Good morning. It's very good to be together this morning to hear the word of God on this Lord's Day. It's also a great blessing to stand behind this new shiny new pulpit we have here. So give thanks to God for the provision of that. We are continuing our study through a survey through the scriptures and particularly the Old Testament and the prophets. But before we do that, let's go to the Lord and ask that he would bless our time together. Our Father, what a marvelous privilege that we have to gather in this place under the preaching of your word on this Lord's Day. We give you thanks and praise. And we ask for your Holy Spirit that he would dwell with us, that you would commune with us, that you would empower the word that is taught and preached from this place today. We pray that from this church would go forth the knowledge of the glory of the Lord that will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Bless our time as we consider what you have to say to us through the prophet Habakkuk. We ask this for the glory of your son, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, we are continuing our study that we are calling People of the Book, and I always like to remind us when I get up here is that What is the reason that we're doing this? We're doing this so that we might be more familiar with our scriptures, that we might meditate and not be mystified by certain books, but that we might be comfortable and know how to study them, how to profitably read them. That is the purpose of this study. So we're continuing today through our study of the not so minor prophets, I like to call them. They're minor in size, but not in content in any way. And we are now studying the book of Habakkuk. And I just want to start by asking you the question that if I was to ask you what is more profitable to read Habakkuk or Philippians, how would you respond to that question? It's just something to think to yourself as we begin our study of this book. Which one would you say? Well, my goal in this time is to convince you that the book of Habakkuk is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching and for reproof and training in righteousness. And there is a great deal in this book that speaks to us and our current situation and just in general who our God is and how we are to think of him and worship him. So this book Habakkuk is Christian scripture. And it is profitable for us, despite many syllables in the prophet's name. So we're going to consider this now together. As we begin, just a little bit of facts about Habakkuk to start. This book is three chapters. Not very long. It takes about eight minutes to read, I think, at a pretty normal pace. So not very long at all. There's no background information, not very much background information given by Habakkuk in the superscription at the beginning of the book. Many of the prophets have details about who their father was, they're the son of this, and they also say who the king was while they were ministering. Well, Habakkuk does not give us those details, so there's a little bit of mystery about some of those details. This book is distinct because unlike many of the prophetical books that are sort of more confrontational in nature, they begin with God's word being declared to the people. Habakkuk actually is a dialogue between the prophet and God. So it's very unique in that sense. The prophet is receiving an oracle from God and he is communicating back to God and kind of wrestling through what is being said. So that's a very interesting thing to note about this book. Also somewhat unique among the prophets is a predominant message of hope and encouragement to faith and perseverance. Many of the prophetical books are stirring up the people to see their sin and truth and to repent and to be sorry for their sins. So they're very confrontational in nature. They're very negative, you might say, for a great deal of the book. Of course, most of them ending with a statement of hope. Well, Habakkuk is mostly hope. a word to the faithful to persevere through terrible things that are coming upon the nation as a whole. So Habakkuk is slightly unique in that sense among the prophets. So let's consider a little bit about the title, author, and the date of the book of Habakkuk. Now some think that the name Habakkuk means to cling or to embrace. I don't know that we know that for sure, but it is certainly fitting for the way Habakkuk responds at the end of the book that his name would mean to cling or to embrace God. So little else is known about Habakkuk other than that he writes in a style similar to the psalmist, particularly in chapter 3. There's many elements in chapter 3 that remind us of the Psalms. He gives some kind of musical direction, perhaps, at the beginning, according to Shigioth. It might be a tune or something of that nature. He uses the word Selah three times throughout the Psalm. And he concludes it with a note to the choir master with stringed instruments. So some people speculate that Habakkuk must have been a Levite or something that he would write psalms in this way. We don't know for sure. It's just it's about the only thing that we really know about him. That's not speculation is that he wrote psalms similar to the Book of Psalms. Now a little bit about the dating of Habakkuk. There's no precise reference point