For Habakkuk and us, waiting is the hardest part and the only thing he has from God as He waits, the only thing that helps him, is faith.
Have you ever struggled with the justice of God in the world? Perhaps, it is too easy to point to moments of injustice. When these things happen, it is easy to wonder where God was when all of that was going down. Wicked people in the world today appear to be so unchecked in their awfulness and it can leave us questioning when will God finally step in and hold this all to account. If you or your hearers have ever wondered about this then you can empathize with the prophet Habakkuk.
In the first four verses of chapter one, we hear from the prophet that wicked people are behaving badly. The problem for Habakkuk is it appears God is doing nothing. In fact, in the unread verses between these chapters it is even more scandalous to Habakkuk that God will use the Babylonians to punish the evil, and the righteous will be caught in the crossfire as well (verses 6 and 13). What are we supposed to make of all this?
In the midst of these confusing circumstances God has called Habakkuk to be a watchman (2:1). God told the prophet to watch and to wait and to see what God will do in the future. For Habakkuk and us, waiting is the hardest part and the only thing he has from God as He waits, the only thing that helps him, is faith. God tells his prophet to wait for (2:3) the greater working of God. God will do something but only in His way and His time.
God will do something but only in His way and His time.
We are to trust God in the midst of things we cannot understand. Evil will be punished one day, and God’s people will be rescued, but until that happens, His answer to Habakkuk and to us is, “The righteous will live by faith.” Faith is not just for the ability to wait, but faith so we can get through the hard times as well. It is faith alone and ultimately in the God who saves. Habakkuk needs this kind of faith to make it through. The only place to get this kind of faith is to go to God Himself (Ephesians 2:8-9). We can trust in God because He has shown Himself to be faithful. God has done it in the past and He will help Habakkuk and all of us by acting faithfully in the salvation of His people in the future as well.
There is a helpful connection to our Gospel lesson for this Sunday. Luke 17:1-10 gives us three main ideas. First, Christ is talking about sinning and forgiving; a very hard thing to do when hurts drown out the call to forgive. Second, the disciples plead with the Lord to, “Increase our faith.” Third, Jesus teaches us what a servant deserves.
A practical moment to develop in the sermon is to focus on the questions people often have surrounding forgiveness in the midst of difficult circumstances. Plainly put, forgiveness is hard to do. It may, in fact, seem impossible. Our hearers are sitting back and looking, like Habakkuk, at all the sin and injustice in the world and they are left wondering how there can be any forgiveness for any of it. In order for forgiveness to happen we clearly need some divine intervention. It will take something we cannot produce ourselves to make this happen. It is going take a lot of faith, a lot of trust that God will actually work this all out in the end.
Often the greatest challenge for people when it comes to forgiveness is the notion of justice. Justice is too often a very underdeveloped theme in our preaching of the crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, Fleming Rutledge, in her work Crucifixion, spends a lot of time on this. People want to forgive but they hold that against justice still being served. The real challenge is we have to trust in God to bring this about and not try to make it happen ourselves. It is just so hard to wait for all that. This is the root and core of people’s questions concerning not forgiving real hurts. They do not want it all to be swept under the rug and they wonder if God is going to do something about it.
God did do something about it. He sent His Son who took it all, the justice and the injustice and the sin, and He bore it on the cross and forgave on the cross (Luke 23:34). He forgave us and He forgave who we could not. Looking to Christ, God bids us to have faith, to trust in Him, that He has taken care of it in Jesus and He will also see it all through in the end.
In light of all this, it is easy to relate to the disciples who plead for more faith. God reminds us: “The righteous will live by faith.” Develop this teaching in the sermon by connecting it to the way the Apostle Paul picks up on it in Galatians 3:11 and Romans 1:17. These verses are a bedrock for our confession as Christians. Sometimes waiting is not a bad thing because those who wait on the Lord receive grace and mercy on account of Christ. Christ’s shed blood, righteousness, and faith in His resurrection strengthen us as we watch with Habakkuk for the day when He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Since Habakkuk is a series of questions and answers that might serve as a helpful structure for a sermon on both these texts, the Question Answered Structure would be useful here.
“[This structure] identifies a significant question for the hearers (in other words, one that cannot be easily answered and that addresses matters that are significant to the hearers) and then theologically considers one or more feasible answers before arriving at a satisfactory resolution.
The question is simple, memorable, and remains the same throughout the entire sermon. It cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no,” but invites the hearers into processing various answers. The movement toward a faithful answer provides the dynamic progression of the sermon. This progression could be a movement from false answers to a true answer or from partial answers to a full answer. The preacher avoids trite false answers that will insult the hearers, and he seeks to have a final resolution that proceeds from the Gospel.
The sermon usually opens by depicting the human or textual dilemma that raises the focusing question. The answers are then arranged in a climactic scheme, offering more development to the later answers. In dismissing the false or partial answers, the preacher is clear about the theological reasoning that guides the discussion and, thereby, teaches the hearers how to think through matters theologically. Along the way, the preacher is careful not to raise distracting issues or to change the question. Finally, the sermon concludes by proclaiming the satisfactory gospel-based answer.”[1]
------
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
-----
[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/thematic/question-answered/
