When we think of Nahum right before Habakkuk, Nahum preached Israel had been taken to captivity by the Assyrians and he preached that Assyria would face its doom one day as well. Judah had lived in relative safety for a hundred years and Israel was taken captive. But their time was coming and Habakkuk was letting them know. To let you know, I spent some time in Jeremiah yesterday. Jeremiah was a prophet in the same period and preached of the judgment to come.
I read about half the book. It's a big book. I wrote down several verses and maybe we'll look at them in weeks to come. But I wanted to start just in Nahum for a bit, just to read who God is and who the prophets knew him to be, who maybe the people had forgotten him to be. He says in chapter one, verse two of Nahum, right before Habakkuk, a jealous and avenging God is the Lord, Yahweh.
The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. Notice he said, for his enemies. The prophet knew that God would judge his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. The Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
In a whirlwind and a storm is his way, and the clouds are the dust beneath his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. He goes on mountains quake because of him and the hills dissolve. Even the earth is up heaved by his presence and the world and all its inhabitants in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by him. Verse seven, the Lord is good. a stronghold in the day of trouble. And he knows those who take refuge in him, but an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end to its site and will pursue his enemies into darkness."
Habakkuk knew this God. Habakkuk was a prophet of faith, but like us, his faith sometimes struggled. His faith sometimes came into despair. He saw the righteous afflicted. The wicked seemed to prosper. And he couldn't make sense of why this would be so. Seems to be a common condition that the saints feel. You are not alone, believer, if you have felt at times, why is this like it is? Things seem upside down. Shocking and perplexed we are. Faith, it is really faith perplexed. It's not faith that is gone. It's not faith absent. It's not doubting. It's not unbelief. No, but it's perplexed in our faith.
But what does the prophet do? What does the prophet Habakkuk do when he faces this experience? It's a lesson for us. Do you see it in the text from last week? He goes to God, he prays, he calls upon the Lord. This is good for us. This is what we all ought to do in our time of perplexity and despair. the preacher Charles Spurgeon, he spoke regarding prayer. He says, the best thermometer of your spiritual temperature is the intensity of your prayer. Even as I read this, I think of the lacking in my own prayer life, even this week. We need to go to the Lord in prayer. We need his presence. We need communion with our God. How often we think, well, I can do this. Just pursue, persevere, press on. Well, we need the Lord to help us.
Habakkuk was a man whose spiritual temperature was white hot. He prayed with passion. He prayed fervently, even in light of the answer he would receive. For the answer he would receive, he says, Lord, things are so bad. And it seems the answer he received was, the worst is yet to come. Lord, I didn't ask for this. I came to you in prayer. He says, the worst is yet to come.
Let's hear from this book. And we're going to see today Habakkuk's inquiries or his questions. And thankfully Yahweh, the Lord, answers. He hears you when you pray to him and he answers the prophet Habakkuk in this passage. And so we'll be looking at this back and forth really as the prophet is writing to you and I, to God's people, Let's read the first chapter together, the first verse in chapter two as well, and we will conclude. Hear the word of the Lord. The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
How long, O Lord, will I call for help, and you will not hear? I cry out to you, violence, yet you do not save. Why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me. Strife exists and contention arises. Therefore, the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, justice comes out perverted. Now God is answering, verse five, Look among the nations, observe, be astonished, wonder, because I am doing something in your days that you would not believe if you were told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. They are dreaded and feared. Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards and keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping. Their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour. All of them come for violence. The hoard of their faces moving forward, they collect captives like sand. They mock at kings and rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress. They heap up rubble to capture it. And then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty. They whose strength is their God. Habakkuk, are you not from everlasting? O Lord, my God and my Holy One, who we will not die, you, O Lord, have appointed them to judge, and you, O Rock, have established them to correct.
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on wickedness with favor. Why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? Why have you made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them?
The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, drag them away with their net, and gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net. Because through these things, their catch is large and their food is plentiful. Will they therefore empty their net and continually slay nations without sparing? I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart. And I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me and how I may reply when I am reproved.
