This is definitely not an exercise in trying to predict what I think Almighty God ought to do! It is trying to discern what he is saying to his world today, based upon what he has said and done in the past, together with what he has told his prophets concerning the future. One thing is certain, when the Almighty tells us his plans, he will always carry them through.
Habakkuk wrote during the time when Josiah was king of Judah, about a century after Assyria had exiled the northern tribes of Israel. Babylon was the rising superpower. In spite of Josiah’s reforms, Judah remained a wicked, idol worshipping nation. Jeremiah was preaching in Jerusalem, but no one liked what he said God was telling them. Habakkuk earnestly pleaded with God to do something, anything, to make Judah righteous. But nothing changed; it seemed as if God was deaf. If anything the people became more entrenched in their evil ways.
The world turmoil today is strikingly similar, if not worse than the spiritual life in Judah at that time. Nations are still battling to retain or gain power. Almighty God is being discarded as irrelevant, his Word is being ignored and wickedness is advancing. How can the disastrous prognosis be changed? Man does not seem to have any viable solution. And church leaders usually seek popularity rather than preach about the need for repentance before a holy God.
Then God told Habakkuk his unbelievable plan. A nation even more evil than Judah would come and defeat them, destroy Jerusalem and the Temple and enslave the remaining people in Babylon! It took a while for the unbelievable to be believed. But God revealed his patience. And Habakkuk revealed his God-given humility and earnestness to learn. God’s answer to their pleading was that sin must reap its just reward. “The wages of sin is death”. Ro 623
In Habakkuk’s day Babylon would be God’s chosen instrument.
God sent Jeremiah to tell Judah what was wrong and what God was going to do.
My people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
You say, ‘I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.’
Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’ Jer 213, 35
Jeremiah still speaks God’s word.
But he remains as unpopular now as he did then.
What is UK doing? What would Jeremiah say about UK today? During WW2 the British had many good Christian leaders and the nation responded to the call for prayer on several occasions. God graciously gave us victory over Nazi Germany. But since then this nation has become like Judah in the days of Jeremiah and Habakkuk. We have legalised abortion murder and homosexuality. Sunday is no longer a Sabbath day for worshipping God. We have a Catholic Queen and a Hindu Prime Minister (April 2024), and a Foreign Office that hates Israel. The Church of England Synod in Nov 2023 voted to trial the official blessing of same-sex marriages. In the school curriculum Creation has been transferred from science to a minor part of religious studies, and is thus ignored. The Evolution Theory is now taught as scientific truth, and thus Almighty God is side-lined and blasphemed. Many street preachers are being arrested by the police.
In Habakkuk’s day God sent Babylon. Who or what will he choose today?
Jesus told his disciples what would happen in the ‘last days’ in Math 24.
First he warns them about the danger of being deceived and led astray.
Satan has deceived this once largely Christian nation and caused the majority to believe 6 major lies and to discard 7 glorious truths concerning Jesus Christ.
See file "Six Lies and Seven Truths (Use back arrow to return here)
He told his disciples about the Tribulation events and how God plans to judge those who refuse to heed his clear warnings. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. ... And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. ... Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ... Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Math 243-35
The Lord reveals to John much detail of the ‘Great Tribulation’ in Rev 6-18. It is a significant portion of God’s Word that is seldom read and rarely understood because modern man does not appreciate that the loving God is also a just judge.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments Jesus reveals why he had to come and be crucified. He reveals the need for sacrifice to enable sin to be forgiven. The New Testament reveals the detail of how the sinless Son of God agreed to meet the required redemption price. No man can ever offer a perfect sacrifice; only Jesus could do this. The Cross of Christ alone stands between us and our sin. It is the only means by which we can receive God’s full forgiveness. Thus the Cross in the New Testament is not only a symbol of the Love of God, but most vitally it is the proof of a Judge who took upon himself the just punishment that we all deserve.
As Habakkuk was surprised to learn that Babylon was God’s judgement on Judah, the world has always found it difficult to see the tribulation as justice in the hand of Almighty God. They find it equally difficult to perceive that the Cross of Christ is God’s judgement and the just sentence for all our sin; that Jesus has paid the ‘wages of sin’ that we deserve.
It was hard for Habakkuk to see beyond the just destruction of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon, but he was enabled to declare: I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. ... yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Hab 316,18
It is hard to see how the judgement of God’s was in fact also his loving faithfulness. Nearly a century later Judah would return and rebuild the Temple under Joshua and Zerubbabel. And then after a further 80 years they would rebuild the city walls under Nehemiah and Ezra.
The prophet Zechariah looked forward to the day Christ died in our place on Calvary’s hill and proclaimed, “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him ... On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.” Zech 1210 131
Jeremiah also declared that after the judgement of Babylon: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’ For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord. ...
And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. ... For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord ... For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. ... Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord ... It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever. Jer 3110-12, 28, 33,34, 38,40
Beyond the judgement, God promises to establish his eternal kingdom of truth and righteousness.
All down the ages God has been revealing to all who would seek and listen:
Christ has paid the just ransom demand in full.
He has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Believing that Christ is our advocate and Redeemer enables us to stand
in the presence of God fully forgiven of all our sin.
He wants all men to know that there is still 'a wicket gate' that is open to all
who seek the Lord God. He still pleads to all to come to him:
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant ...
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Is 551-17
Jesus Christ crucified and risen has made this return possible.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Is 351-10
The last two chapters of the Bible are devoted to God telling us about
‘the new heaven and the new earth’, the everlasting kingdom of righteousness and truth.
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Rev 2220
Conclusion
Almighty God still declares to sinful men:
1. Almighty God designed and created all things: it did not 'evolve'.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host. ...
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm. Ps 336,9
2. The loving God is also the just Judge who demands the death sentence on all sin;
It must fall either upon the sinner
or on the Son of God, the Redeemer of all sinners who believe in Christ.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Jn 317,18