Feeding on the `minor` prophets is a challenge! As my former colleague Andrew Waugh said, they seem to move around when we’re not looking! And yet God has given them to us for life and renewal; to help us know Him better, and to help us grow.
Different personalities will connect most quickly with different prophets. Jonah stands out, of course, because his book is all narrative. But for some of us it will be the astonishing opening chapters of Hosea, to whom God says, `Go marry a prostitute.` For some it’s Joel 2’s wonderful promise of the Spirit that Peter quotes at Pentecost. For some it’s Amos’s uncompromising prophecy, especially the opening chapters with the biblical basis they give for social and political concern. For some it’s the last chapters of Zechariah, with all that they tell us about the end times. The one I’ve personally preached most has probably been the last half of Malachi, with all it has to say about giving, about divorce, about holiness and more.
But if there’s one `minor prophet` I personally feel we need to know as an entire book, it’s Habakkuk. I’m not a loner in that: some years ago InterVarsity (the American IFES student movement) created a multimedia show presenting God’s challenge to today’s society, 50 minutes long, with two dozen automated slide projectors, and the book they chose to base it on was Habakkuk. (The team spent a year with Habakkuk’s three chapters before producing the show.) They subtitled it `Where is the God of Heaven and why is He taking so long?`; 38,000 people saw it in the first 14 months and there were many conversions. Which shows how fruitful this book can be!
But here’s a question that’s always good to ask about OT material: how does the new testament use this? So this is what focuses my mind about Habakkuk. Some words at the very heart of our gospel are `The righteous shall live by faith’ (or `The just shall live by faith` (AV)). It’s quoted on three crucial new testament occasions (Rom 1, Gal 3, Heb 10); there aren’t many OT verses we can say that about. These words embody the gospel. But actually they’re quoted from Habakkuk (2:4), and it’s as we read Habakkuk that we see the surprising context of faith-in-struggle, faith just-but-only-just holding on, in which God first spoke them. And so as we read Habakkuk we learn how to go on living by that faith/faithfulness (the Hebrew word conveys both) in a bleak time; how to keep going when (as with Job?) God’s plans seem all too very different to ours…
So how do we approach this? God is in this book, what is He saying to us? As usual it’s good to look at the book’s start, what provokes it, and its end, where it’s going. Where it ends up is 3:19: `The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights.` So: How in the life of faith are we to walk on these spiritual heights? If we really want it, Habakkuk is going to help us with that.
Then, where it starts is 1:2-4. Habakkuk prophesies at a time of moral collapse in Israel: `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 paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.` It’s a time of gross injustice in Israel, and Habakkuk asks, God how can You allow this? God why are You doing nothing about this? And God replies, in v5: I’m going to do something you would never believe, I’m indeed going to cleanse the land — but if you think this is bad look at what’s coming; the `cleansing` will be an invasion by the viciously cruel Babylonians. So Habakkuk cries out when there’s evil in Israel, but God does not step in to bring righteousness; instead He permits an even more wicked invader (1:15,17, 2:8,17 – an interesting verse by the way because one of the things the Babylonians are guilty of is `destruction of animals`.) So Habakkuk has heard God say – `Be utterly amazed. I am raising up the Babylonians` – but he can hardly believe it: in 1:12 he – shall we say, whimpers?- even though he is a prophet – `My God, my Holy One, we will not die?… Your eyes are too pure to look on evil… Why are You silent?` Very understandable questions! As Bobby Sng has said, the issue has changed from the problem of God’s inaction to God’s even more problematic action.
