Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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A gracious heavenly father. We do
thank you for your word, we thank
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you for your words of life and
we ask that you would continue to speak
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words of life into our souls help
us to see our savior. This morning.
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We pray this in Jesus name.
Amen, please remain standing for the
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reading of God's word this morning from
the Prophet Habacock, Habacock chapter one,
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though will be reading focusing on versus
twelve through to the end of the chapter.
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We're kind of in the middle of
a dialog and I think that be
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helpful for us to hear the entire
conversation up to this point. So reading
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from Habacock, Chapter One, verse
one. Listen, for this is the
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word of the Lord, the Oracle
that Habacock, the prophet, saw.
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Oh Lord, how long shall I
cry for help and you will not hear?
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Or cry to you violence and you
will not save why do you make
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me see iniquity and why do you
idly look at wrong? Destruction? Violence
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are before me, strife and contention
arise, so the law is paralyzed and
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justice never goes forth, for the
wicked surround the righteous. So justice goes
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forth perverted. Look among the nations
and see, wonder and be astounded,
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for I am doing a work in
your days that you would not believe if
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told. For behold, I am
raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and
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hasty nation who march through the breadth
of the earth to seize dwellings not their
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own. They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go forth from
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themselves. Their horses are swifter than
leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves.
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Their horsemen, pressed proudly on their
horsemen, come from afar. They
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fly like an eagle, swift to
devour. They all come for violence,
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all their faces forward. They gather
captives like sand. At kings they scoff,
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and at rulers they laugh. They
laugh at every fortress, for they
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pile up earth and take it.
Then they sweep by like the wind and
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go on, guilty men whose own
might is their God. Are you not
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from everlasting? Oh Lord, my
God, My holy one, we shall
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not die. Oh Lord, you
have ordained them as a judgment, and
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you, O Roc, have established
them for reproof. You who are of
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purer eyes than to see evil and
cannot look at wrong. Why do you
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idly look at traitors and remain silent
when the wicked swallows up the man more
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righteous than he. You make mankind
like the fish of the sea, like
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crawling things that have no ruler.
He brings all of them up with a
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hook. He drags them out with
his net. He gathers them in.
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Is a dragnet. so he rejoices
and is glad. Therefore, he sacrifices
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to his net and makes offerings to
his dragnet, for by them he lives
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in luxury and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying
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his net and mercilessly killing nations forever? I will take my stand at my
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watch post and station myself on the
tower and look out to see what he
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will say to me and what I
shall answer concerning my complaint. That's for
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the reading of God's word. May
he bless it to us. Please be
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seated. I want to start this
morning with a with a question. What
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is a Theologan? What is a
Theologan? Well, at theologan right is
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someone engaged in the study of theology. Therefore, a theologian is someone who
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devotes their time to understanding the nature
of God. They're interested in the attributes
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of God theologan is interested in the
character of God. That's my second question
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is, what does a theologan look
like? Hold it in your mind right
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now. What's your picture of a
theologian? Does he look like an academic?
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Does she look bright and intelligent?
Are they carrying around a stack of
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books with lengthy titles? Or maybe, better yet, are they standing in
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front of an tire bookshelf, a
wall of books? Yet, how many
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of us picture in our heads an
Old Testament prophet? How many of US
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Picture Habakuk, whatever he may have
looked like? Because in what I just
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read, Habacock is engaged in theology. He is deeply interested in the character
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and the nature of God, and
it's not just out of some idle or
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intellectual curiosity. It has an immediate
importance on what is going on around him.
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Who God is matters for what he
sees, for how he's responding to
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what he sees. For you see, when Habacco began this book, he
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began by crying out to the Lord, describing all the injustices that he has
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witnessed. And yet, rather than
form this as a prayer or as a
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request, he puts it in the
form of a complaint. He speaks out
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to God. Why do you make
me see iniquity? Why do you idly
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look at wrong? For you see
things are upside down, the righteous are
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suffering, the wicked or prospering,
and God, God, seems to be
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silence. God seems to be inactive. He's longing for God to respond,
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he's longing for God's to act,
he's longing for justice. And in the
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Lord's response to the Prophet, we
see how shortsighted Habacic truly is. For
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in verses five through eleven, the
Lord says that he has not been inactive,
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he's not been blind to the wickedness
of Judah. Rather, he has
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been at work among the Babylonians,
among these Chaldeans. God has been doing
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a work too unbelievable for words.
