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If you got a Bible, I want to invite you to turn to the book of Habakkuk. Uh, the way to find that, if you’re wondering, is that a book of the Bible? Go to Matthew, go back five books and you’ll find the book of Habakkuk. We’re in a series together on, on, uh, Habakkuk interaction before the Lord. What makes this book unique is Habakkuk is a prophet. Prophets responsibility is to go before the people and present God to them what God desires to declare to them. Habakkuk is unique. He is not a prophet going before the people on behalf of God. He is a prophet going before God on behalf of the people. It is a priestly responsibility. And Habakkuk comes before God because of the corruption he’s seeing within his own nation. And as he finds to that, the corruption that he’s going to be seeing outside of his nation. The theme of chapter one we talked about together is this, uh, everyone has a plan till someone gets punched in the face, right? I mean, you take a blow and and you start to think of things differently. And last week when we looked at Habakkuk chapter one, we we really ended it on nothing because Habakkuk ends with his hands kind of open wide before the Lord. Uh, his his world around him feels like a hot mess, and he wants to hand it over to God to figure out how God is going to interact with his world.
He wants to understand what God wants, wants to do. And in chapter two, we’re going to look in verses 1 to 4 today of chapter two. And we’re just going to focus in on these first four verses, because this these four verses contain the pinnacle of what the book of Habakkuk is about. These these four verses are so important. In fact, when you look into the New Testament, writers of the New Testament would would often quote from Habakkuk chapter two and verse four. Uh, the book of Romans uses it as the as the theme and verse 17 of chapter one as the theme to what Romans is about. Uh, Paul makes it the focal point in Galatians chapter three and verse 13, and in Hebrews chapter ten and verse 38. This verse sets up the identity of who we are in Christ and what God’s desire is, and only in the life of Habakkuk. But this, this truth rings through for everyone. Uh, Habakkuk chapter one. If I recapped it for us to to lay the foundation for where we’re going to go in chapter two, we said this last week, Habakkuk was was a likely a priest. He was certainly a prophet, and he had some musical talent the way that we know he had musical talent is he wrote in chapter one in this poetic form, and he wrote to what we called country songs.
The reason we call it country songs is because it’s lament. They’re songs of sadness, and no one can do it better than than the southern twang of country music. Right in chapter two and verse, uh, chapter one, verses two and four, uh, Habakkuk writes this, this question before God. God, how long are you going to wait before you do something about this nation of Israel that that is corrupt? It’s it’s not following after you, Lord, what is your plan for this? And we would maybe ask the question today in our circumstance situation, God, how long will you deal with the frustration of what you’re seeing in the world around us? Rioting in the streets, people shot and killed politicians, whatever. Taking advantage of things. What? God, what are you going to do about this? And God’s response to Habakkuk comes in verse five to verse 11. Uh, Habakkuk is assuming that God sort of is taking a lunch break and he’s he’s out somewhere else, and he’s waiting for God to come back and to do something about the circumstances. He’s wondering, God, do you even care? Is there a plan for this? And God responds, yeah, not only do I care, but I’ve already been working my plan into motion. And here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to be taken over. I care about you so much that I’m going to let another nation come in and take you over.
Let me be like God saying to us today, yeah, I care about you. My eye has been on you, and I’m going to let North Korea come in and have your country. Habakkuk’s question then in chapter uh, or chapter one and verses 15 to 17 is, Is God, do you even love us then? I mean, why would you allow such a thing to happen? God, I want to understand what it is that you’re doing here. And and, you know, as people, sometimes we get finicky when God responds. What I mean is this is when life is. It seems like it’s not meeting the justice that we want. We say to God, God, God, where is your justice? And then when God responds and saying, you know, I’m working out my justice, then the question is, well, God, I meant for everyone else. Now I’m wondering, do you even love me like I want you to be a just God everywhere else? Take care of everything else. Don’t make a person of me. Just do justice out there and with me. Grace. And so as God gives a respond to Habakkuk, Habakkuk does what godly people do. He brings it before the Lord. He wants God to explain and help him understand what’s about to happen. And in chapter two, in verse one, Habakkuk gives this thought. He says, I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart, and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved.