given exactly by the prophet. He doesn't say which king he prophesied during. The time of, so there's a little bit of unsurity about this. I think, just to give you what I think is probably the best response to this. The Chaldeans Babylonians, which feature large in this book, are named, but they do not gain military preeminence and independence from Assyria until about 626 BC. So it's very likely the prophecy takes place after this, when the Babylonians can be identified as a people and they can be identified as those whom the prophet identifies a little bit later in the book when he says that they've marched through and they've done great violence to this. Probably it takes place, I think, after they've already become an identifiable people, after 626. However, it must have taken place before the first Babylonian invasion of Judah in 605 BC. So your range there is kind of 626 to 605. But furthermore, the complaint in chapters 1 verses 2 to 4 seems unlikely to be occurring during the time of Josiah's reign. If you remember, King Josiah was a godly king. And shortly after he becomes king, he begins to implement very great reforms, and there's great revival in the land toward the worship of Yahweh. So it's very unlikely that some of the complaints that Habakkuk makes about the people of Judah are actually taking place certainly a little bit into the reign of Josiah, and definitely at the end. It's much more likely that it was taking place during perhaps the reign of Manasseh and Ammon before Josiah, or in Jehoiakim's reign, which I think is probably more likely. Josiah reigned from 640 to 609. So I think this places Habakkuk as a contemporary of Jeremiah during the reign of Jehoiakim, somewhere between the time of 609 to 605 that he made this prophecy, or 609 to 598, which narrows the prophecy to 609 to 605. I think that's likely. There are some that argue for an earlier date, perhaps during the reign of Manasseh or Ammon, but I think this is probably more likely. So just to show you where this fits in, I think I've provided this in your handout at the bottom. I think this is very helpful just as you read through the prophets, placing where they were and what kings they were administering during the time of Habakkuk. You see there in the dotted lines, right there around Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Nahum, somewhere in that area is likely where Habakkuk made his prophecy. I think it's probably a lot closer to the red line you see with the fall of Jerusalem. So a little bit about the setting and the audience before we dive into the content of the book. Of course, Habakkuk is set in the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel was no more. It was destroyed by the Assyrians, and they were all taken captive and displaced in various places throughout the Assyrian Empire. And Samaria was a waste that had been brought in by other Gentiles mixed in with the remaining people there. So Syria was no more. Sorry, the northern kingdom was no more. Now, I think the book was likely delivered, the prophecy was likely delivered during the reign of Jehoiakim. And if that's the case, this takes place in the midst of a time of great upheaval in the ancient Near Eastern world and among Israel's neighbors. There's great conflict going on between empires at this time that's kind of happening in the background of this prophecy. The first of these is the fall of the Assyrian Empire. And I believe you heard a little bit about this from a brother, Brad, when he taught on Nahum. But the fall of the Assyrian Empire took place around 609 B.C. Syria was a formidable power in the region for over 300 years. And they had conquered nearly all of the ancient Near East. And you will remember that they conquered Samaria in 722 B.C., the northern kingdom of Israel. And Assyria's strategy for deporting and rehoming conquered nations seems to have become a problem for them because they had some displaced Chaldeans who apparently came together and began to cause trouble in that part of the Assyrian Empire. And so you have the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, it's called, within the Assyrian Empire. Now, these are also called the Chaldeans in the text they have before us. The Chaldeans were a Semitic people who arose within the Assyrian Empire and eventually became independent from Assyria, and eventually defeated and conquered Assyria. After defeating Assyria, the Babylonians fought with Egypt for complete control over the region, and they were victorious at the Battle of Carchemish in 605, a very famous battle where the Babylonians conquered Egypt. But the Babylonian reign would be very short, actually. Only Nebuchadnezzar was the one who had defeated the Assyrians. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have taken over during the Battle of Carchemish. And then his son, Balthasar, that's it. Their kingdom comes to a very swift end after a mighty march through the ancient Near East. They come to a quick end. So Judah really is at the mercy of who is the strongest power in the region. And you see that interplay throughout the prophetical books, that there is this Egypt comes in here, and Assyria comes in here, and Babylon comes in here. Well, now I hope you have a little bit of the background to help make sense of this. And you can see from the map here, this is Egypt's march up to Carchemish. And this is the route that Babylon takes defeating Nineveh. And this is where they come to battle at Carchemish. And then Babylon pretty much has control of the whole region. So just a little bit of background about that, a little bit of a history lesson there. But then just to think a little bit on the audience of Habakkuk, of course it's the southern kingdom of Judah and it's really its final days. These are just a few decades left for the kingdom of Judah likely. And this is from one of the commentators, Mark Rooker. He says, early in Jehoiakim's rule forced labor system, syncretism, idolatry, and the proliferation of false prophets was not unknown. We know this from Jeremiah chapter 23. In essence, he reversed the reforms initiated by Josiah in 622 BC. The corruption identified in Habakkuk 1, 2 to 4 seems very fitting for the way things were being run during Jehoiakim's day, as he was an evil king and not good like Josiah. And you can see there actually in the picture, that is a depiction of Jehoiakim tearing up the scroll that was delivered by the prophet Jeremiah to him. So he's receiving this warning from Jeremiah about the rise of the Babylonians. and their need to repent and turn back to Yahweh, and he's tearing it up, throwing it in the fire. So this is the same Jehoiakim who is reigning, I believe, during the time of Habakkuk. So if this is the case, that it's during the reign of Jehoiakim, there are many very godly Judeans, perhaps, who are still kind of remaining after this really good reign of Josiah, and now they're under the duress of a very declined spiritual state under Jehoiakim's reign. So there's perhaps many Judeans who are like Habakkuk, asking, how long, O Lord, will we suffer these injustices that are happening before us? That's a little bit about the audience of Habakkuk. But then the structure and purpose of Habakkuk, just starting with an outline here. I've included this. I've actually included two outlines in your handout there if you want to reference. This is the same thing. I just want to give you the first three heads, kind of a high-level three heads here. The first section, which is largely chapter one and a little into chapter two, is the dialogue between Habakkuk and Yahweh concerning the judgment of Judah. And then we have five woes on Babylon, most of chapter two there, beginning in verse six. And then in chapter three, you have Habakkuk's psalm of faith and submission. That's the high level view of the books. Now I just want to unpack those heads there. The first section, the dialogue between Habakkuk and Yahweh. Habakkuk essentially asks, why is the wicked prevailing? Why is there such injustice in the land? How long, oh Lord, will you allow this injustice to take place? Do you not see? that is happening? Are you not just to bring this to an end, to bring righteousness back into the land? These are the questions that Habakkuk is asking the Lord. And he's clearly talking about within the kingdom of Judah. This is Judeans that he's complaining about, the people of God who are remaining in the land of Judah. Yahweh's response to Habakkuk is, I will send the Chaldeans as judgment. I've heard your Complaint, I am sending the Chaldeans as judgment upon my people. And this takes place from verses 5 to 11 of chapter 1. And it's important to note here that Yahweh seems to give a description, a vivid description, of the Babylonian armies and the terrible Babylonian armies and some of the terrible things that they had done as they had moved through the land and conquered many nations. He describes there in verses 5 to 11. That's going to be important detail for later. Then Habakkuk's second response. This makes it worse. This seems much worse than what I wanted to hear. How will God use the wicked Chaldeans to judge those who are more righteous than they are? Judeans are corrupt, but at least they still have some semblance of grace and the truth of God. They're God's people on the earth. I complain to you about the injustice of these people, but you're going to bring an even worse nation against Judah to conquer them. This is very difficult for the prophet to hear. And then Yahweh's second response to Habakkuk is, yes, but I will punish them also. He will bring justice upon the Babylonians also. And then he says, the righteous will live by faith. This does not make sense from human eyes, from sight, what you see before you, but it makes sense by the eyes of faith. And we'll see why that is here shortly. Under the second head, the five woes on Babylon is kind of the second half of the book. It's chapter 2, verses 6 to 20. And there's some just wonderful things in here as well that I'd like to just give you an overview on. There's five woes that are given and a series of five ironic judgments that are pronounced against Babylon here for the comfort of the faithful in Israel. The first is woe to the violent extortioner. That's verses six to eight. And in this, Yahweh says, Babylon has plundered other nations by bloodshed. So soon, they will be plundered. They will become spoiled very soon. Second is woe to the greedy, 9 through 11. Babylon has sought to secure its own territory while cutting off other nations and enriching themselves on the spoil, so they have shamed themselves and forfeited their