Lessons From Habakkuk For Today

1
Lessons From Habakkuk For Today
2
Introduction

• In our nation, we see turmoil, injustice, greed,
  violence (including over 50 million abortions)
  and rebellion against God
• We may wonder and pray for the Lord to help His
  people in this situation
• Habakkuk lived at such a time and prayed for the
  Lord to help His people
• God answered by telling Him the nation would be
  judged

3
Introduction

• The Lord does not reveal to us His specific
  judgments against the nations today
• We pray our nation turns back to God but we also
  pray for justice
• But whatever occurs, we learn from Habakkuk that
  the righteous must live by faith trusting God for
  salvation, daily provisions and protection during
  judgments

4
Brief Background To Habakkuk

• Name means Embrace
• Date 612-606 BC?
• Date is unknown but most likely between Babylons
  ascendancy to power over Assyria 612-609 BC and
  its first invasion of Jerusalem in 605 BC
• His personal background is unknown
• Main message is the righteous shall live by his
  faith

5
How Long Will God Take To Save His People From
Violence and Injustice?

• Hab 11 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet
  saw.
• Hab 12 How long, O LORD, will I call for help,
  And You will not hear? I cry out to You,
  "Violence!" Yet You do not save.

6
How Long Will God Take To Save His People From
Violence and Injustice?

• Hab 13 Why do You make me see iniquity, And
  cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction
  and violence are before me Strife exists and
  contention arises.
• Hab 14 Therefore the law is ignored And justice
  is never upheld. For the wicked surround the
  righteous Therefore justice comes out perverted.

7
Gods Answer He Is Raising Up The Chaldeans To
Judge Judah

• Hab 15 "Look among the nations! Observe! Be
  astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something
  in your days-- You would not believe if you were
  told.
• Hab 16 "For behold, I am raising up the
  Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who
  march throughout the earth To seize dwelling
  places which are not theirs.

8
Gods Answer He Is Raising Up The Chaldeans To
Judge Judah

• Hab 17 "They are dreaded and feared Their
  justice and authority originate with themselves.
• Hab 18 "Their horses are swifter than leopards
  And keener than wolves in the evening. Their
  horsemen come galloping, Their horsemen come from
  afar They fly like an eagle swooping down to
  devour.

9
Gods Answer He Is Raising Up The Chaldeans To
Judge Judah

• Hab 19 "All of them come for violence. Their
  horde of faces moves forward. They collect
  captives like sand.
• Hab 110 "They mock at kings And rulers are a
  laughing matter to them. They laugh at every
  fortress And heap up rubble to capture it.
• Hab 111 "Then they will sweep through like the
  wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty,
  They whose strength is their god."

10
How Can A Holy God Use The Wicked Chaldeans To
Judge Judah?

• Hab 112 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD,
  my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O
  LORD, have appointed them to judge And You, O
  Rock, have established them to correct.

11
How Can A Holy God Use The Wicked Chaldeans To
Judge Judah?

• Hab 113 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,
  And You can not look on wickedness with favor.
  Why do You look with favor On those who deal
  treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked
  swallow up Those more righteous than they?
• Hab 114 Why have You made men like the fish of
  the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler
  over them?

12
How Can A Holy God Use The Wicked Chaldeans To
Judge Judah?

• Hab 115 The Chaldeans bring all of them up with
  a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather
  them together in their fishing net. Therefore
  they rejoice and are glad.
• Hab 116 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to
  their net And burn incense to their fishing net
  Because through these things their catch is
  large, And their food is plentiful.

13
How Can A Holy God Use The Wicked Chaldeans To
Judge Judah?

• Hab 117 Will they therefore empty their net And
  continually slay nations without sparing?
• Hab 21 I will stand on my guard post And
  station myself on the rampart And I will keep
  watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I
  may reply when I am reproved.

14
Gods Answer The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
But The Proud Will Be Destroyed

• Hab 111 "Then they will sweep through like the
  wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty,
  They whose strength is their god."
• Hab 22 Then the LORD answered me and said,
  "Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets,
  That the one who reads it may run.

15
Gods Answer The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
But The Proud Will Be Destroyed

• Hab 23 "For the vision is yet for the appointed
  time It hastens toward the goal and it will not
  fail. Though it tarries, wait for it For it will
  certainly come, it will not delay.
• Hab 24 "Behold, as for the proud one, His soul
  is not right within him But the righteous will
  live by his faith.

16
Gods Answer The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
But The Proud Will Be Destroyed

• Hab 25 "Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty
  man, So that he does not stay at home. He
  enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like
  death, never satisfied. He also gathers to
  himself all nations And collects to himself all
  peoples.

17
Gods Answer The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
But The Proud Will Be Destroyed

• Hab 26 "Will not all of these take up a
  taunt-song against him, Even mockery and
  insinuations against him And say, 'Woe to him who
  increases what is not his-- For how long-- And
  makes himself rich with loans?'