Habakkuk saying, like a soldier. I’m so attentive right now that I’m standing outside on the tower, in the ramparts on the edge of the city, looking out into the valley to see if an enemy is coming. I am so ready for this that I want to jump to warn people if anything’s going to happen. I am looking with intent. I’m doing what a soldier should. God, I really want to understand what it is that you’re doing. Sometimes. Look at the life of Habakkuk being a godly individual. And sometimes we don’t have the answers. Just because you claim to follow after the Lord doesn’t mean you know the solution to every circumstance, right? We can’t peel back the curtain to see exactly how God is orchestrating inside the hearts of people. Ambarchik didn’t have the answers. But he knew the God who did. And in addition to that, he found his inability to understand wasn’t any excuse to be foolish and just simply chalk it up with Our God will work it out. But he he really wanted to get on page with what God was trying to accomplish here. When it comes to God talking about his judgment and how he uses judgment for good, I got to say, for for many of us, it becomes a very uncomfortable place sometimes. You may even have said this in your life.
You know, I like the God of of of the New Testament, but that Old Testament God. Right. But the reality check for us is it’s the same God. How does that work? If you read stories in the New Testament, you can see in the book of acts in chapter five, Ananias and Sapphira lie. Lie to God, and God strikes them dead. I mean, when you read revelation 19, when Jesus comes back, he has a robe dipped in blood that says, King of kings, Lord of lords, and a sword comes flying out of his mouth. It’s the same God. God. How does how does that work? God, explain your love to me. You know, in our culture today. I’ve heard it termed that the word love. It’s sort of a junk drawer word. And when we use it for everything. Um. I love my car. I love my house. I love hot wings. That is, until. My car breaks down, I’m a heater stops working and hot wings give me heartburn. Then I hate them, right? And that’s not what biblical love is. And I think Habakkuk understands that there’s something, something different about the way that we in our nature will will talk about love, but the way that God expresses his love towards his people, his covenant people. After all, he made this, this promise to Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed.
And they’re God’s chosen people. How God can you work out this plan to bless all nations through through Israel, as a nation or as a people when when they’re about to be taken over? I love. The thought of Habakkuk chapter two and verse one, what it expresses to us. When things are difficult. Just how important it is to experience the presence. Of those that matter to you in adversity, right? Like the only one that I know that can solve this problem. The only one that I know who I want near to me in this situation. For Habakkuk, it’s the Lord. You know when it comes to God. God evidences his unconditional, sacrificial love for us to just as Habakkuk gives God or gives his presence to God, God gives his presence to Habakkuk. He’s he’s interacting with Habakkuk. We see in verse 5 to 11, and he continues on throughout this book. And and what we learn about love is that love in this, in this sense, and as God has expressed his nature throughout Scripture, love is seen when someone participates in life with you, when you’re not obligated to, even if it comes at an expense or at a cost. And so if there’s any question in the goodness of God and the justice of God as to whether or not he loves us as people, this is where Habakkuk is in this moment, and that’s where we’ve got to wrestle with in our own lives.
The Bible tells us that that the love of God has been demonstrated to us because Jesus in his nature has has come to participate with life with us when he wasn’t obligated, even when it cost him. That’s the degree of love that’s been expressed in Scripture. And that’s what love is in biblical understanding. In fact, in first Peter chapter two and verse 24, it says this about Jesus. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might not die to sin and live to, or so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by his wounds you were healed. And Jesus wasn’t obligated. To give us his life. Not obligated to even give us today. But as love demonstrates it. In fact, throughout the Bible, it even tells us in passages like Ezekiel chapter 33. As I live, declares the Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. So even in the the darkness of our heart, God still cares about us because life is sacred and God created us in his image. See one of the suggestions that that might permeate within our minds when we think about the goodness and justice of God, is that God just created us to crush us. But the reality is, when God created us, he created out of his love because his desire was to extend his love.
