Father, we come to holy ground and we pray for the Spirit to guide and lead us now. We pray, Lord, that this prayer would be our prayer, that we would recall the wondrous works of our God, that we would fill our minds and our hearts in trials and difficulties and times of tribulation. I pray that you would just give us that understanding of Scripture. Give us that understanding that the justified by faith shall live by a steadfast trust in his God.
We pray now that you would indeed cleanse us from all sin, Wash us, purify us, and fill us with those good things that Your Word has for us. And we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction to Habakkuk 3
Well, we notice three particular sections in this final chapter of Habakkuk, the prophet. The first is the prophet's prayer, verses 1 and 2. Secondly, the prophet's contemplation of God in verses 3 to 15. And then the prophet ends with his response and confidence in verses 16-19.
Just a couple of observations though.
The Prophet's Prayer (vv. 1–2)
Notice it says in verse 1, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet on Shigionot. No one knows what that means. It's found elsewhere only in Psalm 7. The fact that this was to the chief musician with stringed instruments would indicate that it was some sort of a musical or some sort of a liturgical word, as are the Selahs.
No one really knows what the Selah means, though some have argued that it's a time to stop, to meditate, and then to move on. You'll see the Selah is written in the book of Psalms as well. So some have concluded or some believe that Habakkuk was one of those prophets that composed hymns or composed psalms for worship in the temple. Whether that's the case or not, we certainly don't know a whole lot about this prophet other than when he prophesied and why and the things that we've already covered in this particular book.
But if you remember, I told you that Lloyd-Jones' messages or sermons on this was entitled, From Fear to Faith. Warren Wiersbe entitled his, From Worry to Worship. And I think you can see that now. We start off again with those complaints and the distress of the prophet.
And as the Lord has taken him by the hand and led him along and answered his questions, and given him doctrine and given him understanding, this causes the prophet then to get on his face before the Lord to worship and to adore. And notice, with reference to the prophet's prayer,
The Prophet's Fear Before God
he first of all indicates his fear. He indicates his fear. O Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid. The fear of God is a wonderful thing.
The fear of God is a blessing to the soul. The fear of God in the Bible isn't necessarily hiding under the piano, but it is to reverence God. It is to honor God. Though there may be a bit of the hiding underneath the piano type of fear mingled with it.
The fear of God is a fitting response to his message of judgment. It would have been quite odd or quite outside of the character of man for Habakkuk to say, Oh, Lord, I have heard your speech. And that's just grand. That's just wonderful.
No, He's told the prophet that He is raising up a nation that is very bitter, very hasty, that's going to come in and dispossess them of their land. Well, certainly this would cause fear in the heart of this prophet. A righteous, a godly, upright fear. It's as if the prophet now has assumed a God-word reference to the things that trouble him.
Remember Asaph in Psalm 73. He looks around at society and he sees his righteous brothers and sisters suffering. He sees them losing. He sees them with failure.
He sees them tried. He sees them with tribulations. And then he notices the ungodly and how they have everything. There are no pangs in their death.
There is no difficulty that plagues them. They have the best cars. They have the best houses. They have the best of everything.
And for Asaph, this created a real dilemma in his heart. In fact, he starts the psalm with that confession, God is good to Israel. That's his starting point. But then he tells us, but as for me, my foot nearly slipped.
When I saw these things, he said, it really plagued me and it really tried me. It wasn't until he says, I went into the sanctuary and then I understood. Then everything made sense. In other words, he got a God-Word perspective.
That's what you and I need to get. That's what Abbakit got here. O Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid. There's no more questioning.
There's no more complaining on the part of the prophet. There's no more dialogue. There is simply worship and praise and adoration and submission to the righteous government of his God. Walter Kaiser said, neither contemplation nor worship of the living God can take place while mortals are still proudly projecting themselves as equals or advisors to the Lord of the universe.
Now, he's not suggesting that that's what Habakkuk was doing, but he's making that general application. We don't genuinely worship. We don't genuinely adore and praise God while we have projected ourselves as equals to God or as His advisors. We need that spirit of fear to overtake our hearts.
We need that spirit of fear to prepare us to enter in before the High King of Heaven. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, our troubles can nearly all be traced to our persistence in looking at the immediate problems themselves instead of looking at them in the light of God. Amen and amen a hundredfold.
