Sunday EVENING Sermon

"The Character of God"
[Habakkuk 3:1-19]
November 26, 2006 Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church

This evening, we conclude our look at the burden, the weighty and difficult vision, of the prophet Habakkuk. We will remember that Habakkuk was preaching just before the Babylonian captivity of the sixth century B. C. He was preaching about the same time as the prophet Jeremiah.

In our first look at Habakkuk's burden, we saw him crying out to the Lord, asking Him when He was going to do something about Israel's sin. When was God going to avenge His Name and put down the people who flaunted the Law of God. When would God listen and wake up and prove Himself to be the God of Whom he preached day after day. And we saw God's answer, "Don't worry, Habakkuk, I know what is happening among My people, and I am going to make things much worse: I am sending the evil, pagan Chaldeans to slaughter you and take you into captivity." So, we saw that God sometimes uses secondary causes to carry out His Will; He may even use pagans to punish His people.

We then looked at Habakkuk's response to the prophecy that God gave him -- "God, have You forgotten that You are holy? How can You send these people, who are so much worse than we are, to be the ones to meet out punishment on us? This will look bad for You." And God told Habakkuk that the just will live by faith. God told Habakkuk to stop putting his hope in good works, but to hold firm to the promises and the salvation of God.

And then we saw God tell Habakkuk that the Chaldeans, though they would do God's Will in punishing Israel -- the Chaldeans would be punished by God for their sin. God went through a litany of five woes -- five reasons -- five great sins for which God would ravage the Chaldeans. And He ended that word by saying, "the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him" (Habakkuk 2:20).

In this evening's reading, Habakkuk presents us with a psalm, a prayer, a hymn -- all one in the same. This hymn was to be sung "on Shigionoth," which may have been a tune. We see the verse markers by the use of "selah" in the text. And Habakkuk ends his hymn with instructions to the chief musician, or the choirmaster, that the hymn is to be sung with stringed instruments -- perhaps even the type of stringed instruments that Habakkuk himself played.

The hymn can be divided into four verses, and in these four verses, Habakkuk teaches Israel and us about the character of God. It is a hymn he wrote for them to sing throughout their seventy year captivity, and we do well to hear the Word of the Lord and learn of Him as we receive God's Providence.

Verse one (2-3a): "O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran."

It is a great and terrible thing to receive the Word of God. It is unimaginable favor that God has bestowed upon us that we should receive His Word. Yet, the Word of God exposes us, the burden of Habakkuk exposed him and the people of Israel -- it exposes us. And we are right to be afraid, if we have understood that we have come into the presence of the Holy God.

How should we respond to this revelation -- to this exposing of our wretched selves? Call upon the Lord, that He would revive His Work, in our lives, in this church, in the Church Universal. Lord, revive Your Work in us and in our land. Let Yourself shine through us and blot out our sin, and even as we suffer on earth for our sin, revive us, O Lord.

And Habakkuk pleaded with God that in the midst of His judgement upon them, He would still be merciful. In the midst of captivity, he prayed there would be mercy. Not merely at the beginning of their captivity, not merely when the Lord was pleased to end their captivity, but in the midst of their captivity, when the days ran into days and weeks into weeks and years into years, and they would be prone to deny God and forget Him. Habakkuk asked that God would meet them and be merciful to them in the depths of their suffering.

And God is merciful, even to us, in the midst of our sadness and discouragement. When we have hit rock bottom, there is God and His Mercy for His people. Let us pray that God would be merciful to us, especially in the midst of our darkest days, that we would not lose hope and sin against Him.

The commentator, Edward Marbury wrote, "The Church of God is called the Work of God, to honour God, for God is not so glorious in any thing that he hath wrought, as in his Church, for therein mercy and truth met together, righteousnesse and peace kissed each other, our election adoption is to the praise and glory of his grace. You heard himself say to his Church, The work of my hands, that I may be glorified. For God is more glorified in those things which he hath wrought by Jesus Christ in our flesh and in those things which he doth for his sake, than in all other works of his hands" (A Commentary, or Exposition, upon Habakkuk, III.38-39).

