This sermon was preached at Grace Life Church of Ankeny, Iowa on Sunday, January 18, 2026.
Habakkuk 1:1–11
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. 5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. 10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
Transcript
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How are you?
Good. Fine. Have you ever noticed that we’re asked that question dozens of times a week and we all have our go to one word answer, how are you? Fine. We give it without even thinking about it, whether it’s good or fine or great or all right or.
One friend even told me recently she’s trying to bring peachy back. How are you? Peachy. Just doing peachy. Why do we give this kind of one word answer when people ask how we’re doing?
And I think there’s two reasons why. First is that we think the people around us don’t care. And so we’re not going to bear our souls to someone that really doesn’t care and is just going through the formality of saying, how are you? This is our greeting ritual in our culture. And, and the second reason is we want to appear strong and we think that if we show any kind of vulnerability, then we can’t be strong, we can’t be perceived as strong.
It’s interesting that those two reasons contradict each other. We seem to be living our lives in constant fear of judgment from people that actually don’t care about us. But that’s just interesting. While I’m not saying that we should be 100% vulnerable with every person around us, that wouldn’t be wise.
Maybe one word answers shouldn’t be the norm of our lives because the fact of the matter is that God does care. We give one word answers because we think the people around us don’t care. The reality is that God does care and he’s proved his care for you by giving you his son who lived a perfect life, who died for sinners, who rose victory. God cares about you more than just a one word answer. We give one word answers because we want to appear strong and we want to hide our vulnerabilities and our weakness.
But God sees through all of your facades and he sees through all of your fake strength and he loves you in spite of it.
The book of Habakkuk is a model of honest faith. The prophet Habakkuk was a man to whom God said, how are you? And he said, I’m not fine. I’ve got a lot to say to you right now. God, He’s a model of honest, unflinching, gritty faith.
Unlike most of the prophets in the Bible, the prophet Habakkuk doesn’t tell us record for us in his book, his public pronouncements of God’s word. His book is really more of his own private prayer journal. We’re Going to get to eavesdrop on Habakkuk’s prayer life for three chapters over the next few months. Habakkuk is a model of honesty. And as we dive into this book today for the first time, what I want you to see, what I want you to do in response to God’s word today is to pray with honesty.
I want to give you two reasons from Habakkuk 1:1 through 11 that we should pray with honesty and these two reasons under overthrow. The two reasons that we might be tempted to give one word answers. Because people don’t care and because we want to be strong. The first of these reasons, we should pray with honesty. Because God is gracious.
Because God is gracious. God invites your honesty even when your honesty is doubt and rage. Because he cares about you. Because he cares about you.
Verse 1. The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear or cry to you violence and you will not save. Habakkuk is praying at a time of national turmoil for the people of God. The nation of Judah, King Jehoiakim has been placed on the throne in Jerusalem as a puppet king by the Egyptian empire. And under Jehoiakim’s leadership, the people of Israel had begun paying massive taxes to the Egyptians. It’s almost like the Exodus never happened.
The Israelites were enslaved again.
And yet, while the people were stuck paying these massive fines just for existing to their faraway overlords in Egypt, King Jehoiakim himself was living the high life. He recently remodeled the royal palace in Jerusalem. He was living in luxury by exploiting the poor, overlooking the crimes of the rich, and receiving bribes from special interest groups. King Jehoiakim hated God and he hated God’s word. The prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 36 records a fascinating story about Jehoiakim, where he gets Jeremiah’s latest book of prophecy, his latest book of God’s Word, and he has his assistant read this new Bible to him.
And every time that he finishes a page, Jehoiakim says, hey, hey, let me see that, let me see that. And he takes the page and he crumples it up and he throws it in the fire. That’s what he thought of God’s Word. He threatened and killed the prophets of God, people like Habakkuk, people like Jeremiah. This is a terrible time to be living in the kingdom of Judah.
And so Habakkuk begins his prayer life with this gut wrenching, honest accusation against God. How long shall I Cry for help and you will not hear. Are you ignoring me, God? Are you disinterested?
This kind of prayer isn’t sinful.
There’s two reasons for that. While Habakkuk is doubting, he brings his doubts to God.
While Habakkuk is doubting, he brings his doubts to God. Your questions about God are not sinful.
You care enough. Your questions mean that you care enough to actually ask questions and not just take it at face value. Your questions mean that you trust God enough to ask him to guide you even when it’s hard. We want to handle our doubts. You will have doubts because you live in a fallen world and you’re not a perfectly wise person.
