential problem. 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:52.480 How can I survive this pain? 00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:55.719 I think it's the question underneath the question. 00:31:55.719 --> 00:32:00.399 How can I be patient and survive in the midst of this pain? 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:11.759 So I just want to mention this, Christianity has to face the problem of evil to some degree, 00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:12.759 yes. 00:32:12.759 --> 00:32:15.040 It's a problem. 00:32:15.040 --> 00:32:22.080 But I also want to say that Christianity alone has the power not only to face the problem 00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:30.439 of evil intellectually, but to give human beings hope existentially in a way that I 00:32:30.439 --> 00:32:35.359 don't think any other philosophy or religion in history can. 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:39.519 You might put it like this, okay, you say, well, this problem is a huge problem for belief 00:32:39.519 --> 00:32:40.519 in God. 00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:47.439 Well, let's explore for 30 seconds the philosophy of the secular West. 00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:54.240 The philosophy of the secular West is that we are nothing but matter in motion. 00:32:54.240 --> 00:32:59.519 We are beings who started out as single cell molecules that underwent the evolutionary process, 00:32:59.519 --> 00:33:01.080 not made by a creator. 00:33:01.080 --> 00:33:02.200 We need death. 00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:04.759 We need decay for our development. 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:08.120 What we call evil and suffering is a construct. 00:33:08.120 --> 00:33:10.039 Actually it's the path to advancement. 00:33:10.039 --> 00:33:12.080 The strong must eat the weak. 00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:20.960 The survival of the fittest is a necessary path to future generations of evolved beings. 00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:26.039 And yet, what do you say to Hitler? 00:33:26.039 --> 00:33:29.359 You see Christianity has much less of a problem with evil. 00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:31.679 The secular West has the problem of evil to face. 00:33:31.679 --> 00:33:35.119 And that's that they don't know how to call evil evil at all. 00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:40.359 You see you need faith in God to be able to even say this is bad. 00:33:40.359 --> 00:33:41.359 This is evil. 00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:43.000 This is corrupt. 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:47.119 And not only that, the intellectual problem that the secular West faces, but more than 00:33:47.119 --> 00:33:49.839 that the existential problem. 00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:52.919 Because the secular West can say we're just matter in motion and I can say well then how 00:33:52.919 --> 00:33:56.240 can you call anything bad on the one hand. 00:33:56.240 --> 00:33:59.519 But on the other hand I say well then what do you say to the person on their deathbed? 00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:04.959 You see the secular West can't deal with the intellectual problems or the heart problems. 00:34:04.959 --> 00:34:07.479 There's no hope in that. 00:34:07.480 --> 00:34:13.119 And you have to if you're honest do what Foucault and Deri Dye and Sartre and the French philosophers 00:34:13.119 --> 00:34:14.199 of the 20th century said. 00:34:14.199 --> 00:34:20.079 They said that life is meaningless and all there is is to live and to die. 00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:25.760 That's the only thing the secular West narrative actually offers unless it borrows hope from 00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:27.360 Christianity. 00:34:27.360 --> 00:34:30.320 It borrows a moral framework from Christianity. 00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:33.719 And that's exactly what modern people do. 00:34:33.719 --> 00:34:40.719 And so I think the problem here of the suffering of lived reality and pain is much greater 00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:44.879 apart from Christianity than it is within Christianity. 00:34:44.879 --> 00:34:46.879 And I'll close with a quote. 00:34:46.879 --> 00:34:51.279 Tim Keller has a wonderful book on this called Walking with God and Pain and Suffering. 00:34:51.279 --> 00:34:52.279 I can't recommend it enough. 00:34:52.279 --> 00:34:54.359 Especially as we work through this book this summer. 00:34:54.359 --> 00:34:55.359 It's a great read. 00:34:55.359 --> 00:35:01.159 And at the end of every chapter he finishes with a little story about someone in his 00:35:01.159 --> 00:35:05.039 own ministry that was in deep suffering and pain. 00:35:05.039 --> 00:35:09.719 And I just want to read you a quote from a woman called Mary. 00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:14.879 And this is what she says after and I won't tell you all that happened to her but horrific 00:35:14.879 --> 00:35:17.399 life. 00:35:17.399 --> 00:35:23.960 She says this I've come to believe that life will not always be as it is now. 00:35:23.960 --> 00:35:31.280 I find even more comfort in being able to stop focusing on all the heartache and focus 00:35:31.280 --> 00:35:38.760 instead on the one who will one day take heartache away completely and forever. 00:35:38.760 --> 00:35:45.760 I think Habakkuk's prayer is moving from point A Lord I'm struggling with the pain 00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:48.000 in the heartache. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:56.239 To chapter 3 I'm coming through and being able to focus more resolutely on the one who 00:35:56.239 --> 00:36:00.199 can put away heartache and pain forever. 00:36:00.199 --> 00:36:02.679 And that's why Christianity is the only real hope. 00:36:02.679 --> 00:36:07.480 The cross and the resurrection in the midst of existential suffering like this. 00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:08.840 All right let's pray. 00:36:08.840 --> 00:36:15.719 Father we give thanks that in your word you address the problems we face. 00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:20.519 And so I do ask tonight Lord in light of this that you would especially be with the people 00:36:20.519 --> 00:36:27.159 here tonight and our church family broader that can't be here who are deeply suffering, 00:36:27.159 --> 00:36:30.919 who are in significant pain. 00:36:30.919 --> 00:36:35.199 More pain than just the normal wear and tear of life in a fallen world but the pain of 00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:40.319 death, the pain of diagnoses that are very difficult, the pain of watching loved ones 00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:47.640 suffer in some way, the pains of leaving, the pains of moving, the pains of chronic 00:36:47.640 --> 00:36:54.320 disease, the pains of chaos, the pains of violence, the pains of corruption, whatever 00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:56.200 it may be Lord. 00:36:56.200 --> 00:37:03.000 Those in our family that are experiencing these things Lord and there are some send a great 00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:06.080 measure of your spirit to them. 00:37:06.080 --> 00:37:07.600 We ask for this in Christ's name. 00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:10.599 Amen.