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Habakkuk is is a book of the Bible I think is significant, for it’s a simplistic book and what it writes, but significant for what it teaches in the values of who God is. Um, Habakkuk is a book that takes the theology of God, and it meets the practical application of life. Sometimes within church today, we are very quick to jump to the practical application of how things relate to us, and sometimes slow at looking at the theological backdrops that help us make the practical application to life. And I would say for us as believers, both are important. It’s important to understand what God desires for us to do. But before we can really understand what God desires for us as people and who we are as people, uh, it all originates in the identity of who God is. And so your theology should always drive your practical application. Now, I’m going to tell you, when it comes to the book of Habakkuk, I’m going to go out on a limb and say, probably, uh, most of us have not ever heard a sermon series from the book of Habakkuk. By the way, if you’re looking for it, go to Matthew and turn back five books into the Old Testament. Habakkuk is not one of those books where you’re like, man, you know what I you know, I’m really looking for a book right now that would meet this need. And then on top of your head, you’re like, I got it.
It’s Habakkuk. Right. So I’m going to tell you this morning as we go through this book, this is just because we’ve gone through this book. This isn’t a book that I would say now recommend this to all your friends. Okay. There’s a few things that I want to achieve to the book of Habakkuk. But the predominant thing that I want to say for us is that Habakkuk, um, helps us understand how the, the practical outworkings of who God is is seen through the identity of our God and what that means. And so we’re connecting the theological with, with the practical. And I want to take just this first chapter that, that we’re going to look at today and help us paint a backdrop to what it means to study a book of the Bible. Here at ABC, we do a few types of of teaching on Sunday mornings. Uh, we do uh, we do topical series. We do, uh, we focus just on scriptural passages or we’ll do expository teaching. And this morning, this is what we’ll call what we call expository teaching, where we work through systematically through a book of the Bible to understand why that book was written, and to really understand why a, a book is written and how to apply it to our lives. Uh, context is everything, right? Meaning there is a principle within Scripture when you open up the Bible and you want to study it for yourselves, there’s a word that we use a bigger word.
It’s called hermeneutics, which is basically the interpretation and application of what the Bible is about. But when you study the Bible for yourself and you’re trying to glean from it some truths that the Lord wants you to understand, there’s an important idea to always carry with you in every portion of Scripture that you study. And that is this, uh, book of the Bible or a text of Scripture can never mean more to you than it was intended to mean to the original audience in which it was written. God writes every book of the Bible, every passage of Scripture from an author to a particular people group for a specific reason, and understand how God would want us to apply that passage to our lives, requires us to understand what it meant to the original audience in which it was written. And so when you dive into the book of Habakkuk, I think contextualization not only helps us understand what the Bible says, but really it magnifies the beauty of the position of Scripture when we get to understand it. It is, I think, crucial to anyone who studies the Bible to always begin to ask the question, why was it written? And take a little bit of time to get the backdrop to the picture that the author is trying to create to the audience he was originally writing to. And such is the case for Habakkuk.
The name Habakkuk means embrace. I think this this book is a struggle. It’s sort of like a written, like a mini job. It’s a struggle of an individual, a godly individual. The Bible tells us he is a prophet who is who is wrestling with his position and his people before God. He can’t quite understand how God is working. He’s going through some adversity and he’s coming to God with some questions asking the question why the the theme of this series should really be waiting on God if you broke it down categorically. According to chapters, chapter one would be about Habakkuk’s worry. Chapter two would be about Habakkuk waiting, in chapter three would be about Habakkuk worshiping. And the reason that Habakkuk is waiting and worrying before God is where the people of Israel have currently found themselves. If you’ve never really felt like you’ve grasped an understanding of the Old Testament, let me let me just paint the picture and I’ll show you how Habakkuk fits contextually into what has happened in historically in the nation of Israel. Genesis chapter one. The Bible gives us a story of God making the earth. By chapter three, humanity created in God’s image for relationship with God has fallen. We have sinned. We have separated ourselves from God. And in chapter three, God also gives his plan of redemption. God is pursuing man. By Genesis chapter 12, we begin with the story of this man named Abraham.
