Habakkuk

1
Habakkuk

• Evil men swallow up the righteous and you stand
  around and watch! (113)

2
Chronology
Judah Prophets Israel
931 BC Rehoboam Jeroboam
Abijah Nadab
900 BC Asa Baasha
850 BC Jehoshaphat Elijah Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram
800 BC Jehoram, Ahaziah, Queen Athaliah, Joash Elisha Jonah Amos Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II
750 BC Amaziah Uzziah Ahaz Hosea Micah Isaiah Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah
722 BC Hezekiah Isaiah Pekah, Hoshea
3
King Prophet
650 Manasseh
Amon
Josiah Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel
612 Joahaz Nahum
600 Jehoiakim 605 1st invasion (Daniel)
Jehoiachin 597 2nd invasion (Ezekiel)
586 Zedekiah 586 3rd invasion (Jeremiah)


4

• O LORD, how long must I call for help before you
  listen, before you save us from violence? Why do
  you make me see such trouble? How can you stand
  to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and
  violence are all around me, and there is fighting
  and quarreling everywhere. The law is weak and
  useless, and justice is never done. Evil people
  get the better of the righteous, and so justice
  is perverted. (Habakkuk 11-4)

5

• Then the LORD said to his people, Keep watching
  the nations around you, and you will be
  astonished at what you see. I am going to do
  something that you will not believe when you hear
  about it.
• I am bringing the Babylonians to power, those
  fierce, restless people. They are marching out
  across the world to conquer other lands.
  (Habakkuk 11-6)

6

• They spread fear and terror, and in their pride
  they are a law to themselves. Their horses are
  faster than leopards, fiercer than hungry wolves.
  Their cavalry troops come riding from distant
  lands their horses paw the ground. They come
  swooping down like eagles attacking their prey.
  Their armies advance in violent conquest, and
  everyone is terrified as they approach. Their
  captives are as numerous as grains of sand. They
  treat kings with contempt and laugh at high
  officials. No fortress can stop them---they pile
  up earth against it and capture it. (Habakkuk
  17-10)

7

• They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But
  they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is
  their god. (Habakkuk 111)

8

• LORD, from the very beginning you are God. You
  are my God, holy and eternal. LORD, my God and
  protector, you have chosen the Babylonians and
  made them strong so that they can punish us. But
  how can you stand these treacherous, evil men?
  Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you
  cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong. So
  why are you silent while they destroy people who
  are more righteous than they are? How can you
  treat people like fish or like a swarm of insects
  that have no ruler to direct them? (Habakkuk
  112-14)

9

• The Babylonians catch people with hooks, as
  though they were fish. They drag them off in nets
  and shout for joy over their catch! They even
  worship their nets and offer sacrifices to them,
  because their nets provide them with the best of
  everything. Are they going to use their swords
  forever and keep on destroying nations without
  mercy? (Habakkuk 115-17)

10

• I will climb my watchtower and wait to see what
  the LORD will tell me to say and what answer he
  will give to my complaint. (Habakkuk 21)

11

• God, youre from eternity, arent you? Holy God,
  we arent going to die, are we? God, you chose
  Babylonians for your judgment work? Rock-Solid
  God, you gave them the job of discipline? But you
  cant be serious! You cant condone evil! So why
  dont you do something about this? Why are you
  silent now? This outrage! Evil men swallow up the
  righteous and you stand around and watch! Youre
  treating men and women as so many fish in the
  ocean, Swimming without direction, swimming but
  not getting anywhere. Then this evil Babylonian
  arrives and goes fishing. He pulls in a good
  catch. He catches his limit and fills his creel
  a good day of fishing! Hes happy!

