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I thought that we would take
the time to address two primary issues that go together, at least
they go together in my mind, so hopefully it makes sense that
they go together as we go through this series. First is the sovereign
work of God throughout history, his governing of all things as
the ruler and creator of everything, how he judges nations, how he
causes them to rise and to fall, and then He will bring up other
nations and he will judge them as well. Essentially his governing
affairs of the universe. And secondly, tied up with all
of that is the sovereignty of God in relation to the presence
of evil in the world. And I want us to dive into those
two issues by primarily looking at the book of Habakkuk. Now,
I have to say that right away, if you know where the book of
Habakkuk is in your Bible, you should probably just go ahead
and you should get 100% on the quiz automatically if you know
where it is. I mean, it's a bit of a neglected
book. You know, you can preach through Romans, and you can preach
through the Gospels, or the Book of Acts, and most everyone will
know where those are, but Habakkuk, you know, you might have to go
to the table of contents for that one. You go to Ezekiel,
then you keep turning right past Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah. You go past Jonah as fast as
he went by Nineveh. And then you come to Micah and
Nahum. And then finally, you stumble upon Habakkuk. The simpler
way is just to go to the New Testament and turn back five
books. And it's probably easiest to
just go to the table of contents to find it. By way of opening
up here tonight, I want us to look at a couple of the main
themes of this book in the historical context, and then we'll dive
into the first 11 verses here in Chapter 1. Habakkuk was probably
written right after the death of King Josiah. We don't know
that for sure. There's not an explicit verse
to that effect. But there are a couple of factors
that we can take from the text of the book that give us a strong
indication here. First of all, the book mentions
the Chaldeans multiple times. The Chaldeans were a people from
Babylon who lived in what would today be South Iraq. Some of
the Chaldean leaders would eventually, they would go on and they would
be kings of Babylon. The Chaldeans, they were a wicked,
evil, and idolatrous people. And here is why that matters.
If you look at Habakkuk 1 verse 6, it discusses the fact that
God is actually raising up the Chaldeans. They were in the process
of being given a place of power, being given a place of prominence
among the nations. And as I went through a couple
of commentaries and study Bibles and historical resources to look
up the Chaldeans, what you find is that in about 626 B.C. The Chaldeans, through the leadership
of a man named Nebuchadnezzar, seize control of Babylon from
the Assyrians. So you have this wicked group
coming to the forefront that's recognized by Habakkuk. He sees all their evil. That's
a main theme that we're going to see in this book. We know
they are on the rise, and that gives us a rough date to begin
to work with. But as we'll also read in a minute
whenever we go into Chapter 1, Habakkuk clearly understands
the evil, not only of the Chaldeans, but also of his own people. That's
why this book, dating this book just after King Josiah's reign,
it fits so well because Josiah brought all of these godly reforms
throughout his time as king. But his successor Jehoiakim was
a wicked ruler. You can read about both of them
in 2 Kings 22-24. And if you go to 2 Kings, we're
not going to look at it tonight, but if you look at 2 Kings 24-2,
the Chaldeans, they're actually listed as among the nations that
God sent to judge Judah. That's why many commentators
and theologians place Habakkuk right after the reign of King
Josiah, during the reign of King Jehoiakim, whenever all of the
evil was beginning to spread, right in that period, because
it fits with the rise of the Chaldeans, it fits with the judgment
that we see of Habakkuk overall. But whether or not you take that
date or not, the main context is that the prophet, he sees
the wickedness amongst the people of God. And he wonders, why isn't
God acting? God says, don't worry, I'm going
to judge them with the Chaldeans. Then Habakkuk is stunned, wondering
how could God use a more wicked nation to judge the people of
God? God's response is to say, trust
in me, I'll judge the Chaldeans as well. And then Habakkuk rests
in peace in God and he praises him. That's the book in a nutshell. We're going to spend a few weeks
together unpacking that. But what Habakkuk allows us to
see is the sovereignty of God over human affairs. And he allows
us to see that the perfect nature, the perfect character of God,
that he is good in his governance, he is good in his providential
workings. And we're also enabled to see
what our own response should be to all of these truths. That's
an important foundation for us to have as we go throughout life. it is important because the truth
of the sovereignty of God is clearly and explicitly revealed
in the scripture. Therefore it is vital for understanding
that the fullness of God, the fullness of His character, and
practically these doctrines are important because having a biblical
foundation of God's governance in the world and understanding
that in context of the presence of evil. It helps you to respond
whenever you see evil around you in your own day and to know
how to respond biblically in those situations. It helps us
to lean upon God in those moments instead of going in our own way.
