1. “There is Bad Growth in the Prairie!” (1:1-4)
2. “I’m Burning Down the Prairie!” (1:5-11)
3. “The Prairie Keeper Doesn’t Make Sense!” (1:12-2:1)
4. “The Prairie Must be Burned!” (2:2-20)
5. “I Trust the Prairie Keeper.” (3:1-19)
When I attended Knox College in the late 1980s, our school mascot was “The Siwash.” We often received questions from friends, family, or athletic competitors: “What’s a Siwash?” None of us really knew for sure. All I knew was that it represented a “Savage,” a wild person, perhaps referring to an American Indian.
Well, I graduated in 1989, and four years later, there was some research done regarding the name, and it came out that this word has been used in the Pacific Northwest since the 19th century as an expression of contempt regarding the American Indians.[1] So as not to provide offense in any way, the college president at the time, John McCall, told the board of directors that there seemed no alternative but to discontinue its use. He said, “Clearly the college, its students and alumni have never intended an offense to American Indians by using the term. Most of us have been entirely unaware of any pejorative meaning until recently.” That is totally true. We never meant it to be pejorative at all. I am an Old Siwash and will be until my dying day, because to me it was never a derogatory term against anybody.
And so, the Knox College mascot was changed to “The Prairie Fire.” This is a nod to the biology department of the college, which conducts a “Prairie Burn” every fall semester at Green Oaks, a 700-acre recreational area owned by the college. It gives the environmental studies students a hands-on lab for keeping the prairie at the recreational area strong and thriving.
Now, if you aren’t familiar with a prairie burn, it can be a bit unsettling, as flames race across acres of grass and smoke fills the air. What took years to grow seems to disappear in a matter of minutes. To the untrained eye, it looks like destruction. It looks like loss. It looks like something has gone terribly wrong. But the people who care for prairies know something different. They know that sometimes fire is not the enemy of the prairie. It means renewal. A controlled burn removes dead growth, returns nutrients to the soil, suppresses invasive species, and creates conditions for new life to flourish. What appears destructive is actually restorative. The fire is painful, but it serves a purpose.
My message this morning is entitled “The Prairie Fire.” It comes from the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is one of those minor prophets, toward the end of the Old Testament, which is often neglected. But he has a message for us today. So, I invite you to open in your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk. If you don’t have a Bible, I invite you to take one from the seat in front of you and turn to page 785. This morning, Lord willing, we will work through this entire book of the Bible.
Because its main theme aligns with what I have been teaching in recent weeks. For the past few weeks, I have been looking at a series of Scripture passages that deal with the theme of “When Life Doesn’t Make Sense.” I’m doing these messages in preparation for my series through the book of Job. These passages help put a framework in our minds about the way God works in this life, and I believe they will serve us well when we get to Job.
Two weeks ago, we looked at Psalm 73. In that Psalm, Asaph didn’t understand what was happening in life. He saw the wicked prospering. He saw the righteous suffering. He thought it should be the other way around. And Asaph, seeing the greener grass on the other side, almost crossed the fence by denying the LORD and living for himself. But he saw the end of the wicked, and I encouraged you in that message to live with the end in mind. God is good to those who are pure in heart (Psalm 73:1).
Last week we looked at the life of Joseph from Genesis 37-50. We want our lives to be like a beautiful, smooth, country drive through the hills. But we all will face a detour in our lives at some point, where God takes us on a road that we don’t want to go on. And sometimes that road can be rough and difficult. Joseph’s road was certainly that: hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, unjustly spending years in jail, betrayed and forgotten. But in the life of Joseph, his detour was all according to the sovereign plan of God, to save his people from the famine. And I encouraged you in that message to trust in God’s sovereign plan with the detours that you face in your life.
And this morning, as we look at the book of Habakkuk, we are going to use the metaphor of a Prairie Fire, a devastating event that takes place on the prairie. We will see Habakkuk dealing with some pretty heavy things. We will see the LORD telling him about a purge of his people, devastation that will come upon the land. And Habakkuk didn’t like it. Habakkuk didn’t understand it. And he even argued with God about it. In fact, that’s the remarkable thing that Habakkuk teaches us: there are times in this life when God doesn’t make sense. There are times in this life when God does what we don’t think that he should do. Again, in the end, Habakkuk finds his peace by trusting in God’s wisdom, and not his own.
We see Habakkuk introduced in verse 1.
