Lessons from Habakkuk

Lessons from Habakkuk

The word of God is a powerful instrument and it shines light into where there is darkness and as I was reading Habakkuk these last few weeks, I experienced that again in a very positive way. The word of God brings hope, it brings light and it brings life. And the book of Habakkuk shows this in such a practical way. What I do like about Habakkuk is that it’s so easy to identify with some of the questions of Habakkuk. When I read it I found myself saying  “Yes Habakkuk now that a good question, just what I also want to know for us now”. But God’s response to Habakkuk is just so unexpected. It just highlights the sovereignty of God, that His ways are just so different, just so wise and completely unconstrained by time.  So let’s see what we can learn from this. 

Speaking of learning I love the story of the little girl who asked her Dad where people came from, And being a good Church going man he explained the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the story of creation. As many kids do she thought she had better check with mum. So off she went and asked her mother the same question “where do people come from mommy” and having been a graduate of the local University she explained the theory of evolution and that man had descended from monkeys. The little girl was totally confused so she went back to her Dad and asked  “Dad how come you said that people come from Adam and Eve and creation and Mom says we descended from monkeys?” Being a wise Dad he thought for a moment and said “Well I was talking about my side of the family and your Mom about her side of the family”! 

Back to the wisdom found in Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 1:2-4 Habakkuk’s Complaint

2 How long, Lord, must I call for help,  but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, “Violence!”  but you do not save?

3 Why do you make me look at injustice?

  Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me;  there is strife, and conflict abounds.

4 Therefore the law is paralysed,  and justice never prevails.

The wicked hem in the righteous,  so that justice is perverted.

I have felt like that to. Lord, why do You tolerate all this evil in the world, why do you allow ISIS and these Muslim extremists to create havoc the way they do, to destroy what you have made. Or certain nations to rise in power to gloat and grab. Why do You tolerate the violence we see in our cities by street gangs and others? The murder, the deceit, and the theft we see in our cities. The abuse the hatred and the perversion in society while the media push their own twisted agendas, with no respect of anyone and no fear of God as they worship their own power and strength. Even in families, sometimes those closest to us have become expert spear throwers Why allow this Lord! Lord this does not seem right. 

Habakkuk 1:5-11 The Lord’s Answer

5 “Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days

    that you would not believe,   even if you were told.

6 I am raising up the Babylonians,

    that ruthless and impetuous people,

who sweep across the whole earth  to seize dwellings not their own.

7 They are a feared and dreaded people;

    they are a law to themselves

    and promote their own honor.

8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,  fiercer than wolves at dusk.

Their cavalry gallops headlong;  their horsemen come from afar.

They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;  they all come intent on violence.

Their hordes advance like a desert wind  and gather prisoners like sand.

10 They mock kings and scoff at rulers.

They laugh at all fortified cities;  by building earthen ramps they capture them.

11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—

    guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Babylon stands for everything that opposes God, the antithesis of God fearing people. Does this not seem to be happening in our world right now? Just look at the attributes of these people, ruthless, impetuous, law unto themselves, promote own honour, violent, greedy mocking and scoffing rulers and their own strength is their god.

 But surely this could not be the answer to Habakkuk’s and our problems? How is this going to help anyone?? It surely just makes the situation worse?  Are we not just replacing evil with greater evil??

So not surprisingly Habakkuk has some questions…

Habakkuk 1:12-2:2

Lord, are you not from everlasting?

    My God, my Holy One, you will never die.

You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;

    you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.

13Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?

    Why are you silent while the wicked

    swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

And concludes with…

2:2…. I will stand at my watch

    and station myself on the ramparts;

I will look to see what he will say to me,

The world does not make sense to Habakkuk (and probably to us) but let’s pick up the first major lesson from this amazing book.  

1. If there is a characteristic of any of the major prophets , Apostles, or of God’s mighty men and leaders, or an attribute that sets them apart it is this statement in Habakkuk 2:1

I will stand at my watch

    and station myself on the ramparts

If there is something we need to copy from all the great men of the bible or an attribute to desire it must be this; the ability to stand firm at our watch, to stand and wait for as long as it takes, and then to stand in the face of adversity and then station ourselves on the ramparts ready to face what may come our way.

