The Minor Prophets: Habakkuk

In this episode, we continue our Minor Prophets series with the book of Habakkuk, a unique prophecy that takes the form of a conversation between the prophet and God. 📖 Set in the years before Babylon’s conquest of Judah, Habakkuk wrestles with a question that still resonates today: Why does God seem silent in the face of injustice?

We explore Habakkuk’s struggle with violence, corruption, and the rise of Babylon, along with God’s surprising response that evil ultimately carries the seeds of its own destruction. Along the way, we reflect on the meaning of “the righteous will live by faithfulness” and Habakkuk’s remarkable journey from questioning to trust. 🌿 Even in the midst of uncertainty and loss, the prophet discovers a deeper reason for hope and joy. ✨

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Transcript

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God, what's happening to this culture? Why does evil prevail?" And God says, " I'm gonna do something amazing." The Babylonians are coming." Yeah. That's not amazing. What? That just raised the whole level of discourse here with God."Okay, now I've got 10 other questions for you, God." Right, right. Okay, we hadn't done this in a while, but we are sitting in the same room. Mom's house. Yeah, my Yeah … Mom's house. Feel like we used to do that a couple seasons ago all the time, but we haven't done it in a while. Yeah, I don't know why it hadn't worked out, but yeah, it works out this weekend, so we were like, "Dude, again, let's do, like, three episodes, and we're probably only gonna be able to do this one." Yeah, let's finish the whole season- We're leaving- … this weekend and Yeah, but then I'm leaving tomorrow, so. Yeah. And you found a little hole-in-the-wall Cuban- Oh, dude … place. Yeah. Literal, like, out in the country. What was it, Red Shed? Red Shed, yeah. Red Shed. So if you're- Gotta shout out to- Yeah, if you're in the Tallahassee area, man, and you want some genuine Cuban, it's fantastic. It was very good. Yeah. And I've had a lot of Cuban food. We- you were saying you wanted a little Key, taste of Key West. Yeah. Which is an odd thing to say, but if you haven't been to the Keys, uh, the Keys actually specialize in Cuban food. Yeah, very Cuban place. Yeah. Right. And you get great Cuban food down there. And yeah, I didn't expect that in Tallahassee. But we had great Cuban sandwiches for lunch. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, kind of a little place that I, I'm, we'll definitely be back, so I kinda felt like we found a little gold mine somewhere, you know. Yeah. Kinda hidden, that I didn't know was there. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah, so hopefully we're not, uh, too sleepy post-Cuban- I know … sandwich lunch. We also got our Starbucks here. Well, we got the coffee to off- offset it. Yeah, that's helpful. So that's helpful, yeah. right, so Habakkuk. Yeah, here we go. Very short. Yeah. Uh, yet, uh, you know, so what, what have we done? Joel. Hosea. Micah. Micah. Yep. Yeah. And here we are in Habakkuk, which is kind of an, a, a good, it's probably, I don't know if you intended it to be this way. It's kind of a good progression because Joel is talking about the storms coming. Hosea is talking about the broken covenant, you know, the broken marriage. Micah is talking about political corruption. And then Habakkuk comes along, and it's sort of like after those three prophetic voices, you have Habakkuk that's sort of saying, "God, what are you doing?" You know, it's like this- Yeah … cry out why, and it's kind of interesting. I think it's just in, in the progression we've made, we've had all these prophetic voices saying, "The end is near. Repent." And then whatever's happened in Habakkuk's history, and we'll get to that, Habakkuk is now throwing his hands up and saying, "God, why?" Yeah. And it's kind, it's a little ironic'cause we've covered all these other prophets saying, "Look, it's coming." And it's like, "God, why? What are you talking about?" Yeah. We've had all these warnings, and here we are, you know. So Habakkuk's a little bit after the fact. Yeah. Habakkuk's also very different because we said this last time with Micah, which is- On first glance, all the prophets sound like the same. It, it's just kind of religious rants against the culture, right? Right. But they're actually very different, and I like Habakkuk because while the others have been very outward focused, they're the outsider speaking directly into the culture- Mm-hmm … Habakkuk, this is a very personal interaction with God. And you can almost picture Habakkuk writing this down in a journal or something, papyrus maybe at that time. I don't know what they wrote- Yeah, yeah … but, but yeah, this is just between God and Habakkuk, and Habakkuk says, "God, explain this to me, what's happening." And then, I don't know, it's almost as if later, one of maybe his disciples or someone, someone he's mentoring maybe, said,"Habakkuk, this is really good stuff. Can I take this to the people?" Yeah. I don't know how it happened. Write this down. But yeah. Yeah, it's, it's a very genuine moment in Habakkuk. Yeah. And I think, I'm glad you said that 'cause it is. It's like the other prophetic voices are projecting out to the people, warning people, but this is like a little bit of a peek behind closed doors where Habakkuk's saying, "I've prophesied. I've warned the people. But God, why are you doing it this way?" You know, it's, it's, it's a moment of authenticity, a moment of, of genuine questioning, and it feels, I mean, even though, again, it's like however many thousands of years old, it feels like a very modern issue. it's kind of like a just a reoccurring issue that everybody deals with with faith. Mm-hmm … does God hear my prayers? Is he doing it- anything about it? Is he listening at all? Nothing seems to be going my way, even though I'm faithful. And bigger questions even like why does it look like the bad guy's winning here? Yeah. You know, like, we're your people, and I understand you may be upset because we're not being faithful to the covenant, but for goodness sakes, why is that group of people flourishing right now? Right. Yeah. So if you have kind of a question of why does bad things happen to good people and great things seem to happen to evil people- Habakkuk tackles that. And I don't think we're gonna ha- I don't know if we're gonna have any great satisfactory answers 'cause that's one of the toughest c- questions in Christianity, but, you know, there's a dialogue with God here about it- Yeah… and so we'll have to see what he says. Yeah. All right, so we should cover a little bit of the context because that's what we've been doing. Mm-hmm. And I said last time, and even if you watch the video part of it, I put a map up actually with Micah that I said it's helpful to remember that the Northern Kingdom fell in 722 BC to the Assyrians. Mm-hmm. The Southern Kingdom falls in 586 BC- Mm-hmm … to the Babylonians. Now remember, Micah was speaking to the Southern Kingdom. But it was about the fall of the Northern Kingdom, and he was saying,"We're gonna be just like Samaria and the North-" Yeah … "if we don't get our act together in Jerusalem," right? Yeah. So Habakkuk is actually more … I w- I wrote a date down, 610. That's pretty, pretty specific, and I don't know how someone arrived specifically at 610 BC. Okay, so it's right between the two. It's between the two, but about, what, 25 years before the Southern Kingdom falls. So there's been a lot of the rot- Mm-hmm… and corruption that Micah has talked about, and Habakkuk is coming on the heels of all that, and he's seeing what's about to happen here to the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom, what, 160, 70 years has been exiled, right? Yeah. The Northern Kingdom's already gone. Yeah. And so that's the time period in which Habakkuk … In fact, one thing I wrote down is that there are some other people who indicate, some of the other prophetic literature indicate that Habakkuk was still alive when the Southern Kingdom falls in 586. Okay. So he was probably around to see that happen. Right. So he was certainly a prophetic voice in the seeing what's coming. Yeah. But in the meantime, before it happens, he's arguing with God, "Are you sure you wanna do it this way?" Yeah. Help me. Help me understand this. Yeah. Yeah. And as this unfolds, we'll actually see that God says Babylon is going to take over, to which Habakkuk says,"God, you've gotta explain this to me." we're disobedient. They're downright pagan and evil. Yeah, Which is interesting because, I mean, that's just the human experience. It's like part of us can accept, look, punishment, you know, Israel's turned away from God. Uh, there's gonna be punishment. But then when the Babylonians come in, you're like, really, of all