18
Gods Answer The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
But The Proud Will Be Destroyed

• Hab 27 "Will not your creditors rise up
  suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken?
  Indeed, you will become plunder for them.
• Hab 28 "Because you have looted many nations,
  All the remainder of the peoples will loot you--
  Because of human bloodshed and violence done to
  the land, To the town and all its inhabitants.

19
Gods Answer The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
But The Proud Will Be Destroyed

• Hab 29 "Woe to him who gets evil gain for his
  house To put his nest on high, To be delivered
  from the hand of calamity!
• Hab 210 "You have devised a shameful thing for
  your house By cutting off many peoples So you
  are sinning against yourself.
• Hab 212 "Woe to him who builds a city with
  bloodshed And founds a town with violence!

20
Gods Answer The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
But The Proud Will Be Destroyed

• Hab 219 "Woe to him who says to a piece of
  wood, 'Awake!' To a mute stone, 'Arise!' And that
  is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold
  and silver, And there is no breath at all inside
  it.
• Hab 220 "But the LORD is in His holy temple.
  Let all the earth be silent before Him."

21
Fearing The Lord He Pleads For Mercy In Wrath

• Hab 31 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet,
  according to Shigionoth.
• Hab 32 LORD, I have heard the report about You
  and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst
  of the years, In the midst of the years make it
  known In wrath remember mercy.

22
He Praises The Glorious God In His Judgments

• Hab 33 God comes from Teman, And the Holy One
  from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covers the
  heavens, And the earth is full of His praise.
• Hab 34 His radiance is like the sunlight He
  has rays flashing from His hand, And there is the
  hiding of His power.
• Hab 35 Before Him goes pestilence, And plague
  comes after Him.

23
He Praises The Glorious God In His Judgments

• Hab 36 He stood and surveyed the earth He
  looked and startled the nations. Yes, the
  perpetual mountains were shattered, The ancient
  hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.
• Hab 37 I saw the tents of Cushan under
  distress, The tent curtains of the land of Midian
  were trembling.

24
Gods Judgments Are To Punish The Wicked and Save
His People

• Hab 312 In indignation You marched through the
  earth In anger You trampled the nations.
• Hab 313 You went forth for the salvation of
  Your people, For the salvation of Your anointed.
  You struck the head of the house of the evil To
  lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.

25
Trembling, He Waits Quietly For Gods Judgment
Upon Judah

• Hab 316 I heard and my inward parts trembled,
  At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my
  bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must
  wait quietly for the day of distress, For the
  people to arise who will invade us.

26
He Rejoices In The God of His Salvation Even In
This Judgment

• Hab 317 Though the fig tree should not blossom
  And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the
  yield of the olive should fail And the fields
  produce no food, Though the flock should be cut
  off from the fold And there be no cattle in the
  stalls,

27
He Rejoices In The God of His Salvation Even In
This Judgment

• Hab 318 Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will
  rejoice in the God of my salvation.
• Hab 319 The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has
  made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk
  on my high places. For the choir director, on my
  stringed instruments.

28
Lessons From Habakkuk For Today

1. God was and now Jesus is ruler of all the nations
2. The righteous shall live by faith trusting in God
   for salvation, daily physical needs and
   protection in all trials including judgments
   against nations

29
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Nations cannot act independently of Gods purpose
• God uses the nations, overruling their plans, to
  execute His own purpose judging the wicked and
  preserving His people
• God is in absolute control of the nations and His
  purpose will not be defeated
• Therefore, in all circumstances, we should live
  by faith in God to save us

30
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Dan 430 "The king reflected and said, 'Is this
  not Babylon the great, which I myself have built
  as a royal residence by the might of my power and
  for the glory of my majesty?'
• Dan 431 "While the word was in the king's
  mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, 'King
  Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared
  sovereignty has been removed from you,

31
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Dan 432 and you will be driven away from
  mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the
  beasts of the field. You will be given grass to
  eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will
  pass over you until you recognize that the Most
  High is ruler over the realm of mankind and
  bestows it on whomever He wishes.'

32
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Dan 433 "Immediately the word concerning
  Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled and he was driven
  away from mankind and began eating grass like
  cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of
  heaven until his hair had grown like eagles'
  feathers and his nails like birds' claws.

33
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Dan 434 "But at the end of that period, I,
  Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and
  my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most
  High and praised and honored Him who lives
  forever For His dominion is an everlasting
  dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation
  to generation.

34
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Jer 258 "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts,
  'Because you have not obeyed My words,

35
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Jer 259 behold, I will send and take all the
  families of the north,' declares the LORD, 'and I
  will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My
  servant, and will bring them against this land
  and against its inhabitants and against all these
  nations round about and I will utterly destroy
  them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an
  everlasting desolation.

36
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Jer 2510 'Moreover, I will take from them the
  voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice
  of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the
  sound of the millstones and the light of the
  lamp.
• Jer 2511 'This whole land will be a desolation
  and a horror, and these nations will serve the
  king of Babylon seventy years.

37
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Jer 2512 'Then it will be when seventy years
  are completed I will punish the king of Babylon
  and that nation,' declares the LORD, 'for their
  iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans and I
  will make it an everlasting desolation.
• Jer 2513 'I will bring upon that land all My
  words which I have pronounced against it, all
  that is written in this book which Jeremiah has
  prophesied against all the nations.

