Sunday
Morning Bible Study
June
22, 2014
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid to die? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it
build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved? Regular: 2900 words
Communion: 2500 words
(take “selfie” with the church for Facebook)
We think the best guess of when Habakkuk wrote his book is somewhere around
606 BC.
It was written
after the fall of the northern kingdom, and only the southern kingdom of Judah
is left.
It is during the early part of King
Jehoiakim’s reign, a time when the nation of Judah wasn’t walking very close to God.
It was written just prior to the Babylonians taking
over the world.
The Babylonians will be part of the focus of Habakkuk’s concern.
Habakkuk is all about tough questions.
Last week we looked at…
Why is God silent sometimes?
Why do evil people get away with things?
Why would God punish Judah with a nation more wicked
than themselves?
There are going to be times in life when things just don’t
make sense.
Things can be going terribly wrong,
and we don’t understand what is happening.
2:1-5 Getting God’s Answer
:1 I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see
what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.
:1 I will stand my watch
:1 my watch – mishmereth – guard, charge, function, obligation,
service, watch
Habakkuk is painting a picture of himself being a watchman
standing on the city wall, watching for the advance of the enemy.
When Isaiah was prophesying the
fall of Babylon, he also used the picture of a watchman
in a tower waiting for the news:
(Isaiah 21:5–9 NKJV) —5 Prepare the table, Set a
watchman in the tower, Eat and
drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield! 6 For thus
has the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman, Let him
declare what he sees.” 7 And he
saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, And he listened earnestly with great care.
8 Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night.
9 And look, here comes a chariot of men with
a pair of horsemen!” Then he
answered and said, “Babylon
is fallen, is fallen! And all
the carved images of her gods He has
broken to the ground.”
:1 and watch to see
:1 and watch – tsaphah – to look out or about, spy, keep
watch, observe, watch
Lesson
Waiting for the answer
The book began with the question,
(Habakkuk 1:2 NKJV) O Lord,
how long shall I cry, And You will not hear?
It’s hard when it seems like God is not answering
our questions.
Habakkuk handles God’s silence by waiting.
He’s going to go up on the city wall and wait for
God’s answer.
David wrote,
(Psalm 40:1–2 NKJV) —1 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my
cry. 2 He also
brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And
established my steps.
We don’t know what to do with silence.
Don’t turn on the TV. Don’t check out
Facebook. Be silent and wait for God.
:1 when I am corrected
:1 when I am corrected – towkechah –
rebuke, correction, reproof, punishment, chastisement
Lesson
Staying teachable
Habakkuk is expecting that when God answers, that he,
Habakkuk, will be corrected by God.
When you come to church on Sunday morning, are you “teachable”?
If God had something to say that might offend you,
would you listen to it?
I have to admit that sometimes when someone comes up to me and corrects something
that I’ve said or done, I get a little defensive. My feelings get hurt.
I have to work at not being defensive.
Solomon wrote:
(Pr 9:8 NLT) So don’t
bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you. But
correct the wise, and they will love you.
Illustration
In J. Oswald Sanders’ Book,
Spiritual Leadership (pg.120), he writes:
Samuel Brengle was a man known for his sense of
holiness. He knew what it was like to be criticized. Once,
instead of rushing to defend himself, he replied:
“From my heart I thank you for your rebuke. I think I
deserved it. Will you, my friend, remember me in prayer?”
When another critic attacked his spiritual life, Brengle
replied:
“I thank you for your criticism of my life. It set me to
self-examination and heart-searching and prayer, which always leads me into a
deeper sense of my utter dependence on Jesus for holiness of heart, and into
sweeter fellowship with Him.”
How do you handle it when someone corrects you?
:2 Then the Lord
answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
:2 make it
plain – ba’ar – to make plain, distinct
:2 That he may run who reads it
The Hebrew here is a bit unclear. It has been translated
in various ways.
(Habakkuk 2:2 LEB) Then Yahweh answered me and said, “Write the vision
and make it plain on the tablet so that it might be read quickly.
(Habakkuk 2:2 The Message) …Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.
(Habakkuk 2:2 NIV) …make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
(Habakkuk 2:2
NLT) …“Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry
the correct message to others.
Since Habakkuk is describing
himself as a watchman on the wall, looking for the
advance of the enemy, he’s asked to write out what God shows him to he can hand
the message to a runner who will then deliver the message to those who need to
hear it.
:2 Write the vision
God is asking Habakkuk to …
Lesson
Take notes
Illustration
This elderly couple was having trouble with forgetfulness, so they went to
their doctor. He said, “Why don’t you try writing down everything so you’ll
remember.” So one evening, Grandma asked Grandpa if he’d
like some ice cream. “Sure, that’s sounds good, but you’d better write it
down.” “No,” Grandma said. “I can remember that. Would you like chocolate syrup
on top?” “Yes, but you’d better write it down.” “I can remember that. How about some nuts on top, too?” “OK, but I think you’d
really better write it all down.” “No, I can remember.” So
she went into the kitchen and she was in there a long time. Finally, Grandpa
went in and asked her what was taking so long. “I made you bacon and eggs,”
Grandma said. “I told you to write it down!” Grandpa said. “I wanted toast,
too!”
