The Reason for Hope

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.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Yesterday, we looked at the simple fact that, no matter what happens to us or what is going on around us, we can and should be rejoicing in the Lord.  Today, we will look at the last verse of the book of Habakkuk and see why we should be rejoicing, no matter what comes our way.

We will rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of our salvation because “the Lord God is my strength…”  We we are weak and when everything around us is failing, we can take solace in the fact that the Lord is our strength.  We can be encouraged by that every day.

It also says that “…and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.”  I live in an area that has quite a few deer, and they are incredibly graceful animals.  To have “feet like the hinds’ feet” would be quite a thing.  But that is what the Lord can do for us (maybe not physically, but certainly spiritually).  He can also make us to “walk upon mine high places.”  Even when we feel like we are walking through a valley, the simple fact that the Lord is with us is enough to make us “walk upon high places.”  When you think about the difference that the Lord makes in a person’s life, you can see that the lowest, darkest valley for a Christian is better than the highest mountain top for the person who doesn’t know the Lord.

We certainly have a reason to rejoice!

A Prayer for Today, Part 2

A Prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.  O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

Habakkuk 3:1-2

We looked yesterday at what a great prayer this is.  It was a great prayer for the nation of Israel over two thousand years ago when Habakkuk first prayed it, and it is  a great prayer for our nations today was we pray it.  There are timeless truths in this prayer.

We need to be praying for revival.  Our nation, and many others, desperately need a revival.  We need to Lord to send one and we need to be praying toward that end.  However, just the fact that our society is so sinful does not automatically guarantee that we will have revival.  I think we would agree that our society is very deserving of judgment.  As a nation, we have rejected God and His Word, and have tried to follow after man’s wisdom.  We deserve God’s wrath.  That is why I like the end of the verse:

“In wrath remember mercy.”  I have prayed that prayer many times myself.  I have done things that I know have displeased the Lord.  I know that I deserve His chastening hand on my life.  And, crying out to God, I have asked Him to “in wrath remember mercy.”  I think that we could pray that prayer for our world today.  Our world deserves God’s wrath.  But we could (and should) ask Him to remember mercy.  We have no reason to ask for a revival apart from the great mercy and longsuffering of God.  God could destroy our nation and would be right in doing so.  But we can still ask for mercy.

I am ever thankful for a God, Who, in wrath, will remember mercy.

A Prayer For Today, Part 1

A Prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.  O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

Habakkuk 3:1-2

This is a prayer that was prayed by the prophet Habakkuk well over two thousand years ago.  But when you read the words, Habakkuk could be standing before us today and praying the same prayer.  It is truly and prayer for today and it is one of the many examples of the Bible being a timeless book.  This is a prayer for all people and all ages, but it does seem especially pertinent for today’s world.

“O LORD, I have head thy speech, and was afraid.”  When we look at what all the Bible says about evil, wickedness, and sin and what it says about the punishments for those things, we can’t help but be a little afraid for our nation.  We can look around every day and see that sin is rampant.  We can see the name of God being mocked daily.  Judgment will come, and thinking about these things will cause us, like the prophet, to fear.

“O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years.”  That is what we should be praying for today.  We want the Lord to send a revival to our land.  We need revival.  It seems like our land is becoming spiritually barren.  In the midst of these years we need the Lord to send a revival.  As the Psalmist said, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”  We need a revival and the Lord is the only One Who can send it.

The sinfulness of our society gives us reason to be afraid, but the mercy of our God gives us reason to ask Him to send us a revival.  This is a prayer that we need to be praying!

Yet Will I Rejoice

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.

Habakkuk 3:17-18

These verses give us the ideal attitude that every one of us, as Christians, should have.  Habakkuk, after three chapter of prophesying judgment and asking the Lord to have mercy on Israel, ends with these words.

He basically says that, no matter what happens, good or bad, he is going to just continue to rejoice in the Lord.  In verse 17, absolutely nothing is going right.  The trees don’t blossom or produce fruit, the fields don’t produce any grain, the sheep and cattle both fail, and there is no food.  That is a bleak situation.  If we have to miss a meal for some reason or if our steak isn’t done just right, we often feel like the world is caving in.  But even in the worst possible situation, Habakkuk says that he will “rejoice in the Lord” and that he will “joy in the God of my salvation.”

Even though we may never be actually faced with starvation after all of our food sources fail, we can use these verses every single day.  Things around us might look bleak: we, or loved ones, are sick; we have lost a job, we are having trouble with one thing or another.  But no matter what the situation, we, too can “rejoice in the Lord.  We, too, can “joy in the God of our salvation.”

If there is nothing else in the world to rejoice in or be thankful for, surely we can be thankful that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and brought us salvation.  When we think of it in those terms, suddenly, our problems don’t seem quite so bad.  Suddenly, even in the midst of trials and troubles, we can find ourselves rejoicing in the Lord!

Enticing Others to Sin

Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!  Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’s right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.

Habakkuk 2:15-16

It is bad enough when we stumble and fail and sin.  It is even worse when we are the cause of someone else sinning.  The Bible has many warnings against enticing others to sin.  We should not be sinning ourselves, but we should most definitely not be dragging others down with us.

Proverbs 1:10 tells us “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.”  If others try to entice us to sin, we are supposed to reject them and get away from them.  But think about how terrible it would be if we were the one enticing someone else to sin!  As Habakkuk says, “Woe unto him…”

When we sin, it is part of our human fleshly nature to want to get others to sin with us.  When we are sinning, we want to find someone else who is doing the same thing or doing something worse to make us feel better about ourselves.  Sin and rebellion aren’t as “fun” alone.  We want accomplices.  That is just part of our nature.  But it is part of our wicked, sinful, fallen nature that needs to crucified daily!