And so let's dive in here and let's start by reading verses
1 through 11 here in chapter 1. The oracle, the 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. And they sweep by
like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose might is their God."
And so we open here in verse 1 by seeing that The contents
of this book, they're an oracle that the prophet sees. An oracle
is most often a message of heavy judgment, which we'll see the
judgment of God multiple times in this particular book, such
as in chapter 2, verses 6 through 20, where there are actually
a string of five woes given against the Chaldeans. And so this helps
us to set the context here, that the prophecy of Habakkuk is going
to involve the judgment of God. upon evildoers. But first we
have to see the questions of Habakkuk here, which really brings
us into an entire conversation regarding bringing questions
to God that we need to cover before we dive into these specific
questions. You see, it's one thing for us
to bring questions to God about things that we see in the world,
like the evil in the world around us, or perhaps we bring questions
wanting to know more about a specific doctrine, to know more about
the teaching of Scripture, or whatever else that we are coming
to God with a sincere heart to learn. That's what Habakkuk does
and he's never rebuked throughout this oracle for his questions.
Why? Because he asked with a heart
of faith and trust in God. He understood who God is. He
recognizes his sovereignty over all affairs and he's bowing before
God seeking wisdom and knowledge and understanding. And Habakkuk
in asking these questions He's not trying to pridefully elevate
himself, but he wants to learn from the wisdom of God. For example,
in chapter 1, verses 12 through 17, Habakkuk will ask God another
list of questions around how he can use the Chaldeans for
judgment. And then as we come to chapter
2 and verse 1, look at this here. It says, I will take my stand
at my watch post. This is Habakkuk talking. 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
so we see here clearly that Habakkuk is looking to God for answers. He knows that he is a source
of wisdom. He knows he is dependent upon God, and so he is going
to wait on God to reveal himself on his own timing. Look how the
book ends in chapter 3, verses 17 through 19. Habakkuk says this, he says,
though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the
vines, the produce of the olive fell, and the fields yield no
food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd
in the saws, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy
in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength.
He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high
places. That's really an amazing declaration of trust in God from
a man living in a difficult time. That even if there is no food,
none of those natural provisions, Habakkuk says that he will still
trust in God. That's truly just an incredible
declaration of faith and confidence in God. And so Habakkuk was not
wrong to come to God seeking answers to difficult problems.
He was bringing his questions to the right source. He understood
that he has finite wisdom. And so he comes to God who has
infinite, who has perfect wisdom. But that is a different action
from questioning God's character, purpose, and plans. That is where
instead of asking God for understanding as the source of wisdom, you
instead seek to judge God by your own ideas with a heart full
of pride, thinking that you're the authority. That's not coming
to God with a humble heart. That's not coming to God with
a heart that wants to know truth. That's acting rebelliously, like
somehow one of us would think that we know more or we know
better than God himself. That's acting like Sarah whenever
she was told that she was going to have Isaac. When she heard
that God had promised her a son, she laughed at the promise, not
thinking that it was possible. But in Habakkuk, we see a wonderful
example here of a believer dealing with very deep, very real, and
very profound questions about evil in the world, about the
wickedness in the world that he sees around him, and faithfully
waiting upon God to give answers, and faithfully waiting upon God
to give him wisdom. Christianity doesn't run from
deep issues. Christianity turns to God who
alone provides the answers. And so are there any questions
here before we start looking at verse 2? Yes sir? They're from, sorry what? They're
essentially a group, yeah they would be South Iraq today, so
they were a group that lived within Babylon. Yeah, are you talking about verse
8, the last half? Okay, yeah. I think what that's
talking about is the fact that they're coming a ways to get
to Judah. Yeah, because if you look at
the ancient maps and stuff, it was a pretty good ways. So I
wouldn't rule out that they'd use mercenaries, you know, I
don't know that for sure. Yeah, yeah. No, that's a good
question. Yeah, that's a good question. Any other questions or thoughts? Alright, well let's look at verse
2 to see the first line of questioning here. Oh Lord, how long shall
I cry for help and you will not hear or cry to you violence and
you will not save? And so Habakkuk here is expressing
the reality that he feels as if God is not responding to him,
that from a human perspective he is seeing all kinds of immoral
behavior around him and he wonders why it appears as though God
is remaining inactive. That he is crying out to God
and yet from a strictly human standpoint it seems as though
he is not responding. Habakkuk sees the violence. Injustice
being undertaken at the expense of others, yet he does not see
God acting with immediacy, with urgency and quickly according
to Habakkuk's timetable to correct all of these issues that are
going on. He is shocked that he doesn't see the immediate
action of God in light of all the wickedness. Verse 3 continues,
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." And so Habakkuk has the ability to very clearly look
around And to see not only evil acts of violence, but iniquity
