The Minor Prophets Series / Habakkuk

[Music] so we're going to turn to the book of habakkuk or in hebrew means the one who embraces or is embraced and we're going to try to embrace what god has for us here let's pray together father in yeshua's name we come to you and we ask that you would breathe upon us that you would share your heart with us share what you're doing in the world both at this time with habakkuk and for us today we just asked in yeshua's name that you would give us revelations so that we can embrace your heart and perspectives and strategy in every way in yeshua's name amen so uh we're going back to this time 606 bc most probably and you know we remember a lot of this this is jerusalem from that time cook we don't know anything about him a man with no death no past no future no family but we know that he was sent it says again with a hazon it's a masa it's a burden that he bears like a donkey carries a burden it's the same word which is used in hebrew here he had a vision a prophetic vision but it was also a burden it was like a donkey carrying a word from god and we know what happened 722 assyria had come in right but now five six years before habakkuk writes his book is serious no more this year's destroyed it's been with us all along and now it's destroyed 612 it's basically taken off so the people who did these things to israel took the 10 tribes away have been destroyed by the new kid on the block who is nabo palassar of babylon and again we looked at some of the things about how he had written about king menasha how he hunted lions we talked about jeremiah's two servants and jeremiah was of course very much alive in ministering at the beginning of habakkuk chapter 1. so basically habakkuk is asking a deep philosophical question it hurts why is it hurting and what are you going to do about it and how can you use the people you're going to do that you're going to use to do this thing he's asking very very simple questions and we're going to try to look at them together the oracle which the prophet saw chapter 1 how long o lord how long yahweh will i call for help and you will not hear so this is his cry to god his question to god how long will you tolerate the sins of judah what a question if we are in a country and a people where they sin and we say god how long are you going to allow this stuff to go on whether it's immorality whether it's rioting whether it's ignoring the ways of god whether it's supporting on injustice doesn't matter what the questions are we ask if we love our people we're pained and we say how long so that's the first question here and basically uh he's habakkuk cries out and he says to god i don't understand why you're not answering i've been praying the remnant has been praying we've been interceding why is it still going on he says i cry out to you hamas i cry out to you violence yet you do not save why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look at wickedness destruction and violence are before me strife exists and contention arises so he's saying we have social problems again this is not anything new social problems all the prophets are talking about injustice cheating violating the trust of your neighbors all these things are going on and then there's the question of sexual behavior which is talked about there's a question then of spiritual adultery with other gods which are not gods but are demons all these things are repeated again and again and again but here he starts with the issue of strife israel in this case israel's gone okay not only is assyria gone israel is gone the ten tribes are gone they're exiled to assyria it's kind of a lonely place right now and that happened in 722 and we're talking about 606. so what is that a hundred and uh sixteen years israel isn't around they're the remnant of judah literally and he's saying we're not doing so well either actually we're just as bad nearly as assyria and he says not only that you know the law the torah is ignored we're not paying attention to your word we don't want to hear justice isn't held when it comes out it's perverted you know in some of the big countries of the world whether it be america or israel not as big a country physically but biblically europe the far east the issue of justice being uh perverted it's always in the news whether it's real or not it's always being talked about and so here's his his challenge he's basically saying god i don't know if you really care i don't know if you're really listening i i don't know why you're not responding this is his first question so god gives him an answer and not that we're going to like the answer but it's from god and the first answer to the first question is here in habakkuk verse 5 through 11. and what he's saying basically is he saying i have an answer i have an answer to judas since i i've got this army called babylon they're going to come marching in and they're going to totally destroy the place top to bottom they're even going to destroy the temple so he says in verse 5 look among the nations gentiles sit up and take notice observe be astonished wonder because i'm doing something in your day you wouldn't believe if you were told in israel we use this term it's part of our normal speech you wouldn't believe me if i told you and god is saying nations you're used to things you know how can god this is the next question right right away how can god use a terrible people like the babylonians to crush his chosen people the jews so a lot of theologians have decided that's because god hates the jews which is replacement theology but that's not what's going