LORD, I Am Beginning to Understand!

Embracing God's Priorities & Perspective

A Study in the books of Haggai & Habbakkuk

by Pastor Frank Rice

Habakkuk 3:1-19

 

Most believers have passed through times of doubt and confusion, or are passing through them. We try to figure out which way to turn. We try to figure out what God is doing and how we’re supposed to respond. And then the light seems to come on and we begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together; we only begin to understand. It is a process! But how do we effectively proceed through the process? The prophet Habakkuk had struggled with God’s plans for His people which would inevitably and dramatically impact him! It seems that he’s come to the place, not of defeat & resignation, but of resolution & rest!

 

v      The prophet’s final chapter is a summary response to his dialogue with the LORD (v. 1). (It had been a difficult “counseling session!”)

1.      He’d begun by expressing his dissatisfaction with the LORD’s “failure” to judge the wicked in his homeland.

 

2.      He’d listened intently as the LORD shared His plan to use the more wicked Babylonians to punish his own nation.

 

3.      He then expressed his total astonishment that the righteous God would use such a strategy!

 

4.      He then listened as the LORD assured him that this wicked nation would, after He used them, be subjected to punishment.

 

5.      Our present text reveals the prophet’s “bottom-line” response. “God doesn’t reveal Himself to superficial saints who are only looking for ‘a new experience’ they can brag about, or to curious Christians who want to ‘sample’ deeper fellowship with God but not at too great a price.” (Wiersbe)

 

v      The prophet presents his prayer requests (v. 2)!

1.      He stated that he had heard what the LORD had said from beginning to end, and confessed that it terrified him!

 

2.      He asked the LORD to breathe life back into His work in a visible way during his lifetime. He longed for God to work!

 

 

3.      He asked the LORD, in the midst of the coming judgment upon his own people, to be merciful and compassionate. “This is going to hurt, please be kind.”

 

4.      The prophet’s appeal for mercy is “grounded in God’s covenantal commitment to Israel, displayed in the events of the exodus as a whole and sealed at Sinai; it is no wishful or manipulative plea for help grounded merely in the desperation of the moment.” (Armerding)“

 

v      The prophet encountered the One who had rescued His people (vv. 3-8)!

1.      A theophany is a demonstration of God’s presence and power which necessitates pause and reflection (Selah) on the Holy God whom they had encountered in the Mt.Sinai area (v. 3a). “The prophet was well aware of what the LORD had done for Israel in the past.” (Chisholm)

 

2.      His glory and majesty permeated His whole creation (v. 3b)! “The most striking feature of the divine theophany is its physical splendor,.. an outward manifestation of His majesty and power.” (Chisholm)

 

3.      His redemptive power was displayed (but veiled) in the brilliant lightning and in the destructive judgments in Egypt (vv. 4-5)! “His grace and glory are coupled with His might and majesty.” (Blue)

 

4.      His absolute and incomparable sovereignty, stability, strength, and eternality are underscored (v. 6)! (So much of what is written is reminiscent of Psalms.)

 

5.      His fame struck fear and distress in the nations through which He led His chosen people (v. 7)!

 

6.      His anger and fury were not directed at nature; He used nature to further His purposes of judging the wicked (v. 8; Ex 15)!

 

v      The prophet encountered the awesome God who warred against the enemies of His people (vv. 9-13a)! (This is a theophany!)

1.      The LORD is a warrior who commissioned His weapons to destroy those who sought to destroy His people (v. 9)!

 

2.      All nature watched & reacted as He went to war (vv. 10-11)! The scenes are taken from Israel’s “history books.”

 

3.      The anger and indignation of the LORD moved Him to rescue His covenant people (vv. 12-13a)! “Sinai and exodus are not merely events from the past; they demonstrate for all ages God’s sovereign control over both nature and history, all on behalf of His anointed.” (Armerding)

 

v      The prophet encountered the God who had led His people into the land He had promised them (vv. 13b-15).

1.      He’d dealt severely with the wicked ruler of Egypt (v. 13b)!

 

2.      He’d turned the evil plots of would-be ambushers on their own heads as they sought to destroy the helpless travelers (v. 14)!

 

3.      He’d led the parade of His people through the seas (v. 15)! We must rehearse the character of our God if we ever hope to come to the place of complete trust and begin to understand! Recounting the past builds confidence for the future. “Most see the focus on divine interventions of the past as depicting God’s action in the future.” (Barker)

 

4.      “All God’s mighty acts, from dividing the waters at creation, to redeeming His people in the exodus and through the Red Sea, to the theophany at Sinai exist as prototypes for later revelations of God’s   power, culminating in the eschatological manifestation of His reign!” (Armerding) 

 

v      There is a dramatic physical and spiritual reaction (severe anxiety attack?) to the prophet’s encounter with God (v. 16)! He recognizes God’s plan, relies on His character, and is convinced that He knows what He’s doing!

 

v      There is a dramatic confession of unfettered faith (vv. 17-19).

1.      He recognizes the likelihood of losing everything that makes life worthwhile in this world (v. 17)! (How devastating and disastrous!)

 

2.      But he declares his determination to rejoice, not in his circumstances, but in the LORD his God (v. 18)! (Powerful!) “It is the memory of God’s past faithfulness and salvation as illuminated by His Spirit that provides a basis for faith in analogous circumstances.” (Armerding)

 

3.      In the midst of overwhelming evidence of the absence of God’s blessing, he claims God as his strength, his stability, and his victory (v. 19)! (Are you beginning to understand?)

 

The prophet’s circumstances had not changed, but his perspective certainly had!

He submits his song to be sung as a source of encouragement for us!