HABAKKUK: “God in the Dock” a Sermon by the Rev

HABAKKUK: “God in the Dock” A sermon by The Rev. Dr. Douglas E. Nagel Sunday, June 28, 2020

Are you not from of old, I will stand at my watch-post, O LORD my God, my Holy One? and station myself on the rampart; You shall not die. I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, O LORD, you have marked them for judgement; and what he will answer concerning my and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment. complaint. Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, Then the LORD answered me and said: and you cannot look on wrongdoing; Write the vision; why do you look on the treacherous, make it plain on tablets, and are silent when the wicked swallow so that a runner may read it. those more righteous than they? For there is still a vision for the appointed time; You have made people like the fish of the sea, it speaks of the end, and does not lie. like crawling things that have no ruler. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.

Look at the proud! The enemy brings all of them up with a hook; Their spirit is not right in them, he drags them out with his net, but the righteous live by their faith he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults.

Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his seine; for by them his portion is lavish, and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and destroying nations without mercy?

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The year is 1949. The place is Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri. The visiting Chicago Cubs lead the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning. There are two outs. One Cardinal runner is on base. The game hangs in the balance. The pitcher fires a fastball. The batter connects and a line drive heads toward the outfield. Cubs outfielder Andy Pafko charges the ball and at the last second makes what appears to be an amazing shoe-top catch to end the game in a Cubs victory. Pafko runs for the dugout. Game over, or so he thinks. The umpire is waving off the play calling, “Trapped ball! The ball was trapped!” Pafko immediately runs toward the umpire to argue the call. He is so into the moment that he fails to realize that the ball he is waving in the umpires’ face is still in play. No one has called, “Time out!” While Pafko is confronts the umpire, the two Cardinal runners are circling the bases. The first runner scores the tying run before Pafko, looking on in horror, realizes what is happening. Pafko hurriedly throws the ball to the catcher at the plate, who misses tagging the winning run by a half a second. The second runner is credited with baseball’s first “inside the glove” homerun. Final score . . . Cardinals 4, Cubs 3. I follow Bill Mitchell, a political podcaster, on Twitter. This week, he had a great quote. “If life seems ‘fair’ to you, look again, you’re missing something.” We want fairness. We expect fairness. We are all about fairness, especially when it impacts our own lives. Last Sunday, we looked at Habakkuk’s complaint that he was constantly forced to see the evil and violence around him. Where was God? Didn’t God see? Didn’t God care? Why wasn’t God doing something. Then, God responds to Habakkuk’s complaint in a way that Habakkuk isn’t expecting. This week, Habakkuk responds to God’s response. His major complaint? God, that’s not fair! If God is going to use the Babylonians to bring judgment on Judah, then something must be amiss. How can that be? Habakkuk begins by saying, “Are you not from of old, O LORD my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O LORD, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment. Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they? You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.” “Habakkuk’s complaint indicates the prophet’s familiarity with both the Lord and the Babylonians. Israel’s prophets showed an amazing understanding of how the world worked. They demonstrated knowledge of geography, history, and politics. They also served as conduits and tutors for who the Lord is and how he works in the world.”1 The basis for Habakkuk’s overall complaint is the same one we so often raise. First, he complains that God seems to be turning a blind eye toward Judah’s sins. Don’t you see the violence? God, why don’t you do something? Then, God tells Habakkuk what he is doing to deal with Judah’s sin. God will use the Babylonians. Habakkuk’s response is, “Wait a second, God, that’s not fair! Yes, we’ve messed up, that’s true. But the Babylonians are really bad! How could you use them? Why do you look on the treacherous and are silent, when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” Here is the rub. In the end, Habakkuk’s problem is not with Babylon and its evil. His problem is not with Judah and her sin and idolatry. Habakkuk’s problem is with God. It is where we always end up if we stay in the struggle long enough. Sometimes God just doesn’t make sense. What we have believed about God, what we have understood about God, is inadequate for the dilemma, problem, or situation we are facing. What do we do then? We either walk away from our faith in God or we struggle through to a new understanding of who God is. The good thing about Habakkuk is that he gives us a model of hanging in the conversation and not walking away. Habakkuk starts with what he knows of who God is. Habakkuk begins with God’s character and person. He gets it that God is “of old” and “shall not die.” God is not some new kid on the block. Habakkuk recognizes that God is eternal. He is from everlasting to everlasting.