own lives by their greed and by their destruction of others. What they thought to do to others, Yahweh will now do to them, even as they think they're at the height of their strength. Then there's woe to the murderer, 12 to 14. Babylon has built a city with blood, but they have labored for fire, because the same fires that they lit in other places will now come upon the city that they have built, that they have built with the blood of others. They have labored themselves for fire, and they've wearied themselves for nothing. All that work, all of that conquest, all of that brilliant achievement, is nothing. They've labored for nothing. It will not be Babylonians and the name and the glory of Babylonians that will fill the earth. Rather, it will be the knowledge of the glory of the Lord that will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. And then, woe to the drunkard, those who make others drunk with their wrath. This is in verses 15 to 17. Babylon is sought to make their neighbors drunk with wrath, but it is the Lord's cup of wrath that they will drink, and utter shame will come upon them and upon their glory. And then the last woe, woe to the idol maker, verses 18 to 20. Babylon has made their own idols, which cannot speak or teach, and has no breath. But in contrast, Yahweh is in his holy temple, and all the earth will keep silence before him. Yahweh is so much more powerful than those dead idols, and it's just such a shame. Yahweh points out, you've raised these idols, and they're your own creation. But I am the everlasting God. I'm the living God, and I will wipe you off the face of the earth. So that is the five woes upon Babylon. But then there's Habakkuk's psalm of submission. And this begins with a prayer by Habakkuk, verses one to two. And this is really fixed as his response of faith. He is responding by faith to what God has told him will happen. And it's God's intention to use the Babylonians as the means to judge Judah, his people. He implores God in verse two, in light of this faith, that God will revive his work. He asks God, revive your work. And that in wrath would you remember mercy. And then in verses 3 to 15, there's just a glorious section that describes Habakkuk's faith in the divine warrior. And this is directly contrasting with God's description of the Babylonian armies back in chapter 1, verses 5 to 11. He speaks of Yahweh as the divine warrior in contrast to the description of the army of Babylon, and the message is clear. Yahweh is greater and more powerful than any army in Babylon, anywhere in the world for that matter. He is sovereign over them. He will use them for a time, and then he will completely crush them. And we'll discuss that section a little bit later as well when we get to main themes. But then the last section is Habakkuk's confidence, his living by faith, and that's in chapter 3, verses 16 and 19. Habakkuk ends his book with a glorious statement of faith in Yahweh. It's a very beautiful section there, worthy of our memorization, I think. Habakkuk will wait quietly as the invaders come and as he awaits the judgment of God upon those who are invading his land. Yet I will wait, he says, and he will rejoice. He says, yet I will rejoice. Though there is no food, though there's no animals in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the God who gives me strength. The Lord will be his strength and he will make him to rise on high places. So that is the outline there. I wanted to just give this to you briefly for your information. I think this is helpful because, a little bit distinctly from the first outline, this shows a little bit of correspondence, I think, between some of the sections of Habakkuk. You have that there on your handout as well. I just want to point out very briefly that there seems to be some correspondence between Habakkuk's first complaint, how long must I wait for your justice, And his corresponding point at the end, Habakkuk's final resolution of his first complaint, I will wait for God's help. How long must I wait? I will wait for God's help as long as it takes. No matter what, He is the source of my joy. Then there seems to be correspondence in the second section, Yahweh's first answer, coming of the powerful army of Babylon. And there seems to be a corresponding section to that at the end of the book. Yahweh's final answer, the coming of an even more powerful army of Yahweh, who will vanquish Babylon and rescue Israel in chapter three. Then there is Habakkuk's second complaint. How can you allow the wicked to destroy nations more righteous than themselves? Yahweh's answer, he pronounces woes upon those wicked, that they will be punished and all wrongs will be righted. And Dorsey, this is who I get this from, he puts at the center of the book, wait for the end of the wicked will be punished, but the righteous will live by faith. So he has that at the center of the book. Take that or leave it. I think it's perhaps helpful observation. You have that there if you want to look a little bit more deeply. But Dorsey goes on to say, concerning the purpose and drawing a purpose here from this structure, the purpose of the book is to take the audience from confusion and despair to clarification and hope. The composition poses some serious questions about divine justice in the opening units, questions