Habakkuk 1:12 Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
In yesterday’s devotional we noted that God was going to punish Judah through the Babylonians. The king of Babylon would assume that his god had gained him the victory over this long standing enemy. Nations had their eyes on Israel for years. God had given Israel a special place among the surrounding nations. God chose Israel to be His people. He began with one man, Abram and his wife, Sarai. He changed their names to Abraham and Sarah. He moved them to a strange land so that He could work with them as He intended. He needed to remove the distractions. He carefully built His design for this new nation. He gave that nation His laws and He gave them godly men to lead them. They were given peace and prosperity in a way other nations did not know. The main advantage Israel had was the greater knowledge of Who God Is.
The nations around Israel were envious of her superior position. Israel did not occupy a large parcel of land. However, they were self-sufficient and they were powerful enough to maintain their borders. The nations around there wanted the land. Israel soon lost sight of the way of blessing and the world infiltrated their thinking and actions.
During the reign of Hezekiah, the Babylonians had come to wish him well after he was near death and then God gave him another fifteen years of life. Hezekiah acted very foolishly during those last fifteen years. He showed all the treasures of his kingdom to the Babylonians who came to see him. He did not walk in the fear of the LORD and his son Manasseh was not taught the importance of the fear of the LORD. As we mentioned yesterday, Habakkuk wrote during the time of king Josiah, who was the last good king of Judah. The fall of Judah was imminent. God honoured Josiah’s humble submission to Him. However, God knew the heart of the people and they were not interested in following the true God. Thus, after Josiah’s death, the nation would fall into the hands of the Babylonians.
In verse 12 Habakkuk was directed to exalt the true God. He acknowledged that the LORD God is from everlasting in the form of a question. Notice that he acknowledged the LORD God as his God. He also escalated Him as his Holy One. It is good to know the true God. He is Holy. Most professing Christians do not acknowledge that fact. Their god is an unholy god who likes the world’s music and the world’s standards.
We warned of an ecumenical conference that took place in Winnipeg last weekend. Now there is another ad for another ecumenical conference coming up in Winkler. You notice that the focus of that conference is Jesus. No doctrine. Just Jesus. Which Jesus? That does not matter. If you love Jesus, that is all that matters. Set aside Truth and just come and enjoy Jesus. We are living in a time of apostasy. There is a massive rejection of truth and an embracing of heresy. Discernment is gone. The temptation to cave in is great for so many. People do not want to be left out. This latest event is described as a youth camp for adults. I was involved in directing some youth camps and I saw the compromise that dominated those camps. I tried to warn against that, but it fell on deaf ears. The youth had such a “good time”. That was far more important than truth. That is still the thinking today. Those who were youth then, are the same ones who will attend this next venture. They were trained to ignore God then and manufacture their own god. They are still following that god.
God’s holiness is emphasized in Isaiah 6. Isaiah was given a vision of the holiness of God. It is important for those who are saved to be reminded of the holiness of God. We are commanded to be holy as our God is holy. That is a tall order that is not possible for us unless we are saved. Habakkuk understood that due to God’s nature, eternal life is assured for those who are His. Many Jews would die at the hand of the Babylonians. However, the nation would not be wiped out because God promised it would never die.
Habakkuk understood that God had ordained the Babylonians to judge Judah. He also acknowledged Him as the mighty God. God would use the ungodly Babylonians to correct His own people. Habakkuk acknowledged these facts, however, he could not understand how God could use a nation that was even more wicked than Judah, to judge Judah. Habakkuk had a false view of sin. The Babylonians did not have the true God. They were the fruit of wicked Nimrod. Israel had many opportunities to shine as a bright light in testimony of God’s holiness, but they had rejected that privileged place and they had chosen to adopt the paganism of the nations around them. They did not want to be a holy people and thus their sin was not any less than that of the Babylonians.
Judah was no more righteous than Babylon. God was not holding His tongue at the wickedness of Babylon. He sent Daniel and his three friends into that nation to testify of the true God. They would do a good job of showing king Nebuchadnezzar and his wicked counsellors that their way was wrong.
In verse 14 Habakkuk complained further about God’s dealings. He had made Judah like the fish of the sea. They were vulnerable and as the Babylonians would come in, it would be like a fisherman casting his net. The fish had no place to go. They would get caught in that net. They were also treated as the creeping thing on the earth. They still had a king, but not a godly king. Thus they were without a ruler. That is important for us to note. Lost people cannot see very far. They talk big but they have no direction. Israel chose that vulnerable place. They rejected the truth and pushed God away.
Canada is certainly a leaderless nation. More importantly, most churches are leaderless. The fact that there is the conference coming up next weekend proves that we are spiritually leaderless. Those who set themselves up as leaders do not know the Lord. They have received their training from leaderless schools and they have been elevated to high positions because they learned how to communicate. However, they cannot communicate truth because they do not know it.
The apostle Paul warned Timothy of the times that were coming.
II Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
We are there, yet most professing Christians do not see it. They think they are still doing great and that God is blessing. The perversions are very important in this falling away. The power of God is gone and the people do not see it because they have so much activity taking place and that is the basis of determining if God is blessing.
In verse 15 God further used the illustration of the fisherman. He casts his net, he pulls the net in and it is full of fish. They are excited about their good catch. Babylon came into Jerusalem on three occasions. Each time they took captives and killed others. Each time they plundered certain things from Jerusalem. They took treasures from the king’s palace and from the temple. There
was little resistance offered. A fish cannot fight back against the fisherman. It can flap around, but it has no way of escaping a good net.
In verse 16 we see further that the Babylonians assumed that it was their net that gave them the victory. A good fisherman needs a good net. He needs to be sure there are no large holes. He needs to be in an area where the fish are. However, a good fisherman needs to understand that if he gets a good catch, it is not by luck. It is not even because he is such a good fisherman and just knows where the fish are.
Jesus met His disciples after a night of fishing. They had toiled all night and caught nothing. Jesus would redirect their actions and they would catch fish. After His resurrection, He met the disciples after they were tired of an all night fishing expedition that came up empty. Jesus told them where to cast the net, and the draught was so large, and one of the disciples acknowledged this was Jesus’ doing. When Peter understood this, he left the others in the boat and quickly came to shore to meet Jesus. He knew this was not luck. He knew this was the hand of God that had blessed them. He needed to meet Jesus. That was more important than that boat load of fish.
The Babylonians did not take that approach. They assumed it was their good efforts that had won them the victory. In verse 17 Habakkuk rightly understood that the Babylonians would not stop attacking just because they had experienced some success. They were not satisfied because there was always more to conquer. After they had destroyed Judah, they would find other nations to attack.
Habakkuk was having a difficult time understanding God’s dealings. He certainly would not have acted as God did. We can be thankful that God is not as man is.
God acts with holiness all the time. He always knows what is best for us He knows how to get man’s attention. In our text, He had Habakkuk’s attention. Habakkuk did not understand what God was doing, but God knew full well what He was doing. There was no confusion with God. He did not make any mistakes. He demonstrated His power and His authority to go after His people. They needed to repent and be saved. That is the same need today. It is sad that so few are willing to humble themselves and turn to the true God. The hype of the world is so strong. The person who speaks the truth is rejected. We have been so brainwashed that we do not accept truth. It is a shame. There is a great need to wake up today and listen to what God says. In the midst of all the noise, it is still possible to discern the truth. That will not happen by being involved in the compromise. It will be by rejecting the compromise and submitting to the truth.
Pastor Bartel
