Habbakuk 1

So yesterday I lead a bible study with a group a young adult women and I thought I would share my bible study here as well.
I am quite an amateur bible study writer, so please read this as sort of my thought processes in writing this study. Clearly, its not perfect and I did get a lot of help from Heather, in particular the application part of the study. Also, some context is that we have been looking at the book og Jonah before this book, which is the reason why the book in brought up in the application section.

The bolded questions are the ones I asked in the study, the rest is what I said or the answers I was looking for.

Habbakuk 1- Bible Study

Aim: To illustrate human reaction to God's plans (Habbakuk's and ours) and how at times we think things are unfair but we fail to see the bigger picture and trust in God's sovereign plan.

Has there ever been times that you felt weren't fair? Are there any examples you can think of?

Why did you feel like it wasn't fair?
- Things perhaps didn't go your way?
- Felt like you deserved better?

Well, today we are going to read about how Habbakuk feels like he is a similar situation and how God begins to respond.
But first before we start diving into the passage, we need to work out its context. So we are going to do a little bit of detective work and try and work out its context by reading just the passage alone.

Read passage Habbakuk 1:1-11

What sort of clues do we get from the passage about when this book takes place?
V3-4: “Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed and justice never prevails.”
V6: “I am raising up the Babylonians …. who will sweep across the whole earth.”

V6 says how God is raising up the Babylonians, meaning it has not happened yet, this would lead us to predict that this book takes place before Judah is taken into exile by Babylon.
V2-4 Habbakuk describes violence and destruction and injustice of the people, which would lead us to believe that this is during the time of one of the latter Kings who lead the nation astray.

*evidence suggests this book might have taken place just before the exile of Judah by Babylon


Now that we know that this is just before Judah is taken into exile by Babylon, we can understand the passage a bit better.

Read again Habbakuk 1:1-4

What is Habbakuk's first complaint?
- There is so much violence and injustice all around him.
- Why does God tolerate injustice?
- Why does God not listen to his cries?

From whom is all this violence and injustice coming from? What sort of clues indicate this?
(Is it from Babylon?) (Also read Habbakuk 1:5-11)
- We have established that this book is pre-exile, unlikely that the violence and destruction is referring to the Babylonians.
- In verse 5-11, the Babylonians are spoken about as a separate group of people which would mean that the group that was spoken about previously was not the Babylonians.
V6 “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people”
Habbakuk is referring to the Jews, thus he is complaining about the injustice of the Jews.

Read Habbakuk 1:5-11

How does God respond to Habbakuk?

- God will raise up the Babylonians as judgement upon Judah

How does God describe the Babylonians? (What sort of impression do you have of the Babylonians after this description?)

- ruthless, imperteous people (v6)
- feared and dreaded people (v7)
- they are law to themselves and promote their own honour (v7)
- they all come bent on violence (v9)
- they fly like vulture swooping to devour (8)
- they deride kings and scoff at rulers (v10)
- guilty men, whose own strength is their god (v11)

How do you think Habbakuk will react to this? Or how do you think you would react to this if you were Habbakuk? (especially after how God describes the Babylonians)


Read Habbakuk 1:12-17

How does Habbakuk actually react to God's response?

v 13: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than we themselves?”
- He feels injustice as he feels that the Babylonians were more sinful than the Jews, yet God will send the Babylonians to judge the Jews.
This is probably what he would say in this modern day: "What? No! Not the Babylonians, they are way worse than we are. That's unfair. God, I thought you were just."

Remembering from the book of Jonah, how does Habbakuk's reaction compare with Jonah's?
- God acts unexpectedly, Jonah and Habbakuk both had lingering presumptions on how God should act.
- They both want God to act the way they want.
-For example, Jonah did not want the Ninevites to be saved (Jonah 4:2), which led to him running away from God (Jonah 1:3) and later on complaining to God that God saved the Ninevites (Jonah 4:2).
- Habbakuk though wants his people to be judged because of their violence, however does not want judgement to come through the Babylonians.

Is there times you reacted to situations like Habbakuk or Jonah?

Let’s look at other times where God’s solution is much different to what was expected.
Read Mark 8:27-33
- Peter had a presumption about how the Christ should act and how he should be.
- However, if Peter had gotten his way Jesus’ would not have died on the cross for our sins.
- God had a much grander plan than Peter had imagined.

