This episode offers a fascinating exploration into the roles of the Minor Prophets, particularly focusing on Habakkuk, whose struggles are reminiscent of the trials faced by believers throughout the ages. With Dr. McGee’s insightful commentary, listeners gain a profound understanding of how God’s plans unfold in the midst of chaos and doubt. Tune in to discover how Habakkuk’s honest dialogue with God can inspire and challenge our own perceptions of faith and justice.
of foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith is
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Previously on Through the Bible, we learned Habakkuk had a question for God. What are you doing about all the evil in Israel? Well, God’s response for Habakkuk wasn’t quite what he was hoping for. In fact, in this study, our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee explains how God’s answer only brought more questions. I’m Steve Schwetz, so glad that you’ve hopped aboard the Bible bus for our second study in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. So while you grab your copy of God’s Word and find your place at chapter 1, verse 2, here are some more introductory thoughts from Dr. McGee on the minor prophets.
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Now I want to go over again with you the overview of the minor prophets. We feel that’s rather important because they have been neglected. And they have been passed by. And as a result, a great deal of wonderful Bible teaching has been missed. And the message in these minor prophets is absolutely terrific. Now, I had given the overview of all of them except the post-captivity prophets. And we have 10, 11, and 12 as Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. And they are the ones we are yet to come to. We have not yet taken up Zephaniah. But Zephaniah will be the last of the prophets that are called pre-captivity. That is, before Israel went into captivity. Now, we’ve had nine of those. Now we have three. that were written after the captivity. These people returned back to the land. That is, they’d been in Babylon for 70 years. Now they’re permitted to return. And only a small remnant of them returned, probably 65,000 to 75,000 returned back into the land at that particular time. Now, the first effort they wanted to make was to rebuild the temple. It had been destroyed and had been in ruins for all those years, and now they wanted to rebuild it. And God raised up two prophets to enable them to rebuild. And the first one was Haggai, and he gave an encouragement to the people who were terribly discouraged to rebuild the temple. And he approaches it from a very practical viewpoint. He says, in one sense, it’s very practical. This man says, go out and cut down the trees, bring the wood in, and build. That’s the thing that you have to do. He carried a yardstick with him. He measured everything. And he asked the question underneath, how much does it cost? And he is the one that says, if you’re going to serve the Lord, go to work. That’s the thing. That is something that should be sounded today. I think we need a labor union in the church today, a labor union that’ll say to the Christians, go to work, start doing something for God today. And that’s what Haggai is saying to the people, says, quit sitting around complaining. and whining about the conditions. They are bad, but let’s get busy. And he encouraged them from that viewpoint. And then Zachariah came along and he encouraged them from an altogether different viewpoint. He was a dreamer, a man of visions. And believe me, he had some visions. That woman going through the air in a bushel basket is, to my judgment, just about as unusual. We’ve had some unusual things happen here in Southern California, but we haven’t had a woman going through the air. in a bushel basket yet. I’m sure that especially some of these TV preachers, they could use that. That would be a good thing to do. Well, Zechariah encouraged the people, gave them a vision, gave them to understand that God was not through with them. And so they built a little temple. It didn’t seem important, but in the plan and purpose of God, it fitted in for that overall purpose out yonder in the future. Then Malachi comes along, and I do not mean to be facetious, but what is Malachi saying? He’s the last book of the Bible. He says, hang in there. He’s coming. That’s his message. And he’s the swan song. He rebuked the people for their sins and the fact that they were being hypocritical about them. And he’s the last voice of God to his people. Heaven went silent. Heaven went off the air. And for several centuries, why, nothing takes place until Matthew says, wise men are coming out of the east. They’re asking, where is he? Well, Malachi says, he’s coming. And the wise men said, we’re here to see him. And they saw him, by the way. And I say to you, these minor prophets have a tremendous message And they have a message that I don’t want us to bypass at all. And therefore, I’ll have another word to say before we finish the book and sum up the message of the Minor Prophets in just three or four sentences.
