Habakkuk 3: ‘Trusting the God who has proved himself trustworthy’

Joe sits in church with a big smile on his face.  He has a lot to be happy about.  He has a lovely wife, a great job and delightful kids.  Indeed every Sunday in church Joe thanks God for all God has given him. 

But what if everything fell apart?  Supposing Joe goes into work that Monday and finds out that he is going to be a victim of the credit crunch.  He arrives home to tell his wife that he has lost his job only to find that she has left him for someone else.  In the months ahead his misery worsens as one of his children struggles with a debilitating illness.

What happens to Joe’s faith when life hurts?  Does he see any reason for thanking God now?  Can he trust the God who has allowed such terrible things to happen to him?  How can he hold onto his belief in the goodness of God when his world seems to be falling apart?   

This is something every Christian needs to learn.  You see the truth of the matter is life is not always easy.  All we have to do is live long enough and we will experience some kind of loss or suffering.  So how do we hold on to our faith when our world is falling apart?  Habakkuk 3 shows us!

Habakkuk knows that things are going to get very painful for himself and his people.  They are going to be overthrown by the ruthless Babylonians and taken from their land.  He will witness much that will surely give him reason to weep.  Yet as we read through this passage we see that it ends with a great expression of faith.  How does Habakkuk move from perplexity to praise and from fear to faith?

….. God even when life seems perplexing will be helped trust God even when life seems perplexi tell him what is on our heart.

1.  The big picture reminds him that God can be trusted (1-15)

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.  Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.  Here is a prayer for revival.  It’s a prayer based on the fact that the God who has acted with such power and might in the past can work in similar ways in Habakkuk’s day, and he can work in similar ways in our day!  Habakkuk had asked God to step in and stop the rot that was so evident in his society but he also prays, in wrath remember mercy.  We might look at this corrupt society, we might look at churches that have sold out on the truth and behave in ways that bring dishonour to God’s name, and we might pray that God would put an end to the evil that we see.  Indeed one day he will deal with all evil.  But we also pray, ‘Lord, save many on these wicked people.’  On the day of God’s final judgement we will see his righteous condemnation of the ungodly and we will also have ample evidence of the mercy by which he has saved ungodly people like us.

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.  His glory covered the heavens—One commentator writes, ‘His radiance, as he comes, lights up the sky above and is reflected on the earth below . . . the spreading of his radiance throughout heaven and earth is compared to the rays of the sun, diffusing its light far and wide’ (Bruce).  So often our Christian lives are simply centred on ourselves.  We imagine that God exists only to serve our desires and we fail to ponder his magnificence.  We are the poorer for our self-centred spirituality.  Let’s read verses like these and wonder at the glory of God.  Let’s praise God for who he is.  Then, with this in mind, let’s be amazed that this awesome God has time for us; that this holy God values us; that this perfect God takes pleasure in us; and that this sovereign God even works his purposes for our ultimate good.  Let’s remember that the God who owes us no good thing has been better to us than we have ever realised!

Verse 4 seems to be recalling God’s presence at Mount Sinai.  The talk of plagues and pestilence, in verse 5, remind us of the punishments inflicted on the Egyptians in Exodus.  We are told of the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish—when God delivered his people from Egypt the neighbouring peoples were filled with fear.  In verse 8 there is mention of the rivers—remember how God turned the Nile to blood (Ex. 7), parted the Red Sea to enable his people to escape slavery (Ex. 14-15) and parted the Jordan to allow them to enter the promised land (Josh. 2).  Verse 11 talks of the sun and moon standing still in the heavens—this seems to be an allusion to the events of Joshua 10, where we read that the sun stood still and the moon stopped at the defeat of Gibeon.  You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one.  Here God’s people are referred to as his anointed and of course when we hear talk of God’s ‘anointed one’ we think of Jesus (‘Christ’ means ‘anointed one’)—God rescued him from death after he had been crucified and through his resurrection we have life.  You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness—this seems to be a reference to either Pharaoh or the leaders of Canaan, both of whom experienced God’s righteous anger.  In verses 14-15 there is another reference to the destruction God brought upon the Egyptians, who, like the ruthless Babylonians were soon to do, had set out to defeat God’s people.

Do we see what is happening here?  Habakkuk is remembering how God acted in the past!  Indeed as we read through the Old Testament we can see that people often recalled the great saving events of God.  In particular they remembered the events surrounding the exodus from Egypt for the exodus was the great saving event of the Old Testament.   As God’s people recalled it they were reminded that God is both great and good.  He has proved himself to be trustworthy. 

Of course the Exodus foreshadowed an even greater rescue—that surrounding the cross!  We move from perplexity to praise as we recall the great saving events of the past and remember that our God has shown that he is to be trusted.  It’s so important that we sing cross-centred songs, pray cross-centred prayers and think cross-centred thoughts.  As we are reminded of this great saving event of God we can be assured that God is both great and good.  And that is what we most need to know when life leaves us feeling perplexed.

2.  It will all work out in the end, but it will be tough until then (16)

Dreadful days lied ahead for Habakkuk and his people.  They would endure terrible suffering.  The very thought of it causes the prophet to tremble and quiver.  He hates the thought that the Babylonians would think that they have triumphed and give credit to their idols.  Then notice the little word ‘yet’ in verse 16 (there are two great ‘yets’ in this passage).  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.  Habakkuk knows that there will be a day beyond the day to come.  It might look like the enemies of God’s people win yet Habakkuk knows that that there will be another day when God will set the record straight and repay the ruthless Babylonians for their evil.  On that day God will show his wonderful righteous judgement.  Habakkuk waits for that day! 

For us today may be dreadful, tomorrow may be worse, but there will be a day ahead when God will set all things straight.  Ruthless people may seem to have their way but on that day they will be called to account.  Indeed we look forward to a day when the Lord will return to judge the wicked and bring an end to the suffering of his people.  That is the day on which we are to place our hope!

3.  From fear to faith (17-19)

Os Guinness writes, ‘God’s people may not always know ‘Why’, but they can always know why they trust God who knows why!’

Habakkuk knows that there are grim days ahead.  He knows that he and his people will suffer.  There will surely be many tears.  Yet Habakkuk takes a backwards look, at the great saving events of the past, and sees that God has shown himself to be trustworthy.  Let us look at that great saving event of the cross and see that God is indeed trustworthy—even when our circumstances tempt us to doubt it.  Then look forward beyond the troubles of today and tomorrow and see that there is a day ahead when he will set all things straight, indeed we are assured that on that day he will bring an end to all suffering for his people.  It’s with a perspective of past and future that Habakkuk utters one of the greatest statements of faith in the Bible:

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,

(Then comes the second great ‘yet’ of this passage)

yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

Everything appears to have fallen apart yet the believer still has reason to rejoice in our God.  In the distressing days Habakkuk knows that God will be with him.  In the difficult times we can experience God’s strength and ultimately we can prevail in grace—as we pray with honesty, remember the cross, wait with hope and even humbly rejoice.  Habakkuk ends this wonderful little book:

 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to go on the heights.

 

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Unless otherwise stated all Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE,

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission.