Pt. 2 Habakkuk 1.12-2.4 - A Prophet’s Puzzle - 090208AM@TBC

Introduction

1 Segway

Habakkuk

2 Review

A. Title - “an oracle” that was “a burden”   (1:1)

B. Timing   Manassah, Josiah, or Jehoiakim

Clues (1:2, 5, 6 & 3:19)

1.5 a work, which you will not believe…utterly astounding...

1.6 Chaleans, which marches through the breadth of the earth

3.19 To the chief Musician.

Geography and History of Habakkuk’s Time

620 BC—Babylon (Chaldeans) becomes independent

612 BC—Babylonians and Medes destroy Nineveh

609 BC—Babylonians defeat the Assyrians at Haran

605 BC—Babylonians defeat Necho II of Egypt at Carchemish

605 BC—Jerusalem defeated and exile begins (Daniel)

597 BC—Jerusalem defeated (Ezekiel probably taken Ez 1.2)

588-86 BC—Jerusalem burned & temple 

2. Early in the Babylonian rise to power (625-612 BC)

C. Overview of Habakkuk series

1.1-11  “The Prophet’s Plea”

1st prayer and God’s response

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1.12-2.4 “The Prophet’s Puzzle”

2nd prayer and God’s response

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2.5-20  “Prophet’s Pronouncement”

The five “woes” pronounced

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3.1-16  “The Prophet’s Prayer”

Prayer in response to God

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3.16-19  “The Prophet’s Praise”

The chorus or closing hymn

D. Review

1.1-11  “The Prophet’s Plea”

1st prayer and God’s response

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Habakkuk: Why don’t You do something about Judah’s wickedness?  (2-4)

God: I am going to use the Chaldeans to punish Judah.

(5-11)

APPLICATION:

Acts 40-41“Beware therefore”

Paul uses Habakkuk to warn against presumption and complacency. 

Acts 40-41

⁴⁰ Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:

⁴¹ "Behold, you despisers, Marvel and perish!

For I work a work in your days,

A work which you will by no means believe,

Though one were to declare it to you.' "

3. Overview

Outline

I. The Prophet Questions (1:12-2:1)

Why do You look and hold Your tongue?

II. The Lord Answers  (2:2-4)  

The appointed time is coming. The Just shall live by faith.

Big Idea:

“The just shall live by faith.”

Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38

4. Stand, Read text, and Pray

Habakkuk 1:12-2:4 (nkjv)

The Prophet Questions

¹² Are You not from everlasting,
   O LORD my God, my Holy One?
   We shall not die.
    O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment;
    O Rock, You have marked them for correction.
¹³ You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
    And cannot look on wickedness.

 
    Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
    And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
    A person more righteous than he?

¹⁴ Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
    Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
¹⁵ They take up all of them with a hook,
    They catch them in their net,
    And gather them in their dragnet.
    Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice to their net,
    And burn incense to their dragnet;
    Because by them their share is sumptuous
    And their food plentiful.
¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net,
    And continue to slay nations without pity?

 ¹ I will stand my watch
    And set myself on the rampart,
    And watch to see what He will say to me,
    And what I will answer when I am corrected.

The Lord Answers

 ² Then the LORD answered me and said:
    “ Write the vision
    And make it plain on tablets,
    That he may run who reads it.
  ³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
    But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
    Though it tarries, wait for it;       

    Because it will surely come,
    It will not tarry.
 ⁴ “ Behold the proud,
     His soul is not upright in him;
     But the just shall live by his faith.

 I. The Prophet Questions

A. The Character of God affirmed

¹² Are You not from everlasting,
   O Lord, my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.
    O Lord, You have appointed them¹ for judgment;
    O Rock,² You have marked them for correction.
^13a You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
    And cannot look on wickedness.

² them  Judah or Babylon? 

³ Rock rwc  tsoor  — rock, cliff (of God)

kjv—mighty God; all others—rock

This name is often thought of in the sense safety and comfort of hiding in or under a rock, but the imagery of the OT is usually one of the strength and reliability of a mountain.

First used as a name for God in Deut 32

4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
      For all His ways are justice,
      A God of truth and without injustice;
      Righteous and upright is He.

 15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
      You grew fat, you grew thick,
      You are obese!
      Then he forsook God who made him,
      And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

 30 How could one chase a thousand,
      And two put ten thousand to flight,
      Unless their Rock had sold them,
      And the LORD had surrendered them?