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Now in a minute, I’ll pray to begin our study. But first, if you haven’t yet gotten our copy of Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for this study, you can do it now for free. They’re available right in our app or by downloading our digital book, Briefing the Bible, at ttb.org. You can also call 1-800-65-BIBLE to receive an abbreviated copy by mail. You know, so many of our listeners tell us how much they appreciate these notes and outlines and how much more they learn from the study by using them to follow along. So don’t delay in getting yours. Call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, it’s such a joy and privilege to study your word. We welcome your spirit’s help in understanding your teaching and then helping us to live out your truth in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Well, we’re off to Habakkuk on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
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Our friends, we’re back here at the little book of Habakkuk, the Doubting Thomas of the Old Testament, the man who had a question mark for a brain and who asked some good questions, by the way. You can’t find fault with this man because of his questions. because the questions are good questions and they demand a good answer. And God gave him good answers, by the way. And his question just happens to be his first one, is one that I’m sure that many of us have asked. And we’ll come to that now in this first section here. We have in chapter 1 the perplexity of the prophet. And he says here, his first problem is, why doesn’t God do something about evil? And as we saw in verse 1, the prophecy happens to be the answer that God gives to his questions that he’ll raise. Now, let me read verse 2. O Lord, how long shall I cry? and thou wilt not hear, even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. Now, he is telling the Lord actually that God is refusing to answer his prayer. He cries out in a night of despair as he sees violence and that God is doing nothing about it. And apparently he’s saying nothing. This is the elegy of Habakkuk. And it will conclude, however, the book with praise with a note of joy. But if you have a question. My feeling is that you ought to take it to the Lord as this man did, and you’ll get an answer from God if you’re sincere in the question that you take to him. Now, he goes on, and his question is a big why. Verse 3, why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are those who raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slack, and justice doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about the righteous, therefore justice goeth forth perverted. Now, here’s his question, why? In other words, he’s saying, why does God permit his people to continue and to increase in iniquity, in injustice, in strife, in contention and violence and do nothing about it? And this is a capital why. Why? Why? Now, this is an old question and it’s a new question. It’s one that you could ask today. Now, let’s look at it in detail. This man, as we suggested, wrote somewhere during the time of Josiah or it was after Josiah. He was the last good king and there was Jehoahaz. He was a bad one, but he didn’t last but three months and Jehoiakim came along and reigned 11 years, and he was a bad one. Now, it was a time of disintegration, deterioration, and degradation in the kingdom. There was a breaking down of law, the Mosaic law, and it was a time when men, of course, were turning away from God. Why? Now, you can boil this down. Why does God permit evil? Why does he permit evil? I was back east in a conference several years ago. And at this conference, there were two young men there. One was a professor in Vanderbilt University. And both of these young men were brilliant young men. The other was a young professor from Missouri. And he told me that this is the method that was used by the unbelieving professor, a teacher. And both of these young men, by the way, were believers. A godless professor would use this method to try to destroy the faith of young people in the integrity of the word of God. And the old bromide was this. They would start off like this. You do not believe that a God of love would permit evil in the world, do you? Do you think a God of love and a loving God, kind in heart, would permit suffering in the world? In other words, they destroy confidence in God. Then they destroy confidence in the word of God. Now, the enemy used that same method with Eve. You mean to tell me, the serpent said, that God does not want you to eat of that tree? Why? That tree is the most delicious tree in the garden, and it would open your eyes, and you’d become like gods. And I can’t believe that a good God would want you to not eat of that tree. I just can’t understand that. Destroying, you see, a belief in God, whether he’s good or not. That is always the method that is used. Now, look at this specific question of Habakkuk. how it fitted into the local situation of his day. People were getting by with sin. God was doing nothing. At least Habakkuk thought he was doing nothing. And his question is, why doesn’t God do something about sin? Why doesn’t God judge the wicked? Why does God permit evil men and women to prosper? And isn’t that a good question? Isn’t that a question that you would ask today? I’m sure that many of God’s people have said, why doesn’t God move today? Why does he permit all this evil in our nation? Why does he permit the rich to get by with it? And why is it