as well. He sees iniquity, sin, amongst
the people of God. That instead of living according
to the commands of God, instead of submitting to Him, they are
living according to their own way. Instead of going down the
narrow path of righteousness, they are traveling the broad
road of sin. And this is something that is
dominant amongst those who are living around Habakkuk. And yes, he asks God, why are
you idly looking at wrong? From his perspective, he knows
that God also sees wrongdoing. He understands that God sees
this rebellion, yet he's left questioning why is God not acting
in judgment to destroy the wicked? Look at the four characteristics
he brings up here at the end of verse three. He mentions destruction
and violence. People are acting in sin toward
one another. They're living idolatrously according
to their own standard, other than the word of God. And so
as a result of that, they're actually lashing out against
one another, acting angrily against each other. Then he mentions
strife and contention arising. That's the result of sin. I think
that we saw that in the last series as we saw how biblical
truth promotes rich unity in Christ, where there is a submission
to God with humble hearts, a local church will be unified in a profound
way. Well, the opposite is true, that
if you have sin running rampant in a people, they are going to
be divided. There is going to be all kinds of strife, all kinds
of contention coming up. They are going to be contentiously
at each other's throats all the time. That is what Habakkuk is
recognizing here. All the anger, all the lashing
Habakkuk sees all this, and then he comes to his last questions
here, in this section anyway, in verse 4. So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous,
so justice goes forth perverted. So here we see actually a couple
of different issues at play. First of all, the law, the perfect
standard of justice is revealed by God for His people. It was
actually paralyzed according to Habakkuk. It's not given any
authority by the people. In other words, they're not seeking
to look to God. They're not seeking to look to
His revelation for guidance. They don't care to follow His
ways. They're rejecting His commandments. It was disregarded by His society. All of the restraints are removed
in a society that rejects God's commandments. And so, whenever
you see a rejection of God's standards, you'll see the second
part that says, injustice never goes forth. because true justice
is only found in the standard of God. If that standard has
been disregarded, you're not going to have true justice. You're
going to have a society acting unjustly. God's people were given
His law in the Old Testament so that the rest of the nations
would actually look at them with amazement. We read this in Deuteronomy
chapter 4 verses 5 through 9. It's here it says, see I have
taught you statutes and rules as the Lord my God commanded
that you should do them in the land that you are entering to
take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that
will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of
the peoples. Who, when they hear all these statutes, will say,
Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For
what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the
Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon Him? And what great
nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all
this law that I set before you today? And so the people, they
were to obey God's authoritative revelation. The other nations,
they would look at Israel, and they would look at them in amazement
as to how perfect this standard of righteousness is and how great
their God is. Yet we see the people of Judah
here in Habakkuk. They are casting aside the law,
and the result is that they do not have true justice in the
But you see the problem, it's not just that true justice is
not going forth. Instead look at verse 4 here
to see the second half of the problem. For the wicked surround the righteous,
so justice goes forth perverted. the wicked, they were practicing
their standard of justice. You see, whenever a society,
whenever it stops obeying what God has commanded in regard to
justice, what He has deemed to be just, what He has deemed to
be righteous, that society doesn't stop enacting a view of justice. It just changes the view that
it institutes from the standard of God to the standard of man,
to a wicked understanding a perverted standard of justice. The wicked,
they were surrounding the righteous ones, the remnant who were still
faithful. But from Habakkuk's viewpoint, he looks out and it
is as though the wicked are everywhere, yet God was not acting. They
had trampled upon His holy law, they had rejected the commandments,
they had enacted a perverse standard of justice. Yet as Habakkuk looks
from a human standpoint, he doesn't see God acting. And here's where
we come to an important point in this section of Scripture.
The prophet did not have perfect understanding as God did. He
didn't know the eternal plans of God. All he could do was look
around. He could see the evil in the
world and ask God, what's going on in this situation? Why is
all of this occurring? But he had to wait on God for
an answer. He had to trust in God. He had
to have patience that God will reveal himself according to his
own timing. See, you and I are going to be
placed in a lot of situations in life where we see things that
are horrifically evil, where we see those who are adamantly
wanting to institute perverted standards of justice. There will
be moments where we feel like we are absolutely surrounded
by those who are wicked. However, will we do what Habakkuk
does here? Will we take our questions to
the source who is God? Will we have the humility to
recognize that we don't know everything but He does? All of
these people going around and asking how you can believe in
God whenever such and such catastrophe happens. You know there are evil
and perverse things that happen in this world, horrific matters
that are incredibly sad. We can think of Nazi Germany.