on here so he said behold i am raising up the kazdim that's the hebrew word the chaldeans whom fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs okay basically he says here they are dreaded they're feared their justice and authority originates with themselves so he's saying this is an independent people they're really not godly people they're not submitted to any other people they are becoming the top super army in the world because of the fact it says here even though they have fast planes and fast tanks their horses are swifter than leopards they're keener than wolves in the evening that's when wolves get hungry their horsemen are galloping their horsemen come from afar they fly like an eagle they swoop down to devour all of them come for hamas for violence their hordes of faces move forward they collect captives like sand they mock at kings and rulers are a laughing matter to them they laugh at every fortress and heap up rubble to capture it reminds me of this new missile that's being developed it's supposed to go so fast that nothing can trace it and nothing can stop it and it's actually entering into the arsenal of various countries out east and up north and actually on this one america is behind as far as technology but it's kind of like that they're super powers they have super weapons nothing can stop them and they will sweep through like the wind and pass on so hello vietnam it was a movie good morning vietnam and so god is saying good morning judah it's not going to be good the babylonians are coming deservedly so because of your sin and he can say listen one of your top prophetic intercessors whose name is habakkuk just asked me when am i going to deal with the sin in judah and i just told them the babylonians are coming and they're going to make mincemeat out of you do you feel better now and so uh judith court habakkuk is just totally he can't he's didn't expect it like i'm praying but i didn't expect you'd answer and if you answered i thought you'd be nice and now you're saying it's going to get even worse and look what it says here they will sweep through like the wind and pass on in verse 11 but they will be held guilty they whose strength is their god there's a term which we use in politics today called real politique it means not morality governing countries but strength governing countries specifically what's best for your country who cares about anything so if hitler did this and that well it was good for germany god is saying here that babylon will be judged because of real politic because it strengthens its god it can get away with it so do it and he says this is something which i am not pleased about i'm not going to stand for so this is bad news and as we said again and again looking through the minor prophets first comes the bad news and then eventually comes the good news so uh what happens now well habakkuk is full of questions and he gives us at least two here's the second one and he says in chapter 1 verse 12 basically are you crazy what are you doing the babylonians are really bad people we're bad but they're really really bad how can you possibly use such an evil people to do what you say you're going to do so in verse 12 of chapter 1 are you not from everlasting o yahweh my god my holy one we will not die o you o yahweh have appointed them to judge and you o rock have established them to correct are your eyes not too pure to approve evil and can you not look on wickedness are you going to look on wickedness with favor why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously on babylon why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they in other words how can you god morally get off using such an immoral people this is a hard question let's not be too jejune to blowing it all off here god is saying i'm going to use some evil people and we ask the question how can god use evil people now syria was bad babylon was also bad there have been various enemies throughout history that the jewish people have had think of haman think of the spanish inquisition think of the crusades think of all kinds of different issues that have happened um these are hard things and god is saying i can use hard people to bring judgment even on the jewish people you know some jewish people say that our history is basically the enemy tried to kill us we survived let's eat those are the three points in our holidays and certainly that makes light of a pretty heavy history and actually i studied jewish history as did two of my sons who have degrees in jewish history as well so we know that it's a bit light to say it that way but the thing is we did survive and god tells us to be thankful to him that he preserved our life when he could have taken it away so habakkuk is asking this question here and he's basically saying how can you use a people more evil than the jews to punish the jews it's a valid question god's going to give an answer in a few minutes why have you made men verse 14 like the fish of the sea like creeping things without a ruler over them the child deans bring all of them up with a hook they drag them away with their net they gather them together in their fishing net therefore they rejoice and are glad therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and they burn incense to their fishing net because through these things their catch is large and their food is plentiful will they therefore empty their net and continually slay nations without sparing he's saying very cruel people the babylonians and um superpowers usually are involved in what we would call genocide ethnic cleansing war