 31 For their rock is not like our Rock,
      Even our enemies themselves being judges.

A. The Character of God affirmed

1]  Three Names

hwhy   yeh-ho-vaw'  Jehovah = the existing One

(5521 times)

~yhla  el-o-heem'  Elohiym = “My God” (137 times)

This is used to emphasize the relationship between Israel and God.

Xwdq  ka-w-doshe'  Qadowsh — sacred, holy, Holy One, saint, set apart

This name for God is used frequently in Isaiah and contributes to the dilemma the prophet is explaining.

3] Three attributes 

—>  Note the Hebrew parallelism  1& 2, 3&4, 5&6

Comparing the lines together is sorta like 3-D glasses.

1. Faithful  everlasting — “We shall not die”

2 Peter God knows how to deliver the

2. Just 

Lord - Rock:  paints a picture of power and permanence. “He’s not going anywhere.”

appointed - marked:   It was certain to happen.

Correction  xky  yaw-kahh'  — to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right

ylt, esv—reproof; nasb, nkjv—for correction; nasb—correct; niv, nlt—punish

Judgement  tpXm mish-pawt'  —

ylt, kjv, nkjv—for judgement; nasb—to judge; esv—as a judgement; niv—to execute judgement; nlt—to correct us

Hebrews 13:   correction of sons

3. Holy

Purer eyes  rwhj  taw-hore'  — pure, clean (morally, ethically)

“To ‘look’ at a matter can imply that it is viewed with acceptance (cf. Ps. 66:18; 138:6).”  ——Expositor’s Bible Commentary

APPLICATION:

“In the midst of our perplexity we should affirm what we know to be true.” —Jonathan Lamb, from Why to Worship: A Journey Through the Prophecy of Habakkuk

“Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light”  —Warren Wiersbe

B. The Inaction of God Questioned

This section highlights the paradox between God’s justice and holiness and the unchecked violence and pride of the Chaldeans.

1] Why do You look and hold Your tongue?

^13b    Why do You look on those¹ who deal treacherously,
    And hold Your tongue when the wicked¹ devours
    A person² more righteous than he?

¹ The Chaldeans    ²   Judah, wicked, but still better

Devours [lb  bah-luck’   —(Piel) to swallow up, engulf

Kjv, nkjv—Devoureth, devours; ylt, nasb, exv, niv, ylt—swallow up;

2] Why do you make men like fish?

¹⁴ Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
    Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?

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¹⁵ They take up all of them with a hook,
    They catch them in their net,
    And gather them in their dragnet.

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    Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice to their net,
    And burn incense to their dragnet;

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

    Because by them their share is sumptuous
    And their food plentiful.

14.  Everybody was helpless in their paths.

Fish implies 1. a condition that is subhuman and helpless; 2. lacking organization and leadership ——Expositor’s Bible Commentary

ylt, kjv, nasb, nkjv—creeping things; esv—crawling things; niv, nlt—sea creatures

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

15. They were hauling people in like a fisherman with a net.

Hook, net, & Dragnet

The progression seems to be from smaller to larger.

Ylt, kjv—drag; nasb—fishing net; nkjv, esv—dragnet; niv, nlt—net(s);

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The [self worshiping] victory celebrations of the wicked were especially galling.”  —Paul Apple

Rejoice and are glad are both words that are often used in religious contexts of worship and praise.

16.

Incense

ylt—perfume; kjv, nasb, niv, nlt—incense; esv—offerings

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“He has caught all he needs, but he is not satisfied.  He casts his net again an again and brings back more and more fish and stacks them on the bank until they rot in the sun.” 

—Ray Steadman

These words are basically an appeal repulsion we feel at excess and waist.

Sumptuous 

Ylt—fertile; kjv—fat; nasb—large; esv, niv—luxury; nlt—rich

Plentiful ayrb  Bariy'  baw-ree'  —fat; TWOT) fat, fatter, fed, firm, plenteous

Ylt—fat;  kjv—plenteous; nasb, nkjv—plentiful; esv, nlt—rich; niv—choicest food

3] Shall they continue?
¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net,
    And continue to slay nations without pity?

“Would God permit them to go on to enjoy the fruits of their violence, letting them attribute all their conquests to themselves and not to Him?”   —Merrill Unger

 
  C. The Response of God anticipated

 ¹ I will stand my watch
    And set myself on the rampart,    
    And watch to see what He will say to me,
    And what I will answer when I am corrected. 