that godly Israelites might well have had, and it answers those questions in three closing units. It indicates that the author designed the book to clarify and encourage rather than to dishearten. It seems to be the purpose of the book. I also found John Gill's purpose statement very helpful here as well. He says, the general design of the prophecy is to comfort the people of God under the afflictions that were coming upon them and to encourage them to the exercise of faith and patience in the hope and view of the coming of the Messiah. So let's consider now some of the main themes in the book in light of that structure there. The first theme, and there are more than I'll cover this morning. I saw five that I thought we could draw out this morning in the time that we have. The first is, O Lord, how long? This is the opening prayer that Habakkuk makes to the Lord. Habakkuk, as I said, is unique among the prophets. Most of the prophets begin with a word from God to the people, confrontational word. Habakkuk begins with a prayer to God, so it's unique in that sense. And it's a prayer that emerges from a heart that is deeply grieved by the sin and the devastation that's around him. So let's read that, just two verses from that. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear. or cry to you violence and you will not save. Why do you make me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong? The language here is a little shocking. It reminds us of some of the Psalms where the psalmist says something very similar. He asked the Lord, have you not heard? How long will I cry and you do not hear me? There's violence in the earth, and you do not save. Do you stand by idly while these things are taking place? So Habakkuk seems to be struggling with the truth of whether God is just in this situation. He feels that this is a great difficulty, that we're crying out to the Lord, but you're bringing these terrible circumstances upon us, and these grievous circumstances upon us. And he is here questioning, I think in some sense, the justice of God here in this opening address here, the question. I think it's appropriate to stop and think about that passion and grief in Habakkuk's prayer here and listen to the desperation that is evident in his address to God. And we should think carefully about that. Habakkuk is a book about the faithful suffering of the righteous who live by faith in the midst of great sin and wickedness and judgment for sin. And he begins the book expressing his disbelief at what appears to be the suspension of the Lord's justice and faithfulness. And the question for us that arises from that is how do we respond? How do we respond when it seems God is allowing injustice and grievous trial and suffering upon even the righteous? How do we respond when those things seem to be the case in our lives? Only the eyes of faith, as we'll see as we develop this book, only the eyes of faith can rest in the promises of God when our physical eyes see only death, injustice, and the prosperity of the wicked. Only the eyes of faith can see that despite what our physical eyes see. The just shall live by faith is the word from the Lord to Habakkuk. Only then will we live according to the truth which our eyes cannot see right now. God is sovereign over all these things, and he will make them all right. Though his people suffer now, he cares for us, and he will bring all the wicked deeds of men into judgment at the last day. That is the assurance of the Lord. He has mysterious reasons for bringing these things, but he does them for his glory and the good of his people. And so at the end of the book, Habakkuk, in light of the instruction of the Lord, exemplifies a grieving godly heart. Believing God and waiting quietly by faith through the suffering which God's mysterious providence has designed for him. And if there is a time where you feel like Habakkuk, how long, oh Lord, how long, oh Lord, will you allow this circumstance, this difficulty, this great wickedness in our land, how long will you allow that? The answer to that question is found here in this book and in the word of God. The just shall live by faith. And we'll see this more as we continue. As I mentioned, Yahweh's response to Habakkuk's initial question really is worse. It makes the situation worse for Habakkuk, perhaps. He says, I am raising up the Chaldeans. So the Lord uses a sinful nation to judge his people. So we just want to think a little bit about this, that God has raised up a nation and how how this accords with God's justice and righteousness and his faithfulness to his people. As I said, the Lord's response to Habakkuk about rampant injustice seems to make matters worse. How can God respond to injustice by raising up an even more wicked nation to destroy his people, Judah? In chapter 1, 5 to 11, there's the description of the fearsome Babylonian army, and this is just some of the details that are recorded in the text. They are a bitter and hasty nation who march through the breadth of the earth. Dreaded and fearsome, all come for violence. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. So that's the fearful description of the Babylonian army. And then Habakkuk says in his second response, O Lord, You have ordained them as a judgment. And you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors or the treacherous and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? So Habakkuk knows the truth, that God has ordained the Babylonians to judge his people. This is the Lord, but he still struggles with how can this be just that you raise up a foreign nation like this, a wicked nation, to judge your people? But he does interestingly here call God rock. And that's a very interesting detail actually. And I think it opens up something that we should consider as well. Because that is used in Deuteronomy 32 several times throughout the song of Moses. that word rock for God. So I do believe that Habakkuk here in his use of the word rock and just in general the content of his book actually is sort of an exposition of Deuteronomy 32. And he makes use of Deuteronomy 32 in many places throughout the book, he alludes to it. And so it's an important section, it's an important song that we should consider if we're understanding the message of Habakkuk. The Song of Moses tells the story of God's faithfulness to Israel in delivering them out of Egypt and to the edge of the promised land. It also warns them of the danger of covenant unfaithfulness and the judgments that will come upon them as a result of disobedience. It warns Israel that God will bring a fierce nation against them to judge them. God has already foretold all these things through the Song of Moses. But the song ends with assurance that Yahweh will destroy the nation that he uses to judge his people. So let's look at this in a little bit more detail here. Deuteronomy 32, verses four to five. The rock, he uses that some four to five, maybe six times in this song, in the Song of Moses. The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. Now this answers Habakkuk, does it not? All his ways are justice. He's saying this at the beginning of a section where he's predicting the very thing that Habakkuk is complaining about, the wickedness of the people and the bringing of a foreign Gentile army to judge them. Moses begins the song where he tells about that with a statement at the very beginning, the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. And this is what those who live by faith know in their heart of hearts. Despite what happens to us, despite what happens to you, any circumstances in this world for our nation, God is just. He is perfect in all of his works. And we may not understand all the reasons that he brings certain things, but we can say with Moses and with Habakkuk that God is just and all his ways are perfect. And we don't always understand that when we're in the midst of what we're going through, but we oftentimes, God gives us the grace to see at some point how God used those circumstances for our good and for his glory in some mysterious way, some mysterious providence. So he continues, they have dealt, the people have dealt corruptly with him. They are no longer his children because they are blemished. Crooked and twisted generation. He's foretelling the eventual unfaithfulness, the current unfaithfulness of the people, but that this will continue to get worse as well in later times. Deuteronomy 32, 21 to 24 says, I will make them jealous with those who are no people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. So Yahweh warns through the Song of Moses, I will raise up a foreign people who will put you to shame because of your sin and you're leaving the rock who saved you. Then verse 26 to 27 of the same chapter, I would have said, I will cut them to pieces. I will wipe them from human memory. speaking about his people because of their great heinous sin. Think about the sin of Ahab. Think about the sin of Manasseh, filling the land with blood. Think about the sin of the wicked kings who rejected the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah and hated the word of God and wanted to do away with it. Think about all the wickedness that was done. God says, I would have said, I will cut them to pieces. I will wipe them from human memory. Think of the time where God says to Moses after the people sinned with the golden calf, I'll wipe them out and I'll start a new people with you. And how does Moses say, no, don't do that because your great name would be called into question among all the nations that you could not bring your people out into the land of promise. So Moses displays in that prayer that the glory of the Lord is at stake, that he would fulfill his promises to his people, notwithstanding even their own sin. So Yahweh says the same thing here in verse 26. I would have said I would cut them to pieces, I'll wipe them from human memory had I not feared provocation by the enemy. Lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say our hand is triumphant. It was not the Lord who did all of this. So the glory of the Lord is is chief here in saying, I don't want any enemy to boast or be able to say they've conquered my people that I've brought and planted for my namesake. And he continues, vengeance is mine and recompense for the time when their foot shall slip. Think of Psalm 73. For the day of their calamity is at hand. Speaking of the Babylonians now, or of that future nation that will come to judge his people. And their doom comes swiftly, for the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants. So, this all delivered outside of the promised land by