crimes he says this is them how can you possibly use this terrible people and when he finishes his question his challenging of god if you like god is in the dark and this one god is being brought to account by the prophet he he ends his his complaint here in chapter 2 verse 1. what he basically says here is i will stand on my guard post guard post and station myself on the rampart i will keep watch to see what he will speak to me and how i may reply when i am reproved so he's saying okay i know this is not going to be a very successful debate i know i'm not going to win when you think about jacob wrestling with god how could he possibly have won impossible but god was interested in the process he wanted to see jacob's heart for him his heart for the promises his heart for the prophetic word and that's what he saw and so in this interchange here between god and habakkuk god is looking to see habakkuk's heart in pressing forward for his people in making sure that the habakkuk is really going to be like a terrier sinking his teeth into these questions and getting an answer from the most high so god begins to answer him and we're going to look at this answer now in chapter 2. basically goes the whole chapter from verse 2 all the way to verse 20. so we're going to look at that and see how god answers habakkuk first thing he says is then yahweh answered me and he said record the vision and inscribe it on tablet so now we're dealing with uh media a different media here this is like write it down on your ipad okay that's a tablet too in a sense he says record it inscribe it on tablet so this would be made of stone that the one who reads it may run we would say run with it read it quickly and do what it says so he's saying i want you to actually write down what i've just said i want you to inscripturate it if you'd like he says the vision is yet for the appointed time now this is a concept saying that god is the time maker he's in charge of time and he can give a prophetic word that is time sensitive we just don't know when it's supposed to happen so in hebrew it says over here the vision the prophetic vision that you're seeing is for a certain time a certain convocation a certain place in the future it says it's for the future and it will not achieve it will not disappoint okay so he's saying this is a prophetic word but i'm not telling you when it's going to happen i have a friend who was given a very powerful prophetic word that i'm not going to get into right now but it dealt with the rising up of some very evil forces on the planet and it was connected to certain real things happening at certain real times prophesied in advance came to pass in the exact month the exact year that he said so but god didn't tell him everything about the vision and in the same sense here habakkuk is given this vision but he's not told when it's going to happen he says this prophetic vision is for a time which is future um it'll happen and it will not disappoint it will not deceive you in terms of when it's going to happen in the new american it says for the vision is yet for the appointed time it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail and it says basically though it tarries wait for it for it will certainly come it will not delay so here habakkuk is told i'm giving you a good word it's real you could take it to the bank but you're not going to know exactly when it happens it's an answer to you but you're not going to understand it fully right now and one day it's going to happen and so it goes now from here to other things we're going to discuss those uh in just a few minutes but it's interesting this verse very significant in jewish thought people who studied the writings of the dead sea scrolls the qumran people this was such an important verse for them because they felt that they had a grasp on the prophetic and that they were making certain prophecies and interpreting the bible prophetically they had something called midrash pesha or at least that's what's called today about what they wrote and they looked at certain scriptures and they said this means this that happened about five years ago and this means something which is going to happen in two or three years most of those things it didn't mean and it didn't happen but they were encouraging themselves to try to get a grasp on history by using this verse and saying god is in charge that's true he has a plan that's true he's revealed some of it to us that's true and so now we know his plan that's partially true and so you can actually read pasture habakkuk which was written about this book by the dead sea scroll community the essenes the qumran people and they began to interpret what this means and which people it is you can actually visit in the shrine of the book in jerusalem and see pasture or you can just go online and without leaving the comfort of your home and see it on the internet and studies about the book of habakkuk the interpretation from the dead sea community so kind of a a real challenge here and i would say that not only in qumran but later on in jewish mysticism so you're talking about jewish mystics of all kind including the hasidic movement and i'll tell you even some charismatic prophecy specialists will use this verse and say i understand exactly what it means there was a book out that came out in 1987 it was called a hundred reasons why the pre-tribulational rapture will happen in 1987 and then when it didn't happen they came up with a book in 1989 in 1988 saying 101 reasons why it will happen the pre-tribulation rapture in 1988 so they were a little bit off and