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That He Who Runs May Read (Habakkuk #3)

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Introduction

God is good and God is sovereign, and in addition we must never forget that He is good all the time, and sovereign all the time. In our passage this morning, we begin with a staggering display of His sovereignty, and the passage ends with Habakkuk able to rest in His goodness.

The Text

“. . . Although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, And he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, And he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments” (Hab. 3:1–19).

Outline of the Book

Remember the overall structure. Habakkuk complains about injustice in Judah (1:2-4). God answers by promising the invading armies of Babylon (1:5-11). Habakkuk says that this is no improvement (1:12-17). God tells him to wait. Wait. The just shall live by faith (2:1-5). God then gives an answer to the second complaint (2:6-20). The great force of Jehovah’s army contrasts with the army of Babylon (3:1-15). Habakkuk finally resolves his dilemma (3:16-19).

Summary of the Text

The prayer of Habakkuk is offered up (v. 1). He prays that God would finish what He had begun (v. 2). Revive your work. In wrath remember mercy. Teman and Paran were near Mt. Sinai, and this appears to be the import here—God came from Teman, and His glory was great (v. 3). God manifested His power, and even while holding it back, brightness suffused all, and horns came out of His hand (v. 4). Calvin calls the pestilence and burning coals “God’s officers.” This is likely referring to the deliverance out of Egypt (v. 5). God measures the earth, divides the nations, scatters the mountains and the everlasting hills bow low (v. 6). His ways are everlasting. The Jews are to be encouraged by remembering the great victories over Cushan and Midian (v. 7).

When God dried up the Jordan so Israel could cross over, was He angry with the river? Or was He delivering His people (v. 8)? God pulls out His bow, and again, this is for the deliverance of His people (v. 9). Mountains are afraid of the armies of Jehovah (v. 10). When God’s glittering spears went by, the sun and moon stood still (v. 11). God went through the land, and He threshed the heathen in His anger (v. 12). God went out in His strength in order to save His people, and to do so with His Christ (v. 13). He captured all the regional towns, even though the unbelievers came out like a whirlwind (v. 14). God went through the Red Sea with His horses; the waters were gathered in a heap (v. 15). And the next phrase brings us to a strange fusion—the prophet is overwhelmed with an abject fear, and with the kind of fear which is the strongest possible foundation for a great hope (v. 16).

And so Habakkuk comes at the last to his hope. Even though everything seems lost and gone (v. 17), yet he will rejoice in the God of his salvation (v. 18). God the Lord is his strength, and He will make us walk in the high places (v. 19).

As Scriptures Describe It

As the just live by faith, they are called upon to wait. What are they to do while they wait? They are to see? And what should they see? They should see with their mind’s eye, with their imagination, the majesty of God as Scripture describes Him.

Picture the fist of God holding a bright fury that looks like lightning, and radiates everything. The ends of whatever it is come out and bend around like horns. The armies of Jehovah march by and the Grand Tetons flinch. The light glints off the tips of these millions of spears, and the sun and moon stand agape.

The right kind of poetic imagination is in fact the fear of God.

Our God is Able

When the three Israelite captives are threatened with the furnace in the book of Daniel, they reply that God is able to deliver them. But they also say, regardless of whether God delivers them, they are not going to bow down to the idol in any case (Dan. 3:17-18). God is able to deliver us, but we will serve Him whether He does or not. God is able to deliver us, and we will serve Him while we wait for that deliverance, even when it may appear to us that the deliverance got interrupted on the way.

And so this is the confidence that Habakkuk ends with. We are talking about a complete crop failure, which means that we would have no way to sustain ourselves. Though the fig does not blossom. Though the vines bear no fruit. Though the olive trees do not produce. Though the fields produce nothing. Though the flocks do not return to the fold. Though the stalls in the barns are clean and empty. Though we look around us, and see nothing but bare wasteland in every direction. What?

Habakkuk says that he will rejoice in the Lord. He says he will joy in the God of his salvation. Notice that he is not rejoicing in what his eyes can see because all he can see with his eyes is miserable ruin. He trusts in God and, more than this, he rejoices—not in what God has done, but in what God will do. And what will God—his strength—do? He will make the believer’s feet like a deer’s feet on high places.

The wasteland is below. Christ is our high place, and we have been set securely there. It doesn’t matter what failures are going on down below. What matters is what is happening where God has placed us. And God has placed us on Christ.

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That He Who Runs May Read (Habakkuk #2)

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Introduction

Our God is a consuming fire, and when He comes in judgment there will be no mistaking it. Habakkuk was already quite convinced that Babylon was sowing iniquity. The word of the Lord comes to him and shows that Babylon will therefore reap the same crop that they planted. God is not mocked.

