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JUDGING INJUSTICE – Habakkuk 2: 6 - 20

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JUDGING INJUSTICE – Habakkuk 2: 6 - 20 JUDGING INJUSTICE – Habakkuk 2: 6 - 20 Well, here we are getting ready to jump back into the book of Habakkuk. And I would like to start off with a reminder of that brutal dictator Saddam Hussein. He was the president of Iraq which was basically ancient Babylon. And Saddam Hussein was a ferocious leader. He tortured his own people. They hated him. He was a dictator and because of that he got away with lots of injustices for a time. You will remember that he was captured. And then in December of 2006 Saddam Hussein would make his way to the gallows where he would pay the ultimate price, the price of his own life for the injustices that he committed in his life. Shortly before he died, Saddam Hussein ate some chicken and rice, had some hot water and honey, said a few prayers, read the Koran, and he would then make his way to the gallows. In fact, due to some footage through a cell phone, it can even be seen on YouTube today that this man really did fall at the gallows. The name of the gallows was called Camp Justice. How ironic that the same gallows that he used to hang people on, he would one day hang upon them himself. And justice would finally be meted out. And as Saddam made his way to the gallows, the people were there shouting out taunts. They were so elated that he would soon die, that he would soon face justice. And then we sit back in our own life and we wonder how are we going to move through the injustices that we have faced from other people. Maybe not as notorious or infamous as a Saddam Hussein but maybe you have been the victim of injustice. Maybe it has been sexual abuse. Perhaps you have experienced your reputation being made sordid by somebody with ill gain. Perhaps you are somebody who knows what it is like to have experienced another type of injustice such as racial slurs. I don’t know what it is that you have been through, and maybe you have never felt as though you could finally move through the wounds of those injustices. Or maybe you are somebody who thinks you have gotten away with injustice. Maybe you were a sexual abuser, a person who is a thief, a person whose heart is rotten to the core, and you think you are getting away with it. But I want you to know something. Your day of justice will come too, as you will see in today’s Scripture passage that we are going to look at in the book of Habakkuk. But I must say it is okay for a Christian to want justice, to desire justice, even more so to crave it. Justice is actually seen as noble. God is a just God; it is a part of who He is. And for us as Christians to cry out ‘justice,’ we almost feel like we are doing something wrong against our fellow humanity, until the injustice becomes so grotesque that it is easier for us to cry out for justice. An example was the Jews in the concentration camps crying out for justice against Hitler. Or like those who sat under the atrocities of a Mao Tse-tung or a Benito Page 1 of 16 pages 12/1/2013 JUDGING INJUSTICE – Habakkuk 2: 6 - 20 Mussolini or a Joseph Stalin or Pol Pot or other brutal dictators. They are out there. These are people who have committed crimes against humanity. And then we think about this idea of grace. Isn’t grace the greater virtue? Well, I don’t think we can pit grace against justice when it comes to who God is. God is great and both qualities belong to Him. But what purpose will one of those qualities serve for the moment of the time. Does God want to show justice or does He want to show grace? I think God is a God who chooses and desires to show grace. And He is a merciful, loving, omnibenevolent God. But at times when people reject His grace and continue on in injustice, He will soon mete out justice. So we come to a passage today that is perplexing. In fact, before we set out on the book of Habakkuk, this is one of those passages that I thought was going to be a toughie for me. And sure enough when I got in and began to study it I thought what in the world am I going to do with this. You need to know that this is not one of those passages that Dale Carnegie put in his book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’ But at the end of this, here is what you need to know. This is one of those passages that a pastor or a preacher of the word has to go, you know what, God, you first, you first, you first. We are not here to tickle the ears, we are here to teach all of your word, and that is what must happen. Because it would be a lot easier to kind of go to one of those softer, fuzzier, warmer passages of Scripture. And you know what, one of the beautiful things about going through God’s word, is we do have those days where we can talk about His amazing mercy, His amazing grace and His love. But there are these days where we see that God is fed up. He is just sick and tired or being sick and tired. And this is one of those days. I literally had to call my wife on this passage and say, ‘honey, I just don’t know what to do.’ I was at a loss here. This passage is tough. And my goal is when you hear it today that you will feel like what was the big deal about this, Bobby? That is where the art of communication is at the mercy of God for me to be able to teach this in a way that you go ‘okay, this makes sense.’ Because this is a tough passage. And it challenged me in my own preparations. And one of the things that soon becomes obvious is, if you will study Chapter 2 and verse 6 through the end of the chapter in verse 20, the structure nicely unfolds itself. There are five woes. And a woe would be used by a prophet to pronounce judgment. And the way it would look and the reason for the judgment would be stated and then the announcement of judgment would be predicted. So it is like, here is what you have done and here is what is going to happen as a result. And there are five of these woes, or there are five stanzas with three verses each. And these verses serve as a poem put to a song, or a ditty. So it is a song, but it is a taunt Page 2 of 16 pages 12/1/2013 JUDGING INJUSTICE – Habakkuk 2: 6 - 20 song; that is the genre we are looking at. It is a poem put to a song in the form of a taunt song. And what you see here is the Babylonians; these evil, unjust oppressors, are being taunted. They are being warned that justice is coming their way. Now let’s step back for those of you who may not have been a part of this series. Here is what is going on. Habakkuk was an ancient prophet. When you hear the name Habakkuk, remember he was an ancient prophet and he was living in Judea. And his people were living very, very wickedly. They had gone astray from the ways of God. In fact, Judah was supposed to be a light to the surrounding nations to show them what it looks like to follow God. But they got off track and they wanted to be like the other nations. They slipped into idolatry. They slipped into grotesque sin. And as a result Habakkuk is baffled. You know what he is wondering? God, why are you being so gracious with these people? Why not issue justice? In fact, Habakkuk’s real problem is with God’s grace. He wants God to deal with them. He wants to see God be a just God because he knows that God’s name is being blasphemed in the way that they are living. So Habakkuk offered up two complaints in Chapter 1, followed by two responses from God. The first complaint was ‘what is up with Judah, God, they are living in sin. Will you deal with them?’ God responds and his response is a big gulp. His response was that He was going to use an even more wicked nation, namely the Babylonians, or the Chaldeans, and they are going to come in, and He said He was going to use them as a tool of His judgment on Judah. And Habakkuk was having a hard time before, and now he is having an even more difficult time. He found out that God was going to use the Babylonians to punish Judah. And he thought what is going on here? So now Habakkuk wants to know this: Are you going to deal with the Babylonians? Now the Babylonians were being led by Nebuchadnezzar, and you need to understand that there had been problems in Babylon before Saddam Hussein. Nebuchadnezzar was a ferocious leader. And they went about taking advantage of other nations.
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