Sermon Cloud

Habakkuk 2

Welcome:

What purpose can silence serve in our lives? Are there any specifically religious purposes to silence?

Psalm 130- on two pads- rewrite them, illustrate them, etc…

What did we see last week in chp 1?: Review

And we ended in VS 1 of chp 2…

VS 2:1

So – we start this week where ended last week- in silence, waiting- waiting to hear from God on these questions of Why? and How long? And if You are using these people to judge us, what about them? You’re not letting them off the hook, are You?

I want us to sit in silence for a few minutes- This is an opportunity to ask God some questions of your own, but I’d encourage you- don’t spend this whole time asking- ask and then sit in silence- waiting, listening. What might God say to you? Ask Him why- and then listen. Ask Him “how long,” and then listen. Ask Him why me, or even “Why not me?” Or “What about them?” And then… listen.

We’ll spend some time in quiet and then move on…

Prayer

VS 2-3

God tells Habakkuk that His answer is not just for him… but that he should write it down and carry it to others- that these words are not just for Habakkuk and his people in his time, otherwise there’d be no reason to write it down- it could go by word of mouth.

And the reason why it wasn’t just for them, then? Because what God would describe here was far in the distance, and even now, like then, those who wanted to see Justice happen could take heart that God would bring it, but would need to exercise patience until He that time.

God tells Habakkuk and us- let me tell you how this is all going to turn out…

VS 4-

How could pride (the word is literally puffed up- swollen),  trusting in yourself lead to your life being “crooked”?

Yeah- the echo chamber of your own views and thoughts… Pride- not listening to God, not listening to others because… it’s your life- and you know what you are doing… And it doesn’t mater who you are- rich, poor, young old... you can be the president of the US and if you don’t learn to hear something besides what you want to hear, you are in trouble…

“But the righteous will live by faith” Faith- trusting in God and listening to what He says, choosing to live in a way that’s dependent on Him… that leads to life. Pride leads to the ditch by the side of the road- faith in God, to life.

Now, understand- there’s self-confidence rooted in an accurate understanding of your talents as well as your weak areas. And then there’s just pride. And the tough thing about pride- to the prideful person- to we prideful people, it always masquerades as self-confidence….

VS 5- (first line only)

In what way can wealth be treacherous? In light of vs 4?

If there’s one thing that tends to work against a life of faith/dependence on God and in favor of self-satisfaction and pride, I’m sorry to say, it’s wealth. It’s not a one-to-one co-incidence, but a general tendency. I know what happens in my heart when I have money in the bank versus when I don’t. And that’s why Jesus says things like it’s harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the Kingdom of heaven- to come under the rule and reign of God- because, at least at this point in their lives, many think they don’t need to. Our money makes us feel safe and self-reliant, self-secure…. And worst of all, self-satisfied.  Unfortunately self-satisfaction is like drinking sea water…

(rest of vs 5)

Man- what a picture- Like whales swimming through the water with their mouths wide open eating whatever is unfortunate enough to get in the way, so some of us go through life, swallowing whatever we can shove into our wide open mouths, never thinking about the cost to ourselves or to others- rampant consumption. And this image of a mouth open like a grave, and like death, never satisfied. Man!

“In their greed…” In talking last week someone mentioned that it seemed arrogant of Habakkuk to describe the Babylonians as “less righteous” than Israel. Bat this time, they were in the process of marching across and enslaving the entire known world- taking captives, sticking rings through their noses and chaining them together and marching them back to Babylon. Killing women, infants, whoever got in the way… were they wicked? Yes. And so God says-

VS 6-7

The picture here is of a crooked pawnbroker- (here’s a more literal translation of thos verses (basically, God hates those payday and title loan places that prey on the poor by offering easy loans at up to more than 100% annual interest. God hates that stuff. And so He says

VS 8 Babylon would be judged… they victimized the world, but eventually, a greater power would come along and conquer them, do to them what they did to others… the victimizer would become the victim….

Back to verse 3- God says- “this vision is for a future time, It describes the end.” Is he talking about when He judges Babylon for their evil? Yes… Is He talking about more than just Babylon? Yes.

See- the bad news- the world is broken, evil exists. People suffer because other people make them suffer. People also suffer through no fault of their own, but because this world is simply a hard place to live- broken. But the good news in all this- the tables get turned. God is going to judge that evil, He’s going to take those who cause others harm to task. The victimizers become… the victims. Idi Amin gets away with nothing. Ted Bundy gets away with nothing. And we get away with… nothing.

And so we need to be careful, because much of what God describes here could easily apply to us.

VS 9-11

There’s nothing inherently wrong with wealth- but wealth at the expense of and on the backs of others? God takes that very, very seriously.

