Bible Reading
We’re going to have our Bible reading now, so if you have a Bible with you, please turn to the book of Habakkuk. And we’re going to be reading Habakkuk chapters 1 and 2. you’ll be glad to know I’m not doing all of that! So I’ll read chapter one and Kirsty will come up after me and read chapter two. We also do have it up on the screen, so for those of you who prefer to use the screens, or you perhaps didn’t bring a Bible, the readings are up there for you.
Right, Habakkuk chapter 1. I’ll be beginning at verse 1.
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
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 the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
“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 told.
For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings 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 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!”
Are you not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith
“Moreover, wine is a traitor,
an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
and collects as his own all peoples.”
Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,
“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
for how long?—
and loads himself with pledges!”
Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
and those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be spoil for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
to set his nest on high,
to be safe from the reach of harm!
You have devised shame for your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
For the stone will cry out from the wall,
and the beam from the woodwork respond.
“Woe to him who builds a town with blood
and founds a city on iniquity!
Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts
that peoples labor merely for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
“Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—
you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
in order to gaze at their nakedness!
You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will come around to you,
and utter shame will come upon your glory!
The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
“What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
This is the word of the Lord.
The Burden of Injustice
Morning ladies. A few weeks ago I had a week. Do you know that expression? A week. I’d spent some time with some teenagers in crisis. I helped a church figure out how to apply the South African Children’s act to a situation for a family they had met through an outreach. I spoke to another friend who was facing discouragement in her ministry. I heard from a family who had an act of violence occur and then who were not given the support from organizations that exist to support families like theirs.
I continue to watch my own family in America reel as another school shooting has left them navigating the very real fear a school day brings to their child. I saw the harrowing effects of cancer on a child and its family. And then I decided to read the news headlines. Have you ever had a week? It’s hard to witness pain. It’s hard to feel the weight of violence and injustice in our world. It’s hard to bear the sight of children who are sick, hungry, neglected or even hunted. It’s hard to see people constantly running from war and famine, to feel the burden of injustice when people are not brought to account for their wickedness and evil. It’s also hard to watch the wicked not go punished but instead seem to prosper.
If that’s been your experience or your story then, can I say, today you are in the right place. God’s not silent to this pain or unable to answer our questions around it. God speaks. Habakkuk will cry out to God, as we’ll learn this morning, and God will answer him. He has much to say about these issues and it’s my prayer that as we spend time together looking in God’s Word, that his Spirit will minister to your heart and your mind. Let’s pray.
Father God, you know our hearts, our situations and the journey each of us has been on that has led us to be here together this morning. Please allow your Holy Spirit to minister to our hearts through your Word. Give us ears that hear you speak and hearts that are willing to put our trust in you. We pray that we will leave here today renewed in our minds and comforted in our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Habakkuk’s Message
So, we’re in the book of Habakkuk this morning and I know most of you have probably spent quite a while trying to figure out how to say that word. Always good to say this right at the beginning of the talk so you know I’ve landed on Habakkuk. We can have discussions about that later. But I think it’s one of the most interesting prophetic books in the Bible because of how God actually engages with the prophet Habakkuk but also because we’re not given much in terms of context at the beginning of the book.
Habakkuk starts off with an urgency to his message and we only pick up his context much later, and that’s really important to notice. There’s no geography or history right at the beginning of this book. Come look with me at verse 1.
“The Oracle (or burden) that Habakkuk the prophet saw.” (Habakkuk 1:1)
That’s it. That’s all we’re given. But that actually says quite a bit about what to expect in this book. We know that a prophet is someone who spoke God’s word to God’s people, so we know the burden being spoken of in verse 1 has to do with God’s Word. And we’re told it’s a heavy word, right? It’s a heavy word for those of God, for God’s people and for those who read it.
I want you to take that in for a moment because, flip, I don’t know about you, but I am surrounded by noise. Words are everywhere these days and it can be easy to miss the important words. The amount of information constantly being put in front of us, not to mention the information we seek out through social media platforms is overwhelming. So, this morning ladies, won’t you sit up? Won’t you take note? Won’t you adopt a pose, a pose that’s going to embrace the urgency of God’s word, the weight of having the Living God speaking to you? And expect transformation from what he’s going to say to you. We should not leave here unchanged.
Habakkuk Cries Out to God
So ladies, are you ready? Okay, let’s go to Habakkuk chapter 1 and see what Habakkuk’s crisis is. What motivates him to cry out to God? From verse 2,
“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 the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:2-4)
Habakkuk is overwhelmed, overwhelmed by the wickedness that he sees all around him. He’s talking about a community where there’s violence, iniquity, wrongdoing, destruction…