You will have doubts. We want to handle our doubts in a faithful way, bringing them to God. And that’s what Habakkuk does. He doesn’t say, God, I don’t see how you’re good. I’m done.
I’m out. I’m going to be an atheist. I’m going to join the Church of Scientology now. No, that’s not what he does. He says, God, this is what I’m seeing.
I don’t know how you could be good here. Help me. He has doubts, but he brings his doubts to God. He’s hurting. The second reason this prayer is not sinful is that he’s hurting.
But he brings these hurts to God with expectations. His prayer is how long he knows that hope and deliverance is coming, even if he doesn’t understand why it’s taking so long.
He’s living in the reality of the tension between his doubts that he feels in his heart and the knowledge that he knows in his head. And he’s saying, God, these things aren’t lining up. My experience is misleading me. What is going on? I mean, there’s so many preachers on TV and in the Internet that will tell you that pain is not a part of God’s plan for your life.
And the Bible’s just so much more honest.
The Bible is so much messier that we live in a world filled with pain under the lordship of a loving, all powerful God. That’s messy, but we still live with faith and expectations. Habakkuk goes on, if you thought that was bold. He continues to press and accuse God. Verse 3.
Why do you make me see iniquity? He’s saying, God, why is this your plan? Why would you allow Jehoiakim to remain on the throne for one more second? He’s exploiting the poor.
Verse 3. Why do you make me see iniquity? And why do you idly look at wrong? He’s accusing God of just sitting back and saying, oh, look at Jehoiakim. He sure is making a mess of things.
He sure is a terrible person. Isn’t that interesting? As if God’s just sitting on his throne, watching this scene unfold, idly looking at wrong. Habakkuk is saying, God, I know that you see, why aren’t you doing anything about it?
Destruction and violence are before me. Strife and contention arise. Habakkuk is describing his experience, the things that he sees around him. Even though he just acknowledged that God already knows that God is looking at this wrong. And that’s honesty.
He’s not informing God about anything. He’s baring his soul to God and he’s saying that the innocent are being hurt and there’s violence and arguments and division everywhere. Verse 4. So the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.
He’s saying justice isn’t done, evil is done. And the justice that is done is so messed up and corrupted that it’s actually not justice at all.
There’s evil everywhere. The wicked surround me.
Pray with honesty. Because God cares. It’s astounding that an all powerful God would allow this prayer to be recorded in his book.
There’s a saying that history belongs to the victors.
When two empires battle against each other, one of them loses. The victors write the history. They write about how our empire was always great and these ones were barbarians and we crushed them. It’s probably not all completely true. Why would God allow this accusation against himself to be recorded in his own book?
And his response to it isn’t Habakkuk, what’s wrong with you? How dare you. That’s not what God says. Why? Because he cares.
And this isn’t the only prayer like this in scripture. There are dozens and dozens of Psalms that are filled with this kind of gut wrenching honesty, God, what’s the matter with you? Kind of prayer. There’s an entire book of the Old Testament, the book of Job, 42 chapters of insanity, people saying lies about God, except for Job, who has suffered so much that he’s not sure that God’s good, not sure that God’s fair. And he’s saying this publicly.
And what does God say about Job at the end of his book job 4:27, that job has spoken the truth about me in the New Testament? James chapter 5, verse 11. Job, who doubted. The fairness of God is upheld as an example of faithful perseverance. God is inviting your honesty, and that’s because he cares.
Friends, God is not impressed by your fake photoshopped Christmas card faith. He’s not impressed. He sees through your fake and would much rather you come to him with real honest faith and confession. Because the God who knows your weakness has made a way for you to come to know him through Christ.
And so if you’re not honest about your shortcomings, you have no claim to Christ. Habakkuk is a model of this for us.
Pray with honesty because God cares, because God is gracious. Second reason, to pray with honesty. Pray with honesty because God is powerful.
We’re honest with God because we know that he is the only one who can do anything about the things that really hurt us. Verse 5. This is God responding to Habakkuk.
Habakkuk has prayed and now we get to eavesdrop on God’s response. Verse 5. Look. Now compare that with verse 3. Habakkuk is saying, I’m looking and I don’t like what I’m seeing.
I’m looking and all that I see are violence and the wicked are getting away and the poor are being trodden upon. And God says, no, no, no, look again, look again. Friends, you are small and your perception is so limited. And in any given situation there is so much more going on than any of us could ever be aware of.
Look, look among the nations and see, wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.
God is saying, look again, I am doing something. And this verse gives us this picture of God’s infinity.
He’s saying, you can’t even grasp all of the wonderful things that I’m going to do. And at the same time it reveals our finitude. God is infinite. We are finite. We have limits.
