HABAKKUK Lesson # 3
RESPONDING TO DESTRUCTION WITH PRAISE
Habakkuk 3:1-19
I. Greeting
II. Introduction:
Note: Our passage today is a psalm. Psalms were songs sung to music and what we have is the lyrics but not the music, the words but not the tune. We can only guess what music accompanied each psalm, but they were very different in topic and no doubt very different in the music behind them. Our psalm is a particular type of music; it is a hymn.
Q What is a hymn? Can you give me a modern as well as classical example?
An = A hymn is a song of praise about the attributes of God and that is what dominates our psalm. Hymns or praises about God, what He does, and what His character is dominate the Psalter. It is the most common, most numerous form.
Q Why? Why are hymns or singing about so encouraged in Scripture?
An = Have you ever noticed that when you are truly praising God how right the experience is? It just seems right! God is God and He is worthy of our praise and so when we do so we are “in sync with reality”.
Note: A simple fact has always helped me. When I am praising Him as God, then I am not tempted to think I know as much as He and I am just human. It is O.K. to be human, and I am truly what I made to be when I am praising Him, because when I am praising Him, I am not praising myself.
There is strength and power when we praise Him. Some people even praise God when all goes wrong….
Q What do you think of such people who praise God when their world starts crashing down around them? Why do they do it?
An = Sometimes it helps them see their problems in perspective. He is still the Lord in heaven despite what is going on down here. He is still in control, still sovereign and singing about Him, gets us off our problems and on to eternal truths. Habakkuk does this in chapter 3. There are many reasons why others sing such songs in such situations, Habakkuk’s reasons are rather specific, and so we will investigate them.
III. The Introduction, Invocation and Supplication: Habakkuk 3:1-2.
>>>> Have someone read Habakkuk 3:1-2.
Note: Notice our psalm is called a prayer in verse one. (By the way, Shigionoth is some type of musical notation but the meaning is not known). Habakkuk is addressing this to God and so let us notice how he address the Lord in verse 2. He calls Him, “Lord”. He uses the great Name of God given to Moses. What some scholars call “His Saving Name”.
Q In verse 2a what does the prophet say about the Lord?
An = He knows of the Lord, he has heard of Him. He has been taught the teachings about the Lord, he has been taught truth. It has moved Habakkuk. He has heard of God and the prophet fears.
Q What do you know about the Lord that would cause you to fear?
An = Habakkuk is not like some folks who hear all kinds of teachings, but it does not really affect them. Habakkuk has heard about the Lord and it has a powerful reaction in him. It should do so in us as well. What do we fear? Do we fear His judgment? We should, the prophet did.
Note: The rest of the verse shows us some interesting things about Habakkuk. He fears but he is not paralyzed in fear. He fears the Lord, but feels able to ask requests of the Lord and so he makes three requests…. He fears God but the prophet fears a wonderful and loving God even when the Lord has to come and bring judgment.
Q What three things does the prophet ask for?
An = 1) He wants God to revive, to restore, to give life again to His work in history, in time, in the midst of years.
2) He asks God make the revival known in time, in human history.
3) He seeks mercy in the midst of judgment. The prophet knows it is coming on both Israel and the oppressive Babylon. When judgment comes, he wants his people to be revived, he wants it known and he wants mercy in the midst of wrath.
Note: What is strange is that now the prophet stops petitioning and begins the largest part of the psalm: verses 3-15. The prophet begins a hymn.
IV. The Psalm of Praise: The Warrior God Arrives and Brings Judgment With Power: Habakkuk 3:3-15.
Q Why sing a hymn of praise to God in the face of coming disaster?
An = For one the focus is not on his problems, but another, namely God. Sometimes our problems are helped when we look not to our personality and personal needs, but when we look at the Lord. Habakkuk has heard the teachings about the Lord. Now he sees that the teachings about the Lord are true not only of the past, but of what is to come. God moves from intellectual truths, to a living Being active in his day.
Note: The key event in Israel’s past was the deliverance from Egypt. God came and delivered them and judged Egypt. Habakkuk will now do what is done many times in the Old Testament, he will pick up the themes of the Exodus and bring them into his own time, “in the midst of years”. (Isaiah 40, Judges 4-5, Psalm 18:7-15, Psalm 50:2-3, Psalm 69:1-2, Psalm 77:16-19, Psalm 97:3-5).