38
God Is Ruler of All The Nations

• Jer 2514 '(For many nations and great kings
  will make slaves of them, even them and I will
  recompense them according to their deeds and
  according to the work of their hands.)'"

39
Jesus Is Now Ruler of All The Nations

• Jesus now rules at the right hand of God ruling
  over and judging all the nations
• Although we are not told specific current
  judgments He is making, we believe He is in
  control of all nations for the punishment of the
  wicked and the salvation of His people, His church

40
Jesus Is Now Ruler of All The Nations

• 1Pe 322 who is at the right hand of God, having
  gone into heaven, after angels and authorities
  and powers had been subjected to Him.
• Rev 15 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful
  witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler
  of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us
  and released us from our sins by His blood--

41
Jesus Is Now Ruler of All The Nations

• Mat 241 Jesus came out from the temple and was
  going away when His disciples came up to point
  out the temple buildings to Him.
• Mat 242 And He said to them, "Do you not see
  all these things? Truly I say to you, not one
  stone here will be left upon another, which will
  not be torn down."

42
Jesus Is Now Ruler of All The Nations

• Luk 2120 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded
  by armies, then recognize that her desolation is
  near.

43
Righteousness Exalts A Nation

• Pro 1434 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin
  is a disgrace to any people.

44
Righteousness Exalts A Nation

• Eph 57 Therefore do not be partakers with them
  
• Eph 58 for you were formerly darkness, but now
  you are Light in the Lord walk as children of
  Light
• Eph 59 (for the fruit of the Light consists in
  all goodness and righteousness and truth),
• Eph 510 trying to learn what is pleasing to the
  Lord.

45
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God
For Salvation

• Rom 116 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for
  it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
  who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
  Greek.
• Rom 117 For in it the righteousness of God is
  revealed from faith to faith as it is written,
  "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

46
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God
For Salvation

• Rom 63 Or do you not know that all of us who
  have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been
  baptized into His death?
• Rom 64 Therefore we have been buried with Him
  through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
  raised from the dead through the glory of the
  Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

47
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God
For Salvation

• Rom 612 Therefore do not let sin reign in your
  mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
• Rom 613 and do not go on presenting the members
  of your body to sin as instruments of
  unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as
  those alive from the dead, and your members as
  instruments of righteousness to God.

48
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God
For Salvation

• Gal 36 Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS
  RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
• Gal 37 Therefore, be sure that it is those who
  are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
• Gal 311 Now that no one is justified by the Law
  before God is evident for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN
  SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

49
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God
For Salvation

• Gal 326 For you are all sons of God through
  faith in Christ Jesus.
• Gal 327 For all of you who were baptized into
  Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

50
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God
For Salvation

• Gal 328 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
  is neither slave nor free man, there is neither
  male nor female for you are all one in Christ
  Jesus.
• Gal 329 And if you belong to Christ, then you
  are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to
  promise.

51
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God To
Provide Our Daily Needs

• Mat 625 "For this reason I say to you, do not
  be worried about your life, as to what you will
  eat or what you will drink nor for your body, as
  to what you will put on. Is not life more than
  food, and the body more than clothing?

52
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God To
Provide Our Daily Needs

• Mat 626 "Look at the birds of the air, that
  they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns,
  and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
  not worth much more than they?
• Mat 627 "And who of you by being worried can
  add a single hour to his life?
• Mat 633 "But seek first His kingdom and His
  righteousness, and all these things will be added
  to you.

53
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God In
All Trials

• Heb 1035 Therefore, do not throw away your
  confidence, which has a great reward.
• Heb 1036 For you have need of endurance, so
  that when you have done the will of God, you may
  receive what was promised.
• Heb 1037 FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO
  IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.

54
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God In
All Trials

• Heb 1038 BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY
  FAITH AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO
  PLEASURE IN HIM.
• Heb 1039 But we are not of those who shrink
  back to destruction, but of those who have faith
  to the preserving of the soul.

55
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God In
All Trials

• Heb 1226 And His voice shook the earth then,
  but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I
  WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE
  HEAVEN."
• Heb 1227 This expression, "Yet once more,"
  denotes the removing of those things which can be
  shaken, as of created things, so that those
  things which cannot be shaken may remain.

56
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God In
All Trials

• Heb 1228 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom
  which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by
  which we may offer to God an acceptable service
  with reverence and awe
• Heb 1229 for our God is a consuming fire.

57
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith Trusting God In
All Trials

• Php 46 Be anxious for nothing, but in
  everything by prayer and supplication with
  thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
  God.
• Php 47 And the peace of God, which surpasses
  all comprehension, will guard your hearts and
  your minds in Christ Jesus.
• Php 413 I can do all things through Him who
  strengthens me.

58
Lessons From Habakkuk For Today

1. God was and now Jesus is ruler of all the nations
2. The righteous shall live by faith trusting in God
   for salvation, daily physical needs and
   protection in all trials including judgments
   against nations