Habakkuk 2:1 - 4 "WAITING FOR GOD’S ANSWER- learning to live by Faith"

Habakkuk was  called of God  to warn  the Jews before He would send terrible  judgment upon them. Concerning this he carried a  heavy burden (oracle) on his heart. God help us if we must speak judgment without  a heartfelt burden.  In a vision Habakkuk saw his country delivered  into the  hands of the Babylonians, and he  wrestled  with God  on account of this. When he enquired  of God concerning this, God was  seemingly quiet for a while, BUT THEN the Word came to Habakkuk. God  informed  Habakkuk in 1:5-11, that He was indeed  in the process of sending His instruments of judgment – the Babylonians!  

Habakkuk was alarmed  at this. In his mind the  Babylonians  were worse sinners – more morally and spiritually depraved  than Israel. So he argued with God concerning this (1:12-17) for  he was puzzled,  because  God’s answer  just did not make  sense.  

What was he to do now? 

He  decided to wait!  He says: 

“I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint (2:1).

Habakkuk is withdrawing to his observation station. He is resolved to say nothing until God clarifies the matter.  This is actually good counsel for perplexed Christians. What do you do, when you cannot do anything? What do you do when you are puzzled and troubled and perplexed and not sure of what God is doing?  What can you do when you don’t understand God’s  logic?  While many people  think that any way is right, the watchful and loving pastor often has to remind his people,  “There is a way  that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Prov.  16:25). 

Habakkuk chooses to wait.  He  says,  “I will wait  and see what  He will say to me.”   Habakkuk is a model to us in this respect. Troubled in heart, he doesn’t resort to pragmatic self -help.  He resolves to wait for what God will say  on this matter. Remember,  that God has already spoken  in 1:5-11.  He will surely speak again.

Let’s  just think over this a little bit more:  When God’s answer does not make sense, many Christians  reason,  “Well,  then  I will just have to  figure it out by myself “ .   

Many people in the Bible had tried this.

• Job  and his 4 friends tried it – and ultimately  they were all rebuked by God (Job 38ff). 
• King  Saul  tried   it, when the Philistines were threatening , and  when Samuel did not arrive  in time, and he chose to  present  the burnt offerings – something that he was not permitted to do.  (1 Samuel 13)
• One of the disciples of Jesus tried it when he sought to defend the Lord Jesus Christ  in the hour of  betrayal. He   drew a sword, cutting off the ear   of the servant of the high priest (Matt.  26:51ff). It was premature and unnecessary and unhelpful. Jesus had to rebuke him.

When we do not like what we hear from God’s Word, we easily  are tempted to get impatient. We start looking for other solutions.  The truth is  that we live in a complex world. Sin makes things complex. The truth is that we are rarely able  to see the whole picture. And what we think ought to happen,  and  what God  decides will happen may not always be the same. Who among men understood what God was doing with Job?  His friends  said that he was  being punished for his sin. But  the Bible teaches us that  God’s purpose was not to punish Job, but to  refine Job.

So, before  we are tempted  to  give quick answers or responses, or get angry with God,  we have  to learn to wait  upon God.

In our New Testament  context, where God has spoken in Christ (Hebrews 12:1-3), and where the  revelation of His will is complete is complete,  we  need to learn  to sit prayerfully before our open   Bibles,  and to learn  and discern  concerning  God’s ways with us.  Our instant, restless  society  finds this difficult. We want instant answers and solutions. We really  need to  learn the value and importance of  waiting on God  as we meditate prayerfully  over His written Word,  withdrawing  into quiet places as it were, and sometimes we need  to remain there  until the Lord  has given us understanding  and clarity  concerning a course of action,  though His written Word. It is seldom wrong  to wait!

This is pertinent counsel to people like myself, called to the pastoral ministry. How dare I counsel you with mere human intuition  or wisdom?  Pastor’s  above all people (though not exclusively) need  to  learn to understand  the value  of  knowing  the  full counsel of the Word of God. Pastors are  dealing with the soul (or the heart)  which is by far the most complex  aspect   relating to  the human being.  Being a medical doctor is difficult enough. Making accurate diagnoses and  applying effective treatment  for a sick body is a science  that requires many hours of intensive study.  But the soul is more complex than the body. The soul is intangible.It is deep and it is hidden  to the human  eye.  The body is tangible. Cancer and  Covid19   have  tangible origins, and medical science is working hard to find a cure.

Working with  the intangible soul  is different. This  is where the work of the pastor lies. He is called to be a physician of souls. The procedure  for the cure of souls  is  not found in medical text books, although modern psychology aims to be a substitute  for biblical pastoral work, but we know  that it is a very ‘ iffy’  science.  