This is the individual that God said through him, all nations of the earth would be blessed. The Messiah who was to come now has been identified as going to be coming through the seed of of Abraham. Genesis chapter one. The chapter 12 covers a sweep of history thousands of years within, within the context of just 12 chapters. Why the purpose of Scripture up to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 isn’t to explain every detail of human history. The primary purpose for the first 12 chapters are simply to give us a backdrop of where did I come from? And where are we going? And through the life of Abraham, we have identified for us that Jesus would come forth from him. The Messiah would come through the rest of the book of Genesis. You have the the context for the patriarchs, which would lay the foundation for the nation of Israel from which the Messiah would come Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Joseph gives us a story into the land of Egypt, where Exodus, the book of Exodus, picks up, where Moses then leads the nation of Israel out of Egypt. Is is how we see the the nation of Israel beginning to be formed where the people came from. As Moses journeys from Egypt into the Promised Land, the books that he writes, the book of Genesis, really, but Exodus, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy give us the, the, the customs that help develop the identity of what this people group was about writing of the law and the worship ceremonies and what developed them in their identity as individuals when they get into the promised Land.
You have the book of Joshua, Judges and Ruth that share with us how they settle in the land and what occurs. And then for Samuel. First and second Samuel. First and second Kings. First and second Chronicles. And throughout the rest of the Old Testament. Really? You see a king appointed King Saul, followed by King David, which God then identifies Israel to Israel, that the Messiah would come through King David and through the rest of the Old Testament. From first Samuel on, you see the rise and the fall of a nation eventually taken into captivity and finally returning again before God goes silent into the New Testament. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther record for us the return of the nation of Israel as they are returning from captivity, having risen as a nation and seeing the the increase of a nation under Saul, David, and kings to follow to the fall of the nation, and then the return and Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. Your Old Testament is not put together chronologically. It’s it’s put together categorically. It’s the historical books throughout the first 12 books of the Old Testament, followed by your poetic books and your prophetic books. The nation of Israel throughout their The Rise and Fall. What we find right after King David’s King Solomon followed after King Solomon is Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
There’s a civil war that splits the nation. Ten tribes go to the north and two tribes go to the south. These two tribes, or these groups, as they split the north, is often referred to as Israel or Ephraim. The south is often referred to as Judah. In this division. The historical books tell us that the northern tribes of Israel never have a godly king. Eventually carried off into captivity in 722 BC by the Assyrians. If you follow the world powers during the time of Israel, you see Egypt over the time of Moses, followed by the Assyrians, who take the northern tribes of Israel captive. Eventually it leads to the Babylonians, who will take the southern tribes of Israel captive. And then and then we have following that the Persians, and then the Greeks and the Romans during the time of Jesus. Habakkuk is written. After the northern tribes of Israel are taken into captivity. In fact, when Habakkuk writes his book The Southern Tribes Judah. As also staring down captivity. The Babylonians have grown into a great nation. And God is going to use the Babylonians to take Israel. Habakkuk writes his book. And the 600 B C’s into the 500 B C’s. Israel is seized upon by the Babylonians starting in 606. That lasts all the way down to about 586. And Habakkuk is writing to the nation of Israel is really an open dialogue between He and God.
He’s writing at the same time as as the book of Jeremiah. He’s just following the book of Zephaniah, and Nahum and Ezekiel and Daniel will follow after her back. Habakkuk. Is worrying before God. If I if I said to ask, the theme of Habakkuk is is waiting on the Lord. If I gave it more of a of a practical explanation to us, knowing what Habakkuk is going through in this world, I think the the theologian Mike Tyson said it best, which when he said, everyone has a plan till you get punched in the face, right. You kind of got things figured out. But there comes a time in your life where you just get rocked so deeply. You’re just trying to reorient yourself to understand how things should work out. And that’s where Habakkuk finds himself. Under. Poor leadership. Ungodly kings. In fact, the nation of Israel has just recently experienced the death of Josiah. And Josiah is sort of a unique story for the for the nation of Israel. He was appointed king at eight years old. I don’t know if if you’ve hung around that age group much recently, but I could think maybe, maybe today if if one of my children led, it would be nothing but Happy Meals and video games, right? Josiah rules the nation at eight years old. The the story goes on that Josiah as he grows of age. Eventually Josiah he starts to rip down the pagan worship that’s taking place in the nation of Israel.