Amen. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Father, this is your word. Lord, help your servant to relay to your people what you have said and to make it plain and to make it clear. May your Holy Spirit work amongst each of us, illuminate your word for us. Lord, make it live to us. We ask this in your son's name, amen.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, we are looking at Habakkuk's inquiries, his questions to God and God, Yahweh, the Lord answering him. How faithful is our God to hear us, first of all, and to lovingly care for us by speaking. He's spoken to us in his word. We have his word in front of us.
The tone of this book really has a tone of lament. And as we heard just earlier in our prayer of confession, in Psalm 44 is a psalm of lament. Psalm 42, another psalm of lament. We will get in months to come, Psalms 55 through 62 are more psalms of lament than many, many of them actually. Lament is crying to God in our desperation and our need.
It really has a tone or a feel like Job. You remember we went through Job at our Sunday school months ago. And so I think Habakkuk is maybe the Job of the prophets. Job is a man who is wrestling with God. He is a, maybe we could call him the wrestling prophet. Never heard that said, but seems right. His word means to embrace or to wrestle. His name, Habakkuk. And it says, this is an oracle, this is the word of God.
And I know we looked at verses one to four briefly last week. I know it was much introduction as we tried to show the history of half of the Old Testament last week. Let's look briefly at his question first. And first we see really faith perplexed. This is the heading for these four verses. And he asked, a fourfold question in his perplexity. And this is really man's perplexity, if you are a believer. This is our perplexity at time.
And the first is, why are you not hearing? Well, God does hear. The second is, why are you not saving? Like, why aren't you doing anything? Well, wait upon the Lord. He is doing something. As I mentioned last week, He has done something. Salvation has come, but at this point in the prophet's life, and maybe in your life, you think, why is this happening to me? I'm drowning. Are you going to save?
And the third question he asked is, why are you making me see this? All of this wickedness, the vileness you hear in the office place, and the vileness you hear different places in the world, and what you see, you're like, I don't want to see this. Why are you making me see this?
God wants you to know the heinousness of man, the depravity of man in contrast to his great holiness. Grace is exalted so much more when we see the baseness, the depravity in man. And I'm not talking about in those other men. I'm talking about in the one that you look in the mirror and he is in desperate need of salvation.
And the fourth question he asks, if you look at verse four, is why is there no justice? You know, according to your law, why aren't they judged? Like, bring them down. Destroy them. I mentioned that last week, and people say, why didn't God do something about this?
And you mention things like, yes, let's get the murderers, remember? And we talked about how even unbelievers want the murderers to be judged, and the rapists, the really bad ones. But then when you start to mention things like envy, and covetedness, and lying, they're like, well, let's be careful. But if God were to judge wickedness, we would be no more.
But the prophet is here thinking this has gotten so bad, and maybe you think it's so bad, but just wait, hold on, Habakkuk is really gonna hear some bracing news that things are going to get worse. At least before they get better, the worst is yet to come.
God says, I'm about to do something. Really, I'm about to do something that you would not even believe if someone told you. The unexpected providence. What we just sang about the mysteries of the ways of God and how he hides his smiling, was it smiling provident behind it? I forgot the words now, but the mysterious ways of God. And we're confused, at least for me often, maybe not for you, but Yahweh answers.
Before we get to his answer, have you ever opened a package or got something at the store and there's the warning label on it? You know, it might say, beware, this causes cancer, or all these different things. Maybe a warning of, you know, your child will die if he eats this. Well, thanks for the warning, I think I knew that. But God here is giving a warning label at this point in his answer. His warning label, he starts in verse five, look, like, wake up. among, look among the nations, look out amongst you, amongst all the ethnos, the nations, observe and be astonished and wonder."
He's saying Habakkuk, I'm going to knock your sandals off with this one. You're not going to believe what I'm going to do. See, Habakkuk was so worried about the sins of his people, and the sins of Judah, and what they were doing, and they were departing from the law, and probably you and I have prayed like that.
Lord, help the church. Lord, strengthen, bring us back revival, awakening to the Lord. But many times we desire things that are more gentle. You know, send a gentle wind and do it easy. And God says, I'm gonna do it, but not the way that you are asking. You don't have the wisdom to be able to tell God how he should do it, but it's fine to call upon him, sure. But be careful we don't lay out like, Lord, we'll do it this way, you know, one and two and three, and I'll help you.
Who are you, oh man? Be astonished, I am doing something in your days that you would not believe if you were told. He's going to tell him, but he's saying you're not going to understand, you're not going to fathom the end here. You just see where you are and you don't know where I'm going, nor can you. Isn't that the way it is for us? You see the wreck of things, or what you think is the wreck, but you don't see the end, you don't see what God is accomplishing yet. One day you will, maybe on the other side.
But before we talk about what God is going to do, I want to lay some preliminary things regarding what Habakkuk has asked. what he's prayed. And number one, God is not unaware of man's depravity or his evil ways. When we are offended by these things, God is too. And he doesn't necessarily need us to point it out. He knows these things. And secondly, God is not ambivalent to sin. Meaning he doesn't, it's not something he doesn't care about.
Don't think that because punishment is not enacted right now, that it's not coming. Maybe as children we might have thought, or maybe you children have thought, well, you know, because my parents didn't do anything about it, it must not have been that bad.
That's how we think. But that's not the way God does. There is payday someday. There is going to be a reaping of what you sow. He's not ambivalent to sin because think about what sin is. Sin is not some floating thing. Sin is rebellion against God. So of course he's offended by it. It's against God. It is directly against what he has said. And so God is very much not ambivalent.
But before we get too far, as we learn from Habakkuk, as we learn from what God's word has said, there is a danger for all of us in a false sense of security. A false sense of security of, you deal with those people, take care of them and him and she, but we forget about sometimes our own life, maybe our own spiritual walk before God. There's a danger, there's a second danger, and that is this strange way that all of us do of ranking sinners. Notice how Habakkuk says, those worse than us, as if there's some sort of schedule, you know, if you're this bad, then, you know, Where do we get that? Because we decide to put our own self on some sort of throne, some sort of judgment seat. So those are the dangers to us.
But let's go back to God to think that he's not doing something or he's not paying attention. Know this, that God is working all the time. And God is good in all the things that he does. But maybe you won't understand what he is doing. Maybe you won't believe how he's going to do it. But know this, that God's counsel shall stand. That whatever God ordains shall come to pass.
So he goes down to verse six in our Bibles, God relays his instrument, his instrument in his hands. He says, behold, wake up when he says, behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans. Who are these fellas, these Chaldeans? Well, it was interesting in our Sunday school lesson in chapter 29 of Genesis, and I was trying to, see how these things were pulling together.
It's fascinating to see how the whole Bible is so compactly together, but when, let's see if I don't mess this up now, when Jacob was going to find his wife and he went back to Padam Haran, and so he's going to the east of Canaan, He actually went back to the land of Mesopotamia, which would have been the northern side of Babylon. So it became Babylon later. Babylon is synonymous with the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans were descendants of Abraham's brother, Nahor. You pulling this together? So we're just in our study school lesson and seeing all these connections. So Nahor is where the Chaldeans came from.
They are the Babylonian Empire. It would be the area of Mesopotamia if you look on an old map. What is this land? Where is this today? Well, it's modern Iraq. Ever heard of that? Baghdad, Saddam Hussein, well before that there was a powerful king long before that named Nebuchadnezzar. Same area. Fascinating. He says, I am raising up the Chaldeans. They were nothing before. Nobody had heard of them. Habakkuk, who are these folks? I imagine when he preached to Judah, they were like, we don't know who they are. They don't have a chance.
God is raising them up. I am raising them up, he says. I am. Where is their ways? Look, he talks about their ways or their walk. He says, they are fierce and impetuous. He's speaking of the violence and the powerness of them. They march through the earth and seas dwelling places. They take what they want and no one tells them anything.