We can think of a tyrant like Putin invading the Ukraine. And
we can call those things horrifically evil. And these individuals,
they come up and they say, how can you believe in God with the
presence of evil in the world? And we're going to see more on
that later on as we see that God will not fail in His judgment. He will not be lax. But a fundamental
question to ask that person, do you think that you know more
than God does? Do you know better than God? I mean, imagine that you're beaten
unjustly, that you undergo a tremendous amount of suffering, that you're
thrown in jail. You haven't done anything wrong. You've been mistreated. You've been treated horrifically,
having undergone great suffering. Now, you could sit there moaning
about it. You could blame God, or you could live in light of
the fact that this was sinful for people to treat you unjustly.
But you have faith in the providence of God governing all things.
Therefore, you sing hymns in the jail, and God miraculously
converts the jailer. That was the response of Paul
and Silas in Acts 16. God used that entire situation
for His glory. All the way from the difficulty
of going through the beating, the difficulty of going through
the suffering of being placed in the prison, to the joy of
seeing the man converted. All of it was for His glory.
And so yes, take the means legally that you can like Paul did in
that situation. But also rejoice in knowing that
God is sovereign over all things that you serve Him. even in the
midst of those difficult moments. He is not the creator of evil,
but He is sovereign over evil men. He is sovereign over the
actions of evil. He directs the hearts of kings
wherever He desires, as Proverbs 21.1 says. He has even determined
our physical qualities, Exodus 4.11. Then the Lord said to him,
Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or
seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? God is
sovereign as to how we even come out of the womb, our physical
abilities. He controls whether we have eyesight,
whether we can hear, whether we can speak, all of these things. And He governs all things according
to the counsel of His perfect holy will. We know that He's
working all things for His glory, that He's working all things
for the eternal good of His people, and that means that we must trust
Him completely. Instead of having a prideful
attitude that somehow would think that we know better than God,
we must walk with humility before Him. We must walk with dependence
upon God. Put our sincere questions before
Him, yes, but come to Him with a heart of humility seeking the
answer, seeking to know everything in light of His Word. We trust
in Him who has infinite wisdom. John Calvin once put it this
way. He said, God does not answer our prayers as we pray them,
but as we would pray them if That's true in any and every
circumstance, in the good circumstances and in the bad. You wouldn't
want God running the universe according to my ideas. You wouldn't
want God running the universe according to your ideas. You
wouldn't want God running the universe according to the person
down the street's ideas. Instead, He governs it all according
to His perfect way. That means that whenever we encounter
difficulty, when we encounter evil, we have a heart of trust
seeking to learn from Him. Habakkuk didn't have the answers
yet. What we see him doing is turning to God, and now we come
upon the second major section of this portion of Scripture
where we see God's response. From Habakkuk's point of view,
it seems like God is not active. It seems like He's not working,
but in reality, He is actively bringing all things in accordance
to His plan. But it was a plan that Habakkuk
would be shocked by. Before we look at verse 5, are
there any thoughts or comments or questions here? Right. Yep. Yep. Amen to that. It's a good
thought. I don't think everything's perfect
in our country, that's for sure. Sorry, what? And the problem with a lot of
individuals who ask those kind of questions, like I had mentioned
earlier, how can you believe in God with people? They're not
really looking for answers a lot of times, you know. They're a
lot of times built up in pride. Sometimes they are. Sometimes
it's a legitimate question. But they're just a new believer
and they're wanting to know how this works. Certainly that does
happen. But many times what you find is it's a heart full of
pride in a person. They don't have the humility
that Habakkuk demonstrates throughout this whole book. Any other thoughts? Let's look at verse 5 here, where
God starts His response. 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. So God tells Habakkuk,
you're going to be amazed at the work that I am doing in the
world. This is often the response that we have to the way that
God is working, isn't it? He's not working the way we expect
him to. He's not governing things in
the way that we would have expected. If we knew everything that he
was doing right now, we would be absolutely shocked. If we
knew his plans for the future, we would have our breath taken