He says, I'm doing a work in
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your day that you would not believe
if told. Behold, I am raising
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up the Chaldeans, that bitter and
hasty nation who march through the breadth of
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the earth to seize dwellings not their
own. And he describes how swift they
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are, he describes how they are
brutal, they are violent, they are
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ruthless and like a tornado, they
will swoop down quickly, leaving only destruction
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in their wake. And so now
in our passage, and quickly becomes obvious
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to Habacic, this unbelievable answer to
the prophets complaint was not what he had
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in mind. He was complaining about
too much violence in Judah, and now
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the Lord is about to send even
more. He was complaining about too much
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in juice in Judah, and now
the Lord will send even more. And
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so the Lord's solution only raises more
questions. And these are more than just
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questions. These are further complaints from
Habakach. And yet this is no longer
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just a onesided complaint, now that
the Lord has responded to the Prophet.
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We're in the midst of a dialog. HABACO's words here reflect that he isn't
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just repeating his complaints from before like
some child who's throwing a fit. His
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complaint now changes in light of what's
been revealed. And can you see why
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Habakok would be complaining now, after
the Lord has responded to him? You
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see, it's this. If he's
just been told that they're hiring drug dealers
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to hand out speeding tickets, it's
as if he's just been told they're hiring
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serial killers to stop shoplifting. This
solution doesn't make sense. How is it
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that God could use such a wicked
nation like Babylon to judge his own covenant
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people? After all, he's been
complaining about injustice. He's going been complaining
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about the brutality of Judah, but
surely the brutality of Babylon is worse,
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and the Lord says so himself.
He's not raising them up for their abilities
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to listen. He's not bringing them
to Judah because you know they're strict but
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fair. No, it's because of
their relentless might and greed that the Lord
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is using them for this judgment.
And here is precisely then, where the
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prophet shows us that he's a theologian, for even in his complaint he's answering
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the question who is God? Here's
his theology at work as he struggles to
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reconcile what he's just heard from God
with who he already knows God to be.
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Just notice all the divine names and
and descriptions which he falls back on
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in the midst of his despair.
He addresses God as Oh Lord. Here
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he refers not to a title but
to the name Yahway he calls upon the
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Covenant Name God gave to his people
when he rescued them from Egypt. This
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is the name God gave to Moses
to tell the people exactly who is redeeming
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them. Therefore, this name goes
to the heart of what is unique about
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Judah as a nation, as a
people. What makes jude different from the
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Babylonians and from every other nation is
their covenantal relationship to Yahwe God had this
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relationship with no other nation, only
Abraham's chosen offspring. He refers to God
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as my God, as this is
even more heavenence in how he describes him.
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Oh Lord, my God. He
addresses him not just as a god
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or the God, but my God, and this is in direct contrast to
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the idolatry, then of the Babylonians
mentioned just prior to this in verse eleven.
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God calls the Babylonians guilty men whose
own might is their God, because
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the Babylonians don't worship the Lord,
they worship themselves. They don't praise God
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for their victories, they simply praise
themselves. And so, when calling out
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to God as my God, do
you see how the Bacach is drawing this
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distinction between Judah and the nations.
And then there's the further name my holy
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one. The Prophet reference is not
only God's covenant with his people. He
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now calls upon the very holiness of
his God as opposed to all the slaughter,
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as opposed to all the bloodshed all
around him, both in Judah and
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Babylon, as opposed to the wickedness, to the pride, to the greed
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present both in Judah and now coming
from Babylon. The Lord, my God,
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My holy one, and stands separate, my holy one, stands apart.
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He alone is holy, he alone
is undefiled, as the Prophet himself
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says in verse thirteen, you who
are of pure eyes then to see evil
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and cannot look at wrong. So
he knows of God's holiness, he knows
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of his perfections, he knows that
God is so entirely pure, so entirely
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holy, that he cannot tolerate sin. And yet not only does God seem
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to be tolerating it, not only
is he seemed to be allowing it,
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he is raising up wicked Babylonians to
carry out holy justice. Do you see
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how this confuses the prophet? Do
you see why this situation throws the Prophet
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back upon his own theology, for
he's not reevaluating his theology, he's revealing
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it. He's saying, this is
what I know to be true of you,
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God. You are Yahweh, the
God of Abraham, Isaac Jacob.