This is the fierceness of who the Chaldeans would be. Now this ought to strike fear into the people of Judah. Maybe it doesn't to us in our modern way of visualizing things, but in the writing of this, look at the words he uses, how they're fierce. He goes on to further describe them using descriptions of animals, of fierce predators. They are dreaded and feared.
Their justice and authority originate with themselves. I mean, they make their own rules. They think their authority comes from, they presume this, for God is raising them up, but they think no one tells them what to do. They do what they want, and that's how they're gonna come and they're gonna conquer you, my people, Judah, who have transgressed my law, who have worshiped other gods, who have gone into spiritual adultery. God is going to judge them.
He goes on to further describe them with animals. Their horses are swifter than leopards. Leopards are the speediest of the cat family. And he's speaking of their travel. They'll just come upon you like nothing, like you will not even be able to get away because they're coming fast. And they're like ravenous wolves at the dinner feast where they tear apart and devour They're prey. Judah, you're the prey. Judah thought that they were unstoppable.
We're God's people. We have the temple. God says, I'm raising up a force, and they're going to come from afar. They're going to come galloping in. Hear the sound of the horses. They're coming. speaks of their fly like an eagle, the fiercest of the birds, of the prey coming down, predators to swoop down and catch up what they want, and that's what Judah would be like, like a little worm in the beak of a strong eagle, or maybe a vulture coming down. They're gonna come as predators to consume, to not leave anything left.
Habakkuk, he's hearing this. Can you imagine? Well, God, these are your people. This is your church. Devouring? Yes. Now God has a promise in this. He'll have a remnant in this, a remnant of the faithful. But Jehovah, God continues speaking of their coming doom.
He says all of them come for violence. They're not coming to shake hands and let's sit down over a meal. They're coming for violence. They're not going to do it with niceties. No, these are hordes of faces. Think of the hordes of faces, the unknown faces, the snarling faces, men who fear nothing. But this ought to be a warning for the people of God, for all of us, that what Judah had done, what God's people had done, is they had ceased to fear God. And whenever we cease to fear God, we will immediately begin to fear men. And God at this point wanted this intense fear to come upon them that God's instruments, His agents of wrath and vengeance were coming because they had spurned all of God's goodness of what He had done, how He had protected, how He had loved them. He says these Chaldeans, these Babylonians, they collect captives like sand, meaning you're nothing to them. You're just like a piece of sand in a bucket.
And notice what they think about rulers of other countries. They mock at them. The kings of Judah, they could care less. They were a laughing matter to them. And all your robes and your temple and your high walls, We laugh at that. They laugh at the fortresses. That means the things you put up, your missile defense systems and your large walls and your space force, we laugh at that. You think you're so strong with your armies.
God has caused them to be nothing to them, no obstacle for them. In fact, it says they heap up rubble to capture it. What the Chaldeans used to do is you would have a high wall like this and the people would think, well, we're protected. I'll use this pulpit as a wall. They would just bring rubble and dirt up there and make a big old ramp and just go over it like nothing, in no time, and capture them like sand and take them where they wanted to. and you can't do anything about it.
This is what God was doing. He says, they sweep through like the wind and pass on. We saw the wind in the last days and we heard about people's, in the last days of our immediate days. And we heard about people's roofs being torn off and fences being laid down. That's what the Lord. indignation using the Chaldeans would be like, they would come in through wind and knock things down, blow things to rubble, and pass on and go on, like you weren't even there.
This would be fearful to hear. And he's telling this to Habakkuk, to tell to the people, there was no plea of repent, and maybe the Lord would, no, he said they're coming. This is bound to happen. But what does he say in the second part of verse 11? This is interesting.
But they, that is the Chaldeans, will be held guilty. They're my instruments, God says, they're my vessels, but they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their God, lowercase g. The Chaldeans think that their power, their own might is their God. They worship their own might. Look at us. There's nothing been like us in the history of the world. We've never seen anything like this. Look at us. Look at what we've accomplished, how mighty and powerful we are, where no one can thwart us.