Moses, so many centuries before Habakkuk. He says all these things that are going to happen in the book that have come upon the prophet Habakkuk and the people of Judah. So the message of Deuteronomy 32 is the same message as the message of Habakkuk. Yahweh is bringing judgment upon Judah for their great sin. He will sovereignly raise up a foreign nation to judge Judah. But once the judgment is complete, he will utterly destroy that nation so that they will not be able to boast. And he does it very quickly. The Babylonians don't last really any much longer after a few generations of kings, after the conquest of Jerusalem, quickly fade off the scene. So how is Habakkuk to endure? The just shall live by faith, and that's faith in the God who was revealed at the beginning of the Song of Moses. And Habakkuk must believe the promise of God in Deuteronomy 32 and cling to the just and sovereign God by faith, even in the midst of these great trials that have come upon them. What will be your response if the Lord raises up calamity in your life and difficulty? We're not facing Babylonian hordes at the gates of our country, but we could. But even just applying this to personal calamity. Some of you have known this, personal calamity in your life. Some of you don't yet, but you will. We probably all will. The greatest trial that any of us face is perhaps death, and that will come upon us, all of us. But many of us will probably suffer a great deal. So how will we endure? How will you endure? By faith, believing in the midst, despite what your eyes see, despite what you feel around you, that God is just and all his work is perfect, even if you don't understand why these circumstances are coming upon you. Well, let's move on to the next theme here, the righteous shall live by faith. Now, this is probably the most well-known excerpt from Habakkuk because it's quoted three times in the New Testament, at least three times explicitly in the New Testament. This is cited in Romans 1 verse 17, Galatians 3.11, and Hebrews 10.38. Now, when you read some, some say there's a little bit perhaps of incongruence between the way Habakkuk is being used in Romans and Galatians and Hebrews. It kind of seems on the surface that Romans and Galatians, the text is being used as kind of a proof text for justification by faith. in those discourses where Paul is laying out the case that justification is by faith alone and not by the works of the law. But then in the book of Hebrews, I think the Apostle Paul is saying that the just shall live by faith and therefore they will endure. So there seems to be possibly some incongruence some see between the way those texts are being used. I don't think there's any contradiction or incongruence. I think they both accord with one another because faithfulness is only as a result of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ despite what we see with our eyes. So this is the Lord's exhortation of faithfulness here, the righteous shall live by his faith. This is the Lord's exhortation of faithfulness in difficult times by living according to faith in unseen realities. This faith is what will save the godly in the time of judgment. It is alone what will save them. I found Matthew Henry to be very helpful in sort of showing these two emphases of Habakkuk 2.4 and the applications of it in the scriptures, I think that it's very helpful and balanced here. The just shall live by faith. During the captivity, good people shall support themselves and live comfortably by faith in these precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. So they'll have great comfort in the midst of terrible ransacking of their villages and their property. They will have comfort in this promise. This is one way this is applied. The just shall live by his faith, by that faith which he acts upon the word of God. This is quoted in the New Testament. Those are the verses I've shared with you. For the proof of the great doctrine of justification by faith only and of the influence which the grace of faith has upon the Christian life. Those that are made just by faith shall live, shall be happy here and forever, While they are here, they live by it. When they come to heaven, faith shall be swallowed up in vision." So faith is both the justifying, alone justifying instrument of our salvation. It is also the impetus for our perseverance during times that we don't understand what's going on. We live by our faith. And so the question is posed for us. Are we living by faith? Or are we living by sight? Are we so fixated on the things that we see before us with our own physical eyes? Or are we living by faith? The heart that lives by sight will impugn or think little of the living God in times of trials, when troubles come. But the one who lives by faith will endure as seeing him who is invisible, which is the author of Hebrews goes on to say that Moses went on by seeing him who is invisible. That is, the righteous shall live by faith. Now, the divine warrior, just to think a little bit about this, this is a very glorious passage that describes Yahweh as divine warrior. And it's contrasted with the description of the Babylonian army in chapter 1, 5 through 11. And it is the identity of Yahweh that is the pillar of Habakkuk's faith and should be the pillar of our faith as well. Just to read you an