”The Burden of Habakkuk” | Pastor John Tilley Jr | Habakkuk 1

Habach chapter 1. Tonight we're going to

talk tonight on the burden of Habach.

Um, if your Bible has headings, the

heading at the top of the page above

where the book of Habach starts, Habach

1 probably says something like the

burden of Habach. That's what my heading

says at the top of my page in my Bible,

the burden of Habach. And so that's

where we're going to start. We're going

to talk about that this evening. I think

that's where actually we'll end tonight

is with the burden of Habach. That's

where the book begins. The second word

of the book of Habach is the word

burden. So, we're going to take a look

at that. I am excited about this study

in the book of Habach. I love the minor

prophet. But I have never actually

preached expositionally through a minor

prophet book. And so, this is the first

one. And I have preached messages from

the minor prophets, but I have not

preached for uh uh expositionally all

the way through one verse by verse. So,

I'm excited to do that beginning

tonight. And we're going to take

probably six or eight weeks. It's only

three chapters. It's a very short little

book, but we'll take six or eight weeks,

maybe 10 weeks. We see how the Lord

leads. And uh we're just going to go

verse by verse. We're going to study the

word. We're going to study the big

context. We're going to apply it to

where we live. And I know that this will

be a blessing to you. There's so many

practical applications to what Habach

was seeing and what Habach was feeling

that I think apply to not just our

culture, but more specifically our

Wednesday night church family. That this

group of people who are faithful to come

to church, who are faithful to pray, who

are who are faithful to serve, and

you're showing up and you're in the

right place and and yet you're still

seeing things take place that no doubt

you're beginning to say, "God, when when

are you going to show up? God, why is

this taking place? God, what are you

doing? And those are the exact same

questions that Habach was asking God as

he looked at his culture. He's serving

God. He's doing what's right. And he's

looking around at his culture and he's

saying, "God, when are you going to show

up? God, what are you doing? God, why

are these things taking place?" And then

God's going to answer him in this.

Really, the book of Habach is a

fascinating book because it is a

conversation between Habach and God.

They're going to go back and forth.

There's a dialogue here where Habach is

going to talk to God, then God's going

to talk to Habach, then Habach's going

to talk to God, then God's going to talk

to Habach, and the book is going to end

with a prayer from Habach to God. And

I'm sure that tonight um you have asked,

I have asked God, what are you doing?

Perhaps you and I have even been as bold

as Habach at times and we've confronted

God and been very bold in our

confrontation of God and said, "God,

this doesn't make sense to me. I don't

understand what you're doing." Maybe

even we've went so far as to say, "God,

I don't like what you're doing. I don't

understand it. I don't like it. I

wouldn't have chosen it." Those are the

feelings that Habach is feeling as he

begins to write this book. In this short

book of Habach, uh we see Habach dealing

with an age-old question that many

people ask and that is God, what are you

doing? Or God, why are you doing it? So

that's really the question that we're

going to answer as we study through this

book. And obviously the the context is

to the nation of Judah, the southern

kingdom, but the the application extends

to us because we ask the same questions

and we serve the same God. And so there

are many applications for you and I. Um,

so as we study the book, we're going to

get this conversation between Habach and

God. And we're going to observe a shift

in the spirit of Habach. And I pray that

our spirit will shift through this study

over the next eight or 10 weeks, however

long it takes us to work through this

verse by verse. I hope that we'll find

in our spirit the same shift that Habach

found in his spirit. Here's what I mean.

Habach begins in fear. We'll notice this

as we read here in a moment, a few

verses. He's going to in fear, but he's

going to end in faith. You get to the

end of the book, there is now faith.

Scott Paulie said this when considering

the book of Habach. He said, "Habach

begins with a sob, but he ends with a

song." And I thought that was a clever

way to frame the book of Habach. He's

going to begin with this perplexed, why

God, what are you doing? But then he

ends with this great praise, this great

prayer.

He begins with worry, but then he ends

in worship. That's where I hope we can

find ourselves. Though at times we may

be perplexed and at times we may be

worried and at times we may even weep. I

hope that over the next few weeks as we

lean into this wonderful little book

that God will renew in our hearts

peace and faith and and trust in what he

is doing even when we don't completely

understand. So look at Habach chapter 1

verse number one. I'm only going to read

a few verses tonight. Beginning

in verse one, the burden which Habach

the prophet did see.

Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and thou

wilt not hear? Even cry out unto thee of

violence and thou wilt not save.

Why dust thou show me iniquity and cause

me to behold grievance?

For spoiling and violence are before me,

and there are that raise up strife and

contention.

Therefore the law is slacked

and and judgment doth never go forth.

For the wicked doth compass about the

righteous, therefore wrong judgment

proceedth.

Sounds a lot like our culture, doesn't

it? We look around and a lot of these

things that Habach is seeing in his day

are the same things that you and I are

seeing in our day. And the questions

he's asking God, he's not really even

asking questions. There's one question

at the beginning of verse three, but

really he's demanding some things of

God. He's demanding some statements.

He's saying, God, how long are you going

to do this? Why are you doing this, God?

He is coming before God with this great

boldness. And so, I want us to look

tonight at just two things. We're just

going to look at verse one and verse two

tonight and we're just going to get our

feet wet and just kind of dip our toes

into the pool of Habach. So, number one,

write down Habach's background. We've

got to lay some foundation. We're going

to lay a little groundwork here. And

some of this will be review because we

recently uh flew over the book of Habach

in our flight 066 series. We were

covering every book of the Bible. Uh but

we did it very briefly. We did it very

quickly. So, let me remind you of a few

of these things. In verse one, we are

introduced to Habach.

Habach the prophet. Uh Habach was

writing at a time that would have been

the same time as Jeremiah, the same time

as Zephaniah. Two other prophets would

have been on the scene. He's writing

right before or just before the

Babylonians would come in and they would

destroy Jerusalem.

If you want the date, it would be around

605 to 608 BC. The Babylonians would

come in and uh they were going to take

the city of Jerusalem. They were going

to conquer the southern kingdom of

Judah. And this is coming. It's just on

the horizon a probably just a few years

away if that from the Babylonian army

Nebuchadnezzar coming in and and

conquering. They're standing right on as

a nation. The southern kingdom is

standing right on the 70year captivity.

They're getting ready to go into 70

years of captivity. You can imagine they

they have watched their neighbors to the

north, their brothers and sisters to the

north, the northern kingdom. They've

watched them fall to the Assyrians. They

watched them and their that kingdom come

crumbling down. And now they realize

that God's judgment is about to be

poured out on them as well. That the

Babylonians are coming. Babylon is

rising to power. They're going to

conquer Assyria. They're going to come

to power. And then they're going to come

towards uh Judah, the southern kingdom.

As Habach looks around, he sees the

rising of the Babylonian Empire, and he

sees the inevitable judgment that is

coming. And he asks God, "What are you

doing? I see that my my people, my

country is crumbling, and I see other

nations are rising up. And I see

inevitably what's happening. God's

judgment is going to be poured out on

us. God, do something. You've got to

stop them.

Habach is not going to like God's answer

very much. That's essentially the

context. That's where we find him. We

don't know much about the prophet

Habach.

We do know that he was a prophet. Verse

one tells us that he was a prophet.

Habach the prophet. So, we know he was a

prophet.

From chapter three, we pick up on the

fact that he was musically gifted. And

so some have suggested that he was a

Levite and that he served in the temple

in Jerusalem. And that's possible.

That's a possibility, but the Bible

doesn't state that for sure. So we don't

know much about him, but we do know his

name means, and I think this is so neat.

His name means an embrace. His name

means a hug. Habach the hugger. Maybe if

that helps you remember it. His name

means to embrace. Now that that could

indicate a couple of things. It could

indicate that God embraces his people.

And that would be a fitting reminder in

the midst of all the confusion and in

the midst of all the chaos and the sin

and the corruption and and the coming

judgment and all of the questions that

are going on. It would be a helpful

reminder to remember, hey, God embraces

his people. God loves his people. It

could also indicate that Habach was a

man who embraced God. And that also

would be a fitting uh reminder based on

the spirit of praise that we find that

Habach ends with. Habach was clearly a

prophet. He was no doubt a man of God.

He clearly loved God. And so perhaps his

name is an indication that Habach

embraced God. Even when he was confused,

even when he was upset. And that's very

literally in the most literal sense.

