The Old Testament prophets are often overlooked as we eagerly get excited about the Gospel and the stories of the New Testament church. I have always been a fan of the “little guy” and getting into the overlooked books of the Old Testament, so when I saw a series of sermons on the tiny book of Habakkuk I quick jumped at the chance to download them and readied myself to receive.
Habakkuk 1:13 is a memory verse of mine and I was sure there would be plenty more gems within its verses to be discovered.
He was around at the same time as Jeremiah. Just like Jeremiah Habakkuk witnessed the crookedness and depravity of God’s chosen people and cried out to God saying “Do you see this? Are you going to do anything about it?” Sounds familiar – right? This world is a cruel dark place where the bad guy always seems to win. At times its easy to question what God is doing when we glance around us and all we see is chaos.
God’s reply was maybe not the one Habakkuk was longing for, with God telling him He was going to punish His nation (using another more sinful group of people) because He too had also had enough. God’s ways are far above our ways, we only see the glimmer of our present reality whereas God sees the full and complete picture.
Habakkuk then cries out again – just proving that it is okay to cry out to God - to pour out our hearts and our questions before Him, longing to receive revelation and truth. God replies again, reminding us that He listens and responds. Within God’s reply this verse is found.
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked; but the righteous will live by their faith” (Habakkuk 2:4)
This verse is often quoted in the New Testament (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38) and is proclaiming that we are called to live by faith. If we trusting in ourselves we easily fall into the trap of being self-reliant, becoming proud and self-righteous. This puffs us up, like giant balls of hot air, as we long for things that don’t fit into God’s plan and we trust in our own goodness. Hot air balls are not going to survive forever as all of a sudden they can no longer contain what is within them and they burst.
Habakkuk was able to turn from feelings of doubt and being perplexed to complete faith in who God is and His plans. To have faith is to acknowledge your complete need for God and His goodness as we are unable to do it on our own. It is through faith in Jesus that we can be seen as holy before God - it’s not by our own merits, only by faith.
I think Habakkuk’s song at the end of this dialogue with God spoke to me clearly that I just wanted to stand up and say "Yes - amen to that" Singing is such a loving and expressive way of communication. This song of Habakkuk’s is revealing, emotional and leaves his heart widely exposed as lyrics are woven together to melody. Here is a snippet....
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
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 Saviour.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights. (Hab 3:17-19)
He is saying that even though I may have absolutely nothing I will rise above my circumstances and rejoice in the Lord. Habakkuk asks the Lord to make his feet like those of the nimble deer who can climb to the most difficult peeks, who stands firm and witness the great heights. He longs to see things not with his human eyes but using God’s vision, to love the things He loves and to despise the things He despises. Now that is true faith.
“That’s what faith does. Faith sees the strong hand of God, the promises of God. It sees the provision of God, not the circumstances of life. And it climbs above them. And that’s why Habakkuk can worship God. He trusts him. He trusts him. And he anticipates for him showing up in his day.” (quote from Mark Driscoll)
Now my biggest question to myself is – am I at the same point as Habakkuk? Am I looking and longing for God to show up, or am I filling this void in my life with other distractions and hot air? Just like Habakkuk I begin with being incredible frustrated with what I see in this world. Now it is the daily steps of trusting the Lord, His faithfulness and provision in all circumstances. It’s believing with my full heart that He has my back and is guiding me to see things from a new perspective. Only then can I let out an incredible song of worship to my Lord and completely surrender to him.
Amazing stuff huh. I am still trying to processing all of this. I’m just in awe of how God can speak so beautifully and directly to my heart, even though a minor prophets. I mean Habakkuk had to go through a whole lot rubbishy stuff, seeing his nation going down the toilet and having the revelation revealed to him that it was going to get worst before it got better. Yet in it all Habakkuk could see God's sovereignty, His holiness and faithfulness and can sing a new song. I want God to put songs in my heart like that.
