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“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. 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, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:16-18)

In Habakkuk 3:2 the prophet said, “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.”  In Habakkuk 3; 16 the prophet provides a bookend which compliments 3:2. ““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.”

God’s revelation to the prophet has resulted in Habakkuk experiencing extreme physical exhaustion. He understands what God is going to do in bringing judgment upon Judah through an invasion by the Babylonians. In response, his body trembles with fear, his lips quiver in stunned astonishment and confusion, and his bones feel as if they are going to break into pieces and his legs tremble in anguish. The prophet is overcome by his circumstances. Yet, he resolves to quietly wait for the trouble he knows will come.

Have you ever felt this way a time or two about your circumstances? You are completely and utterly exhausted by what has happened, is happening and what you fear will happen. You are exhausted not only physically, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually. In short, you are overwhelmed.

The question now is what do you do? Where do you turn? Where do you go for help? The obvious answer, and the biblical one, is to the LORD. This involves saturating your mind by reading His Word. The Psalms are a good place to begin because they so often communicate the raw emotions of the psalmists. Psalm 27 comes immediately to mind.

Following the reading and meditation of Scripture, take time for prayer. If necessary, a considerable amount of time. This involves not only your petitions or requests, but also adoration of God, thanksgiving to God and confession of sin before God.

Following this, reaffirm your love trust in the LORD. This is what Habakkuk does. He does not ignore his situation or the problems that will occur as a direct result of the impending invasion by Babylon. Rather, he remains focused on the faithfulness of God and affirms his trust in God who is faithful. Meditate upon Habakkuk’s words.

“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, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

Upon closer examination, we see that Habakkuk explores the essence of life and living in Israel. It is a land of fig trees and fig tree farmers. It is a land of grapes and olives. It is a country filled with fertile land and crops. It is also a land dominated by grazing sheep.

Yet what will happen if and when all these natural resources are destroyed or stolen. What will the prophet do? What will we do when all we have known and depended upon is taken away from us? The prophet provides the answer: “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

My joy and security is not to be found in the things or circumstances of life but rather in LORD, my God. The God of my salvation. In Him I will trust.

It is not easy sometimes to focus upon the Lord rather than our situations. Sometimes, it may even be a battle but it is a battle worth waging.

May the LORD’s truth and grace be found here.

Soli deo Gloria!

“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! 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. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.” (Habakkuk 3:13-15)

In acknowledging the wrath of God, the Scriptures balance this attribute and action of God with His divine and gracious prerogative to save sinners. God is under no obligation to save any soul, but does so on the basis of the good pleasure of His will.

Throughout Israel’s history, God had proven to be a faithful deliverer. Habakkuk remembered the faithfulness of God in going before His people as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day (Exodus 13:21-22) as He delivered His people from their bondage in Egypt. The reference to “crushing the house of the wicked” harkens back to either the pharaoh of the exodus, whose firstborn was slain, or to Nebuchadnezzar the king of the Chaldeans, whose house was built by unjust gain (Hab. 2:9–11).

Dr. R. C. Sproul explains, “In the past, the LORD came out of His sanctuary for the salvation of His people in distress. This is what Habakkuk is expecting Him to do again.” The LORD not only did this in Israel’s history in saving His people from physical bondage in Egypt, but also in saving His people from their spiritual bondage to sin.

Habakkuk used the word “anointed” to perhaps not only refer to the people of Israel (Psalm 105:15) but most likely to refer to the Divine Savior and King,  the Messiah (Psalm 132:10).

“You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters” is a reference to the LORD’s providential work in parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14:1-9). Dr. John MacArthur writes that “You trampled the sea, is another reference to God’s miraculous, protective intervention on behalf of Israel at the Red Sea. The historical event demonstrates his sovereign rulership of the universe and provides assurance to the troubled prophet that the Lord could be counted on to save his people once more.”