Can you hear this type of proud arrogance? We'll hear it again from Nebuchadnezzar. Remember, he's up there, this is from Daniel. Look at all this that I and myself have done. You ought to make a town and a building with my name on it, right? To remember the might of me. We hear people like this speaking even today.
But what God is saying here, in his description of the instruments that he's going to use, that is the people of Babylon, he puts a parenthesis there, and that's what this is at the end of verse 11. It's a clause that says, they are not off the hook. I'm causing them to do this, but they are going to pay for what they're going to do to my people. Isn't that interesting?
Tells us something about someone's power. not man's, their God is their own might, he says. Now Habakkuk and other believers as well, his God and our God is the Lord God, my God, he says. But these people that God is using say that their God is their own self. But God is still using them to bring this coming judgment. They don't turn to God. But their time is short-lived.
And then we come to Habakkuk's reply. Habakkuk's reply is starting in verse 12. I hope you notice that. It doesn't say it in the text, so you have to kind of be aware and be awake as you're reading who's speaking. But Habakkuk started, God answers, Habakkuk's gonna reply again and then we're going to see another reply from God and another prayer of Habakkuk. And so we have to be keen and observant as we read.
But Habakkuk replies and God will answer in chapter two and we'll get to that next Lord's Day. But let's look at this last part of the The prophet's personal God-word declaration. This is what he's doing. He's declaring back to God, really, who he is, who he knows him to be.
It's really a rhetorical question. What is a rhetorical question? It's a question that you already know the answer to, usually in the affirmative. And so he asked God, are you not, meaning you are, are you not from everlasting? He's declaring to God and to us the attributes of God, that is who God is. And he starts with three... Attributes of God. First is his eternality. Eternal-ality, okay? So how he is from everlasting, meaning he is preexistent, he is not created, he has no beginning, and he has no end. Are you not from everlasting?
Notice he says, oh Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, but look at the personalness of it. He doesn't say, oh Lord, The God and the Holy One, although he could, he says, my God, my God and my Holy One, my anointed, my savior, this is who I'm speaking to. He speaks of the immortality of God. That God is forever, God is, I am is the word for God. It is the God who is. When you speak to people about the Lord, you can speak to them about the God who is. He is the God of everlasting. But then he goes on to speak of the second part or a second part of God. And it has to do with his sovereignty. Sovereign means he is ruler over all. He has no equals. Meaning he has no rivals. No one can say, what are you doing? And why have you done this? There is no one anywhere. There is one God. And all else is creation.
He says, we will not die. What did Habakkuk mean? We're not gonna die? God, you just told us that the Chaldeans are coming to devour us. He knows that mankind made in the image of God, and God has a elect people, and that he will keep them. And the reason they are his people, they are, the New Testament speaks of his body, and if he cannot die, then his people cannot die. Now we all know that physically we will die, but you have an immortal, immortal soul that cannot die.
And when your body goes to the grave, your soul will go to one of two places. If you are in Christ, it will go to be with Christ. You will be in the blissful presence of the Lord. And if you are not in Christ, you will go to a place called hell, reserved for all the ungodly, for all the angels who have sinned, and the demons, and for all those who are outside of Christ, and you will await the judgment where you will be then thrown into the lake of fire. There will be no departure from this. And so you ought to get right now as to who you shall follow. If you shall follow the Lord Jesus, you shall be saved. If you shall repent and believe upon Him, you shall be in Christ, union with the Savior in the presence of God. And you can say as Habakkuk, we will not die. He says, you, oh Lord, you, oh Yahweh.
Notice what he says, have appointed, and then he comes down, have established. You have appointed them to judge. So you have brought these horrible people against us. This is your appointing, ordaining, rule, your decision, your will. I'm not arguing with you, he says. You have appointed it. You, oh Lord. You who are good have appointed it. Have I said it enough?
