When You are Clueless--outline

HABAKKUK: FROM COMPLAINTS TO CONFIDENCE

When You are Clueless

(Rom 11:33-34 NIV)  Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! {34} "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 

TEXT:

(Hab 1:1-11 NIV)  The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. {2} How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? {3} Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. {4} Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. {5} "Look at the nations and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. {6} I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. {7} They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. {8} Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; {9} they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. {10} They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and capture them. {11} Then they sweep past like the wind and go on-- guilty men, whose own strength is their god."

Introduction:

(2 Ki 22:1 NIV)  Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath.

(2 Ki 22:12-17 NIV)  He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: {13} "Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us." {14} Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District. {15} She said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, {16} 'This is what the LORD says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. {17} Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.'

J. Gresham Machen once said, “America is running on the momentum of a Godly ancestry. When that momentum goes, God help America!”

Why does the wicked flourish while the godly are oppressed?  

There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people? All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting.… Virtually every meaningful conversation I have ever had with people on the subject of God and religion has either started with this question, or gotten around to it before long. Not only the troubled man or woman who has just come from a discouraging diagnosis at the doctor’s office, but the college student who tells me that he has decided there is no God, or the total stranger who comes up to me at a party just when I am ready to ask the hostess for my coat, and says, “I hear you’re a rabbi; how can you believe that …”—they all have one thing in common. They are all troubled by the unfair distribution of suffering in the world. The misfortunes of good people are not only a problem to the people who suffer and to their families. They are a problem to everyone who wants to believe in a just and fair and livable world. They inevitably raise questions about the goodness, the kindness, even the existence of God.-- Rabbi Kushner

1.   Unburden your soul unto the Lord.

(Hab 1:1-4 NIV)  The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. {2} How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? {3} Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. {4} Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

Hebrew: massa—means oracle, burden

 (Exo 23:5 NIV)  If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.

(Num 11:11 NIV)  He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?

 (Isa 13:1 NIV)  An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

(Nahum 1:1 NIV)  An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

(Jer 22:13-17 NIV)  "Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. {14} He says, 'I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.' So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. {15} "Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. {16} He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD. {17} "But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion."

(Jer 11:10 NIV)  They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers.

(Jer 14:7 NIV)  Although our sins testify against us, O LORD, do something for the sake of your name. For our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you.

(Jer 14:10-12 NIV)  This is what the LORD says about this people: "They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins." {11} Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the well-being of this people. {12} Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague."

(Jer 14:20 NIV)  O LORD, we acknowledge our wickedness and the guilt of our fathers; we have indeed sinned against you.

 (Hab 1:2 NIV)  How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?

 (Hab 1:3-4 NIV)  Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. {4} Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

(Isa 60:18 NIV)  No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.

(Isa 61:3 NIV)  and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

(Isa 61:11 NIV)  For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

(Isa 62:6-7 NIV)  I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, {7} and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

 “God does not pay at the end of every day, my Lord Cardinal, but at the end He pays.”--Anne of Austria

2. Understand the Workings of God.

(Hab 1:5-11 NIV)  "Look at the nations and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. {6} I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. {7} They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. {8} Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; {9} they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. {10} They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and capture them. {11} Then they sweep past like the wind and go on-- guilty men, whose own strength is their god."

 (Isa 55:8 NIV)  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

(Rom 11:33-34 NIV)  Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! {34} "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"

(Hab 1:6-7 NIV)  I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. {7} They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.

(Jer 8:10 NIV)  Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

(Jer 1:15 NIV)  I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms," declares the LORD. "Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem; they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah.

(Jer 39:5-9 NIV)  But the Babylonian army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. {6} There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah. {7} Then he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. {8} The Babylonians set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. {9} Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him, and the rest of the people.

(Hab 1:8-11 NIV)  Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; {9} they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. {10} They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and capture them. {11} Then they sweep past like the wind and go on-- guilty men, whose own strength is their god."

(Jer 5:6 NIV)  Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them, a wolf from the desert will ravage them, a leopard will lie in wait near their towns to tear to pieces any who venture out, for their rebellion is great and their backslidings many.

(Zep 3:3 NIV)  Her officials are roaring lions, her rulers are evening wolves, who leave nothing for the morning.

(Ezek 17:3 NIV)  Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: A great eagle with powerful wings, long feathers and full plumage of varied colors came to Lebanon. Taking hold of the top of a cedar,

(Hosea 8:1 NIV)  "Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law.

(2 Ki 25:7 NIV)  They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."-- John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, expressed  in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887

(Prov 16:18 NIV)  Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

(Jer 2:3 NIV)  Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,'" declares the LORD.

(Dan 4:16 NIV)  Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let him be given the mind of an animal, till seven times pass by for him.

(Dan 4:30-34 NIV)  he said, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" {31} The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, "This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. {32} You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes." {33} Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. {34} At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

(James 5:13-18 NIV)  Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. {14} Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. {15} And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. {16} Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. {17} Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. {18} Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.