They find the Bible, the Old Testament, during during uh, Josiah’s reign, they had gotten so wicked as a people group that the book that God had given them to direct them, from which they had established their identity, everyone had long since forgotten it. And Josiah finds this book and he brings it back to the nation of Israel. And and Israel is starting to pursue God again. But there’s, there’s they’re not completely sold over to the Lord yet, but Josiah is pushing them that way. And the Bible tells us that, that the Josiah goes into battle against the nation of Egypt, and he loses his life. And then as children begin to rule and reign. Jehoahaz. Jehoiakim. And they continue to pursue. The false gods that the nation of Israel had once worshiped. Before Josiah began to appoint people back to God. And Habakkuk in that context. Opens his book. He says this the oracles which Habakkuk, the prophets prophet, saw. How long, O Lord, will I call for help? And you will not hear. I cry out to you. Violence. Yet you do not save. Why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? Yet destruction and violence are before me. Strife exists and contention arises. Therefore the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore justice comes out perverted. Looking at the nation, he no doubt sees the decline and he’s acknowledging before God this this ungodly or bad leadership that’s that is above him.
And he’s having this struggle and this open dialogue before the Lord. And this is pretty rare for a prophet to write about. In fact, most prophetic books are are prophets representing God to the people. And here, sort of in a reverse sense, Habakkuk identifying himself more with a people is representing the people before God. And he’s having this open dialogue. Now, we know the course that this story will go because it starts with worry ends and waiting and followed by worship. And this book starts on, on sort of a lull for us this morning. So I want to tell you, there’s not going to be a lot of emotional high energy to end for us today. But he lays the backdrop to understanding what brings us as people into worship, into the presence of of God, as we wrestle and struggle with certain aspects of life and the adversity in which we face. But what Habakkuk begins with acknowledging is, is that he is under bad leadership. And so what Habakkuk is seeking now. Is God’s leadership. See within the nation of Israel. Prophetically, they know. The Messiah was to come. The people of Israel. What they long for within their lives was shalom. Genesis chapter three. The Bible tells us that mankind was experiencing shalom with God, which is which is peace with God.
And within, as sin comes into the world, it corrupts the world. There is destruction now, and that shalom, that peace is gone. And so the rest of the Bible from Genesis three all the way to the end, revelation 20 to 21 is, is God restoring the shalom in which we lost through a peaceful relationship in him? God pursuing us in relationship with him, that we may enjoy the peace of his presence forever. What was lost. God restores Habakkuk in these moments. Longing for shalom. I want to tell you when it comes to. Understanding scripture. Not only is context important. But so is literary style. If you look at the book of Habakkuk within your own Bible, likely you’ll note that the way that the book of Habakkuk is printed within your Scripture, it’s sort of indented, different than maybe other passages of the Bible. And that’s to acknowledge before us that what Habakkuk is doing, he’s likely either writing poetry or a song. And I think in Habakkuk’s case, he’s writing for us a song. If I were to categorize what type of song this is, let me let me say this. Habakkuk is more than likely a musician writing this song. But if I were to categorize what type of song this is and God forgive me for saying this because it’s going to help you remember it, but he’s writing a country song. See, some of you are like, God forgive you.
Only God writes country music, right? I mean, you ever heard Randy Travis three wooden crosses? I mean, Garth Brooks sings Unanswered Prayers, for Pete’s sake, right? And then others. I’ll look at you and I’m like country music. And you’re like, it’s not country. Now, I knew I didn’t like her backing for a reason. It’s polarizing, isn’t it? Well, in the sake of Habakkuk, for the sake of Habakkuk, let’s say God writes country music, right? And here’s how I mean, you think of any time something that’s any type of genre that writes a song that just cries out the best, right? I mean, my dog died, my truck broke down and my wife left me. That is country music. Or not. Have I offended everyone yet? What Habakkuk writes, what the Bible wants you to recognize is in the book of Habakkuk. This indentation is this poetic song in which Habakkuk is expressing to God the way that he feels. Songs are good at that, aren’t they? You know, I look even in the book of Genesis when when Adam meets Eve, the first thing Adam does, the first words Adam speaks in the beginning of the Bible. It’s a song. He sings to Eve. Entire books of the Bible are dedicated to songs the Song of Solomon. The Book of Psalms. Nation of Israel going through particular experiences of victory or hardship, they would tend to put those moments into songs. Then Habakkuk writes two country songs.
