Habakkuk 3:17- 19
David Ryan
I’ve got a couple of important questions to ask you this morning.
Ready?
1)What kind of faith do you think you have?
2) What kind of faith do you want to have?
I know those are hard questions to answer –
But I think reflecting on them is important.
Our Scripture Today comes from the Old Testament –
The book of Habakkuk.
For a few weeks now, we are in the section of scripture
Known as the minor prophets –
5 books of the Law ( Pentateuch)
12 books of History
5 books of Wisdom
5 Major Prophets
12 Minor Prophets – 39 in all ( 3x9 =27 – 27 NT Books)
The Major Prophets are called Major because of the length of their books –
Not because they are more important.
The Minor Prophets, because they are usually only a few chapters –
But what is in those chapters is significant.
Last week we looked at Nahum –
And his burden for Nineveh –
Focused on seven characteristics of God
That we found in the opening verses.
This morning, we are looking at Habakkuk –
Where Nahum had a burden for Nineveh –
Habakkuk has a burden for the nation of Judah –
He saw that Babylonians were being raised up by God
To come and overtake Judah –
And begin a time of exile for the people of God.
As we read through it, it feels like a lament –
And , well – it is a lament in many ways.
We don’t know much about Habakkuk.
We think that he was born during the time of the godly King Josiah –
During a time of revival among the nation –
But that he was also around after Josiah –
And was seeing spiritual decline happen.
The name Habakkuk means – “One who clings” –
That’s a good name –
Because in the uncertain times in which Habakkuk
Was living, he had to cling–He had to cling to God.
You know I had to laugh at myself using that term –
“Uncertain times”
It seems like ever since COVID hit
We have been using those words to describe our time.
“In these uncertain times” –
But you know – did we ever really live in “certain times”?
Maybe we had a sense of security at one time –
But I think ever since 9/11 we have questioned our security as a nation.
In the recent assignation attempt of former president Trump,
People were asking – how could that have happened?
Don’t we wonder how a lot of things happened?
Our economy goes up and down –
Sometimes there is good news; sometimes, there is bad news.
Jobs that we once though secure can go away
With hardly any notice.
Illness can come upon any one of us at anytime.
We are fine one day
And then the next we are not –
And sometimes the time of suffering seems to go on and on.
Habakkuk cries out in the first verses of chapter 1 –
“How Long, O Lord, must I call for help – and you do not listen”.
Oh doesn’t it feel that way sometimes?
Don’t you wonder sometimes –
Is God even hearing me when I pray
Are there not those times
When it feels like our prayers
Ascend no higher than the ceiling
In the room we are praying in?
Yes…it does FEEL that way sometimes.
We get discouraged
We get tired of waiting.
How long, oh lord, how long?
Later on in the same chapter, Habakkuk asks –
Why are you silent God?
Why aren’t you doing something?
Sometimes it feels that way.
And the emphasis there is on the word “feels”
It feels like God is absent
If feels like God is not listening
It feels like God is silent –
It feels like God is doing nothing.
But I learned long ago
Not to trust in feelings.
Feelings come and go.
Feelings can be right
Feelings can be wrong.
We must learn not to trust in feelings alone –
But to lean in on the facts of our faith.
The facts are –
God is NOT absent.
He is with us whether we feel his presence or if for a time He
Is hidden from us.
God Does listen when we pray.
Truth is sometimes God is silent – but only for a while.
Never is God idle.
God is always at work – even when we can not discern his work.
I KNOW these things to be true.
God has proved himself over and over.
God has always been faithful.
We said it last week –
God is good! All the Time!
All the time, God is good!
God does not change.
If He was faithful to me in the past,
He will be faithful to me now and in the future.
If He was good to me in the past
He will be good to me now and in the future.
If He was able to meet my need in the past
He is able to meet my need now and in the future.
If He was with me in the past,
He is with me now and in the future.
Amen church? Amen!
The first two chapters of Habakkuk
Are this sort of Question and Answer time –
Habakkuk asks a question,
God responds.
In Chapter 3, we find the Prayer of Habakkuk.
The prayer begins with Habakkuk telling the Lord –
I have heard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
And then in the following verses he recounts
Some of those things.
How God Gave the Law to the people at Sini
How he sent the plagues upon the Egyptians to
Win the freedom of his people who were in captivity.
He speaks of times when there have been great earthquakes
And floods
How the sun and moon have stood still –
Times when God’s wrath went out over the enemies of his people.
