Rest In The Day of Trouble

“Rest In The Day of Trouble”

(Hab. 3:16b)

Preached by:  Carolyn Sissom

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Habakkuk is exceptional for his honesty, moral and spiritual integrity.  Corruption and cruelty were rampant in Judah.  Habakkuk finds it impossible to ignore the problems, indeed the need to resolve it becomes, for him, imperative and urgent.

This past week as Americans in good Faith, we wanted to be proud of our government whether we voted for this administration or not.    On the second and third day of office, all of us who are Christians knew the “new had come” and it was worse than we even imagined.

The first order of business besides closing Guantanamo was to lift the ban on federal funding for groups that help provide abortion abroad.  Next he is to lift the ban on stem cell research.  All of this plus the lack of respect that marriage is between a man and woman is openly flouted in direct opposition to our Christian Faith.

Like Habakkuk, I have a conviction that all history is under the direct control of a sovereign, omnipotent and Holy God.  Habakkuk’s prophecy could read like the front page of the newspaper today.  We should now be saying there are three battle fronts of the war.  The bombing of Israel is as much a part of the War on Terror as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

The prophecy which Habakkuk “saw” (V.1) begins in a storm of anguished questions and complaints.

The condition:  A spirit of anarchy is abroad and, as today, it employs as weapons destruction and violence.   (V.2-3) O Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear! Even cry out unto you of violence and you will not save!  Why do you show me inequity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before; and there are they that raise up strife and contention.”

As a result of bitterness between rival factions, strife and conflict abounds.  On every hand there exists moral chaos.  Not long before, under Josiah, the law had been rediscovered and reapplied to the life of the community (2 Kg. 21:22).  Now it is once again inoperative (paralyzed).  Intended by God for the direction of the lives of His people in matters moral as well as ritual, it is being openly flouted and, in consequence brought into disrepute.  Everywhere might and power seem to be on the side of the wrong, so that the wicked gets the better of the upright.

(V.4) “Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment does never go forth; for the wicked do compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceeds.”

The righteous look in vain for support or redress from the courts.  The justice they are offered is but a travesty of the same for it is perverted.  What champions of truth and purity there are find themselves mocked or ignored.  The law is rejected and in consequence, justice is abandoned.

Does this sound familiar?  We have many Godly people in this nation who are in grief and dismay because these are the present circumstances of this nation as well as the nations of the earth.  We are not the only nation facing “dire” financial circumstances.

The effect:  For Habakkuk the grimness of this tragic state of affairs is accentuated because he sees the situation all to clearly,  (3a) “spoiling and violence before me.”  Indeed, he virtually censures God for compelling him to gaze upon the desperate plight of his people. An escapist attitude, however desirable it may seem is impossible.  Sensitivity both to the wrongs and to the needs of society arises from a relationship with God.

Christians cannot sit by idly with our head in the sand and continue to keep our mouth closed because of the culture of offense that is attempting to intimidate us.

Like Habakkuk, we are going to get before the Lord and cry out. 

The deepest problem and the root cause of Habakkuk’s distress is that God appears both silent and inactive.

His cry is, How long?  His intercessions have been urgent and sustained.  He is mystified and grieved because the God he knows and whom he addresses by His covenant name, Yahweh—Lord, fails to intervene.  But worse is to come, the enigmas of the divine guidance of history are to grow even darker.

(V5) “Behold you among the heathen” or look among the nations.  Look at injustice (V.3) Habakkuk’s gaze needs a change of direction.  The “Behold” is an imperative “look.”  The answer he receives is in response to his two-fold complaint.  God informs him that despite all appearances to the contrary He is not inactive--- (v.5) “I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you.”

God was not, as Habakkuk imagined, standing back and allowing matters to proceed unchecked.  He had already commenced to act, but in a manner which would prove unbelievable and wholly unacceptable.  The "watch and be utterly amazed” means Habakkuk will be completely baffled.  Preconceived ideas may well have made it more difficult for him to accept God’s answer, yet his prayers cannot be reckoned as unavailing.

Paul quoted Verse 5 in his sermon at Pisidian Antioch (Acts. 13: 40 41).  Paul applies it to the amazing salvation offered in the gospel, as well as the staggering judgment which awaits those who refuse it.

Verses 6-11 described the weapon forged by the Almighty as the rod of His anger.  He describes the Babylonian army as bitter, hasty, terrible and dreadful.  Their horses are swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves…they shall come all for violence…It seemed nothing could withstand them.  Driven on by selfish ambition and greed they seize dwelling places not their own.  Threatened invasion by them leaves a population terror-stricken.  They recognize no codes of military conduct, they own no superior power; a law to themselves they promote their own honor.  The nature of these standards, which they alone determine, may be gauged from the panic they inspire. 

Powerful prophetic and metaphorical imagery is employed to depict the enemy’s Calvary like leopards for the swiftness and suddenness with which they descend upon their victims…like a vulture swooping to devour the prey for the unexpectedness of their attack.

The prophet protests the divine strategy.  However, first he steadies himself before the Lord and declares:

(V.12) Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?  We shall not die? O Lord, you have ordained them for judgment; and O, mighty God, you have established them for correction.  You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and you cannot look on iniquity; wherefore you cannot look upon them that deal treacherously, and hold your tongue when the wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he?

