Habakkuk Part 2 - Learning To Wait

Gavin Wright continues the preaching series on Habakkuk from Sunday 5th July 2026. The scripture reference is Habakkuk 1v12-2v20.

Transcript

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Habakkuk 1, verse 12, all the way down to verse 20 of chapter 2 this morning. For the time being, I will probably just read from verse 12 down to verse 5 of chapter 2. So let me read from God's word for us. Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my holy one? We shall not die. 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? And remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? You make mankind like the fish at the sea, like cruelling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook. He drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his dragnet, so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet, for by them he lives in luxury and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever? I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself in the tower and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me. Make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him. But the righteous shall live by his faith. Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest, his greed is as wide as shale, like death, he is never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples. Friends, the grass withers, the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Amen. At the heart of this morning's sermon is something that I suspect we all hate, and that is waiting. How do you feel when the computer runs slowly, when the screen is freezing as mine was doing this week? How do you feel about slow broadband, slow trains, the slow walker on the pavement on your commute into work in London? Children, how do you feel about waiting to start your dinner when you're hungry and it's right there in front of you? But Daddy hasn't arrived at the table yet. We don't like waiting. But waiting is one of the things that lies right at the heart of the book of Habakkuk. Look down at chapter 2, verse 1. Habakkuk there says, I will stand. He says, I will station myself on the tower. I will look out to see what God will say to me. Habakkuk's waiting. He's waiting for God to answer him. He's waiting for his prayers to be answered. Have a look at verse 3. God says, still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay. So from a sort of divine perspective, the future we long for, God says, is coming without delay. But from a human perspective, you've got to wait. Or verse 4, perhaps our key verse today, and a very famous verse in the Bible. The righteous shall live by his faith. You've got to live by faith, Christian friend, this morning, not by sight, but waiting. Waiting. Well waiting is a huge part of the Christian life. Last week, just in case you weren't here, and if you were, just to remind you, Habakkuk had been praying. Do you remember, O Lord, verse 2 of chapter 1, this is, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? Habakkuk has been saying, How come, God, you are doing nothing about the evil and the injustice in the world? The evil and injustice, even that's going on in the midst of your people, why don't you act? It feels like you're not answering our prayers. And God spoke to Habakkuk last week, but his answer actually only seems to make things worse. God's answer was to say, this is in verses 5 and 6, look, I am working, and behold, I'm raising up the Chaldeans. So what is God doing in answer to Habakkuk's prayers? God is raising up this wicked and fierce army to deal with all of the injustice within his people Israel. And that solution only seems to escalate the injustice. The solution feels worse than the original problem. It seems disproportionate, like you've got a bullying problem at school, and so you call in ISIS to deal with it. Okay, the bullying has stopped, but you now have those dreaded black flags hanging over the school gates. This only seems to be making it worse. And so Habakkuk is thinking what we're probably thinking, how could God use the wicked Chaldeans or the Babylonians they are, sort of think big Bible history? How can he use them to sort out this mess? Does Israel get punished and they get away with it? What are you doing, God? And that is exactly what Habakkuk articulates in the first bit of our passage this week. I'm afraid I don't have slides behind me, so you have to listen up, but there are three points. This is our first point: Trusting God with the inconceivable. Trusting God with the inconceivable. Clusterise down maybe to verses twelve and thirteen. God, it seems so wrong, he's saying. Grant it, the land of Israel is full of injustice and evil, but it's all relative, right? We're not as bad as them. And yet, you use a more evil nation to punish a less evil nation. You use a less righteous nation to punish a more righteous nation. God, if I'd have known that you would answer my prayer in this way, I'm not sure I would have prayed in the first place. Have you ever felt like that? Verse 13, Habakkuk says, Why do you remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? So last week the question, if the question was, why don't you do something about evil and injustice? This week says, Okay, you're doing something, but why that? How can that be the solution? And the severity of the situation is sort of painted in verses 14 to 16 there. We sort of go fishing, if you like, in those verses. But we're not thinking sort of gentle summer afternoons in the riverbank. This is sort of intensive, unsustainable, industrial, large-scale, industrial-scale fish farming. Huge trawlers you see with dragnets following behind them, destroying ecosystems, natural habitats, and breeding grounds, threatening disaster to the world's oceans. Only in Habakkuk, the fish are God's people. And they are being captured, they are being dragged up in the net of the Babylonians. Verse 16. The ruthless Babylonians, they live in luxury, we are told. Well, the world's oceans, to use that metaphor, are being pillaged and desecrated. And so verse 17, Habakkuk asks the question, whether they are going to be allowed to go on emptying their nets, destroying the nations forever. How long, oh God, are you going to turn a blind eye to the Babylonian fishing fleet? How long, God, before you establish some decent fishing quotas? And then our first point really ends with Habakkuk at verse 1 of chapter 2. Waiting. You have a look there again. He stations himself on that metaphorical lookout tower and waits to see what God will say. Friends, Habakkuk is a godly man. He is faced with the unbearable, with the inconceivable. But what he can't explain and what he doesn't understand and what he knows will surely bring significant pain, it doesn't cause him to walk away from the Lord. Instead, he contents himself to pray, to question, to cry out as we saw him doing last week, but then to wait. Remember back up in verse 12 and 13 where we started, that God is holy, verse 12. Verse 13, he is pure. He doesn't do wrong. He is Habakkuk's rock. Habakkuk says. Friends, if we know what God is like, is there anything else we can do but pray and trust and wait? Will he ever let us down? Will he ever let us go? Has he ever? And God answers Habakkuk. And he says essentially two things. They're going to be our second and third points. So our second point is this the proud will be destroyed. The proud will be destroyed. Verses 2 to 4 get to the heart of the next section. Probably actually really to the heart of the whole book of Habakkuk. Now, verse 2, when God says to write something down on tablets, it doesn't mean that Habakkuk has an iPad. It's the sort of clay or stone tablet that you go to the British Museum to see, right? Something lasting, something significant, something weighty, both literally and metaphorically, something substantial. Don't write it on the back of your hand, don't put it on the back of an envelope. Keep a record of this, Habakkuk. Listen up, everyone. What God is saying is really important here. And in a nutshell, the thing to write down is that vital verse 4. Vital in the story of Habakkuk, and vital too in the story of the Bible. That is, that the righteous person shall live by his faith. There is a day coming when God will overthrow evil and establish his kingdom for good. But, friend, we are not there yet. And in the meantime, wait. In the meantime, live by faith. In the meantime, wait on the Lord. And we'll come back to that. But how can we be expected to live by faith? How are we expected to do that? And in part the answer this morning is because of the promises that God makes to us. And he made to Habakkuk. And he makes some really clear promises in verses 6 to 20. We didn't read those verses, but we're going to sort of skip through them now, if you'll follow with me. And what God promises regarding the Babylonians is described in these five woes. Children, if you don't know what woe means, it means there is trouble coming, there is disaster coming. And what God promises is written in these verses. Look at these woes with me. Firstly, verse 6. Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own. So these Chaldeans, these Babylonians are rich through theft and extortion and plunder. But one day, verse 7, God says that they are going to be like burglars who enter the house only to find the homeowner awake and prepared. The plunderers will be plundered. God will not turn a blind eye to their wickedness. And then verse 9, second woe, woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm. That verse is sort of telling us that these guys think they are bomb-proof. They think they can escape the clutches of ruin. But verse 11, God says that the very stones in the walls of these supposedly safe houses will cry out against them. There's been lots of tragic stuff in the news this week. People assumed that they were safe in their houses, but they weren't. That's what Babylon had built. This empire built not on God who chapter 1, verse 12, is from everlasting, but built on cruelty and injustice. It's insecure, God says, it will not stand. It will collapse. And I will put things right, says God. Then verse 12, the third woe. Woe to him who builds a town with blood. There's this sort of building idea in that verse that is a bit like the Tower of Babel. They're building something. They're building something significant. Yes, trampling another's to get it. But they're building something that is going to make them brilliant. They want to be number one in God's world, building towns, building cities for their own fame. But verse 13, God tells us they weary themselves for nothing. The Babylonians will be forgotten, for the day is coming, verse 14, when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. And the glory of the Lord. When humans try to take the glory that is due to God's, they will always fail in the end. Just as there is no room for anything in the sea but water, there will be no room on that day for any other kingdom than God's own. I will put things right, says God. I'm acting, my plans will be fulfilled, the world will be fixed. And then verse 15, fourth woe, woe to him who makes his neighbors drink. These are people, the Babylonians, who use violent means to bring great and terrible shame on their victims. They are cruel and heartless, delighting in the shame, the nakedness of their enemies. But verse 16. It's a hard verse, but actually it ought to be a great comfort because it tells us that their sin will boomerang round back on themselves. Which is really what is happening over and over and over again in these verses. And one day what they think is their glory will be turned to a much deeper shame. And all that they have made others feel, they will feel themselves a thousand times over. The punishment will fit the crime. God will put things right. And finally, verse 19: the last woe. Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake. The Babylonians have made idols. Really, this is a woe to him who trusts in his own strength. We've seen a few times they worship their military might, they sacrifice to their nets, we read. They've exchanged the glory of God for the glory of Babylon, but one day they will recognize that the Lord is in his holy temple, verse 20, and the whole earth will keep silence before him. God will put things right. They will not get away with their injustice. The day is coming when God will overthrow all evil and establish his kingdom finally and forever. And friends, if what God is saying to Babylon here doesn't strike us in Brentwood as wonderful, then perhaps we need to look a little outside of our bubble. I was reading about a girl called Eden, not that Eden, different Eden, 15 years old in Ethiopia. Eden was thrown into prison for lending a Christian book to one of her friends at school. Imagine sitting in the prison cell with Eden and being able to say with her, verse 14, that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, to be able to say to her, Eden, justice will come. God is acting, and one day the whole earth will be filled with his glory. Don't be discouraged. You want to share about how wonderful Jesus is. One day the world will know. Imagine the Christian parents sitting next to the hospital bed in Lebanon, Sudan, Nigeria. Places where Christians are dying at the hands of others and receiving a revelation like this from God. The people who did this to your child will be held to account by God. It's actually one of the things that came out in the post-war trials of the SS, the German guards in Nazi Germany. They thought they would get away with it. Because the only people who saw their crimes were the people they shot. And because no witnesses remained, many of them genuinely thought that justice would never catch up with them. But God says, I am acting, and I will put an end to evil. And these proud, wicked men who love themselves, I will destroy them. Verse 14 is a big deal verse in the Bible, isn't it? And the question that goes with that verse really is to what extent do the waters cover the sea? It's a sort of a strange phrase, isn't it? As the waters cover the sea. Well, how much do the waters cover the sea? Oh, it's a silly question. Because the sea is water. You cannot get anything more complete than the water covering the sea. And Habakkuk is saying, to that same extent, to that level of completeness, the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth. That is a big deal thing to say. Can you imagine what it will be like when the earth is filled with perfect justice as you watch the news tonight? As you pray for the victim, as you weep for the persecuted church. We live in a messed up world, and that will be a brilliant day. Verse 14 will be a brilliant day if you are in Jesus. And so there's lots of things, aren't there, in the present that I find completely inconceivable. I don't get why there's so much injustice in the world. I don't get why there's so much violence, why God allows such suffering on a personal level, on a national level. I don't get why so many people oppose the gospel. I don't get why so many Christians are allowed to be persecuted. I don't get why things go wrong in my family and my personal life. There is so much I don't understand. But the return of Jesus will make sense of everything, and it will be a brilliant day. So God says to Habakkuk wait for that day. Live by faith. A day is coming when Babylon will get what it deserves, and friends, a greater day is coming. Coming the Bible tells us when all evil will be judged, and the earth will be filled with nothing that is not to the glory of God. So wait. Which brings us to our last point this morning. And that is that the righteous will live by faith. We've seen that the proud will be destroyed, and then we see that the righteous will live by faith. Do you remember how the book started? Chapter 1, verse 2. Habakkuk is asking, how long? He's asking God, how long? And actually, just to notice the question he's asking is really important because Habakkuk is actually hinting that he really knows the answer to his question. And what I mean is this he isn't asking God if he is going to do something. But he's asking when. It is just a question of how long will I have to wait. And the life of faith has always been about waiting. It's always been about trusting the promise, waiting for the future when God will put everything right. And no one ever said that that would be easy. Have a look at verses four and five once again, those famous verses right at the core of our passage. Verses four and five. Look how it's structured. The key statement: the righteous shall live by his faith. Do you see how that comes sort of in the middle? On either side, it's the opposite of faith. The greed, the pride, the arrogance, the restlessness of the Babylonians. It's almost as if the righteous person is being swallowed up, it's being crushed by the culture around them. And I think the point is, even in the structure, is that it is hard living by faith. It is going to feel like swimming against the tide. Waiting is hard. We live in an instant culture. And God says, wait. We want God to hurry up and finish what He's promised. And He says, wait. Waiting is such a key part of the life of faith. And just as we get towards the end this morning, the the New Testament takes this idea from Habakkuk and applies it in two big ways. And asks it, we're going to leave Habakkuk behind. If you've got a Bible, flick forward to Romans, the book of Romans, in chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 and verse 17. Romans is written in a very