Set and watch

Watch

ylt—charge; kjv, nkjv, niv—watch; nasb—guard post; esv—watchpost; nlt—watchtower

rampart

ylt—bulwark;  kjv, nkjv, esv—tower;  nasb, nkjv—rampart; nlt—guardpost

“It is applied [literally] particularly to sentries or watchmen on city walls, who were to warn the citizens of danger or other happenings outside.  The verb is applied figuratively to the prophets, who as Israel’s watchmen were to see the Lord’s purposes and communicate them to their people.” 

—— Carl Armerding, Expositor’s Bible Commentary

Carl E. Armerding is the former president and professor of Old Testament at Regent College, Vancouver, BC, Canada. He is currently academic mentor in Old Testament studies to students associated with the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in Oxford, England and Academic Director of Schloss Mittersill Study Centre in Austria.

“...expresses the spiritual preparation of the prophet’s soul for hearing the word of God within, i.e. the collecting of his mind by quietly entering into himself…”  ——CF Keil

2] submissively learn

Corrected hxkwt Towkechah —rebuke, correction, reproof, punishment, chastisement;  argument, reproof

The translation hinges on the word translated reproved in the kjv, nasb and corrected in the nkjv

The noun “complaint” [reproof] (cf. tokahat; cf yakah [punish], 1.12) denotes

an argument by which one seeks to establish what is right (Job 13:6; 23:4) and

a rebuke or correction by which one is restored.”  —— Carl Armerding, Expositor’s Bible Commentary

ylt—I do reply to my reproof

kjv—what I shall answer when I am reproved

nasb—How I may reply when I am reproved

njkv—I will answer when I am corrected

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esv—what I will answer concerning my complaint

niv—what answer I am to give to this complaint

“...first of all to myself and then to the rest.”  —CF Keil

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nlt—how he will answer my complaint

Habakkuk was both honest in his prayer and, at the same time, humble in being willing to be corrected (or instructed) after he had said his peace.

Application: what I will answer when I am corrected. 

1. We should learn to wait in prayer.

Psalm 62.5

   ⁵ My soul, wait silently for God alone,
         For my expectation is from Him.
 ⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation;
         He is my defense;
         I shall not be moved.
 ⁷ In God is my salvation and my glory;
         The rock of my strength,
         And my refuge, is in God.

 ⁸ Trust in Him at all times, you people;
         Pour out your heart before Him;
         God is a refuge for us.  Selah  

“Ring and run” prayers are like the kids who ring a door bell and then run away before someone gets to the door.” 

2. Distinguish between my thoughts & God’s revelation.

“Thus he draws a sharp distinction between his own speaking and the speaking of the Spirit of God within him.”  —CF Keil

It is popular today to say “God told me.” or “God spoke to my heart.”  It is good for us to distinguish between our own promptings to godly attitudes and responses and the revelatory “Word of the Lord” that Habakkuk waited for.

3. God’s Word is God’s voice to me and my turning point.

“The words of revelation from God are the vital turning point for Habakkuk, as they are for all of God’s people who listen to his voice.”  —Jonathan Lamb

As believers with the completed cannon of Scripture, it is not necessary for us to “sit on a hill” in a vacuum and wait for something to hit us. Our prayerful and quiet waiting and reflection should be surrounded by and filled with the meditation on God’s written Word. 

II. The Lord Answers

Verses 2-4 are the first part of the Lord’s answer to Habakkuk.  The rest of the chapter finishes His answer.

 ² Then the LORD answered me and said:
    “ Write the vision
    And make it plain on tablets,
    That he may run who reads it.
  ³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
    But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
    Though it tarries, wait for it;       

    Because it will surely come,
    It will not tarry.
 ⁴ “ Behold the proud,
     His soul is not upright in him;
     But the just shall live by his faith.

 

A. The Record of the Vision    (verse 1)

 ² Then the LORD answered me and said:
    “ Write the vision ¹
    And make it plain on tablets,²
    That he may run who reads it.³

 ¹vision has to do with revelation from God,

not a plan for the future or an inspired direction to take

 ² plain on tablets—

Write—engrave, inscribe”; lit., “dig it” upon tablets

Deut. 27.8  “And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.”

Rev 1.19  “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.”

 ³ He may run who reads it

Is the “one who reads the message”

1. the herald whose task it is to run form location to location reading aloud his proclamation

2. anyone who reads the message.  The inscription would be set up in a public place and readers would run to spread the news

——OT Bible Background Commentary

 “The matter was to be made so clear that whoever read it might run and publish it.”  —Kerr, Wycliffe Bible Commentary

 

B. The Time to Await

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak,¹ and it will not lie.² 
Though it tarries, wait for it; ³
Because it will surely come, 
It will not tarry.

