“The Character of God”
[Habakkuk 3:1-19]
February 18, 2018, Second Reformed
Church
This morning, we conclude our look
at the burden, the weighty and difficult vision, of the prophet, Habakkuk. We
will remember that Habakkuk is preaching just before the Babylonian captivity
of the sixth century B. C. He is preaching about the same time as the prophet,
Jeremiah.
As we open Habakkuk's vision, we see
him crying out to the Lord, asking God when He is going to do something about Judah's
sin. When is God going to avenge His Name and put down the people who flaunt
the Law of God? When will God listen and wake up and prove Himself the God Habakkuk
preaches about day after day? And we see God's answer is utterly unexpected,
"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 see that God sometimes
uses indirect causes to carry out His Will; He may even use evil pagans to
punish His people – even us.
Habakkuk responds to the prophecy
that God gives him -- "God, have You forgotten that You are Holy? How can
You send these people, who are so much more evil than we are, to be the ones to
punish us? This will look bad for You." And God tells Habakkuk that the
just will live by faith. God tells Habakkuk – and us – to stop hoping in good
works, rather -- hold firm to the promises and the salvation of God.
God tells Habakkuk that the
Chaldeans, though they will do God's Will in punishing Judah -- the Chaldeans will
be punished by God for their sin. God speaks five woes -- five reasons -- five
great sins for which God will ravage the Chaldeans. And He ends that word by
saying, "But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep
silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20, ESV).
Finally, this morning, Habakkuk responds
by writing a psalm, a prayer, a hymn. This hymn is to be sung "according
to Shigionoth," which may have been a tune. We see the verse markers by
the use of the word, "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 is divided into four
verses, and in these four verses, Habakkuk teaches Judah – and us – about the Character
of God. It is a hymn Habakkuk wrote for Judah to sing throughout their seventy-year
captivity. Let us hear the Word of the
Lord and learn as we receive God's Providence.
Verse one (2-3a): "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. God came from
Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.”
Habakkuk says he receives the Word of God
and it terrifies him. 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 vision of Habakkuk exposes him and the people of Judah -- it
exposes us – who we are, what we believe, what we have done. And we are right
to be afraid, if we understand that we have come into the presence of the Holy
God.
How does Habakkuk respond to this
revelation – how should we respond in knowing that nothing is hidden from God
and He is sovereignly bringing His Will to pass concerning us? Let us 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. Shine through
us and blot out our sin, and even as we suffer on earth for our sin, for the
sake of Your Son, and revive us, O Lord.
Habakkuk pleads 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 asks 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 children bring guns to school
and open fire. When we have hit rock
bottom, God is there with 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 writes
that we should have hope because God is more glorified in His people than in
any other of His creation: "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 says we ought to keep in mind
that God came from Teman, from Mount Paran -- that is, He came from Mount
Sinai. Judah – and we – remembers God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt –
of wandering in the wilderness – of receiving the Ten Commandments from God –
and eventually moving into the Promised Land.
Verse two (3b-9a): "His
splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His
brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled
his power. Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. He
stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal
mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the
everlasting ways. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the
land of Midian did tremble. Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Was your
anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on
your horses, on your chariot of salvation?
You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah.”
The Lord comes out of Sinai. The
Glory of the Lord fills the land. The praise of the Lord fills the land. The
Power of the Lord fills the land. And God sends ten plaques down upon the
Egyptians to show them that He is God and Israel are His people. And Israel
repents and thanks God and is delivered by His Strong Arm. And we who been
delivered ought to heed the Word of the Lord to the Church at Sardis, "Remember,
then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent” (Revelation 3:3a, ESV).
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 the whole earth as
our inheritance, and the New Jerusalem with the full indwelling of His Kingdom.
For now, our hope is strengthened 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? What do we
have to be thankful for? Edward Marbury writes, "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 brings terror
upon the nations of Cush and Midian 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 Judah? 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 water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots,
and upon their horsemen.’ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the
sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the
Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
The waters returned and covered the
chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them
into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground
through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on
their left” (Exodus 14:26-29, ESV).
God provided water for Israel in the
desert: "And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Pass on before the people, taking
with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with
which you struck the Nile, and go.
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you
shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will
drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Exodus 17:5-6,
ESV).
Habakkuk could surely name more,
just from water, alone. Paul writes, “Note then the kindness and the severity
of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you,
provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off”
(Romans 11:22, ESV). And, “Now these
things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our
instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (I Corinthians 10:11, ESV).
Verse three (9b-13): "You split the
earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept
on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. The sun and
moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at
the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury; you
threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for
the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the
wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah.”
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: "At that time Joshua spoke to
the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel,
and he said in the sight of Israel, ‘Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in
the Valley of Aijalon.’ And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until
the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of
Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for
about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD
heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel” (Joshua 10:12-14,
ESV).
The Lord, our God, our Sovereign
Commander goes out before us in battle. He saves His people. He provides us
with salvation. He causes the Savior to fulfill the prophetic word, "I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her
offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis
3:15, ESV).
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
pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a
whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You
trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. 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. 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. GOD,
the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread
on my high places."
What do we know about God? What do
we know about His character? What did Judah 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 slavery" (Exodus
20:2, ESV).
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 out of bondage to sin through
Jesus Christ Alone.
That did not give Judah license to
sin and flaunt it before God – neither does it give us license to sin because
all of our sin have been forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ Alone. No – we
are not to sin. And when we sin, we must remember, for our good and to God’s
Glory, God may choose to send the Chaldeans against us. God may choose to
punish us in this life for our sin through other people or things. That should cause us to tremble!
Habakkuk knows the Chaldeans are coming.
He knows they will be savage. He knows Judah deserves God's Wrath, and he knows
they will receive a portion of it. Habakkuk does not look forward to it.
Habakkuk does not enjoy the thought of the Chaldeans coming; it shakes him. He is
sick to his stomach. His bones rattle and ache. He mourns his sin and the sin
of Judah.
Yet, he does not despair. Habakkuk
says that he will receive the discipline of God's Hand as necessary, and even
if there are no figs and no olives and no flocks -- even if there is no oil and
no wine and no animals to sacrifice, even if it is physically impossible to
carry out the worship of God as it is required in the Law -- and notice,
Habakkuk thinks not being able to worship properly is worse than Judah being
slaughtered by the Chaldeans -- even so, he will rejoice.
Why? For four reasons:
First, no matter how greatly he and Judah
suffer, he will 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
Judah suffer, he will rejoice because God is his strength. He understood that his
strength -- his ability to overcome and even survive -- did not come from
himself. His strength comes from God. So, he knows he can 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 in existence?
Third, no matter how greatly he and Judah
suffer, he will rejoice because God makes his feet like the deer. No, Habakkuk
did not have little hoofed feet. No, he is saying that God makes him swift in
spiritual things. He has the speed of the deer in the things of God. God takes
control of his feet and makes 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 by
indwelling us with God the Holy Spirit.
And fourth, no matter how greatly he
and Judah suffer, he will rejoice because God will make him victorious in God
in the end. No matter what he endures, no matter what he loses on earth, in the
end, God will bring him to the heights, and he will 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.
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