Act V - Final Scene (con't)
Outline of Habakkuk
I. Introduction (1:1) and Habakkuk's 1st Complaint (1:2-4)
II. God's Answer to Habakkuk's 1st Complaint (1:5-11)
III. Habakkuk's 2nd Complaint (1:12-2:1)
IV. God's Answer to Habakkuk's 2nd Complaint (2:2-20)
V. Habakkuk's Closing Prayer/Psalm of Praise (3:1-19)
Glancing back at Chapter 2 (Outline IV)
Where did we leave Habakkuk in chapter 2, verse 1? He was standing in position on the rampart (probably a tower on the city wall) waiting for God's answer to his 2nd Complaint, and the rest of Chapter 2 reveals God's response: God's certain judgment on Babylon.
Chapter 3 (Outline V)
Chapter 3 is Habakkuk's great prayer of praise in response to God's revelation in Chapter 2. When God responded to Habakkuk's challenge, God revealed the future as well as revealing Himself.
The ancient rabbis left us an important message in their writings: that the biggest intellectual gift God has given us is the knowledge that He is infinite, that His ways are not our ways...that He is so far above us we will never understand His ways. Habakkuk now had a deeper understanding of that.
Then in verses 3-15 Habakkuk recited some of God's extraordinary deeds in the history of His chosen people.
Now we come to the last section (verses 16-19) of Habakkuk's great psalm of praise.
(16) I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on
the nation invading us.
(17) Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crops fail
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
(18) yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
(19) The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to go on the heights.
For the director of music, On my stringed instruments.
These closing verses show his emotional state. His heart pounds, his lips quiver, his bones become, as we might say, like jelly. Ever felt that frightened?
He cannot even stand, much less walk.
He had encountered the Almighty God, and he knows that God is going to carry out His judgment on Judah, and he also knows that God is going to carry out His judgment against Babylon, "the nation invading us" (verse 16). He knows these things for certain.
Encountering God and seeing the future judgments in this vision led him to overwhelming fear and awe.
It is not unlike the reaction of Moses, as he stood before the burning bush and hid his face "for he was afraid to look at God" (Exodus 3:6).
Isaiah, when he saw God seated on His throne, cried out "Woe is me for I am lost" (Isaiah 6:5). Ezekiel caught a vision of God riding across the heavens in His celestial chariot, and he fell on his face in wonder and awe (Ezekiel 1:24).
It is not surprising that Habakkuk trembled and his legs would not support him. It was an awesome experience to stand before the Almighty Creator and Sovereign of the Universe.
Back in chapter 2:3 Habakkuk is assured by God that judgment on the Babylonians would come. He was told to wait for it, even if it appeared to be delayed.
Now Habakkuk (verse 16) is waiting patiently for that day of calamity. (He doesn't seem as anxious now for that day to come!)
We feel the same sort of emotions when we despair at the ungodly world and we yearn for Christ to come, to set things "right" and receive His glory and honor. "Every knee shall bow" is an encouragement to us and we are eager for that to happen.
But we also know it will be a time of judgment, and the days of grace will be ended -- that like for Noah and his family, when they were safely in the ark, God "shut the door." It is a fearful thought.
Habakkuk knows God is going to keep His promises. And believing that, he knew that he could trust God to bring judgment in His own good time.
Verses 17-19 is one of the greatest reflections of personal faith in the Bible.
Earlier he had complained that God was allowing the Babylonians to inflict grave damage on his people. Now he says that no matter what happens--even if there is total crop failure and destruction of the herd and flocks -- even if they face starvation and slavery -- even so he will rejoice in His God!
He knew, as did all the other prophets, that God could give all things in abundance. He knew the promises of the Torah-- that it was God who blessed His people with the abundant produce of the fields (Deuteronomy 8:7-10; 28:2-14).
That all happened. Just as God promised. But the rest of the story reveals that God's people did not keep their commitment. And the result of their disobedience would be:
However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country
Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed
The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops
-- Deuteronomy 28:13-18
Habakkuk was saying, as we, too, are able to say, that even though God chooses to withhold what He can provide, yet he will still trust in Him.
Habakkuk trusted in the Giver Himself, not in the gifts.
A popular song these days says, "When you don't understand, when you can't see His plan, when you can't trace His hand....trust His heart."