And then he goes on, you, O rock. Moses spoke of the rock. The rock is the rock of ages, the rock of Christ. He says, you, O rock, who is immovable, the rock that cannot be broken. You, God, have established them to correct. Correct who? Correct us. You have established it. This speaks of his rule in government overall.
Is there anything outside of God's purview, outside of his ruling? No. Is there anything in your life that is somehow outside of his control? No. That should give you and I great comfort. It would give us terrible fear to think all this is happening and no one's out there over this. It's just, what's going to happen next? Who knows? That would be fearful, would it not?
And to those outside of Christ, that's where they're at. But I know that my God is my rock, that he appoints these things. He ordains them. Now, I don't understand why. The answers might not be there, but I do know who has the answers. Do you? If you know God, if you know Christ, you do. You know the one that ordains all.
So, eternality, sovereignty, The third point he brings out is another great point. Maybe we should highlight these attributes. Now, there's many attributes, but the third one, do you see what it is? Verse 13 and down? Holiness. Holiness. Pure goodness. No sin, no evil. This is our God. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on wickedness with favor." So the purity and the holiness of God is what sets up the next three questions he asks. And there's three more why questions. Do you see them in the text? Why do you look with favor? Why are you silent?
Verse 14, why have you made men like fish of the sea without a ruler over them? So the three questions, we'll sum them up like this. Why the prosperity of the wicked? Why are the wicked doing so well? That's the first question. The second question, Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? So a summary, why the affliction of the righteous? But notice how he phrases it. Remember I said about the scale of sinners? Those more righteous than us is what he's saying. Or those more wicked than us. Like we are more righteous than they. Really? Now, ask yourself this question.
If God were not to use sinful agents to bring his wrath on people, who would he use? There's sinners and then there's sinners, right? So don't get on your high horse thinking, well, I'm not as sinful as, really? Sin is just sin, rebels. Is there worse rebels than other rebels? I don't know. There's saved or redeemed sinners, redeemed rebels. And you can be the worst of the rebels, the worst of the sinners, and be redeemed. Or you can be not that really bad of a rebel and not be redeemed. You see? I'd rather be the worst of the sinners and be redeemed. Amen? This is where we need to be. Let's finish this. Let's finish this, this, this worst yet to come. I know it's hard language, but it's meant to be.
The Chaldeans will bring them up with a hook. He's speaking of the cruelty of God's vessels. I keep using God's vessels because that's what he's doing. Do you know what they would do when they would come in and they'd build their ramps and they'd take you? Let's just say they came in here and took everybody here Captive. Now, you might think, well, we'll get some rope and tie him. Uh-uh.
They put a fish hook. Put a fish hook in the lip, and then they put a string on that, and they'll put him in the next one, a fish hook, another one, another one, another one, and they lead you like little babies with hooks in your mouth. You think you're going to run? No. Maybe put a treble hook in this one. He might be a little trouble. I just like to be led by a hook, blood coming out of your mouth if you move, if you're not in line.
That's what God was doing. He said they sweep up people with nets. They'd be a big old net. That's what they used to fish back in the day, with big nets. And they'd just capture you and just take you off like nothing. They found pictures in caves of the Babylonians, and they had pictures of this where they had hooks and people lined out. And they had pictures of nets with people in it. Pictures of, they found these things.
This actually took place. These were cruel. But notice what he says, they rejoice and are glad. He's calling, they rejoice and are glad, therefore they offer sacrifice. This is their religion. They worship their net. The net that they capture the people in. The hook that they lead them off with. They said bow down to the hook. Isn't that silly? That's what they did. They think, oh, this is our power. This is where it comes from. We got great hooks. We got great weapons. Let's worship our weapons. Look at our money. Let's worship that. Look at our power.
And they bowed down and made sacrifices to them. We see that even today. cruelty, idolatry, and really blasphemous, they burn incense to their fishing net. Because through these things, they think this is where their gain comes from. They equate their prosperousness with their ways of doing things. God is trying to get their attention, to get your attention. But before God answers the prophet, this is a needed example for each of us.