The Text

“. . . But the Lord is in his holy temple: Let all the earth keep silence before him” (Hab. 2:6-20).

Outline of the Book

Remember the structure of the book. First is Habakkuk’s first complaint about injustice in the land(1:2-4). Then he finds out that the armies of Babylon are the answer (1:5-11). Habakkuk says that this is even worse (1:12-17). But wait, God says. The just shall live by faith (2:1-5). God then answers Habakkuk’s second complaint, which is our text today (2:6-20). The army of Jehovah’s army contrasts with the army of Babylon (3:1-15). Habakkuk finally resolves his dilemma (3:16-19).

Summary of the Text

So remember that this portion of the book is God’s reply to Habakkuk’s second complaint, which was that Babylon was worse than Judah. But Babylon, having come to the end of a long career of grasping piracy, will come to the end of himself. And all his previous victims, who had been heaped up together, will then turn around and taunt him (v. 6). Your vast wealth is going to stick to your boots like thick wet clay. Those the Babylonians had ruled would rise up suddenly, surprisingly, and bite them back (v. 7). Babylon the violent plunderer would soon be plundered (v. 8). Woe to the one who would build his house by gathering in the ruin of his house (v. 9). And woe if he thinks that this grand wealth will serve him as a fortress (v. 9).

When Babylon was on the march, gathering glory, God was seeing to it that they were actually gathering shame—shame for their own house (v. 10). As they troubled everyone, they were actually bringing trouble against their own souls (v. 10).

And then the prophet shifts his voice. Babylon’s victims are no longer taunting it, but now the very buildings they have erected have taken up the woe. The stones in their wall will cry out, and the beams of timber they have set will answer in an antiphonal chorus (v. 11). The buildings built with blood will pronounce a woe on the one who builds with blood, who establishes a city through iniquity (v. 12). The Lord of hosts will see to it that building with wood, hay and stubble will be conducted in the midst of the fire (v. 13).

The manifest destruction of Babylon will result in the knowledge of the glory of God filling the earth (v. 14). This same image is used by Isaiah to speak of the kingdom of Christ (Is. 11:9), and for the one who has the eyes of faith, this is all of a piece—it is a long sustained narrative.

Babylon, drunk on greed and covetousness, will recruit neighboring princes and kings, to their humiliation and shame (v. 15). But as Babylon was the cup-bearer to these others, to their shame, so the Lord will become the cup-bearer to Babylon, but this time in judgment, and Babylon will vomit on its own glory (v. 16). The violence of Babylon will recoil on them—from Lebanon and environs, and all for their bloodthirstiness (v. 17).

Habakkuk concludes by bring the sins of Babylon back to the headwaters, to the gods of Babylon (v. 18). What kind of sense does it make to carve something that you then trust in? An idol is a teacher of lies, and it turns out to be idolaters lying to themselves (v. 18). The artisan makes the thing, and then commands the wood and stone to “arise and teach me.” But, lo, Habakkuk says. They are not breathing. They are dead, and dead quiet.

And so he returns to the worship of the true and living God, the God who speaks. That being the case, we must come to worship, and be silent before Him (v. 20).

Not Just a Defeat of Evil

Jehovah does not just bring evil down in order to create a covenantal vacuum. When Babylon is destroyed, the word of that destruction will go everywhere. And it will be known that God was the one who did it—no one else could bring Babylon low. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth up, the same way that water fills the sea. How much glory will God receive from this? How wet is the Pacific?

But God is intent on doing more than just dethroning tyrants. His intention is to establish the throne of His Christ, His Messiah, and it is expressed in exactly the same way.

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, Which shall stand for an ensign of the people; To it shall the Gentiles seek: And his rest shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:9–10).

The God Who Speaks

The Lord is in His holy temple. We saw in the verses just before this that idols carved out of inert matter are dead. They are deaf, dumb and blind. And they are dead. They have no breath in them. They cannot speak a word. This is one of the reasons why men love to carve such gods, and why they pray to icons. Icons don’t talk back, which means they don’t rebuke or admonish. They only thing they teach, and this by implication, are lies (v. 18). And so when idols are not animated by demons (1 Cor. 10:21), they are like ventriloquist puppets for the idolaters. This is how idolaters encourage themselves.

The idols are already silent, but the idolaters need to become silent. And why? Because the Lord is in His holy temple. We must be silent because we worship a God who is not silent. He is the God who sent His Son, the Word. He gave us a book full of holy words. Bow your head, and listen to the holy God who speaks. And what He speaks is Christ.