A
recent study showed that students in class who took notes by writing with a
pen and paper scored higher than those who took notes on their laptops.
Those using laptops often just wrote everything a professor said, word for
word.
Those who took notes by hand couldn’t write everything
down, so they were forced to think about what the professor was saying and
summarize the content.
Even when they told those who were using laptops not to write everything down
verbatim, but to summarize, they still didn’t score as well as those took notes
by hand. They found that those with
laptops who were warned not to summarize still wrote
large portions down verbatim.
I know that when you came to church this morning, you weren’t
particularly expecting to sit in on something akin to a college class.
Yet my goal is to teach you God’s Word the best I can each week.
The reason I do a PowerPoint presentation with my teaching
is because I’ve learned that some of us are visual
learners, and we learn more when we “see” something than when we just “hear”
something.
I would like to challenge some of you to go one step further.
Learn to take notes.
Write on the back of the bulletin.
If you tried to jot down just a few notes on Sunday
morning, I think you will be surprised at how much more you will retain, and
how much more God can be speaking to you throughout the week.
:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed
time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries,
wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not
tarry.
:3 it will surely come
When God promises something, it
will happen.
These promises about the coming of Babylon and the eventual destruction of
Babylon will surely come to pass.
Lesson
Counting on God’s Word
One of the tests of the genuineness
of prophecy has to do with fulfillment.
(Deuteronomy 18:21–22 NKJV) —21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word
which the Lord has not spoken?’—22
when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or
come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it
presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
:4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in
him; But the just shall live by his faith.
:4 the proud … the just
proud – ‘aphal – (Pual) to swell
God contrasts two kinds of people:
the proud and the just
God will spend most of the time in this chapter talking about “the proud”,
the Babylonians.
We’ll come back and talk about the “just” at the
end.
:5 “Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He
is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his
desire as hell, And he is like death, and
cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself
all peoples.
:5 he does not stay at home
God is now going back to talk about the “proud” Babylonians.
They don’t “stay at home”, instead they go out and
conquer other nations.
2:6-20 Five Woes
There is some structure to this next section. There are five “woes” being pronounced (v. 6,
9, 12, 15, 19).
If you scan through the section you will see
the word “woe” five times. Each “woe”
has three verses connected to it.
2:6-8 Woe #1
:6 “Will not all these take up a proverb against
him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases What
is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with
many pledges’?
:7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will
they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become
their booty.
:8 Because you have plundered many nations, All
the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men’s blood And the
violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it.
:6 Woe to him who increases what is not his
Woe: Theft
The Babylonians would be guilty of taking what did not belong to them.
One day all the people that Babylon had plundered will turn and plunder
them.
2:9-11 Woe #2
:9 “Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house,
That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of
disaster!
:10 You give shameful counsel to your house,
Cutting off many peoples, And sin against your soul.
:11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, And
the beam from the timbers will answer it.
:9 Woe to him who covets evil gain
(Habakkuk 2:9
NLT) “What sorrow awaits you who build big houses with money gained dishonestly! You believe your wealth will buy security,
putting your family’s nest beyond the reach of danger.
It’s as if a person’s own house is crying out
against its inhabitant.
Woe: Shameful Home
Their own house will cry out against them.
Some people do wicked things, thinking that it’s
the best thing they can do for their family.
They are oh so wrong.
2:12-14 Woe #3
:12 “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed,
Who establishes a city by iniquity!
:13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts That the peoples labor to
feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain?
(Habakkuk 2:13
NLT) Has not the Lord of
Heaven’s Armies promised that the wealth of nations will turn to ashes? They
work so hard, but all in vain!
:14 For the earth will be filled With the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
:14 the earth will be filled
This is what will happen when Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom on
earth.
This specific prophecy is found in at least four
other places, including:
(Numbers 14:21 NKJV) but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the
glory of the Lord—
(Psalm 72:19 NKJV) And
blessed be His glorious name forever! And
let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.
(Isaiah 6:3 NKJV) And
one cried to another and said: “Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts; The whole earth is
full of His glory!”
(Isaiah 11:9 NKJV) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.
There is only one kingdom that will one day fill the whole earth – God’s
kingdom.
:12 Woe to him who builds a town with
bloodshed
Woe: Cheating kingdom builder
Our kingdoms (like Babylon) will one day
burn. God’s kingdom will last.
Only God’s kingdom is worth building.
2:15-17 Woe #4
:15 “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to
your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness!
:16 You are filled with shame instead of glory.
You also—drink! And be exposed as uncircumcised! The
cup of the Lord’s
right hand will be turned against you, And
utter shame will be on your glory.
:17 For the violence done to Lebanon will
cover you, And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid, Because of
men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who
dwell in it.
:15 Woe to him who gives drink to his
neighbor
Woe: Manipulation
Babylon manipulated their enemies and got people “drunk” on their promises
to them.
In the end, Babylon would be the one exposed.
Be careful about people who try to manipulate you.
Ultimately this leads to ruined lives, like people
exposing themselves in their drunkenness.