12

• He praises his rod and reel, piles his fishing
  gear on an altar and worships it! Its made his
  day, and hes going to eat well tonight! Are you
  going to let this go on and on? Will you let this
  Babylonian fisherman fish like a weekend angler,
  killing people as if theyre nothing but fish?
  Whats God going to say to my questions? Im
  braced for the worst. Ill climb to the lookout
  tower and scan the horizon. Ill wait to see what
  God says, how hell answer my complaint.
  (Habakkuk 112-17 21 The Message)

13

• Then Moses turned to the LORD again and said,
  Lord, why do you mistreat your people? Why did
  you send me here? Ever since I went to the king
  to speak for you, he has treated them cruelly.
  And you have done nothing to help them! (Exodus
  522-23 GN)

14

• Surely you won't kill the innocent with the
  guilty. That's impossible! You can't do that. If
  you did, the innocent would be punished along
  with the guilty. That is impossible. The judge of
  all the earth has to act justly. (Genesis 1825
  GN)

15

• I still rebel and complain against God I cannot
  keep from groaning. How I wish I knew where to
  find him, and knew how to go where he is. I would
  state my case before him and present all the
  arguments in my favor. I want to know what he
  would say and how he would answer me. Would God
  use all his strength against me? No, he would
  listen as I spoke. I am honest I could reason
  with God he would declare me innocent once and
  for all. (Job 231-7)

16
(No Transcript)
17

• The LORD gave me this answer Write down
  clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that
  it can be read at a glance. Put it in writing,
  because it is not yet time for it to come true.
  But the time is coming quickly, and what I show
  you will come true. It may seem slow in coming,
  but wait for it it will certainly take place,
  and it will not be delayed. And this is the
  message
• Those who are evil will not survive, but those
  who are righteous will live because they are
  faithful to God. (Habakkuk 21-4)

18

• those who are righteous will live because they
  are faithful to God. (GNB)
• the righteous will live by his faith (NIV,
  NASB, ESV)
• the righteous live by their faith (NRSV)
• Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and
  their lives are crooked. But the righteous will
  live by their faithfulness to God. (NLT)

19
Theodicy

• Habakkuk God, you have the power, why dont you
  do something to correct the great injustice in
  this world (11-4)
• Gods response It will get worse. Here come the
  cruel Babylonians. (15-11)
• Habakkuk How can you treat people like fish?
  How can you allow the most wicked and the most
  godless people to punish? (112-17)
• Gods response I will do something that has not
  yet come true. Wait for it. In the meantime,
  write this down and follow it those who are
  right with me, will trust me until it comes.
  (21-4)

20
The problem for Habakkuk

• Gods ways dont make sense Gods
  trustworthiness, faithfulness, and character is
  questioned
• Kevin Carter

21
Habakkuk 24 contrast

• Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and
  their lives are crooked (those who are evil will
  not survive).
• But the righteous will live by their faithfulness
  to God. (NLT)

22

• Wealth is deceitful. Greedy people are proud and
  restless---like death itself they are never
  satisfied. That is why they conquer nation after
  nation for themselves. (Habakkuk 25)
• You are doomed! You have made your family rich
  with what you took by violence, and have tried to
  make your own home safe from harm and danger! But
  your schemes have brought shame on your family
  by destroying many nations you have only brought
  ruin on yourself. Even the stones of the walls
  cry out against you, and the rafters echo the
  cry. You are doomed! You founded a city on crime
  and built it up by murder. (Habakkuk 29-12)

23

• What's the use of an idol? It is only something
  that a human being has made, and it tells you
  nothing but lies. What good does it do for its
  maker to trust it---a god that can't even talk!
  (Habakkuk 218)

24

• But the earth will be as full of the knowledge
  of the LORDs glory as the seas are full of
  water. (Habakkuk 214)

25

• Even if the fig tree does not bloom and the
  vines have no grapes, even if the olive tree
  fails to produce and the fields yield no food,
  even if the sheep pen is empty and the stalls
  have no cattle - even then, I will be happy with
  the LORD. I will truly find joy in God, who saves
  me. The LORD Almighty is my strength. He makes my
  feet like those of a deer. He makes me walk on
  the mountains. (Habakkuk 317-19)

