Cries of Lament

Habk 1 “Lament” 1/28/18

I reached the point a while ago where I don’t want to turn on the news any more. Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t still engage the news - but I had to acknowledge that I had a deep sense of despair that every time I would wake up in the morning and look at the news there would be more heartbreak. More injustice. Just more.

Recently I was listening to a program that made an interesting point -  there were days when we would only receive the newspaper once a day. There were days when there were only a handful of news programs and they didn’t run twenty-four hours a day. But as we shifted to having news available to us every moment of every day, it began to overwhelm us. 

Habakkuk didn’t need twenty-four hour news to overwhelm him or break his heart. He was living right in the middle of it. Habakkuk is one of the later prophets that we find in the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament. The entirety of his writings focus on the relationship between a Holy and Just God, the righteous, and the wicked. 

As we enter into Habakkuk’s story and prophecy today and engage with it for the next several weeks, we need some background. Habakkuk is a prophet of God, which means one who is called. He is entrusted with bringing the word of God to God’s people. As we find Habakkuk today he is crying out to God asking “how long, O Lord?” And God responds to him. There are variety of ways that God responded to the prophets, some times by seeing visions. Other times by hearing a voice or being compelled to write something down, but what they received wasn’t truly a prophecy until they communicated it to the people. 

Habakkuk was a prophet during the time of Assyrian oppression and occupation of Israel. There had been glimmers of hope that the injustice would end throughout their history, chiefly under the rule of King Josiah of Judah, who lead the people out of oppression and purified Israelite worship, but those days were long gone, as King Josiah was killed in battle. 

Enter Habakkuk, the one whose name means to embrace. Martin Luther said of Habakkuk that his lament, and being a prophet for the people at such a time as this was like embracing them as mothers embrace hurting children. 

For the people are hurting. All around them it looks like the wicked are prospering. Winning if you will. So Habakkuk brings their complaint against God, crying out to God and waiting for God’s answer. In fact, Habakkuk waits like a watchman would wait in the night. Looking, patently scanning the horizon for a sign of God’s justice. 

The Biblical word for what Habakkuk is doing on behalf of the people is lamenting. Grieving. Crying out to God on their behalf. A lament could be described as just simply crying out to God in anguish and expressing how hard life is at this current time. Have you ever noticed how many psalms of distress or lament there are? Times when David was struggling. Times when he was fleeing for his life. Yet in the midst of those times of trial he still turned to God - still asked God to be his help. David trusted God and that trust was the foundation of his faith life. For in the words from this morning’s psalms, “My God, I have trusted you.” and “Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust, and does’t respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.”

So Habakkuk joins in the tradition of the Psalmists in lamenting. Asking God how long. And why. Telling God what the people are going through. Declaring to God that they need help. The type of help that can only come from God. 

Friends, are there not times, when we are watching the news today or when we are going through extremely difficult times that we are right there with Habakkuk? Right there crying out and asking God how much longer we need to wait? 

We need to reclaim the power of lament in our lives. All too often we feel that we need to put on a happy face for God, a mask. But God knows what’s in our heart so we should feel free to speak to God about what we are thinking, feeling, experiencing. We don’t need to protect God from our suffering, but God doesn’t desire to be shielded from our grief, rather wants to walk through it with us. 

Other times we buy into what culture proclaims about suffering instead of looking at the Holy Scriptures. We buy into the lie that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. In fact, God shows us time and time again in the stories of scripture we will face suffering, but we are not to lose our faith during those times. In the words of Pastor Adam Hamilton in his book about suffering entitled Why he writes, “The Bible does not teach that these who follow God will have a life of bliss. It describes the dogged faith of those who continue to trust in God despite their suffering, and the comfort, strength, and hope they find in the face of suffering.”

Habakkuk had that type of dogged faith. The type of faith that keeps looking to God, keeps crying out to God, even when injustice seems to be winning as it abounds around us. Habakkuk would not be able to lament if he didn’t have a foundation of faith. He would not be able to lament if he didn’t believe that God is powerful and just. He would not be able to lament if he didn’t believe that God could and will redeem the righteous. 

Let’s be honest. We have some of the same questions as Habakkuk. We wonder why the wicked are allowed to oppress the righteous. We wonder how long God is going to let all of this go on. We wonder how many more days we are going to have to wake up to heartbreaking news. But we also know, that even as we cry out in lament that this is not the end of the story. Devastation and violence will not have the last word. 

For Christ knew what it was like to suffer at the hands of the oppressor. He too knew what it was like to suffer injustice. But that did not have the final word in his life, and will not have the final word in ours as well. And that brothers and sisters, as distant as it may seem at times, leaves room for hope. There may be times now when it seems like the darkness is winning, like it is clouding out our vision, but it will not prevail. 

And so we wait. We wait each day patiently on the Lord. We wait as we lament. We wait as we speak out saying that this is not the way that God intended things to be. We wait as we tightly grasp God’s hand. And we wait as we are unabashedly honest with God. Let us wait on the Lord, even as we sit together and cry out, “how long, O Lord, how long?” Amen.