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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
“Lord, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your
deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath
remember mercy.”
“God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth. His
splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was
hidden. Plague went before Him; pestilence followed His steps. He stood, and
shook the earth; He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains
crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed—but He marches on forever.”
“I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. Were You angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode Your horses and Your chariots to victory? You uncovered Your bow, You called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw You and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of Your flying arrows, at the lightning of Your flashing spear. In wrath You strode through the earth and in anger You threshed the nations.”
“You came out to deliver Your people, to save Your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, You stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear, You pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters. I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.”
“Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to
come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are
no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no
food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I
will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like
the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights.”
For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
Habakkuk 3
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
It had been quite an exchange between God and Habakkuk,
an exchange that spanned the first two chapters of this book You’ll recall that
the prophet twice filed complaints with the Lord and in both instances, the
Lord provided a response to the grievance.
Would Habakkuk grumble a third time?
Not exactly, for as we see in the final chapter of this
book bearing the prophet’s name, there was nothing left for God’s messenger to
do except come before the Lord and respond to Him in prayer. Look again at
these words here:
A prayer of
Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
“Lord, I have
heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day,
in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”
“God came from
Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens
and His praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays
flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden. Plague went before Him;
pestilence followed His steps. He stood, and shook the earth; He looked, and
made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills
collapsed—but He marches on forever.”
“I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. Were You angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode Your horses and Your chariots to victory? You uncovered Your bow, You called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw You and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of Your flying arrows, at the lightning of Your flashing spear. In wrath You strode through the earth and in anger You threshed the nations.”
“You came out to deliver Your people, to save Your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, You stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear, You pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters. I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.”
“Yet I will wait
patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the
fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive
crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful
in God my Savior.”
“The Sovereign Lord
is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to
tread on the heights.”
For the director
of music. On my stringed instruments. Habakkuk
3
God’s reputation preceded Him, definitely well before
this documented dialogue with Habakkuk. In fact, God’s past accomplishments,
underscored by His mighty signs and wonders, were known by the prophet who
stood in awe of the Lord’s deeds, asking for a repeat performance in his time.
Ultimately, Habakkuk prayer for the Lord to remember mercy and eventually
extend it to the Israelites who were soon to be in the midst of God’s wrath.
What did that wrath look like?
Habakkuk returns to the days of Israel’s deliverance from
Egypt and the exodus to Canaan that followed. God traveled with His people from
south to north, His splendor “like the sunrise”, His glory covering the heavens,
and His praise filling the earth. It’s incredible imagery highlighting the
divine magnificence of the God of Israel.
Well, it wasn’t just glory and splendor that preceded the
Lord as He led His people to the Promised Land. The scriptures tell us that
elements of judgment were present as well, elements like plague and pestilence,
earthquakes that shook the earth and made the nations tremble. Just ask Egypt
during the time of the Israelite captivity. Even the mighty waters of the sea
were no match for God’s power which divided them so to rescue the Israelites
from harm before crashing the sea walls down upon Pharaoh and his Egyptian
forces. As the Israelites traveled the wilderness, former enemies like Cushan
and Midian found themselves unable to withstand God’s might. And even the sun
and moon stood still as the Israelites defeated the Canaanites during the
tenure of the judge Deborah.
In sum, all nations who stood in opposition to God would
perish as He threshed them in judgment.
As we know from earlier in this book, Judah was soon to
be on God’s threshing floor and would be beaten by the Babylonians. Nothing was
going to take away the punishment the Israelites had earned through their worshiping
of false gods and idols and he committing of a litany of social injustices, all
in direct disobedience to what God had commanded.
Habakkuk knew this was coming and yet he was willing to
accept what was ahead, enduring God’s imposed judgment while waiting “patiently
for the day of calamity to come” on the Babylonians, the nation who would
invade. And while Israel and Judah would be devastated and destroyed, losing
everything they held dear, Habakkuk vowed to still “rejoice in the Lord” and “be
joyful in God” his savior. Further, the prophet had this to say about the God
who had selected him to be a messenger:
“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like
the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights.”
Judgment was coming. It was going to be extremely hard
for a very long time as things changed for the worse in a big way. But Habakkuk
knew he would make it through, not by his own strength and power, but rather
the strength and power of the Lord, a strength and power he tapped into by
prayer.
Friends, Habakkuk is showing us the only proper way to
respond to God, no matter the circumstances?
For it’s all about prayer. It’s all about communicating
with the God who is always ready to listen and respond.
Think about it in these three contexts:
If someone does something nice for you, you would thank
them. Thus, because God is always blessing us in amazing ways, we should always
respond with prayers of thanksgiving.
If you do something wrong to someone, you should confess
your mistake and say you’re sorry. Thus, because we are all sinners and have
done wrong in the Lord’s sight, we should confess our transgressions to Him in
prayer, repent, and let Him know we’re sorry.
Finally, if you love and cherish someone, you would
always do whatever you could to let them know how you feel about them. Thus,
since we should love and cherish no one above the Lord Himself, then we should
come before Him in prayer and express our total adoration and devotion.
To communicate His feelings to the Lord, Habakkuk responded
in prayer. We would be well served to follow His lead.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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