Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090830.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Habakkuk: Handling The Problem Of An Evil World In A Good God's Universe
Part I: Understanding How A Good God Can Allow Wickedness To Exist Long In His People
(Habakkuk 1:1-11)
  1. Introduction
    1. When even great evil in God's people seems to go undisciplined for a long time, it can concern onlookers!
    2. However, as Habakkuk 1:1-11 notes of this issue, God is still perfectly just, and this passage provides a much-needed lesson for us today (as follows):
  2. Understanding How A Good God Can Allow Wickedness To Exist Long In His People, Hab. 1:1-11.
    1. Habakkuk ministered in Judah shortly before Babylon first attacked Jerusalem in 605 B. C., taking some captives to Babylon, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., p. 1296, "Introduction to the Book of Habakkuk."
    2. Judah's king then was Jehoiakim, described in Jeremiah 22:17 NIV as follows: "But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion." (Ibid.)
    3. Habakkuk was thus appalled at the sin he saw in God's people, and how the Lord seemed to be doing nothing to check it, so he voiced a question to God about his concern on the issue in Habakkuk 1:1-4:
      1. God's prophet wondered how long he would cry for help and the Lord not seem to hear, Hab. 1:1-2a.
      2. He added that when he cried out about violent acts performed against innocent people in Judah, even then God seemed not to save, but to allow the wrongs to continue seemingly unchecked, Hab. 1:2b.
      3. Habakkuk asked why God made him witness such injustice, and why God seemed to tolerate such wrongs, for he constantly saw destruction and violence, strife and conflict in Judah, Habakkuk 1:3.
      4. Because of God's apparent long tolerance of such great evil, Habakkuk observed that the Law had become paralyzed, that justice never prevailed and the wicked so hemmed in the righteous that justice had been twisted into becoming what was unjust, Hab . 1:4; Bible Knowledge Com., O. T., p. 1509.
    4. In response, the Lord revealed that Habakkuk did not realize that He was planning to discipline sinful Judah with much more severity than Habakkuk could had imagined, Habakkuk 1:5-11:
      1. God prefaced His reply with the claim that not only Habakkuk, but all Judah needed to look at the nations and be so utterly amazed at what He was going to do about Judah's sin in relation to them that they would not believe it if He told them, Habakkuk 1:5! (The verbs "look" and "watch" in this verse are written in the second person plural, meaning God addressed both Habakkuk and all Judah, Ibid.)
      2. Specifically, God planned to raise up the "fierce" and reckless Babylonians who swept across the earth to seize dwelling places belonging to others, to bring them against the land of Judah, Hab. 1:6; Ibid.!
      3. God then described the Babylonians in revealing His fitting use of them to punish Judah, Hab. 1:7-11:
        1. To punish Judah's lawlessness, the fierce and dreaded Babylonians would be a law to themselves, promoting their own honor, being ruthless due to their superiority to others, Hab. 1:7; Ibid., p. 1510.
        2. To punish Judah's violence done for personal gain, Habakkuk 1:8 NIV pictures the Babylonians as leopards and evening wolves, fierce, fast and great hunters ready and skilled to pounce on their foes, hordes who would gather up everything in their path in Judah like vultures hasty to devour; Ibid.
        3. To punish Judah's destructiveness, Babylon would advance on her like a scorching desert wind that withered everything in its path, gathering prisoners in numbers too great to count, Hab. 1:9; Ibid.
        4. To punish Judah's abusiveness, the Babylonians would scoff her at king and mock her rulers, deriding Judah's forts built to oppose them as they built up ramps of earth to take them, 1:10; Ibid.
        5. To punish Judah's disrespect for God, the NIV at Habakkuk 1:11a reads: "Then they sweep past like the wind," meaning the Babylonians were men who were guilty of great sin in their violent deeds, but who viewed their own strength as their god versus revering any other deity; 1:11a,b; Ibid.
Lesson: Though God's people had long become brazenly wicked toward one another and against God, leading Habakkuk to wonder why God seemed not even willing to judge them, God was actually planning to judge Judah by using a far more evil, brutal nation than Judah to punish her!

Application: (1) May we not view the presence of seemingly deep or long-undisciplined evil in God's people as a sign of slackness in Him, for God's patience with sinners never diffuses any of His wrath against their sin! (2) Thus, may we confess our sins QUICKLY lest we face IMMENSE DISCIPLINE!