WHEN GOD BALANCES HIS BOOKS
HABAKKUK 1-2
Habakkuk was a prophet with a
problem. It was a problem faced by a lot
of preachers in 21 century
From a strictly naturalistic
point of view, things were going well.
The economy was doing okay.
Workers were working.
Peace was prosperous.
Business was busy.
The rich were becoming richer.
And the poor didn’t have press coverage,
so everyone seemed to be happy.
But is all of this busy-ness and prosperity, the people had forgotten God. He just didn’t fit into their busy
schedules. And this spiritual
forgetfulness led to other problems.
“Business as usual” took on a
seamier side. There was oppression and a
cut-throat attitude at work. Lawyers
were making a bundle by lining their pockets with legal loopholes. People were out to get what they could get
while the getting was good. Justice was
awarded to the one who had the deepest pockets.
Habakkuk looked out at the
nation of
Habakkuk’s prayer begins with
a question: WHY DOES GOD ALLOW EVIL TO
CONTINUE?
The oracle which Habakkuk the 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.
3 Why do You make me see iniquity,
And
cause me to look on wickedness?
Yes,
destruction and violence are before me;
Strife
exists and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is ignored
And
justice is never upheld.
For
the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore
justice comes out perverted. (Habakkuk 1:1-4).
There is a Principle here: GOD
BALANCES HIS BOOKS IN HIS OWN TIME.
Habakkuk looks at the shape
of the modern judicial system and he asks, “Lord, how long can it go on like
this? Why do you allow such things to
happen?”
Why do bad things happen to relatively
good people?
And...
Why do good things happen to bad people?
I can empathize with
Habakkuk. There are few things more
frustrating than to see bad people “get away with it.”
I have a confession to
make. I like to watch those old-time
movies where the villain gets his come-uppance and where the hero wins the day
and rides off into the sunset to live happily ever after. But life is not always like that. All too often, we see...
Bad things happening to
relatively good people.
And...
Good things happening to bad people.
Habakkuk looks at it and
asks, “Lord, how can you let this go on?
When will you do something? Have
you gone on an extended vacation? If you
a good God, then why do you allow evil to continue?
Why does God permit bad
things and bad people to continue? I
don’t know all of the answers, but I DO know one very important answer as it
relates to us. God permits bad things and
bad people to continue for YOUR benefit.
The
Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient
toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2
Peter 3:9).
There are a lot of people who
seem to think that God is overworked and underpaid and would like to stop all
of the sin and evil in the world, but He is just not up to the task. Sure He has made promises and certainly He
will get around to fulfilling them one of these days, but He has been around for
a long time and He is slowing down.
That isn’t the case. The Lord is NOT slow about His promise. The reason that God’s judgment has not fallen
is because God is PATIENT. To whom is
this patience directed? Look again at
the verse. He is patient toward YOU.
This patience is manifested
by the fact that God’s judgment seems to be on hold. In fact, it seems to be downright
postponed. Some might even think that
God is never going to get around to judging evil.
But
the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away
with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth
and its works will be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10).
God’s judgment WILL come and
it will come like a thief. You know how
a thief comes. He comes
unexpectedly. He doesn’t call you up
earlier in the evening and say, “Hello, I’m going to be robbing your house at
3:15 in the morning. Could you leave out
some milk and cookies with all of your worldly valuables?”
God’s judgment will come
unexpectedly and it will come completely, but in the interim it has not yet
come because there is a period of patience.
Therefore,
beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in
peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the
patience of our Lord as salvation (2 Peter 3:14-15a).
Do you see verse 15? We are to regard the patience of the Lord as
salvation. Here is the point. The reason that you are saved today is because
the Lord was patient with sin and evil in the first century and in the second
century and in every century up to the present.
He is patiently waiting for all to come to repentance. And when all have come who are going to come,
then judgment will come.
In the meantime, evil seems
to be getting the best of good. In the
meantime, sin seems to go unpunished.
And that is the source of Habakkuk’s complaint. And so, the Lord gives an answer. But it is not the answer for which Habakkuk was
looking. In verse 5 we see God’s answer
to Habakkuk’s question:
“Look among the nations! Observe!
Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days You would not believe if you were told.” (Habakkuk 1:5).
God has an answer to
Habakkuk’s prayer. But it was not the
answer that the prophet thought was coming.
I don’t know what Habakkuk expected, but it wasn’t this.
Perhaps he hoped for the best, that God
would miraculously change the heart of the king or that there would be a
revival as people turned back to the Lord.
Or perhaps he thought that heaven would
open and angels would come forth in judgment, putting down evil and raising up
good and setting all things right.
