Habakkuk 3
If we finally understand God’s greatness, if we finally see more of our desperate depravity, if we finally are caught up in the wonder of what Christ has done for us, we will surely live by faith. The more that we live by faith in our actual experience, the more we will pray. It is fitting that the final chapter of this book records the prophet’s prayer and song to God.
He had once sought God for a more aggressive justice against the wicked among the covenant people. Now He has been brought to a different kind of plea: that in His wrath the Lord would remember His great mercy for His people. The prophet has encountered God in a way that we may not fully understand. It is ours to meet the Lord in this prophetic Word, to hear His fearful speech in such away that we know that it is more than just a report about God. It must be a Word from Him. If we hear Him speaking rightly we will be afraid and we will pray.
How could this fear be the experience of those who know that our salvation has surely come to us through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? How could we still be afraid? The fact is that we are still in this place of instruction and discipline. Do we want more trouble here? The way to get it is by ignoring God’s Word. While we cannot understand the Lord’s hand of correction entirely, nor can we fathom the distribution of His acts of discipline comparatively among His children, we should all be able to appreciate that there is much in us that demands correction, and that it is very foolish for a child under his Father’s discipline to continue to ignore the clarity of His Word. We do need God’s mercy for eternity. This we have perfectly in Christ. Yet don’t we also need His mercy in this age now? It will come to us from the same source. Through Christ we will have the provision of mercy and joy that we need to grow in obedience and love. This way is surely the right way for us. To imagine that we don’t need more mercy because the question of our eternity has been solved through our Redeemer is to live in a strange world of make-believe, where the god of that world is easily satisfied with our daily living and not very concerned about our growth in holiness. These assumptions are wrong.
In such a time of trouble as we face, it is important for us to look at the Lord again as He is presented to His people of old through the prophets. It is time for us to look at the real God, at His splendor and His majesty in His coming judgment. Though He veils His power in the works of nature, He is very impressive when He scatters the mountains and creates the valleys. His wrath is displayed upon the stormy seas and impresses the mariners as they cry for help, and even the villages of the coastlands are brought to fear the One who rules over the wind and the waves. The heavens declare His glory as the lightening flashes across the breadth of the skies. His anger against sin and His curse upon the land where the sons of Adam dwell should be known by all men.
The Lord uses His mighty power not in meaningless displays of impressive might like so many tyrants among the nations. He is a God of purpose, and He is patiently and deliberately working out His sovereign will. Within the eternal counsel of the triune Godhead, He is keeping promises that were made before the ages began. We are caught up in those eternal promises because of our union with Jesus Christ. He is the anointed King over His people. He will send His arrows against our enemies at just the right time. We can have no doubt regarding His love, for He Himself took the most devastating arrow of His judgment against us when Jesus died for us.
How can we react to such a great salvation? How can we serve such a mighty and loving God? We quake before Him at the expression of His discipline against us, but our fears are finally calmed by the assurance of His eternal love. Therefore we will patiently wait for Him in the day of tribulation. We can be quiet as a weaned child who trusts that food will come in due time. His vengeance will come against those who trouble us. Our deliverance is not as far away as it may appear.
Therefore, we will trust in the One who has displayed His love so perfectly for us. We will believe in His promises of the fullness of eternal life; ancient promises made long before we were born, even before the creation of the earth. Because of these great promises we will live by faith, though the crops fail, and though the animals die. Though enemies may seem to prosper and though our generations may seem to be cut off, we will worship God through Jesus Christ. And we will rejoice in the Lord always, for He has given us a new strength from above, and we are glad in our holy Redeemer.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 12:00 AM
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