The only  effective  medication and treatment  and balm for the  cure of the soul  is found within the realm  of the holy Word of God. The Bible is  the  definitive  book   that speaks authoritatively  about

•  man’s origin
•  man’s unique  relationship to God (being made in the image of God)
• the effects of sin  upon that relationship. 

The  human  soul is  deeply affected  by the fall. In fact, the soul is dead to God (Eph.2:1), and unaided  man  is  exposed to a bewildering array  of  God hating  behaviour.  The 10 commandments are an exposition  of what  the soul relates  to in its sinful  state.  The primary sins  that  are born in the intangible world of  our souls are,  

• Idolatry (the replacement of God  by other loves)
• The dishonouring of  primary relationships  such as  father and mother 
•  murder, adultery, stealing, coveting. 

All these  find their roots in the fallen soul of man. The only cure  for sin  is  to  bring our fallen natures to Christ, the Redeemer from sin. Through faith in Him   men and women are  being  restored. 

So, how  can I understand  the depths of depravity, and the knock on effects of  that depravity   into which the human  soul has entered?

How can I understand  the ways of God  with a  person in my congregation,  without a thorough knowledge of the  Bible?  How can I make a distinction between what a man  or woman brings upon themselves  and  the sanctifying  work of God? 

How can I help  people  without   the divine remedy  prescribed  in the Word of God for such sin? 

Not without being intimately acquainted  with  the word  and the work of the Great Shepherd of our souls.  The biblical pastor will be a watchman (Ezekiel 33), and the work of a watchman is to make known  and to  repeat the  Word of the Lord to his people. 

Pity the church that have   pastors   who have fallen asleep in their complacency, and who have no relationship with the Lord Jesus, and who therefore do not diligently feed the flock with the Word of the Lord. 

An unattended  flock will become easy prey for the wolves  (Acts 20 :29ff).  If it wasn’t for the fact that  Jesus had watched and prayed for Peter, he would have become   Satan’s casualty,  “Simon , Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” (Lk. 22:32)

GOD SPEAKS !

So then, as Habakkuk  waits  we read these  words, “And the Lord answered me…” (2:2a). God is faithful. He will give an answer. Here it is:  

“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets ,so he may run who reads it…”  

Before God says anything to Habakkuk, He  wants to  make  sure that these words won’t get lost. Habakkuk must   write these words down. 

“Write the  vision…”!  

Now some 2,800 years after the writing of these words, we read these words and we  are greatly helped by them  as we  learn of the ways of God in this world! 

 “Make it plain on tablets”

God’s word was to be recorded on a tablet, so that there would be no uncertainty  or ambiguity or reinterpretation  of this message. 

“So he may run who reads it” 

The word  which God gives to the prophet was to be read in the whole land. A herald was  sent through the land to proclaim  this message  from God.  

Then the Lord adds  this word, “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“ (2:3). 

This  vision was  still unfulfilled, but  it is coming – it hastens to the end.  It would happen in time  just as God had told Habakkuk.

And now follows  an important  message  to the remnant in Israel, those who would wait patiently for this  time of   judgment, and  who would  keep trusting in God.  

What follows  are  Habakkuk’s most famous words and quoted in Romans, Galatians  and Hebrews. Theseare the  words that turned around the life of  the German Reformer, Martin Luther

 THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY HIS FAITH.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. (v.4).  

There are only two possible attitudes in this world with respect  to  God and His Word. The first is that  of  unbelief, and  the second is that of faith. In the words of Habakkuk,  either our souls  are puffed up  or self – righteous  (and therefore not upright), or our souls  live in faith and dependence upon God and His Word. This is  the  righteousness that God loves.  The person who lives by his/her  faith in God  is righteous. The righteous person makes  their decisions  based upon the Word of God.  The  person possessed  by such faith accepts God’s rule.  Hebrews  Chapters 10-12  expound and illustrate this  truth in the lives of those  that walk by faith in God.

There are two ways in which we can choose to look  at  events (past, present, future)  in this world.

• Some say that world events are simply random. Things happen. The survival of the fittest - the one who has the most money and the biggest army  wins.
• The other view says that God is in charge of history - not fate, not money, not armies, not powerful people.  God has the last word on everything, and when God says  that Babylon will invade  Judah,  or when a Covid-19  virus  will invade the world, then it  will be so. No explanation  needed. Faith means taking God at His word. It says,“Lord , I don’t understand it but I believe that what you are doing is righteous  and good”. That  is the faith of  Hebrews 11. These men and women believed God,  simply because  God had spoken.  This is the life that pleases God.

Right now  Habakkuk is in the process of moving from   fear or frustration  to faith.  This is the text  on which the rest of this prophetic  book is hinged. From this  position, the prophet (and we)  move into  the position of understanding, and with that, he and we,  move  into  the peace, hope and joy of  the God  who controls the world in the midst of  some very terrible  circumstances.