In his lecture on Habakkuk 3:13-15, John Calvin prayed this concluding and recorded prayer. “Grant, Almighty God, that as You have so often and in such various ways testified formerly how much care and solicitude You have for the salvation of those who rely and call on You,–O grant, that we this day may experience the same: and though Your face is justly hid from us, may we yet never hesitate to flee to You, since You have made a covenant through Your Son, which is founded in Your infinite mercy. Grant then, that we, being humbled in true penitence, may so surrender ourselves to Your Son, that we may be led to You and find You to be no less a Father to us than to the faithful of old, as You everywhere testifies to us in Your Word, until at length being freed from all troubles and dangers, we come to that blessed rest which Your Son has purchased for us by His own blood. Amen.”

May the LORD’s truth and grace be found here.

Soli deo Gloria!

“You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah! You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 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. You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger.” (Habakkuk 3:9-12).

One of the familiar hymns of the church is entitled O Worship the King by Robert Grant. It begins,

O worship the King, all-glorious above,                                                                                            O gratefully sing his power and his love:                                                                                      Our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days,                                                                   Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.

From a general anthem of praise and worship, the hymn writer then explores in the second stanza an often forgotten and frequently overlooked attribute of God and His attitude towards sin.

O tell of his might and sing of his grace,                                                                                 Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.                                                                             His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,                                                                 and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

People are often uncomfortable with the notion that God is a God of wrath. They tend to focus more on His attribute of love, even more so than His holiness. However, the Scriptures do speak, and often, about God’s wrath and is filled with imagery of the same. Case in point is Habakkuk 3:9-12.

Habakkuk acknowledged God as possessing a bow and arrows and a glittering spear. Mountains thrashed at the sight of God. The water raged. The sun and the moon stood still. The prophet says that God is furious and angry. Hardly the idea of God that is communicated by parents when they are getting their children ready for bed. The idea set forth by parents to their children would be, “You better go to sleep or God is going to come with bow and arrows and a glittering spear and you’ll be sorry.”

Habakkuk speaks of God as being the invincible and divine warrior who is the sovereign Lord of the universe. Several texts of Scripture address His authority and power over rivers (Exodus 7:14-24; Joshua 3:14-17; Exodus 14:27-30) along with the sun and the moon (Joshua 10-1-13). These prominent symbols of God’s creation bow in submission to His command.

The concept of threshing the nations in anger is a common theme about God in the Old Testament narratives depicting military invasions and divine judgment (cf. Judg. 8:7; 2 Kings 13:7; Isa. 21:10; 25:10; Dan. 7:23; Amos 1:3).

Another striking image is “the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high.” In this personification, Habakkuk explains that as men indicate by their voice or a gesture of their hand that they will do what they are commanded, so these various examples from nature testify of their obedience to God’s will (Ex 14:22; Jos 3:16; Ps 77:17, 18; 114:4).

God will not allow Himself to be trivialized and sentimentalized. He hates sin and is angry with those who pursue it. Therefore, the sinner is covered only by the righteousness of Christ. Repent of your sins today and flee to the reconciliation with God that is only found in Jesus (Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here.

Soli deo Gloria!

“What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” (Habakkuk 2:18-20)

The LORD revealed to Habakkuk a series of woes which the prophet was not only to receive but also prophesy to the people. The “five woes” is structured in five stanzas with three verses contained in each stanza. Today’s text contains the fifth and final stanza, which was God’s concluding announcement of woe upon the Babylonians. Each woe contained a particular sin for which God judged the Chaldeans as guilty. The first sin was extortion. The second sin was exploitation. The third sin condemned Babylon for being bloodthirsty killers and despots. The fourth sin was debauchery. The final woe concerned idolatry.

The final pronouncement of “woe” does not occur until the middle of the final stanza. Rather, what begins God’s concluding oracle against Babylon is a thought provoking question: “What profit an idol?”

An idol is often called a graven image carved out of stone or wood or molten metal. These figures then, and now, have no benefit whatsoever. What affection the individual had, or has, for these objects, they still are blocks of wood, stone, or shaped metal. It represents a lie and not the truth.

Dr. John Walvoord explains that, “To trust in such an idol was to trust in an object that teaches lies, for people were deceived and deluded by it, thinking it could help them. But idols and images were lifeless. Since they were the worshipers’ own creations, idols could not aid them (cf. v. 19). Carved or cast, they were dumb objects. The oracles attributed to them were obvious lies, for idols cannot speak.”