Habakkuk 1:1
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk was a prophet in Judah, sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. We don’t know exactly when, whether two, four, or ten years before. But the destruction of Jerusalem was coming. I anticipate going to Lamentations next week, because it brings up some of these same questions. Habakkuk is before the destruction. Lamentations is after the destruction.
Now, the book of Habakkuk is a conversation between Habakkuk the prophet and God. Habakkuk will begin with a complaint to the LORD. The LORD will respond. Habakkuk will complain again. The LORD will respond again. And Habakkuk will finally respond in faith, even when he still doesn’t fully understand. Did you catch that in Psalm 13, which we read this morning?
Psalm 13:1-2
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
This is David's pain and sorrow. He wants his trial to end. Yet still he says,
Psalm 13:5b
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Even in the midst of his great pain, David still had the resolve to praise the Lord. That is essentially what Habakkuk does.
This is my hope for you in the application of this passage to your life. When events take place in your life that you don’t understand, events that even make you question God, I hope that you will respond in faith and trust in the wisdom of the LORD.
OK, so let’s look at our first point. Habakkuk says to God, 1. “There is Bad Growth in the Prairie!”
1. “There is Bad Growth in the Prairie!” (1:1-4)
The Prairie, in this case, is Judah. And Habakkuk points out all of the bad in the land.
Habakkuk 1:2-4
O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
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.
So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
Habakkuk saw the violence in the land (verse 2). He saw the sin in the land (verse 3). He saw the injustice in the land (verse 4). And he cries out to the LORD: “How long until you deal with this?” “How long until you save us from the violence?” “How long until you step in and deliver us like you have so many times in the past?” This is so much like Asaph of Psalm 73. It seems like all is upside down. The wicked are prospering. The righteous are being oppressed by the wicked.
You might expect the LORD to reply with some encouraging words, some promise of forgiveness and reconciliation. Like Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Or like the message of Hosea 6:1: “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.” Or like what Joel told his hearers in Joel 2:12-13: “Yet even now, declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”
But this is not what the LORD said to Habakkuk. He gave no promise of future restoration. Instead, he told of the coming Babylonian invasion. Essentially, God said,
2. “I’m Burning Down the Prairie!” (1:5-11)
That is, Judah will be destroyed. This is not what Habakkuk expected. God begins in verse 5 by admitting so.
Habakkuk 1:5
“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.”
This sort of phrase is what I want for you to embrace in this little series before we look at Job. The ways of God are not what we always might think. He tells the prophet here, “I’m going to do something in your days, that I’m telling you in advance, but you aren’t going to believe it.” Don’t ever think that you have God all figured out. Now, certainly, there are truths about God that are firm in our minds. As the LORD said to Moses.
Exodus 34:6-7
“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
We can affirm these things about the character of the LORD: that he is slow to anger and forgiving, that he is a faithful God who shows his steadfast love to many and forgives our sin. But God will visit iniquity, even to three and four generations. And we can’t know exactly when his patience will run dry and when his judgment will come. We can’t always assume that God will relent of the coming disaster in our lives.
This is what the LORD says to Habakkuk. He says, 2. “I’m Burning Down the Prairie!” And the people won’t believe how he’s doing it. I want you to embrace this thought in your mind: that God may tell us things that he will do, but we won’t believe. On Paul’s first missionary journey to Gentile lands, he quoted this verse to the Jewish synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia as a warning that the ways of God are a bit different than the Jews thought. He said, “I’m doing a work in your days, that I’m telling you in advance, that you aren’t going to believe.” Paul was referring to the freeness of the gospel, which was free and available to all who believe, not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. This is the marvelous news of Jesus: he was a Jew who came as the Jewish Messiah, but the Jewish Messiah didn’t merely save the Jews. His salvation offer spilled over to the Gentiles today, so that any of you here today who believe in Jesus can know and experience forgiveness of sins. And Paul used this verse in the synagogue to warn the Jews that they won’t believe him, even though he is telling them these things in advance. And indeed, when the Jews heard that salvation had come to the Gentiles as well, they threw Paul out of the synagogue. They didn’t believe. And what God tells Habakkuk of what he is about to do, Habakkuk didn’t believe either.
Habakkuk 1:6
“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.”
God says, “I am raising up the Chaldeans.” The Chaldeans are another name for the Babylonians. Babylon was the major world powerhouse at the time. They were the threat upon the security of every nation, including Judah. Picture the war in Ukraine. Think of the invading Russian army. They are coming into Ukraine and “seizing dwellings not their own.” The message here is similar to God saying to Ukraine, “I’m raising up the Russian army to come against you.” What makes this astonishing is that for five verses, the LORD speaks of how wicked they are. And God says, “I’m raising them up!”