You see the prophet's difficulty. He sees problems in Judah. God says, I'm going to take care of Judah with the Babylonians. Then the prophet sees problems with that sort of event.
Well, what about this, Lord? He's not thinking God's thoughts after him. He's not looking at it in the light of God. That's why God graciously does answer his questions so that he can advise him, so that he can inform him, and so that now the prophet can make heads or tails of reality by looking at things in light of God.
The Prophet's Petition
Notice his petition. He says, O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. He prays for the preservation or reviving of life.
Remember that Habakkuk was a part of a believing remnant. There were those in Israel or in Judah that had not become utterly faithless. There were those in the kingdom of Judah that were faithful, that needed to press on. And so, the prophet prays here, revive your work in the midst of the years.
And notice, the prophet is concerned now specifically with God. Before it was, Judah's got problems. Judah's got bigger problems with Babylon coming. But now his concern is your work.
He is submissive to the cause of God. He is truly in line with our Lord's prayer. Praying first for the glory of the name of God, and then for the advancement of the kingdom of God, and for the doing of the will of God. Revive your work in the midst of the years.
And then he says, Lord, as well. in the midst of the years, make it known. Propagate understanding. And I believe that Robertson is right here. He says, by this petition, the prophet asks that the Lord will make known to the believing the program and plan that He has designed.
In other words, the Bacchic doesn't want this message only for himself. He wants all the faithful to hear this. If he had these questions and these complaints and these laments, certainly there were others in Judah that would have the same problems. And so the prophet says, in the midst of the years, make it known.
Even as Habakkuk had agonized in coming to an understanding of the mysterious ways of God, and finally had rested his case in the light of the revelation provided him, So he intercedes on the behalf of others that the Lord will make plain to them the understanding necessary for survival in the midst of calamity. So he's jealous that the people of God know the plan of God, the ways of God. That they too will submit themselves unto his hand and unto his government. So in his prayer we see his fear, his petition, and then
The Prophet's Argument: Mercy in Wrath
notice thirdly his argument. The very end of verse 2, in wrath, remember mercy. Isn't that beautiful? How did David pray in Psalm 51, verses 1 and 2?
Lord, remember all the good things that I've done, and may that outweigh the bad. No, he casts himself wholly on God's mercy. See, a backet cannot bring the righteousness of Judah as an argument. He cannot present the righteousness of the southern tribes to God as a reason why the Lord should exercise any sort of compassion toward them.
He casts himself solely upon God. He says, in wrath, remember mercy. He knew that God was going to pour out wrath. He knew that God was going to execute the vengeance of the covenant upon the southern tribes.
And yet he prays that in the execution of that wrath, God remember mercy. He knew God to be a merciful God. He knew God to be long-suffering. He knew Him to be gracious and kind.
He knew Him to be the God of Holy Scripture. And so He pleads, not our merit, but God's mercy.
The Prophet's Contemplation of God (vv. 3–15)
Notice, secondly, the prophet's contemplation of God, verses 3-15. Now, you parents with children will know that often they come home with the assignment to make a collage. If you're not parents, perhaps you remember when you were a child and in school you were told to make a collage. Isn't that a fun word?
Collage. What did you do when you made a collage? You cut out a bunch of pictures and you pasted them on a board. You might have a certain theme.
You might have a theme about weather. So you'd cut out pictures of lightning, or pictures of clouds, or pictures of rain, or pictures of snow, and you'd put that all on this board, and that would form a collage to teach you something about the weather. That's what the prophet's doing in verses 3 to 15.
A Collage of God's Mighty Acts
He has got a collage. He is making a collage, an assortment of word pictures concerning the faithfulness, the glory, the majesty and the excellence of God. If you want to compare this convention used, you can look at Moses' song in Exodus 15. You can look at Deborah's song in Judges 5.
You can look at David's victory chant in Psalm 68. Basically, it is a time when the writers of Scripture gather up all the works of God, or all the acts of God that bear on their particular theme, They put it down on this collage in order to proclaim a message concerning the glory of our God.
God's Power in the Exodus
Notice in verses 3 and 4, he highlights the exodus, the exodus out of Egypt. The words, Timan and Mount Paran, are indicative of that route. Their teeming is generally identified as a site in Edom. And Perun is identified with Sinai.
