Indicting the Faithfulness of God, Part 1

In Habakkuk 2, Habakkuk indicts the Faithfulness of God. Have you ever wondered why God isn’t acting on His promise in your life? Do you feel you have acted in faith and believed to the best of your ability, and now it is time for God to move in your circumstance? Habakkuk feels the same way in our chapter today, and he makes his complaint before God and waits for an answer. Most of the time when these questions arise, leaders simply say we cannot know God’s ways in such things, but that is a fallacy. In ch. 2 God gives a detailed and plain spoken answer to the contradictions in our lives to His promises, and exhorts us not only to hear Him, but to act on His counsel, if we have the heart to do so.

[Hab 2:1-20 KJV] 1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make [it] plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

4 Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. 5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, [he is] a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and [is] as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: 6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth [that which is] not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! 7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? 8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and [for] the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

9 Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! 10 Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned [against] thy soul. 11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. 12 Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, [is it] not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

15 Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to [him], and makest [him] drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 16 Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing [shall be] on thy glory. 17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, [which] made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 18 What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? 19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it [is] laid over with gold and silver, and [there is] no breath at all in the midst of it. 20 But the LORD [is] in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

In chapter 1 of Habakkuk, the prophet contends with God because it seems that Jehovah is allowing the Babylonians to overthrow the nation of Judah, which in fact ultimately happens. The problem for Habakkuk is while he admits Judah is corrupt and evil (given over to abuse of the impoverished and pagan worship) it is incomprehensible to him that Babylon, being so much more wicked than Judah would be used by God, allowed by God to invade, enslave and destroy the nation of Judah.

Chapter 2 opens up with Habakkuk having made his case, now standing to see just how God will answer his well-crafted objection. How many times in our lives are we tempted, like Habakkuk, to question the faithfulness of God? Habakkuk is impugning the promises of God by calling Him by His covenant name “Jehovah” and then objecting that those promises are not being fulfilled. He readily admits in ch. 1 that Judah has sinned, but in his thinking, that does not justify God withdrawing His blessing and allowing the nation to come to failure

How many times do we go through things, and our first question is “why God”? We question God but never seem to get around to considering the fact that throughout the law and the prophets the explanation for failed experience of God’s blessing in our lives and universally connected with disobedience and occasioned by sin? We don’t necessarily argue as New Testament believers that we are without sin, we simply believe that the blood of Christ should cover the sin so that we are not held accountable, just as the Jews didn’t deny they were offenders, they simply believed that because they were children of Abraham, that God should have given them a pass.

To Be Continued Next Week