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Gratitude in the Lowlands

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Introduction

      C.S. Lewis once made a vivid observation that grumblers are on a path to becoming just a grumble: “[Hell] begins with a grumbling mood and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticizing it. And yourself, in a dark hour, may will that mood, embrace it. Ye can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood, just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.”

The Text

“I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, In the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD” (Psalm 116).

Summary of the Text

       This is a passover Psalm, likely composed by David, and was a regular fixture of that celebration. It opens with a declaration of love, firm footing for any expression of praise to the Lord. But this ain’t vague sentimentality. Rather, He loves God because God heard him (v1). His statement “I will call upon the Lord (cf. vs. 2b, 4a, 13b, 17b)” forms the spine of this hymn. God’s past kindness in inclining His ear to David stirs him up to make calling upon God his continual habit (v2). He had faced a recent trouble––death hunting him down (v3)––and we see his response: calling unto God for deliverance (v4). God’s grace and righteousness is the basis for David’s confidence in this request (v5), along with the reality that God doesn’t deliver on the grounds of the recipient’s merit, social status, or book-smarts (v6).

       This reality brings rest, because God has blessed him bountifully in this undeserved deliverance from death (vs 7-8); but it also compels him to “walk before the Lord” (v9). Faith isn’t an anesthetic to his emotion; rather it allowed him to look affliction in the face, and call it what it is (v10). This also helps him see his temptations to sin against his neighbor (v11).

       All this leads to a question of how to properly thank the Lord (v12). What should I give Him? I should take from Him. The cup of salvation is received, and God is once more called upon (v13). Furthermore, reviewing God’s deliverance elicits a response of tangible gratitude. The thanksgiving overflows in obedient execution of vows (v14, 18), humbly recognizing that being spared death was a precious gift from the Lord (v15). In other words, salvation compels service; deliverance from bondage binds us to obedience (v16). The sacrifice which a loving, faith-filled heart gives is thanksgiving––public obedience––in the midst of God’s people (vs17-19).

Black Swan Deliverance

       While this is a very “first person” psalm, it isn’t a psalm of individualism. Remember that this is a passover hymn. The psalmist sees in that mighty, miraculous deliverance of God’s people a source of hope for his present difficulty. David draws hope from God’s past faithfulness to His people, to buoy his hope that God would perform another miraculous exodus for him. In essence, he sings about his present trial, while putting himself in remembrance of God’s mighty works of old.

       God’s deliverance is always undeserved, and we see this in a few spots in this passage. As Spurgeon observed, the grace and mercy are a bejeweled sheath for the blade of justice (cf. vs5). David had seen many perish, and knew that God sparing his life was a precious gift, not to be taken for granted.

       We also see that the Lord’s preservation of the simple is not the way corrupt systems of human justice works. There often  seems to be one law for D.C. elites and Hollywood stars, and another set of laws for us simple folk. But God isn’t a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), and he delivers whom He will regardless of their wealth, influence, power, prestige, or IQ. God saves those who call to Him in faith. As David says in another Psalm, “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. (Ps. 34:6).” And He continues to save them through “many dangers, toils, and snares.”

Gratitude and Duty

       But the deliverance is intended to lead us to love and thanksgiving. The sacrifices of Israel were always supposed to elicit gratitude from God’s people. They were both an expression and a reminder of the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise which we owe to God. The sin offerings reminded the saint that the throat which should be slit was theirs, but instead, God graciously accepted the lamb in their stead. But this gratitude and faithful thanksgiving, wasn’t to be empty words. It is dutiful work. Notice the order of this psalm: love leading to loyalty, faith catalyzing good works.

       How do you repay God for His salvation? You receive once more from Him a heart of thanksgiving, regardless of your circumstances. What does God want from you? He wants you to get more of Him and from Him. He wants you to overflow with praise. Praise for His blessings: life itself, rest, bounty, and all the other blessings. But also praise in the pit. Thanksgiving in all circumstances, for all circumstances.

       Faith-filled hearts of gratitude don’t just thank God for keeping us safe during the flood, it thanks Him for the flood. Because the flood is what gave us another opportunity to call upon Him, look unto Him, and trust ourselves to Him alone.

Grumble or Gratitude

       The grumbler wants to mutter and whine about everything, as he plods down the path to hell. He thinks he knows what his circumstances should be. He thinks a nice, comfortable life is his by right. He wants to pour his own cup, with his own choice of wine.

       But the grateful heart knows that whether in blessed or burdensome times, whether on the mountain or in the low-lands, God delivers His people from all their troubles. The grateful pray to God about their problems. The grumbler prays to himself.