This hymn traces the steps over which God led Israel as she journeyed to take possession of the promised land. You see what the prophet is doing? He wants this collage on the faithfulness and power of God to fortify and strengthen his own soul. He has prayed, he has offered up petition, he has sought the Lord, and now he is rehearsing the wonderful works that our Lord God does.
You see, genuine Christians do not have amnesia. Genuine Christians use their memory. Genuine Christians feed their memories so that they'll be able to draw off of them in difficult times and rehearse the God who has always proven himself to be faithful. This is why you need to be familiar with Exodus 15, with Judges 5.
Why you need to understand the victory chant of Psalm 68. Why you need to avail yourself of the minor prophets. Why you need to study the life and ministry and death and resurrection of Jesus. Why you need to go from Acts 1 to 28 to see God's faithfulness in caring for His people and His church.
You need to fill your mind with those thoughts of God so that when despair, trial, or difficulty come, you can draw from it, build yourself a collage, and find strength and help to persevere in the midst of trial. God came from Timan, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness was like the light.
He had rays flashing from his hand. And there his power was hidden." Probably again a reference to the Exodus and there specifically at Sinai. The next verse indicates the ten plagues in Egypt. Before him went pestilence and fever followed at his feet.
God's power is demonstrated over creation in verse 6. In verse 7, it's recalled in the victory that God gave to His people. Specifically, this reference, I saw the tense of cushion and deflection. You can look it up later in Judges 3, verses 7 to 11. the victory of Israel when they were oppressed by Cushon Reshathim, when Ahphiel was the judge.
See, we read that stuff. You know, that's obscure. That's ancient history. What does that have to do with us?
Well, it brought Habakkuk out of a funk. It brought Habakkuk out of turmoil. Why should you read Judges? So that you can be a happy Christian.
Why should you meditate on Othniel, the judge? So that you can step out in faith toward your God. The next reference, in verse 7, the curtains of the land of Midian trembled. Probably Judges 7, verse 13.
That man has that dream of a loaf of barley bread coming into the camp of Midian. The interpretation is, oh, this is Gideon with the sword of the Lord to put down the Midianites. You see, the prophet's collage includes the victory of God over His enemies. The prophet's collage includes the kindness of God to judge Othniel.
The kindness of God to judge Gideon. The victory of God is displayed and placed on His collage so that He can be filled with strength and the ability to live by His faith.
God's Anger Toward Rebel Nations
In verse 8, there is a question posed. O Lord, were You displeased with the rivers? Was Your anger against the rivers? Was Your wrath against the sea that You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation?
Your bow was made quite ready. Oaths were sworn over Your arrows. You divided the earth with rivers, the mountains saw you and trembled." The prophet's asking the question, were you upset with the created order? Is it rivers?
Is it seas? I mean, there were times where God opened the rivers. There were times when the mountains quaked. The prophet's saying, are you angry with the created order?
Are you angry with the inanimate creation that you have made to display your glory? He says in verse 10, the mountains saw you and trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice and lifted its hands on high.
The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. Joshua 10, 12 to 14. Joshua gained military victory in a battle because God caused the sun and moon to stand still. At the light of your arrows they went, at the shining of your glittering spear.
God, is it the creation that you're angry with? The answer comes in verse 12. No, it's not the rivers. It's not the seas.
It's not the mountains. It's rebel nations. It's the peoples of the earth. It's the conspirators.
Not the mountains or the rivers, but Babylonians. Ungodly and rebellious Judeans. Israelites. Covenant breaking. peoples.
That's what angers the Lord. Verse 12, you marched through the land in indignation. You trampled the nations in anger. So, God's anger is directed toward the wickedness of the nations of the earth who rebel against Him.
It isn't the sea. It's you and me. And he highlights how God delivers His people. Verses 13 to 15,
God's Salvation Through His Anointed
you went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed, the Messiah, the Christ. Some have hypothesized here that he's speaking of Cyrus. God in Isaiah calls Cyrus His anointed, His Messiah. Cyrus was the Persian king to whom Babylon would fall.
