October 20 Sermon Bones (just the skeleton of the message)

·         Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1-17

·         Message/Theme: God will bring justice, but in the meantime, the righteous will live by faith.

Introduction: EMT Emergency Medical Technician

·         Working on the front lines of emergency medical response, EMTs usually serve as the first point of contact when someone has experienced injury, trauma or issues brought about by illness or age. Working alongside other first responders, EMTs are responsible for providing life-saving care and transporting individuals to hospitals for more in-depth services. EMTs may provide CPR, administer medications, wrap wounds, stabilize head/neck injuries or broken bones, administer oxygen, deal with issues related to shock and drive the ambulance. Often the care they administer can make the difference in whether a patient survives until they reach a hospital, making it an important role. An EMT's training is very important.  All of that training is so that when a crisis does take place, they don't freak-out.  They will know what to do.  On the Spiritual level - we need training so that when the day of hardship arrives, not if, but when the day of hardship arrives - we will know what to do. 

·         Habakkuk offers that in an unusual way... Habakkuk, the book - is a dialogue with God, instead of a "word to or about the people."  It is his prayer journal.

What prophets do in private - a lot of personal grappling and struggles... This is not so unusual for the prophets.  I am sure Moses was bald - he had pulled all his hair out. 

Exodus 32 he intercedes for Israel in a big way, but in Numbers 11:10-15

¹⁰ ... and Moses was troubled. ¹¹ He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? ¹³ Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

·         Sound like a parent who has been at home all day with 2 year olds speaking to their spouse as they comes home...?

1) Habakkuk's Complaint (chapter 1:2-4)

2How long, O Lord , must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?

3Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

• The opening of the passage does not flinch from painful realities, but in the Biblical tradition of lament and holy argumentation with God, the prophet rails at God and demands an answer.
• The word translated "paralyzed" originally meant something gone numb from the cold: it is useless, frozen, ineffective. The result is that the community will never see justice, or what they will see will be "perverted" or "crooked."
• Remember the historical setting, the Babylonians are knocking at Judah's door.  It is a valid complaint/lament... personalized by his impatience and questioning. The protest to God of unanswered prayer is a common human complaint. It is found in the cries of Psalms 10, 13, 54 and 55, among others. "Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication" (Ps. 55:1).

II) God's Answer (chapter 1:5-11)

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. 6I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. 7They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.

• God says that it will all change.  God is not ignorant of the problem and God's will is being fulfilled.  The Assyrians have faded and the Babylonians are in power, specifically the Chaldeans (southern region of Babylon).  They fear no one.

III) Habakkuk's Response (chapter 1:12-17)

13Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

·         Here it is as if he is thinking out loud... "Really, God?!  You  are going to use the Babylonians to discipline Israel when they are so much more evil?

• These verses describe the rising Babylonian threat as a punishment sent by God against the evil leaders of Judah (1:6). Even though the Babylonians are not more righteous than the Judeans, God uses them as an instrument of divine retribution. The Babylonian Empire did, in fact, subjugate and eventually destroy Judah. The people of Judah feared this rising threat and the book of Habakkuk interprets this threat, not as another instance of God's continued silence, but rather as the answer to problems he describes in 1:2-4.

• Habakkuk responds again, still waiting for an answer... Verse 2:1 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Waiting and patience is always a hard test of faith.
• The paradox of lament is that there is no lament without a foundation of faith. Grief, sorrow, despair can all exist alongside a void of faith, but argumentative lament presupposes that Someone is listening. Like the psalmist who repeatedly asks, "How long, O Lord?" (e.g., Pss. 13:1, 74:10), Habakkuk's boldness suggests that he is no stranger to this holy disputation. He believes that an answer will come, because he has had such experiences of consolation and clarity before.

IV) God's Answer (chapter 2)

2Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. 4"See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright- but the righteous will live by his faith.

• As proof of this, God instructs Habakkuk to publish the oracle. Write it down because it will come true.  Write it down because you can hold me (God) to these words. Write it down because it is a warning.

How we deal with our struggles...

·         Having failed to reach a solution, despite seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing more to do but to take it to God in prayer. But what so frequently happens is this. We go on our knees and tell God about the thing that is worrying us, we tell him that we cannot solve the difficulty ourselves, that we cannot understand, and we ask him to deal with it to show us his way. Then the moment we get up from our knees we begin to worry about the problem again. We also tell other people about it, and from what is probably a very wrong motive. Actually, it is often the case that we are proud of our problems, it shows that we are serious Christians and that we are wrestling with deep, spiritual things. We want to let other people know about it. If we are doing this, we have not left the problem with God. If you have a problem like this, leave it with God. You do not have the right to talk about it or brood over it any longer, of you are walking in faith.