That's how the book ends is with Habach

giving God a hug and say, "God, I don't

understand. I may not agree, but I trust

you. I'm just going to have my faith in

you." That's how the book ends. And so

it would be fitting for the name to

indicate that it could it could indicate

either and perhaps it means both that

God embraces his people and that Habach

was a man who embraced God. Either way,

we know his name means to embrace.

As he looks around the southern kingdom

of Judah, he looks around his people. He

sees a time of great spiritual apostasy.

He sees a time of violence. He sees a

time of governmental corruption. He sees

a time of injustice throughout the land.

So, as Habach looks around and he

considers all of these different things

that are going on, he's overwhelmed.

We read about them here in just a moment

ago. As we look there, the thy law is

and we'll get into the what these mean

and exactly what's going on next week

probably. He's saying, "God, why are you

showing me so much iniquity?" You notice

it said in verse one, the burden which

Habach the prophet did see. God is

showing him these things on purpose.

God's allowing him, revealing to him the

state of his own people. Habach is

confused. God, why are you letting me

see this? God, why are you just showing

me iniquity? Why are you just showing me

grievances?

Why are you showing me spoiling and

violence? Those that rise up in strife

and contention. Where are God's people?

Where are the people that love God?

Where are the people who adore God?

Where are the people who are praising

God? And I can tell you in recent days,

I've asked some of those same similar

questions.

Lord, where where is your church at?

Where are the people who love you? Where

are the people who are hungry for God's

word? Where are the people who are

praying for a revival? Where have they

all gone? Oh, it seems like all we see

is the negative. You turn on the news

and it's just negative, negative,

negative. And this person has done that

and this evil person has done that and

this evil group has now done this and

and there's fighting and there's strife

and there's grievances and there's

iniquity and it's all around us. God,

where are your people at? Why are you

showing us all of this? This is the

attitude. This is the situation, the

context in which we find the prophet

Habach.

Number one, Habach's background. Write

down number two, Habach's burden. We're

going to get into these first two verses

for just a moment here. Habach sees the

decline of his people. He sees the rise

of the Babylonian Empire. Quite frankly,

he's at his wits end. He doesn't know

what to do. He doesn't know why God's

showing him this. And so, he just comes

to God with a bunch of questions. He's

desperate for an answer from God about

what is going on? What are you doing?

Are you doing anything?

I want to give you an outline of chapter

one so that we can frame this correctly.

There's 17 verses in chapter 1 and

there's a dialogue. There's a

conversation that goes on. And so I want

to point something out to you. Write

this little outline down. We see first

of all Habach's dismay.

Verse two through verse four. That's

what we read a moment ago. He's

dismayed.

He's upset. He doesn't understand. And

so in verse two through four, he cries

out to God.

Comes before God in utter dismay. And

he's really demanding of God why God is

doing these things and what God is going

to do about this problem. And then in

verse 5 down through verse 11, we see

God's decision.

So Habach comes before God very

dismayed. And then God reveals his

decision. He said, "Habach, I've already

made a decision. I already have a plan.

I know what I'm going to do about it.

So there's Habach's dismay, God's

decision, verse 5 through 11, and then

verse 12 through 17, the rest of the

chapter, Habach's disapproval.

Habach says, "No, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't do that, God.

No, that's not the answer I wanted.

That's not what I was looking for." So,

a little outline to get us all the way

through chapter one. Obviously, we're

not getting all the way through it

tonight. We're just introducing it.

We're going to come back to this, but

just to frame it and get it in context

for us. This conversation goes on.

Habach first, he's dismayed. God

responds with his decision, and then

Habach voices his disapproval the end of

the chapter.

I want you to notice something about

your Bible. Most of our Bibles should

contain this, but it'll be a helpful uh

little tool for you to file away. and uh

and notice when you're studying your

Bible. So, I'm just going to let's

pause. I'm going to come right back to

this, but let's step aside and let me

give you a Bible study tip. Can I do so?

There is in this passage a little

emblem,

right after the five, you see verse

five. And then right after the five,

between the word behold and the number

five, there's a little emblem. Do you

see that in your Bible?

You do not have it. Nobody has it. Okay.

Okay. Well, my Bible has it. You can put

it in there. It's called a pillcrow.

Okay. Uh what this is is it is an

editorial note. So, it's just a little

emblem. If I had thought about it, I

would have put it up here so you could

draw it in there. It's not inspired.