i'm not saying which position is right on the tribulation all i know is it's going to happen there will be a rapture but i'm not getting into that here at this point but what he's saying here as some people in the charismatic movement sometimes say is they know exactly what's going to happen and i'll tell you sometimes they're right you know when you look at this clock they say even a stopped clock is right twice a day and so there's a care that we need to take when we look at the prophetic word especially if we're not sure let us not be trying to interpret the prophetic out of fear let us not try to do it to say hey we're in control when we're actually afraid of what might be happening that's not the holy spirit that's not the testimony of yeshua and so the challenge here is if god is really given a word that's clear especially if it's in the bible then we should be careful and wait and see how it's going to happen if it's clear when it's going to happen that's great and if it's not we hold it and we wait like habakkuk was waiting here so then we move to a verse which is probably a quoted more in the bible one of the uh hebrew scripture verses which is quoted in the bible very very much because it says in verse 4 behold as for the proud one his soul is not right within him he's talking here about in this case the babylonian the proud soldier who gets drunk and kills nations and he's saying okay we understand i'm using the babylonians there are proud people but i know that their souls are not right within them but the righteous will live by his faith and so this it says in hebrew so this this beautiful verse is quoted by paul three times romans 17 and uh galatians 3 11 and hebrews 10 38 three different times and romans 1 17 says for in it in the gospel the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it's written but the righteous man shall live by faith so paul here is talking in that passage about salvation by faith what we call the heart of protestant evangelical christianity in galatians 3 11 he uses it the same way now that no one is justified by the torah by the mosaic covenant by doing the mosaic covenant before god is evident for the righteous man shall live by faith so he's saying again salvation the act of salvation where god takes us from one dominion of darkness and transfers us to the dominion of light that happens by faith in the message of who yeshua is his sinless life his messiahship his atonement on the cross his death and his resurrection which proves that it was received by god but then in hebrews 10 38 whoever wrote that as they say in theological schools who wrote the epistle of paul to the hebrews hebrews 10 38 it says but my righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him in that context the writer is using it in a different way and it's probably using it more the way that habakkuk is using it here in chapter 2 verse 4. and he's saying are you walking by faith are you walking in trust that god is actually in charge so one of the things here that god is answering habakkuk is he's saying yeah i know the babylonians are bad people they're not right in their soul but you need to walk in faith in spite of their behavior the famous holocaust survivor journalist and writer elie wiesel wrote a book called night talking about his experiences of going to auschwitz at the age of 14. one of the things he said is ultimately for the unbeliever there are no answers and ultimately for the believer there are no questions now what he meant is do you walk by faith do you trust god no matter how hard it gets even if you're a 14 year old kid in auschwitz so as we move beyond habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 where the righteous is walking even in the desert having faith trusting in god trusting in his promises i think it's something we can relate to yes we believe in yeshua yes we have given our hearts to him and we're transferred from the dominion of darkness to the dominion of light we have to walk so it's interesting paul said as you have received yeshua so walk in him and so the principle is then we trust ourselves and we entrust ourselves into his hands and then we entrust ourselves as we walk in him and that verse was very encouraging to me as a young believer because i said oh it's not like it's radically different i actually have to trust god every day and when it's hard i have new occasion and i think all of us can probably agree that with a little bit that it's been hard in the past little while in the world it could get a lot worse and we're learning how to trust god some of us have to trust him for big things and others for little things but the principle here is still a very important principle for us all okay so in chapter 2 verse 5 to 8 god describes the babylonians as basically drunkards looting many nations lending out money on interest i think today we call that banks and he says a lot of things about the babylonians that they're not very good people who make themselves rich through loans and he says in verse 8 because you've looted many nations all the remainder of the peoples will loot you because of human bloodshed and hamas violence done to the land to the town and to all its inhabitants so he's basically saying here uh you know there's problems which are going on here and um it's very very sad and god's judgment uh here comes very dramatically and then uh he talks about judah it seems in verses 8 through 11. and he says basically you got problems you got extortionists in verse 9 through 11. you've got people building their cities contractors through misusing workers