people? Yeah. You're gonna give them the win? Like, just send a tornado and wipe out our village. Yeah. You know? You remember that whole locust invasion with Joel? Let's go … That makes more sense to me, right? Yeah, you can't blame the locust. You know, at least you don't, nobody sits there and thinks, well, the locust won in that one. It's just like it is what it is. Right. It was a natural disaster. It feels like judgment when God uses nature, and that's kind of an interesting idea. It does. It feels like judgment when God uses nature, but when God uses an evil empire to enact judgment, that just seems unfair. It, it feels, feels unjust. Unjust, yeah. Yeah. yeah. But that's exactly what happens. Yeah, that's exactly what, what's gonna happen here in Habakkuk's journal with God here. Yeah, And, uh, before we start, it's it'll be obvious once the verses play out, but this is a dialogue. This is, again, this is not- Mm-hmm … a sermon to the people. This is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. A prayer, I guess, if you would. But it's kinda laid out that way, which is- Yeah … kind of cool. Habakkuk asks the question, God answers, and it's sort of a back and forth. Yeah, the whole letter is written that, that way, yeah. Right. So just as you're hearing snippets of that, keep that in mind, that the whole letter is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. Okay. Anything else before we jump in or? No, I don't think so. Just remember Babylon is the looming threat. The Northern Kingdom has fallen, and Habakkuk, just wants to understand what the heck's going on. it's also probably worth mentioning that this is only three chapters, and they're three short chapters. Mm-hmm. So, man, even if you have an opportunity to pause, y- you can read the entire book in- 15 minutes … yeah, 10 minutes or something like that. You know, so you're welcome to do that- As opposed to Micah, that was 14 chapters. It's like, yeah, read that some other time. Yeah. Don't hit pause 'cause it'll be three hours. Yeah, so just as means of introduction here… the very first verse of each one of these usually gives you a little bit of information. There's not a lot here, but just to set the table, Habakkuk 1:1 just says, "The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received." So we'll let you listen to verses two through four, and then we'll come back and talk about it. Okay. All right. How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, Violence! but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. Okay. So to start out, the… He kind of… I know he asks a few questions in there, but he, to summarize, he just says a couple questions. The first one is, "God, why aren't you listening? I'm praying, you're… I don't hear anything back." Yeah. And then kind of he follows up with another question that says, "Why do you tolerate injustice?" And so it's kind of interesting because it starts out… I, I don't know why it didn't, this didn't occur to me when I read it the first couple times. But he's kind of saying something that we all understand. You know, "God, why aren't you listening?" When it doesn't- when it feels like God's silent. But then he goes up and he says, "Why do you tolerate injustice?" And then he goes right into this, again, I don't wanna get ahead of myself, but when he says, "Don't worry, Babylon's coming to administer justice," well, he doesn't like that either. Yeah, we'll get to the- It's almost- Yeah, we'll get to that. Yeah Yeah, again, not to jump, jump ahead, but he's saying, "Why do you tolerate injustice?" But then when God has an answer, he goes, "Well, yeah, I wouldn't go there, though." I I don't like that answer, God. I know, right? That's what he's saying, yeah. And it's kind of this interesting idea of we just want a clear, kind of a naive administration of justice. Like, we want this nice dividing line where the bad people go to jail and- Mm-hmm … the good people thrive and get repaid for everything that was stolen to them. And it doesn't acknowledge the reality of evil. Yeah. It, it's a naive view of the world, but I like it because it's also, it's a very personal place that everyone can relate to, right? Yeah."God, why aren't you listening? God, have you looked around the culture lately," right? Yeah."Have you looked around the southern kingdom?" Yeah. The, I got an easy answer. Like, good people should thrive and bad people should be punished. Right. Right? Yeah. And that's basically what he's saying when he says, "Look, destruction and violence are before me. Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails," which is basically, God, w- why is it such a struggle for good people, and yet this person's, stock account is going nuts right now, and we all know why, right? Yeah, that's right. Or they're getting away with almost literal murder- and they're a celebrity, right? Yeah. Or, or all this thing. You know, just pick, pick your topic- Right … in our culture today, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's all kinds of modern examples. Corrupt politicians- Yeah. But I like I like that line where he says, "Therefore, the law is paralyzed," because that's a cool concept kind of from a New Testament lens looking back. It's like modern Christians, we already know that the law, talking about the Biblical law- Yeah … is paralyzed, that there sh- that it falls short. But it's interesting that Habakkuk's right in the middle, the law is all they have, and it's almost like he's saying,"God, how come the law isn't working? This is the institution that you put into place. I thought this answered all of our questions. I thought this would usher in-""… perfect morality to our people." Yeah. Right? and so even in the Old Testament, it's interesting that he's seeing the limitations of the law, meaning- Yeah … the Mosaic law as opposed to what you and I think of as the law today, the legal system. Although there's parallels too there because- Oh, yeah … I, I think both views are actually a pretty naive view of the law, quote, right? Yeah. But you see people who basically have flaunted the law or broke the law, and yet you … the common person goes, "Yeah, let me take a guess about how much jail time that person's gonna spend." Right. Yeah. And the answer's zero, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so we can naively do the same thing as we can say, "Well, the law's paralyzed. The law doesn't apply to those people," And so therefore, this looks to be a very unjust society, and God, the fair thing would be if just the law worked. I like that, what you said, because it's a little bit of a naive view of what the law actually can do, right? Yeah, a few years ago, I won't go into this story 'cause it's embarrassing, but I had my truck stolen twice, Twice? Twice. Yeah. Something about the keys being left in it, but anyway, that doesn't matter. That's not the point. That's the rumor. That's word on the street. That's the point. That's not the point of this story. The point of the story is that we found the truck both times. I found the truck, Called the police, of course. Found the gun, a gun in it one time. But any case, called the police and I'm like, "Okay, here you go, police. Do your police work. Here's the truck." and he's just like, "Uh, He was basically saying, the cop was basically saying, you know, "What are you gonna do?" And I was like, "Well, I don't know. Dust for prints, call CSI, take DNA swabs." Yeah."Do something," right? surely you got a database that we can, Law & Order, CSI. I know. What, uh, uh, there's all kinds of TV shows- Right to deal with this. but anyway, it's just my experience that Part of my brain was thinking, "Well, this isn't fair." So somebody stole my truck. It smells like weed. There's a gun in the back. You know, it's like somebody surely is gonna be brought to justice. And it was just from the jump, the cop was just thinking, "Yeah, look, bud, we got other things to worry about.""Just be glad you got your truck. Go take it to a car wash and don't bother us anymore," you know? Yeah, yeah. that's the way it turned out, is like, no, never found out who did it, and, they had- Huh … their joyride. But yeah, is, it, there is sort of a naive view that the law would take care of me, the law would bring to justice and punish the people that stole my truck. Mm-hmm. And that's just not, that's just not reality, unfortunately. Well, it reminds me of that phrase that makes me cringe nowadays, is when, and both sides do it. You hear it in a lot of different settings, but someone says,"There, this is proof that nobody is above the law." I'll show you proof every day that there's- a lot of people above the law. Oh, yeah. Right? It's … So it's that naive view. The law definitely serves a purpose, and- I like the idea that we can tie this back to what Habakkuk's talking about, which is the Old