Habakkuk 1:7-11
They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
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.
They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like sand.
At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and take it.
Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!
In the context of the day, the LORD was saying to Habakkuk, “I am raising them up to come and destroy Judah.” Habakkuk had a big problem with this. He said, “You can’t do this. It makes no sense. You are righteous and holy. You cannot use this sinful, wicked nation to judge us.” For my third point, using the Prairie Fire illustration, here’s how I phrase it.
3. “The Prairie Keeper Doesn’t Make Sense!” (1:12-2:1)
In essence, Habakkuk says, “God, you are the one who is supposed to care for the prairie. It makes no sense that you will burn it down. I would have thought that you would fertilize the prairie, or maybe build an irrigation system to bring more water to the prairie. But burning it down? It makes no sense. In fact, based upon your character, you can’t do this.” Look at what Habakkuk says, beginning in verse 12.
Habakkuk 1:12-13
Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
Do you see what Habakkuk is saying? He is presenting a theological argument about God. He is saying that God can’t raise up the Chaldeans, because they are wicked people, and God can’t use sinful, wicked people to accomplish his purpose. He says, “God, you are pure and holy! You are so pure and holy, that you can’t even look upon evil. You cannot do this.” In other words, he is saying, “God, you don’t make sense.”
This sounds like what theologians might say. Listen to what one respected theologian says about this verse: “An aspect of God’s holiness is his absolute purity or goodness. This means that he is untouched and unstained by the evil in the world. He does not in any sense participate in it. Note the way in which Habakkuk 1:13 addresses God: ‘Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong.’”[2]
This is exactly what Habakkuk is saying: “You cannot in any sense participate in the evil in this world.” Habakkuk takes this to mean, “You cannot raise up a wicked nation to destroy a nation that is more righteous than they are.” But, indeed, that’s exactly what the LORD was doing with these Chaldeans. Yes, they were wicked. Yes, they were even more wicked than Judah. But God was raising them up to destroy Judah (1:6).
So far, as we have looked upon Asaph and Joseph, we have considered the case of “When life doesn’t make sense.” But here with Habakkuk, we are looking at something even deeper: when God doesn’t make sense. I have run across a fair number of people in this life who have a problem with God, and therefore they can’t believe. Often this comes in the way of a theological argument, arguing against the existence of God. They say, “If God is all good, and if God is all powerful, then why is there evil in the world? Perhaps God is not all-powerful to stop the evil. Perhaps God is all-powerful, but is not good in that he let evil come into the world.” And so, people justify their lack of faith in God and happily go on their way, thinking that they have just disproved the God of the Bible, and are fine to live as they please in their sin.
I have also come across a fair number of people who have had some evil done to them, particularly by professing Christians, and they have turned their backs on God because of the hypocrisy of others. Saying, “I don’t want to have any part in a religion that acts like that.” And they justify themselves, thinking that the evil in this world that they have experienced is a valid enough reason for them never to step into the doors of a church again.
In their thinking, they are just like Habakkuk, who is smug in what he said. Look at chapter 2, verse 1. Habakkuk closes his complaint with these words.
Habakkuk 2:1
I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
It’s almost as if Habakkuk crosses his arms and takes his defiant stance: “OK, God, answer me! You are in the wrong! I’m in the right. What do you have to say for yourself?” And God responds by saying,
4. “The Prairie Must be Burned!” (2:2-20)
Look at chapter 2, verse 2.
Habakkuk 2:2-3
“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end — it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
In other words, “I’m burning the prairie. I’m going to bring the Chaldeans against Judah. They will destroy the land. It will surely happen.” But then he says one of the great gospel truths in all of the Bible.
Habakkuk 2:4
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
This is the contrast between the Chaldeans and the righteous. The Chaldeans here are seen as proud and puffed up, wicked and not upright. By contrast, the righteous shall live by his faith. God is telling Habakkuk, “It’s going to happen. I’m going to use this evil nation to bring about judgment upon Judah. The prairie must be burned! Trust me in this. Live by faith. You may not understand all of my ways. You may think that I don’t make sense. But the righteous are those who live by faith.”
Of course, this is the core of the gospel. This verse is cited three times in the New Testament: Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. Paul said it this way.