1 Barker, K. L. (1999). Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (Vol. 20, p. 310). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers. Habakkuk calls God by God’s covenantal name, “Jehovah Elohim” or “Lord God.” He calls God, “My God.” He recognizes that God is the God who makes and keeps covenant with his people. He is a personal God, a God of relationship. He knows God rescued his people from Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. God keeps God’s promises. Habakkuk calls God “my Holy One.” Habakkuk knows that God does not condone evil and violence. Habakkuk knows God is holy. On the other hand, Habakkuk also knows Babylon. The date of 605 BC is when Babylon was moving westward to conquer nations and peoples ruthlessly. “Habakkuk continued to describe God according to his holy nature. How could the holy God use the wickedness of a pagan people to punish Judah? How could God tolerate the wickedness of Babylon? God’s “eyes” are too pure to look on evil. Here the eyes stand for the whole person. God is holy and cannot tolerate wrong. Yet God did tolerate the unrighteous and in fact used evil nations to accomplish his sovereign purpose. No wonder Habakkuk felt confused!”2 If we are confused and astounded by the seeming absence of God in times of evil and suffering, imagine how the European Jews handled the Holocaust. For decades there has been an apocryphal story that God was once put on trial by a group of rabbis in Auschwitz. Many Jews have doubted the story as being true. The online newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle, put their doubts regarding the truth of the story to Elie Wiesel, Romanian Jew, Nobel Laureate, and survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This is what he said: “‘Why should they know what happened? I was the only one there. It happened at night; there were just three people. At the end of the trial, they used the word chayav, rather than ‘guilty'. It means ‘He owes us something'. Then we went to pray.’ “Two of those questioning the story, Rabbi Jonathan Romain and Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, were advisers to the recent BBC2 film God on Trial, which staged the philosophical debate in Auschwitz. “’I don't know that it ever happened,’ Rabbi Cohn-Sherbok said. ‘I always thought of it as a received story, and I certainly couldn't say definitively that it happened in the camps. But it could have, and it is such a moving story that I think it should have happened.’3" The good news, as we read this dialogue between Habakkuk and God, is that, like Jacob, like Abraham, like Moses, like Elijah, and like Job, Habakkuk is willing to wrestle with God. He will not settle for easy answers. He wants to understand. He won’t give up! Habakkuk knows what Andy Pafko forgot. The ball is still in play. The game is still in progress. It will not be over until it is over. So, he will wait. The next portion of Scripture is almost an aside. Habakkuk is no longer speaking to God. He speaks to himself. He says, “I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself upon the rampart. I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.” (Habakkuk 2:1) Habakkuk is going to wait for a word from the Lord. He is going to wait for that inner voice that has spoken to him in the past. He is going to hang in there until he gets and answer. God bless Habakkuk! He shows us the way. Habakkuk isn’t petty. He doesn’t give up easily. He girds his loins like a man and awaits God’s response. How many people do not get the answer they want and give up? How many wash their hands of God because their spouse cheats on them, then ends up with the house, the investments, and the kids, all while lying to the court? How many abandon faith in God because someone else gets the promotion they deserve by taking credit for work someone else has done? How many give up on

2 Barker, K. L. (1999). Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (Vol. 20, p. 310). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

3 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/wiesel-yes-we-really-did-put-god-on-trial-1.5056 prayer because the prayer isn’t answered in a timely fashion or according to his or her understanding of justice? Habakkuk is not one of those people. Habakkuk is an ancient book with contemporary application! Like a scout, a watchman, a sentinel, Habakkuk positions himself on the ramparts and looks to the East. He does not know how long he must wait. He does not know how God will answer. He only trusts that, in time, God will answer. Perhaps God will cause the Babylonians to turn back at the last minute. Perhaps Habakkuk can convince God to spare Judah. Perhaps there is another way. Perhaps not. Time will tell. When God speaks, when God answers Habakkuk, it is not the still, small voice of Elijah. It is not the burning bush of Moses. It is clear instruction for the future. The answer is simple, but profound in its simplicity. “Trust me.” God as much as says, “Here’s the vision. Put it on a billboard. Stick it as a bumper sticker for your chariot. Make it large enough that someone running past can still get the message. Trust me. It’s not over until it’s over. Things look bleak in the present moment. I know this. You know this. However, this present moment is not the end. It looks like I am not at work. You are wrong. I am at work. You fail to see it . . . yet. Babylon will get its comeuppance. Evil will be dealt with. Justice will come. Truth will prevail. Right will be restored. Wait for it. God is working.” Then, right there in first four is the key to it all. It shines like a bright penny you see on the ground obscured in the dirt and gravel. “Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous shall live by faith.” The righteous shall live by faith. What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 defines faith in this manner, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This simple statement, “The righteous shall live by faith” or as it is normally rendered, “The just shall live by faith” is so profound that it is quoted three times in the New Testament. It is the crux of the Gospel for the Apostle Paul writes, “For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17). Paul refers to it again in Galatians 3:11, where he writes, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’” The author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes, “For yet ‘in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay; but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.’” (Hebrews 10:37-38) The righteous shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. This verse is so important that it takes three New Testament books, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews to give it full exposition. Living by faith is not living by what you see. It is looking beyond what you see to trust in the God you have come to know. It is living in the assurance that God does not condone evil. Nor does God ignore evil. In fact, it is living with the understanding that in Jesus Christ, God enters our world and subjects himself to sin and evil so that God may ultimately bring victory out of apparent defeat and destroy the power of evil. That is what Paul means when he writes to the church in Philippi, “Let this same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death---even death on the cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8) Paul doesn’t stop there. The game is not over. There is more to the story. He continues, “Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

The just shall live by faith. There is a story of a husband who lost his wife to illness. The couple had a little girl, so she became a daughter who lost her mother. After the funeral some of the close relatives noticed the pain of the husband and asked him, “Do you want us to take your daughter away for a few days so that you can have some time to grieve?” The man replied, “No, we are going to face this together.” So that night as the father was putting his daughter to bed she cried out, “Daddy, it is dark in here, may I sleep in your room?” His reply was, “Yes, you may sleep in my room.” As they went into the father’s room, he turned off the light, his little girl cried out again, “Daddy it is dark in here too.” The father said, “Yes baby, I know it is dark.” Then the little girl said, “Daddy it is darker than it has ever been.” The father replied, “Yes baby, it is darker than it has ever been to me, too.” In the darkness the little girl asked, “Daddy, is your face turned toward me?” The dad said, “Yes, my face is turned toward you.” She said, “I can go to sleep now. Good night, Daddy” After the little girl went to sleep, the father, in such despair at the loss of his wife, fell down upon his knees and asked, “God is your face turned toward me?” He heard a voice gently say, “Yes, My face is turned toward you.” The father said, “Okay, I can go to sleep now. Good night, Daddy.” We cannot understand all things. We may not understand all God’s ways. In the end, though, we need only understand one thing. God is faithful. “No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39) The righteous shall live by faith. Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory.