Download the February 25 Sunday School lesson here.
Winter Quarter 2023-2024: Faith That Pleases God
Unit 3: The Righteous Live by Faith
Sunday School Lesson for the week of February 25, 2024
By Jay Harris
Lesson Scripture: Habakkuk 2:1-5
Key Verse: For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3)
Lesson Aims
- To introduce the prophet Habakkuk, his message, and times
- To ponder the questions that Habakkuk asked God on behalf of God’s people
- To consider whether this kind of questioning can be part of living by faith
- To examine Habakkuk’s watchful stance and relationship with God during his people’s suffering
- To explore what a watchful stance involves in the case of Habakkuk and others
- To learn about God-given visions and unfinished visions
- To learn how future visions help us cope in the meantime
- To be reminded that those who commit evil do not have the last say
- To compare “the righteous live by their faith” and “the righteous live by their faithfulness”
- To show how the proud and arrogant become that way because of the lure of wealth and power
- To show how insatiable the oppressors’ appetite for gain was and how it leads to ruin
- To bring the lesson around to the theme: Faith in God’s Purpose
Introduction to the Lesson Theme and Habakkuk’s Life and Times
This lesson is the last lesson of the Winter Quarter, and the theme is “Faith in God’s Purpose.” The theme for the quarter has been “Faith that Pleases God.” The theme for the month of February has been “The Righteous Live by Faith,” which is taken from one of the verses in today’s lesson from the Book of Habakkuk. In each of the previous lessons this month, “living by faith” has taken on various meanings.
“Living by faith” will, obviously, take on a special meaning in the Book of Habakkuk. It is the stance that Habakkuk takes in life that deserves a close look. In Habakkuk, we encounter a unique kind of prophet. Instead of serving solely as God’s representative to the people, Habakkuk spends as much time representing the people before God. He does this by asking questions of God that God’s people would be asking. Be warned that there is a brutal honesty in these questions. The first chapter of the book features these probing questions.
What follows here are paraphrases of the questions Habakkuk asks. How long will God’s people cry for help and not get any response from God in return, whether in words or actions? Why are God’s people being made to suffer? Why is all this destruction and violence being allowed to happen by a God who is said to be just and merciful? Speaking of justice, why are God’s people, who admittedly have been unfaithful, being made to suffer at the hands of a people, the Babylonians, who are even more evil and godless than they? How is this fair and just? If it is unjust and unfair, how long must God’s people continue to suffer?
The question “How long?” is more than just a question about mere timing. It is in part a statement that some of God’s people have already suffered to the breaking point. There is a sense of desperation in the question. It is quite literally a cry for help. Suffering is one thing, but prolonged suffering is yet another. Suffering is compounded by its duration, and the resulting depression, despair, and exhaustion. The question of “how long” would not have been asked only by the ones suffering in relation to themselves, but by mothers and fathers and leaders asking on behalf of those in their charge.
The questions about the justice of it all also stick out. How can a just God allow injustice and suffering? This line of questioning is theological in nature and is referred to as the “theodicy” question. The first part of the word “theodicy” refers to God, and the second part refers to justice. The argument goes, if God is good and just, and God is all-powerful, why does evil exist?
Have you ever considered the theodicy question? Did you consider this question in the midst of your own suffering or the suffering of a relative or friend? If you have ever questioned God in this way, how would you describe its impact on your faith?
Habakkuk’s Stance in Life
We can stop right here at the end of the first chapter and ask, “Is this kind of questioning on the part of Habakkuk a part of living by faith, or does this kind of questioning demonstrate a lack of faith?” It is Habakkuk’s stance in life, which we will see, that determines the nature of Habakkuk’s questioning. This is what we begin to see unfold at the start of the second chapter, where our scripture lesson begins.
1 I will stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me
and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
Habakkuk gives us a vivid picture of his stance. It is as if he standing at his watch post. He has stationed himself on a rampart, like the top of a wall of a walled city facing in the direction of whatever may approach. He is keeping watch. What is he expecting to see? He keeps watch to see what God will say to him. His stance is one filled with a sense of expectancy as he listens for how God will answer concerning his complaint. This picture not only describes his stance in life, it goes a long way in describing his relationship with God.
It has been said that there is a questioning that seeks answers and a questioning that seeks excuses. The questioning that seeks excuses often demonstrates a lack of faith, but a questioning that seeks God’s answers is a part of living by faith. Being watchful for God’s answers also means being patient to keep watching. Often, the longer we take up a matter with God the deeper we go.
Keeping watch may mean searching the scriptures, or meditating on God’s past actions with his people. When and where has a situation like this happened before and how did God respond? How did God change the situation or how did God change those going through it?
Keeping watch definitely involves prolonged prayer. We bring our questions to God in prayer. We also bring our supplications and petitions and let our requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6) Prayer changes things, and it also changes us. Praying for justice also has a way of making us more sensitive to the suffering all around us. In the process, we often become more aware of how God is calling us to be involved in the answer to our own prayers for justice and mercy and the answer to the prayers of others.