What Habakkuk was not ready
for was the promise that God gave. It
was something completely unexpected.
Here is the Principle: WHEN
GOD BALANCES HIS BOOKS, HE DOES IT HIS WAY.
Has God ever done that to
you? You cry out to Him that He would
change your situation and you have it all worked out in your mind exactly what
God could do to change that situation, but He ignores your pet solution and
comes up with one that is completely different.
That is what happens here.
“For
behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
That
fierce and impetuous people
Who
march throughout the earth
To
seize dwelling places which are not theirs.
They
are dreaded and feared;
Their
justice and authority originate with themselves.
Their
horses are swifter than leopards
And keener than wolves in the evening.
Their
horsemen come galloping,
Their
horsemen come from afar;
They
fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
All
of them come for violence.
Their
horde of faces moves forward.
They
collect captives like sand. (Habakkuk 1:6-9).
We read this passage and it
comes as no surprise. After all, we have
the perspective of history. We know that
in 605 B.C. a young Babylonian prince by the name of Nebuchadnezzar entered
into a coalition with the Medes and the Scythians to attack the Assyrian Empire
and bring it to its knees. His forces
swept over Assyria and her Egyptian allies at the Battle of Carchemish and then
swept down the Levant to
It was with total shock that
the people of
|
First Captivity |
603 B.C. |
Nebuchadnezzar
takes tribute from the Jews and takes a number of the sons of the nobility as
hostages to be raised in |
|
Second Captivity |
597 B.C. |
When the Jews
rebel, Nebuchadnezzar returns, takes |
|
Third Captivity |
586 B.C. |
This time
Nebuchadnezzar comes and he destroys the city of |
You have to know and
understand that the capital city of the Chaldeans was Babylon and every time
you see Babylon in the Bible from the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 to the Harlot
that is called Babylon in Revelation 17-18, the name “Babylon” is vilified and
serves as an image of all that is bad with the world. Now we read that it is
Why? Why would God allow such a thing? It was a judgment again sin. This means it was no chance happening. God says to Habakkuk, “I am not merely
allowing this to take place, I am the one raising
up the Chaldeans (1:6).
This is a picture of the
sovereignty of God. He is in control,
not only when good things happen, but when bad things happen, too.
Every person is to be in
subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from
God, and those which exist are established by God (Romans 13:1).
It is God who raises up presidents and potentates. He is the ultimate authority on planet
earth. He is the only real
superpower. And even when an evil nation
like
Is that bad? No, that is GOOD. It means that absolutely nothing can ever
come into your life without having passed through a nail-scarred hand. It means that your prayers really do count
because you are praying to the One who has complete control over all things.
At the same time, a lot of
people are uncomfortable with the teaching that God is in control of ALL
things. They immediately think, “How
could this be? How could God be in control
when we see a Hitler or a Stalin or a Sadam Hussein?”
If those questions come to
your mind, you are in good company.
Habakkuk had the same sort of questions.
He asks the question: WHY DOES
GOD USE EVIL PEOPLE?
Are You
not from everlasting, O 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 can not look on 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? (Habakkuk 1:12-13).
Habakkuk questions the
actions of God. He doesn’t deny
them. He doesn’t say, “God, you can’t do
that.” After all, Habakkuk knows that
God is God and that He can do however He pleases.
|
God is Sovereign: Are You
not from everlasting... You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge...
You, O Rock... |
↔ |
God is Just: Your
eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with
favor |
Habakkuk looks at these two
qualities of God, that He is completely sovereign and that He is completely
just and righteous and he scratches his head and he says, “I don’t get it!”
Here is the question: How can
God use evil people to do His work? It
is true, the people of
The
Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook,
Drag
them away with their net,
And
gather them together in their fishing net.
Therefore
they rejoice and are glad.
Therefore
they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net;
Because
through these things their catch is large,
And
their food is plentiful. (Habakkuk 1:15-16).
This imagery of a hook and a
net was not completely symbolic. Some of
it was quite literal. Archaeologists
have uncovered wall paintings that depict the Babylonian conquerors shoving a
literal hook through the lips of conquered people in order to lead them about
like fish on a line. Habakkuk sums up
his question in verse 17: Will they
therefore empty their net and continually slay nations without sparing?
Here is his question: You are
a holy and a just God and you are going to use THESE people to accomplish your
will? The answer to this question is
introduced in chapter 2. It begins with
a command for Habakkuk to make a permanent record of this answer.
Then the LORD answered me and
said, “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that
the one who reads it may run. (Habakkuk 2:2).
The Lord is going to give
Habakkuk an answer, and it is such an important answer that Habakkuk is told to
take notes. These notes were are not just for Habakkuk; they are to be preserved in
writing for others to read, too.