that the average person is having to bear such a burden? The average person pays the taxes. The average person is the one that when gasoline either went up or rationed or whatever happens, who pays for it? The rich don’t pay. I mean, they pay, but they have it to pay. And they never suffered in World War II. Why doesn’t God do something about it? Isn’t that your question? May I say to you, that was David’s question. Fact of the matter is, it almost robbed David of his faith. David said this in Psalm 73, 2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Well, David said, I looked around me and who is it that’s prospering? It’s the wicked. Why doesn’t God do something about it? And that was the question of Habakkuk. And it was during the reign apparently of these last evil kings and they weren’t enforcing the law. Lawlessness abounded. Wickedness was on every hand. And people seemed to be getting by with it. And the nation seemed to be getting by with it. And this disturbed Habakkuk, the man is upset over it. He has a very tender heart. He hates to see his people being burdened down as they were burdened down. Look around you at what’s happening in the world and what’s happening in our own nation, what’s happening in your own state. I have a notion it’s about the same as my state. Politicians all express a great concern for me. They are going to reduce my taxes and they’ve gone up every year. They tell me that they’ve got a great concern for me and they are thinking of me in Washington and thinking of me in Sacramento and they’re thinking of me in Los Angeles. Well, I get the impression they’re not thinking about me at all. They seem to be thinking about themselves. We’re living in the same kind of a day. Wickedness abounds today. Who are you going to believe? Why doesn’t God do something about it? Why doesn’t God move in on the nation? Well, that was Habakkuk’s question. This man had a very tender heart. And may I say to you, God says, I got an answer for you. And God’s got an answer for you today. If this is your question, will you listen to verse 5? Behold among the nations… and regard and wonder marvelously. For I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you. God says, you know Habakkuk? When I tell you what I’m really doing, it’s going to be difficult for you to believe it because instead of doing nothing, I’m doing a great deal. Fact of the matter is, finally, Habakkuk is going to ask God not to move so fast when he finds out how fast he is moving and how many things he’s doing. And so God says to him, I want you to know that among the nations I moved. And in spite of all the lawlessness and the war and the sin in all the nations, God says, I’m overruling. I’m moving. And I’m moving in judgment. How is he going to do it? Now, God’s going to give him the answer here. God’s doing something about it. And actually, it’s going to raise a bigger question for Habakkuk. But he sure found out God was doing something. Now, will you notice this? He says here, for lo, I raise up the Chaldean. That bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They’re terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity will proceed from themselves. Here, he’s talking about the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. They’re going to come in. The Babylonians were a lot of themselves. They didn’t recognize anybody being superior to them. In fact, they were the superior race. And when we heard that before. They felt like they were the dominant race, and they were the ones that were going to set the pattern for the world. That was the way that they were looking at it. They made their own laws, you see, and they are going to come against God’s people. And you’ll notice here in verse 8, he says, “…their horses also are swifter than the leopards.” and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen will come from far. They shall fly like the eagle that hasteth to eat. What a picture this is. And by the way, the Babylonians used cavalry probably more than any other nation. The Assyrians, you remember, used chariots. The Egyptians did that also. But the Assyrians had the latest model in chariots. Now the Babylonians have a different method. They use the cavalry. And they were to come up against God’s people. In other words, God says, I’m not letting you get by with sin. You think I’m doing nothing? Well, I’m preparing a nation down yonder on the banks of the Euphrates River. And when the appointed time comes, And my people don’t turn to me. I’m going to turn the Babylonians loose. And they came. And the record of their destruction of Jerusalem is something that was fierce and terrible. And it was almost unspeakable the things that they did when they took these people captive. That’s really raised a question for this man, Habakkuk. If you think he had a question before, he’s really got a question now. And he says, verse 9, they shall come all for violence. My people have been engaging in violence, but they haven’t seen anything yet. Wait till the Babylonians get here. And the center of their faces is forward, and they shall gather the captives as the sand. Nebuchadnezzar came three times. against Jerusalem. The final time he came, he burned the city and also the temple. He took them into captivity. These people that had actually, at least Habakkuk said, well, God’s not doing anything. And you remember the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes says, because judgment against that which is evil is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is in them to do evil. You