How we SHOULD deal with our struggles...  "but the righteous will live by his faith."

·         So to hear Habakkuk, to have faith means to believe the God will indeed fulfill the vision and bring in his good kingdom on earth, and then to act as if it is true. It means to shape one's life according to the character of the coming kingdom, to be faithful and steadfast in obedience and love of God every day, because God is bringing to earth a realm of goodness and love and order. Faith means living in the light of that which God has promised and trusting that God will keep his promise.

·         For example, God in Christ has promised that we shall be with him in his kingdom and that he has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:3). Well, what kind of person is fit to live with Christ? 2 Peter puts it this way, "since all of these things are coming to pass, what sort of persons are you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? What sort of person should we be in light of the coming kingdom? Those who are humble before Christ's majesty, counting on his mercy alone? Those who have striven every day to love their neighbor? Those who have looked at Christ for every good and have daily praised him for all of his gifts? Those who have forgiven every wrong because Christ has forgiven them? Those who have not been anxious or who have feared death, because they know their lives are in the hands of Christ. Those who have loved God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and power of the Spirit? (Elizabeth Achtemaier)

• Habakkuk's promise is that the vision will finally arrive. It will be so plain we can write it down so that a messenger can read it aloud. "If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay" (2:3b). Finally, Habakkuk knew that God's response was not just for him, but for his whole community who were suffering.

"The Righteous will live by Faith"

·         This gets quoted three times in the New Testament: Romans 1, Galatians 3, and Hebrews 10

 Read Hebrews 10:32-39 (written with perseverance s the theme , just like Habakkuk)

³² Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. ³³ Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴ You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. ³⁵ So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. ³⁷ For,

     “In just a little while,

     he who is coming will come and will not delay.”

³⁸ And,

     “But my righteous one will live by faith.

     And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”

³⁹ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

·         "Because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded."

What God offers is better than anything we might lose.

V) Habakkuk's Final Response (Chapter 3)

·         Chapter three is believed to have been used in worship.  Look at it's poetic style and form. Final hymn celebrating God's appearance

"2Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy."

·         Come Lord, Come

6He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.

·         God is eternal, not these things we traditionally think of as eternal

Conclusion

·         Habakkuk laments to God that he is out of options.  He has nowhere to turn.  Babylon is evil... so is Israel.

·         Most likely he had seen Josiah's reform.  Earlier, in 622 BC, good King Josiah of Judah had carried out a thorough political and religious reform of the nation's life. Asserting Judah's independence from a weakened Assyria and enlarging Judah's territory, Josiah ordered all foreign influences to be abolished, did away with strange cults and priests, centralized all worship at Jerusalem, and renewed the Covenant between the people and God (Chronicles 34)

·         He knew it could be different...

To Illustrate the point:

Catholic spiritual writer Edward Hays recounts a story in which a young man goes to visit a wise hermit. He finds the monk sitting outside his cave, enjoying the sun, his dog lying lazily at his side. The seeker asks, "Why is it, Abba, that some who seek God come to the desert and are zealous in prayer, but leave after a year or so, while others, like you, remain faithful to the quest for a lifetime?"

The old man responds, "One day my dog and I were sitting here quietly in the sun, as we are now. Suddenly, a large white rabbit ran across in front of us. Well, my dog jumped up, barking loudly, and took off after that big rabbit. He chased the rabbit over the hills with a passion. Soon, other dogs joined him, attracted by his barking. What a sight it was, as the pack of dogs ran barking across the creek, up stony embankments, and through thickets and thorns! Gradually, however, one by one, the other dogs dropped out of the pursuit, discouraged by the course and frustrated by the chase. Only my dog continued to hotly pursue the white rabbit."

Confused, the young man asks, "What is the connection between the rabbit chase and the quest for God?"

The hermit replies, "Why didn't the other dogs continue the chase? They had not seen the rabbit." They were only attracted by the barking of the dog. But once you see the rabbit, you will never give up the chase. Seeing the rabbit, and not following the commotion, was what kept the old monk in the desert.

·         Habakkuk had seen the rabbit - Josiah's reform. 

Habakkuk ends the book/hymn with:

16I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into

my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.

17Though 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,

18yet I will rejoice in the Lord , I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

What God offers is better than anything we might lose.

The Righteous will live by Faith