We are small. When he says, even if you could grasp all the things that I’m doing, you wouldn’t believe in them. Here’s the thing, guys. Finitude, being finite, being small, having limits is not something that we ought to repent of. That’s not sinful to have limits.
It’s not sinful to not understand all of the things that God is up to. It’s actually impossible to understand all of the things that God is up to because he’s infinite and eternal and you are not. Because he has a full grasp on everything going on in the world and you don’t.
We don’t repent of our finitude. We acknowledge our limited perception and our doubts and we humbly bring them to God. And we say, I don’t have the entire picture, but this is terrible.
Verse 6. God’s going to begin to unveil his plan. He’s going to let Habakkuk in broaden Habakkuk’s perception of the situation in Israel. Verse 6. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
In Habakkuk’s day, the Babylonian empire, also called the Chaldeans. There’s some historical reasons for that. Don’t worry about it for now. Just for now. Babylon, Chaldea, same thing.
Put that in your mind for now. That’s an oversimplification, but it’s okay. The Babylonian empire has arisen with an unprecedented breaknecking speed, emerging as a world superpower. And they are sweeping across all of known land and taking it for themselves.
Nation after nation and empire after empire is falling before the Babylonians. They’re taking over nations easier than you could cut through a stick of butter and notice what God says. I am raising up the Chaldeans. God says that he is in control. And again, this reveals God’s infinity.
He’s in control of it all. There is no nation, There is no empire. There is no military, there is no war. There is no king who is outside of his control. And it also reveals our finitude, because the most powerful people among us are on a leash.
God is in control. Verse 7. They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Where does Babylon get the right to take over all of these nations?
They get it from themselves. Their understanding of justice and dignity, it just comes from themselves. They’re like, oh, yeah, we’re probably in charge of the world now. Yeah, we should probably take over all of these nations. Listen to how he describes the might of the Babylonian army.
Verse 8. Their horses are swifter than leopards. The horses, the war horses that the Babylonian army is riding on are faster than a leopard. Do you know how fast an Arabian leopard can run? I looked it up this week.
Guess how fast they can run? 40 miles per hour. That’s about twice the speed that an ancient war horse could run. Not only can they run 40 miles per hour, they can jump forward 20ft at a time.
That’s wild. That is not who you want to meet in a dark alley, an army full of soldiers who are that fast. And that’s who Babylon is? God says their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves. They do not take prisoners if they don’t want to.
Their horsemen press proudly on. Nothing can stop their advance. Their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle, swift to devour. They are fierce, fast, strong, devouring whoever they want.
They come from nowhere, swoop in like an eagle and devour everything in sight. Verse 9. They all come for violence. All their faces forward. The army is disciplined.
They are marching in the same direction. They’re not looking at their shoes. They’re not saying, like, oh, who’s over there? They’re marching forward. Their faces are in the same direction.
They are unstoppable, and they’re coming for you. The end of verse 9. They gather captives like sand. The Babylonians are taking over nations and taking captives as easily as you could get a scoop of sand at the beach. They gather captives like sand.
Verse 10. At Kings they scoff, and rulers, they laugh. They’re coming face to face with the mightiest men and the mightiest forces on the face of the planet. And they’re saying, that’s funny. Russia today, Russia has the largest nuclear storehouse in the world.
They have about 5,000 nuclear warheads in their arsenal right now. The Babylonians. If the Babylonians were around today with this kind of might, they would go and look at Russia’s nuclear storehouse and they say, ha, Isn’t that cute?
At Kings they scoff. At rulers, they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it, piling up earth to make dirt siege ramps, climbing into the mightiest, tallest, strongest fortresses, taking over Fort Knox with a pile of dirt.
Nothing can stop them. These are the people. This is the army that God says is under his control.
This is the power that God is going to use to judge the Israelites.
If you know your Bible history well, you know that the Babylonians succeeded in this. They took the Israelites from the land that God had promised to give them and exiled them to their own nation. That’s where we get Bible books like Daniel.
The selfish reign of Egypt, the selfish reign of Jehoiakim has an expiration date because God has raised up the Babylonians and they are coming. Verse 11. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on. Guilty men whose own might is their God. This is foreshadowing.
The Babylonians, guilty of all of this bloodshed, are guilty and they will fall. Friends, don’t put your confidence, don’t set your hope in unrighteous powers, even when you think that God is using them.
Instead, set your hope in the God who’s behind it all.
This comes as God’s response to Habakkuk’s honest prayer. Again, he does not rebuke Habakkuk. He doesn’t say Habakkuk. What’s the matter with you? How dare you talk to me that way.