TWO ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A RIGHTEOUS PERSON LIVING BY FAITH

(i) You’ve got to know the truth. You must have knowledge.  Faith doesn’t begin or end in a vacuum. You  need to know  God in Christ.  In order to have faith in Him you need to know: 

• Who is He? 
• Why did He come? 
• What did He teach? 
• Why did He die?  
• Why did He rise from the dead?  
• Where is He now?  
• What is He going to do in the future?  

The more you know about Jesus, the more you learn to trust Him. 

The less you know about Jesus, the weaker your faith will be. 

In who or what are you  trusting right now? You must know him well.

(ii) You’ve got to have personal trust. The righteous will live by his own faith.  You must have this  faith personally. True, saving faith moves  from knowledge  to trust. The longer you know Him, the easier it is to trust Him.  In order  to trust Him , you must get into Him, if you know what I mean. Think of it this way. If you are on a cruise ship that is sinking, what do you do? 

You know you need to get to a lifeboat. 

You know that you have to climb over the side and climb down the ladder and get into the boat. 

But even that knowledge is not enough. 

You have to do it. 

You must personally get into the lifeboat. It is the only way to be saved from the sea. 

So then,  in waiting for God's answer, Habakkuk is  really  learning one big  thing at this time. He is learning to trust God in this bad situation. And we shall learn  with Him that He will not be disappointed. The answer  is in the making  and  Habakkuk  will be a changed man.   

Habakkuk 1:12-2:1 "WHEN GOD’S ANSWER DOESN’T MAKE SENSE"

Habakkuk was living at a time when evil flourished in Israel.  Concerning this  Habakkuk  had  cried  out to  God  many years, but it seemed to Habakkuk as if God was deaf:  “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (v.2). 

We saw however   that  God did answer him  in vv. 5-11.God told him  that  He was in the process of raising up the Babylonians for the purpose of disciplining  the  southern kingdom nation of  Israel  (Judah).  However, this  announcement created another faith crisis   for Habakkuk.  So yes, Israel was in the grip of  evil,  and God was right to judge her, but   Habakkuk's crisis   was , how could God use the Babylonians (1:6),  a nation more evil than Israel, to chastise them?  

Hear the prophet’s struggle in the following words:

V. 12 “Are you not from everlasting? O Lord my God, my Holy One, we shall not die”. You can almost feel the shock in Habakkuk’s being and voice, and you see how he begins to bargain with God. Habakkuk is not ready to receive this message of divine judgement.  The situation would be analogous  to us in Namibia, praying that God would do something  about the wickedness in our country, and then God announcing,  “I am sending the Angolan army  to sweep through your country and cities and towns  and destroy everything  in their way   from the Kunene to the Orange river.”  

We know that our nation deserves God’s judgement, but would you be prepared for having the Angolan army take care of that? So, you understand that this was staggering news to Habakkuk.

We shall now consider  Habakkuk’s reaction to the news of this coming  disaster.  

He begins  by affirming some fundamental convictions (i.e. what he knows to be true ) about the nature / character of God. Habakkuk says to God, “Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One (Hebr. Yahweh Elohi Qodeshi)…!”  This is an expression of  what he fundamentally believes about God:  “my God- my holy God, the eternal God ”.  

Habakkuk is infused with good doctrine. And good doctrine provides a solid foundation for further thinking.  He is thinking from first principles and thereby he is laying a proper foundation of acknowledgement, of submission,  of trust and hope in his  God. 

It was not that God had to be reminded that he was holy and eternal.

It was not that God needed to be told how cruel and wicked the Babylonians were.   

The point is that Habakkuk  needed  to affirm and  remind himself  of who God  was.

That is what happens when you discover a strange   lump in your body. You instinctively pray in your heart,  “O Lord my God, my holy Lord,   grant that it is not malignant!”   And your  response  might be similar,“O LORD are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, I will not die?” (v.12). 

King Hezekiah,  when  he received the news that he was terminally ill, prayed  a similar prayer  in  2 Kings  20:2ff. That is a typical response, and it is good! As it turned out, the LORD gave him another 15 years.  

So, in the revelation of this  God-sent calamity,  Habakkuk worships God, reassuring his own  heart with the truths of the eternal holiness of a personal God. But he is not finished yet. Having established  himself in the Lord, he expresses his perplexity: 

“O Lord, you [the eternally holy one] have ordained them [i.e. these  godless Babylonians]  as a judgment; and you O Rock, you  have established  them for reproof” (v.12b). Have you really appointed people such  as these to punish us?   I am really struggling to understand this.

You will note that  Habakkuk  begins to engage  God in  arguments. He reminds God, 

“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?  (v.13).

Here we come to the heart of Habakkuk’s problem, and we can understand this  dilemma. It seemed to Habakkuk that God’s tolerance of Babylon was inconsistent with His holiness.  And in Habakkuk’s words, God was allowing the ‘more wicked’ to swallow up the ‘lesser wicked’!  