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You are my God because you have
made yourself knowable to your covenant people,
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because You yourself promised to be our
God and you made us your people.
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You are my holy one because you
have have revealed your purity, you revealed
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your holiness. In all of your
statutes and all of your ceremonies. We
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see that you are holy, you
are free from defilement, and yet we
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are filthy, we are covered in
our shame and guilt. Do you see
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them that? The confusion that a
pacock is wrestling with who God is seems
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to be at odds with what God
is doing and allowing for this prophet,
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the judgment doesn't seem to fit the
crime. He goes on to describe Judah's
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powerlessness before this approaching enemy, and
he uses the metaphor of a fisherman using
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his nets to endlessly catch and drag
fish from the sea. The fish cannot
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fight back. The fish have no
defenses. They are hopeless, utterly vanquished
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at the hands of the fisherman.
He says, you make mankind like the
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fish of the sea, like cawling
things that have no ruler. He brings
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all of them up with a hook, he drags them out with his net,
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he gathers them in his dragnet.
so he rejoices and is glad to
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the point where he sacrifices to his
nets. He makes offerings to his dragnet,
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because by them he lives in luxury
and he has which he has,
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his food is rich. Is he
then to keep on emptying his nets and
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mercilessly killing nations forever? The Prophet
asks. Now, compare this wickedness of
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the sins of Judah. Judah has
still been chosen by the one true God,
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whereas the Babylonians simply worship their strength, they worship their might. They
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get away with great brutality. And
who do the Babylonians think? They sacrifice
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to their nets. So not only
are they brutal, they're also stupid,
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as if a sacrifice will make the
rope stronger or their weapons better. These
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brutal men are are pagans and they're
dumb. How can it be that they
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are to triumph over Judah? How
can they be the staff used by God
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to judge his own covenant people,
these unchosen Pagans who boast in their nets
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or their might, and the holy
one is going to use them and bring
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them success? His own chosen people
have been sinful, but do they deserve
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this? How can this be happening? And so Habakuk, the theologian,
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he he complains because these actions don't
seem to match the character of God.
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He's wrestling with the conflict between God's
nature and his activity, which is why
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he concludes with the question will this
go on forever? Is he then to
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keep on emptying his nets and mercilessly
killing nations forever? And don't you see,
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then, it's this concept of eternity, this forever, which brings another
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layer to these complaints. The way
back at the beginning of this line of
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questioning, when the Prophet calls out
to God by these divine names and titles,
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there's a context for these names.
They arise in the midst of a
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question in verse twelve. Are you
not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my
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God, My holy one, don't
you see that fundamental to the prophets struggle
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is not only that God is holy
and pure, but that God is eternal.
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And surely Habaka realizes that he's brushing
up against his own limits even as
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he complains. But that's the point. God is eternal and we are not.
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We live in time, we are
bound by time. God is not.
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So we don't have God's eyes on
the situation. We don't have God's
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understanding of event us which occur in
time. God is infinite, eternal and
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unchangeable, even when this world seems
so finite and flexible. And so habaca
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theology breaks forth in a in a
surprising way when, after asking are you
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not from everlasting? Oh Lord,
my God, My holy one, he
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concludes we shall not die. Did
you catch that? In the midst of
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his confusion, there is a tiny, hopeful cry of faith. Having just
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heard the news of terrible, inescapable
judgment, his only response is by stating
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that death will not win, death
will not ultimately conquer God's people. Given
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everything he knows about who God is, and despite the circumstances which appear to
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be the end of everything, God
cannot deny himself. The circumstances are temporary.
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Yet God's Word is forever, his
promises are certain, his promise us
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says, are secure and eternal.
And so, despite the unbelievable words of
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devastation coming upon Judah, is the
knowledge that God will not revoke his word,
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he will not remove his promise.