What do we take from this? Well, clearly if life is as the Bible reveals it, it is not always going to make immediate sense. (Paul quotes Habakkuk in Acts 13:41 to warn the rebellious Jews, Beware of rejecting God’s difficult ways: salvation is not coming the way you’ve expected, and in fact it’s going to the Gentiles.) So (perhaps the very first lesson), at the absolute end of the day we must let God be God in the way that He chooses! And that can be hard. Martyn Lloyd Jones describes John Newton wanting a deeper knowledge of God and expecting some wonderful vision of Him rending the heavens and coming down to shower blessing. Instead, he had an experience in which for months God seemed to have abandoned him and he was tried beyond his comprehension. Yet at last he came to understand that this was God’s way of answering his prayer; God allowed him to go down into the depths to teach Newton to depend entirely on Him. And then, when he had learned this lesson, God brought him out of his trial (From Fear to Faith p10). 1:6 underlines this: `I` (NB) `am raising up the Babylonians`, says God, I am doing it: they’re utterly idolatrous (1:11), thoroughly sinful heathen (2:4-19), but it’s Me sending them to destroy Jerusalem. And it raises the question: Do I say, I will trust You God as long as You see things as I do, and as long as You do them my way? Coping with this can be even harder for Christians than for unbelievers, not less so.
But there are two types of doubt toward God: the doubt of the believer, and the doubt of the rebel. In Job we find Job screaming at God, yet his bottom line is, God if You answer I will follow You. Here too in Habakkuk God’s reply starts in 2:2, but He pauses almost immediately to say in 2:4, `The righteous will live by his faith`; it’s a rather odd interruption of what God is going to say about the Babylonians (2:5,8) and their eventual fate, but it does make sense of what we’ve seen so far.
In fact it’s an incredibly important verse. The new testament uses it to make the point that we are saved by faith alone. The old testament word is rich: faith = faithfulness. Faith is not just voting in one moment for Jesus, faith is lifelong faithfulness, faith is hanging in by the power of God’s Spirit, faithfully clinging on; `a long obedience in the same direction` as Eugene Peterson says. (Look at Hebrews 10:32-38a.) We can indeed think of Job as an extreme case of this – extreme meaning not usual: absolutely everything goes horrendously wrong for Job and he’s not told that Satan is the reason, he screams out questions, he goes back and forth, but still he says (and he’s still muddled when he says it), `Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him` (13:15). Jesus said there was no greater prophet than John the Baptist, John who had seen the Spirit come down on Jesus (John 1:33), yet in Matthew 11:3 John’s in prison, maybe facing execution, and asks, `Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’ R T Kendall says that Habakkuk is being `counted righteous for his willingness to wait until the last day to know the answer to the problem of evil… [and meanwhile in fact] God has blinded [his] mind from seeing the reason for evil, in order that [he] might have faith…` (Can we compare this to Jesus’ words in John 20:29: `Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed`?)
Why do these things happen? Why are they allowed to happen to us? One possible answer is what we see in 1 Peter 1:6-7: it is through these experiences that our faith is proved genuine, and results in praise to God who empowers it. Another, practically, is in 2 Cor 1:3-9: it’s actually the tough experiences we pass through that enable us to be a blessing to others going through similar things. But let’s think again of the close of Habakkuk: `The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights…` This, it seems, is how we get to those `heights` in the life of faith. And it’s only possible on earth. It will be impossible in heaven, where there are no such experiences! When we hang in in these situations it shows there is something huge that God has put in us. In heaven that cannot be demonstrated; and millions of years of the colossal joy of heaven will make up for all this pain. But only here can THIS happen; and that is why it’s allowed. God poses a question: what are you going to do if I your God don’t do what you want? And heights-faith is one that takes a slow, huge breath, and says, Yes with difficulty, Yes I will trust You. (Like Jesus in Gethsemane?)
I believe this book can be lifesaving for us. When disaster happens: work situations go horribly wrong; a love affair or even a marriage goes very wrong; things go badly wrong with our kids or our teens; God’s promises don’t seem to come true at all; healing hasn’t happened, in fact it’s got much worse. I went through just a very, very, very little bit of this in my 30s and Habakkuk helped save my life. I think those were the worst years of my existence. There were issues in my life that triggered a complete burnout; God seemed far away, and I had no idea what I believed any more. Other people have to go through much worse, but as for me I only just made it through the following year. (Ironically God made that my best year in ministry in that particular role even though I was falling apart inside! – God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness!) But anyway I made it through partly because of seeing what God says in Habakkuk: crap does happen, and faith, faithfulness, is saying I will trust You when I can hardly say I trust, when I know my motives are horribly warped, still by Your grace and Your power I will still do all I wretchedly can to be faithful. When loyalty and faithfulness are all we have to offer, that is living by faith. (The great missionary Hudson Taylor apparently said once that the older he got, the more he felt like someone walking onward in a fog.)