Romans 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
As Paul goes on in Romans to explain this, he speaks of how our righteousness actually comes by our faith. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6). So also do we believe in God, who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5), not by our works, but by his grace. When we believe in God and trust in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, God considers our faith to be righteousness, so that when he looks down upon us, he sees us not as sinners but as righteous through the blood of Jesus.
Here, Habakkuk was called to trust God in this historical situation. We are called to believe in him who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5). If you really think about this, this doesn’t make sense either. How can a God of justice consider our faith as righteousness? If you think about this, it doesn’t seem right! We sin, but don’t receive the due penalty of our error? All by simply believing that Jesus died for our sins? I would call you to believe, even if it all doesn’t make sense to you. Be like Asaph, who trusted that God is good to those who are pure in heart. Be like Joseph, who embraced the detours of his life. Trust the LORD, just like Habakkuk did.
We see him trusting in the LORD in chapter 3, where Habakkuk says,
5. “I Trust the Prairie Keeper.” (3:1-19)
Habakkuk 3:2
O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
The report that he is talking about is in chapter 2, in which God says that he will deal with the Chaldeans. Look at the woes of that chapter. There are five of them:
“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own” (2:6).
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house” (2:9).
“Woe to him who builds a town with blood” (2:12).
“Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink” (2:15).
“Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, ‘Awake’” (2:19).
These are five woes against the Chaldeans. Essentially, the LORD said, “I’m going to burn the prairie of Judah. But the Chaldeans won’t get away with it. I will burn them as well.”
Interposed in these woes are some good news of hope. It’s hope that after the prairie fire, the prairie will grow back healthier than ever, with the dead growth gone, the nutrients returned to the soil, and the invasive species suppressed.
Habakkuk 2:14
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
This is the promise of worldwide revival in the future, when all will know of God and will worship his glory. But until that time, let us rest in the plans of God.
Habakkuk 2:20
But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
When Habakkuk hears all of this, he responds in faith: “O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear.” He said, “I trust the prairie keeper.” He has just one request: “In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.” What a great prayer to God: “In wrath remember mercy.” As you burn the prairie, remember your mercy to restore us again!
When a fire comes in your life, you may not like it, you may not understand it, God’s ways may not make sense to you, but you can pray, “O LORD, in wrath remember mercy.” This is the prayer of faith. Look at the faith of Habakkuk.
Habakkuk 3:16
I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
This is the resolve of the one who knows that his nation will be invaded and burned to the ground. Yet, he will wait for the LORD. Many have a faith in God for what God can do for them. Many come to God for the promises. They come because he will hold up their marriage. They come because God will bless their finances. They come because God will answer their prayers in the way they expect. They come because he will protect them from hardship, pain, or suffering. But when God fails to hold up his end of the bargain (from their perspective anyway), they often leave the LORD. But look at the resolve of Habakkuk.
Habakkuk 3:17-18
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk is saying, "Even if the entire economic underpinning of everything I have is wiped away. Yet, I will rejoice in God." Today we might say it something like this: "Though my house burns down and I have no insurance; though my 401k is caught in a Ponzi scheme and is all gone; though I have no family to fall back upon; though I have no food and no wealth; yet, I will trust in God.
Habakkuk is saying, “Even if the prairie burns, I will trust in the keeper of the prairie.” This is genuine faith, not coming to God for the gifts, but coming to God because he is our only hope. Faith will trusts God even when the promises are not what we hoped. Faith will worships God even when the fields are burned and barren. Faith will rejoice in the LORD, even when life is uncertain, painful, or confusing. Faith still trusts in the LORD, even if all is taken away.
How can that faith be? How can someone have such a faith? This comes in verse 19.
Habakkuk 3:19
GOD, the LORD, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
It is not that Habakkuk has the faith strong in himself. God is the one who is going to strengthen him. So if you are struggling right now, like Asaph who saw the prosperity of the wicked and wanted to go to the other side, pray to God that he would give you a vision of the end: God is good to those who are pure in heart. And if you are like Joseph on a detour of your life and you are just struggling, pray that God would give you the strength to trust in him.
Habakkuk has the perspective here that God is going to strengthen him on the way through.
Is this your faith? Are you ready to trust in the LORD, even when all in your life collapses? Can you say, “Even if the prairie burns, I will trust in the keeper of the prairie?”
This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on June 7, 2026 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.
[1] Tom Wilson, “When Knox College Changed Its Mascot,” Galesburg.com, January 18, 2010, https://www.galesburg.com/story/opinion/columns/2010/01/18/tom-wilson-when-knox-college/44362269007/.
[2] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), p. 285.