First of all, let us (with the help of the Holy Spirit) strive against sin in our own lives.  And second, let us never be the cause of someone else’s sin.  Let us remember this “Woe to him…”

A Wonderful World

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:14

The world described here is a great one.  Imagine what a wonderful world it would be if this was our world now.  It will be this world some day, but definitely not today.  But think about how great it will be to live in a world that is “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD.”  It will be filled so much with that knowledge that it will be “as the waters cover the sea.”

Imagine the knowledge of the glory of the LORD filling the earth to that extent.  When we think about the glory of the Lord and have the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, it causes us to act and think differently.  When we really see the glory of the Lord, we will not be so focused on ourselves.  When we behold His glory, we will see how truly sinful we are, and how much we desperately need Him.  We we continue to dwell on His glory, earthly pleasures and sinful, fleshly lusts begin to dim and fall away.  When we see His glory, we are able to better focus on the lives that we should be living for Him.

There is coming a day when this verse will be fulfilled literally.  The earth will be literally filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.  But, until that day comes, we can have that wonderful world in our own lives.  We can today have a knowledge of the glory of the Lord.  We can today walk in that knowledge and meditate upon it.  We can today look upon His glory and allow it to draw us closer to Him.  Are we?

If Walls Could Talk

Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.  For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.  Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity.

Habakkuk 2:10-12

When I read these verses, I couldn’t help but think of the old saying “if only walls could talk.”  That is an interesting thought.  What if walls could talk?  I was tearing down the ceiling in one of the rooms in my house the other day, and I found a receipt from JC Penneys from 1961.  I also found a 1963 dime.  It was interesting to think about what this person had bought at Penneys over 50 years ago and where that dime had come from.  If walls could talk, I’m sure they would have some interesting stories.

In these verses, we are told that walls will talk: “the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.”  In these verses, the walls and beams will testify against the people.  “Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood…”  My question for today is this: what would our walls say about us?

Our walls “see” things no one else sees.  They witness our successes and our failures.  What would they say if they were asked about us?  Would our private life match our public confession or would we be seen as pretending hypocrites?  That is a tough question.  How much “secret sin” have our walls witnessed?  How much “secret prayer” have they witnessed?  What would they say?  How do we really live?  Let us strive to live our lives for the Lord, both publicly and privately, and give our walls something good to talk about!

Read and Run

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.  And, the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Habakkuk 2:1-2

In the first verse, Habakkuk says that he is going to really pay attention to what the Lord is going to say to Him.  He is going to, as the saying goes, “sit up and pay attention.”  In the second verse, we find out what the Lord has said to him.

He says “write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”  Write this down.  And make it plain.  I think that the phrase “that he may run that readeth it” has to do with confidence.  The New Testament likens the Christian life to running a race in a couple of different places.  You can’t run the race with no confidence.  If are constantly wondering where you are going and are not sure what the rules of the race are, you are not going to run a good race.  You are going to be hesitant and you will likely stumble more than once.  But if you have confidence, you can “keep your eyes on the prize.  You can focus on the goal of the race.

That is what the Bible does for us.  God wrote down His Words for us that we might know “the certainty of the words of truth…” (Proverbs  22:21)  When we have that certainty, we can run with confidence.  That is why it is vitally important to read and study the Bible.  We can know what God’s will for us is.  We can know exactly what He expects from us.  We can know exactly what He has done and will do for us.  We can run the race He has set before us.

We need to get in the Bible, read what it says, and run forward for Him!

Sitting Up and Paying Attention

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Habakkuk 2:1

I like this verse because it shows the proper attitude that we should have toward the Lord and toward whatever it might be that He will say to us.  The prophet says that he will “stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch what he will say unto me.”  He is, to use the language of a teacher, going to sit up and pay attention to what the Lord has to say.

I teach quite a few classes, and usually don’t have too much trouble determining who is paying attention and who is not paying attention.  I have also found that paying attention is mostly an attitude.  When you want to learn something or when you care about what is being said, you will make a serious effort to hear and learn.  You will pay attention.  On the other hand, if you don’t care about something and don’t care about learning anything, then you will probably not put forth much effort to stay focused.  You will not pay attention.

How well do we pay attention when the Lord reproves us?  That is what the prophet says here in this verse.  He is going to pay attention when he “is reproved.”  He wants to know what he has done wrong and he wants to know how to get it right.  That is the attitude that every one of us should have.  If we are doing something wrong, we should want to know it and we should want to get it right.  When the Lord has a controversy with us or with something that we are doing, do we try to justify ourselves, do we try to ignore Him, or do we sit up and pay attention?

 

One Verse, Many Lessons

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he.

Habakkuk 1:13

This verse contains several things for us to think about and meditate on.  First, God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”  That should be a convicting thought to us as Christians.  When we sin and disobey the Lord, God can not even look at that.  God to too pure to look upon that.  That alone should give us an even greater desire to shun and avoid sin.  Think of Jesus on the cross, where He became sin for us.  God the Father was forced to turn His back on His own Son because He can not behold iniquity.  Jesus exclaimed there on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.”  The thought that Jesus went through that for us should humble us and make us even more grateful for what He did for us.

The prophet then asks why, while God can not look on iniquity, He would not destroy those wicked people who do wrong.  Of course the answer to that is the fact that God is merciful and longsuffering.  Far after we may have written someone off as being wicked and beyond hope, God is still extending to them His offer of salvation.

We then get another glimpse into human nature.  We see the wicked man who “devoureth the man that is more righteous than he.”  Isn’t that classic human nature?  When we someone “more righteous than we are,” isn’t our natural reaction to try to pick and find some fault with them?  It’s always easier to tear someone else down than it is to build ourselves up.

There are a lot of good lessons in this verse for us; I have only mentioned a few.  It would be a good one on which to meditate.