"For there is no lesson so hard for a child of God, to take out as to take up the crosse of Christ, and to follow him, to suffer the smart of affliction with patience and thanksgiving. For in the very regenerate man, the flesh is both strong and unruly, and nothing so contrary to the flesh, as affliction and tribulation is. Therefore doth God measure to his Children their portion and drought of this cup, because he knows whereof we be made" (Marbury, III.41).

And Habakkuk said that we ought to keep in mind that God came from Teman, from Mount Paran -- that is, He came from Mount Sinai. And Israel, and we, ought to have a multitude of Scriptures coming to mind.

Verse two (3b-9a): "is 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. Before Him went pestilence, and fever follow at His feet. He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian trembled. O Lord, were You displeased with the rivers, was Your anger against the rivers, was You 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."

The Lord came out of Sinai. The Glory of the Lord filled the land. The praise of the Lord filed the land. The Power of the Lord filled the land. And God sent ten plaques down upon the Egyptians to show them that He is God and Israel are His people. And Israel repented and thanked God and was delivered by His Strong Arm. And we who have also been delivered ought to heed the Word of the Lord to the Church at Sardis, "Remember therefore how you received and heard; hold fast and repent" (Revelation 3:3a).

God brought them out of slavery and brings us out of slavery. God gave them a land and divided it and used it as He saw fit, for His Ways are everlasting. So God also sets before us a new home that will come in the future. For now, our hope is bolstered by remembering what God has done, how He has delivered us, in remembering where we have been led by the Hand of our Sovereign God.

Have we been thankful? We just celebrated Thanksgiving. What did we have to be thankful for? Edward Marbury wrote, "Look to the common blessings of the God in generall: upon the Church in which thou livest, pay God his debt for the good he hath done, before thou find fault with the defect in it: recount what he hath done for the Common-wealth in which thou livest. Looke home to thine own family, to thine own person: recount thy spirituall graces, thy temporall blessings: consider what God hath given thee, what he hath forgiven thee, the preventions, the subventions of his love: what spirituall, what temporall evils thou hast either not felt by his keeping of thee or escaped by his delivering of thee: and to all, and to each both these say: The Lord be thanked. It is a small duty that is required of us, to repeat what God hath done for us" (III.70).

Let us see that God has brought terror upon the nations of Cush and Median and all of the pagan world: they know that there is a God, and they are in terror of Him. But what wonders has God done for us? What wonders did God do for Israel? Habakkuk says, let's begin by thinking of the blessings that God has brought through the water:

God divided the Red Sea that Israel could be saved: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.' And Moses stretched his hand out over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left" (Exodus 14:26-29).

God provided water for Israel in the desert: "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink'" (Exodus 17:5-6).

Habakkuk could surely name more, just from water, alone. We see in this what Paul write of in Romans, "Therefore consider the goodness and the severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but towards you, goodness" (Romans 11:22).

Verse three (9b-13): "You divided the earth with rivers, the mountains saw You and trembled; the overflowing water passed by. The deep uttered its voice, and lifted its hands on high. The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of Your arrows they went, at the shining of Your glittering spear. You marched through the land in indignation; You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your Anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked, by laying bare from the foundation to neck."

The earth itself has the good sense to respond to the voice and the commands of God. The mountains, the rivers, the deep, the sun and the moon, they all responded to the Lord in humility and obedience and with thanksgiving. As we remember how the creation responds, let us ask ourselves, again, have we been thankful, are we thankful, in the midst of trial and tribulation, for Who God is, for all that God has done? Again, Marbury wrote, "Do not we thank God for it, and take it for high favour that he made us men, and did not make us stones, or plants, or worms, or fleas, serpents or toads; or any other kind of hatefull or hurtfull creature" (III.121).

Remember what God has done, even causing the creation to change its route: "Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, 'Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.' So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day" (Joshua 10:12-14).