And love is about giving itself away. That God, in demonstrating this love, creates you in his image, different than any other creature in which he’s created you. So he makes you special, unique. He he surrounds you with a creation that reflects his glory so that you could see the goodness of who he is. And he tells us in Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 11 that even in the wickedness of our hearts, even in the wickedness of humanity, God takes no pleasure in death of the wicked. Because God values life, and all life is sacred, and Jesus demonstrates it in his own life. He weeps at the death of Lazarus. He weeps over Jerusalem. It tells us in Hebrews chapter four that he sympathizes with our weaknesses, that the Spirit of God is grieved. And so in chapter two and verse two of Habakkuk, it goes on and says this. Lord answered me and said. Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets that the one who reads it may run for. This vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens towards the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries. Wait for it, for it will certainly come. It will not delay. Behold. As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him. Judgment’s. Coming. Habakkuk. Away. God. I mean, are you sure? Like. Do you care? And God speaks to back it can tells him.
To write this down, that the people may may know not just you, Habakkuk, but that the the people may know that that judgment is coming. God. God, is this really what you should do? It’s interesting to me. We ask people about our nation during World War two. You see the destruction of Nazi Germany and you ask people, you know, is it a good thing or a godly thing that we would have invaded to stop? That annihilation of people. The Holocaust. Yeah. It would be a good thing to stop the Holocaust of people. But when it comes to God and passages of Scripture like this, there’s an immediate one of hesitation and what God’s wanting to accomplish by bringing his judgment on this nation, as if the purpose of his judgment is simply just to crush people, or the purpose of his judgment is simply to to crush people. But shortly after this, the the book of Ezekiel is going to be written and Ezekiel is going to describe the moments, these moments in Israel’s history and in Ezekiel chapter 23 and verse 39, Ezekiel says this, that the people had become so corrupt that as they go to enter into the temple to worship before they got to the temple to worship that day, they had previously been with false gods, sacrificing their children. Unto these gods. In fact, throughout Israel, it was common to see these idols made of of some sort of metal material, and, and inside of these idols they could stick a fire within it.
And sometimes these idols would be shaped in such a way that they would extend their arms like this. And as the fire began to heat up within the belly, the arms would become warm. And the sacrifice to these idols, they would then place their children in the arms of those idols as they screamed from the fire until they were consumed. God’s judgment was coming. How prevalent was this? Throughout the world, there’s been an archaeological discovery, even in the city of Carthage, that to one of these idols they found a burial grave of children that that consumed an area of 60,000ft². If you want an idea of how big 60,000ft² is, you go out today to a parking lot. It’s just under 20,000ft² times that by three. And that was the size of the burial plot. And they said it was layered upon layer of children. Sacrificed. In fact, when when Israel was coming into the same land in which they began to participate in the gods of this land in Deuteronomy chapter nine and verse four, when, when Israel is moving into the land of Canaan under Joshua, it tells us in Deuteronomy chapter nine and verse four that the that the reason that God is allowing them to go into this land isn’t because they’re a great. It’s because the people that are there are corrupt.
The God and his justice is also bringing mercy. To end the destructive destruction of innocence. You know, if I’m trying to be specific with this passage of Scripture. I don’t think we’re much different than Israel. And what I mean is, sometimes you read passages of people and their corruption and things they’re doing wrong, and it’s very easy for us to be distant from what that passage of Scripture says. We isolate ourselves from it, like God. Deal with them. I’m glad I’m not them. Right? What can I tell you? Israel may be sacrificing children to idols. So do we. It’s just the idols different. See rather than make the idol some sort of image, we’ve made the idol self. Taking children’s lives for the benefit of self. It’s not convenient to me. God’s desire for Habakkuk. Is to warn the people. He says to to write this down, Habakkuk warn them that they may run. It’s unclear from this running whether or not he’s encouraging people to run to the rest of Israel and share this with them, or or talking to the people of Israel to to tell them to run away. But but either way, God wants this message out. And this is this is what God is saying in this message. He he’s given the people of Israel the opportunity to to be warned because he cares for them. He wants their heart to see the significance of who he is and and to turn from this and to turn to him.