If it is indeed Cyrus, Cyrus is sort of a down payment of a greater Messiah, a greater Christ, a greater anointed one who would come. The one in whom all the victories of the Lord would be gained, even Jesus Christ. You struck the head from the house of the wicked by laying bare from foundation to net. You thrust through with his own arrows the head of his villages.
They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. You walked through the sea with your horses through the heat of great waters." So the prophet here contemplates God. He makes this collage.
And may I just say, brethren, it is not simply a duty to read the Scripture. It is a privilege and it is one of the things that you will find in your life that will fortify you. Sometimes, children, why should I read the Bible? And generally, as parents, we say, well, the psalm says, Thy word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.
We might encourage them to hide the word so that they're able to stand fast or stand strong in the midst of trouble, in the midst of temptation. You know, when you're perplexed or when you're down or you're depressed, what does James say? Is anyone among you happy? Let him sing the Psalms.
Is anyone among you down? Let him pray. There are biblical antidotes to the problems that we face. Habakkuk is not alone.
He's not an isolationist ace. He's not, wow, I can't believe this guy has these complaints. We all have them. He just expresses them.
God answered so that, and gave him these answers in such a way and inscripturated it, so hopefully we won't ask the same questions, but we'll learn what strengthened him. You've got to get a piece of paper and write Bible verses on it. You've got to get a theme and write Bible verses or marshal up texts to strengthen you. Brethren, please do it.
There's no magic here with a backache. It's not like God said, look, here's what I want you to do. I want you to this, this, this, this, this. No.
He does what comes natural to the Christian. He prays and he thinks about God. Nine times out of ten, that ought to pull you out of your trouble. Nine times out of ten, that ought to pull you out of, and I say funk, that's what Jay Adams calls depression, a blue funk.
Sometimes we get into that. We don't know how. We don't know why. We don't even have a reason.
In fact, Spurgeon says one of the most distressing examples of this melancholy is the causeless kind. And when bad things happen and we feel miserable, we know why. But when we feel miserable and there's no bad thing, we really have a problem then. But what do we do when we're there?
We fortify ourselves and we buoy ourselves with the Bible. That's what he's doing. He's recalling the mighty works of God. So next time you feel bad, or you feel down, or you feel tried, or you feel depressed, just think from Genesis to Revelation.
Think about God. He did this with Aphneal. He did this with Gideon. He did this with David.
He forgave David after David's sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. He not only forgave him, but He used him as a mighty king and promised a great dynasty that is fulfilled in His Son, Jesus. And oh, there's a world to think about with Jesus. I mean, He lived, He died, He rose again.
He ever lives to make intercession for me. You see, you keep these thoughts before you. You roll them around your mind. You meditate.
You contemplate. You take it out like a multifaceted gem and you study it. That's the importance of Holy Scripture.
The Prophet's Response and Confidence (vv. 16–19)
Habakkuk filled himself with the knowledge of God. And that's what brought him, thirdly, to his response and confidence. So, verses 16 to 19. Notice the first thing. There's a reverential awe.
Reverential Awe
Verse 16, if this is not the fear of God, I don't know what is. When I heard my body tremble. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself that I might rest in the day of trouble.
When He comes up to the people, He will invade them with His troops." There's that fear again. When I hear God, when I know God, when I understand God, there's no room for pride. There's no room for me thinking I'm really something. I am not.
This world is about God. It's about His glory. It's about His honor. And the sooner I recognize that, the happier I'll be.
You can compare later in your own study the prophet's physical affliction with Daniel 7, 28, Daniel 8, 27, and Daniel 10, verse 8. There were times when the prophet Daniel saw and heard things that caused physical suffering. I mean, face it. I just don't think we get it.
God is telling Habakkuk, this nation called Babylon that have just come onto the scene, they're going to come in and destroy everything you love. Well, what do we do with that? Oh, great! Yippee!
No, it caused him pain. It caused him trembling. That trembling before the Word of God is consistent with the psalm. Psalm 119, 120.
My flesh trembles in fear of you. Isaiah 66, God inhabits or God is enthroned on high. The earth is His footstool, but who does He look upon? To Him who is of a contrite spirit.
To Him who is lowly. and to him who trembles at his word." These are all consistent responses with the rest of the Bible. The reverential awe of the prophet.