Read James 4:13-17
What does James have to say about such an attitude?
“13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”
- We do not know what will happen tomorrow.
- Our lives are pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
- Boasting about our future (in this life) is arrogance and evil.
- Instead, we should do things that are in God's will.

Read Habbakuk 2:1
Habbakuk is a bit confused about God's choice of judgement. Who does Habbakuk go to for answers? How is this reaction different from Jonah?

1 “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”

- Even though, Habbakuk is quite confused about God's plan, he doesn't sit there and be angry at God like Jonah does (Jonah 4:4, 4:9-10), Habbakuk still looks to God to give him an answer.

Let’s finish by reading the Lord’s Prayer: Matthew 6:9-13
What does it tell us about how we should live and what attitude we should have?

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’

- Praise God
- Pray that God's will be done on earth just like God's will is done in heaven
- Reliance on God to give us what we need
- Constant request for forgiveness of sins
- And help us not to be tempted to go astray.


Let’s finishing by praying the Lord’s prayer.

Daniel 1

I was going through Daniel 1 today with Heather Reid and there were all these things that I had never noticed.

(I quite enjoy when I find out something new from the Bible, it makes it a bit exciting I think.)

So, I'll share what I learnt:

- The book of Daniel has a large emphasis of God doing things, as in 'the Lord delivered' (v2), 'God had caused' (v9) and 'God gave' (v17). This really emphasised that in fact God was in control of the whole situation. Though, King Nebuchadnezzar thought that he defeated Judah, it was in fact 'the Lord [who] delivered'(v2) Judah into his hands. And though Nebuchadnezzar thought that he had chose the best men and gave them knowledge, it was in fact 'God [who] gave knowledge and understanding' (v17), and also 'God [who] had caused the official to show favour and compassion to Daniel' (v9). Thus, we have a situation here where Nebuchadnezzar thinks that he's in control and that he 'won', but in reality it was all God's doing.

Heather also mentioned that even though the titles of this section were all along the lines of 'Daniel's training in Babylon', this section is more on the fact that it is God vs. Nebuchadnezzar. And at the end of chapter 1, we are given a hint of who would eventually win. 'And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus' (v 21) This sentence suggesting that Daniel outlasted Nebuchadnezzar, that is the man of God outlasted Nebuchadnezzar, who thought himself as being so great.

Some other interesting things:

- When Judah was exiled, Daniel must have been only around 14 - 15 years old. This is an estimate, but he must have had been this young to in fact be still alive during King Cyrus. And I find this fact absolutely amazing.

- In verse 2: 'And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia [a] and put in the treasure house of his god.' The footnote [a] says Hebrew Shinar. Now Heather asked me if I had recognised that name, which I did not, but then we turned to Genesis 11:1-9:

'1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.'

I found it rather interesting that the place where Nebuchadnezzar placed the articles from the temple of God, in the same place where the tower of Babel was.

I shall continue writing about the things I learn, because I quite enjoy it and it helps reinforce what I learnt and it might be interesting for others too.

faith

today at monday bible study we went though Hebrews 11
and the passage talked a lot about faith
what struck me was that
the author gave many examples of faith
not of people who have seen or were disciples of Jesus
(ie. they weren't during or after Jesus' time on earth)
but all the examples of faith he gave were all from the Old Testament
that is of: Abel, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Rahab, etc. etc.
they all showed faith in God,
though not knowing about Jesus Christ,
but just faith in God that would provide
whether it was salvation, or anything else.

Like Noah for instance (Genesis 6-9)
he built an ark on a hill
and it must have taken him years
even though he was constantly mocked by other people.
but he trust in God, that the flood will happen
and that when it did come,
he and his family will be safe.

Or Abraham (Genesis 22)
who was willing to sacrifice his one and only son
(amongst other acts of faith)
bore to him in his old age
because he trusted that God will provide
in any circumstance.

Also, this struck me because it is written to the Jews (Hebrews)
and to them, they thought salvation was through sacrifices
but the author illustrates
that no, it wasn't just doing the sacrifices
since abraham, abel, noah, enoch never did any sacrifices
but it was because God saw them as being faithful.
"Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6

thus, in Hebrews 11
the author illustrated (to the Hebrews) that
it was only through faith in the old testament
that God saw people as being righteous
not because of the sacrifices itself.
(though, through performing the sacrifices, it could also be an act of faith)
Therefore, the author argues that having faith in God,
like their predecessors,
but more specifically faith in Jesus Christ, is the way to salvation.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2: 8-9