When Wrath Prevails (Habakkuk 3:1-15)

Lots of people will tell you that the key to happiness is

something like this. Live in the moment, stay focused

on the present, don't get sucked into the past, don't worry about

the future. There's some wisdom in that

advice. While I wouldn't say that living

in the present is a sufficient path to happiness, it's

certainly true that being wrongly attached to the past or

the future can rob us of what the present has to offer.

The Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal reflected on these issues

400 years ago, writing We never keep to the present.

We recall the past. We anticipate the future as if

we found it too slow in coming and we're trying to hurry it up.

Or we recall the past as if to stay.

It's too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander

about in times that do not belong to us and do not think of

the one that does. So vain that we dream of times

that are not and blindly flee the only one that is.

The fact is that the present usually hurts.

We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if

we find it enjoyable we are sorry to see it slip away.

We try to give it the support of the future and think how we are

going to arrange things over which we have no control for a

time we can never be sure of reaching.

Let each of us examine his thoughts.

He will find them wholly concerned with the past or the

future. We almost never think of the

present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light

it throws on our plans for the future.

The present is never our end. The past and the present are our

means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but

hope to live. And since we are always planning

how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never

be. So past, present, future.

We long to recall the past. We mentally live in the future,

caught up in our own dreams and designs and plans and schemes.

Why? Because, as Pascal says, the

present usually hurts. This morning we continue our

series in the Old Testament prophetic book of Habakkuk.

We'll cover most of chapter 3, verses 1 to 15.

The prophet Habakkuk knew something about living in a

present that hurts. He's surrounded by a society

that is disintegrating through sin and idolatry.

Injustice is rampant. So he calls out to God to do

something about it. And God promises to raise up the

Babylonians to judge his people, Judah.

But that seems even worse to Habakkuk.

How can God use evil people to judge evil people?

So the Lord reveals to Habakkuk that one day he will judge the

Babylonians and He will deliver his people fully and finally.

Until then, what can the righteous do?

Wait patiently for God to fulfill His promises.

Trust that his plans are good and wise, and they will

eventually come to pass. That is an overview of the book

so far, the first two chapters. Now when we come to Habakkuk 3.

Habakkuk has humbly received God's word.

He has submitted himself to what God has revealed, but he's still

wrestling with the prospect of a painful present.

He is about to suffer the devastation of being invaded by

Babylon. A whole lot of bad stuff is

going to happen to Habakkuk between now and when God

fulfills His promises. A whole lot of bad stuff is

going to happen to all of God's people between now and when God

fulfills all of His promises. So how can Habakkuk handle?

How can we all handle? How can you handle all the bad

stuff that will happen between now and the fulfillment of God's

promises? That's the question our passage

addresses. Please follow along as I read

Habakkuk 3, verses 1 to 15, A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet

Habakkuk 3:1–15

according to Shigyonoth. Oh Lord, I have heard the report

of you and your work. Oh Lord, do I fear.

In the midst of the years, revive it.

In the midst of the years make it known in wrath.

Remember mercy. God came from Teeman, and the

Holy One from Mount Poran Sailor.

His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full

of His praise. His brightness was like the

light. Rays flashed from His hand, and

there He veiled His power. Before him went pestilence, and

plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth.

He looked and shook the nation's.

Then the eternal mountains were scattered.

The everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.

I saw the tents of cushion and affliction.

The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?

Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation

against the sea? When you rode on your horses, on

your chariot of salvation, you stripped the sheath from your

bow, calling for many arrows. Sailor, you split the earth with

rivers. The mountains saw you and

writhed. The raging waters swept on.

The deep gave forth its voice. It lifted its hands on high.

The sun and moon stood still in their place.

At the light of your arrows, as they speed at the flash of your

glittering spear, you marched through the earth in fury.

You threshed the nations in anger.

You went out for the salvation of your people, for the

salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the

House of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.

Sailor you pierced with his own arrows the heads of his

warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,

rejoicing as if to devour the poor.

In secret you trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of

mighty waters. How can you handle all the bad

stuff that will hit you between now and the fulfillment of God's

promises? How can you not only survive,

but spiritually thrive in a painful present?

Here's the point of our passage in one sentence.

Remembering God's past and resting in God's future brings

grace for now. I'll say that again.

Remembering God's past and resting in God's future brings

grace for now. Before we walk through the

details of the passage, I'm going to give a little bit of an

overview exposition to help us get our bearings.

Looking at verse one, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet

according to Shigeon oath. Now the book began in chapter 1,

verse one, the Oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

So even though chapters one to two incorporate Habakkuk's

responses to the Lord and his laments, it's primary content is

the prophetic visions that the Lord revealed in response to

Habakkuk's prayers. Now the rest of the book, all of

chapter 3, is Habakkuk's prayer in response to the Lord's

visions. This marks a change in genre and

a change in tone. It also likely marks a change in

Habakkuk's stance toward the Lord and his revelation.

Habakkuk is done lamenting. He's done wrestling.

Now he's going to pray a prayer of petition and remembrance.

But this is not just a prayer. It's also a song.

Verse one says according to Shigyon oath.

It's hard to know exactly what Shigyon Oath means.

It's a Hebrew word that shows up only twice in the Old Testament,

once here and once in the heading or superscription to

Psalm 7. So all that we can really gather

is that it means it's a song for worship.