Let me tell you about the Battle of Rourke’s Drift in SA, January 1879. On this same day at  Isandhlwana  about 10km away, the British Army of about 1800 men been decimated by an attacking Zulu force of about 10,000 men, losing over 1300 men. Four thousand of the Zulu force peeled off and then attacked a reserve force of 150 men at Rorke’s Drift. The British soldiers at Rorke’s Drift set up a perimeter using maize bags and defended the onslaught in close quarter fighting.  An attacking Zulu force is a highly organised, moves fast, can be noisy and can be very unnerving. The 150 stood their ground and against all odds repelled the attack. Of the 150 men 32 were killed or wounded and 11 Victoria Crosses awarded- the most ever received for a single action by one regiment

Make no mistake we are under spiritual attack as well. We are in a battle for complacency, a battle for our families, for what is right and wrong, a battle against addictions, undermining authority and taking away the authority of God’s word. A battle for the mind. We too are facing overwhelming odds, organised, noisy and the future can look bleak. But like Rorke’s Drift we need to stand firm, there may be casualties and we won’t get a Victoria Cross. But by the Cross of Calvary even though we may perish, yet will we live.  Notwithstanding that, we will not fall away no matter how many spears are thrown or how long it may take

I will stand at my watch

    and station myself on the ramparts!

2. God’s answer to Habakkuk was profound; it changed the course of history and underscored the sovereignty of God. It also put into perspective all the carnal and materialistic aspirations and or desires we may have

Habakkuk 2:2-4 (NASB)

2 Then the Lord answered me and said,

“Write down the vision

And inscribe it clearly on tablets,

So that one who reads it may run.

3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

It hurries toward the goal and it will not fail.

Though it delays, wait for it;

For it will certainly come, it will not delay long.

4 “Behold, as for the impudent [insolent ]one,

His soul is not right within him;

But the righteous one will live by his faith.

“One day Martin Luther came to the church of Saint John’s Lateran, where there is a staircase said to be from Pilate’s judgment hall. It was the custom of pilgrims to climb this staircase, but never on their feet – they painfully climbed a step at a time on their knees, saying prayers and kissing the steps where it was thought the blood of Jesus fell. Luther came to this place and started doing just as all the pilgrims did. The pope promised an indulgence to all who climbed the steps on their knees and said the prayers. [It was said, by doing this work one could "redeem a soul from purgatory]." As he did this, Luther remembered the words from Habakkuk: The just will live by his faith. It is said that when he remembered this he stopped, stood up, walked down and went straight home to Germany. Some say the Reformation began on those stairs.

 Luther is quoted as saying “Before those words broke upon my mind I hated God and was angry with him because, not content with frightening us sinners by the law and by the miseries of life, he still further increased our torture by the gospel. But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words – ‘The just shall live by faith!’ ‘The just shall live by faith!’ – then I felt born again like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God.” 

According to Roman Catholic tradition, the Holy Stairs were the steps leading up to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem on which Jesus Christ stepped on his way to trial during his Passion. The Stairs reputedly were brought to Rome by Saint Helena in the fourth century. For centuries, the Scala Sancta has attracted Christian pilgrims who wish to honour the Passion of Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Church has granted indulgences (remission of sin granted by the church!) for it and still do!

The Reformation changed so much, but we should not let the Catholics distract us from the depth of the meaning of “the righteous will live by faith”

We are saved by faith, we are justified by faith (not what we do) and we walk in faith and one day we to will see our Lord in faith at the resurrection.  But when we walk in faith, we don’t follow a path that is the easiest or most comfortable or the widest, but a path chosen by God, independent of circumstances or tribulations. We do this in the faith that this path will lead us to His throne room despite sometimes its perilous route. It is unseen now, but we anticipate it and will bear the consequences to get to this treasure- no matter what. And by the grace of God we will do it, and most definitely not by our own strength or power or intellect.

3. The third learning point: As I meditated on why God would bring such adversity to bring change. I was reminded of my trips to a dentists. I have two great fears- crocodiles and dentists, for me they go together! But I was reminded, when our body suffers with a dental abscess, our whole body and life seems to suffer. When we go to the dentist for either root canal or extraction, the process (particularly it seems for me) is often a painful one- sometimes more than the pain I first felt! However this soon passes and the body returns to full health again. Sometimes we need to endure pain for the good of the whole body.

Similarly in a retic system, a major leak in one part of it may provide lots of water to those plants, but the pressure in the water piping for the  rest of the garden diminishes greatly resulting in the whole garden suffering. In the end you need to turn off the water to that section until repairs can be made, allowing the rest of the garden to be watered. Would a gardener not turn off the supply to a plant so that the many others could be watered?  Does a gardener not prune, cut and remove and change plants so that the whole garden may thrive

So adversity does bring about change, so that in the end the bride will be spotless and the garden a picture! 

We cannot choose what happens to us or around us, but we can choose to trust and believe that God has a plan for us, our families and our nation- and that is called faith. And we can do so confidently, because this is not an fanciful dream, it is not one based on thoughtless hopes, but one based on experience and revelation by the Holy Spirit.

So we too can say with boldness and conviction these words of Habakkuk

Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NIV)

17 Though the fig tree does not bud

    and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

    and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

    and no cattle in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

Amen