 1] The Certainty of Action

 ¹ speaks xwp Puwach poo'akh —to breath, pant for it

kjv—shall speak; nkjv, niv—speak(s); nlt—describes nasb, ylt—breatheth; esv—hastens toward;

² will not lie —It will come to pass like written.

2 Peter 3

...knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, ⁶ by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. [or the fall of the Chaldeans] ⁷ But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
⁸ But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night...

      2] Two Perspectives on the Dilemma

 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak,¹ and it will not lie.² 
Though it tarries, wait for it; ³
Because it will surely come, 
It will not tarry.

 

Habakkuk had two questions implied in his prayers.

The specific question of God allowing wickedness go unchecked in Judah and with the Chaldeans.

He also implied the larger problem of why God allows evil to go on in the world.

The answer that the Lord gives him has both of the prophet’s questions in mind.

The time was coming when Judah and the Chaldeans would be punished for their sins.

The time was also coming when the Lord Jesus would return and put an end to injustice for good.

“...its fulfillment concerns the future—an appointed (divinely determined) time (Daniel 10:14), referring to the proximately to God’s design with regard to the Chaldeans and the fall of the Ne0-Babylonian Empire; but more distantly, to the time of the second advent of Christ (Rev. 17:1-20:3; cf. Dan. 11:27, 35) and the destruction of the evil world power of the satanic world system, of which Babylon was the existing manifestation.” 

—Merrill Unger,  Unger’s Commentary on the OT

The prophet Daniel uses this expression (8.19; 11.27 & 35) and the second understanding is affirmed in the New Testament

 

Hebrews 10:37-38 loosely quote verses 3-4 in the context of those who had suffered “not casting away their confidence,” but holding on to the end to “receive the promise.”

 C.  The Attitude to Keep

     4 “ Behold the proud,¹
      His¹ soul is not upright in him;¹
      But the just shall live by his faith.

¹ the Chaldeans

1] Pride vrs faith

proud lp[ `aphal  aw-fal' — (Pual) to swell

ylt—presumptuous; kjv—lifted up; nasb—proud one; nkjv, nlt—proud;  esv, niv—puffed up;

“Swollen” paints a good picture of what pride is. It is like an animal that blows itself up to look bigger than it really it.  The sad thing is that we fool even ourselves sometime.

Pride has no place in the life of faith.

The connection between faith and humility is made in Christ’s reference to Micah 6.8

 Micah 6.8

  7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
      Ten thousand rivers of oil?
      Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
      The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
       8 He has shown you, O man, what is good;
      And what does the LORD require of you
      But to do justly,
      To love mercy,
      And to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 23.23

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and

have neglected the weightier matters of the law:

justice and mercy and faith.

These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

C.  The Attitude of the Believer   (continued)

2] The sustaining power of faith

 

Gen. 15.6 And he [Abraham] believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

The “just” (saddiq, “righteous”) is first and foremost the humble, not the proud man who realizes he is a helpless sinner who must be declared right soely by God’s mercy and grace revealed in His Word.    —Merrill Unger

“we live by faith, not by sight” 2 Cor4.16-5.10

4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. ⁷ For we walk by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

“...faith that produces faithfulness…” —Merrill Unger

 

“The “faith” (muna, “trust”) by which the righteous “lives,” therefore, also connotates the “faithfulness” or “fidelity” he demonstrates in his life as a believer, the two concepts (“faith” and “faithfulness”) being implicit and inseparable in the Hebrew word…”  —Merrill Unger

APPLICATIONS:

Faith the key to the Christian’s salvation.

Romans 1:17

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

The saints and the “ain’ts.” 

       Prov. 14.12

       There is a way that seems right to a man,
       But its end is the way of death.

2. Faith the key to the Christian’s life.

Galatians 3:11

¹ O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? ² This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? ³ Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
⁵ Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— 15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.

¹⁰ For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” ¹¹ But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” ¹² Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
¹³ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), ¹⁴ that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

3. Faith the key to Christian’s victory. Hebrews 10:38

³² But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: ³³ partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; ³⁴ for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. ³⁵ Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
       ³⁷ “ For yet a little while,
      And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
       ³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith;
      But if anyone draws back,
      My soul has no pleasure in him.”

 39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

The next chapter, 11, is filled with the examples of those who lived by faith while they waited for the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Time in the “waiting room” between the promise made and the promise fulfilled…

Jude

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
 And to present you faultless
 Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
 25 To God our Savior,
 Who alone is wise,
 Be glory and majesty,
 Dominion and power,
 Both now and forever.
 Amen.