In chapter two, verse one, he doesn't say, oh, woe is me, I'm gonna go bury my head in the sand until it pass. Woe is me, I'm gonna go drink myself and maybe this will just go away. I'll go to sleep. No. He says, I will stand on my guard post. I will get on a high place and look to the heavens from where my help comes. I will station myself on the rampart as a leader of God's people. He would watch out. He would be on the watchman on the wall. And I would look, I will call to God and I will wait for him and I will look for him to answer. I will keep watch to see what he, that is the Lord, will speak to me. I won't move until he speaks to me. I'm not going to get ahead. I'm going to wait. But notice the humility when he says next, and how I may reply when I am reproved.
Meaning God, he's saying, God, I'm aware of the way that I'm speaking to you now probably needs correction. probably needs reproof. My soul is not right, my mind is not right, my heart is not in tune with you, and I probably need to be reproved, even in my prayer life. Oh my.
This is the posture of every faithful believer that we should be. We should see the example of Habakkuk. And we need to take this when our faith is perplexed, that we wait upon the Lord. Lord, I will stand. I will stand on my guard post. I will stand upon your word. I'll not lose my faith. I'll not go into unbelief, but I will have faith. In fact, he's going to talk to us next Lord's Day. that the just, the righteous, the saved shall live by their faith.
This is how you are to get through perplexity. Faith, not what you see. If you focus on what you see, you will be in despair. you will be as Habakkuk was. But I think Habakkuk, in going to God and relaying to God who he was, strengthened himself. I feel strengthened just reading what he says.
Speaking of the attributes of God, that God, you are from eternal, you're eternality, you never die, and you're sovereignty, and you're holiness, and I know this. I want you to know that all men know this, but they suppress the truth. Those who you talk to who deny, say they deny God, they know there's a God. They just don't want there to be a God because they know that they'll be judged by Him, and they're too proud to come to Him for salvation. But they are suppressing the truth. I said I had some preliminary observations, Wrote down preliminary observations again, but these are, we'll just call them the middle observations. Maybe jot these down, maybe these will help you.
Number one, afflictions are not always punishment. Now God was afflicting his people at this time, but they're not always punishment. They may be chastisement, they may be collateral damage, they may be causing you to trust in God and to strengthen your faith, but they're not always punishments, okay? Number two, prosperity is not always a blessing.
When things are going well, don't think, oh, look what I have done. All of my work has accomplished this. You're like Nebuchadnezzar. Don't be like that. Bless God, thank him. But don't equate it with something that you have done and accomplished. Don't worship your net.
Thirdly, know that whatever God does, whatever he does, is good, all of it. Fourthly, there is a day of retribution coming. When you see the wicked that are outside of God, outside of Christ, there is payday someday. They will get theirs. Leave room for God's vengeance. God says, vengeance is mine, says the Lord. He will deal with them much more than you can.
And fifthly, and this is where Habakkuk left us at the very end in chapter two, verse one. Man ought to be silent and wait upon the Lord. Be silent and wait upon the Lord. We're too quick to share our opinions and we don't know many times what we're talking about.
God rules over all. Man, all man, man, women, children, we are for God's use. Glorify Him. God is not for our use. He made us for Him. Sometimes we get that mixed up. Man's attributes in our natural self are far from what God's attributes are. When we think about man, all we can see is depravity, moral corruption. When we look at God, we see his holiness. When we look at man, we see man as he thinks he is, we see man as self-reliant, self-conceit, Self-exalting, self-seeking, leading to self-worship, it's seen in society today as it was then, seen in the family, in our natural disposition, sometimes even in the church.
For this is what man is by nature. But I want you to know that love for God and even love for man is a supernatural thing. That comes from outside of you. That comes from above. And God remakes us, renews us in Christ when we come to Him by faith and repentance. He changes us, the metamorphosis that happens. The natural man just exalts his own strength. worships things like rank or status, worships things like wealth and intellect and business, and they start to sacrifice to their business.