He actually very graciously unveils a little bit of his plan for Habakkuk’s benefit and our own. So pray with honesty. Because God is the only one who can do something about the things that harm us. He has more power than those who hurt us. And judgment.
Vengeance belongs to him, not to us. Take justice into your own hands. You’re no more righteous than Jehoiakim or the Babylonians, but entrust it to God and he will reign even the terrible things inside of us. The forces and the temptations inside of you that feel just as strong as the Babylonians, those temptations that you think will define you forever. God is stronger even than that.
And so pray to him with honesty. The Bible says, Isaiah 63:1, that God is mighty to save. He is mighty. There is nothing that can stop him. There is no obstacle he cannot overcome in your life, but he is mighty to save.
He uses his power for your advantage.
Pray with honesty about temptation.
When we are tempted, our reaction is usually to give in if we’re honest. But. But when we’re, when we have some mindfulness about it, our temptation, our. Our thought when we’re tempted is to white knuckle our way through it and to say, I’m not going to do it this time. I’m not going to scream at my wife this time.
I’m not going to fool around with my boyfriend this time. I’m not going to lie about that problem at work this time. I’m not going to cheat on my homework this time. And God invites you not to white knuckle and try to save yourself. You’re weak.
You can’t save yourself. God invites you to pray with honesty about your temptations. God, I really want to do that right now. And I know it’s wrong, but it seems really good. So would you please help me?
Pray with honesty about your temptations. Pray with honesty about your doubts when you’re struggling with doubt. Don’t run to books. Don’t run to podcasts, don’t run to blogs. Run to God and say, God, I don’t believe that you’re good right now.
What’s going on? Do you See how that actually requires more faith than trying to investigate it on your own. And yes, investigate. Yes, look for the answers to your questions. Don’t just sit in your doubt.
Doubt is not a virtue, but it’s also not necessarily sin.
But we’re taking those doubts to God because we know that he has the answers and we know that he’s mighty to save. Pray with honesty about your temptations. Pray with honesty about your doubts. Pray with honesty about other people. God so and so really hurt me.
And that’s it. You could stop your prayer there, yet Jesus told you to pray for your enemies. That’s not the only thing. He told you to pray. That’s not what Habakkuk does.
We don’t know everything that was going on in his heart. We hope and pray that he was praying for Jehoiakim, but that’s not what he’s praying for. Right here. He’s saying, God, this is terrible. Jehoiakim is a terrible king and everything is terrible.
Pray with honesty about your suffering. God, this is terrible. This season is terrible. This illness is terrible. This conflict is terrible.
Where my marriage is at right now, it’s terrible. God, the challenges that I face in school this year, they’re terrible. How long?
Pray with honesty. Just like Jesus. The night that Jesus was betrayed, ultimately leading to his crucifixion.
We can eavesdrop on another prayer from that night. In Luke 22:42, Jesus prayed, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, saying, God, if there’s any other way, please don’t make me go to the cross. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
Jesus prayed with honesty, friends. He can sympathize with you no matter what you are facing.
Knowing that he would raise from the dead did not make crucifixion any less painful or any real. And knowing that God will one day deliver you doesn’t make your present suffering any less painful or any less real. And in the midst of that, Jesus, the honest prayer and glorious Savior, sympathizes with you. He cares about you.
In your doubt, in your fear, in your suffering. He can sympathize, he can save. Because he persevered to the cross.
He persevered for you, enduring the worst suffering imaginable so that you could know him with a real, honest faith, not with a lie, not with pretension, not with playing church, not with tucking your shirt in and pretending that everything’s fine, that you could honestly know God because He’s paid for the sins that ought to separate you. And he can save not just because he persevered to the cross. He can save because he rose from the dead. The powerful God, who is more powerful than the Babylonian army, is more powerful than the grave itself.
And we think there’s anything in our life that we shouldn’t bring to him, that we can bring to him, it’s foolishness. He invites you today, friends, to pray with honesty because he cares and because he is powerful. Pray with honesty because God cares and because he is powerful. And both of those realities seen most clearly in the cross of Christ. God’s care for you revealed in the fact that he did not withhold his own Son.
And if he didn’t withhold even his own Son, how will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things? And God’s power revealed in the resurrection of Christ, that not even death could stop him from finishing his plans and accomplishing his purposes. This is the God who invites you to know him, to really know him, to not play church for a moment more, but to confess your sins, to confess your shortcomings, to lament your suffering, to be fully known and fully loved.
This is the God who has loved you. Let’s pray together.