It was added by the translators, but it

was added for good purpose. They added

it in order to note a paragraph change.

So you're reading along in your text and

in uh the chapters and the verses were

added at a later time, right? So if you

reading it in Hebrew, there's no

chapters, there's no verses, there's no

pillcro, it's all just one thing. But

the Hebrew would break paragraphs up and

thus break the text up by paragraphs. So

when they added the chapters and the

verses, all of the paragraphs got

bunched together and they begin

separating it by chapters and verses.

Y'all with me so far? So then if you're

just reading down through here, for

instance, let's read verse four into

verse five and see if we can pick up on

the fact that the speaker changes just

by reading it. Look at it. Therefore,

the law is not slack and judgment doth

never go forth. For the wicked doth

compass about the righteous, therefore

wrong judgment proceedth. Behold, ye

among the heathen, and regard and wonder

marvelous marvelously, for I will work a

work in your days, which you will not

believe, though it be told you. Now, if

you're reading carefully, you might be

able to pick up on the fact that the

speaker has changed. The tone has

changed between verse four and verse

five. If you're reading it quickly,

though, you probably don't even notice

it, right? I'm telling you all this to

tell you that the speaker changes. Verse

four is Habach. Verse five, God is

answering. And that little emblem there

shows us, it tells us that there is a in

the Hebrew, it's a new paragraph, which

would indicate a new speaker. Not it

would indicate, it could indicate a lot

of things. In this case, it indicates a

new speaker. So now God's going to

answer. Now if if your Bible has one has

them, then it would have another one at

verse 12. Same thing, verse 12. And

that's now Habach is speaking again.

Another paragraph break. So now Habach

is speaking again. Okay, so that's that

took a lot longer than I wanted it to.

But just a little note there. Uh, a lot

of King James Bibles have them.

Apparently a lot of them do not. I

honestly I didn't check all my Bible. I

only checked this one and it had it.

Maybe it's not as common, but what if

you're interested in it, I'll show it to

you after church. Okay? Let me show it

to you after we're done tonight and I'll

I'll point it out to you in my Bible. I

want you to notice two words tonight as

we conclude and we'll pray. I want you

to notice two words in verse one and

two.

We get the context, okay? There's this

conversation going on between Habach and

God. He's upset. Habach's worried. He's

at his wits end. He doesn't know what's

going on. God, what is happening? What

are you doing? comes and demands some

answers from God, God's going to give

him the answer. That's the broad

context. I want you to notice two words,

one in verse one and one in verse two. I

want you to underline or circle the word

burden in verse one.

And then the very first letter of verse

two is the letter O. You see that?

underline that letter O.

Now, these two work together, but I'm

going to take them one at a time and

then we're going to put them together

and apply the whole thing to us tonight.

Here's what I want to give you tonight.

The burden of Habach. This is this is

the message tonight. What does that word

burden mean? It means a load or a weight

as if you're carrying something. It's a

great weight. This great load that is

carried. What is it then that caused

such a great weight to the spirit of

Habach? What is it that was weighing him

down? What is it that was he was

carrying?

I heard a story uh recently of a

preacher who went to preach at a

meeting. He preached at a meeting and he

preached on a burden for lost souls.

That's what he preached about. Well,

after the sermon, a little old lady came

up to him and said, "That was a a good

sermon." She said, "That was a great

sermon. I just disagree with one thing."

Which preachers, we always love when

people come to us and say, "I just

disagree with one thing." He said, 'Yes,

ma'am. what do you disagree with? She

said, "Well, you you spent the whole

message talking about a burden for

souls, but I don't believe Christians

have burdens. We're supposed to bring

our burdens to the Lord and leave them

there." And so, we don't have burdens

when we're saved. Jesus takes all our

burdens away. The preacher said that he

looked at her and responded uh teaching

him own his own. He hadn't thought about

this before, but he said, "I kind of

taught it to myself as I answered her

question."