• Where is the sense God’s holiness in such an action?  
• How can God keep quiet as the Babylonians  swept through Judah  and destroyed  Jerusalem and  took  good young people  like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Ezekiel off into exile?  
• How could he not  answer  faithful  Jeremiah’s prayer   and  lamentations at this  time ?

Now listen how Habakkuk continues to pour out his heart  in vv. 14-17, 

“ 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?  

Babylonian art (of which I have seen some in the famous  Pergamon Museum in Berlin) pictured those captured and marched off into captivity  as  strung together with literal hooks through each person’s lower lip. That illustrates  the cruelty of  the Babylonians.  No pity was shown to the defeated.  What was even worse, was that the  Babylonians  attributed their power  to  their  false gods, as  if they  had been responsible  to give  Babylon  this  remarkable power over a multitude of nations, as they relentlessly ‘fished’ for more victims. How could God tolerate this idolatry?

Back to Habakkuk’s question  in 1:12 b: 

“O LORD you have ordained them to execute judgment”.  

Arguing with God is very strange, because we know that God is really right all the time. He knows more than we do. He  sees  and understands more than we can. He knows the beginning from the end.From this interaction we see   that God does not forbid us to question Him  we  are perplexed about His ways in the world. Nowhere do we see God striking Habakkuk  dead  as he  questions God’s providence. 

This is true for Abraham  who  pleaded with God not to destroy Sodom. God listens  and graciously  answers Abraham point by point because he knows  that Abraham’s heart  is not evil  in what he  is asking.  This is a matter of lack of understanding, and not willful rebellion. The problem is that these men did not understand that these cities Jerusalem and Sodom had heaped  up sins to high heaven, and were not willing to repent.  

Even if this is true, there is nothing wrong if we cry and plead and pray   to God  to change His mind. Even the Lord Jesus wept for Jerusalem in His time ,  saying ‘I would take you under my wings and protect you, but you wouldn’t come.’ Jesus wept over this doomed city even though  He knew  that it was going to be destroyed by the Romans who would be sent there by  God in AD 70.  “The fact of a predestinated destruction was no basis even for Jesus to be indifferent to their punishment. Let him weep. Let us Habakkuk weep. Let us weep.” (Geoff Thomas )

Learning from Habakkuk we see that   it is not wrong to be shocked when God sends  chastises our wworld through strange means. And if this is so, it is not wrong to ask “Why?“.  

We see this  tendency  often  in the  Psalms, where we find such questions asked  of God,   

• “Why, O LORD, do you stand afar off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1); 
• “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1);

This honest but reverent  questioning of God  and His ways in the world  is an element that  we rarely hear  in our prayer meetings. We  are afraid to think  that we sound faithless, but should we not learn our theology of prayer from the Scriptures ? 

Now let me issue a word of caution.  Remember  that  Habakkuk  began his  discourse  with  an  affirmation of God’s  essential  nature  - His  faithful, everlasting, fatherly,holy,  all-powerful, all-wise  nature. That is what  we must affirm  when we  address God with our  perplexities. Habakukk's questions  have this background in mind.

When we question God, we must do so from a basis of humility. So,  let’s revise this again. 

• Habakkuk is facing this horrible news.  
• What does he do? 
• He reminds himself of God’s  attributes. 
• Then he tells  God honestly about his misgivings.  

He, like we is limited in his grasp of things. He cannot yet see things as God sees them. God  knows the outcome. He must learn not to doubt God’s goodness in the face of a  horrible invasion by the Babylonian army. The Babylonians  are coming with their cruel nets and hooks, and it breaks his heart. But God is on His throne. He knows. And that is an important  thing  for us to know.

So then, what remains to be done? Habakkuk says,  

“I will take my stand at my watch post  and station myself on  tower  and  look out  to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer  concerning  my  complaint” (Hab. 2:1). 

Habakkuk has made  his complaint to God.   Now it is  time to stand back and  observe and wait for God to act  and to give an answer. He will climb  into his observation  post and  see.  

In troublesome times,  how   can we apply this to ourselves?   

1.        By  understanding the present times  in the light of Scripture

2.        By knowing God as He is revealed in  the Bible

3.        By talking  to God - honestly – openly. And we expect  to be corrected.

4.        By prayerful withdrawal. There are times when we can do nothing. We must wait on God.  Do you have a watch post, a  place of perspective where you can speak with God about the things that perplex you?   Follow Habakkuk. He has just left to go to  his watch post. He  will  see from  there what answer God will give.  Habakkuk in his distressed state of mind  will now go to a quiet place and close the door. The God who he will meet there  will supply him with wisdom (James 1:5-8).  And Habakkuk is determined not to leave that place until God answers and solves his perplexities.