Testament law, right? Right. it's there to serve a purpose, but come on, don't be naive. This didn't solve much of anything, especially when it comes to this idea of, you know, it talks about the wicked are hemming people in. Justice is perverted. There's strife and conflict abound. Well, it's like the law can only do so much. The law is not this magic power, right, that keeps everyone- Right … in line. Yeah. there's not like an enforcement mechanism behind it. We can codify and what we all agree this is what moral living is, but, there's not much enforcement behind it, especially in a moral way. you and I were talking a different topic this morning what do you do as a pastor trying to enforce moral behavior, in your church? And we were talking about some of the difficulties of threading that needle. Do you, do you draw a hard line and say, "No, this is immoral behavior and we can't expect this of anybody in our congregation"? Or is there a welcoming, everyone's y- you know, invited? where's that line between tolerance and turning a blind eye? It's like that's a very human problem that certainly is, feels modern as it is ancient. Sure, yeah. When you said the topic we talked about this morning, I thought you were gonna go back on your rant about why wasn't Huey Lewis more popular- I'm still mad about that … past, past the '80s. I am still mad about that. Everybody had a resurgence, Madonna, Michael, Prince. And Huey Lewis for some reason just went into obscurity, and he was every bit as big as every- Oh … one of those things. Yeah, his sports album was big, big as there was in the '80s. Yeah, yeah. shaped my high school career. Ugh. Okay, so let's talk about Habakkuk later. Yeah. Let's just, I just wanna, I wanna hammer this out. That's right. Right. Uh, okay, so back on track. It's a pivot. Is that what they call- … we're gonna pivot to? Yeah. No, you just got me. Yeah, now my mind is somewhere else. Okay. All right. Let's get back on track here. okay, so he asked God this question, and then verses five and six is the answer that he gets back from God. So he's praying and he's, uh, you can see that he's processing this, and this is what God says back to him, and I'll read this real quick- Okay … 'cause this is not what Habakkuk wants to hear. Verses five and six, he says, "Look at the nations and watch," this is interesting language too, "and be utterly amazed, For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians." Okay, now that w- appreciate what's happening here because Habakkuk is looking around at all the injustice in Judah- And says, "God, how long are you gonna be silent?" And this is really interesting. He said, " Hold onto your seat," right?"And you're gonna be utterly amazed because here's what's about to happen. I'm gonna give you the answer. I'm gonna raise up the Babylonians." And Habakkuk's answer is,"Wait, what? I'm sorry." Yeah."Come again?" "Excuse me?" Oh, God. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's just … It, it is, it's kinda that shock moment that we may not appreciate now, but yeah, at the time, there was definitely a shocking it would be like a prayer if you were a pastor. You know, there's some division in your church, and you pray, "God, you know, heal my church." And God's answer is, "Okay, yeah, there's a Satanic cult right outside of town. And they're gonna come in, and they're gonna, you know, take over the congregation." You'd be like, "Wait, what? What are you talking about?" You know?"That's not what I'm looking for." Yeah."This, this wasn't the answer I was hoping for," right? But the truth is it happens. The Assyrians, the Romans, the Babylonians. Mm-hmm. It … You know, it's all throughout Biblical history that God uses, uh, for lack of a better word, evil empires to come in and to administer justice to Israel. And it happens in history, too, like it or not, you know. Yeah. You could point, point at your atrocity, and evil people that rise up in history. So it is kind of … Again, it's sort of that naive optimism of, "God, I thought you were gonna kind of wave your magic wand and just change the hearts and minds of our people- Yeah and we could move forward nice and comfortably," right? Yeah. At a more national level, the example I thought of was it's like praying for American culture and go, "God, you know, we've gone off the rails. What's happening here? Why does jus- why does injustice prevail?" And God's answer is, "I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. In 10 years, you're all gonna s- be speaking Chinese." You're like, "Wait a minute. That's- Yeah … that's not the answer I was looking for." Yeah, I was looking for revival. Yeah. I was hoping the answer would be tent revivals, you know, transforming the country again. Yeah, but just sit for a moment with that answer that he receives from God."God, what's happening to this culture? Why does evil prevail?" And God says,"I'm gonna do something amazing." Mm-hmm." The Babylonians are coming." Yeah. Well- That's not amazing. What? That just raised the whole level of discourse here with God."Okay, now I've got 10 other questions for you, God." Right, right. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's his response is like- Yeah … he follows up with some stuff. But it's sorta like, what? A life-saving surgery. I mean, there's violence in cutting open your abdomen, taking, cutting something out. And, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm thinking of the show MASH where there's all this blood all over their hands- Yeah and the little tube sucking blood out. You know, and you're like, "Oh, my gosh. This is horrific." But, you know- It's life-saving surgery, and sometimes to save a life, it requires some pretty violent acts. And I think that's what God's saying. This is what's amazing about this, is I'm gonna use the enemy to do something that you see as violent, and maybe even you see as necessary- Yeah but I'm telling you it's necessary. We gotta cut this out. And look, this has come on the heels now of Joel and Hosea and Micah. And one of the things we've repeatedly heard was, you know, Micah talks about Jerusalem being a high place, why are all the people turning to Baal? And there was even this kind of hint of the people in, uh, I think it was Hosea, uh, saying like, "Well, would Assyria be so bad?" Right? Yeah. And, and so you gotta understand that it gets to this point, and there's been now, like, a 200-year history of the culture being so opposed to the covenant with God, Yeah. That this becomes almost the only answer. But in that moment, for a guy like Habakkuk, like, this is not the answer you wanna hear. Yeah. Well- kinda like the surgery metaphor. Yeah. The answer you wanna hear is not chemotherapy, is not radiation. Is not radical surgery that we hope we get it all, right? Yeah. But I mean, sometimes healing comes through destruction. Yeah. but at the end of the day, that's what God is gonna hammer into Habakkuk, is this is necessary. Healing, in this case, is gonna have to come through the avenue of violence or destruction. Yeah, it's almost as if we've tried every other way, and I do not know how to get through to my people except to expose them to the very thing that they… What? That they've been toying around with. Yeah. They've ignored everything I've said. Yeah. I don't know what else to do. It's almost at that point, right? Well, you can see the level of corruption, of internal rot in Israel, in Judah, in this case, by the response of God. You know what I mean? Meaning- Right. Yeah. Exactly, yeah. Meaning if, uh, if your kid comes home late one night, you know, 20 minutes late, you don't tell him to pack his bags and get out of the house and find somebody else- Yeah some- somewhere else to live. But there are moments that when you hear somebody has kicked their kid out of the house- You, part of you is going,"Oh man, he really must have messed up. Things really must be corrupt. Things really must be off the rails that they kicked him out of the house." And it kinda tells you how far things had gone, and maybe a little bit that Habakkuk hadn't quite come to terms with how bad things have gotten. And which is why it's interesting- Yeah … to go back to verse one, Habakkuk's saying, "God, can't you hear me? there's all this corruption. Why isn't it thriving?" And then when God has an answer, he's like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." You know? Yeah."I, I didn't expect you to tell me to pack my bags." And m- yeah, I like that you said that because this isn't just, God, we haven't been paying attention to God saying,"All right. Well, the Babylonians are coming." This is 20 steps in between that. Right. And I think you can read in, a little bit into this that part of what God is saying back to Habakkuk is, "You've been a little bit naive. Dude, open up your eyes." Right? Yeah, which is a strange thing for the prophet. Y- there's a lot of prophets that have come before you- Yeah … who have beat their head against the wall, right? Yeah. Read the scrolls. Read Micah. R- Yeah They've already gone through this. You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay, so let's jump ahead then to the second question, and we'll let people listen to this real quick. But Habakkuk's second question, it obviously is like, "Okay, God, you gotta walk me through this," so this is Habakkuk 1:13. Quick verse, but we'll let people listen to it. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? Okay, so in these verses, to go back, Micah, what? 100-something years before, he exposes the corruption. Now Habakkuk is witnessing the consequences of that corruption, again, he's, he's asking for justice, but then he doesn't like God's answer. And it's interesting how he, h- what he says in these verses. So it's interesting. He makes statements. He says, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing," which is inter- interesting to me because it's almost like he's reminding God Right right? Like God needs reminding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's reminding God, and then the question, why do you then tolerate the treache- treacherous? Right, which is a restatement of his first question, "Why do you tolerate injustice in your people?" And God says, "Oh, I'm about to take care of that using the outsider." Yeah. And he's like, "Wait a second. Why are you tolerating the winning of the outsider?" It's, it's, it's almost like a catch-22. You know what I mean? It's like, look, you're either gonna deal with injustice internally, or you're gonna accept that it's gonna take an outsider to enforce justice to your people, and he doesn't like that either. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I just like how he's kinda throwing it, trying to throw it back in the face of God. Wait a second. I thought, uh… So th- so I I'm thinking of old sitcoms like The Cosby Show or Family Ties or something like that, where the kid gets caught doing something, and when the parent, like, calls him on it, the first thing they say is,"W- were you going through my stuff?" Or- Right. You know what I mean? Right."What were you doing setting up waiting for me? Don't you trust me?" And I always thought, what an absurd comeback. That wouldn't have worked at our house. No. The, the don't you trust me thing, and it's like, well, you kind of already screwed up, and you're busted, and you're caught red-handed, but now you're gonna throw the trust thing out. You know, "I thought you trusted me." It's like, man, that's a desperate move. It seemed to work in sitcoms, but it doesn't work anymore, man. Or, or it didn't work in our house. No, that, that's right. It, I just think it's funny that he acts like he has to remind God of God's very nature, right? Yeah."All right, God, let me just remind you. You're a good God, right? You don't tolerate evil. So you're gonna have to walk me through why you're allowing the Babylonians to come in, and you, you're actually saying,'I'm going to allow this to happen.'" Yeah, as this is kind of unfolding, I'm starting to kind of feel the naivety of that simplistic view of this is the way the world ought to be. Like, there should be no evil in the world. There should be no starving children. why are there tornadoes that destroy houses? And at the end of the day, you kind of go through this back and forth. if you really do struggle with that, and, and you shake your fist at God for allowing evil in this world, I don't think this is gonna be a satisfactory answer. But at least when I go through this and see this, dig into this dialogue, I can at least see It exposes the naivety of that mindset, of that worldview, that there ought to be no- no hurting in the world. That's a little silly. There's also a pattern here that we've seen in the other prophets, but this pattern is when the center starts to collapse, right? And we saw this when in Jerusalem, I think last time we were talking about this, when Jerusalem is utterly corrupt, where does new life come from? It comes from the outsider. And the prophets are off- often the outsider. But there's a bigger pattern as well that when your culture as a whole is corrupt and things are teetering and it's collapsing from the center, And the outsider is not being listened to, well, it's the outsider bl- beyond your borders now- Yeah … that are going to sweep in. Yeah. Right? When you don't have a well-defined culture, you are ripe for the pickings for the outsider- Yeah … beyond your borders- Yeah … to come in, and that's what's happening here. And I like that because when you understand that pattern, this is not… And again, it goes back to some of the things you were saying. This is not God saying, "I'm just gonna be mean and petty." This is God saying, "Look, when you understand the pattern, this is the natural thing that's gonna happen next." Yeah."And I'm gonna use it. You're gonna see," and I'm just gonna unpack a little bit of this."You're gon- I'm gonna use it for my glory, but you're, you're asking me to interfere in the natural way of things. And yes, when the center collapses, do not be shocked when the outsider comes in and takes over." Right. Well, we've, we've talked about the pattern in previous episodes. Order, corruption, chaos, renewal. You know, kind of that- Repentance, yeah … repentance, renewal. Repentance, yeah. That, that cycle. And I mean, yeah, you're right. Habakkuk is in the chaos stage, and so to bring renewal, I mean, Babylon really embodies chaos, right? It's embodied chaos. And I hate to say it, you know, I hate to say that God can use that, but that's exactly how he used that. I mean, It's more than just an empire. It really is the embodiment of… it the whore in Revelation? Am I off on that one? But- Well, yeah … it embodies more than- The whore of Babylon, sure. Yeah, the whore of Babylon. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And so it embodies more than just a kind of corrupt empire, a wicked empire. Man, this is the whore of Babylon that's coming in to take over. It's like, well, there you go. That's embodied chaos right there. Yeah, and that speaks to a lot of things because y- the Assyrian Empire was kind of this one manifestation of the whore of Babylon, right? And then the Babylon comes along- Mm-hmm … and that name sticks. Yeah. And then it's Rome, right? And th- the Rome becomes even, you know, the great whore, right? Right. We're gonna have to mark this not for kids. But every empire that basically Consumes, right? Consumes, consumes, consumes Mm-hmm… becomes this manifestation of the great whore riding on the dragon. A- and so there, there's a lesson here. There's a lot of lessons here, but there's, there's a pattern here that, a culture that is weak and cannot find its center, is just gonna be gobbled up by whatever empire of the day is the consuming empire. Yeah. And whether that's Assyria, whether that's Babylon, whether that's Rome, you know, whether that's fill in the blank, right? Right. Nazi Germany. Yeah, yeah. Right? The weaponized chaos of another empire. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. yeah, there's something … I mean, there's just a lot of th- Babylon represents. It's, it's more than just, the enemy outside the gates. I mean- Yeah … it's just … the Tower of Babel, the walled city. It's just, it represents so much more than just that happens to be the enemy of, of the day. Which is interesting because I've listened to some historical podcasts on Assyria, Assyria especially was just known for its violence, for its almost needless violence, right? They've, they've uncovered some of the atrocities that the Assyrians- Yeah … have committed. Then the Babylon, but you're right, Babylon becomes emblematic throughout the rest of the Bible, even into Revelation, right? Right. Of, of, what, what you might say the empire that has completely given itself over to the spirit of rebellion against God, right? And that g- brings in all these, the, you know, the nature of the fallen spirits, the rulers of the 70 countries- Yeah … right, as opposed to Israel. So Babylon, yeah, you might say comes to represent the spirit of all that is rebellion against God. Yeah, no, that's a good way to put it. Yeah. That's a good way to think about it, I think it's interesting that Habakkuk is saying, "How in the world can you use this people that are so against you? Why would you use them?" And it's funny 'cause- Yeah you know, I go to the crucifixion, and that moment, as Jesus is crucified Just that moment where evil won for, for one moment, or at least thought they won. Thought they won, yeah. Yeah, it's that moment where they're thinking, "We've got them. This is it." And it's just as, New Testament Christians, we're sitting there thinking, we're just smiling, saying, "Just wait." You know? It's that, it's that moment. What's that moment in, uh, The Passion where the rain starts to fall- Mm … and you see Satan screaming 'cause he's like, "I've been double-crossed. I thought I had this. I thought this was the nail in the coffin," so to speak. Yeah. And it's just the beginning, and now it's the way out, and it's just like, I don't know. There's just something that New Testament Christians can appreciate in looking back of, yeah, letting evil win for the moment just to turn it on its head and to say, "Yeah, this is how we're g- actually gonna move good forward." No, that's interesting 'cause there's a bigger pattern because any superpower at the time, right, Assyria, Babylon, Rome, has the perception of this is the embodiment of evil that is flourishing and will never topple. Well, read your history a little bit. Yeah. Right? They all fall. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so, but right now Habakkuk is in that moment of going, " you know, wait a minute, God. You're telling me that you're delivering us over to Babylon. You wanna talk about the epitome of evil. I don't understand this at all," right? And that's, look, maybe that's a natural thing for Hosea, for, uh, Habakkuk to be wrestling with. Well, sure it is. But okay, so I think we've trying to make the point that Babylon is much more… I- I mean, it's the embodiment of an idea than it is just simply the outsider that's, the- Yeah … enemy of the day. Yeah. But at least you can understand where in the moment Habakkuk is saying, "How in the world can you possibly use them?" But- l- let's keep going to God's response here. Yeah, well, there's a little pause in the action because the rest of chapter 1, Habakkuk basically goes back and forth with God. But then we go to chapter two and Habakkuk basically says, "I've gotta process this. I'm gonna wait for your answer," because chapter two verse one, he says, "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts." Picture of a guard, right, watching a city."I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint." So it's interesting because we basically have a pause here and Habakkuk says, "Okay, God, I'm gonna sit here and wait for the answer." Yeah, which is kinda cool 'cause that's the posture of the prophet, to stand on the wall and to look- Yeah out, to pay attention You know, that's, that's basically it. I'm gonna sit here and wait and watch and see what makes sense here because you're God, I'm not. So there is a, there is a, a least a little bit of an indication of trust that I don't understand it quite now, but I'm gonna sit here and wait until the light bulb goes off and you kinda give me the answer. It's also one of those moments, this is three chapters, it's easy to read through this real quick. But in real time, this is Habakkuk stepping away from this, right? And we don't know whether days or weeks passed, but this is ho- this is Habakkuk just saying, " I've gotta ruminate on this for a while. And oh, by the way, God, why aren't you answering me right away?" Right? Yeah. I didn't, I didn't catch the inconsistency, but sure. Yeah, I mean, uh, yeah, you're right. That's, it's like the embodied inconsistency of, I want help. Wait, not that kind of help. And then, okay, I'm gonna sit and wait for your answer. Why aren't you answering me? You know, it's … Yeah, it is kind of this- Yeah … back and forth. It's like a tennis match. It's not just a dialogue. It's almost like an internal battle in Habakkuk that how come you're not answering me? Now I'm gonna sit and wait on the answer. How come you're not bringing justice? Well, no, I didn't want that type of justice. It's, it is kind of this … You can see his- Yeah … mind just splitting down the middle, right, in, in dealing with all this. and almost just saying, "I, I've gotta take a walk. I've gotta go." Right? Count to 10. Yeah. If you need, if … When you have your answer, God, I'm gonna be on the ramparts. thinking this over, right? Yeah. Well, I just love that imagery of the watchman on the tower. Hmm. Because, we've talked a- in other episodes about we feel like we're at the end of something. We're not, sure what it is, but yeah, there's part of me that says, "I'm just gonna stand on the tower and watch and see how this plays out." I mean, how many times have we discussed, it's like, we go back and forth on political issues but part of me is, like, ready to just say, "Man, it'll be interesting to see what happens at the midterms. It'll be a- interesting to see who emerges as the next presidential front-runner." It's like part of you just wants to sit back and say, "Okay, I'm tired of this chaos of the moment. I'm tired of, the immediate tweet and the reaction to it." It's like, just let me stand here for a minute and see what comes next, because that's what matters, what's coming next. In some ways, that standing on the rampart is doing what you're just saying. It's I need to step back from this. I'm too emotionally involved in it, right? I'm taking sides. I just need to step back and get some perspective. And actually, it's interesting because in the midst of this going back and forth with God, sometimes that's what you need. You need to step back and say, "All right, I don't need an answer today. What I need is some perspective." Yeah, to some degree, it's like I'm not controlling history. I'm not stopping the storm. I'm just gonna pay attention. It harkens back to, either Elijah or Elisha. You know, you weren't in the storm, you weren't in the wind, you were in the still small voice. And there's something to that. It's like I can't control the storm, but I am just gonna sit here and pay attention and listen for the small voice, and I think that's what Habakkuk's saying here. Yeah. Okay, so continuing on in chapter 2 then, then God comes back with the answer, right? And even though it's the next verse or two, we've got to imagine that Habakkuk has been ruminating on this for a while. It's been silent, right? Right. And then finally, you might say the clouds start to part, and God says, "Here's the answer. Here's something bigger that I'm doing." So we're gonna have people listen to,

I think it's Habakkuk 2: 37:35

4-8, although you've got to read the entire chapter. Yeah, yeah. But 4 through 8, and then we'll come back and talk about it. Okay. See, the enemy is puffed up. His desires are not upright, but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness. Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples. Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion. How long must this go on? Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey. Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood, you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. The Babylonians are coming okay, Habakkuk makes his case. He's like, "Babylon's a wicked people. Why would you use them?" And then it's interesting that in God's answer, he's like, "Yeah, I'll one-up you on them being wicked people. They're terrible people." Yeah, right. You know what I mean? It's like he confirms what Habakkuk's already been griping about. But it's kind of interesting that he's like, "Oh, no, I completely agree with you. They, they're terrible people." Yeah. You know? You've, you've got them pegged accurately, yeah. Yeah, you nailed it, right? You've got it. Yeah. but I'm gonna use them anyway. But he kind of goes through several verses where he kind of just rails on Babylon just like Habakkuk was. And so Habakkuk's gotta be going, "Yeah, yeah, see? You know? Yes, yes, yes." "That's what I was saying, right?" Yeah. And God's kind of setting him up here a little bit, you know, by agreeing with him. I think it's kind of interesting, you know? Yeah. But he starts off in those first couple verses with something interesting. Yeah, so verse 2, he says, "Then the Lord replied," and again, there could've been weeks that happened between verse 1 and 2, right? Yeah. So he finally says, "Write down the revelation and make it plain so that a herald may run with it." So again, this is Habakkuk interacting with God, but then this is God saying, "Write this down and send my answer out, because you're not the only one with these questions." Yeah. Right? So this is kinda neat, where this turns into this thing that is going to go out to the people, this prophetic oracle. Yeah. And it's almost like God's saying Play the role of the prophet," which is A, be the guy who pays attention, who stands on the watchtower. Yeah. And then he says, "Be the guy who explains it plain." You know what I mean? Now, I don't know how these prophets receive the information. Well, I don't know what the data download looks like. But I do know that the message to the people is a storm, a broken marriage, a broken covenant, the locusts are coming, right? They're making it plain so that the