Tag: Habakkuk

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Faith Triumphant – Habakkuk 3:1-15

This is a book about faith. It starts with Habakkuk’s faith being tested, crying out to God asking why His people are so corrupt. His replies by promising judgement through the Chaldeans. This continues to test Habakkuk’s faith, and he asks why – but he seeks to listen. God replies with a teaching of faith – the righteous will live by faith, and we can have faith that He will bring all things fulfillment.

In chapter 3, we see the outcome of faith triumphant, in Habakkuk’s song of response. The song is a “Shiggaion” like Psalm 7 – but we don’t know what that means, exactly. It could mean a wild, mournful song, or it could mean a song of meditation and humility, which is certainly the spirit of the song. The other musical term used is “Selah” which we also do not know the meaning of – or could be a pause, or an intensifier, or a line repeat.

The song starts with an acknowledgment that Habakkuk is fearful. While we know that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” we still experience fear. Habakkuk also sees that the only rescue from his fear is the revival of God’s work, even though that work is part of what is making Habakkuk afraid. From Paul in the New Testament, we can have confidence in the promise that “He who began a good work in [us] will be faithful to complete it.”

The core of Habakkuk’s request is this: “In wrath, remember mercy.”

Then he gets to the poetry of the song, painting a broad picture of the seeds and power of God. First, he recounts God meeting Israel in the wilderness (the wilderness of Teman here is used as a more general term) and Mount Sinai (called here and Deuteronomy Mount Paran). He points to the flashes of glory shown to Moses and in the pillars of cloud and fire, and to the plagues sent on both Egypt and, later, the wandering Israelites.

He calls out God’s power over those things that seem permanent, whether mountains or kingdoms or rivers. All of them fall before God’s “chariot of salvation” – his “merkabah yeshua”. Even the sun and moon are under His command, calling back to how God gave the land to Israel in the first place.

Then he pivots from what God had done to what He will do. He again brings in the term salvation, “yeshua,” twice – He will work the salvation of His anointed people through His anointed. Habakkuk and others of his time may have seen this pointing back to David or even ahead to Cyrus, but we see how this is ultimately fulfilled by Yeshua himself. The head of the wicked will be crushed, as His promised at the beginning would be the end of the deceiving serpent.

That gives an additional perspective on next lines, which serve as multiple hopes: hope that the rule of the Chaldeans would not be permanent, that the oppressors of the poor would not last, but also that the rule of sin within our lives and our world is not permanent, either.

We can sing our songs of hope like Habakkuk, because we know that Yeshua the God-man is the ultimate fulfillment of all the promises of the prophets of Israel. Have we sought the salvation that He offers.”

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 16, 2021

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The Righteous Will Live by Faith – Habakkuk 2:2-5

In chapter 2, Habakkuk shifts from being a complainer to being a learner, with the key line coming in verse 4 – “the righteous will live by faith.”

God’s answer to Habakkuk’s second complaint begins with an instruction to make the message public, and a note that understanding the His answer will require patience. He is about to share a vision of the future, a vision that starts with the coming invasion of the Chaldeans and stretches through the unfolding of His plan to the coming of Christ and Christ’s return.

To recap, Habakkuk started with a complaint about violence within his own society – God’s answer is that the Chaldeans would come to bring His judgement on Judah. Habakkuk then objects to the use of this evil people, but closes his second complaint with a promise to seek and wait for God’s answer.

And so God answers, contrasting the arrogant with the righteous and the upright – those who do what is right in their own eyes versus those who seek to follow the way of God. “Righteous” here is innocent or justified in a legal sense. Faith is the firm, faithful response to the word of God. Martin Luther says, “Faith is a living, unshakable confidence in God’s grace.”

The object of our faith, though, is of vital importance. We cannot let faith simply be wishful thinking – if we put faith in things that do not deserve it, we will be let down. Blind faith is like dropping a coin into a wishing well – Biblical faith is like tracking a package. Faith requires understanding God’s promises and submitting to His sovereign will and plan. Faith in things that God does not promise will be disappointed – but so also will be a faith that does not expect anything of God, which inevitably turns into faith in ourselves, in our own ability to make the change that is needed.

The full importance of this verse is only for revealed in the gospel of Christ. New Testament writers quote this verse three separate times: Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38.

In Romans, Paul cites this in the context of introducing the gospel, within which “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.” In Galatians, Paul uses this verse to show that even in the Old Testament, the Law itself was insufficient to achieve righteousness: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law” – because the righteous live by faith.

This verse is one of the many breadcrumbs God scatters throughout the Old Testament – some of which Habakkuk may have been aware of. Ezekiel, who was likely a contemporary, also prophesied about the coming exile, and about God’s ultimate response:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

We see similar promises across the prophets – that God will ultimately upend the natural order of things, that righteousness will no longer be something we do in order to gain God’s favor, but will become something that God imputes to us if we rely on Him in faith – which itself returns itself back to God as an act of worship and sacrifice.

Are you righteous today? What do you base your righteousness on? Do you want to be made righteous, founded upon the saving work of Christ, through faith in His death and resurrection? That righteousness through faith is only true righteousness we can achieve, and it is offered to us freely.

And if we have taken that step of faith, how are we living that out? Are we living with the faith of the centurion, knowing that Jesus has things well in hand even if we cannot see it? Are we seeking the promises of God that we can rest on in faith? Are we living every day in that “living, unshakable confidence in God’s grace?”

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 2, 2021

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Habakkuk Reacts – Habakkuk 1:12-2:1

The opening of Habakkuk is about what righteous people do in the midst of difficult times. Habakkuk cries out to the Lord about the evil he sees around him and is answered – eventually. It may not have been immediate – Habakkuk may have been praying for answers for a long time before receiving one. And then, when it came, it was kind of a terrible answer! He is going to bring in the Chaldeans to discipline His people. It may have been startling to finally get an answer, especially one so dissatisfying.

So he replies, opening by acknowledging how much higher his God is than he is. God is from everlasting, from before, outside of time. The word he uses is qedem, before time.

Then he interjects the statement, “we shall not die.” Habakkuk knows about the covenants with Abraham, with Moses, with David, but clearly he understands that there is an everlasting thread to this. He will protect his people – but we get a whisper here of the everlasting life that comes in the New Covenant.

So Habakkuk acknowledges God’s higher perspective and His promises to His people. But then he pushes his questions again – why is God using the Chaldeans, who are so much worse than the Israelites?

He calls out God on His own terms – if God cannot even look at evil, how can he countenance these invaders? It is easy to compare ourselves to others, to focus on other people’s sin rather than our own, to focus on other group’s sin rather than our own.

Habakkuk continues to press his case, now against the invaders instead of his own people. He speaks in terms of fishing implements, hooks and nets, both because of the importance of fishing to the Mesopotamians but also because the Neo-Babylonians would even use those tools in their conquests.

Habakkuk closes with a promise to wait for God’s reply. This time, he will not be caught off guard. This time, he is ready for correction – he is ready for the reproof of God, just as God has prepared the Chaldeans for the reproof of Israel. There may be some softening here, now that he has had a chance to say his piece.

We should similarly be situated on our own watchtowers, ready for reproof from God. All of us need that correction. God is changing the focus for Habakkuk from the world around him into focus onto his own need for reproof.

But God indeed is also working in the world around us, even when we don’t see it. But for God, who lives outside of time, there is no delay between sin and His judgement, but in His mercy he leaves opportunity for repentance.

And more than that, He came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ who lived, died and rose again in order to make that repentance possible.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, April 25, 2021