away. I mean, can you imagine being Joseph? Do you think that
he could have ever imagined what would have resulted whenever
he was sold by his brothers? Not just that, but whenever he
acts righteously in the situation with Potiphar's wife, when she
tempts him, he does nothing wrong, he acts just as he should, but
then he gets put into prison for refusing to sin. Sold by
his family, thrown into jail when he's faithful. Joseph doesn't
sit around questioning God in a wrong sort of a way. He simply
strives to be faithful where he is. Joseph the dreamer could
have never dreamed what God would do of him over the course of
his life, putting him in a place to save countless lives. That's
the providence of God. That's the providence of God
working His plans. But listen, understand, it wasn't
just the providence of God when Joseph reached the pinnacle of
heights in Egypt. It was the providence of God
when he was sold. It was the providence of God
when he was placed in the prison. You see, it's not just the pleasant
aspect. It's the difficult aspect. It's
the hard times. All of it is a part of the providence
of God. Every step of Joseph's journey,
every difficult turn, every joyous path, it was all governed by
God's sovereign hand. Could he have understood it all
in the midst of it? There's no way. But he was an example of
faithfulness. I have no doubt that he could
look back in his life and he just stood in awe at the providence
of God working in his life. Many times you and I will not
know how everything fits together until we get to eternity. Then
you'll be able to see all the twists and turns, the triumphs,
the bumps, the failures, all of it, how it all worked to the
glory of God, how it was all perfectly planned according to
the wisdom of God. Yet God is communicating the
point that His activity will blow the prophet's mind. And
so also we must know that the eternal working of God is beyond
anything that we can fathom. Look at verses 6 through 7. For
behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breath of the earth to seize dwellings
not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go
forth from themselves. So God's response to Habakkuk
is that he is active. just in a very different way
than you are going to anticipate. God is going to raise up a horrifically
evil wicked nation in order to judge his own people. Notice
how the Chaldeans are described here. It said they are bitter
and hasty in verse 6. They are bitter against others.
They are bitter against the people of God. They had no respect for
biblical values. They had no worth, no considering
of human worth. They were hateful people. They
would be swift or hasty in terms of their actions. They would
be quick to move, quick to carry out their intentions. Next it
said that they would march through the breadth of the earth to seize
dwellings not their own. They would have a military might
such that they would just go into a place and they would take
it by brute force. It didn't matter to them whether
or not that was a justified action. They simply took it because they
wanted to. Verse 7, it makes two important
statements about the Chaldeans. They are dreaded and fearsome,
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. They fought
in the manner by which they fought was so fearsome that the fear
spread of the Chaldeans themselves. They were a ferociously wicked
people and so other nations literally dreaded them. Notice that last
phrase here. their justice and dignity going
forth from themselves. That word dignity is translated
that way by the English Standard Version. It is a little bit unique,
but what it is referencing is the idea of a position of high
authority. In other words, they would execute
all of their judgments, all of their decisions on the basis
of their own authority, on the basis of their own ideas. They
are not going to consult God. An idolatrous nation doesn't
care about seeking to obey God. Instead what they want to do
is they want to go their own way. They view themselves as
the determiners of their own destiny. So they are going to
choose what standards they are going to live by. They are going
to choose everything that they want to do without any reference
or any concern for what God has said. Look at verses 8-9. 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 for it. They gather captives like sand."
This text is depicting the power. It is depicting the military
might of the Chaldeans. He is using symbolic language
here to discuss how fast and how powerful the Chaldean army
would actually be. He emphasizes the speed of their
horses, he emphasizes their ferociousness. A wolf is an incredibly vicious
animal and God uses that picture here. The horsemen themselves,
they are proud, they press on. That is really describing the
arrogance of these individuals in growing. The Hebrew word carries
the idea not only of arrogance but actually of being multiplied.
In other words, the pride of their army, their numerous nature
is being depicted here in this text. Chaldea was a ways from
Judah, so that's what the text is pointing out here as well.