Notice Habakkuk’s use of the word “complaint” in the first verse. A number of the Psalms are songs of complaint. The inclusion of the complaint psalms in Israel’s songbook demonstrates that these psalms have a time-honored place among the songs of Israel. A number of the psalms also ask God, “how long?” We bring our complaints to God, because while we are doing so, we are in close relation to God even in our complaining.
The Book of Job provides one of the most well-known examples of complaining against God. There was a point when God chastised Job and rightly put Job in his place for some things he said out of his ignorance, but God did not chastise Job for complaining. In fact, God reserved his harshest words against those who condemned Job in all sorts of ways for complaining against God. In the end, Job celebrated the journey he had gone through with God saying, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” (Job 42:5) Through the journey he had traveled with God, a second-hand knowledge of God was replaced by a first-hand experience of God.
So, when Habakkuk brought to God his questions, his complaints, and his cries for justice and relief,
Habakkuk was in the good company of Job, the Psalmists, Jeremiah, and Zechariah.
What do you think of those who brought their complaints to God and whether or not it was appropriate to do so? How may you have shown a watchful stance when questioning God or your faith or why something was happening in your life? What activities did your watchful stance involve? Were you troubled with your questioning, or did your questioning deepen your faith in the end?
There Is Still a Vision
We have imagined some of the ways Habakkuk stood at his watch post and kept watch for God’s answer concerning his complaint. The next question for us has to do with how God responded to Habakkuk.
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
There is nothing random about God’s choice to use the language of vision in God’s conversation with Habakkuk. The language of vision is very purposeful and intentional. A vision is a picture of a person’s or organization’s preferred future state. A
divine vision is a picture of
God’s preferred future state. Prophetic visions are often breathtaking. Visions possess a magnetic quality that draws a person or group toward fulfilling the vision. They produce hope and positive emotions. Visions are evocative in that they bring forth imaginative responses and creative energy. Visions can reassure and encourage.
God’s instruction is for Habakkuk to take dictation so that the vision message can, in turn, be delivered to others. The messenger is like the runner in a relay race, but instead of handing off a baton, he is carrying a message. The message must be plain enough for the runner to read and digest it while running. In other words, there is a strong sense of urgency.
God’s way of encouraging Habakkuk, and the people who are his concern, is to say that there is a vision for the appointed time. Events are not as random as they seem. The seeming inevitability of endless calamity is not set in concrete—far from it. There is still a vision for the appointed time. Although we may not know the timing, God knows the timing. It is no less than a divinely appointed time. Although the vision at this point lacks the clarity we would like it to have, a divine vision definitely exists that will come into focus in God’s timing.
It speaks of the end—God’s preferred future state when God gets all God wants. It does not lie. The purpose is not to deceive or trip anyone up, but to reassure and encourage. If it seems to tarry, we are to wait patiently. We should live with the sure knowledge that God’s preferred future will surely come. It may appear to be delayed, but it is not in fact delayed past God’s appointed time.
When all of this is taken together, then it’s as if God is saying, “The picture you have seen in your present experience may very well be
unjust and
unfair, but keep in mind that it is also
unfinished. God’s appointed time has not come and gone. There is still a vision for the appointed time. It speaks of God’s goal, God’s purpose in the end, and is not a lying vision. If it seems to be slow in coming, we are to trust God. If good things come to those who wait, then God’s breathtaking vision is worth the wait all the more. It will surely come. God is not finished yet, but God is nevertheless working. In the end, God wins. Eventually, God gets all that God wants.
How does it help us cope through suffering knowing that there is a God-given vision that is coming at the divinely appointed time? When the picture we see of our present reality appears to be unjust and unfair, how does it help knowing that the picture before us is unfinished? How should the unfinished quality of life propel us to action? What actions?
What About the Evil We Are Made to See?
Think about the comfort that God’s words would bring to Habakkuk. Habakkuk would still have questions about the presence of evil and the present suffering that was being caused. Where is the accountability? God still had more to say.
4 Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faithfulness.
It’s not just that the enemy, the Babylonian empire, was causing chaos and suffering, the enemy was proud about it. God zeroed in on that quality as being at the heart of the matter. Indeed, their spirit was not right in them—not even close to being right. This is especially true when contrasting the enemy with God’s righteous ones.
When we come to the phrase that has given us the theme for the February unit, “the righteous live by faith,” we are given somewhat of a curve ball. Verse 4 says, “the righteous live by their faithfulness.” There are three epistles in the New Testament that quote this verse, and they say that the righteous live by faith. Yet, both the New Revised Standard Version and the New International Version use the word “faithfulness” instead of “faith.”
We should first of all note the important linkage between faith and faithfulness. The word “faith” takes us in the direction of belief and trust. The word “faithfulness” takes us in the direction of steadfast loyalty. The Message translation synthesizes the meanings of “faith” and “faithfulness” by using the words, “loyal and steady believing.” Our faith, and believing, and trusting form the foundation for our faithfulness and steadfast loyalty. Faithfulness is how faith, belief, and trust get translated in the way persons of faith live their daily lives. In other words, “faith” and “faithfulness” go hand in hand and cannot be separated in a person’s whole-hearted devotion to God.
