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.