And back in the beginning of chapter 3
Habakkuk is saying, I remember all these things.
Do it again God!
Bring revival again!
I know it’s a tough time.
I know we have been unfaithful
I know we deserve your wrath –
But Lord, in your wrath,
Remember mercy.
Lord have mercy.
That’s an ancient prayer of the church.
It’s a good prayer for us to pray.
When you don’t know what to pray,
You can pray those three little words –
Lord have mercy.
In Latin, the Church has prayed, Domine Miserere Nobis.
Perhaps you have heard the Greek – “Kyrie Elision”
There are some beautiful Georgian chants
That simply sing those words over and over
Kyrie Elision.
Lord have mercy.
Kyrie Elesion
Lord have mercy.
Oh may that be the cry of our hearts, friends.
To pray.
Remembering all that God has done
Confessing our sin, admitting that we deserve punishment –
Yet trusting in his mercy
Asking for it.
Lord have mercy.
It is perhaps the last part of this power that is most powerful.
I read that Ben Franklin – once used this passage.
Ben Franklin had a great respect for the Bible.
He was once meeting with a group of people
Who talked of their disdain of the scriptures.
When he was in Paris he heard this group mocking the Bible,
and mocking Franklin for his admiration of it.
One evening he came among them and said
that he had a manuscript containing an ancient poem,
that he was quite impressed by the poem and he wanted to read it to them.
When he read Habakkuk 3:17-19, his listeners received it with praise and admiration —
“What a magnificent poem!” they said, and wanted to know where they could get copies.
Franklin told them to just look in Habakkuk Chapter 3.
Habakkuk 3 King James Version (KJV)
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
Here is how Habakkuk ends his prayer:
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…
What he is describing here is a pretty bad situation, right?
In their culture, agriculture was every thing.
Fig trees were important.
In Deuteronomy, the Promised Land is described as a land of "fig trees". During Solomon's reign, living "under one's own vine and fig tree" was a sign of national wealth and prosperity. Figs were also valued for their nutritional properties and because they could be stored and used in many ways. They were like money in the bank!
To have grapes on the vine meant that you were going to be able to produce wine.
Olive oil was used for everything- for cooking, for flavoring, for healing.
A man’s wealth and status could be measured
By how many sheep and cattle he had
Habakkuk was praying –
Saying – even if all these things were taken away
The figs
The grapes
The olive oil
The sheep
The cattle –
All the things that define wealth and status –
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord –
I will be Joyful in God my Savior.
Could we pray the same prayer?
I asked at the start of this sermon –
What kind of faith do we have?
What kind of faith do we want to have?
Sometimes our faith has been dependent on our circumstances.
We will praise God as long as everything is good in our lives.
We will praise God and give him thanks
As long as the perceived blessings are flowing.
As long as we are healthy, we will sing God’s praise.
But what about when things are not so good.
What about when our jobs are dissolved
What about when our bank accounts get near zero
What about when we sick and there seems to be no cure.
What then?
What will our faith be like then?
Will we become doubters in the goodness of God
Will we think that grace has been taken away
Will we turn bitter? Angry with God –
Will was complain – why was so and so healed and not my mother?
Not my Father? Not me.
Will we start saying – why should I praise God – what has God ever done for me?
Is that the kind of faith we want to have?
NO. Not me. I hope not you.
Can we have the kind of faith that says
Even if all my blessings went away.
Even if all I have been taken from me.
Even if I am sick and there is no cure, no hope
For my physical well being….
YET I will rejoice in the Lord.
Yet I will be joyful.
Because my trust never was in the fig tree.
My trust was never in the grapes on the vine
My trust was never in the olive oil.
My trust was in God.
God loves me still.
God is with me still
God is good – all the time
All the time, God is good.
THIS is my Faith.
I trust in God – no matter what my outward circumstances are.
I rejoice in God my savior.
I rejoice because I have been saved!
I rejoice because I am loved.
I rejoice because I have the Holy Spirit living within me
I have joy because I am a child of God!
Every day is a good day.
Not because of how many figs are on the tree.
Not because of the grapes on the vine
Not because of the olives in the Olive press –
But because God knows my name.
God loves me
God is with me
God will see me through!
Yet I will rejoice In the Lord.
I will be joyful in God my savior.
You see, its choice we have friends.
It’s not based on feelings
It’s based on the true facts of faith.
I WILL rejoice!
I WILL be joyful –
Let’s have that kind of faith. Amen.