When we contrast the “proud” with the “righteous who live by their faithfulness” we must add the quality of humility to righteous living. There is something inherently humble in one who lives by their faithfulness to God. If you leave out the humble quality of walking with God, are you really walking with God?
The proud, in contrast, have a spirit in them that is not right and keeps them from faith in God and faithfulness to God. What leads the proud to become proud?
5 Moreover, wealth is treacherous;
the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves
and collect all peoples as their own.
The “proud” in this context was the Babylonian empire. What drove their imperial ambitions was the accumulation of wealth and power. Wealth is treacherous because the appetite for wealth is as deep and wide as Sheol, the vast underworld of Death. The appetite that the Babylonian empire had for tribute (payment) from the nations they conquered could not be satisfied. They could never have enough. They gobbled up nation after nation for themselves and collected subjects to serve them and their interests.
What God was doing in his response to Habakkuk was demonstrating to him that God had the Babylonian empire’s number, so to speak. God was fully aware of their transgressions, and what they represented. They were not getting away with anything. All appearances seemed to suggest the contrary—that the Babylonians were on top of the world. They believed that they possessed the divine right by their false gods to subject the world and its people to their imperial ambitions. Their apparent success only confirmed to them their divine right.
No wonder that the oppressed cried out to God while they were being crushed under the feet of their proud and arrogant oppressor. How long would it be before God re-established justice by rescuing the oppressed and taking away the oppressor’s ability to gobble up nations and people without its power bring checked?
We go back to God’s word to Habakkuk. The picture of their situation that looked so inhumane, unjust and, unfair, was a picture that was unfinished. God had a vision, and God was not finished fulfilling it. There was a vision for the appointed time, and so their oppression was temporary. It looked like the oppressor was on the top of the world, but that was temporary too. It was just a matter of time before an empire more powerful than they were would be used by God to bring them to justice and liberate the oppressed,
What the enemy could not realize was that they were headed toward their own ruin. It was because their spirit was not right within them. It was because they were falling prey to an appetite for wealth and power which cannot be satisfied. As verse 5 says, “the arrogant do not endure.”
How do the righteous keep on living in the meantime? The righteous live by their faith and their faithfulness. In the hymn, “This Is my Father’s World,” in the first two verses, we sing of the beauty and order of the created world, designed and made by our heavenly Father, and how “he shines in all that’s fair.” It is the third and final verse that speaks to our lesson.
This is my Father’s world | O let me ne’er forget | That though the wrong seems oft so strong | God is the Ruler yet. | This is my Father’s world: | Why should my heart be sad? | The Lord is King: let the heavens ring! | God reigns; let the earth be glad!
There are times when the wrong seems so very strong, but God reminds us that he is the Ruler yet. At the end of Habakkuk’s message, he expressed his faith in a memorable way: “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vine; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
What a beautiful picture of faithfulness and living by faith! When we can rejoice in the Lord even in times of want or loss, then we are living by faith. This does not mean we are oblivious to our situation or that we feel we must suppress our feelings. It does mean that we maintain faith in the God of our salvation through it all. We learn to trust in Jesus. We discover in a thousand ways how the Lord God not only gives us strength, but the Lord, himself, IS our strength.
There is a poem by Grant Colfax Tullar, entitled “The Weaver,” which helps us come around to the theme for this lesson: “Faith in God’s Purpose.”
My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colours
He weaveth steadily.
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the underside.
Not ’til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
There truly is a pattern in what God has planned. God is weaving the pattern using all the colors. Habakkuk is the one who heard God say that the righteous live by their faith and their faithfulness. For Habakkuk, the righteous live by their “faith in God’s purpose,” and by faithfulness to God’s purpose.
Throughout this Winter Quarter, we have gone on quite a journey as we have explored “Faith that Pleases God.” It is my prayer that you have been blessed as much as I by the scriptures we have studied. May your faith continue to grow, and may it please God.
Knowing how the lure of wealth can be unquenchable and lead to ruin, how can we handle wealth responsibly and use it in ways that bless? How can we become more sensitive to patterns of oppression that cause suffering? How can we partner with God to show others a more just and merciful vision of living by faith and faithfulness? What joy and peace might we experience if we grew in our faith in God’s purpose?
Prayer
Loving Lord | You weave purpose, love, relationship, consolation, and restoration into the history of Your people | When we suffer, enable us to wait expectantly and watch patiently for You to act and speak into our lives | That we may praise you as the God of our salvation even when we have more questions than answers | Through Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith, Amen.
Dr. Jay Harris serves as the Superintendent of Clergy and District Services for the South Georgia Conference. Email him at jharris@sgaumc.com. Find his plot-driven guide to reading the Bible, the “Layered Bible Journey,” at www.layeredbiblejourney.com.