Songs of lament. Songs of an expression. From his heart and where he is. And what this is saying to us as he is enduring this, is this. This just isn’t a pushover moment that he’s experiencing, and it’s just going to go away overnight. This is something that that Habakkuk is, is, uh, is has been poring over within his heart something that has, has grieved him deeply. So it’s different than a Taylor Swift song. This is not just a bad breakup, right? I mean, this is like a Dixie chicks versus whoever. Who was that guy? Blond haired guy. Country singer, I don’t know. They fought. This is a battle. This is a battle deep within in his soul of wrestling with a lament in what God is doing. And trying to understand it. He wants to know. God do I have hope? In verse two, when he starts off this text, the questions that he asks specifically. How long, O Lord, will I call for help? And you will not hear. And why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? He’s thinking about the situation he’s in. And this is the question he wants to know is God, do you care? I mean, God, did I did I come to you in the midst of this hardship? And what, you’re out to lunch or what? What moment in my life am I catching you here? God, do you even care about the adversity in which I’m facing? Lord, what I what I really want in these moments is just to experience shalom and and God.
What I really want to know about you in this hardship is God. Do you care? Are you going to wrestle God? Are you everything that you have promised the nation of Israel or God? Have you abandoned us? Do you care about me in these moments? How long, O God, will I call out for help and you will not hear? And why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? God, do you care? God follows up this statement of Habakkuk with sort of a mind blowing thought. God says this in verse five in response to Habakkuk look among the nations. Observe and be astonished. Wonder, because I am doing something in your days you would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who marched throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. They are dreaded and feared. Their justice and authority originate with themselves. So, Habakkuk, if you get this straight, goes before God and says, God, do you care? And now God comes to Habakkuk and said, oh, I’m sorry, you think this is bad? Um. Someone’s about to conquer you. Now, if you’re looking at this question of black eggs asking before God and you’re trying to reach a conclusion over what God is saying, I mean, you really only have two responses that you could come away with.
And the most prominent response from God’s statement is this. Um, yeah. You don’t care. Right. You don’t care. Bad things are happening and you don’t care. In fact, some people try to reach the conclusion with some of the adversity that they face in life. Bad things happen. Therefore, if there is a God that makes him a bad God because bad things happen in this world, I will say to you that according to Scripture isn’t true. The Bible tells us that God is good, right? And so for the life of the believer or in Habakkuk. He’s in this place where he’s recognizing now, okay, if God is good. And yet circumstances are bad. How does that work? How does a good God exist? In an evil world. So. Because when I look at God’s answer for Habakkuk is looking at this passage, what God’s saying he’s saying to himself in verse five. God, I just cried out to you in a lament. And if I look at Israel and their laments, when they lament, here’s what happens. They come to you. They cry about the sin. They cry out to you in the sin. And then there’s a revival and everything’s better. And that’s how you’re supposed to work. God. Now that I’m looking at you and wondering, do you care? Not now. I’m wondering if you’re even a good God.
So the answer for us as believers in looking at this, we have the opportunity to look at this hindsight, because what the nation of Israel is seeking is peace. And the peace in which we need is found in Christ, and God will ultimately reconcile all wrong that’s been done in the world. But the peace in which we need originates and is found itself in, in Jesus. And so here’s sort of the response we could throw into this. Okay, Habakkuk, your choice says, okay, God, God is a is a bad God because he allows bad things to happen or, or more mind blowing than that. Is that God is so powerful and God is so good that he can take the negative circumstances around your life and use that for the work of his good in all good things, from from a God who is good in himself. I mean, those are the only two possibilities in this passage. Either either God is so profound and being able to blow our minds that he is going to take the the bad things of this world, and by his power turn them for good or he is bad. Now for us we would say this Does God have that capability? Yeah. How? The cross. When you think of everything the cross represents. Despised and shamed. A place of mockery in human history. And yet. It’s the symbol of victory. God is more than capable of taking the worst of moments and using it for his glory and our good.
But Habakkuk and the struggle. Needs to discover that. And so hearing what God’s response is. His next country song comes in verse five or excuse me, verse 12. First he says God. Um. Do you care? But here, as he sings this song of lament again before the Lord. He says, God, are you even caring? Is your nature caring? He says it like this. Are you not from everlasting? Oh Lord my God, my Holy One. We will not die. You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge. And you, O Rock, have established them to correct. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on the wickedness with favor. Why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? Why have you made men like the fish of the sea? Like the creeping things without a ruler over them? See, Habakkuk now gets to the issue deeper than just the the circumstances around him. He starts dealing with the character of God. God, are you not from everlasting? God. I mean, who are you? I thought I had this idea of what you wanted to accomplish, but now I’m testing the reality of who you are. Are you who you say you are? Do you really care? You know, I think based on the context of the scripture, I think it’s only fitting for us today, not not to.