VS 12-13

Now- not everything we build comes through murder and corruption… but for the babylonians it did. Nevertheless, the next statement is true of everything…- everything we build, everything we save eventually goes away- yes, it’s nice to have while we’re here, and if we can have it without exploiting others, without callusing our hearts and filling up with pride because of our possessions and positions? Good. But if not? If it all goes away anyway, and if the having of it harms our souls, is it worth it?  “They work so hard, but all in vain.” I carry around this mental image of myself on my deathbed saying- I wish I’d just spent a little more time at the office. Oh, man- If only I had worked more hours each week! We could have bought the 5 series rather than the 3 series and then…

Okay- again, that’s the bad news… but here’s the good, good news. The great news, in fact…

VS 14

How does this whole thing end? With a whimper? No- with a bang. A huge bang… In the end, what is left? The whole world filled with an awareness of the Glory of God. God’s being, God’s presence, God’s glory filling every nook and cranny of the world- the world around us and the world inside us.

God’s answer to Habakkuk’s question of how long? Wait. His answer to what about them- “Don’t worry, I’m going to judge them as well.” And his answer to it all? His glory filling the whole world-, exchanging the old

And for us? For those who don’t trust in themselves, in gods of their own making, but rather who put faith- emotional weight and dependence on Him, God promises forgiveness, life, a world put back together- a redeemed community, living in a renewed creation in relationship with God. His Glory- heaven on earth.

BREAK- 2 songs, God’s glory fills the earth!

Yes- all of this is moving to a glorious end- not a tragic one. And in light of that, God would like us to stop working at counter purposes to that end… and so He has a couple of other issues He’d like to bring to our attention…

VS15-16

What’s He talking about here? Does it apply just to that? How else might it apply?

Those who take sexual advantage of others- either of the helpless or those who put others in a position of helplessness… date rape does not go unpunished, nor does abuse, nor does taking advantage of those who are helpless, who need money and who may be tempted to do things of a sexual nature for pay. God hates it when we take advantage of others, or when we approve of through participation in the taking advantage of others. What we look at on a screen is not simply a matter of some pixels and bits arranged a certain way- we’re taking part in a long chain of abuse.

But lest you think God is only concerned with sins Jerry Falwell and the religious right like to talk about look at verse 17-

VS 17

What is God going to judge?

He has opinions on not only how we treat others, particularly the way we take advantage of each other sexually, but how we treat the planet and the animals He has put here for us to take care of. I know some of you are vegetarians, and that’s cool- I don’t know how you make it through life without a hamburger, but that’s your business- that’s not what He’s talking about here- He’s talking about our orientation to the planet and the creatures we share it with- are we good stewards or bad ones? It’s one thing to cut down a tree to build a house. It’s another thing to cut down all the trees to build Baby Gaps and Starbucks. It’s one thing to humanely use the resources of the planet for food, including animals. It’s another thing to not care about being humane… to be wasteful, to let whole species slide off into oblivion. God hates those things. This is His creation, and we would do well to remember: we’re tenants, not owners.

And again- it’s interesting that as God runs through the things He hates, that He will judge, what He lands on is this…

VS 18-19

What’s He saying?

All of the gods we devise for ourselves, whether we give them names and build religions around them or whether we fashion them out of career and possessions are ultimately dead ends, made with our own hands and lifeless inside. Unable to save. He says: How foolish to trust in your own creation. We’d never do that, would we? What might that look like?

A consistent theme that we’re going to discover over the next couple of months in walking through some of the minor prophets is that God continually comes back again and again to these two things: stop worshiping idols and stop taking advantage of each other, especially the poor. Start worshiping the true God and start loving the people around you. And that is a good message for any church community to hear- even Evergreen. So- some questions for us as we read this:

What does our worship of God look like? How are we growing in it as a community and as individuals? What does our love of this city look like? How are we growing in it as a community and as individuals? Those two questions are what we need to wrestle with over the next few months… How we together, love and worship God, and how we, together love and serve this city.

Yes, But, He says-

VS 20

And so we end where we began, in silence. But a different kind of silence. This isn’t the silence of wondering where God is at, what He’s doing. This isn’t the “Waiting for Godot” kind of waiting where ultimately we realize no one’s coming. This is a silence and waiting in the very presence of God. This is the waiting of knowing God’s presence with us and for us, and being silent before Him. Quieting ourselves, not because we no longer have questions and doubts, but because we know that ultimately all questions will be answered and all doubts laid to rest in the person of God Himself- the world filled with the Glory of God.

And so we wait.

Quietly. Still.

Before the God who defends us, redeems us, forgives and saves us- who heals us and heals the world, trusting not in anything we make or do or possess, but in God who is our hope.

Silence… Psalm 131

Songs- Let all the earth be silent before God.