Habakkuk Who? - Habakkuk 3:14-19

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How long, O LORD, must I call for help but you do not hear?  Habakkuk 1:2  

 I sometimes wonder when I read passages like this off the page... what was Habakkuk's tone of voice? When he says, “How long,” how do you hear that in your head?  

Do you hear a man who is eager?  

God, I am fed up with the faithlessness, of these people! I am ready to see you lower the boom. How long until I see the unfaithful punished?  

Do you hear him grieving?  

We finally had a good king. But Josiah came too late, and now he's gone. How long, God, until we lose everything?  

Do you hear fear in his voice?  

Watching the horizon, watching for the dust of marching army, watching for the glint of bronze weapons. How long do we have to prepare? How long can we run? How long can we fight? How long until we lose?  

However Habakkuk asks the question, whatever his tone of voice, the answer comes from God: “Not long. Not long at all.” 

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that ruthless and impetuous nation that marches through the breadth of the earth, seizing dwellings that are not their own. Habakkuk 1:6 

Their horses are swift and fierce. They fly like birds of prey. They ride like a desert wind. They gather prisoners like sand. They laugh at kings. They laugh at walls. They sweep in, they destroy. They move on. They are guilty. Their strength is their own god. 

Habakkuk wanted an answer. But when the answer came, it shook him. He shouted back at God, in effect: “The Chaldeans?! Really?!! You are The. Holy. God. How can You even pick up that tool? Do You know what those people are like? We're nowhere as bad as them!”  

God's responded not with anger. Not with impatience. But with a promise. “Write this down, Habakkuk, because it is going to happen.” 

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Chapter 2 contains what are called “The Five Woes.” 

• Woe to those who take by violence what doesn't belong to them, whether individuals or nations, whether God’s own people or anybody else... The pillager will be pillaged.**  
• Woe to those who use power or position to exploit the needs of others for gain, building their towers with stones that are rotten... The fortified will be dismantled** 
• Woe to the nations who feed their own pride and wealth by bleeding outsiders and aliens, building their empire on the backs of ‘them’... The civilised will be demoralised.** 
• Woe to those who humiliate, shame, stigmatize others to lift themselves up. The guilty who prey on the innocent... The shameless will be defamed.**  
• Woe to those who create gods in their own image and for their own expediency, to excuse and justify their conduct... The idolatrous will be powerless.** 

God ends His response to Habakkuk by saying, “You spend all this energy on noise, fuss, anger, greed, running around to get what you want. While I’m right here, in My holy temple. Let all the earth be silent!”  

So Habakkuk stands, shivering in the cold of dawn. He's heard the message. He knows what it means for his own people. He knows what it means for the nation that is going to invade and enslave them. That message is carved on his heart and on his mind. So how does he respond? 

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With chapter 3 – a song. Just like when David, with his harp, sang, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” 

This is Habakkuk's psalm, shared among his people so that they could sing it together. Habakkuk wanted his people to go into captivity singing these words:  

O LORD, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O LORD, of Your deeds. - Habakkuk 3:2 

We stand in awe of all the times in the past that you have emptied the pockets of the pillager. That you have dismantled the fortification. That you have laid low the self-important. That you have pulled the rug out from under the proud. That you have spun—180°--the idolatrous so that they could not avoid seeing you.  

Habakkuk sings: we have heard those reports. We stand in awe of all of that that you have done. Now, God, among your people and across the wide world... please do it again. 

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What does this ancient writing have to say to us today?  

Quite a lot actually.  

• We don't have to look very hard to see the pillager: a nation that, unprovoked, invades and attacks another to take what is not theirs. 
• We don't have to look very hard to see the fortified: the drug dealer on the corner, the human trafficker down the block, the unethical corporation online.  
• We don't have to look very hard to see the civilized: committing acts of callousness and cruelty, all the while boastfully flag-waving, “Look how great we are!” 
• We don't have to look very hard to find the shameless. I had coffee with a friend this week who is dealing with the fact that somebody took from him what was not theirs to take. Somebody with more power than honour, throwing their weight around to get what they want. Right now, talking to my friend, it feels like the bully has won. And I'm not OK with that. We don't have to look very far to see people who will fit into that category of shameless.  
• We don't have to look very far to see the idolatrous: sometimes just as far as in the mirror. People who define their own reality, who make their own rules, who choose what they are going to serve, and who think nobody's watching.  

We are living the same story that Habakkuk did not want to be living. 

But.  

We know all the same things that Habakkuk knew.  

The deep confidence that life will not finally sustain evil is part of the distilled wisdom of the race, and [is] the door of hope through which generations have passed into the city of god. - Howard Thurman 

What does this mean to us today?  

It means that from the first moment that Darth Vader appears on the screen, we know he's going down. From the first moment that Hercule Poirot steps onto the page, we know that he is going to bring the criminal to book. From the opening screens of Halo: Combat Evolved we know that Masterchief is going to destroy the enemy. 

From the first moment that a villain appears, we know where they're headed because that story is hardwired into our souls. That “life will not finally sustain evil.” 

Why? Because Yahweh God has written the ending. God is in His temple, so all the earth will stop fussing, stop fighting, stop pushing each other around, and trying to take what we want. God is in His temple, so just chill.  

That is our story. 

Habakkuk who? Habakkuk me. Habakkuk you. (There's a song in there, somewhere.)  

None of us can avoid being witnesses to, participants in, victims of the battle between Yahweh God and those who stand against His good, trying to change the storyline, and write their own ending. We cannot avoid being part of it all as long as we are human, and on this planet. None of us can avoid being impacted by those who:  

...storm forward to scatter us; they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. - Habakkuk 3:14 

None of us can escape the truth of the story that God is writing, but all of us—all of us—can stand on our city walls. All of us can shout to God. All of us can trust Him with our fear, trust Him with our eagerness, trust Him with our passion and our frustration. We can all be heard by God.  

And we can all sing a song. We can all sing a song of grief. A song of hope. A song of trust. A song of praise. Habakkuk's song was written and preserved for people like us.  

So let’s conclude by praying together the message of Habakkuk’s psalm. 

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Father, Son and Spirit:  

We listen and our stomachs churn.  

We listen and the sound makes our lips quiver.  

We listen and our frame goes limp, as if our bones were decaying.  

We shake as we try to walk.  

And yes, God, in all honesty, we confess that we long for the day of distress to come upon the people who attack us. We look forward to the day when Your justice will reign, Your justice will break through.  

But God, at the same time, we take a deep breath.  

We remind ourselves of who You are and what You have promised. We say in faith, we say in hope, we say in trust that: 

When the fig tree does not blossom, 

When there are no grapes on the vines,  

When the olive trees fail, 

When the fields do not yield crops,  

When the sheep disappear from the pen, 

When there are no cattle in the stalls 

When we can't even pretend anymore that everything is OK right now—still we will rejoice because of You, Lord.  

We will rejoice because You are who You are.  

The pen is in Your hand, and You are writing the end of this story. We will be happy because of the God who delivers us.  

Our strength is not our god. The sovereign Lord is our source of strength and He gives us the agility of a deer to run, and to climb, and to fight. He enables us to negotiate the rugged terrain to find the path He has made for us and to arrive at the place that He has prepared for us.  

God, we trust that the story is in Your hands and our story is not over.  

In Jesus’ name we pray.  

Amen.  

**Summary statements borrowed from NICOT, O. Palmer Robertson, Eerdmans, 1990 

 

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