If God didn’t care about the people, there would no, there would not be any anticipation, you know, in your own home when, when, when you when you buy a home for the first time, if you walk in one of the things that you want to check, hopefully pretty soon is whether or not the alarm systems are working. Right. Carbon monoxide or or smoke, whatever the reason you put those systems there for warning isn’t so that you can experience destruction. Rather freedom. It’s your way of escape. God is being. Both just and merciful. So if we were to have a God who responded in such a way that isn’t just this, this is the problem that we would face is is in our culture today. If someone has wronged you and you go before a judge and you explain to them this grievous act that happened to you, something that robbed you, something that took away from you, something that devoured you as a human being. And you explain this to the judge, and the judge simply says, hey, I don’t care. Not only would you not say that, that God or that judge is not just you would say that judge is certainly not good. But because God. It’s good. Is also just. And this passage tells us in verse four. The verse, first section of verse four.
We’ll read the second section in just a moment, but the first section says this behold! As for the proud one. His soul was not right within him. There’s a saying that we often coin within our culture that pride comes before the fall. I mean, the idea of pride is this that you build your identity and worth in everything that you are based on, on you and what you uphold and your foundation. And the reason pride comes before the fall is at some point you recognize that you’re not a hill of beans and all that. You know, you don’t, you don’t have, you don’t have what it takes. And as human beings, we we find ourselves lacking. And so when we build a build our, our, our selves and our own pride and our own identity and our own pleasures in life, that eventually that pride leads to a fall. What God’s saying here? Was that the pride of Israel has caused them not not to look to him anymore, but rather to seek their own personal pleasure. To build their identity in him or excuse me, in themselves. For their own personal gain, making themselves their own gods. You know, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Bible tells us they ate from the tree of. They had the good tree of good knowledge. Um, excuse me of knowledge and evil. And that if they ate from the tree.
Of evil, the forbidden fruit, they would know between right and wrong. And sometimes we look at that passage and just think, you know, Adam and Eve knows the difference between good and bad, right? Right and wrong, good and bad. The text of that scripture means more than just they know the difference between good and bad. But what it says before God is, not only do they know the difference between good and bad, but they’re telling God. What is right. And what is wrong? In essence, they’re making themselves God. Sharing with God how he should govern the world because they have determined what’s right and wrong. Verse four in Habakkuk it’s saying the same thing. But the proud one. His soul is not right within him. He’s built this system upon himself, and he’s defining what is good within himself rather than letting God do it. If you think about our culture. Not to isolate this text from us. Where do we do that? Everywhere really shoving God aside. But I would think one of the most prominent things that we’ve done within the last couple of decades is, is we we really have sought to redefine ourselves based on sexuality. Like, everything that I am happens to be found in genitalia. I mean, you go to a guy today and you ask him, um, if something were to happen and you were to just lose that. Do you stop being a guy? I mean, is that really is that really all that there is to you? And if you ask a guy today what what makes a man.
Well, there’s, um. If I don’t have that, um. Why? It’s how we’ve sought to shape our identity. Can I tell you if that question just challenges you and you think about it? Just a passage I’d encourage you to start looking at first Titus or first Timothy, chapter three, Titus chapter one. But man, we we like to define ourselves without God. And what the Bible says that is for us is it’s a place of pride, elevating you to the position of where God belongs. And pride comes before the fall. And what God says about the individual in this place is his. His soul is not right within him. And and they can’t even begin to think about how, how, how to find the Lord in these moments because they they haven’t even learned to define themselves in God because they’ve separated themselves so much from him to please who they were as being God in their own identities. I heard a guy once say, in relation to the sexuality of our culture today he said this I quit watching TV for the same reason that I don’t drink my water out of the toilet bowl. It’s unhealthy. Not to think and recognize. About the holiness of God. In fact, when you think about just the Old Testament and the New Testament, this is this is what the Bible says to us about the Lord in, in the way he reads us as people.