He who is covenant love binds Himself to bless His people.  God---supreme, mighty, reliable.  Holy One---holy in character and righteous in dealings –the Rock---the permanent refuge of all who trust in Him.  Thus, Habakkuk recites what he know of God, and takes a firm grip upon the one great reality.  He understands the plan which God has made known to him, namely that the Babylonians are to be an instrument to punish.  This combination of faith and understanding constitutes on the one hand, the vantage point from which he faces the crisis, and on the other, the cause of his perplexity. 

In Chapter 1: 1-5: God replies:

  Habakkuk is resolved to stand at the watchtower to await God’s reply.  His is a spirit of dependence and expectancy; at the same time, his language is bold.  His faith is under siege and he finds it hard to imagine that any relief can be forthcoming.  “What shall I answer when I am reproved?”  When the Lord answered me, the command is to write down the revelation which ensures exactness of it's transmission; make it plain on tables guarantees its publicity. 

The vital truth now stated consists of ‘two unchangeable things’---sin does not go unpunished, and, righteousness is always rewarded.  God insists that He has not abandoned the moral ordering of His world.

Hebrews 10:38 quotes from the first half of v. 4 “Now The just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”

He emphasizes that lack of perseverance is equivalent to not being upright—a condition which ends in failure.  The happier truth is “my righteous ones will live by faith.”  Paul quotes this in Romans1:17 and Gal. 3:11.  Paul’s use of the text concentrates upon the exercise of faith rather than, as here, upon its evidence.   He strips faithfulness to its core of faith in God.  the revelation made to Habakkuk is the gospel in embryo.  The promise will live and becomes eternal life. (Rom. 6:22) “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”

(Rom 3: 21-26): “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  For all have sinned, and came short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.”

I don’t know if Habakkuk saw the big picture of the Lord’s redemption through His divine strategy as it relates to his personal spiritual dilemma.  He is assured that though all around seems to contradict the fact, the wicked who proudly deviate from God’s path shall fail.  As surely, the individual marked by loyalty to God and by integrity will be preserved and prosper. (Allen).  The key may not unlock the dark mystery of divine providence, but it will admit its user to a realm of increased confidence in God and, therefore of peace.

In Chapter 3, the Lord gives Jeremiah a vision which opens with a prayer.

(V.1) “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 known; in wrath remember mercy.”  From there he is raptured into a beautiful vision of the Glory of God.

In the vision the prophet sees the Almighty advancing from the wilderness, “marching in the greatness of his strength”.  Teman is an area to the north of Edom and Paran, lies beyond it towards Sinai.  This represents the territory which witnessed the birth of Israel both as a nation and as the covenant people of God.

The vision of the Glory of God employed to portray the progress of the invincible Lord is that of a violent storm.  Lightning flashes suddenly dispel the enveloping darkness and the night is as day.  He is accompanied by the apocalyptic ‘dogs of war’---plague and pestilence.  His might is absolute.  He does not need to move from His place to shake the earth, nor do other than “look” for the nations to tremble; before His eternity. The timeless mountains and hills depart.

The rivers become raging torrents; the sea is lashed into a fury.  The metaphor of the storm now is merged with metaphors of battle; the clouds are war clouds, thunderbolts and lightning flashes are arrows which fly from the unsheathed bow.  All nature is in turmoil as the Lord pursues His triumphant way.  Even the deep, which some heathen mythologies regarded as a rival to His dominion, roared in alarm and threw up its hands in surrender.  The sun and moon halt in their courses as the battle proceeds.  Neither the earth nor the nations can stop His imperial progress.

Suddenly as though a lightning flash illumines the darkness, the divine objective in the conflict is disclosed.

(V.13) You went forth for the salvation of your people even for salvation with your anointed; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck.”

(v.15) The vision ends with victory complete.  As at the Exodus the churning of the great waters symbolizes the final overthrow of all the enemy’s vaunted power.

To behold the glory of the Lord and to enter into His purposes will change a man/woman forever.  Habakkuk found it so.  The apprehension and complaints he had expressed at the onset of the vision proves wholly unwarranted for when it is over he is left in a state of collapse.  (16a) “When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice; rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble;”

Knowing that it is inevitable that bitter travail must precede the birth of deliverance, the prophet resolutely composes himself to await the day of calamity (16b).

The faith Habakkuk professes is no blind faith.  For it is exercised in clear prospect of a complete catastrophe (17) through natural disaster or, more likely through enemy action:  Though the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall 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, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places.”

The salvation described in V. 3 is now experienced personally---God my Savior---both in adversity and prosperity.  The path of life may lead through the valley of deep darkness or traverse the heights, it matters not to one who is assured that God, the Lord is in total control, that His goal is salvation and that He Himself is the source and secret of strength. All history is under the direct control of a sovereign, omnipotent and Holy God.

Preached by: Carolyn Sissom

Text from F.F. Bruce Bible Commentary, Habakkuk by A.G. Nute with Bibliography  A.B. Davidson, S. R. Driver, J. H. Eaton, H.I. Ellison, O. Eissfeldt, J. H. Gailey, R.K. Harrison, J. Lindblom, E.B.Pusey, G. Von Rad, H. H. Rowley,G.A. Smith and J.D. Watts.