LESSON 7
Outline of Habakkuk
I. Introduction and Habakkuk’s 1st complaint (Habakkuk 1:1 - 4)
II. God’s answer to Habakkuk’s 1st complaint (1:5 - 11)
III. Habakkuk’s 2nd complaint (1:12 – 2:1)
IV. God’s answer to Habakkuk’s 2nd complaint (2:2 - 20)
V. Habakkuk’s Prayer (Psalm) of Praise (3: 1 – 19)
IV. God Answers Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
Habakkuk 2:2-5 (first part of God’s answer)
(2) Then the LORD replied:
“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
(3) “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 not delay.
(4) “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will live by his faith—
(5)”indeed wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples….
With these verses God begins His answer to Habakkuk’s 2nd complaint. How God loved this prophet! He patiently explains (confides his plans) to Habakkuk.
In verse 1 we left Habakkuk standing and waiting for God’s answer. Now it comes.
WRITE IT DOWN!
And what does God tell him to do with the message that he is being given? To “write it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.”
Isn’t it helpful to see that God tells Habakkuk what to do with the message he is being given? It was helpful to Habakkuk and it’s helpful to us today – God gives us messages for a reason – it’s not just idle chit chat!
God told Moses to write down His words (Exodus 34:27) and Isaiah (Isaiah 8:1) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30:2) and many others in the Old Testament and then in Revelation, John is told several times to “write.”
WRITE IT RIGHT!
Before Habakkuk’s time the Babylonians were writing on sun-baked clay tablets with a wedge-shaped reed stylus in cuneiform script. Such tablets were so durable that hundreds have survived and have been dug up and translated by modern archeologists.
It was an older process, however, and by the time of Habakkuk, advanced cultures were beginning to use the alphabet and other kind of items to record messages and documents on.
Note: When I was a child the standard description of the alphabet was “the Phoenician alphabet.” The alphabet revolutionized communication because of its simplification. Instead of pictures to illustrate words of the vocabulary, the alphabet uses symbols to represent sounds. Hebrew has 22 letters in their alphabet and English has 26. And we form all our worlds with these sound symbols.
Can you imagine a computer keyboard today with a different symbol for each word we wanted to use? Think how cumbersome and difficult it would be to use. More recently there is some indication that perhaps the Hebrews themselves invented the alphabet! We know they were using an alphabet as early as 1000 B.C., the time of King David, and it is seems almost identical to the Phoenician.
This text, though, mentions tablets. There was a type of tablet often used for messages in those days. It was a wooden frame, with an applied wax surface. A stylus would be used to write the message. It could be “erased” (smoothed over) later and the tablet reused. Sometimes it was a single “page,” but more often it was hinged and one side could be folded over to keep the message safe and unaltered (or ‘smeared’) during a journey.
Sometimes, too, it would have several “pages” and would open accordion-style. Likely this was what Habakkuk would use. They were smaller and lighter than the older clay tablets. (There were also, of course, commonly used leather scrolls, and we have some pieces of broken pottery that were used for writing messages on, too, but this scripture passage says tablets, so the best choice for Habakkuk’s composition would be the tablets with the wooden frame and the wax layer for the surface.)
Fun Projects for Lesson 7
1. Read: NOTE ABOUT PAPYRUS: The Egyptians were able to take a fibrous plant that grew near the water, called papyrus, and use it to make a kind of parchment. (Parchment could also be made from animal skins and the bark of trees).
This product had a number of uses, including for writing messages. The papyrus sheets were taken to the town of Byblos , a Phoenician settlement on the Mediterranean , and from there distributed throughout the Mediterranean area by the Phoenician traders. The name Byblos
Actual paper was invented, we believe, in China around 100 AD, but did not really become circulated in Europe until the 1400’s, and then the printing press was invented about the same time.
You probably have a list of special, everyday, blessings to praise God for. My list includes (1) black and white kittens playing in the garden, (2) smell of freesias, (3) seeing the sunrise, a “ribbon at a time” (Emily Dickinson’s description.) (4) dollar menu…etc…
Now I am going to add: Paper, cheap Paper, available all over the place…all colors, and in various useful forms – PAPER is a blessing we all take for granted. It took centuries to get to us! It now goes on my list, along with PRINTING PRESS!!!!
2. Work on your list-- want to share some of it with us?
Lesson 7A
Last Kings of Judah
Reigned during Habakkuk’s prophecy
Josiah – Ruled 640-609 BC – A good king. Great revival/reform movement during his reign. He was killed in 609 BC when he marched out against Pharaoh Necho (Neco) of Egypt
Jehoiakim (Eliakim) – son of Josiah. He ruled 609 BC to 597 BC.
Evil king. Led the people into idolatry. Nebuchadnezzar invaded and made Jehoiakim his vassal for about 3 years. Then Jehoiakim rebelled and Nebuchadnezzar captured him, placed him in bronze shackles and took him to Babylon Babylon
Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) – son of Jehoiakim – he ruled a few months in 597 BC. He was, like his father, evil. Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon Babylon
Zedekiah (Mattaniah) – ruled from 597 BC to 586 BC when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and most of the population was taken into exile in Babylon Babylon
Lesson 7B
Thoughts on Daniel by John Stott
Daniel’s story began in 605 BC, that is, in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign. It was also the year of the first deportation of Jewish captives from Jerusalem to Babylon
They were handsome, without any physical defect, intelligent and knowledgeable. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered Ashpenaz, his chief chamberlain or palace master, to select a few of them to be educated in Babylonian culture to be fitted for civil service.
They were assigned a daily portion of royal rations of food and wine, and at the end of three years they would be expected to serve in the King’s Court. Among them were four candidates—Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, whose names the palace master changed to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
“But,” as the narrative changes direction abruptly, “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food or wine” (Daniel 1:8). It is not clear to us what prohibition Daniel was determined to observe, but it was evidently clear to him.
He was willing to be taught “the language and literature of the Babylonians” (v. 4) and to assume a new name, but he emphatically would not break the law of his God.
This incident is a remarkable example of cultural discrimination. The fact is every culture, being a human construct, is a mixture of good and evil, truth and error, beauty and ugliness. Daniel and his friends resolved to assimilate all that was good in Babylonian culture but were equally determined to reject everything that was incompatible with their revealed faith.
Moreover, as they began, so they continued. Their integrity soon involved them in serious civil disobedience as they refused to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s image (chapter 3)) and as Daniel refused to stop praying to Yahweh (chapter 6). These faithful Jews paid a high price for their integrity—the fiery furnace in the first case and the lions’ den in the second.
--John Stott
They resolved to assimilate all that was good….and to reject everything that was not compatible with their revealed faith…
Are we finding ourselves in the same position as Daniel and his friends?
Do you sometimes feel like an alien living in a “foreign land”?
Are the demands of modern culture being imposed on us and requiring us to make a stand to reject what is contrary to God’s revealed laws? Are we doing that?
Are we being obedient to God? (“We must obey God rather than man” Peter said in Acts 5:29.)