And Isaiah chapter 47, it says this you felt secure in your wickedness and said, no one sees me. And your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you. For you have said in your heart I am, and there is no one besides me. In Jeremiah 19 seven it says this. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. God sees. In fact, if you think to yourself there’s a difference between Old and New Testament God, well, in this area of holiness, let me just let me just read some New Testament verses. For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing the division of the soul and of the spirit of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. And Luke. Jesus said this under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people have gathered together, they were stepping on one another. He began saying to his disciples, first of all, beware of the unliving of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, but there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.
Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. God’s presence is there. Look in the privacy of your life. It may be easy to hide from others, but God’s presence is there. Recognizing the presence of God, and that he’s in the very same room as you. Makes it much more difficult to stare at inappropriate material on some computer screen when you know Jesus is right with you. His presence is there. He’s a holy God. And he’s a just God. And God cares. God cares so much in the nation of Israel that he’s acting in such a way to draw Israel back to him. God cares. And then in verse four of Habakkuk chapter two. The second half of the verse. Comes the pinnacle of the book, the most important phrase that sets the precedent for Habakkuk’s understanding as the book continues on. You know, when God comes to Habakkuk? Habakkuk answer is Habakkuk questioning is God God deal with that and God deal with that. And God look out there. And God’s response to Habakkuk is, yeah, all of that out there is happening because of what’s taking place in here. So Habakkuk, you want to start with a solution. Let it work in your heart. It’s like for our country. Politics are gaining ground on TV, right? And people are going to have opinions.
And usually there’s something to do with doomsday. And God saying to Habakkuk, Habakkuk, you want to see things change. Start with it here. Look at your heart. Verse four of of Habakkuk. Chapter two was a revolutionary verse in the course of history. In fact, this is the verse that Martin Luther said who led the Reformation in the early 16th century. This is the verse that he said set him free. Martin Luther came to this passage of Scripture. And history tells us that as this verse changed a man, God used this man to change the course of history. And Martin Luther said this when by the Spirit of God I understood the words contained in this passage, 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. Martin Luther went on to say this I didn’t find this text, but rather this text found me. So here’s the here’s the the the blessing, the joy, the grace, the mercy out of everything that’s been shared is regardless of what circumstance you may feel like you’ve come from in life, no matter how much you may look at brokenness. You read verses like this in Luke and you think before God. My heart looks wicked no matter how you feel in those moments. God in this verse is providing a place for his grace to be experienced.
And he he exposes the need for him, so that in that need we have an opportunity to respond. And so it says. But. But don’t just jump past that word he he’s expressing in this verse the the difference between what’s taking place here and what God wants to do. So there’s the proud one whose soul is not right within him, but. The righteous. We’ll live by his faith. When Martin Luther read this passage, he was actually reading it in Romans chapter one, verse 17. The theme verse to Romans. And this is one of the things that really helped him understand this verse, is he went back to the Greek text and he read this word righteousness, which is also translated justification. And here’s the thing that he noted about this word justification that he’s never seen before. Is how it sets him free. See Martin Luther. To this point in his life, he had become a monk. He had gone into a monastery, he had paid penance. He had followed all the rules that his religion had claimed, but his soul had never found rest. He did the list. And it comes to this passage, and he reads this word for justification in this Greek text. This word for justification isn’t a personal word. It is an external word which means this, that this justification in his life, in his heart, didn’t come from himself.
It didn’t come from his actions. It came from external to him. It is a legal firm. It means to, to to be made right. It’s as if I created a picture within our minds. You imagine you’re in a jail cell. When you’re when you’re locked into a jail cell, you don’t have the ability to set yourself free. But someone from the outside has the key to come to the door to unlock it, to allow you to exit into your freedom. And what Martin Luther saw in this passage is that this justification and this righteousness isn’t from his own merit or gain, but it comes externally from God himself. See, when I read passages like this in Habakkuk, the answer is do your best now to stop being bad. The answer to what this passage of Scripture is saying is cling to Jesus with everything that you are. Because what it goes on to say is this the righteous will live by faith. And what Martin Luther expressed in this word for faith. He said that it is not until people lean into Jesus alone and nothing else, that they’ve truly leaned into Jesus for what he has done for their lives. Faith. This faith. The Bible defines for us in various verses. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse one, it says this faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen. You know, sometimes we when we define the word faith, we sort of mean like this ambiguous guess of wishful thinking that we hope works out in the end, right? When when the writer of Hebrews defines faith, he tells us it’s the assurance of things hoped for.
