Here come the Babylonians

 

We closed our study yesterday by saying that God was going to answer Habakkuk's prayer; He was going to send something -- but it wasn't going to be revival. 

Enter the Babylonians.

“I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth” (v. 6).

I bet that Habakkuk was surprised, to put it mildly. He knew about the Babylonians (or the Chaldeans, as some historians call them).  Everybody knew about the Babylonians. They were the most hated and the most feared nation on earth. Their king was Nebuchadnezzar, and they looted, plundered, and enslaved the countries around them. No one could stand in their way. And no one could defeat them.

The Babylonians were cruel and ravenous to conquer more and more territory. If they saw a province or a nation that had a commodity they wanted, they just "up and took it." They intimidated their new subjects by piling up skulls in the city plazas, or torturing (and maiming) their provincial or national leaders. In our world today, it is probably hard for most people to fully comprehend the dread the Jews felt about the Babylonians as they watched them spread across the ancient world.

Look at how God describes the Babylonians: 

They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 

 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; 

they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. 

They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them. 

 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on— guilty people, whose own strength is their god. (Habakkuk 1:7-11)

Ruthless, impetuous. 

Feared, dreaded, a law unto themselves.

Swift as leopards, ravenous as wolves, and surprise their prey like eagles do.

Gathering prisoners like sand, mocking kings and scoffing at rulers.

They never stop.

But here is God's final indictment of the Babylonians: "whose strength is their god."

Wow. When God decides to judge Judah, He picks the meanest people on the block! I bet Habakkuk couldn't believe what he had just heard. 

Very often in the Bible, and in our own lives, too, things have to get worse before they can get better. I think we have all watched young people and adults alike who have been determined to go their own way, and life their lives without God. They've made horrible choices. Things have gotten worse. 

But then they hit rock bottom. And they realize Who they need. Maybe this is what Judah will need. We will see, as we study the book of Habakkuk.

This will be a study that will encourage us to see the "big picture."

We try to understand what God is doing in our world, and we only see a little of it at a time . . . . kinda like ants on a picnic blanket, we crawl along on the red part of the blanket and think life is all red. We hit a band of white and think wow, life is white. This is better. We crawl across a napkin and think life is blue, or across a plate and think life is red but has pink watermelon on it. We think, this is better; it tastes better than when we tried to sample the napkin. We trudge along from one color or texture to another -- we may never realize that God is actually painting a masterpiece in our lives using all of these colors. Every color has its place. Nothing is wasted. And when the painting is finished, we will discover that we were part of the painting from the very beginning.

Along with seeing the big picture, we need to remember that we serve a big God. Here's what I mean: God is not limited to what we think He should do! We humans make the mistake all the time of thinking that our plans and God's plans are the same. They aren't! 

 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)

God is not anybody's servant. He is Almighty God; He does whatever He pleases, whenever He pleases.

Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. (Psalm 115:3)

Habakkuk, in this conversation with God, thought he knew what God should do. In fact, I kinda like ole Habakkuk because he was a mistake-maker, just like me. First, he thought God was ignoring the sins of the people. Secondly, he was shocked and couldn't believe that God would use the Babylonians to judge the people of Judah. 

It's a good thing that God is bigger than our puny ideas.

It's a good thing that God's ways continually surprise us.

We need to be like Habakkuk; we need to be open to God's work in our lives; He can certainly change things around.

For Habakkuk, it's going to be a change from being puzzled to being filled with praise!

The first eleven verses of Habakkuk have been incredible! I can't wait to dig into the rest!