people can understand this is what's coming. And so it's kind of interesting. It's like those are the two roles of a prophet anyway. Yeah. Pay attention and then explain this to the people. It's almost like God is saying, "Look, Habakkuk, you're a little too invested in one side." "Don't, don't forget the role of a prophet is to stand outside and proclaim my message." Yeah, to be the outsider. Right? Yeah. and you've got one foot in, one foot out right now- Yeah almost. yeah, you're right. It's almost like he's saying, "You're a little bit too close to the center. you need to stay on the outside," the John the Baptist, You need to be, uh, play the role of Micah. Remember, "I'll run naked through the streets and proclaim." You know what I mean? It's like, that's it. You're the nut job, but you gotta pl- you gotta explain it to the people- Yeah … uh, 'cause that's what they pay attention to. man, there's so much right there that's implied between these first couple of verses here. But just as you were saying that, and I've been wrestling with this for a while, but one clue that as a follower of Christ you have become a bit too invested in the culture is you find yourself- making excuses and taking sides, right? Like, you're becoming too invested in one side or the other, right? Yeah. Almost. Yeah. And, and it's almost if your faith is becoming too intertwined with the left or to the right to where- … your faith rises and falls with whoever wins the next election, right? Right. Or whoever's winning the culture war. Yeah. It's like, hey, take that stairwell up to the rampart. You need some perspective. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's like you're, you're losing your role, because I do think there's a role that all Christians play that we are to, in some ways, be prophets to the culture. Right. Right? But that requires a bit of perspective, and that, requires standing outside of it just enough to keep that perspective. Well, we talk all the time about tension, the tension between two ideas, and this is, it ties into that, you know. It's like Habakkuk didn't have the correct tension. He was a little bit too invested in how bad the enemy is to worry about justice and getting rid of the corruption within Israel. Yeah. You know, it's like he was, he was just too focused on that. And I think you're right. I think there is a tendency to sort of throw up your hands and it's like, "Oh, my gosh, what if, what if this law goes through? What if they legalize this? What if this person gets in the White House? What in the world are we gonna do?" And you're right. If you, if you have that knee-jerk response, then you're not playing the prophetic role. You're not standing on … You're not paying attention. You're just too worked up- Yeah … about the here and now, as opposed to seeing where we're going as a country, and to be able to see what's down the road. Yeah. That's kind of a neat moment that's implied in here, right? Right? Well, yeah. If you, if you're gonna, if you're gonna be on the wall, you have to be above everything. That's right, yeah. You know what I mean? It's- And so there's that symbolism there. It's like the- It's the nature of the rampart, yeah. Yeah. If you can see the enemy coming, you have to be up high. You gotta be on the mountain. You gotta be on the wall. You gotta be on the watchtower. You can't be down in the village-… you know, trading and griping and putting people in their place. Yeah. You know, it's almost like you gotta be separate, which again, is just the role of the prophet. Yeah, All right, so back to God's response. There's so much in here, but basically God says, "You're not wrong, Habakkuk," right? Verse five, "Indeed, wine betrays him." And keep in mind, all through here, he's talking about Babylon now. This is God saying, "This is Babylon. I know," right? Right."You don't have to tell me." Right. Right. Wine betrays him. He's arrogant, and he's never at rest. He's greedy. He's as greedy as the grave, right? Like death, he's never satisfied. skipping through here, " How long must this go on? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Because you plundered many nations," right? Now he's not talking about Israel, again." You plundered many nations. The people who were left will plunder you. You have shed human blood. You have destroyed land, cities, and everyone in them." Right? So God is basically going, "Yeah, you are spot on about Babylon." Yeah. But what, what do you think God is doing here by, what, confirming all that Habakkuk is worried about? I think he, what he's doing is saying, "You're exactly right, but don't forget, Habakkuk, evil consumes itself." Like- Yeah, that's the pattern… Babylon's pri- pride is evident, and it's almost like he's reminding him, what happens before the fall? You're prideful. And so it's like they're gonna go through the same cycle that you guys are going through. So don't think I'm not gonna bring judgment to them also. And so he's pointing out, and I think Habakkuk needs reminding, that that's the nature of evil. You've said that before, that evil consumes itself. Yeah. It can't continue. It doesn't, it doesn't produce any growth. It may have momentary wins, and it looks like evil's winning- And taking everything, but it's, it will eventually turn on itself and consume itself, which is the nature of pride and- Yeah … all through the Bible. Which I like that 'cause it's back to reminding him of some of these patterns we've seen. if you're worried Babylon is gonna come in and they're the winner, you're like,"No, no, no," because their entire foundation is built on just consuming all that is good around them, right? Yeah. And if you think Jerusalem is ripe for collapse, wait till you see the collapse of Babylon. Yeah, that's right. this is the classic movie arc. Before the Karate Kid can win the championship, he's gotta take a kick to the face a couple times, right? Yeah. It's almost like it wouldn't have been a good movie If Daniel just kind of came into town and got trained by Miyagi and won the championship. It's like you gotta be punched in the face. You gotta, have the evil and good dichotomy, the tension between those two. And it's like Rocky had to get beat by Apollo before he came back and beat Apollo. He had to get beat by Mr. T before he beat Mr. T, you know? It's like- Yeah … that's, that's just classic, And so it's kind of that, I don't know, it's, that's feels a little shallow maybe than, than what Habakkuk's thinking, you know, when you're talking about the destruction of your people, right? But that's how we rise up and ultimately become champions, is to get beat, to know our limitations, to get knocked down, and then see whether we can rise up and something new, that's the renewal part- Yeah … something new can emerge out of that. Yeah. And so it seems silly to compare it to Rocky, but that's what it is. I mean, 'cause it's just that deep pattern that we all know. And I think one thing God is saying here is, " I've called Israel to repentance," Judah in this case, "and you haven't responded. So I'm doing the next thing, which is to have you feel the full force of your breaking with the covenant," So if you think things are bad now, wait, Babylon's coming. Yeah. It's gonna be worse. But it's not worse as in I'm done with you. It's, you're going to feel the full force of abandoning the covenant. Yeah. And you're gonna feel it for a while, but my hope is that calls you back to repentance. It's … We talked about this with other examples. It's like the kid who will never listen, never listen, never listen. So you go, "Look, you're out of the house," right? Right. Which seems harsh, but that's not an overnight thing. Right. But then it's like- why do you wanna feel the full force of just being abandoned on the street and fending for yourself? Well, you didn't appreciate things when you had a roof over your head. Yeah. at, at a certain point, like, that's the only hope to get you back in the house, right? The goal is not to say, "We never want you in the house again." Yeah. The goal is to say, "Look, I hope you've felt the full force of being out on your own so that you might actually enter into the family again." Something like that. Yeah. And it's kinda cool. I, I like that analogy because you can, you can kind of see God as cold and, distant and, "Okay, we're gonna let the enemy take you over. See how you like that," right? But the reality is, just like the parents who kick the kid out of the house, I promise you there's tears in the bed that night by the parents. Like, "Did we do the right thing?" Oh, sure. Yeah. You know? Constant worry. Constant, "Where do you think he's staying?" You, you know, sh- k- "Shouldn't we go out looking for him?" You know, it's that constant pain inside, and I think it's, safe to think that God sort of was, was thinking, "I don't wanna do this. I don't want this to be the reality. I hate that we have to go down this road, but it's kind of for your own good." And I don't know, you know, how much God grieves. The Bible says that he does. Sure. But how much did he grieve that decision that, that he's making there, you know? And I think he kinda pushes that idea to Habakkuk Later on in the book. Yeah. Okay, so the rest of chapter two is God basically saying, " Yes, I am aware of how corrupt Babylon is, but keep in mind they will fall, too," right? And, but I wanna point out two more verses, beginning and the end of