And strikingly I had previously become aware, before all this happened, that my own faith had had very little training; and at our communion service the week before the storm hit I was reminded that, if faith is as central as the NT says – the just live by faith, Romans 12 we serve according to our faith, Jesus says mountains are moved by faith – then our faith has to be trained, developed. Almost the first thing James says in his epistle (1:3-4) is `Whenever you face trials of many kinds… you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.`
So then, if (Hab 3:17-18 again) God’s purpose is that we should become able to walk on the heights, then it’s about growing in serious faith, faith that has been developed. How do we get there?
Let’s go back to Habakkuk’s quavering prayer in 1:12: ` O Lord, are You not from everlasting? My God — my Holy One…`. It’s good: in this awful situation, what Habakkuk does is focus his mind on the reality of God as best he can. It’s almost a shortcut: surely, he says, You can’t `tolerate the treacherous` (v13). And that’s followed immediately by doubts. But it‘s right, and it’s the best he can do at that moment. Lloyd Jones – who besides being a great Bible teacher was a doctor who wrote the classic and helpful book Spiritual Depression – says Habakkuk is doing the right thing here, he’s going back to what he does know regarding God. In this awful situation, here at least is solid ground; and psychologically, getting there means he will not quite panic. `You are from everlasting` (whereas he knows the Babylonian gods are manufactured idols, 2:18), `You are the Holy One, and You will not abandon Your promises.` We could say this is trusting the Father’s love – I remember being very struck around this time by the astonishing verse John 15:9, `As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you` – but actually that’s a later stage; here Habakkuk is thinking about God’s eternal holiness and therefore totally reliable faithfulness.
So that means, first, somehow God You’re controlling all this, and so secondly, somehow we will make it through. This is psychologically very powerful: faith being able to say at the very least, Lord I don’t enjoy what You’re doing at all, but, go on. (Again reminiscent of Gethsemane.) Habakkuk still has serious doubts, throughout the rest of ch1; we may too; but such thoughts can be, as Luther says about such things, like birds we can’t stop flying over our heads, but we can stop them building a nest in our hair; stopping them by focusing on other things.
So then on what? The next question is, what might God be doing in this? Let me head for the high ramparts, he says, and look to see what He will say to me (2:1). He’s verbalized very clearly before God what is hurting so much (1:13-17), and this book shows us, like Job’s does, that it is absolutely okay for God’s people to bring to Him their desperate questions, even their screams. But now he heads for the ramparts, saying, let me move on from the problem as best I can, as best I can turn my back on it and focus on God. (Shirley Lees summarized the point here: In times of crisis we really need first to grasp God’s plans, not make our own. And Lloyd Jones again on how hard this can be: `Leave [the problem] with God, and go on to the watch-tower. This may not be easy for us. We may have to be almost violent in forcing ourselves to do this. It is none the less essential. We must never allow ourselves to be shut in by the problem` (p.28). Real faith shows in our willingness – our struggling willingness – after we’ve prayed to – so far as we can – leave the issue with Him as best we can, and seek His purposes. But it’s hard, it takes practice: pray before bed: do everything we can to turn away from thinking about these things and think instead about God; His genuine love, His wisdom, His holiness, His power, His plan. (Five things to repeat.)
And: reflect on what you’ve stored up in your mind from the Word that underlines these things. Maybe Genesis 21 – God to Abraham: Kill your son! – yet how in the end God comes through when Abraham’s faith has been proven. Look at Matthew 7 – in the end God IS someone who does give good gifts to those who ask Him. The fundamental spiritual principle in John 12:24: cross (and cross only) leads to resurrection; life does come out of death. (I remember Keith Lake saying at communion in my church, Do you believe God has nothing better for you? do you trust Him?) Feed on these memories of the Word.
And maybe even do something with them? Habakkuk 3:18: `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 Saviour.` This too can be very hard, but we feel the determination to praise here; like in Romans 4:19-20: Abraham grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. There is a route forward. A refusal to praise doesn’t help anyway. It’s like Peter says, arm yourselves with this sort of mind (1 Peter 4:1); because as Jesus says in John 16:33, in the world we will have trouble, tough times will come and we need to be equipped. And at these times these passages, Habakkuk included, may save our lives.
