Habakkuk: The Strange Bed Fellows of Faith and Fear
January 24, 2021 • Pastor Paul Edwards
How does faith respond to the fear and anxiety we experience when all of the normal resources for the sustaining of our lives fail?
The answer is in Habakkuk's closing confession of faith as we learn how fear isn't an indication of the lack of faith but is itself an expression of faith. How do fear and faith coexist?
Habakkuk: The Push and Pull of Prayer
January 20, 2021 • Pastor Paul Edwards
In Habakkuk 2:4 God told Habakkuk that the way in which His righteous remnant in Judah would survive the rising wickedness of the Babylonians was that "the just shall live by faith." Now, in Habakkuk 3:2 Habakkuk responds to that word from God in prayer: "Make it so! Cause your people to live by faith under hardship and suffering!"
What drives you to prayer? For Habakkuk, he was pushed to prayer by the word which He had heard from God and he was pulled to prayer by the majesty of a terrifying and dangerous God. Does truth from God and truth about God stir you to pray?
Habakkuk: The Derision of God's Retribution
January 17, 2021 • Pastor Paul Edwards
God has raised up the Chaldeans to judge His own people. But the Chaldeans are responsible for the wickedness they have inflicted on God's people, and God now promises that the Chaldeans will pay for their evil deeds. God's people will ultimately be vindicated, even as they wait patiently for God's judgment to fall on their tormentors.
Habakkuk: The Nature of Biblical Faith
January 13, 2021 • Pastor Paul Edwards
The vision of Habakkuk 2:2-20 is the answer to Habakkuk's complaint in 1:12-27: how can God use a more wicked nation (pagan Babylon) to punish a less wicked nation (Judah)? God's answer is that His judgment will "at the appointed time" fall on the wicked Babylonians, and that the secret to enduring the rising and prevailing wickedness in the mean time is for the believer to go on living by their faith in that promise as if it were already present reality.
What does living by faith look like in practical terms? We consider the three times Habakkuk 2:4 is quoted in the New Testament to find the answer.
Habakkuk: "Look and See!" Part Two
January 10, 2021 • Pastor Paul Edwards
Habakkuk indicts God with being blind, deaf, and mute to the plight of the righteous in Judah. He's struggling to reconcile what he knows about God's justice with the reality of what God is allowing the wicked to do to His people. And it is while he is worshiping that Habakkuk is reassured that in spite of all the evil the righteous endure, we will not die!
Habakkuk: "Look and See!" Part One
January 6, 2021 • Pastor Paul Edwards
Chapter 1 of Habakkuk is a dialogue initiated by Habakkuk with God, which alternates between the two of them saying to the other: "Look and See!"
Habakkuk laments the miserable state of God's people who are being oppressed by wicked rulers and the unfair application of the laws (1:1-4). God replies that He has a plan to deal with the wickedness of His people by sending an even more wicked people to thresh them (1:5-11), to which Habakkuk offers a protest (1:12-17).