in in verse 12 through 14 [Music] people who get people drunken and seduce or rape them people who are worshiping demonic powers i mean this hello this is kind of like what goes on in life every day now doesn't it and this is what he's talking about we can relate really strongly to that and then god says you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna frustrate the plans of babylon and judah look in verse 12 woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with hamas with violence is it not indeed from the yahweh of armies that people should toil for for fire and nations grow weary for nothing he's saying i'm in this people are trying to make us living here they're trying to make a fast profit they're trying to conquer other countries and they think they're getting away with it you're not going to get away with it basically he said you're going to get weary and you're going to be laboring for nothing whether it's judah whether it's babylon but then he says i'm sovereign and i'm the one who makes it so that you can't benefit from sin and then he concludes in verse 14 a very famous line and it's used poetically but here's the context which is he's rebuking judah and he's rebuking babylon for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of yahweh as the waters cover the sea so it's a very dramatic passage and actually you may be surprised to see that it appears a bunch of times so in numbers chapter 14 verse 21 in my bible it's in english so it takes longer to find it's much faster in hebrew but it's a part of lia jo okay 14 21 so yahweh said in numbers 14 21 i have pardoned them according to your word but indeed as i live all the earth will be filled with the glory of yahweh surely all the men who have seen my glory and my signs which are performed in egypt yet have put they have put me to the test these ten times they shall know me by means see the land which i swear to their fathers so he says i'm gonna judge israel in the desert and they're not going to make it through how many people who left egypt actually made it into the promised land just two people moses and joshua that's it everybody else their bodies died in the wilderness or in moses case we're taken up to heaven or hidden at least it says joshua and caleb that's did i not say joshua and caleb uh okay i think i said joshua and caleb but we have audience participation today and and so there's a disagreement in the audience so we'll make very sure for those who are watching here joshua and caleb were the only two who made it in to the promised land and so that's one of the passages another one is psalm 72 verse 19 over here psalm 72 verse 19. blessed be the lord god yahweh god of israel who alone works wonders and blessed be his glorious name forever and may the whole earth be filled with his glory amen and amen the prayers of david the son of jesse are ended so uh that's pretty significant and then if we take isaiah who was ministering prophetically he has a vision of the very throne room of god in isaiah 6 and it says over there in verse three and the seraphim one of them called to the other and said kadosh kadosh [Music] holy holy holy is a yahweh of armies the whole earth is filled with his glory so this is repeated again and again and actually in isaiah 11 verse 9 it's a millennial promise so this this statement of here eventually god's glory is going to cover the earth before adam and eve sinned remember there was no sin on this planet and it says this coming a day when the glory of god is once again going to be free to move all over this planet and the promises of god have uh are going to be fully established on the earth so really important thing over here a plan that even if babylon is involved god's sovereign strategy in his heart is going to be achieved and he's going to reestablish his kingdom on earth even as it is in heaven okay now verse 15 to 20 is again a kind of rebuke to babylon and he says basically to the uh babylonians in verse 18 what's your prophet in the idol when its maker has carved it out he said its maker trusts in his own handiwork when he fashions speechless idols woe to him who says to a piece of wood awake or to a mute stone arise is that going to be your teacher so he's saying here if you're going to be involved in worshiping idols if you're going to be involved in doing these things the plans you have to take over the world are as effective as the idols you worship that's his message here he's saying you have shamed lebanon you're going to be ashamed babylon you've shamed israel you're going to be ashamed your plans are as effective as your dumb idols and then he says in verse 20 but yahweh is in his holy temple that all the earth be silent before him so here he basically ends up saying you got these plans babylon's going to take out israel and the prophet is in mourning and i say okay i'm using an impure people it's true but i'm going to judge them and i'm going to judge their nation and i have plans for israel and so basically my advice to all these superpowers who think they know best how to handle god and his plans and his people let me tell you i advise you to remain silent it's kind of like in a court of law you have the right to remain silent that's what god is saying here he's saying if you know what's good for you be quiet because the judge is in his holy temple and all the earth should be quiet before him so it's quite an interaction that habakkuk habakkuk just had with the god of israel and now comes the the happy part of the book but it starts off with a bang so let's take a look at that these are