This morning we’re going to return to our journey through the Old Testament prophets in preparation for our study of the Book of Revelation. So go ahead and turn in your Bibles to the Book of Habakkuk. If you’re not familiar with that small book, you can find it by going to the first book in the New Testament, the gospel of Matthew, and then turning back toward the front of your Bible for five books. We’re going to focus on chapter 3 this morning, but before we read that passage, let me provide you with some background on the prophet Habakkuk.
Background
Little is known about Habakkuk. There are no other Biblical references to him outside the book that bears his name. Even the meaning of his name is uncertain although it likely comes from the Hebrew word that means “to embrace”.
Although Habakkuk does not provide us with information that would allow us to determine the exact date of his writing, the references to the Chaldeans in the text point to a date in the late 7th century BC, when Babylon was the leading world power and they posed a major threat to the southern kingdom of Judah. This would have been about 100 years after the Assyrians had attacked the northern kingdom of Israel and the people of Israel had gone into captivity. The most likely time of his prophecy is during the reign of Jehoiakim between 609 and 598 BC, making Habakkuk a contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. So obviously, his prophecy is directed at the southern kingdom of Judah.
Habakkuk’s prophecy is unique among all the Old Testament prophets. It does not follow the usual form of a prophet speaking the words of God to his audience. Instead, it begins with a discussion between Habakkuk and God and ends with the psalm that we’ll be looking at this morning.
Habakkuk begins by complaining about the wickedness and violence among the people of Judah (1:2-4). But God’s answer (1:5-11) is not exactly what he is expecting. God is going to raise up the Chaldeans, another name for the Babylonians, who are going to advance upon Judah to punish them for their sin.
That leads to Habakkuk’s second complaint (1:12-2:1) – how is God in His holiness going to use a people that are even more wicked than the people of Judah to carry out His judgment? In His answer (2:2-5), God promises Habakkuk that the unrighteous Chaldeans will not escape His judgment.
Although God’s judgment of wickedness and evil may seem slow by human standards, God assures Habakkuk that the Chaldeans will get what they deserve. It is in this context that God speaks the words that will later be quoted by Paul in both Romans and Galatians as well as by the writer of Hebrews:
…but the righteous shall live by his faith…
Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV)
God then pronounces a series of five woes against the Chaldeans to confirm that he will indeed judge them at some time in the future.
With that background in mind, we are now ready to look at Habakkuk chapter 3. I’ll read the entire chapter:
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
2 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.
3 God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise. Selah
4 His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
5 Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
6 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.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8 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?
9 You stripped the sheath from your bow,
calling for many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
it lifted its hands on high.
11 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.
12 You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
13 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
14 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.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
the surging of mighty waters.
16 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.
17 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,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
When I first selected this passage as part of our journey through the Old Testament prophets it was based on providing some insight into the Day of the Lord that would eventually help us in our understanding of the Book of Revelation. And I still believe that this chapter contains prophetic elements that have a bearing on our understanding of the return of Jesus and the end times. But as I began to read and study the passage this week, I came to believe that God has a different purpose for us as we examine this passage.
There is a sense in which we are all like Habakkuk. We look at the evil and the wickedness in the world around us and we wonder how God could allow the wicked to prosper. We question why God doesn’t just judge them right now. And in some ways our entire study of the Old Testament prophets and the Book of Revelation deals with those same questions. And like Habakkuk, as we progress through our study, we’re not always going to understand everything, no matter how diligently we study. And there are going to be some other things that we’ll understand that we’re going to look at and think to ourselves “that just doesn’t make sense.”