Sound are overemphasized. Just the thought of positive feeling and walking out this morning. Because what Habakkuk is writing is lament. Can I tell you a lamenting is healthy for the soul. I think lamenting is good for us as as people. Lamenting is a place where exposes the need of who we are as human beings before God that’s more incapable. So I think sometimes within humanity, our struggle with ourselves isn’t that we need to make much of us. In fact, in reality, we need to make less of us and more of God. We are really good at distractions. And you think about the way our society is set up today. You don’t go anywhere without television. I mean, you can go to the gas pump and watch TV. One entertaining thing without another just distracting the mind from from other things. More, more significant things in the world. And in Habakkuk, in this question that he’s asking, he’s getting to those most significant thoughts now, not just God. Do you do you care? But are you even a caring God? I think it’s important for us in our lives, not just to look at the good things that God has made, but look at the one who is good, who has created them all. If I gave it a story to us like this, it would be if we’re all going on a vacation together and we’re heading to Disney.
I can see some of you in the back seat. Just so excited with your big ears. Just waiting for the the Mickey Mouse appearance, you know, and you just want to see the the Magic Kingdom. And all of a sudden, before we get to Disney, I pull off on the side of the road at the mile marker that says 125 miles before you reach Disney. I mean, what do you think would happen? You you take over the bus and we’d all make sure we got there. Right? You don’t want to stop the journey short of the goodness of of who God is. And and Habakkuk in the story, this is where he’s driving to. He wants us to understand the goodness of of who God is, because he recognizes that if he can define who God is, then he can define what God wants to accomplish and an understanding who God is. Then he gets to understand who he is in light of that and where he’s heading in this world. Because if God is good, it gives him hope beyond the circumstance. Now you come to an end of the passage like this and you can say to yourself. Well. What have you learned so far? You can say, you know, there’s all sorts of things. Verses 2 to 4. Godly leadership is important. Obviously, Israel has been under ungodly leadership and so godly, godly leadership is important.
Or or definitely go to God. Go to God in your troubles. And oh, and here’s this promise God definitely hears when you are going through your struggles because God responds. And God’s God’s working out his plan before you even ask. Because before Habakkuk even came to God, God’s like, here, let me let you in on what my plan is. Habakkuk. And God isn’t ending his story with his people. He he still has a plan for the nation of Israel. He’s going to take them into captivity or or it’s always good to admit there is a problem. The first step to recovery is to admit there is a problem, right? Or look for God to respond. Wait for him to provide answers. However. I think any of those answers that we look at through the book of Habakkuk undermines the bigger picture of what Habakkuk is saying to us. Sometimes in life we settle for quick fixes. But when Habakkuk is starting a story. He’s beginning it by taking several steps back and going much deeper than quick fixes. Reality is in these moments. God could have stepped in to the nation of Israel and not allow the Babylonians to take over. But, you know, the truth is, that’s just a Band-Aid. It’s just a band aid to what Habakkuk is crying before the Lord, because Habakkuk also recognized that the adversity in which he faced honestly didn’t originate with the people of Babylon. That problem is new to him.
What Habakkuk first brought to God was was the struggle within his own nation. Habakkuk is is now looking at circumstances all around him and everywhere he looks within his own people and outside of his people. He’s seeing destruction, he’s seeing corruption. And so he’s coming to God with these two empty, these these two questions of significance. God, do you care? And are you a caring being? I’m just looking for shalom. When we face adversity in life, that’s the questions we like to ask. Does somebody care? Is everything going to be okay? Knowing that as God speaks to Habakkuk, he’s also talking to Jeremiah. We get a backdrop from the rest of Scripture just to identify what the nature of God is. But as Habakkuk is going through the struggle, but second Chronicles chapter 36 and verse 15 gives us a historical background for what’s happening during the time of Israel. And this is what God says to Habakkuk, or to all the people of Israel. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by his messengers, because he has had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets. Like Habakkuk. If you’re asking me, do I care? The answer is yes. You just didn’t care to listen to the messages that I delivered over and over, right? See Habakkuk is waiting until the midnight hour to come before God.
