Habakkuk has asked God tough questions and now Habakkuk responds to God's answers. God told Habakkuk that he doesn't overlook evil, or the brokenness
it brings. God promises accountability
for Babylon, but not until Judah remembers again their covenant
relationship with God. God will deliver them, but never tells Habakkuk Israel
will be a free nation again once the punishment is finished. God doesn't talk
about Judah and what he’ll do for them, instead God promises
that Babylon will suffer the consequences of their evil. God points to who he
is, ending with a call to worship and honour him, a call to trust, echoes to
Job!
Habakkuk responds, "Lord,
I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord." Habakkuk acknowledges
God's power, standing in awe before him, remembering who God is and what God’s
done for his people in the past, all rooted in his covenantal relationship with
his people. Habakkuk accepts God's answer that God’s in
control and evil will reap the consequences it deserves. He remembers how God
overturned evil powers in the past to save his people and restores his
relationship with Israel again and again. Habakkuk looks back in order to strengthen
his faith in God so his heart can sincerely trust and praise God, no matter the
circumstances. Habakkuk praises God in spite of his own uncertainty, calling
God to act again, "I stand in awe of your deeds,
Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember
mercy."
Habakkuk remembers Israel's exodus from Egypt and the 40 years of wandering through the wilderness. Habakkuk
remembers Teman and Mount Paran and God's glory revealed there, echoing Mount
Sinai and God's meeting his people there. He remembers the splendour and power
of God and how the people reacted with awe and wonder.
Then Habakkuk remembers God is a warrior for his people, "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 came out to deliver your people, to save
your anointed one."
God proved his might and power while
Israel were slaves in Egypt, he protected Israel in the wilderness from nations
like Midian, and when Israel entered the Promised Land, he even caused the sun
to stand still so Joshua could defeat his enemies. Habakkuk turns to the
stories of salvation to find hope and confidence in the future even if the
present looks grim. Habakkuk knows a God who controls nature and the nations.
Habakkuk ends by saying, yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
he knows God’s in control, that no matter what is happening right now, no
matter what’s coming, God saves his people. Yet Habakkuk also knows individuals
will still get hurt and even suffer greatly. In Scripture the emphasis is
normally on Israel as a whole, not as individuals. We've turned the Bible into
a personal guide to personal salvation while God normally deals with his people
as a whole. When God works to save his people, individuals and even families still
suffer greatly at times, even to the point of death. Habakkuk knows that God
will save them from the power of Babylon, but that he personally might not
survive and might face great suffering himself. Habakkuk is a call to the
people of God to trust and believe and praise the Lord, even if personally they
might suffer.
The Jews in the time of Jesus also knew suffering. Pilate was in control and often extremely cruel towards the Jews so
they wouldn’t didn't get any ideas about rebelling against him or Rome. Crosses
and other cruel forms of punishment were fairly normal. Jesus knew of the
cruelty of Pilate as Luke tells us in chapter 13, "Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the
Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus
answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all
the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless
you repent, you too will all perish."
Life can be hard. I've walked
alongside teenage girls who were abused, with women abused by Christian
husbands, seniors whose children took all they had and then abandoned them,
parents who have lost children, refugees who fled from brutal situations, those
who have thought of taking their own lives, and families of those who did. How
do you help people who have gone through these kinds of things to trust or
praise God? Habakkuk shows us the way, to look
back and remember who God is and what he’s done in the past. God’s the same
yesterday, today, and tomorrow is what Scripture confesses, so when we see God
listen to the cries of his people and respond, when we see God's love expressed
through Jesus who died to reconcile us with God, we find hope.
A young mother of 2 young daughters whose
husband took his own life told me, "I
have to trust God and I do because I've heard you tell the stories of God and
how he saves his people, it's hard and when I praise God, it's with tears, but
I do it because when I read the psalms I hear David and others crying out to
God in hard times and always ending up with praising God. I do hope it gets
easier though." Did you hear how Jesus calls us to repent? It sounds hard during persecution and unexplained
suffering, that Jesus calls us to repent. But the word repent
in Greek is a military word which means
to do an about face, to turn around. During times when things look hopeless and
the effects of sin have filled your life with darkness and suffering, one
unnamed ancient church father wrote that to repent means to turn away from
looking so deeply into your suffering so that you lose hope, and turning around
to look for the light of Jesus.
We look to Jesus, the light and hope of the world and remember his life and suffering, how he was crucified to save us
from our sin. Jesus knows your pain and suffering, he knows your hurt, because
through his Spirit, he’s there with you. He comes close and tells us that our
suffering is only for a time and that he suffered and died for us so that we
might find eternal life and peace in him, even in the middle of suffering.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Paul
also suffered deeply for bringing the message of Jesus to the world. In 2
Corinthians 11 Paul writes that he was lashed, beaten, stoned, in danger from
nature, Jews, and Gentiles, and experienced hunger and thirst as he followed
Jesus’ call. Yet he’s able to write, "Rejoice in
the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"
Jesus is a warrior who is returning to defeat the powers of sin and evil; there will be justice. In Revelation 19:11–13 and 19-21, John sees Jesus coming as a warrior for his people “I saw
heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is
called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are
like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on
him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood,
and his name is the Word of God…. Then I saw the beast and the kings of the
earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the
horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet
who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded
those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two
of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest were
killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and
all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.”
If you
have, or are suffering, know that the church
is here to help you keep looking to Jesus, to remember his faithfulness to you.
These are often long pain-filled journeys of faith and trust in God, but you don’t
walk alone, Jesus' Spirit is with you and I, and the elders, and many others are
also here to listen to, to weep with, to support and encourage you, and help
you find peace and rest in Jesus, saying with Habakkuk, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my
Saviour. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a
deer; he enables me to tread on the heights."
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