Joyful Devotion in the Midst of Loss
Notice in verses 17 and 18, the prophet's joyful devotion in the midst of loss. The prophet's joyful devotion in the midst of loss. Not just devotion. One thing, I'll suck it up and I'll knuckle under, God, but I'm not going to like it.
That's not devotion, is it? God says, here's what I'm going to do. You need to deal with it? Okay, I'll deal with it.
He not only deals with it, but he deals with it with a smile on his face. And probably one of the most popular verses from this book, verse 17, except for verse 20 of chapter 2, again, the text that churches use to keep everybody quiet in the church sanctuary, But back at 317, notice what he says, "...though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation." Now, just think for a moment. It's not always easy for us to maintain a confident, let alone a joyful devotion and trust in God when things are going well, is it?
I mean, for us it'd be, though the superstore may not have meat and Price Smart not sell milk, Though the bread be off all the Costco shelves, and though we be in great want, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation." You see, it's one thing to serve God happily with a full freezer of meat, with cupboards rich with groceries. with an abundance of clothes and electronics items that just make our lives so much easier. I mean, brethren, face it, do you always joyfully, confidently trust God with all the good stuff you've got? Probably not.
Now, put yourself into Judah in the late 7th century BC. Jehoiakim is on the throne and he's a wretch. There's no justice in Judah. So much so that the very law that you love looks paralyzed.
You complain to God about that and the Lord says, you know what Habakkuk? I know. I know it a lot more than you. And this is what I'm doing.
I'm going to raise Babylon up and I'm going to destroy Judah. So not only you've got Jehoiakim on the throne, but you've got another man on a throne who's going to come in and devastate everything you love and hold dear. The brethren, face it. We love and hold dear to our stuff.
Don't, you know, oh, well, you know, I'd be glad to get rid of it all. Oh, okay. You'll be glad to get rid of it all? Yeah, sure.
I know that's what we like to think, but we've all grown accustomed to running water. We all probably like the refrigerator. The washing machine is quite a useful tool. The car, I mean, come on.
Do you know how much you don't have to walk because of the car? So it's one thing to say, oh yeah, I'll get rid of all that when we got it. But Habakkuk is really looking at devastation. He is really looking at destruction.
And he says, though these things be true, Though all this loss is incurred, though all of these problems will be about, then, or yet, he says, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The prophet demonstrates here the heart of true devotion. We will rejoice in the Lord because of the Lord.
That's where we need to be. Not we rejoice in the Lord because of what He gives us. Not we rejoice in the Lord because, now this isn't always wrong, but because He delivers us. In fact, in the psalms, He says, I love the Lord because He's heard my supplication.
But you know, we've got to penetrate at times even deeper than that and love Him and devote to Him for Him. Not for what He gives us. He doesn't make an argument or a deal with God. Lord, if You just cause the fig tree to blossom, then I'll remain faithful to You.
No. This is the heart of true devotion right here. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. I love that.
I've always been perplexed by that phraseology. I will joy in the God of my salvation. It's a verb. I will joy.
What does that mean? I will just joy. Just be happy in God. Alright?
I will joy. I'll just have joy in God. That's where all of us need to be, man. Not, I will joy because He gives me this, but I will joy because of Him.
I rejoice in God. I rejoice in the Giver, whether or not He gives. I love my father. I love my mother.
Not if they give me something, but because of their person, because of who they are. That's where Habakkuk has come full circle.
Refuge Taken in God
And then verse 19, the refuge taken in God. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hill." Psalm 18, verse 33. 2 Samuel 23. Habakkuk is filling his mind, filling his heart with King David's words.
Habakkuk goes to the Scripture. Habakkuk urges God, or pleads with God, these texts. The Lord is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet. and he will make me walk on my high hills to the chief musician with my stringed instruments." What a great song to sing in worship.
We need to have someone with some musical ability to put a back at three to music.
Three Closing Observations
Well, there's three observations and then we close. The first, the resolution of spiritual difficulty. The prophet moves from complaint and lament to praise and worship. The prophet moves from complaint and lament to praise and worship.
The prophet did this through prayer. The prophet did this through rehearsing the scriptures. The prophet did this not with some magical retreat, but with simple means used to usher himself into the presence of God. The understanding of who God is and what he intends in this world. ought to settle the spiritual tumults that plague the believer.
