October 17, 2004 * Pentecost 20 * Habakkuk 1:1-2:4 * Vicar Caauwe

Some people say that young people can be foolish. I've heard that some young people have the idea that nothing bad will ever happen to them. They can eat what they want, drive as fast as they desire, associate with whomever they please, and no harm will come upon them. They're invincible. That is, until reality sets in.

Such boldness and confidence fades away when, for example, they stand at the grave of a classmate. It fades when the yesterday's mistakes bring today's troubles. The boldness that once shouted "It can't happen to me!" now says, "It could happen to anyone." The reality of life tends to shake confidence.

Christians are a bold bunch. Faith is, by definition, a confident trust. Yet some might mistake our confidence for arrogance. They might think our confidence is foolish, especially when current events seem to contradict our faith. There are even times when these thing may shake our own confidence.

The current events of our day and of our lives are not that much different from those of the people of Habakkuk's day. Habakkuk was a prophet. We normally think of prophets as those who speak from God. They received a message from God that they were to proclaim to the people. But prophets were also those who spoke to God for the people. In these verses Habakkuk does both. On their behalf, the prophet called out to God. God's reply was a message of life and death. It was a message of life and death for people dealing with the reality of life. In the face of death, God's people call out

WE WILL NOT DIE BUT LIVE!

The circumstances of the day may lead us to wonder, I. "Really? We will not die?"
But the Word of the Lord leads us to cry out: II. "We will live. Really!"

Habakkuk was well aware of his current events. He was living at a time of great wickedness and unbelief—not just in foreign lands and among heathens who happened to live in Judah. It was the people of Judah who practicing idolatry and had rejected the promises of the LORD. And so, on behalf of the few true believers in Judah, Habakkuk cried out to God: "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are there before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds."(1:2)

Yes, Habakkuk was well aware of what was going on. In fact, he uses six different words to describe it: injustice, wrong, destruction, violence, strife, conflict. And all these things were going on completely unchecked. As far as he could see, these things would continue and probably only grow worse. So he cried out to the Lord, "How long? Why?"

Then the LORD responded through the prophet. We find this at the end of chapter two, the section omitted from our first lesson. "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. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people."(1:5,6) God replied that he was going to send the Babylonians, also known as the Chaldeans, to completely destroy Judah for its wickedness. God was going to use this foreign land to discipline his people, and to lead sinners to repentance.

But Babylon was even more wicked than the people of Judah, so Habakkuk lamented that God do such a thing. One of the reasons he did that is because from all outward appearances, it seemed that the righteous (the believers) would be destroyed along with the wicked. The Babylonians were not interested in preserving God's people. Their sword would fall on believer and unbeliever alike.

Habakkuk cried out, "O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die." (2:12) Would God allow his chosen people to die, the people he had chosen and set aside, the people he had protected in the desert and preserved as a nation? For if the people of God died, God's promise would have dies with them. Would God let his promises fade away?

Does Habakkuk's cry sound familiar? "How long, O Lord?" How long will you let sin and wickedness spread like fire in this world? How long will your faithful people live among violence and vengeance, destruction and death? And how long will your calls to repentance (natural disasters, acts of terror), how long will these calls to repentance go unheeded by the world and yet, and yet fall on the righteous as well as the wicked?

"O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die." (2:12) O really? It looks like we will. The evidence says things are getting worse. The evidence says fewer and fewer people believe. The evidence says that those who do believe will be attacked and tempted and persecuted and killed.

It looks like we will and it seems that we should. God has made it clear from the beginning that the one who disobeys will die. It wouldn't take us very long to find out that the same thing that causes all the wickedness and violence that we see in the world—that stuff that we hate so much—that same thing can be found in us. The greed that leads to theft—right here. The lust that leads to adultery—right here. The hate that leads to murder—right here. And when we cry out, "Violence!" "Injustice!", we cry out against ourselves. It looks like we will die and it seems we should die.

But the prophet says something amazing. He says something bold. He says something contrary to what seems to be. "My God, my Holy One, we will not die." This is not the arrogant cry of youth. It's not the cry of one who has yet to be enrolled in the school of real life. The prophet says "we will not die" because he knows that God will not let his promise die. He knows God has something to say about this. And so...

"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."(2:1)

Habakkuk knew that the Lord would answer and so he waited for a word from God about the certainty of life. "Then the LORD replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it." (2:2)

Now Habakkuk had something he could say to the people of Judah. God had spoken. He gave to Habakkuk a word that was so important that it had to be written down, permanently and clearly. It had to be clear so people could understand it. It had to be permanent because it applies to the future.

"For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." (2:3) The revelation, the word of God spoke of a time that was yet to come. And what did it say?

"See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright" (2:4) Even though it seems like wickedness prevails, he said, even though the Chaldeans are threatening to destroy you, God knows that what they do is wicked, and God will punish sinfulness with death.

But, "but the righteous one will live by his faith." (2:4) Here is life. Here is truth and righteousness. And it comes by faith. It comes by believing the promises of God—the promises of God that seem so far away and so impossible. And those who believe these promises receive what the promises say. They say that God would send a Savior, a man who would live life in the place of all men. They say that the Messiah would suffer and die, again, in the place of all men. They say what Paul wrote to Timothy in the second lesson, that God "saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we had done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Timothy 1:9-10)

So we will live because the gospel promises life with God—life now and life forever. We will live because the promises of the gospel come to those who believe those same promises.

Of course, that doesn't mean that we will never face hardship, or danger or persecution. It doesn't mean that we will not actually face the death of our bodies. Those things will come, but this word from God tells us that through those things and in spite of those things, we will live.

It was the writer of Psalm 118 who recorded the words "I will not die but live."(Ps. 118:17) But you'll notice that these words came at a time when death seemed like a real possibility. The same psalmist wrote "in my anguish I cried out to the LORD" and "The Lord has chastened me severely." Martin Luther found these words to be very comforting. He found them comforting when he found himself an enemy of the state, an enemy of the church, and particularly when his battles with the Devil were most severe.

We will not die but live! We say that, not because our confidence is so great, not because we have done something to increase our faith so that these things must happen. We say that because our faith is based on sure promises of God. They are based on words that "will not prove false"—words, such as "Your sins are forgiven." or "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." or "This is the true body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..for the forgiveness of your sins."

So when your faith feels smaller than a mustard seed, and weak, you can say, "I have been baptized. My faith is a miraculous gift of God." When the sinfulness and wickedness and injustice and cruelty that affects you the most is your sinfulness, and those sins weigh heavily on your heart, you can say "I am forgiven." As the world grows more dangerous, as fighting and conflict in the world grows more and more intense, as diseases spread and grow, as the day of death draws near, you can say, "I will not die but live!" You can say that with absolute confidence. And this absolute confidence brings absolute comfort.

We will not die but live! These words are not spoken by arrogant people who are unaware of the realities of life. They are spoken by people like you and me. They are spoken by people who know very well what life is, who know the dangers all too well. But they are spoken by those who know whom they have believed. They know he is faithful. They know his Word is true. Really! We will not die but live! Amen.