>>>> Have someone read Habakkuk 3:3-5.
Q What kind of vision is this of God?
An = God, the Holy One is on the move. He comes from the desert, in splendor, radiance and plague and pestilence surround Him. He comes in power and power to bring death. There is some play off the motifs of the plagues of Egypt. God came from Mt. Sinai (the desert) and moved into Egypt with plague/pestilence.
>>>> Have someone read Habakkuk 3:6-7
Q What is the Lord doing in verse 6?
An = He is surveying the scene. In the Old Testament, when God looks, or takes notice, it is a metaphor for saying “He is about to move and act in the lives of men”.
Note: Notice the reaction to His action! The mountains quake, and people are frightened.
Q What would this mean for our lives today? Will God act in this way today? How?
An = There are still today great earth shattering occasions and actions that rattle the hills and bring people into distress. The book of Revelations is all about such world ending events as plagues, earthquakes, etc., but they also can happen now in our lives, even before the Second Coming.
Q How does knowing this help us out of our personal problems?
An = One is to know that there is a bigger world out there than our own. It helps to get our minds off ourselves and on to the Lord. Also, that God is in charge. It is His Coming that causes these things, and we know Him. We can ask for mercy in the midst of wrath; we can ask for revival.
>>>> Have someone read Habakkuk 3:8-11.
Q What is being said in verses 8-9?
An = Symbolically, the Lord is going to move in wrath against the waters (8) and go to war (9). Again this is reminiscent of Exodus: the deliverance from Egypt via the Red Sea, the crossing of the Jordan River, and the turning of bitter water to sweet in the wilderness.
Note: The response is one of earthquake and the heavenly bodies being affected. Again, this is reminiscent of the book of Revelations where the heavens are shaken and the moon is turned to blood, and the stars fall from heaven.
>>>> Have someone read Habakkuk 3:12-15.
Q Against Whom is the Lord’s power and wrath extended towards now?
An = The nations, the ones who hurt the people of God and oppress them. He will go to war against the Babylons of life. Notice that the “Babylon types” will try to hurt God’s people in verse 14, trying to scatter them and devour the oppressed in secret, but it will not succeed. The Lord will triumph.
Q Does it pay to be evil and oppressive?
An = No, it does not. There is bad news ahead for the wicked. God is not mocked. Morality is not to be put aside. The is right and wrong and accounts will be settled. Notice is God is not passive, but actively, emotionally involved. As Rolf Knierim says, “God will not judge in cold blood, but hot blood”.
Q Does it help you to know this? What does it produce in you?
An = After they give their answers, let them know that we are now going to see how the Holy Spirit would like us to respond. He gave us Habakkuk’s response in the few verses….
V. Psalmist’s Response: Dread and yet Hope. Habakkuk 3:16-19
>>>> Have someone read Habakkuk 3:16-17.
Q What is the prophet’s emotional response in verse 16.
An = It is one of inward trembling and dread. He must await the coming disaster, the coming invasion.
Q What is being spoken about in verse 17?
An = Economic collapse is being spoken about. In an agricultural society, this is financial ruin. It means famine and starvation. In our terms it would be an economic collapse, the stock markets crash, money is devaluated, food is scarce.
>>>> Have someone read Habakkuk 3:18-19
Q Despite coming economic ruin what is the prophet’s chosen response?
An = He will do two things: He will exult and rejoice in the Lord. He chooses to rejoice in God. How strange, but notice the prophet has reasons….
>>>> Have someone re-read Habakkuk 3:19.
Q What are the prophet’s reasons in verse 19?
An = God is his strength. He makes him walk in the scary heights in safety. In the midst of disaster the Lord will be with him and it is in this that the prophet rejoices.
Q Is this prophet unconcerned with outward circumstances?
An = NO! He is concerned, he trembles with dread of coming disaster (3:17)
Q Is the prophet ruled by and overcome by outward circumstances?
An = NO! He is concerned by but not overcome by outward circumstances because he believes. He has seen a vision of God as powerful and full of judgment, but also full of caring and approachability (3:2), One who will be his strength and safety. Habakkuk has chosen to have faith. He has chosen to be righteous.
Perhaps, 3:18-19 are Habakkuk’s acting out of 2:4.