different time and place, but not that different. Lots of questions are being asked of God. Is he going to be just? Is he righteous? Is he going to be faithful? Is he going to do something about injustice? There is lots of waiting in Romans 2. That famous and lovely chapter of Romans 8, there is this groaning for the future, this talk about hoping, a whole chapter about waiting. It's written in a world of unrighteousness too, just like Habakkuk. A world actually where God's people and the Babylonians in Habakkuk alike are unrighteous. Do you remember last week Habakkuk used the same words to describe God's people and their enemies, lawless, violent, unjust? One might be less righteous than the other, but at the end of the day we have the same problem. And in the same way, actually, in Romans, Paul will say, We are all unrighteous. There is no one righteousness, not even one, no one who seeks God. And there is a sense, there is a sense that we're all in the same boats in some way, facing the same kind of woe as the Babylonians. But then Romans 1, verse 17 says this. Actually, I'll read in verse 16. 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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written. Written where? In Habakkuk. And you see, to be righteous isn't to do with being good, it is something that verse tells us that comes from God. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. And he is talking about faith in what? Verse 16-17 tells us it is the gospel. What is the gospel? Well, if you were to scan your eyes back to the first few verses of Romans 1, particularly verse 3, it is the gospel concerning God's Son. The righteous shall live by his faith in Jesus. And what Paul is getting at is that Habakkuk might not have known the name of Jesus, but Jesus is the one and always has been the one that by believing in him you will live. Jesus is the one who will return to judge the proud. And Jesus is the one who died to face the woe that I should face because of my sin. He's the one who makes me righteous. The Babylonians were proud. But the righteous, friends, are humble. Faith is humble. The faith says, I don't have the answers, but Jesus will sort it out. Faith says, the world is broken, but Jesus will put it right. And I may have to wait, but there is no one else I can turn to. And the righteous will live by their faith. Last thing this morning. Flick on a few pages more to the book of Hebrews. And chapter 10. The book of Hebrews is probably actually written to a group of Christians in very similar circumstances to Habakkuk. Lots of evil and injustice, lots of things that just don't make sense. Look down at verse 32 and 33. What is being described there? We're probably bringing the same sorts of things to the Lord. I don't understand why Christians suffer, why Christians are exposed to public reproach. Verse 33. Insult and shame. Why verse 34? Christians are in prison and why their property has been plundered. Just lots of stuff like that. God, why are your people enduring such hardships? I think that if a bunch of blokes stormed my house this afternoon and took away my stuff, and then wrote an article in The Guardian, slandering me, and then carted off my wife and put her in prison, I would find it hard to get what God is doing. And in the world of Hebrews, there's a concern that such suffering might cause Jesus' people to fall away, to shrink back, to drift away from Jesus. But verse 36, look there. He says, You have no need of endurance. Sorry, for you have need of endurance. So that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For and here's where Habakkuk steps in, yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by his by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. A day is coming when God is putting everything right. It is just a little while. At Bomai County, we've got three Americans. Adam Manuel. Only one adult with us this morning. There are nine Americans if you count their children. Yesterday, if you're a fan of America, you'll know was Independence Day. A huge deal in the States, right? Now imagine you're an American travelling home for the festivities for the 4th of July. You can't wait to be where the blood of the people runs red, white, and blue. Where you cannot escape the sound of freedom and liberty. The only problem is the Heathrow Departure Lounge, which is very boring. You've run out of things to do, you've run out of things to eat, you've run out of things to read. Waiting is really hard work. And so imagine in a moment of impatience, you leave the airport, you get on the Elizabeth line, and you give up. And Hebrews, Habakkuk, are saying, Don't, don't do that. Your flight will be called soon, just a little while, it will be worth it. You'll be home and you'll be free. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth. His kingdom will come, he will establish it fully and finally and forever. Evil will be gone, justice will be served. So just hang on, Christian friend. Live by faith. And the God who is bringing about his purposes, who is bringing about that end, who has made you righteous and ready for his coming in Jesus, who has promised to judge every evil of this world, who has given us Jesus, who has died for us and risen again that we might know this to be true. Don't shrink back. Wait. And I'm gonna pray that we would do that in his strength. Let's pray. Father God. Please help us this morning to believe two things. That you will judge evil, and that you will look after your people who you have made righteous until Jesus returns. Please give us hope and help as we wait. Give us faith in the one who is the steward and the captain of our souls, who will not let us go, who will not let us down, who will make sure we get home to the day when the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of his glory. Please help us, Lord, to wait. Amen.