see, the first time they did evil, they wondered maybe lightning would strike them. And that sort of thing. I remember the first time as a boy that I swiped watermelons. It was in the summertime and a storm was coming up. And time I pulled off a watermelon and started to the fence with it, there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, the like of which that you can only have in southern Oklahoma. And I want to tell you, I thought the Lord is judging me right there for what I’d done. But the day came that I discovered that wasn’t judgment from God. And I could do that sort of thing with no fear whatsoever. When I was a boy, the sins that are committed out in the open today, they were committed then. This idea that human nature is changed. Human nature is just exactly like it was when I was a boy. Now, the difference is this. that what people used to do in secret and undercover and in the backyard, they now do in the front yard and out in the open. They don’t mind sinning openly. Now, there hasn’t been any improvement. I heard a couple that was being interviewed. They’re not married. They live together. And everybody there was commending them for their honesty. And I’d like to know what kind of honesty they were attempting to commend them for. May I say to you, it is true that when I was a boy growing up, that when anybody did that, they did it undercover. It wasn’t brought out in the open. Now they bring it out in the open. Does that make sin any different? Does that change the fact that that sort of thing is sinful and wrong in the sight of God? Well, it’s still the same type of a sin. And that’s what had happened in the nation Israel. I think the first time that they broke the Ten Commandments, They shuddered. They wondered if judgment wouldn’t come immediately and fire wouldn’t come down. But you see, because execution against an evil work isn’t performed speedily, the hearts of the sons of man, it’s in them to do evil. And it causes them to go on and on into sin. And we’re living in a day when the average person does not believe in the judgment of God. They’re like Habakkuk was. Habakkuk says, I prayed that you’ll do something about my nation. They’re in sin. And they get worse and worse. And it’s flagrant now. It’s out in the open. And there’s evil. There’s violence. There’s gross immorality. And God’s doing nothing about it. Well, don’t you feel that way today about the way conditions are? Is God doing anything about it today? Doesn’t look that way, does it? Why, it even caused a group of theologians up in New England to come up with the idea, which is not new, of course, that God is dead. That he’s not around. And they actually mean there’s never been a God. And there is no God. That’s what they were trying to say. Why? Because he’s not interfering in the affairs of man. But isn’t he interfering in the affairs of man? Isn’t God overruling today? Isn’t he moving? He permitted us to go through a time of affluence. And people got careless. Even God’s people got careless. Now we are wondering whether we’re going to exist or how much longer we’re going to exist as a nation. The question is asked, is God doing anything about evil? God says, I am. He says, Habakkuk, you thought I wasn’t doing anything? Well, you didn’t know about it. But down on the banks of the Euphrates River is one of the most brutal nations. And when the time comes, they’re going to come up here. I’m preparing them. And they’re going to come up here and take my people into captivity because they don’t get by with sin. You thought I didn’t answer your prayer. You thought I wasn’t doing anything about sin. I’m doing plenty about sin. And I think that if you today could see back of the sins and actually see what God is doing, it would terrify you at this very moment. That if you could see that God is actually moving against our own nation, and I think he definitely is today, moving against a nation that at one time had a knowledge of him. Oh, I’ll admit it was superficial, and the Bible was held in reverence. Very few people knew much about it. But nevertheless, the Word of God is held in reverence. It’s ignored today, absolutely despised by the nation. Oh, they take an oath by putting their hand on it when they go into office, and then they forget about what’s on the inside. May I say to you, friends, is God doing nothing today? Well, I rather think he is. And I think it would frighten you and me right now if you and I really knew how much he is doing about it. Well, we’re going to see next time God’s answer to this man’s second question, which right now is the bigger question than the first one was. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 02 :
Do you have questions but feel maybe you’re not getting answers? Well, join us next time as Dr. McGee has more to share from the big wisdom found in the little book of Habakkuk. Until then, if we can help you find some study materials to deepen your own study of God’s Word, visit ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. I’m Steve Schwetz, grateful for your company on the Bible Bus and your partnership in taking God’s whole Word to the whole world.
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Jesus gave it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
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Well, ride the Bible bus for five years and you’ll be amazed at what God teaches you from his word about what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It’s a blessing that keeps on going. That’s what we believe at Through the Bible.