And out tendency in light of all those thoughts is often to just get depressed or to throw up our hands and feel like it really doesn’t matter how we live our lives and adopt a fatalistic approach to life. But the beauty of Habakkuk’s psalm is that it demonstrates that God does indeed care how we respond to the times before us because He wants to give us hope in the midst of a situation that looks so hopeless. So with that in mind, let’s look at what we can learn about…
HOW TO RESPOND TO GOD WHEN THINGS DON’T MAKE SENSE
1. Sing (vv, 1, 19)
The first thing that we notice about Habakkuk’s prayer is that it is in the form of a psalm or a song. It begins in verse 1 with the phrase “according to Shigionoth”. Although we can’t be sure of the exact meaning, it is certainly a musical term that would have described the kind of song that Habakkuk was about to sing. And the very last sentence of the chapter also indicates that this is a song. We also see the word “Selah” used twice in this passage. This is also a musical term, which is found only in the Psalms outside this passage.
Although much Biblical prophecy is in poetic form, probably to make it easier to pass on from generation to generation, Habakkuk 3 is the only prophetic writing that has these kind of musical terms connected directly with it. So it appears that when things didn’t make sense to Habakkuk he sang. We observe this same phenomenon frequently in the Psalms as well. For instance, Psalm 59, which begins with a plea for God to deliver David from his enemies, ends with these words:
But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me steadfast love.
Psalm 59:16, 17 (ESV)
I don’t want to make too much out of this first point because I realize that we all have different opinions about the importance of music. But let me just point out that we are frequently commanded, in both the Old and New Testaments, to sing.
Not that we need their validation, but a number of recent scientific studies have verified the benefits of singing. As one of the few activities that engages both halves of our brain simultaneously, singing has been proven to be effective in helping people to remember information – an important activity that we’ll talk about more in a moment. There are also a number of studies that have shown therapeutic benefits for those with brain diseases and injuries. There is even evidence that people who sing are generally happier.
I don’t know exactly why Habakkuk chose to sing. But I do know that it helped him to relate properly to God, even when he wasn’t really sure about what God was about to do. Perhaps, even in a way we don’t completely understand, singing still helps us to do that, too.
2. Pray (vv. 1, 2)
As Habakkuk sang, the first thing that he did was to pray. And as he begins to pray, he makes two requests of God:
• For God’s glory to be revealed
Even though Habakkuk certainly didn’t understand why God was going to do what He had promised to do, he feared God enough to know that whatever God was about to carry out would ultimately bring glory to God. So he prayed that God’s works would be made known to all. That applied equally to the judgment that was going to come against his own people in Judah as well as the way that God would ultimately punish Babylon.
That’s not an easy thing to pray in our lives, is it? As we look around at our own country and we recognize the sin and wickedness that deserves God’s judgment, are we willing to pray that whatever action that God chooses to take, whether it be mercy or judgment, would be recognized as coming from the hand of God, so that He might ultimately get the glory?
So his first request was completely centered on God. And it was not until he made that request that he was able to make the second request, which was more focused on him and his fellow Jews.
• For mercy
In the preceding two chapters, God had revealed the wrath that He was about to pour out against both Judah and her enemies. But rather than pray to God to remove the people from the judgment that was about to come, Habakkuk prayed that they might experience God’s mercy in the midst of tribulation.
This is a key principle for us as followers of Jesus, one that has been reinforced over and over again in our journey through the prophets. God’s people should not expect that God is going to prevent them from experiencing tribulation. But what we can expect is that God, in His mercy, will preserve us through those difficult times. So when tribulation comes, we shouldn’t focus our prayers on deliverance, but instead we need to petition God for His mercy.
That’s exactly what the writer of Hebrews encouraged his audience to do:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 (ESV)
3. Remember (vv. 3-15)
This entire section contains some prophetic material which has some impact on our study of the end times. Although Habakkuk is primarily looking back at what God has done in the past, those events also picture what is going to occur when Babylon invades Judah as well as the judgment that will occur with the second coming of Jesus.
But as I mentioned earlier, I want us to look at another facet of this passage today and see what we can learn about how to respond to God when things don’t make sense.
And what impresses me about Habakkuk is that when he didn’t understand everything about what God was going to do, he took time to remember what he already knew about God.