But God is pointing out to Habakkuk to to Israel that even in the adversity they face, God is not the one that ever quit caring about them. And God is not the one that gave up on them. In fact, the opposite is true. He says to them again. And again. He tried to speak into their lives and into their hearts. Because he had compassion. Honest people. But yet what happened? They continually mocked him and Jeremiah, another prophet during the time of Habakkuk, Jeremiah said this. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel. Like these good figs, he’s comparing Israel to good figs. So I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, the people going to take into Babylonian captivity, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans, which is where the Babylonians were. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return with me that her whole heart. Uh, I want to say on the backdrop of this, every bad thing that happens to us is in a chastisement from God. But he is pointing out in the life of Habakkuk that God is using this chastisement to bring them to him.
He’s saying to, to Habakkuk, to the people listening, you’re looking at these circumstances as a bad thing. But here’s the beauty of it all. I’m more concerned with your heart in the moment and the adversity that you’re facing, right? Now God cares about the adversity. Beyond that, his concern is the heart. And God’s plan in Jeremiah chapter 24. Even as we just saw in Second Chronicles, it’s not to give up on the nation. But to get them to a place in their lives where they see the goodness of who God is and their heart yearns to be with him. And so Jeremiah goes on and says this, and Jeremiah 23. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. When I’ll raise up from David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king, and act wisely, and do justice and righteousness in the land. God’s plan for the nation of Israel is Jesus. It tells us in Jeremiah 23, But God’s plan for the nation of Israel isn’t just a a band aid fix to each problem. But it’s a complete rescue. We don’t just need a fix once we we need rescued every day. And in fact, in history, there was an individual by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was alive in the 1900s into the mid 1900s. He was an individual, that he was a minister and he was in Nazi Germany as a pastor.
The experience of his life reflects Habakkuk very closely, and that he’s looking at within his own church, at at the people that claim to follow after the Lord. And he’s noticing this about their lives. They have have lulled themselves to sleep, to the spiritual condition they need for Jesus. And not only that, on the external part of the church, he’s seeing the oppression take place through Nazi Germany. That’s not only coming after the Jewish people, but also coming after Christians. And and he’s beginning to feel the same feeling of Habakkuk, where on the inside the spiritual condition is falling apart. On the outside there’s being oppressed. And Dietrich Bonhoeffer stared this in the face and began to write in Nazi Germany, things that would cause him to eventually lose his life. He began to take his stand in Jesus, recording, uh, what people needed to know about the need for Jesus and the pursuit of Jesus with their lives. And he continued to reflect on this phrase for the people of God, where he talked about cheap grace. So you know the problem with us. It goes much deeper than just the temporary fixes of life. So that we’ve cheapened grace. It’s not. The fight against the fact that grace is free. Bonhoeffer was clear in saying Grace is free. But the reality is that people have cheapened it. As he reflected on the church, he would begin to say in their spiritual condition that when they would live their lives, they would live it however they wanted, or contrary to what Christ would want, because they could look at his grace and just say his grace covered it.
But what he wanted to hammer home for the people. Yes. Grace is free. But it isn’t cheap. Extent. Of the payment for you to even begin to experience it. Jesus has paid it all. In fact, Bonhoeffer and reflecting to his own people, wrote to them about Martin Luther and said, do you know what the secret to the Reformation was? The secret to the Reformation was not that they recognized there was justification from sin. But that there was justification for the sinner. There is a place in our lives where we fight so hard to keep things of this world for which we do not belong. And it’s important for us before we even begin to ask, does does God care about the specific of a situation to ask God? Ultimately, what is the plan of all things? Why? Because there comes a place in all of our lives where eventually the Band-Aid fixes stop working. And when we’re staring at the end, we want to know something’s there. When you look at a face of a mother about to lose a child. When you look at the hardship of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was putting his life on the line, he he lost his life one one week before the war ended with Nazi Germany.
How do you wake up the next day and live your lives? It’s by reflecting on this in God, as he says in Jeremiah 23 five, it’s that grace is not cheap. At some point within our lives, we we often in reflecting back to Jesus, can lull ourselves asleep in the significance of this. And this is what makes Habakkuk in this lament so important. Because when you read about the nation of Israel over and over again. God comes to them. And God cries out to them and God expresses his love for them. But they treat his grace. As if it were cheap. Can I tell you? As we go through this book together, we’re going to look at the nature and the concern and the character of God as he looks into the daily aspects of our life with his love and goodness. But if you look at the theme of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Goddess continuing to remind himself or remind them that he is greater. And that for our hearts it’s important not to make much of ourselves. But to connect to the goodness of who he is. Because his grace isn’t cheap. And our lives belong to him as he is the rescue of all things.