He said when we get saved, we lay a

whole lot of burdens down and we pick up

a whole lot of new burdens. He said

there are burdens that we leave at the

cross and Jesus takes care of them, but

then we pick up a burden for lost

people. We pick up a burden for our

country. We pick up a burden for the

truth to be gone out. And I thought that

was a great way to explain it because

clearly in in the scripture, Habach, a

prophet, a preacher of the gospel, yet

he carries a burden. So what would it be

then that Habach just take it to the

cross and leave it there? No. He said,

"No, I picked this one up by getting

around Jesus. I'm actually carrying this

burden because I've spent time next to

the Savior and and I know what the truth

is and I'm looking at my culture and I

know that God's a God of judgment and

and I am burdened about the condition

and the direction of my people."

So what was it that burdened him? It was

this burden for his country. I think

there's two things that we can identify

from the book as a whole. Number one, he

was burdened by the corruption of Judah.

He was burdened by the corruption of

Judah.

He was burdened by the state of his

culture. He was burdened by the state of

his country. His friends, his neighbors,

his ministry friends all seem to have

forgotten God.

He looks around at his country and he

begins to see

the sins of his own people and it breaks

his heart.

And I think that we ought to be burdened

for our country in the same way.

I think it was maybe Maryland. I should

have double checked, but there is a New

England state that just this week sat

around a desk and all applauded the

signing of a bill that allows abortion,

I believe, all the way up until the day

of birth.

And they sat there around the governor's

desk and as she signed the bill, they

all applauded like this was a huge win.

That ought to burden the heart of every

bibleelving Christian

that in our country right now there are

states that are doing this that are

allowing the murder of human life and

rejoicing over it. Hey, there's judgment

coming for that.

So he's burdened by the corruption of

Judah, but then he's also burdened by

the coming of judgment.

Because of her sins, Habach understands

that judgment is coming.

God will judge the wicked.

So, he's worried about this coming

judgment. And then God's going to

confirm his worst fears. I want you to

think about the weight. Think about this

weight laid on the back on the shoulders

of Habach

or even apply it in this way. Think

about it as a weight applied to your

shoulders.

Sometimes we try and get out from under

it and we ignore it and we look the

other way and act like, "No, that's not

happening in our country and no, we're

not that bad. We're America. We're still

founded on Bible a Bible country and we

were founded on a Bible foundation."

And I'm thankful for our heritage in

this country, but oh, how far we've

drifted from it. And we ought to carry

that weight. We ought to let that burden

us.

Okay. So, he sees the the burden, but

then I had you notice a second word. The

first letter, it's not even really a

word. It's a sound.

It's the letter O.

It's not It's not really a word. It's a

groan.

O.

If you look at chapter three, very

quickly, flip one page if you have to

flip it all. Chapter 3 and verse two.

Notice the first letter of chapter 3 and

verse two as Habach now begins this

final prayer to God. He says, "Oh Lord,

I have heard thy speech and was afraid."

Oh Lord, revive thy work.

You see the burden of Habach

was oh God.

The burden that he was carrying in his

spirit now escapes his lips in a

helpless hopeless cry. Oh,

the weight of his spirit in verse one

now becomes weeping in his eyes in verse

two. His woe from verse one becomes a

whale in verse two.

Oh God.

Have you ever been so burdened by

something you did not know even what to

say?

You just said, "Oh God. Oh, oh, help us.

Oh, help us."

During the great Welsh Revival, one of

the great revivals of our history,

one of the witnesses of that Welsh

revival recorded that they could sense

the coming of revival. And they could

sense the coming of a great move of God

because there was an his words exactly

this witness of the Welsh revival. His

words said that you could sense it

because there was a return of the O in

the prayers.

And in those old prayer meetings leading

up to the Welsh revival, you would hear

saints of God just whailing out to God

saying, "Oh," groaning, that weight in

their spirit, that burden in their

spirit, "Oh God, oh God,

we need you."

I think the reason that at least one of

the reasons that we've not seen revival

in our day like we have seen in latter

days is because we've lost the old from

our prayers.

We pray very religious prayers. We pray

very spiritual prayers. But if I could

be so bold as to say it this way, we

pray very faical prayers, don't we?

Oh God, you're so great and good. We

thank you for all of the good things

that you and we go through this list of

reciting these things off.

We need to come back to a place where

it's a heart cry.

Heart cry. Oh God,

this was the cry of Habach. This was the

burden of Habach. We see it in chapter

1. We see it again in chapter three.

It's not even a word. It's just this

groaning of his spirit. what is

burdening him on the inside just makes

its way to the outside.

