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Major Message from a Minor Prophet Habakkuk 1:12-2:4 JANUARY 25, 2015 Pastor Gerald Mcginnis

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Major Message from a Minor Prophet Habakkuk 1:12-2:4 JANUARY 25, 2015 Pastor Gerald Mcginnis 1 Major Message from a Minor Prophet Habakkuk 1:12-2:4 JANUARY 25, 2015 Pastor Gerald McGinnis Habakkuk is squeezed between Nahum and Zephaniah, two other books we rarely read. Let’s back up for just a second. There are 17 prophetic books in the Old Testament, divided between the Major Prophets (5 books) and the Minor Prophets (12 books). They are not called “major” and “minor” because of their respective importance but because of their size. In one of my Bibles, the five Major Prophets take up 191 pages while the twelve Minor Prophets take up only 61 pages. We’re talking about short books here. Habakkuk contains 56 verses spread over 3 chapters. Though he is a “minor” prophet, there is nothing minor about his message. He’s writing about a topic that we all think about eventually. Habakkuk is unlike the other prophetic books (major or minor) in that it records a dialogue between one man and God. Whereas Isaiah contains a message from God, Habakkuk records a conversation with God. There’s a different between a message from God; Habakkuk records a conversation with God. I love a message from God but I must have a conversation with God. 2 If you’ve ever felt like you had a few questions for God, this is the book for you. Howard Hendricks called Habakkuk “the man with a question mark for a brain.” Here’s a bit of the background. The year is 605 BC or thereabouts. We can’t be sure of the precise year but that’s a good guess. After good king Josiah died in 609 BC, the nation of Judah plunged headlong back into the cesspool of corruption, immorality and idolatry that had plagued it for so many generations. This time the people seemed hell-bent on their own destruction. It was as if the nation had a death wish and no use for God at all. Here comes Habakkuk; About the man Habakkuk we know very little. We assume he was around 30 years old, but that’s just a guess. We know he was a contemporary of Ezekiel and Jeremiah and would have been 10-15 years older than Daniel. When he saw the terrible moral decline of Judah, he prayed for God to “do something.” he thought God would raise up another good king to lead the people in the right direction. Little did he know that God’s answer would come by way of the hated Babylonians. I’m reminded of the famous words of Billy Graham (Lenore Ravenhill), uttered when he was a young preacher: “If God doesn’t judge America, he’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” If those words were true 60 years ago, how much truer must they be today? Habakkuk lived in confusing times. So do we. 3 Habakkuk found strong faith strong during a troubling time and so can we. Habakkuk wrote out his argument with God in three short chapters. Here’s a simple outline: Chapter 1: Faith Tested Chapter 2: Faith Taught Chapter 3: Faith Triumphant We can describe his personal journey this way: Chapter 1: His Argument Chapter 2: His Answer Chapter 3: His Acceptance Here is what the prophet is doing in each chapter: Chapter 1: His Asking Chapter 2: His Waiting Chapter 3: His Praying Along the way Habakkuk experiences a total change. In this book Habakkuk moves from . 1. Fear to faith, 2. Burden to blessing, 3. Perplexity to praise, 4. Confusion to confidence 5. Worry to Worship. 4 J. Vernon McGee says; Habakkuk begins with a question mark and ends with an exclamation point. Habakkuk 1:12-2:4 What do you do when you’ve prayed to God and you don’t like the answer you’ve received? *You applied for the college of your dreams, but they said no. *You interviewed for a new job, but they found someone more qualified. *You asked God for healing, but the doctor says the chemo didn’t work. *You prayed and prayed to find a husband, and after YOU FOUND HIM you pray “un-find him” *You asked her to marry you, and she said no. *You sunk your life savings into a new business only to see it fail within a year. *You moved across the country to take a new job, but it didn’t work out, and now you are unemployed—again. *You never intended to end up divorced, but here you are. *You planned on having more children, but it isn’t happening for some reason. *You volunteered to serve on the worship team. They said they’d get back to you. Evidently they lost your number. (Tom-Josh) We’ve all been there, some of us many times, because that’s the way life is. 5 You have your dreams, you make your plans, you sincerely seek to do God’s will, you pray to the Lord, and when the answer comes, it’s not what you wanted. What do you do then? We don’t talk about this very often but we should. Live long enough and you’ll discover that God’s plan and yours often are not the same. We all know that we should pray “Your will be done,” and most of us do, but it still rocks our spirit when we discover that God has a completely different plan in mind. That’s Habakkuk. He doesn’t like the answer he received. First, he thought God was ignoring Judah’s sin. Second, he thought God would never use Babylon to judge Judah. Wrong both times. Habakkuk was troubled by something that troubles all of us. He couldn’t reconcile his view of God with the injustice he saw all around him. Several years ago pollster George Barna asked Americans this question: “If you could ask God one question and know that you would receive an answer, what would you ask?” By far the number one response was: “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” That’s makes sense because we see suffering on every hand, and we wonder where it comes from and why God allows it. 6 C. S. Lewis remarked that the problem of suffering is atheism’s greatest weapon against the Christian faith. Why did the tornado land here and not there? Why was this girl kidnapped and that one escaped? Why would God allow a child to be born with a disability? Why are Christians being brutally massacred in Iraq? When we consider the sadness we see all around us, we can sit around and offer all the commentary we want. At some point we’ve got to deal with God. We must move from the message of God to a conversation with God. And that brings us back to the little book of Habakkuk. Written in approximately 605 B.C., this is the story of one man who wrestled with God about the hard questions. In three chapters he brings us face to face with the deepest mysteries of life. Here’s a simple outline: Chapter 1: Faith Tested Chapter 2: Faith Taught Chapter 3: Faith Triumphant When we read this book, perhaps the most striking thing is the change that takes place inside Habakkuk. In three chapters he moves from . 1. Fear to faith, 2. Burden to blessing, 3. Perplexity to praise, 7 4. Confusion to confidence 5. Worry to worship. These are five transitions that need to take place in most people’s life. It all boils down to this one fact. “The Babylonians are coming, and you can’t stop them. When they reach Jerusalem, they will conquer it and eventually they will destroy it. I am using them to judge Judah for her sins.” When Habakkuk heard this, he objected vehemently: “God, how can you do this?” That’s the key to the book. It’s a dialogue between a frustrated man of faith and a God whose ways he cannot understand. We can frame the book this way: 1. The issue is not Judah and her sin. 2. The issue is not Babylon and its evil. 3. The issue is not Habakkuk’s doubts. 4. The issue is God. We all end up there eventually. All our questions lead back to God because he is the one with whom we have to deal. All smaller issues lead us back to the one who sits on the throne of the universe. In the last half of Habakkuk 1 the prophet has three questions for God. After asking those questions, he will make a decision that shapes everything else in the book. 8 Question # 1: Who Are You? Habakkuk 1:12 (NIV) “O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish” (v. 12). Habakkuk 1:12 (GW) 12 Didn't you exist before time began, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die! O LORD, you have appointed the Babylonians to bring judgment. O Rock, you have destined them to correct us. What do you do when God makes no sense? Either you walk away from your faith or you remind yourself of who God is. Sometimes what we need is a good dose to theology to strengthen our faltering faith. When faced with the news that the hated Babylonians would soon invade Judah and nothing could stop them, Habakkuk goes back to what the theologians call the “first principles.” Look what Habakkuk calls God: 1.
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