And that's what Habakkuk had learned.
Job would also say it: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord." (Job 1:21)
God had become the supreme reality of his life and fellowship with Him was all that really mattered.
Habakkuk had learned what it meant: the just shall live by faith.
The final verse (19) reflects a note of security and strength. The prophet could exalt in God because the Lord was his strength.
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to go on the heights.
These words can easily be compared to David's song of trust in 2 Samuel 22
where David is praising God for delivering him from the hands of his enemies. (These phases are also repeated in Psalm 18 and we are told David sang them...)
It is God who arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like those of a deer;
he enables me to stand on the heights.
You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do
not turn. 2 Samuel 22:33-34, 37
Have you ever heard of a deer slipping and falling down a precipice?
Being "on the heights" was synonymous with "spiritual safety and vitality"
then and is today.
Jerusalem was in the foothills and Hebrews always went "up to Jerusalem" no matter where they lived in that country -- north, south, east or west of Jerusalem, they always went up to Zion.
The psalmist wrote "I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help
come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip...(Psalm 121).
Habakkuk would have known that psalm--perhaps he played and sang it in worship services. Perhaps he was thinking of its words when he wrote his psalm (chapter 3).
And there are dozens, likely hundreds, of other examples in Scripture describing how being up in the heights was being safely closer to God.
When I was growing up we had a chorus we loved to sing (we called youth songs 'choruses' in those days):
He lifted me out of the deep mirey clay
He planted my feet on the strait narrow way
He lifted me up to a heavenly place
And now floods my soul each day with His grace!
There are so many ways we try to protect ourselves. All sorts of insurance: fire, theft, "acts of God." Famous surgeons sometimes have their hands insured. Betty Grable even had her legs insured!
We put our money in insured accounts. We try to cover every problem that might arise.
Habakkuk did not buy crop insurance. He did not have food stamps.
He did not put gold coins away for safe keeping. He didn't make a "bomb shelter" and stock it with food and medical supplies in case the "big one" is dropped on him.
None of these acts are bad or reflect disobedience. The Israelites did store grain for future needs and they prepared for protection from enemies. But there are some calamities that we can't prepare for -- sometimes we just can't take the "scary" out of life!
And for times like that Habakkuk had learned that the just shall live by faith....Have we learned that most-important life-lesson?
What makes these final verses of Habakkuk's psalm so forceful? What makes their timeless thoughts appeal to every generation? Their poetic beauty?
Yes, but more. I think it is because we see a courageous man face the future-a future he knew would bring a horrific disaster for himself, for his family and friends, and also for his enemies.
I think it is because we see a courageous man who has learned to take all of life, the good and the bad, "as from a Father's hand."
He embraces all of life, even the calamities certain to come, knowing God's plan is at work.
How can he do this? Because the just shall live by faith. That is all we need to know -- in fact, that is all we can really know for sure. Everything that comes to us comes from the hand of an all-powerful, holy God who loves us with a greater love than we can even imagine.
It's too bad we don't always live that way ourselves. Worrying is a preoccupation of most of us. We fret continually about the "what ifs" and the "supposings" in life.
Many of us, when we come to faith in Christ, begin to realize we shouldn't worry as much. So we try to deal with "worry" by denying it, or pushing it away. Or we put on a "happy face" and tell everyone we are "fine!"
Because we know that to worry and fret is not honoring to God - in fact, it is disobedience (and that means it is sin.)
When a fearful thought comes into our minds, we try to smother it, bury it.
But Habakkuk does more. And his is the better way.
James Montgomery Boice has this to say about trying to smother or ignore our worries:
It is good advice from a worldly point of view....but not as good as Habakkuk's procedure. When the "supposings" came knocking at his door, Habakkuk did not slam the door and bolt it. He opened the door and cried "Come in!"
Suppose the fig tree does not bud....
Suppose there are no grapes on the vine...
Suppose the olive crop fails...
Suppose the fields produce no food....
Suppose there are no sheep in the pen?
Suppose there are no cattle in the stalls?
'Come in! Come in!' cried Habakkuk. He did not fear the"supposing,"
because One greater was with him. That greater One was the Lord.
