HEROES OF THE FAITH SERMON SERIES

 

Habakkuk

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

 

   Rev. David Teeter                              July 28, 2013              Skyline Presbyterian Church

 

A recent poll indicated that a majority of people feel our country is going in the wrong direction.  Well, things could be worse. And in fact they were a lot worse in the days of the prophet Habakkuk.

Our first problem with this prophet is how to pronounce his name. I grew up knowing him as Habakkuk. Willow knew him as HaBAKkuk. The Israeli Hebrew pronunciation is ChavaKKUK.

Habakkuk lived in the dark days of Judah leading up to arrival of the Babylonians. Judah’s last godly king, Josiah, had been killed in an unnecessary war. Josiah’s death plunged the kingdom back into the darkness of that age. Habakkuk prophesied in the same time as Jeremiah, just before the Babylonian invasion. Daniel was just a kid then.

Habakkuk believes in God’s justice, but doesn’t see much evidence of it. He wonders: “Why must the innocent and the righteous suffer?” And the wicked prosper?” “And why aren’t my prayers answered?” Many of us have asked similar questions one time or another.

Habakkuk’s book is unique in one sense. Most other prophets received a message from God to the people. Habakkuk is a dialog, in which Habakkuk complains to God, and God answers him.  Habakkuk has two complaints:

Habakkuk’s first complaint concerns violence and the perversion of justice in Judah. (Habakkuk 1: 1-4) Then God answers Habakkuk. He tells Habakkuk that the world is going to change in ways you can’t imagine. The Babylonians are on the march, and they are coming here with irresistible force. They are ruthless and arrogant, and will sweep up every nation in their path, including the Kingdom of Judah.

Habakkuk did not like God’s answer at all, not at all! The solution –invasion by the Babylonians - was worse than the problem.

So he complains to God a second time.  “How could a Holy and pure God have anything do the evil Babylonians. Why would you use that wicked nation, to punish us, including the righteous among us. And just how long will God allow the wicked Babylonians to swallow up the nations, along with the righteous in those nations?

Then comes God’s second answer: In Habakkuk 2:1-4 God tells Habakkuk that the answer will take a long time to develop, but justice and deliverance will eventually come.

In fact, God told Jeremiah that the Jews would be exiled to Babylon for 70 years. (Neither Habakkuk, nor Jeremiah would live to see the end of this exile.)

In verse 4 we have the passage that has reverberated down through the ages to this day. God tells Habakkuk, “But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness.

This saying is quoted 3 times in the New Testament. The apostle Paul uses it in Romans 1 and Galatians 3 to establish that we are “saved by faith,” and not by works of the Law. And it is used in Hebrews 10: 38 to tell us to persevere in our faith through times of suffering, even though the reward may be long in coming. It was this saying, “the just shall live by faith,” – that opened Martin Luther’s eyes and launched the Protestant Reformation.

But there’s something I noticed about this verse in Habakkuk. It speaks of faithfulness.The righteous person will live by his faithfulness.” The Hebrew meaning of this word is literally, “firmness,” or “steadiness.” 

In the New Testament, “faithfulness” gets shortened to just “faith.” This may be due to Paul quoting from the Greek version of the Old Testament, rather than the Hebrew. In the process, some of the Hebrew nuances don’t carry through. That’s the case with the word “faith.” As a result, we tend to equate “faith” with “belief.”

The historical church fathers made great efforts to define in exact language the Trinity, and the nature of Christ. Those who believed something different were branded as heretics.

In my comparative religion classes, students usually asked me, “What do Jews “believe?” What do Muslims “believe”?  Of course Jews and Muslims have their beliefs. But these religions are not defined by a set a beliefs. Instead, they are defined by a particular way of life. And this holds true for the Old Testament idea of faith.

Our beliefs are important. But “faith” has less to do with trying to define God, and more to do with “trusting in God. I do believe in God. We believe in God’s faithfulness and steadfast love.  We believe that God is working for our good in all things. So we put our “trust” in God, and try to live faithful lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

And God sees in our faith what we are becoming, and counts us as righteous, even while we are still a “work in process.” This is all a work of God’s grace in us.

This faith does not mean that we have all the answers, or that we never have any doubts or questions. We trust in God even though we can’t really define or explain God. Like Habakkuk, and all the other prophets and apostles, we often struggle to make sense of what God is doing in our world, and why.

Habakkuk does come to terms with this by the end of his book, but not easily. In chapter 3:16 he says:  I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled at the sound.”

Habakkuk is now willing to wait for God’s purpose to complete its course. The song that follows reveals the true depths of Habakkuk’s faithfulness:

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine,        

Though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Let us also “rejoice in the Lord, and be joyful in God our savior.” And live faithful lives in Christ.