I trust we’re seeing just why Habakkuk 2:4 is so central in the New Testament. The just live by a faith, that is a faithfulness, a trust that clings on, that, by God’s life within us, hangs in. Or as Christian philosopher Colin Brown says, faith is something that makes sense as you go on living it – and it will. In the end God’s goodness will flood in. We can expect that to a significant extent now on earth, and absolutely overwhelmingly in heaven; as Paul says – and he was someone who really knew what suffering was – the glory will totally outweigh the hard times we go through (Rom 8:18). So Habakkuk is challenged by God in 2:3: `Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come.` Wait for God’s goodness; it’s certain, it’s sure, it cannot fail. And meanwhile His Spirit is in us, and actually we are growing through this more than we can ever sense or imagine.
So how then does God’s revelation carry on? First: let’s say again that, as with Job, it is clearly absolutely okay for God’s people to bring to Him their desperate questions. Then in the rest of ch2 God makes very clear that He is aware of Babylon’s wickedness, and that it will be brought to an end; He really is going to put things straight. (This is a major point of the book of Revelation as well.) But even more: like we’ve said, what really counts is heading for the high ramparts and focusing on God. And God’s full answer is 2:20-3:15, one of the most powerful portrayals of His greatness in the Bible. Here is some of it:
`The Lord is in His holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before Him…
His glory covered the heavens
and His praise filled the earth.
His splendour was like the sunrise;
rays flashed from His hand,
where His power was hidden.
Plague went before Him;
pestilence followed His steps.
He stood, and shook the earth;
He looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
and the age-old hills collapsed—
but His ways are eternal…
You split the earth with rivers;
the mountains saw You and writhed.
Torrents of water swept by;
the deep roared
and lifted its waves on high.
You came out to deliver your people,
to save Your anointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
You stripped him from head to foot…
I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound..`
Again we’re reminded of Job, which ends likewise with a powerful presentation of the greatness of God (Job 38-41). Feed on God and the sense of His greatness, Habakkuk is being told (and we are too); He can and will most surely deal with Babylon. Indeed we are called to `wait patiently` (3:16), because God will act in His time and on His terms not ours, not mending the world my way. His greatness includes that His thoughts and plans are far greater than ours; and we will `live` as we hold on to all that in faithfulness…
And if Habakkuk (or we ourselves) has really absorbed this, if we grasp that vision of God’s colossal greatness by feeding on God’s Word in books like Habakkuk, we will be equipped for the tough times that do come to everybody. And indeed, because of this experience we will have grown into a really key point in that life of faith that our whole earthly existence is for: the life of faith described in 3:17-19: `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 sheepfold, and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.` Some serious spiritual maturity! And then Habakkuk highlights in the book’s closing three verses where the strength for this comes from: `The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a` [sure-footed] `deer, He enables me to tread on the heights`…
So, `the heights`: being able to trust God, to live by faith/faithfulness in the very toughest of times. And reading all this I do still pray, as Jesus taught us, Lord, do not bring us to the time of trial… But this book shows us how God brings his children through. Let’s summarize then: First, 1:13 shows Habakkuk focusing his mind on what he does know about God, as best he can. Secondly, however, it shows that it is absolutely okay for us to bring to God our desperate questions, even our screams. Thirdly however we have Habakkuk choosing to head for the `high ramparts` (2:1), to detach himself from the problem as best he can and to seek to know what God will say. Fourthly comes the call to think instead about God; His love, His wisdom, His holiness, His power, His plan; and to reflect on what we’ve stored up in our mind from the Word that embodies these things; and then even, somehow, to praise God with them. And especially, like chapter 3, to feed on God and His greatness – which includes that His thoughts and plans are far greater than our thoughts and plans; and we will `live` as we hold on to that in faithfulness… And finally, 3:16, to wait for God’s deliverance; it is certain, it cannot fail. And meanwhile His Spirit is in us, and actually we are growing through this more than we can ever imagine; we are being slowly enabled, like Habakkuk says, to `go on the heights`…