We need to fill our minds and hearts with who God is and with what He's doing. And we need to be content to not know everything. I think that's one of our problems. We like to know everything.
We're like the little kid that says, can we do this? And you say, no. He says, why? Because this.
Why? Because this. Why? We're forever asking why.
It's not always wrong to ask why. If we don't ask why of some text, we're not going to understand the Bible. Why is it that way? Oh, okay, I'll go here.
It's good help. Six little wise men, when you interpret Scripture, who, what, why, where, when, and how. Those are good helps to understand the Scripture. There's some things that God has not told us.
God may never tell us, and we need to be content with that. Well, why is it that way? Because God is God. We need to be content with that answer.
If we understand God's word and His ways, we can move from fear to faith and from worry to worship.
The Confidence of the Prophet
A second observation is the confidence of the prophet. The confidence of the prophet. Things are tough in his day and age, and yet he took pen to paper and he wrote the things that he wrote in this particular book. He speaks of God's victory.
He speaks of God's power. He speaks of salvation wrought with your anointed. He has spoken in chapter 2 that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. I mean, everything looked bleak out there, and yet Habakkuk is able to look beyond the bleakness to the God who sits enthroned on high.
He has confidence in the midst of trial. He has confidence in the midst of great suffering. He has confidence because he has God.
The Justified Must Live by Faith
And then thirdly, the necessity of the justified by faith to live by his steadfast trust. That was a bit of an amplified rendering of the just shall live by his faith. We take all that the Bible has to say, we learn that the justified by faith shall live by his steadfast trust in God. When we have Christ, brethren, we have everything.
Isn't that a blessing? And do we believe that? I mean, it's, you know, it's late. I know it's later at night.
It's Sunday. We're all tired and all that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, we have everything. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, whatever you say. Let's pray and amen it and let's go, man. I got Christ. I got everything.
But I want you to know that. It's like Lloyd-Jones says somewhere else. We need to, at times, take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and talk to ourselves. The problem is, he says, is that we don't talk to ourselves enough.
Right? Well, if I talk to myself, people think I'm nuts. No, talking to yourself has a rich and long heritage in the biblical revelation. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Psalm 103 is an account of David talking to himself. Psalm 42 and 43, David's talking to himself. Why are you downcast, O my soul? You need to do that.
You need to step outside and you say, what's your problem? What's happening here? You've got God, hope in Him. Oh yeah, okay, alright, alright.
That's right. When we have Christ, brethren, we have everything. We're not looking for Christ and. We're not looking for Christ plus.
Christ isn't an addition to our religious plethora of idols that we can help to cope. Christ is all. Paul can say in Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Walter Kaiser summarizes this book with this statement, and then we'll pray.
Listen. He says, "...Abbottick's faith was not just salvific." That means with reference to our salvation. His faith was not just salvific, redemptive and personal. It was practical and mundane in its implications.
You know what mundane means? It means common. It means the toilet overflowed. It means the washer broke.
It means the kid came home with an F. It means you bounced a check. It means you had difficulties with your neighbor. It means you got caught up in a web of gossip that is very difficult to extricate yourself from.
The mundane, the this world stuff. Habakkuk's faith was not just salvific, redemptive and personal. It was practical and mundane in its implications. It could stand the test of total crop failure and the destruction of everything one held dear.
It did not depend on God's promise that He would always supply health, wealth, and prosperity in order to earn Habakkuk's trust, belief, and respect. He could still be loved and worshipped in the midst of tragedy. When the lid blew off everything, He was still the sole object of praise and adoration. The reason was simple.
He was Lord. He was in charge. He would remain true to His Word even at the end of the historic process when all else had come and gone. Thus, in the face of all the extremities of life, we can go on because He goes on.
Justified people really live. and they live by faith. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we pray that this would be our understanding of this wonderful prophet of the late 7th century B.C. God, we pray that you would give us this mindset, that you would give us this worshipful attitude, that Christ would be the source of our devotion, Christ in himself, Christ in his person and work. Whether there are crops, whether there are crop failures or devastations or what appear to be wicked men ruling in high places, help us nevertheless to rejoice in our Lord. Help us to join the God of our salvation and to live by faith.
And we pray now that you would go with each one of us, and we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.