26

• But the righteous person will live because they
  are faithful to God. (24)
• The righteous person will live because they put
  their complete trust in God despite the
  circumstances, despite uncertainty, despite
  unanswered questions.
• Abraham put his trust in the LORD, and because
  of this the LORD was pleased with him and
  accepted him (Genesis 156 GN)
• Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him (Job
  1315, KJV)

27
Paul

• As the Scripture says, The just (righteous)
  shall live by faith? (Romans 117 Galatians
  311 Hebrews 1038)
• A. Those who are legally forgiven because of
  their faith will live. They are justified or
  declared righteous
• B. If you are justified or declared righteous
  then you will be able to live eternally because
  of your faith

28
Romans answers Habakkuks question

• From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to
  be an apostle and appointed to spread the Good
  News of God. God had already promised this Good
  News through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
  This Good News is about his Son, our Lord Jesus
  Christ. (Romans 11-4)

29

• For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is
  Gods power for salvation to everyone who
  believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
  For the righteousness of God is revealed in the
  gospel from faith to faith, just as it is
  written, The righteous by faith will live.
  (Romans 116,17 NET)
• For in it the righteousness of God is revealed
  (NRSV, NKJV, NASB, ESV)
• For in the gospel the righteousness of God is
  revealed. (TNIV)

30

• For in it the righteousness of God is revealed
  through faith for faith as it is written, The
  one who is righteous will live by faith.
  (Romans 117 NRSV)
• O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you
  will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you
  will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity,
  and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction
  and violence are before me strife and contention
  arise. 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? (Habakkuk 12,3,13 ESV)

31

• Thus, when Paul quotes Hab. 24, we cannot help
  hearing the echoes unless we are tone deaf of
  Habakkuks theodicy question. By showcasing this
  text virtually as an epigraph at the
  beginning of the letter to Romans, Paul links his
  gospel to the Old Testament prophetic affirmation
  of Gods justice and righteousness. Hays,
  Echoes, pg 40

32

• Many people have misread the book of Romans as a
  book that explains how we can legally get to
  heaven. This interpretation, however, misses the
  central question that Paul is answering in this
  book, and that central question is this 'Can God
  be Trusted?
• Richard B. Hays

33

• True, some of them were unfaithful but just
  because they were unfaithful, does that mean God
  will be unfaithful? Of course not! Even if
  everyone else is a liar, God is true. As the
  Scriptures say about Him, You will be proved
  right in what you say, and You will win Your case
  in court. (Romans 33-4 NLT)

34

• But now, apart from the law the righteousness of
  God has been disclosed - namely, the
  righteousness of God through the faithfulness of
  Jesus Christ for all who believeGod publicly
  displayed him at his death as the mercy seat
  accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate
  his righteousness, because God in his forbearance
  had passed over the sins previously committed.
  This was also to demonstrate his righteousness.
  (Romans 321-26, NET)

35

• What, then, can we boast about? Nothing! And
  what is the reason for this? Is it that we obey
  the Law? No, but that we believe. For we conclude
  that a person is put right with God only through
  faith, and not by doing what the Law commands. Or
  is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the
  God of the Gentiles also? Of course he is. God is
  one, and he will put the Jews right with himself
  on the basis of their faith, and will put the
  Gentiles right through their faith. (Rom
  327-30)

36

• What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father
  of our race? What was his experience? If he was
  put right with God by the things he did, he would
  have something to boast about---but not in Gods
  sight. The scripture says, Abraham believed God,
  and because of his faith God accepted him as
  righteous. (Romans 41-3)

37
(No Transcript)
38

• Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
  saved---you and your family." (Acts 1631 GN)
• Have faith in the Lord Jesus. (Berkeley)
• They said, Put your entire trust in the Master
  Jesus. Then you'll live as you were meant to
  live--and everyone in your house included!
  (Acts 1631 The Message)
• Put your trust in the Lord Jesus (NEB)

39

• Those who know you, LORD, will trust you
  (Psalms 910 GN)