Habakkuk 1:1 -2:1
March 8, 2020
preached by Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Prayer is a moment of incarnation – God with us. God involved in the details of my life.”

~ Paul E. Miller, contemporary author

“Even doubting thoughts and feelings that border on sin are better laid out before the gracious eyes of the Lord than nursed in our hearts. God will not be shocked! He knows our inmost thoughts anyway!”

~ Iain Duguid, contemporary pastor, professor and author

“Doubt is honesty. Unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light. Unbelief is content with darkness.”

~ Henry Drummond (1851-1897), Scottish evangelist, biologist, writer and lecturer

“There are those who insist that it is a very bad thing to question God. To them, ‘why?’ is a rude question. That depends, I believe, on whether it is an honest search, in faith, for His meaning, or whether it is the challenge of unbelief and rebellion.”

~ Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015), Christian missionary, author and speaker

“You must learn to be strong in the dark as well as in the day, else you will always be only half brave.”

~ George MacDonald (1824-1905), Scottish author, poet and Christian minister

“Measure not God’s love and favor by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof.”

~ Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), English theologian and author

“The cross is the surest, truest and deepest window on the very heart and character of the living and loving God.”

~ N.T. Wright (1948-present), English New Testament scholar and retired Anglican bishop

“This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him… Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

~ Acts 3:23-24, 36 (NIV)

Sermon Passage

Habakkuk 1:1 -2:1 (NIV)

Habakkuk 1
¹ The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

² How long, 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 wrongdoing?
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 dwellings 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 an eagle swooping to devour;
⁹ they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
¹⁰ They mock kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen ramps they capture them.
¹¹ Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

¹² LORD, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, LORD, have appointed them to execute
judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
¹³ Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than
themselves?
¹⁴ You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
¹⁵ The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
¹⁷ Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?

Habakkuk 2
¹ I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.