Habakkuk's Complaint

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Why are we in Habakkuk? You could probably go to church for decades almost anywhere in the United States and never, ever have a message from this three-chapter, odd, prophetic book. And we're going to have four messages from this. More than any... I've never preached on Habakkuk before. No. Look, I've been preaching a long time, but not, you know... I haven't preached on the Song of Solomon either, by the way, so... Yeah. There's a few others. But it may seem like, why would you take time to do that now? I think this book is so relevant to our day and age and our time right now. It is worth going through. It really is. And there are some famous lines from this book that you might not even recognize. One that Carl will be, next week, bringing up, which is the just shall live by faith. It comes up in the Book of Romans again and again. That is in Habakkuk 2, or Habakkuk 2, or Habakkuk 2, or I don't know. Take your pick. But it's already there. And it's one of the famous lines of the Reformation, of the whole change, the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. So, we're going to look at that from a different angle than just pulling it out of Romans or the New Testament, but from its original time when Habakkuk, when God spoke these words to Habakkuk. But, though this book is 2600-ish years old, it almost feels modern. And we're going to see how relevant it is with the questions that Habakkuk raises, and that I think we all struggle with. So, let's read now, we're going to read chapter 1, the whole thing today. A little longer than I anticipated, but I think we need the whole thing. And then I think Carl, next week, will be picking up in chapter 1 and going into chapter 2 and tying it all together. I know you can do it. Okay. So, let's start reading in Habakkuk 1. The oracle that Habakkuk, the prophet, saw. Saw. Isn't that interesting? Habakkuk's complaint. 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 so that the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted. The Lord's answer. Look among the nations and see, wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if I told. For behold, I'm raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings on not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swift to devour. They will come for violence. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. Guilty men whose own might is their God. Habakkuk responds, 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. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? You've made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks. He catches them in his net. He gathers them up in his dragnet. And so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet. For by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. Is he to keep on emptying his net? Destroy nations without mercy? That's chapter one. So why is this relevant? Now, he's very poetic. Most of the Old Testament passages actually are poetry. I don't know if you recognize it or not. Almost all the prophetic books are poetry. Not modern poetry or rhyming poetry. But it's poetry where they say one thing and then they take it another angle and they keep repeating themselves in different ways to kind of fill it all out. And so the majority of the Old Testament is poetry. And he's very poetic. So it's like, what did he just actually say, you might be asking in some ways. But I think there's going to be some good here. So what we're going to look at to understand the relevance of this text is we're going to look at, first of all, what Habakkuk saw, then what he did about it, and then what Habakkuk heard from God in response, and what that all meant. What he saw. He says it right away. It's an oracle that he sees, ...