10/29/2022

Habakkuk

Seeing prayer as a conversation

Lesson 1 of 3

Habakkuk 1:5-11 GOD SAID WHAT?

God’s answer to your prayer may surprise you!!!

Old Testament Reading Habakkuk 1:1-4

“1 ¶ The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, "Violence!" And You will not save. 3 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. 4 Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” (Habakkuk 1:1-4 NKJV)

“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. 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. 7 They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. 9 "They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. 10 They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. 11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god."” (Habakkuk 1:5-11 NKJV)

We live in a fallen world filled with violence where justice seems lost and the good overwhelmed by evil.

Habakkuk, like us, cries out to God and shares the burden he carries of the pain, destruction, plundering and violence he sees. Even those who should ensure justice and protect the weak surround the righteous with “perverse judgment”.

How can God stand this? How can God allow this? Habakkuk’s burden is not just the injustice and violence he sees but that God seems to be doing nothing about it and to not even care. How can God respond to this?

This is an answer to prayer?

God responds, “Be utterly astounded!” God not only knows about all that is wrong, He has a plan to make things right!

God is going to send the Chaldeans to bring God’s judgment upon Israel! WHAT! Listen to the description of the Chaldeans that GOD gives us. To put it bluntly the Chaldeans were masters of ethnic cleansing and would make ISIS hide in fear! They would take cites and leave behind heaps. They lived for the enjoyment of violence and destruction and killed weak and strong.

God would humble the evil of His people by ALLOWING a violent nation to conquer them. For evil allowed is like a cancer that takes radical treatment or it will destroy our souls! For God will even kill the body to save the soul and will allow destruction of a nation to redeem a people!

But evil will be judged! They will transgress and offend God by going too far and by not humbling themselves before God! In all of the destruction we can see God’s “treatment” for sin! Just as the word savior has the meaning of healing and making whole! God uses death and destruction to bring redemption!