And what is that prayer? Well, look back

at chapter 3 and verse two one more

time. What is he praying for?

There's a little phrase there that you

could underline. We'll get to it here in

a few weeks. He said, "Revive thy work."

What is he praying for? He's praying for

revival. He's praying for a spiritual

awakening amongst his people. Oh God,

wake us up. Oh God, bring revival.

I look around and I see my culture. I

look around at my countrymen. I look

around at what's going on and I'm

burdened and I'm heartbroken.

I hate it so much. Oh God, would you

show up?

Revival doesn't happen

by us being concerned about everybody

outside of these walls changing.

Revival is not going to happen because

we look outside and we think, "Man, they

should have been here tonight. That

person should have heard this or I wish

they would be in church." No, no, no,

no. That's not where revival starts.

Revival, I think, if it's going to

happen in our day. I believe that

revival in our day starts in the

Wednesday night prayer meeting.

I think it starts with this group of

people who are already committed to God,

who already love God. We're not debating

that. You know your Bible. Most of you

probably know your Bible better than I

know my Bible. You could probably be the

one teaching on Wednesday nights.

We We know what we're supposed to know.

So often we've for we've forgotten the

O.

We've lost that burden.

We've set aside that weight that we're

supposed to be carrying for our culture

and our family.

And I want my prayer is that over these

next few weeks that we're not going to

understand everything God's doing.

That's why the theme of the book is

faith. Chapter 2, verse four, we'll get

to one of the most quoted Old Testament

passages in all of the Bible. The just

shall live by their faith. The whole

theme of the book is Habach, just trust

me. God is saying, "Habach, just trust

me. You don't understand it. Just trust

me." But before we can ever get there,

before we can ever dig into that and

understand that, we've got to catch the

burden of Habach. If Habach had not

cried out to God like he did, he may

have never heard from God like he did.

If he had never found the oh and the

burden and the weight that he carried

for his country, he may have never heard

from God.

But yet God does answer him and God

speaks to him. And it's not the answer

he wanted, but he does hear from God.

And I'm willing to hear something that I

don't want to hear as long as I hear it

from God.

But it's going to take some people who

catch a burden. We say, "Oh God, would

you come back to us?" My prayer is this.

My prayer is that the burden of Habach

would rest upon the people of Bethl

Baptist Church. that for the next eight

or 10 weeks, we would catch a fire and a

burden for revival

that perhaps some of us have never had.

Some of us have had it in the past, but

we've kind of set it aside. And I pray

that God would revive us. Now, I'll tell

you this. The Lord has already been

working on my heart in the last few

weeks on on this as I've prayed about

where to go next.

And I've even seen glimpses in recent

services

the moving of God and the presence of

God. And God I believe God is preparing

to do something great.

I don't know what it entails. I don't

know what it is. But I'm going to have

faith because he is a faithful God. So

I'm going to trust him.

But more than anything, it doesn't

matter if God does something great or if

if God doesn't do much at all. All I

want to do is hear from God. And I've

got a burden that we would hear from God

in our day. The spirit of God and the

presence of God would be renewed and

that a spirit of revival would be caught

again in the local church. And my my

prayer and my burden is that God would

let us have a part in that. And so

tonight as we conclude and we made we

we're nine minutes early. I haven't quit

preaching nine minutes early on a

Wednesday night in years probably and

I've only been here four. So it's been a

while. Here's what I want us to do

tonight. I want us to take a few

minutes. I want us to find somebody to

pray with. And I want us just to take a

few minutes and say, "Oh God,

oh God, show up. Pray about this coming

Sunday

that God would bring guest to the house

of God. That people would be saved. Pray

that there would be a revival of a

hunger for the word of God. Everybody

thinks they know everything that they

need to know about God's word. But let

me tell you, we nobody knows everything

they need to know about God's word. It's

a living book. It's always revealing

more of God to us. We need to have a

fresh hunger for God's word. Would you

pray about that? Would you pray for our

services? Pray for God would revive a

hunger for truth in our culture

that his presence would just dwell

amongst us in a very special way. I'm

going to I'm going to play some music

just softly tonight. And while I get

that going, we'll find somebody to pray

with this evening. And uh let's just

take a few minutes, five, six, seven. If

the Lord leads, we'll stay longer. Let's

just pray for a revival. Will we do

that?