Habakkuk: Never Give Up!
Return: the Minor Prophets – Habakkuk – Never Give Up!
Canon John Byrne
When you look around our country today how do you reflect on its many blessings and the changes that have come about?
How you think on its changing cultural story, its economic story and its faith story - blessings, benefits, and downfalls too? The country to which thousands have fled from their homes in search of a better life.
From a Christian viewpoint, looking back over 50 years of ordained full-time ministry in 6 different places and churches where I lived and worked, I’ve see encouraging vision and growth, as well as struggle, in the churches; alongside growing indifference and ignorance of the Christian gospel in surrounding society.
While Christians have experienced the blessings of new life through faith in Christ, secular society has often pursued a dream of ‘the good life’ with little apparent awareness of its Creator and Redeemer, and his pattern for faith and flourishing.
My prayer in 2024 is that God won’t withdraw his restraining hand on human self-centredness, but help us, church and nation, to flourish with renewed repentance and faith in Christ. I hope and pray this is also your cry to him.
Like some of you we have grandchildren, shaping up their future lives and choices. Will Christ, the Lord of all, be the motive force of their future lives or will they take their cues from our secular society where the individual is the dominant measure of things? Will growing concern and appreciation for the environment lead to new awareness of its Creator for many who look around in wonder at the fabric of the earth?
If you care about the future of church and nation, Habakkuk’s prophecy which is our focus today will touch your heart and mind with a profound sense of urgency, compassion and hope.
‘Who’s Habakkuk?’ you say! What he has to say touches our lives and society, not just his:
Meet a man with a deep concern for his people and a ‘complaint’ to God, who is seemingly inactive in the face of a decaying society – Judah 600BC.
Meet a man who was a ‘complainer’, but not a moaner.
Meet a man who started in near-despair but ended in hope, determination and joy.
Meet a man who trusted God in the face his nation’s decline and collapse.
It’s a probably a long time since you read Habakkuk but some of his words may be familiar to you from other parts of the Bible and Christian worship:
Hymn: ‘God is working his purpose out’ c.f. Habakkuk 2:14
‘The earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea’.
This was Habakkuk’s conviction at the end of their troubles. And if we know ‘the end of it all’ and we’re more likely to keep heading in the right direction now!
In outline, Habakkuk chapters 1 and 2 record his ‘complaints’ to God and God’s responses to him. Chapter 3 has Habakkuk’s conclusion, a psalm of praise remembering former days and sensing God’s hand at work for the future.
Habakkuk’s complaint 1:2-4 How long must I wait?
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. The law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous, so judgement comes forth perverted.
Habakkuk was frustrated by God’s delay in answering is cry; rather like our modern phone calls, hanging on because We’re very busy at the moment talking to other people! Many issues in our contemporary world - violence, decay, decline and disintegration through war, abuse, and self-centeredness queue up for resolution which we ask God to resolve. Life is frustrating and frightening for far too many; the rule of law, absent or ineffective.
God’s response to Habakkuk 1:5-11
Good news: I’ve heard you. I’ve got a plan!
Bad news: Judgment is at the door.
Not the answer Habakkuk wanted.
You may remember the story of man hanging on to branch of a tree as he falls over the edge of the cliff.
Help. Is there anyone there? . . .
Yes, God. Let go of the branch! . . .
Is there anyone else up there?
1:5-11 Look at the nations, and see! . . .
For a work is being done in your days . . .
I am rousing the Babylonians, who march through the breadth of the earth; dread and fearsome, a law to themselves, trusting their own might and violence. The Babylonians had already defeated Assyria and Egypt, (remember Carchemish 605BC); and they were to return to mop up Judah and Jerusalem in 598BC.
Habakkuk’s next complaint and a resolve
1:12-2:1 “You’re not like that, Lord.”
Your eyes are too pure to behold evil and look on wrongdoing.
You surely can’t let this unbelieving, marauding nation bring down your people who are more righteous than they. And he pauses to see what God will say,
2:1 I will stand at my watch-post.
I will keep watch to see what God will say to me.
God doesn’t go back on what he has said but He reassures Habakkuk that his final intention is unchanged – to save and establish his people in his kingdom. It’s a harsh reality in a fallen world, but a glorious ultimate intention.
Then God shares a vision of the future, calling Habakkuk to patient waiting.
2:2-20 There is still a vision for the appointed time. If it seems to tarry, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay.
It was and is a tough lesson that we are recalled to faith and patience, not least in our instant-culture of next-day or even same-day delivery.
The day of the Lord will come and there is justice in God’s universe – delivered at the infinite cost of the death of his Son on the cross; in the mystery of the place where wrath and mercy meet.
There will also be a reckoning for all who ‘snatch and grab’ with brute force and violence. So in Habakkuk 2, God says, Alas! . . .
Alas! to those who acquire through violence v6
Alas! to empire-builders who think they’re secure v9
Alas! to those who build communities on injustice v12
Alas! to those who strip others of their wealth and mock them v15
Alas! to those who worship self-made idols v19
Then in Habakkuk 2.20 there is a pivotal moment, time for a deep breath . . .
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
Let all the earth keep silence before him.
Be still . . . When we’ve prayed our socks off, ranted however we may, exhausting ourselves in the process, we come to a better place, in humility and silence, to hear God speak to us.
How long, O Lord, until the earth shall be filled with the glory of God . . . as the waters cover the sea?
This must be the daily prayer of countless people and places in the world, in or out of the news, as we await Christ’s return and God’s coming kingdom.
Finally Habakkuk concludes with the prayer and praise of chapter 3; a Psalm-like chapter thought to be used in worship.
3:2 - O Lord, I have heard of your renown and I stand in awe of your work.
In our own time, revive it; in our own time, make it known.
In wrath, remember mercy.
C.f. Hymn: ‘Restore, O Lord, the honour of your name’
Restore, O Lord, in all the earth your fame,
And in our time revive the church that bears Your name.
And in your anger, Lord, remember mercy . . .
Habakkuk ends with one of the most powerful statements of faith in Scripture:
3:17-18 - Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olives fails
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet will I rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord is my strength.
What’s the long-term truth on which we depend?
The same as Habakkuk and all the other Bible writers proclaimed.
Our hope is in Christ who came to redeem us and will come again.
Until then, in a topsy-turvy world,
we are to live in God’s strength,
with hope, with blessing and with disappointment;
with joy in knowing God,
with faith and patience in the face of imperfection;
by prayer and action making a difference.
Habakkuk, who struggled to see God’s plan, came to renew his trust in Him with joy and conviction.
His final words can be true for us too 3:19
God, the Lord is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
And makes me tread upon the heights.
The realism of the book is disturbing, but the hope his prophecy brings is life-changing.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!