He was Habakkuk's own personal Savior (see verse 18). He was the
One who would give him the strength needed to stand even the most
threatening times." James Montgomery Boice, The Minor Prophets.
When we, like Habakkuk, cry "Come in! Come in!" we are more than mere survivors. We are conquerors! We are triumphant children of God.
And that is where our true faith is displayed. Not just receiving each day, each trial, each problem and calamity, as a gift from God, but embracing each moment - eagerly taking the challenges and facing them with Him, knowing we are never expected to handle them alone.
And that's how Habakkuk's way is better.
Help me then, in every tribulation,
So to trust thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith's sweet consolation
Offered me within the holy Word.
Help me then, when toil and trouble meeting,
E'er to take, as from a father's hand
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised Land.
---Day by Day, Caroline V. Sandell-Berg
Trials and troubles, heartache, disappointment - the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune -- we don't wait for Him to place them on our shoulders, we reach out and take them from His loving hands.
LESSON 17A
These last verses of Habakkuk contains some of the most moving verses in all the Bible.
On at least one occasion Chapter 3 was used by Benjamin Franklin, who was not a Christian, but was a great admirer of Christian values and the Scriptures, to confound his atheistic and deist friends and associates in France.
While serving in Paris as U. S Ambassador, he made the acquaintance of many French leaders and intellectuals who, in the spirit of the age in that culture, were avowed atheists and deists. They knew he was a great lover of the Old and New Testaments, as was Thomas Jefferson, and they enjoyed teasing him and mocking him for his reading of the Bible.
He decided to find out just how well they knew what was recorded in the Bible. He joined them one evening with a manuscript he said he had found. It was an ancient poem, he said, he had been reading and thought they might enjoy it, too.
He began reading chapter 3 of Habakkuk, one of his favorite passages. He told them he had been impressed with its beauty and asked them for comments.
We can imagine this elderly statesman, peering through his glasses (he invented bifocals) adjusting the lamp light and gravely reading the manscript he had carefully copied from his Bible.
Even as he was finishing up the final verses, they began to express their pleasure at the beauty and majesty of the poetry. They demanded to know where he got it. Could they have copies? They were astonished when he revealed that he was reading from the Bible, the book they so mocked and scorned.
The intellectuals that formed the French elite society (they were called the philosophes) championed the downfall of Christianity. Voltaire himself predicted that within a hundred years of his death (which occurred in 1778) there would be no more churches and no more Bibles, except perhaps a few reference copies in lilbraries or museums.
At the end of 100 years the home where he lived was being used as a printing shop to print Bibles and his beloved city of Paris had become a major site for worldwide Bible distribution and for a headquarters of the American Bible Society.
LESSON 17B
Thoughts from Charles H. Spurgeon
As they laid Him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene...and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Luke 23:26
We see in Simon's carrying the cross a picture of our work throughout the generations...the cross-bearers after Jesus.
Notice, Christian, that Jesus does not suffer to prevent your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you might escape it, but that you might endure it.
Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer....and remember, though Simon had to bear the cross for a little while at most, it gave him lasting honor.
Even so, the cross we carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown, the glory.
Surely we should love the cross, and instead of shrinking from it, we should count it very dear, for it works out for us a weight of glory beyond all comparison.
FUN PROJECTS FOR LESSON 17
1. Fill in the blanks:
Though the _______ _______does not________and there are no _______
on the________, though the olive crop __________, and the _________
produce no _________, though there are no___________ in the_______
and no___________ in the_________, yet I will ____________in
the________, I will be ___________ in God my___________.
2. Look at Psalm 71:14-24. Notice how the poet's words reflect Habakkuk's "revised view" after he has encountered God. See verse 15...My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, even though_______________________________. What does that last phrase mean?
3. Read Deuteronomy 11:13-15 and note God's promises. Then read verses 16-17 and note what disobedience would cause. Reflect on Habakkuk's words in Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 17.
4. Read Psalm 18:32-36 and compare to Habakkuk 3:19. Then look at verse 19 of Psalm 18. Why did David say God rescued him from his enemies?
5. Read Isaiah 38: 10-22. Hezekiah writes these words after recovering from a near-fatal illness.
How did Hezekiah "embrace" God's work in his life? (verse 17). What did he realize was God's intention all along?
How was his life changed? (verse 15)