chapter two, because 2: 49:14

4, we started with this, "The enemy is puffed up. His d- desires are not upright, but then the righteous person will live by his faithfulness." Right? The just shall live by faith. Right. Depending on the verses, because that's quoted several times even, I think, in other parts of the Old Testament, even the New Testament, I believe. Right. The just shall live by faith. But I like that verse because, again, in this context now, 'cause I've heard that a lot, but in this context, it's almost like, I know what Babylon is, but here's what I'm calling you to do, it's really the personal calling of everyone who follows after Yahweh God. Yeah. It's almost like Habakkuk is saying, "Okay, fine. Babylon is gonna consume itself. They're gonna be judged, too. But what do I do in the meantime? What do I do when the world is collapsing around me?" And he says, "Hey, you're gonna, you're gonna wait, you're gonna watch, you're gonna listen. You're gonna be part of the renewal." You know? Yeah. And it's, and it's like you're just gonna have to wait. You're just gonna have to hold on through it, and the righteous shall live by faith. Which faith, in this context, is not knowing what the future's gonna hold, knowing that something bad is coming, but just assuming that God has a greater plan that I don't completely understand, and that's what I'm gonna have faith in. And it's also faithfulness to the covenant. So part of what God is asking Habakkuk to do here is, look, everything is falling apart around you, and it's gonna feel worse in a couple years, right? Mm-hmm. But I want you to be the model of someone who still chooses to live by faith in the covenant. Yeah. And, and boy, what is that a call to people n- modern days? and I'm calling you to continue to model what it looks like, what, to be a follower of Christ despite what the culture is doing around you. And I think that's really, that's difficult for us today. We so tie our faith to the culture. At least I know I do. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. And in the West, I think that's a very common problem. And so this is a message, that little phrase that says, "Look, I don't care if the culture, I don't care if Western culture, all you value is falling a- down around you. I'm calling you to live as if, what, Jesus is king," right?"I'm calling you to live as if God's kingdom will renew the world one day." And again, to go back to the why does evil exist? Well, if God's kingdom is gonna renew the world, what is it gonna renew if evil didn't exist? Right. Yeah. And so it's sort of that recognition- Yeah … of faithfulness is saying, "Yes, evil exists. I really have trouble, just like everybody, explaining why. Why does God allow children to die?" Et cetera. but at the same time saying that there is God's kingdom is, is coming, and I want to be a part of that. And remaining faithful is just having trusting in that future, uh, of, of renewal, even in the midst of the evil and the chaos that's all around you. And all the prophets before that has always cast a vision of the future, right? The come, the day of the Lord. Right. Right? Right. And, and they almost always come back to this idea that, "Look, you think Babylon is gonna ultimately prevail? No." God's kingdom's gonna prevail." Yeah. "You think Rome is gonna prevail? No. God's kingdom's gonna prevail," right? And so although Habakkuk doesn't really get to that point, I do like the last verse in chapter two. It's just the statement that says," The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him." And I think that one verse captures the same thing. Get a little perspective. Yeah. the, uh, the earth will be silent before Him. That's a little strange. It's almost like it's almost like the, uh, the parent saying, "Stop talking. Stop talking when I'm talking." You know, it's like- Yeah.… it feels that way. But the reality of that verse is that when you're silent before something, it's almost like I'm gonna stop arguing. I'm gonna stop making excuses. I'm gonna stop saying- Yeah … "But, but my brother did it first. He hit me first." and it's almost like, okay, just have some perspective, dial it back, think about it, stand on the wall, pay attention, be silent for a minute- And when you do that, that's when you get perspective. It's like you said, go take a walk, take a breather- Yeah … be silent in nature, enjoy the squirrels and the birds- Yeah… and some- somehow that kinda resets your brain and says, "Okay, I'm not completely at the end of the world yet, God's still in control, and the- there's a destiny before me, and it's gonna be okay." You can almost hear that moment when Habakkuk puts his quill down, whatever they wrote with. Right? Yeah. And says, gets a little perspective and goes, "Okay, I'm gonna shut up now. You're right." I'm gonna stop being such a little whiny prophet." Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay, so in that context, chapter one is kind of the complaint. Sure. Chapter two is the answer. Yeah. And then we jump into chapter three- Yeah … which is, like, the prayer. Yeah. It's like the, okay, this is, this is Habakkuk's response, after he's thought about it, after he's had this dialogue with God. He kinda has this prayer, which is really cool way to end this, because this is how he comes to grips with it. And it's not a completely satisfactory answer to the person that says,"How come there's evil?" It's not completely satisfactory, but he does come to peace with it. It's like he c- he comes to this- Yeah, that's a good way to put it… peaceful way of understanding it. Yeah. right, so chapter three it's all this pouring out to, "This is who you are, God," right? But really the quintessential verses of chapter three is verses 17 through 19. It's the conclusion of the letter, and we're gonna let people listen to this, and then we can wrap this up. Okay. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. okay, so we, that's probably some recognizable verses there to most listeners. But this really is kind of the deepest line in the whole book. It's almost like he's saying,"It's easy to praise you when the circumstances are good, but I'm gonna praise you even when the circumstances are completely destitute." Yeah. It's, uh, everything's completely destroyed. Yeah. A- and he goes through this whole list, right? And really what he's describing is, This is what life's gonna be like in 25 years when Babylon takes over, right? Yeah. Right? So it, though the fig tree does not bud and there's no grapes on the vine, right, the crops are gone. there's no sheep in the stalls, cattle in the s- hills, So he's basically imagining he … You might say he's come to terms of what's about to happen, right? Because remember, God said," Here's my judgment on Israel. Babylon is coming." Right. Wrestles with God, and so it's almost him coming to grips with going, "Okay, I see the future. I don't like it," right? Mm-hmm. But all this is gonna happen. He says, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will be joyful in God, my savior." Yeah. And part of what God told him to do is make the words plain and take it to the people. Well, when you're in the middle of captivity, there's nothing more plain than saying, "I know this is where we're at. I know this is not the future you envisioned for your children and grandchildren, but we're gonna praise God anyway," because that gets us back to the covenant. Everything else is stripped away, and so this is a rough way to get rid of corruption. You know what I mean? Uh, 'cause we're all in chains now, but we're gonna praise God because this is where the new growth, this is where the green shoots shoot up out of the ground. Yeah. And I see a little bit of, a little bit of fresh growth in our lives, and we can rebuild from here. Yeah. I mean, and that's a tough thing to acknowledge. As we're sitting here in our dad's office, you know, this is our dad's o- old office. Yeah. He died of pancreatic cancer a couple years ago, and one of the things he said, he told several people, and you heard him and I heard him, when he had a really bad prognosis, he said, "If God heals me, I'll praise him, and if God doesn't heal me, I'll praise him." You know- Yeah If everything is stripped away, that's okay, And