Look, your career is just a means to an end. It's not the end. Don't think you are here to somehow create the biggest whatever. We're apt to think that way, but we ought not. We have to realize that we're here to worship God. We're here not for our own pride, but to give glory to God. God is speaking of the proud ones. He's going to use the proud ones to come against his own proud ones, to bring them back to himself, to chastise them. In our country, speak of in God we trust. Do we? Do you? One nation under God? I pray that be. But many times I don't see that.
A man's ultimate calling, especially in times of perplexity, is to wait upon the Lord. Be still, God says, and know that I am God. That means there is no other. Prepare yourself for the times of perplexity. You say, how do I do that? Prayer and the Word. Be in the Word. The more you're in the Word, the more you know God. The more you pray, the more you have time with God and you commune and you understand. and you begin to realize the importance of the unseen. What you see will mess you up. Focus on the unseen, and that is our walk with God.
So be about waiting and listening and watching like the prophet was. We need to be quiet. He spoke about getting on his tower, on his guard post, get away from the world and all the confusion. Get to a place where you can be in nature and be in silence where we can hear from God, because God often speaks in that quiet space. He often directs us when we focus on him and get our attention away from all the circumstance and all the mess. And so when your trial comes, and it will, wait upon the Lord. Call upon Him and listen to Him. When perplexity arises, do the same. Wait upon the Lord. Call upon Him. Wait. Do you know what God's work is? It's ordaining all things. It's working the plans of His own sovereign will. He's doing all the things, everything. That's God's work, okay? It's not yours. You know what your work is?
To follow Him, to follow His will, according to His word. That'll keep you busy enough, okay? Follow Him. Seek after Him. Glorify Him in your whole life. That's what He's called you to do, not to run the world. He's got that. He doesn't need your help or mine. Align yourself with God. Don't expect Him to align His self with you. Align yourself with Him.
He is doing all things well. He is going somewhere. History is going somewhere. And if you are in Him, if you are in Christ, it's going to glory. All things will one day be made right. But it might not be now. It might not be yet. But until then, stand upon the wall. Stand and wait. Look to the heavens.
Make good use of the light He has given you in His word. Walk in his path until he calls you home. Trust in his providence. The old Puritan said it's the softest pillow you can lay your head on is God's providence. Once you know that, once you know he is in control, it is a soft pillow. Faith looks to the unseen, not to what you see. If you focus on what you see, as I said before, you will be in despair. Focus on the unseen, eternal perspective.
I pray that he gives us that by his spirit, all of us, and it'll cause us to walk in triumphant faith, where our faith turns from perplexity to just rest and trust. May that be so for me, and may that be so for each of you, as we learn from the prophet Habakkuk. Let's pray.
Lord, I thank you for the words of scripture, for the words of the prophets, even though at times they can seem harsh and hard. Lord, they cause us to have an eternal perspective for those of us in Christ. to turn our gaze away from the temporal and to look to the eternal, to cause our doubts to flee from us and to strengthen our faith. Lord, help us to not be those who disbelieve, who are doubters, but are those of faith. Thank you that you've given saints of old before us who help us in that walk of faith. that we can say like the prophet, like the psalmist Asaph, like we can say like Job of old, though he slay me, yet I will wait upon him, yet I will trust in the Lord. Come what may, through all of mysterious providences, through all of the struggles of this life, Lord, you are over all. and we can trust in your goodness and your loving kindness. Father, strengthen our faith.
And Lord, for any that are outside of you, who are trusting in themselves, who are still worshiping their net, who are looking to climb the ladder of their own success to their own glory, Lord, would you let them see that that is a dire end, that that will lead to perishing and eternal wrath And Lord, would you cause them to flee from that wrath and turn to Christ by faith and see that there is salvation in no other? Oh Lord, save them. Save them by your grace alone, for that is the only way that they shall be saved. Thank you for bringing the worst of sinners to yourself. Thank you for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.
