Listening to another conversation

It can be interesting…

Sometimes, you’re too tired to listen…

Sometimes, things you hear are confusing…

Sometimes, it all comes together

Because of the faithfulness of God, the wisdom of God, and the sovereign rule of God, Outward circumstances should never determine inner peace!

Habakkuk Background Just before the first deportation to Babylon when Daniel and his friends were taken This was a time when the Law was ignored and violence was widespread.

Habakkuk I. Introduction II. Habakkuk's Problems 1:2-2:20 III. Habakkuk's Prayer 3:1-2 IV. Habakkuk's Praise 3:3-19 Outline taken from the Ryrie Study Bible 1976, 1978 Moody Bible Institute

Habakkuk I. Introduction II. Habakkuk's Problems 1:2-2:20 A. Problem #1: Why does God allow Wicked Practices to Continue in Judah? 1:2-4

Habakkuk 1:1-2 - Problem #1 "Why don't you listen to my prayers?"

Habakkuk 1:3-4 - Problem #1 "Don't you care about the sin in my nation?"

Habakkuk 1:1-2 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. How long, L ORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?.

Habakkuk 1:3-4 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

Habakkuk I. Introduction II. Habakkuk's Problems 1:2-2:20 A. Problem #1: Why does God allow Wicked Practices to Continue in Judah? 1:2-4 B. Answer #1: 1:5-11

Habakkuk 1:5 - Answer #1 "I will take care of this."

Habakkuk 1: Answer #1 "I'm going to use a powerful instrument for discipline; the Chaldeans."

Habakkuk 1:5 “Look among the nations and watch— Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you.

Habakkuk 1:6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.

Habakkuk I. Introduction II. Habakkuk's Problems 1:2-2:20 C. Problem #2: Why Will God Use Wicked People to Punish Judah? 1:12-2:1

Habakkuk 1: Problem #2 "Are you kidding me? How can you use an 'instrument' that is worse than Israel?"

Habakkuk 1:12 Are You not from everlasting, O L ORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O L ORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction.

Habakkuk 1:13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he?

Habakkuk 1: Problem #2 "How can you approve of them and their methods?"

Habakkuk 1:14-15 Why do You make men like fish of the sea, Like creeping things that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with a hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.

Habakkuk 1: Problem #2 "You can't simply overlook their idol worship!"

Habakkuk 1:16-17 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, And burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is sumptuous And their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net, And continue to slay nations without pity?

Habakkuk 2:1 - Problem #2 "I can't wait to hear the answer to this..."

Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.

Habakkuk I. Introduction II. Habakkuk's Problems 1:2-2:20 C. Problem #2: Why Will God Use Wicked People to Punish Judah? 1:12-2:1 D. Answer #2, 2:2-20

Habakkuk 2:2 - Answer #2 "Grab a pen. You're going to want to write this down."

Habakkuk 2:2 Then the L ORD answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.

Habakkuk 2:3 - Answer #2 "Don't let the delay fool you. They're going to get it. Guaranteed."

Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

Habakkuk 2:4-5 - Answer #2 "They've got issues with pride and it will bring them down. A righteous person will live by faith."

Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.

Habakkuk 2:4 - Answer #2 God will ultimately judge a proud sinner. Our entire lives are built on faith!

Habakkuk 2:4 - Answer #2 We take the truths Scripture reveals about God and live our lives by them!

Habakkuk 2:4 - Answer #2 They had to believe the Chaldeans would be judged and we need to believe the promises of God in our lives.

Habakkuk 2:4 - Answer #2 Other uses of this idea... Galatians 3:11 A righteous person gets life by faith.

Habakkuk 2:4 - Answer #2 Romans 1:17 “One who is righteous by faith shall live!” If a person is righteous by faith, he can live! (i.e. he can be delivered from sin’s enslavement!)

Habakkuk 2:4 - Answer #2 Other uses of this idea... Hebrews 10:38 A righteous person lives his life by faith; he doesn't shrink back from being faithful and so lose reward and God's approval.

Habakkuk 2:4-5 - Answer #2 One person trusts in himself and is destroyed. The other trusts in the Lord and is delivered.

Habakkuk 2:5 “Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples

Habakkuk 2: Answer #2 Six "woes" follow. Distress, problems are coming their way.

Habakkuk 2:6-8 - Answer #2 Distress is coming for those who gain by unlawful interest.

Habakkuk 2: Answer #2 Distress is coming for those think they have made themselves secure through extortion.

Habakkuk 2: Answer #2 Distress is coming for those who built their cities with murder and violence on the backs of those less fortunate.

Habakkuk 2: Answer #2 Distress is coming for those who use drunkenness to pursue perversion.

Habakkuk 2: Answer #2 Distress is coming for those who worship false gods.

Habakkuk III. Habakkuk's Prayer 3:1-2

Habakkuk 3:1-2 - Prayer for mercy "We deserve whatever comes, but grant us mercy."

Habakkuk 3:1-2 - Prayer for mercy Habakkuk prays for a display of God’s… 1)Might and 2)Mercy

Habakkuk (Prayer) 3:1-2 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth. O L ORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O L ORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.

Habakkuk III. Habakkuk's Prayer 3:1-2 IV. Habakkuk's Praise 3:3-19 A. Praise for the Person of God, 3:3

Habakkuk 3:3 God came from Teman, The Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of His praise.

Habakkuk III. Habakkuk's Prayer 3:1-2 IV. Habakkuk's Praise 3:3-19 A. Praise for the Person of God, 3:3 B. Praise for the Power of God, 3:4-7

Habakkuk 3:4-5 His brightness was like the light; He had rays flashing from His hand, And there His power was hidden. Before Him went pestilence, And fever followed at His feet.

Habakkuk 3:6-7 He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered, The perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

Habakkuk III. Habakkuk's Prayer 3:1-2 IV. Habakkuk's Praise 3:3-19 A. Praise for the Person of God, 3:3 B. Praise for the Power of God, 3:4-7 C. Praise for the Purpose of God, 3:8-16

Habakkuk 3:8-9 O L ORD, were You displeased with the rivers, Was Your anger against the rivers, Was Your wrath against the sea, That You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made quite ready; Oaths were sworn over Your arrows. Selah

Habakkuk 3:9c-11 You divided the earth with rivers. The mountains saw You and trembled; The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice, And lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; At the light of Your arrows they went, At the shining of Your glittering spear.

Habakkuk 3:12-13 You marched through the land in indignation; You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For salvation with Your Anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked, By laying bare from foundation to neck. Selah

Habakkuk 3:14-15 You thrust through with his own arrows The head of his villages. They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me; Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. 15 You walked through the sea with Your horses, Through the heap of great waters.

Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard, my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; And I trembled in myself, That I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, He will invade them with his troops.

Habakkuk III. Habakkuk's Prayer 3:1-2 IV. Habakkuk's Praise 3:3-19 A. Praise for the Person of God, 3:3 B. Praise for the Power of God, 3:4-7 C. Praise for the Purpose of God, 3:8-16 D. Praise because of Faith in God, 3:17-19

Habakkuk 3: Praise What preceded Habakkuk's peace was praise rooted in who God is and what He can do, has done, and will do.

Habakkuk 3: Praise What seems to be a strange ending makes perfect sense. We should sing praise to God based on the reality of our God.

Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—

Habakkuk 3:18-19 Yet I will rejoice in the L ORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The L ORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills. To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.

Because of the faithfulness of God, the wisdom of God, and the sovereign rule of God… Outward circumstances should never determine inner peace!

Habakkuk 3: Praise His inner peace did not depend on outward circumstances. Does ours?