       Drink the cup which God set before you. Trust that in it, you will taste that Christ has already drank the cup of God’s wrath, that you might drink the cup of God’s blessing. So don’t fear your trials, even the final trial of death. God’s deliverance is always a resurrection from the dead. For in Christ, even death has lost its sting (1 Cor. 15:55).

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That He Who Runs May Read (Habakkuk #1)

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Introduction

God governs the world with inscrutable and holy wisdom. We know that He is holy, but part of the reason why it is so inscrutable is because He uses so much unholiness to accomplish His holy ends. This was the central dilemma that Habakkuk faced. And the lesson he learns is that waiting for deliverance is one of God’s central instruments that He uses to prepare us for glory.

The Text

“The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.  O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you . . .” (Hab. 1:1-2:5).

Outline of the Book

The book of Habakkuk is structured in a seven-part chiasm. Although we won’t get to all of this today, you should have this map in your minds to keep you oriented. The text today will take us halfway through the book, and to the central hinge of the chiasm.

A Habakkuk’s first complaint has to do with how long he has to wait for the justice of God (1:2-4);
B When then have Jehovah’s first answer—He will bring in the great armies of Babylon to deal with the corruptions of Judah (1:5-11);
C Habakkuk says that this is even worse. The Babylonians are worse than Judah ever thought of being (1:12-17);
D Wait, God says. He will punish the wicked, and the just shall live by faith in the meantime (2:1-5);
C’ God answers the second complaint, and we read about the woes that befall the wicked (2:6-20);
B’ Jehovah’s army is the answer to the army of Babylon (3:1-15);
A’ Habakkuk finally resolves his dilemma, and determines to wait on the Lord regardless (3:16-19).

Summary of the Text

Prophecies are often called “burdens,” and this is certainly what Habakkuk had (v. 1). Why does God delay in hearing the prophet’s cry (v. 2)? Why does God show Habakkuk corruption if He is not going to do anything about it (v. 3)? Wrongdoers prevail (v. 4).

And so the answer comes. Jehovah will make a short and wondrous work of it (v. 5). He will raise up the Chaldeans, and they will sweep in as a judgment (v. 6). Their arrival will be dreadful (v. 7). Their armed might is terrible, and they bring in true fear (v. 8). They will come in violence and devour everything (v. 9). Kings and princes are nothing to them (v. 10). They attribute their prowess to their own false god (v. 11).

Habakkuk hates this. Is not God the God of true and holy judgment (v. 12)? God has holy hands, and so how can He pick up and use such a dirty stick as Babylon (v. 13)? The Babylonians just gather up men like fishermen with a dragnet (vv. 14-15). They worship their own prowess (v. 16), and are the very definition of fat and sassy. God, why do You let them get away with this (v. 17)?

We then come to the heart of the book, from which the apostle Paul takes the phrase the just shall live by faith as his thesis statement for the book of Romans. Habakkuk prepares him for the answer (2:1). The Lord says to him that he needs to make sure to get this down plainly (v. 2). Write it in big enough letters that someone just running by could still read it. Though the judgments of God tarry, wait for them because they will not tarry (v. 3). The haughty are bent, but the just shall live by faith (v. 4). The one under judgment, like Babylon, swells and is swollen (v. 5).

So Wait for It

The book begins with Habbakuk complaining about how long he must wait (1:1). But when God brings him to the point, He says to wait for it (2:3). The book ends with Habakkuk declaring that he will rejoice (as he waits) for God’s salvation (3:18). The book begins with the lament, how long must I wait for God’s salvation. The book ends with the resolve to wait for God’s salvation.

Both Sovereign and Holy

The delay that we chafe under is not because God is trying to gather up His resources. He doesn’t need time to get ready. He is sovereign. Neither is it because He is contemptuous of us—no, He is also holy.

God is always ready to deliver. We are not always ready to be delivered. The waiting is part of His preparation. It is something we need.

“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever” (Exodus 14:13).

And so we see the great salvation of the Lord, the salvation that is the pinnacle of all His typical salvations (in the sense of typology). God loves to work using the same methods, over and over. God loves the cliffhanger. God loves to save His people at the very last moment. The nick of time is the place of His excellence. God is the one who developed “just in time” delivery.

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27–28, ESV).

Christ, your Lord and your Savior, is never late.

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Ruth #7: A Son and Future King

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The Text

“So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. 14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 17 And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, 20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, 22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David”  (Ruth 4:13-22).

The Lord Gives a Son (vs. 13)

The Son as Redeemer (vs. 14-15)

Naomi’s Bitterness Redeemed (vs. 16-17)

Our Future King (vs. 18-22)

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