F I'm sure you've all heard the
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line from from Isaiah forty, verse
eight. The grass withers, the flower
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fades, but the word of our
God will stand forever. But are you
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so familiar with the context of those
words? Just a couple verses earlier,
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the Prophet says all flesh is grass
and it's beauty like the flower of the
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field. The grass withers, the
flower fades when the breath of the Lord
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blows on it. Surely the people
are grass. And yet even as the
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grass withers and the flower fades,
the word of our God will stand forever.
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So let me return to that earlier
question. What does the theologian look
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like? Well, look in a
mirror. You're a theologian. Ores sprout
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tiled one of his books. Everyone's
a theologian, and that's so true,
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because everybody has an understanding of God, everyone has an awareness of God's character
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and awareness of his nature, and
the question becomes not should you be a
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theologian, it becomes what kind of
a theologian are you? For even the
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person who believes all religions are made
up or the person who believes that all
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religions are equally true, they they
both have a theology and they both live
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out that theology. So the question
is our is our understanding to be shaped
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by God's eternal word, or are
we just creating a god in our own
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image? What kind of a theologian
are you? Hardships have a way of
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revealing what kind of theologian we are. Hardships have a way of revealing our
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theology better than any exam ever will, better than any paper could. Turmoil
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always brings out our most basic,
fundamental convictions about who God is, whether
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it's saying a quiet prayer during a
turbulent flight or whether it's singing praises to
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God during a funeral. Suffering reveals
our most closely held convictions, because suffering
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reveals where our hope is truly found. Martin Luther broke it down into two
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categories. He says you're either a
theologian of glory or you're a theologian of
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the cross, where a theologian of
glory builds their theology on their own expectations
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of what God must be like.
A theologian of the Cross recognizes that God's
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power is demonstrated in weakness. At
theologian of the Cross recognizes that God reveals
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his power, he reveals his might
in the suffering of Christ. Therefore,
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a proper theologian relies upon God's strength, which is most evident in weakness and
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frailty. For you see, for
us, suffering rarely makes sense. For
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us, we rarely get a divine
perspective on why tragedy is happening or why
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someun suffer while others prosper. However, in the judgment of Judah, were
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given a glimpse of the judgment of
Christ. And we ought to be theologians
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of the Cross, because at the
cross where shown who our God truly is,
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that there, in the midst of
abundant sin and suffering, our God
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reveals himself to be the Lord over
sin and over death. And yet his
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is a victory that did not side
step suffering, it did not side step
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the grave. Jesus entered the grave
and was raised victorious through it so that,
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whatever the circumstance, however unfathomable the
trial that is before you, however
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severe the diagnosis, you can utter
with Hebaccic, the briefest of phrases,
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with the deepest of convictions, and
say, oh Lord, my God,
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My holy one, we shall not
die because we know who our God is,
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because we know what our God has
done. We can pick up our
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cross with that same conviction, knowing
that death is swallowed up in victory,
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as Paul says, Oh death,
where is your victory? Oh death,
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where is your sting? The sting
of death is sin. The power of
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sin is the law. But thanks
be to God, who gives us the
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victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rarely does our suffering makes sense to us.
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Therefore, let's find comfort not in
our understanding of the circumstances. Let
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Us Find Comfort in Christ and His
crucifixion, in his death and his glorious
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resurrection. Amen, let's pray a
gracious heavenly father. We come to you
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from the midst of a world that
that rarely makes sense to us, where
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we see suffering all around, where
we see sin and wickedness praised, where
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we see the righteous sufferer, where
we see the wicked prosper. And yet,
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father, we thank you. We
thank you that in the midst of
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these we have such an enduring hope, such an enduring word, such wonderful
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promises that, because of Christ,
this world is not our home. We
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do think you that your kingdom does
make sense. We think you that your
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kingdom is righteous, that your kingdom
is holy and that your people are righteous
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and holy in Christ, for we
confess, we would deserve the same kinds
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of judgment that would be poured out
upon Judah and Babylon were it not for
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our savior. So help us to
come to you in him, clothed in
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his righteousness, in the midst of
the severities of our trials, in the
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midst of our bouts with depression,
father or doubt. help us to cling
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to the cross, help us to
see in Christ your love for us and
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your protection of your people. We
pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.
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