The Prophet Isaiah writes, “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.” (Isaiah 40:18-23).

R. C. Sproul, Jr. writes, “The root of idolatry, however, is here—images move us at a basic level, and evoke worship in us, worship that God abhors. I first felt this watching a movie that presented an image of Christ—The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. When Aslan first appeared on the screen my heart swelled and like a teetotaler taking his first drink, a health nut tasting his first Twinky, I thought, “Oh, so this is what He warned us about.” I was taken up, enraptured, spellbound because of the sheer majestic beauty of the Lion.”

Dr. Roy Zuck explains that, “No help or guidance comes from a lifeless object even if it is encased in gold and silver (cf. Isa. 40:19). It has no breath or spirit and therefore no life (cf. Gen. 2:7). Isaiah frequently taunted the Babylonians for their trust in numerous false gods, which were nothing but man-made idols (Isa. 41:7; 44:9–20; 45:16, 20; 46:1–2, 6–7; cf. Jer. 10:8–16). Idols are valueless for they cannot talk, come alive, guide, or breathe. And idolatry-worshiping man’s carvings rather than the Creator-stands condemned under God’s woe.”

The final woe contains a concluding statement summarizing the entire five stanzas. In effect God told Habakkuk, and others who would question Him, to be quiet. God is on the throne. He knows what He is doing far better than we in our limited knowledge and understanding can comprehend. Therefore, we are to be silent before Him (Job 40:3-5).

What objects in your life compete with God for your worship and affection? It could be another person, place or thing. It could be an idea, achievement or position of power and responsibility. Whatever it may be that competes for God’s worship, honor and glory, immediately repent of that the sin of idolatry.

May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here.

Soli deo Gloria!  

“Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.” (Habakkuk 2:15-17)

The LORD revealed to Habakkuk a series of woes which the prophet was not only to receive but also prophesy to the people. The “five woes” is structured in five stanzas with three verses contained in each stanza. Today’s text contains the fourth stanza, which was God’s fourth announcement of woe upon the Babylonians. Each woe contained a particular sin for which God judged the Chaldeans as guilty. The first sin was extortion. The second sin was exploitation. The third sin condemned Babylon for being bloodthirsty killers and despots. The fourth sin was debauchery.

Debauchery is a word which is not used very often in today’s culture. It is defined as wickedness, depravity, decadence and wanton immorality. While the word debauchery may not be common in today’s world, the meaning of the word and corresponding behavior certainty is. In many ways, the world today is filled with debauchery.

So also was the world in the 7^th century B.C. Babylon, and Judea, was filled with immorality and depravity. This was Habakkuk’s initial complaint to God about Judah. It was also what riled the prophet when God informed him that He would use Babylon in order to punish Judah’s depravity because Babylon was more depraved that Judah.

Babylon’s depravity involved poisoning and forcibly intoxicating other nations in order for them to become easy prey. How ironic that this is exactly what led to Babylon’s fall in Daniel 5. God said that, ““Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! You will have your fill of shame instead of glory” (Habakkuk 2:15).

The image of the cup, a common image in the drinking of wine and intoxicants, also represents the wrath and judgment of God (Luke 22:39-46). God would pour out His wrath upon the Babylonians in judgment for them pouring out their wrath upon other nations. The shame and violence done to others would be done to them.

Dr. John MacArthur writes, “Carrying out the metaphor of drunkenness, here is a reference to the humiliation of “shameful spewing.” The very thing in which they gloried would become the object of their shame. While the Lord’s glory would be “as the waters cover the sea” (v. 14), Babylon’s glory would be covered with shame.”

So too will this happen to all who refuse to repent and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. All sinners will receive the shameful punishment of their own sin, instead of trusting in Jesus Christ who bore our shame upon His body on the cross (Hebrews 12:1-2) and receiving His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:1-9).

If you have not responded to the message of the gospel, I encourage you to do so today. Repent of your sin and receive Jesus Christ’s righteousness, in exchange of your sinfulness, on the basis to grace alone, through faith alone in the person and work of Christ alone.

May the LORD’s truth and grace be found here.

Soli deo Gloria!