Much of the material in verses 3-15 is clearly related to the entire process by which God, through His servant Moses, led His people out of bondage in Egypt. We don’t have time to review this section in great detail this morning, but I encourage you to go back and read it later and see if you can’t make out the references to the plagues God brought against Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and even the long day of Joshua that is described in Joshua 10.
There is an important lesson for all of us here this morning. When there is something that we don’t know about God or something that doesn’t make sense to us, rather than focus on what I don’t know, there is great value in remembering…
• What I already know about God
The Bible is full of examples of people who were in situations that were so difficult that they didn’t even feel like they could pray. But then they remembered God and what they already knew about Him and were then able to enter into God’s presence in prayer. Jonah is the perfect example of how remembering what we already know about God enables us to pray:
When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
Jonah 2:7 (ESV)
4. Wait (v. 16)
When Habakkuk considered all that God was about to do, he was certainly frightened – he described how his body trembled at the thought. But in spite of that fear, he made the commitment to wait for God to carry out His plans. Unfortunately in our culture, we associate the word “wait” with inactivity – we even have waiting rooms at the doctor’s office where we do nothing more that read outdated magazines or watch reruns of game shows from 25 years ago. But the process of waiting on the Lord, as described throughout the Bible, and especially here in Habakkuk…
• Does not mean inactivity
That is especially true for us as we wait on the “Day of the Lord.” In their ministries both Paul and Peter had to address Christ-followers who were expecting Jesus to return soon, so they were just sitting around doing nothing.
For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
2 Thessalonians 3:11, 12 (ESV)
To those who were just sitting around idle waiting for the return of Jesus, Paul commanded them to go about their day-to-day activities of earning a living.
Peter addresses this same situation in much more detail in 2 Peter 3. Here is just a portion of what he wrote:
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace…You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
2 Peter 3:14, 17-18 (ESV)
The “these” that he is referring to in verse 14 is the new heaven and new earth that will be the final result of Jesus’ second coming. And while they are waiting for that to occur, what are they to be doing? Sitting around twiddling their thumbs? No – they are to be diligent to be found without spot or blemish and at peace. And how do they do that? By growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus. As Peter points out when he uses the word “diligent” that is not something that happens by osmosis. As we saw last week, it requires a constant lifestyle of connecting with God, connecting with others and caring for our community, and then helping others to do the same in their own lives.
5. Rejoice (vv. 17-19)
Finally, Habakkuk chose to rejoice in God. I love verses 17-19 because they make it so clear that I can choose to rejoice in God…
• Regardless of my circumstances
Habakkuk certainly had no aspersions about the difficulties that were ahead of him and his people. There was a time coming soon when the harvest would be nearly non-existent and the flocks would be reduced to near-nothing. But in spite of those hard times to come, Habakkuk chose to rejoice in God regardless of his circumstances.
As Paul penned his letter to the church at Philippi from a jail cell, he expressed some similar thoughts.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Philippians 4:4 (ESV)
Both Habakkuk and Paul demonstrate that our ability to rejoice in God is not dependent on our circumstances – it is a choice that we make.
But it’s certainly often not an easy choice to make. That’s why I’m convinced that this 3rd chapter of Habakkuk is so important. You see, Habakkuk was only able to rejoice after he sang, he prayed, he remembered and he waited. And interestingly enough, if you go back and look at the life of Paul, you will find that he engaged in those same four activities as well:
o Paul and Silas sang and prayed while they were locked in a jail cell in Philippi. And Paul’s letters are filled with prayers and songs.
o Paul certainly remembered what he knew about God rather than focusing on what he didn’t know or understand.
o Paul engaged in the kind of active waiting that both he and Peter described in their writings – the kind of waiting where they worked diligently to be found without spot or blemish and at peace as they worked to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.
As we get back to our journey through the prophets and the Book of Revelation this morning, I can’t think of a more appropriate time for us to review this psalm of Habakkuk. And as we continue our journey and we encounter those times when things don’t always make sense, I pray that you’ll be able to respond to God by singing, praying, remembering, waiting and rejoicing.