The Lord, our God, our Sovereign Commander goes out before us in battle. He saves His people. He provides them with salvation. He causes the Savior to fulfill the prophetic word, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15).

No matter what the battle, God is our leader triumphant, God is our Savior, and God will bring victory for His Name's Sake and for the Sake of His Glory in accomplishing His Will. Has God promised? So it shall be, without a doubt, by His Mighty Hand.

Verse four (14-19a): "You thrust through with arrows the head of his villages. They came out like a whirl-wind to scatter me; their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. You walked through the sea with Your horses, through the heap of great waters. When I heard, my body trembled; 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. 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. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills."

What do we know about God? What do we know about His character? What did Israel know? What did Habakkuk know? Again, we are referred back to the Exodus: "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2).

Deliverance from Egypt, from death, from sin, from the Wrath of God, is all by the Sovereign Will and Hand of God. It is according to God's Sovereign Good Pleasure that He delivered Israel from four hundred years of slavery by Himself, and it is by His Sovereign Good Pleasure that He chooses to deliver any one of us our of bondage to sin through Jesus Christ Alone.

However, that did not give Israel licence to sin and flaunt it before God, neither do we have license to sin because all of our sin have been forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ Alone. No. And when we sin, God may choose to send the Chaldeans against us. God may choose to punish us in this life through secondary means. And that should cause us to tremble to the quick. Habakkuk knew the Chaldeans were coming. He knew they would be savage. He knew Israel deserved God's Wrath, and he knew they would receive a portion of it. And Habakkuk did not look forward to it. Habakkuk did not enjoy the thought of the Chaldeans coming; it shook him to the quick. He was sick to his stomach. He bones rattled and ached. He mourned his sin and the sin of Israel.

Yet, he did not despair. Habakkuk said that he would receive the disciple of God's Hand as necessary, and even if there were no figs and no olives and no flocks -- even if there was no oil and no wine and no animals to sacrifice, even if it was physically impossible to carry out the worship of God as it had been prescribed in the Law -- and notice, Habakkuk thought not being able to worship properly was worse than Israel being slaughtered by the Chaldeans -- even so, he would rejoice.

Why? For four reasons:

First, no matter how greatly he and Israel suffered, he would rejoice because God's Salvation is greater than anything that could ever come upon us in this world. Can we say that? Can we rejoice no matter how much we and our loved ones and our nation suffer, simply because Jesus and His Salvation are greater?

Second, no matter how greatly he and Israel suffered, he would rejoice because God is his strength. His strength -- his ability to overcome and even survive -- did not come from himself. His strength came from God. So, he knew he could never lose hope and fall away fully. Do we share that confidence? Do we know that our strength is from God our Savior, the Greatest Being that ever can be?

Third, no matter how greatly he and Israel suffered, he would rejoice because God makes his feet like the deer. No, Habakkuk did not have little hoofed feet. No, he was saying that God made him swift in spiritual things. He has the speed of the deer in the things of God. God took control of his feet and made him able to carry out all that God set before him. Do we believe we are able? We are -- not in ourselves, of course -- but we are able for everything God sets before us, because God makes us able.

And fourth, no matter how greatly he and Israel suffered, he would rejoice because God would make him victorious in God in the end. No matter what he endured, no matter what he lost on earth, in the end, God would bring him to the heights, and he would have everything and more than he could ever desire in God. Are we willing not to fear losing everything for the sake of Christ? Can we suffer and mourn and still know that we have the greatest and the everlasting in Jesus Christ Alone? We can because it is God Who makes is so for us.

That is the character of the God we serve: He is holy and righteous. He accomplishes all things for His Glory. He has chosen a people for Himself, and He will bring every one of them to Himself on the last day. And despite the raging Chaldeans, in Him, there is no better place to be.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for the burden of Habakkuk. We thank You for the difficult word that You use evildoers to accomplish Your Holy and Perfect Will. Help us to rest in You and find our perfect joy in You, holding fast to You and Your promises, and Your Salvation, and not to the fleeting things of this world. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.