2:18-20 Woe #5
:18 “What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded
image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To
make mute idols?
:19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is
overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no
breath at all.
:20 “But the Lord
is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
:19 Woe to him who says to wood
Woe: False religion
Idols are stupid pieces of stone and wood.
Babylon pushed people to worship their gods.
Nebuchadnezzar built a huge idol and demanded that everyone bow before it.
There are false religions out in the world that demand that you follow
them.
One of the worst is “humanism” which teaches that there is no “God”, and
that man has to trust himself as he pulls himself up out of evolution’s goo.
On the other hand, the one and only true God, Yahweh, is in His holy temple
in heaven.
He is for real. Learn to be quiet before
Him.
(Psalm
33:8 NKJV) Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of Him.
:4 the just shall live by his faith
just – tsaddiyq – just, lawful, righteous
This is the person who is right before God.
This is the word that makes up half
of that mysterious person’s name, “Melchizedek”, which means “King of” (melchi) “righteousness”
(zedek)
The nugget here is about how the
person who is right with God “lives”
shall live – chayah – to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live forever
There are two ideas buried in this phrase “shall live”
faith – ‘emuwnah – firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness
Lesson
Eternal life
Living is the opposite of dying.
The ultimate in “living” is having eternal life.
How can a person become right before God find eternal life? Through faith.
Paul wrote,
(Ephesians
2:8–9 NKJV) —8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it
is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Our eternal salvation comes as a gift of God, as a free gift, as a result of “grace”.
We receive salvation through “faith”.
Paul quoted Habakkuk and related it to saving faith when he wrote,
(Romans
1:16–17 NKJV) —16 For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for
everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it
the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith;
as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
He repeated this
thought in Gal. 3:11.
(Galatians 3:11 NKJV) —11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is
evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”
How does this work?
The Bible says that we are all sinners and our sin
separates us from God.
The Bible says that God loved us so much that He sent His
only Son, Jesus, to die on a cross in order to pay the price for our sins so we
could come to know God.
He paid a debt He didn’t owe
because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
This is God’s grace to us.
If you will make a choice to put your life into Jesus’
hands, and believe that He died for your sins, you will receive eternal life.
Simply by believing.
Lesson
Daily life
Habakkuk’s phrase goes beyond being saved through faith, it includes how we
“remain alive” after we’ve come to believe in Jesus.
The writer to the Hebrews quotes Habakkuk, and his
emphasis is on daily living, on enduring, on how we continue with the Lord.
(Hebrews 10:36–38
NKJV) —36 For you have
need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive
the promise: 37
“For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. 38 Now the
just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has
no pleasure in him.”
“living by faith” is not just about making your entrance into
salvation, it’s also about living your life afterwards by trusting in God.
The author of Hebrews defines faith like this:
(Hebrews 11:1 NKJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1
NLT) Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen;
it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
Faith is trusting in someone or something you don’t see.
After the author of Hebrews defines faith, he goes on to illustrate what
faith looks like through the lives of the great men of old and how they lived
by their faith. For
example…
(Hebrews 11:7–8 NKJV) —7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things
not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his
household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness
which is according to faith. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Faith isn’t just sitting still
doing nothing. Faith is
lived out and demonstrated by how we choose to live our lives. Faith is demonstrated
by the actions we take.
There are times when we simply can’t grasp what
God is doing.
We don’t
know for sure where God is leading or why things are happening.
The path ahead of us is unfamiliar like a walk in the forest, and we’re afraid of moving ahead because somebody might be
playing a grand cosmic trick on us.
Video: Water trap
We need to trust God and do what He says, even if we don’t
see it or understand it.
When God’s Word says we ought to behave in a certain way, we need to learn
to do it anyway.
Living by faith means I trust God, and I move forward, even if I don’t understand or don’t see.
Paul wrote,
(2 Corinthians
5:7 NKJV) For we walk by faith, not by
sight.
Walking “by sight” is trusting in what you see, trusting
in your senses. But
sometimes we can’t “see”, and we have to trust and do what God says anyway.
Video: Trust Fall
Walking by faith looks a lot like obedience.
For example, Paul wrote,
(Ephesians
4:28 NKJV) Let him who stole steal no longer,
but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he
may have something to give him who has need.
From time to time I hear a
Christian businessman admit that they have to cheat a little bit to keep up
with their competitors.
All their competitors cheat and there’s
no way to survive without cheating the customers.
The righteous man living by his faith is the one learning
to do what God says, even though he doesn’t see how
it’s going to work out.
I trust Him and when He says
“fall backward”, I do it.
Paul also wrote,
(1 Corinthians 7:2 NKJV) Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man
have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
Our society is
flooded with immorality. There is
temptation everywhere.
God’s desire is
that a husband and wife spend ALL their sexual energy on each other.
I’m not just talking about having an actual,
physical affair.
I’m talking about removing all other ways that
you would exert sexual energy. Focus all
your desire on your spouse.
You might whisper
to me secretly, “But my spouse can’t meet my needs”. And I will reply to
you, “You have to trust God in this and do it His way.”