It is to be inscribed on
TABLETS. This wasn’t the usual method of
writing. Tablets were expensive and
labor-intensive. Much more commonplace
was the medium of ostrica; broken pieces of
pottery. Most of the archaeological
finds from this period consist of such pottery.
It would be used for day-to-day writing.
But this message is so
important that it is to be put onto tablets.
It is to be written so that its message can be passed on.
“For the vision is yet for the
appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will
not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will
certainly come, it will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3).
The Lord tells us that His
promise WILL come to pass. It might not
come to pass this Tuesday, but the prophecy will be fulfilled. Throughout the rest of the chapter, we see
that GOD BALANCES HIS BOOKS WITHOUT PARTIALITY.
|
There are five woes proclaimed... |
||
|
2:6 |
Woe to him who
increases what is not his |
This was the
sin of the rich person who takes advantage of his neighbors by charging undue
interest. We call such a person today
“loan sharks,” but the activity is no longer limited to mobsters and
criminals. |
|
2:9 |
Woe to him who
gets evil gain for his house, to put his nest on high |
This is related
to the previous woe. It is feathering
your own nest at the expense of others. |
|
2:12 |
Woe to him who
builds a city with bloodshed, And founds a town with violence! |
We are called
to be people of peace. It is amazing
how often we are ready to support military action against a country for which
we do not particularly care. |
|
2:15 |
Woe to you who
make your neighbors drink, Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So
as to look on their nakedness! |
The Lord
pronounces a woe upon the sin of sensuality.
The world says, have a drink and forget all your troubles - the Lord
says, “Eat, drink and remember.” Notice the
warning in verse 16 - there is coming a cup of judgment in the Lord’s right
hand that will come around to you. |
|
2:19 |
Woe to him who
says to a piece of wood, “Awake!” To a mute stone, “Arise!” |
This last woe
is to the one who commits idolatry - the sin of worshiping something other
than God. You might be
thinking, “I know better than that!”
Do you? Do you ever put other
things first in your life? That is
idolatry. |
Now there is something that I
want you to see in each of these woes.
They are directed against the coming Babylonian Empire. God is saying, “I am going to judge the
coming
But as you heard the listing
of those sins, you might have been uncomfortably aware that our own nation is
guilty of those very things. The people
to whom Habakkuk wrote had the same reaction.
He is writing to Jews - Israelites who are living in and around
God show no partiality when
He balances His books. He does not care
if you are American or Chinese, black or white, Presbyterian, Baptist or
Charismatic.
For it is time for judgment to
begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be
the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17).
There is a point here. It is that God eventually balances the
books. At the Battle of
Chancellorsville, the Union army outnumbered the Confederate army by 10 to one. They had more men, they had the advantage of
position and they were better equipped.
That morning, the Union General Joseph Hooker met with his staff and
summarized, “Not even God could take this victory away from us.” And then he went out and suffered one of the
greatest losses in the entire war. What
happened? God balanced the books. He does, you know.
The good news is that GOD
ULTIMATELY BALANCED THE BOOKS UPON THE CROSS. That is what the cross was all about. Sin was judged. The penalty of death was paid. The supreme sacrifice was made. Where the righteousness of God demanded the death
of the sinner, the Righteous One of God died in the place of sinners. And that means we have life and forgiveness
and salvation through faith in Him.
“For the vision is yet for the
appointed time; It hastens toward 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; But the righteous
will live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:3-4).
What is it about faith that
is so pleasing to God? Faith is the
admission that God has done all of the work of salvation on your behalf and
that you can do nothing to save yourself.
Faith is saying that God is God and that His grace is sufficient for
you. Faith is coming to the Lord with
empty hands and a broken heart and looking to Him to be that which fills and
heals.
Look again at verse 4. Do you see what it is that is contrasted to
faith? What it is that is the opposite
of faith? The proud one! Pride is the opposite of faith. The just do not live because of the goodness
of their works. They do not live because
of their arrogant pride in thinking that they are worthy of God’s
acceptance. The just shall live by
faith. The just shall live by confessing
their inadequacy before a holy God and trusting in His Son for our salvation.
The third chapter of Habakkuk
is a song of praise about the wonders of a God who is so great that He moves in
history, not only to balance the books in history, but to balance them on our
behalf as He saves us from our sins and sets our feet upon firm ground.
And that tells me about what
is to be my reaction to this message.
What do I do when I come to understand the salvation that God has
wrought in a world filled with violence and suffering? I am to believe. And I am to be glad. And I am to sing. Theology is not to remain in the pages of our
notebooks. It must sing! And so should we.
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Powerpoint on the book of Habakkuk