It’s this. It’s this understanding. Hope is more than wishful thinking in Greek culture. It’s this understanding that it will take place. It’s a certainty. And when you read Hebrews chapter 11 and on through the rest of the chapter, this this chapter is considered the the Hall of Faith, and it shares story after story of individuals who have put their faith in God. But here’s the thing about the stories that they share about the individuals. When you look at at Abraham and Moses and David and all that’s shared in, in the book of Hebrews and the Faith chapter. It’s always describing real events. Of specific things. That actually occurred in history. Not an ambiguous guess. A place of certainty. Of seeing the hand of God work. Ephesians two goes on and says this. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And it’s not of yourselves. It’s a gift of God, not of works, so that no 1st May boast. You know, it’s funny, I was having a conversation once with someone who was trying to tell me, you know, you don’t believe that you get to heaven by works. You think it’s totally Jesus. But you’re wrong because faith is a work.
So? So that’s interesting. He goes, yeah. In fact, that’s what I teach all my my students when I go through the Bible with them. Faith is a work too. So so you have to work your way there. And I just said, well, okay, let me just take you to one verse. For by grace are you saved through faith? Now look at verse nine. Not as a result of. Works. It’s interesting you define faith. That way. This Bible doesn’t. It’s my justification when it comes to my salvation happens external to me. I’m leaning all I am into. The God who sets me free. This passage tells us that faith it is a gift of God, not of works. So the opportunity that we even have to embrace this God. It’s a gift. God doesn’t know me today. He doesn’t know me tomorrow. But the idea and the thought that God would even give me an opportunity to continue my relationship with him. It’s a gift. It’s a gift of a merciful God. Who cares about what’s happening in this heart? Habakkuk. You want to change the world? Doesn’t start out there. In fact, the world is the way it is because of what you’ve allowed to happen in here. Let God meet you there. Let me end with a story. I was looking up studying Israel during this time and the worship of false gods. These these monuments of false idols in which the nation of Israel would sacrifice children upon.
One of the places that I saw that was unique, where this took place was in a place of Megiddo. You may know its name by Armageddon, right? Revelation chapter 16, verse 16 tells us at the end of the Bible that there is a battle that takes place in Megiddo, which is the battle of Armageddon, where armies meet and and fight. You know, what’s interesting about this area is that it was a part of a major trade route through Israel’s day. It went right through their land, past Jerusalem on the west and up towards, um, Nazareth. Nazareth, which was it was Nazareth was east of this place as well. And whoever controlled this, this trade route, this was a major trade route. Whoever controlled this major trade route would control that area of the world. And in fact, you could go so far as to say, and whoever was controlling that area of the world for that trade route was also dictating what was taking place in the world spiritually, economically, whatever the beliefs were of the people, whoever controlled that route controlled the world. And that that’s likely why God uses this area for the nation of Israel, so that his influence could come through this, this part of the world. It was that important. Major battles took place here. Kings fought and died here. But when you look at this area. In the background there is a hill.
And on that hill. It’s the town of Nazareth. That was a place Jesus grew up. And as a young boy, he could look over this place of this battlefield, this place where kings fought, this place where children would sacrifice. And it tells us in revelation chapter 16, and on that Jesus comes back victorious over it all. Looking at this as a child, he now returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Victory. Of replace. Of destruction. This passage. As one of justice. But it’s also one of mercy. Because just as God is looking at this part of the world and saying, my judgment is coming. He’s also extending his hand as a king of mercy, saying. Let me set you free. I see every place of your heart. I see what’s taking place in your lives. Let me set you free. And Jesus one day return, and Jesus will rule and reign in the place, the very place that he saw as a child coming to give his life in mercy. He will come and bring that justice that ultimately sets us all free, and that experience and the invitation to all of us. The just. Isn’t seeing by her strength. But by God who has given you the freedom to place your faith in him. Because his desire is to set your heart free.