so, he kind of came to that place that Habakkuk is at. And so it's kind of interesting that we can come to that place in our personal lives when we're dealing with something health-related, we're dealing with the end perhaps, and we can come to that when it comes to our culture. It's like, I don't like the way this is going. I don't like what the future's holding, but I'm just gonna praise him. I'm just gonna stand on the watchtower and keep trying to make my, the words plain, uh, of what God's doing. But at the end of the day, all I can say, faith is I'll praise him. Yeah. And that can sound a little trite sometimes. Yeah, almost naive. Yeah, like you're just the religiously naive. Yeah. But when, when it's … in the whole cycle here of Habakkuk, it really has a lot more depth than just, "Oh, well, I'm gonna praise God," right? And I'm not saying people who say that mean- No … that that way either, but there's this whole thing that's been going on to get Habakkuk to the point where he says, " Yeah, you know what? I'm just gonna rejoice in God." Yeah. That's all I can do, right? Well, next time I hear somebody say that verse, then I'm gonna say, "Go read Habakkuk. It won't take 15 minutes." "And at least make that whole cycle," right? You know what I mean? Yeah.'Cause exactly to your point, it wasn't just said out of nowhere. It wasn't said out of just naivete, of just, hey, you know, kind of clueless optimism. it's said after wrestling with God. It's said after saying, "Are you sure you wanna do this?" This is why would you prop up the evil? Why would you have somebody more evil- … than our corruption come in and take us over? Yeah. It's this whole wrestle. It's this whole silence. It's almost kind of, uh, shaking your fist a little bit at God, saying, "Why are you letting this happen?" And at the end of it, that's when he comes to that- Yeah… that realization, not at the beginning. And it really is a call. I don't know, th- this becomes so relevant again because we're in the middle of all these culture wars, and I know a lot of people of faith are wrestling with, gosh, what does it look like if, if this bill passes, right? Or this person gets elected? Or what happens when all the moral fiber collapses, Yeah. And the answer is, that may happen, but what does it mean for you? I go back to that verse in verse, chapter two."The just will live by faithfulness," right?"And you will rejoice in God your Savior." Right? Yeah. That's really the answer. That's the call. Yeah. So the question becomes, it, it's almost like pearl clutching, "Oh my gosh, how are we gonna live? What happens when all that happens?" Well, Habakkuk walks you through that whole process and says, "Here's the answer. You're gonna live by faith." Yeah. And maybe like Habakkuk, maybe that's not the answer we wanna hear right away, right? Right. Yeah, yeah. But it also, I think what's worth saying is that it's okay to wrestle. It's okay to, to question God. It's okay to even be angry at God. That's not, uh, you know, the- Habakkuk and the Psalms and the life of David- Yeah that doesn't pull any punches. It's okay to be angry and to go through that grieving anger process of the moment. You know, that's all part of the- Right … that's all part of the process. As long as you land on that final verse, But in the end, I'm gonna have faith, I'm gonna have peace that God's kingdom is gonna come, whether I get to see it on this earth or not," that's, that's what the ultimate 50,000-foot view I've gotta have. That evil's gonna win for just a moment, but otherwise, I've just gotta go on and have faith. Just a moment, yeah, because again, the day of the Lord, right? That's the pattern. Yeah. Any success that evil looks like it's having, it's only temporary. Oh, sure.'Cause number one, it consumes itself. Mm-hmm. And number two, the Kingdom of God, whether you see it or not, it's advancing, and it will ultimately prevail. And it's easy to set and have the perspective of, "I've got 80 years on this earth, and here's what I wanna accomplish, and here's what I want to see my kids do and my grandkids do." But what is it? Uh, 100 years is like a moment. I forget the exact words. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's like- And even- That's- … 1,000 years is like a moment … yeah, 1,000 years is like a drop in the bucket. I mean, it's like that's not God's perspective. Yeah. And, and you ch- if we have this kind of 80-year, 100-year view, man, that's very shortsighted when it comes to God's timeframe. Yeah. And so I'm gonna trust in God's timeframe and recognize that He has an overall trajectory, an overall plan for this entire world, and have faith in that. man, what a message by Habakkuk. Oh, yeah. And again, like so relevant to today, I think. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's, that's, all these prophets, it's so interesting that once you kinda break through something like the locusts or something that's hard for us to relate to, once you break through that kind of metaphor, it's like, oh, he's talking about the next election that we have coming up. He's talking about- Yeah, he's talking about the cult- … the Supreme Court ruling, you know? It's like- … culture wars- … and why is the wrong side winning, and what am I supposed to do? And, you know, I even, I didn't, I don't know, w- since we brought it up, but it, it's even that idea of like he didn't tell Habakkuk to go protest the Babylonians, right? A- and there's such a difference between social justice today And what Habakkuk, which is personal holiness, right? Yeah. No, the just shall live by faith, right? I think I'm gonna burn that in my mind. It's just like whenever I get flustered, what if this happens, right? It's like, remember, this is what I've called you to do. Yeah. Right? Personal holiness and commitment to your covenant with God. and it's not always about picketing or, yelling and screaming and tweeting out every thought in your head and, you know, it, it … Yeah. No, I like that. If you want social justice, then live by faith. Yeah. You know what I mean? That'll clear that movement out, won't it? Yeah, that'll be the end of that, you know. But I do. I want the same thing. I mean, I want, I want justice. I want- Yeah, sure … but it's, it is … Yes. When I really dig into it, I realize I want justice now. I want the good guys to win- Sure … and the bad guys to lose. Yeah. And to go back to chapter one, that's kind of a naive view of the way the world works. Yeah, and it hasn't been true most of history. Yeah. Right. And yeah, yeah, you're right. You're exactly right. We have that expectation today. It seems so clear-cut, you know? God, look, just make the righteous win. Wave your magic wand. Uh, but again, just to wrap this up, I guess, there's, there's entire patterns here that God is saying, "For the time being, this is the way the world works, and I'm not a magic genie to just come in and interrupt the pattern. It's gotta go through the process," right? yes, and the process can't be ignored. The process is how growth happens. Yeah. You know, it's that whole chaos order. You have to have one foot in chaos, you know, 'cause we're thinking,"Well, chaos is bad." No, chaos is, is being at the edge of your ability. It's almost like y- you know, it's riding that skateboard on the rail. it's being so close to breaking your neck- that you're in the zone, that you're learning, that you're growing, that, that, you're doing something incredible. It's like you can't have that unless you're all the way on the edge of destruction somewhat. That's all part of the process. And I realize that's, uh, you know, again, it's a little bit simplistic to talk about, you know, when the invader- Babylon's at your- The invading army, yeah, coming in at your border, yeah. Right. Yeah, that's a tough perspective to have. But That's what he's saying is you can't, we can't grow, we can't renew without everything being destroyed. You know, you can't have the new plants shoot up without the old plants dying and pulling, getting them out of the way, you know? Yeah. man, I don't know, I don't know of a better way to end that. Well, I'll just end by saying, if you're following along, read the last prophet we're gonna talk about, which is Zechariah. And again, these are usually short, but you'll have time to read it in the next two weeks. Okay. And then we'll wrap the series up. All right. This has been fun, man. Yeah. As always, I'm getting way more out of it than I thought when we kinda planned the series. Yeah. yeah, we would love, uh, comments, anything else you see, because I know we've been doing this for like an hour, but like you c- there's so much more there. I feel like you just can't even, we can't even scratch the surface. Yeah. So yeah, we'd love to have your comments. Leave comments. keep paying attention, and we will see you next episode.