the waters covering the sea that god says that the knowledge of the lord of yahweh is going to cover the whole world as the waters cover the sea okay so now as we move into um chapter three which is the last chapter here in habakkuk it's interesting it says a prayer of habakkuk the prophet according to shigeonot and shigeonot in hebrew is related to the word from acting like a wild person or a crazy person jehu who was a chariot driver was they said i don't know who it is but it's maybe jehu because he's driving like a crazy man so this word kind of means like a crazy man maybe it means that it's fast wild type of melody changing it's it's rhythm hard to say what it is there's a beautiful soft folk song that we used to sing years ago about re re revive them uh in wrath remember mercy oh lord i have heard of you your i forget all the words just now the song i believe it came out of uh the vineyard movement uh but very very low-key soft folk music and guys uh habakkuk says here you have to sing it with power it kind of uh in a lot of passion here so the first thing he does here basically is he says god i'm going to show you with theophany the theophany basically means an appearance of god on earth and he describes god showing up uh in power in like exploding like a nuclear bomb in the deserts of paran which would be the sinai uh and also toward yemen in tehman and he's basically exploding like the sun in verse four uh in verse five pestilence and plague are there and there's verse six there's earthquakes he's showing up and he is the powerful god yahweh the warrior the one who is basically coming in his glory my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord he's trampling out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored and so this is kind of the image from isaiah that's repeated here in habakkuk god is coming and he's on the warpath and it says that uh even the midianites in their goatskin tents are scared spitless because of this furious sandstorm and shaking that's going on at that time so god is on the move and he's powerful nothing can stop him that's the first point a sovereign unstoppable god is on the move and then from verses eight to 16 it's interesting let me read this to you it says did yahweh rage against the rivers or was your anger against the rivers was your wrath poured out against the sea he said no you did all these things and it keeps going on in anger verse 12 you trampled the nations you went forth for the salvation of your people for the salvation of your anointed ones so he's saying god comes with such anger and judgment same message because of the anti-semitic way that the nations are dealing with israel it's the same message it doesn't matter what prophet we go to the same thing isaiah 59 verses 15 through 20 says exactly the same thing that basically you look to see if anyone cared about israel you saw no one doing it so you got angry and you put on your shield your sword your helmet your nose started trembling with anger and you went to fight against the nations who were trying to judge israel this is the message of the prophets it's not a message being preached a lot in the church today but it's definitely a message that's given in the bible again and again and again it says in verse 15 you trampled on the sea with your horses on the surge of many waters that's kind of exodus 15 verse 8 the same thing that happened with pharaoh so what is uh what does habakkuk say here basically he hears these things and in verse 16 he says i heard and i had a nervous breakdown i heard in my inward parts trembled at the sound my lips quivered decay entered my bones and my place i trembled basically he's saying i can't handle this you're sovereign you're judging nations you're tossing them overboard you're getting rid of them you're using ungodly nations to punish bad nations it's it's really above my pay scale i really don't know what to do and i'm a prophet he said so he says you know what i need to do he says i will i must wait quietly for the day of distress for the people who are going to arise who will invade us very very powerful word here that he's saying and then he says you know basically all i can do god is wait as you're going to bring judgment and i know you're going to bring good things out too but it's going to be hard and all i can do is wait so then he finishes in verse 17 through 19 and he says though the fig tree should not blossom that we're going to have agricultural collapse no fruit on the vines the yield of the olive should fail these are the main things people ate you know there was uh grapes and and olive oil and and grain the fields producing no food though the flock should be cut off from the fold and no cattle in the stalls if everything goes bad economically socially militarily yet i will exalt in the lord i will rejoice in the god of my salvation yahweh god is my strength and he has made my feet like hein's feet and he makes me walk on my high places and he gives a little instruction to the one who's doing this as a song and he says for the choir director do this prophecy on stringed instruments so basically he's saying hey life is hard and it's going to get worse and then god's going to come and he's going to make his promises come to pass a lot of this has to do with israel and so make sure that you walk in humility about it and with a heart in the right place following the word of god you

Channel: Signet Ring Media

Views: 658

Rating: 4.8400002 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: dDSns2X3UZc

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021