excerpt from this, beginning in verse nine of chapter three. You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhe. The raging waters swept high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury. You threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed. the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. That crush the head sound familiar to any of you about the work of the Messiah that's prophesied in Genesis 315, that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. So Yahweh here depicts himself as that divine warrior who will come and crush the head of the enemy. That further develops that prophecy. So in the midst of trial, suffering, and judgment, Yahweh alone is to be feared. He is more powerful than any force that we face, and he is sovereign over them all, and it's by meditating on this that Habakkuk has hope in this difficult day. And it's how we do as well. So Habakkuk teaches us that when we are afraid and despairing, we should fix our eyes upon our God, and we should meditate upon his attributes. We should set our feet upon the rock of his power, goodness, and glory. This is the only ground for us to wait patiently and to rejoice in the midst of grievous trials. So do you meditate upon your divine warrior king in the midst of your griefs? That is a very, very good thing to do, very commendable thing to do, and it will be a great help to us. Lastly, I want to consider the closing expression of faith that Habakkuk expresses in the Lord, despite all that's coming upon the people. This takes place in chapter 3, verses 16 to 19. Habakkuk says, I hear and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on high places. And that's Deuteronomy 32, again, right there, the Song of Moses. So Habakkuk, as I've said, is of great relevance to us to this day. Christians have suffered and will suffer grievously throughout this present evil age. The question before us is, do you have a theology that will endure and have a place for real suffering? That's the question that's before you in the book of Habakkuk. Do you have a theology that will endure and that will have a place for real suffering? And that's the kind of suffering that makes you say in your heart, oh Lord, how long? Does your theology hold up to those kind of challenges? Do you have a faith in theology that is built only upon times of comfort and ease? Or do you have a faith that is ready to be tested and forged by the fiery trial that may come upon you in this life, that will come upon you in this life? I remember when I was in Bible college, there was one day in chapel, we had a preacher that came and he among other things that he said, he asked a good question. He said, you know, you see all the generations of Israelites who were in Egypt, captured as slaves. We tend to only think about that generation that was freed in the Exodus. And maybe we tend to imagine ourselves in sort of a way as living in a victorious time like that. We have categories for that. Things are going well. God delivers us from the trial. But what if we're one of the generations, what if we're called in our lives as Christians to live as sort of slaves, the many generations who lived and died in terrible conditions as slaves? Do we conceive of ourselves in that way? Do we have categories for that? Is God still faithful? Is he still strong? If we're not living in a very prosperous nation in very prosperous times, Because maybe in the first few generations in the history of our country, some of our generation is perhaps less off than our parents. Our children, perhaps, may be less off than us. And all the calamities that can come upon us as a nation, do we have categories for those things? The Book of Habakkuk challenges us on that, and it challenges us, build your faith upon the rock. that even in times of terrible grief, even if we're called to live and die in terrible conditions, we will call upon the name of the Lord. He will be our hope. He will make our feet as the deer. He will strengthen us. He will be our help. Our hope is in heaven. It's not on this earth. We must seek the Lord. And if that's not the case for you, seek the Lord. He will give you help to endure. And he will make it true of you that the just will live by faith. Seek him. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that divine warrior that we've read about. The one who has crushed the head of the armies of Babylon has now crushed the head of the enemy. And he will put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy will be death. Do you believe this? Do you hope in this? Do you trust in this? This will cause you to endure during an evil day. So I hope this overview of Habakkuk has helped you to see the relevance of Habakkuk to your life, and I hope I commend the book to you to read and meditate upon. There's glorious things in there that will be a great profit to you. Let me just close in prayer. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word that it is profitable for us, and we thank you for this book. Would you please open it before us that we might know you and love you, even in times of trial and difficulty, and that we might confess with Habakkuk this glorious expression of faith that we will live, we will wait, we will rejoice in the God of our salvation. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.