Think Wink.

Okay so the introductory material is going to take a lot longer than I anticipated. Here’s the reason why: there is a lot of good stuff in there to just pass up. I really love Habakkuk, my favorite minor prophet. I love the dialogue format of the book and I love some of the themes developed there. I love Habakkuk 3, especially Habakkuk 3:17-19. That chapter, and its concluding verses, are just amazing poetry to me. i love it. Anyways back to the series at hand. We just covered the opening complaint or prayer. Now we turn to God’s response and something we as Christians can take away, as we work towards our target of Habakkuk 2:4.

Here is God’s answer to Habakkuk in Habakkuk 1:5-11,

5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. 10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Starting in 1:5 hear Yahweh’s word, “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded.” That last phrase, “wonder and be astounded,” is an interesting Hebrew phrase, וְהִֽתַּמְּה֖וּ תְּמָ֑הוּ (wehitammehu temahu). It combines the Hitpael and the Qal imperative forms of תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”) to create a repetition of sounds (LXX: θαυμάσατε θαυμάσια). This repetition creates an emphasis upon the statement of what Yahweh is saying. Literally it would read, “Shock yourselves and be shocked.” So let us hear what Yahweh says to Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 1:6 gives us his answer: “I’m raising up the Babylonians (Chaldeans) to come and wipe you out.” Hear the adjectives that Yahweh uses to describe his answer. They are “bitter/ruthless” (ESV/NET), “hasty/greedy” (ESV/NET), they march across the earth taking what isn’t theirs. They are “dreaded/frightening” (ESV/NET) and “fearsome/terrifying” (ESV/NET). “They decide what is right” (Habakkuk 1:7 NET). They move with the speed of leopards, with the ferocity of wolves. They are proud and move in from afar, swift like the eagle. They are determined to do violence and they take prisoners like scooping up sand. They laugh at kings and rulers and their fortresses. They come and pass like the wind. They are guilty men who worship might like a god. That’s Yahweh’s answer to Habakkuk’s problem.

Instead of destroying the guilty men and women in Judah, God sends an army to wipe out everyone! He’s just going to destroy the whole nation rather than the part of Judah that needs to be destroyed. I like how Charles Dennison put and I’m going to paraphrase him on this, “Instead of killing the disease to cure the patient, God is going to kill the patient to cure the disease.” That is not what you and I would have expected God to do. We would have expected God to some how to shine forth his mercy and correct the leadership. We would expect God to spare the innocent and surgically remove the guilty. But to remove the guilty and the innocent is unthinkable. And in such a way. To bring in an army comprised of such violent men that love to devour and conquer and destroy, that just doesn’t sound like Yahweh. To relieve the burden of his people, he kills them.

When I had heard this vision put like that my mind was reeling. I wasn’t sure what to think about what I had heard. Is sin such a disease that the only way to remove it is not by surgically removing the sin but rather removing the sinner? That is what Yahweh is telling Habakkuk he is going to do. Now granted I understand that the fact of their being captives in Babylon and Egypt means survivors but Judah will be gone and the Davidic monarchy will never sit on the throne. The Judea will be a province for Persia, Greece/Macedon, and Rome. The High Priest will be the highest ranking figure in the political environment during this time, even though for a time there will be governors. Judah will die here, and here Temple with her.

The simple fact of the matter is that Yahweh cures the injustice that has Habakkuk praying and heart-broken by killing Judah. How does that translate into the key of the New Covenant Christian? How should that impact our understanding of God, Jesus, and our salvation? To cure our sin problem, my sin and your sin, God kills us. To remove sin from this world, God is going to kill us, those infected with the disease. We will die, this earth will die. It is how God operates. As Paul says, “For the payoff of sin is death” (Romans 6:23; cf. Romans 4:4). God kills us sinners. We seek to undermine the society that he desires to have here on earth. We pervert justice, we seek only ourselves at the cost of others. We deny ourselves eternal joy that comes only from God in Jesus Christ because we hate all that God is and stands for. We hate it. So to remove that enmity (cf. Romans 5:10 and we being enemies of God).

So if God, to remove sin, is going to kill off this tainted world, then what hope do we have? Paul told the Thessalonian Christians in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 that when Jesus comes back he will meet out punishment with flaming fire to those who oppress his people. The problem is all of humankind is an enemy of God who, if given the opportunity, would oppress the people of God. Thus all of humanity would be destroyed by the coming of Jesus. So what hope does humanity have? The Resurrection!

Consider Romans 6:4-7 (NET) when Paul says,

4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

Through faith in Jesus Christ and illustrated in baptism, we die with Jesus. By faith we are united to his death on the cross. The very enemy that we desperately want to escape becomes the way we are saved from it. We die with Christ so that we are then raised with Christ. We are now new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) and have been raised and seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6-7). We are now free from sin. We have been united to new life. We are dead to sin and now can live Spirit-enabled lives to yield the fruit that God desires: a just community that loves God and neighbor.

It strikes me then how important it is that we understand then Jesus words in Mark 8:34-35 (NET) when he says, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will save it.” To be saved requires us to walk the path of the cross. We must follow Jesus outside the camp and ascend to the heights of Golgotha. There we must surrender ourselves to the cross and endure all of its pain so that we can live the true life. Only through death can we have hope. Judah’s only hope to be rid of the sin and the injustice is for Babylon to destroy her. Only by submitting to the wrath of God can the love of God resurrect her from captivity and restore her. The Cross never ceases to amaze me as that it is so backwards that only by being regenerated can it make sense. I understand what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 and 1 Corinthians 2:14 saying that the wisdom of God in the cross of Christ is wiser than the wisdom of man and yet man finds it so foolish. The cross is so wonderful, so amazing. I hope that you find it as delightful as I do.

Related posts:

Redemptive-Historical Preaching and Charles Dennison

Habakkuk 2:4 Part 5–Righteous by Faith

“In his image” and Aramaisms