And even though they were a far distance, the text says they
fly like an eagle swift to devour. I've seen eagles before, but
I've never seen one actually diving down on its prey. However, I've seen other birds,
and if you have as well, you know that they're very fast and
very devastating. Just to give you an idea, a bald
eagle can dive at speeds of 100 miles per hour. That's amazingly
quick. Can you imagine something swooping
down on you at 100 miles per hour. Not only are they fast,
but they can actually grip around 300 pounds per square inch in
their claws. They're not just quick, they're
powerful. That's the picture that we're
supposed to understand here of the Chaldeans. In verse 9, it
gives us the reason they would come. They would come for violence. Their objective is set, their
intent upon going out and conquering the nations for their own evil
purposes. This was not a situation where
another country had attacked them so they were simply seeking
to defend themselves. No, they were purely wanting
to wreak destruction for their own selfish gain. Their faces
were four. They were ready for the battle
ahead. They were determined to take this course of action. They
capture humans as easily as you can dip a cup into the sand and
capture it. It's no difficulty at all. And
verse 10 discusses their arrogance. But before we see that, are there
any thoughts, questions, or comments before we move into verse 10? All right, look at their arrogance
here. Verse 10, at kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take
it. Even the kings of the earth,
the mightiest of the kings of the earth, the Chaldeans would
merely laugh at them. They'd laugh at them as though
they were nothing. Instead of thinking the powerful rulers,
the powerful authorities might possibly stop them, they just
keep on going, marching straight ahead, laughing at their enemies.
The tallest and most well-defended of fortresses would not even
make them think twice. It's only going to make them
laugh in their arrogance here. Their goal was sinful and greedy,
as we see at the end of verse 10. They want to pile and pile
and pile up more and more and more. They had no end to their
appetite for wealth or power or conquering. Verse 11 speaks
to a pressing reality about the Chaldeans. Then they sweep by
like the wind and go on, guilty men whose own might is their
God. We see that they will go by as
fast as the wind. They move on to the next target
in order to destroy them as well. Yet the word of God assures that
they are guilty men, as the verse says. These are men who trust
in their own mind, and that is idolatry. Instead of praising
the true God, they would ascribe all of this to themselves, worshiping
their own power as divine. That's what they were about in
a nutshell. They simply want to please themselves. You see in these verses the way
that God describes the Chaldeans. They're a wicked army, they practice
perverse standards of justice, and they're engrossed in idolatry. And He used them as His method
of judgment upon the people of Judah. However, we also see His
description of their sin. And this brings us to a foundational
distinction that we need to make. Theologians have rightly talked
about the decreative will of God and the prescriptive will
of God. The decreative will of God is
what He has ordained or decreed to occur. It is what He has said
will happen according to His sovereign plans. But His prescriptive
will, that is what He commands. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. bowing before Christ according
to Acts 17 verse 30. That is His prescriptive will.
That is His command. However, God has not ordained
that every single human who has ever lived will find salvation
in Christ. We know that as evidenced by
the fact that there will be sinners in hell. It is not the case that
everyone will be saved. And here we are referencing His
decreative will. And so whenever we think about
God using the Chaldeans within this particular passage, we can
see the perverted standards of justice, we can see their evil,
none of which were according to His commands, all of which
were flagrantly disobedient to what He had commanded. However,
He had ordained them as His tool of judgment. We see in this text
the willingness of the Chaldeans as well in their sin. Sovereignty
of God does not make people robots. Mankind is totally depraved and
apart from the saving grace of God would never come to Christ,
would never desire to come to Christ. And so the Chaldeans
being dead in their sin, they are doing exactly what they wanted
to do. And God all along is working
everything according to His sovereign plan the entire time. And so what we learn as it pertains
to God working throughout history in this passage is that often
it's not in the way we expect. As we see in the example of the
life of Joseph so well, God's response to Habakkuk's questions
is to show that he has been working. He has been active. He has been
governing everything according to his will. Habakkuk just hasn't
looked in the right place yet. Habakkuk had his eyes focused
on Judah, and yes, God was working there, but Habakkuk didn't even
think about way over there what Chaldea was and from whom would
come judgment from God. So we too, whenever we're in
situations, in difficult situations, where it seems as though God
is not active, where we would be tempted to think that, where
it seems like wickedness is going unrestrained, that sin is around
us, we can know and we can have confidence that God is acting,
even if we don't understand all of the intricate details of that
plan, even if we don't know everything that will happen. And as we go
through Habakkuk, this is certainly not all that we will see as it
pertains to God's work in governing the world and how His sovereignty
interacts with evil. But it's really a foundation
for us to begin to examine these issues, that we are finite. We are small, puny specks of
dust on a small, puny speck of dust in a massive universe created
by a creator with infinite wisdom. Therefore, we must approach it,
everything in life, all of our questions, with complete trust
in him. Are there any questions or thoughts
or comments before we go into the prayer time tonight? My sole goal is that everybody
will be very skilled at finding the book of Habakkuk by the time
we get through the series. Well, I will turn it over to
Brother Ron for the prayer time.
Wednesday 3-9-22 Bible Study
| Sermon ID | 3202217388048 |
| Duration | 42:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Language | English |
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