All of Habakkuk 3 is not just a prayer, it's a Psalm.

We also see this at the end of verse 19, in a phrase familiar

from the Psalms very last bit of the book to the choirmaster with

stringed instruments. This means that Habakkuk's

prayer is not just something he prayed, it's something all of

God's people were to pray. It's not only something they

were to pray, it's something they were to sing in corporate

worship. In other words, all of Habakkuk

Habakkuk 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 gives us a model of how to respond to God's

revelation, especially when that revelation is troubling or

disturbing. When God announces coming

judgement, when God announces perplexing providences, how

should we respond? We should respond by praying and

singing in ways like Habakkuk does here.

Now the content of Habakkuk's prayer in the sense of petition

is in verse 2. Oh Lord, I have heard the report

of you and your work. Oh Lord, do I fear in the midst

of the years, revive it in the midst of the years, make it

known in wrath. Remember mercy.

We'll come back to this all in more detail later, but for now,

I just want to focus on the phrase in the midst of the years

because I think it gives us something of a key to our

passage. In the midst of the years.

Habakkuk has in view a time in between.

But between what? I think the best answer is that

in the midst of the years refers to the time between the two acts

of judgement that the Lord has revealed in his dialogue with

Habakkuk in chapter 1, the Lord revealed that a punitive purging

judgement is going to fall on the whole people of Judah very

soon. Historically speaking, this

probably happened within two decades.

And then in chapter 2, as we saw especially last week, the Lord

revealed that He will one day completely condemn Babylon and

all oppressive nations, and He will completely save and deliver

His people. One day.

He will unleash a full and final judgement, and He will

accomplish a full and final salvation.

So what's Habakkuk asking? He's asking the Lord to continue

His work, to preserve His people, to sustain their faith

in the time between these two judgments, the near judgment and

the far judgment. Now, the time between is also a

fantastic one phrase description of the whole Christian life.

As Christians, we live in the time between Christ's

resurrection and His return. As Christians, we live in the

time between our new birth and the coming of the new creation.

We have all kinds of encouragement and assurance from

what God has already done, and yet we're exposed to all kinds

of trials and hardships until God completes His work.

We live in the time between. So what do you need God to do in

the time between? You need Him to revive His work.

You need Him to show His work to you anew.

You need Him too in wrath. Remember mercy.

So how does God do that? What's the answer to Habakkuk's

request? Now, the rest of the passage

through verse 15 does, in one sense, continue the prayer.

But it's a prayer of rehearsal. It's a prayer of recital.

It's a prayer of declaring what God has done and will do.

So all of verses 3 to 15 are a reminder of God's saving work in

the past, and they're a refresher about the future work

of judgement and salvation that God will accomplish.

Verses 3 to 15 look both backward and forward now as

we'll consider the details when we walk through the passage.

Some parts of the passage refer explicitly to what God did in

the past when he delivered his people from Egypt at the Exodus,

and some parts of the passage refer explicitly to what God

will do in the future when he completes his work of salvation

and judgement. But a whole lot of the passage

refers to God's saving work in terms that could fit either the

past or the future. It might seem a little general.

It might seem a little vague, like you can't tie it to one or

the other. That difficulty or that

ambiguity is actually one of the key points of the whole passage.

What God did in the past guarantees what He'll do in the

future. What God did in the past is the

model for what He'll do in the future.

If you look at the cross and resurrection, you see how it all

will end. How can you not only survive,

but spiritually thrive in a painful present?

Remembering God's past and resting in God's future brings

grace for now. Now for the details.

We're not going to walk through the passage exactly in order,

though pretty close. We'll focus on God's past, then

God's future, then our present, past, future, present .1.

Remember God's past, Remember God's past.

That's what Habakkuk does in some ways throughout verses 3 to

15, but especially in verses three to seven.

Look again at verse 3. God came from Tea Man and the

Holy One from Mount Poran Salah. His splendor covered the

heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

Tea Man and Mount Poran are located in the wilderness of

Edom near Sinai. They are between Egypt and the

Promised Land, so to speak of God coming from Tea Man and

Mount Poran. It's a way of describing the

whole arc of the Exodus, from the plagues in Egypt to the

people's rescue from Egypt, to the giving of the law at Mount

Sinai, to their wanderings through the wilderness, through

their entrance into the land and their conquest and inheritance

of it all. That is what God did for His

people when He came to their rescue.

That's the key verb. On the one hand, this was a

response to their cries. Exodus 2 verses 23 and 25 tell

Exodus 2:23

us that the Lord, the people, cried out to the Lord in their

oppression and affliction, and the Lord heard them.

And the Lord remembered His covenant promises to Abraham,

and He answered those covenant promises.

He answered their request. He fulfilled His covenant

promises through coming to their rescue.

The Lord responded to His people, but no one forced him

to. No one compelled him to.

God kept His promises because of His own perfect character and

flawless integrity. And verse 3 portrays God's

saving work as the result of His own sovereign initiative.

He came, He took action, He changed everything for His

people. And when he did, verse 3 says

His glory and praise filled the earth.

God's saving work not only delivered His people, it also

displayed His glory. Why did the Lord send plagues on

the people of Egypt? Exodus 914 says so that you may

know that there is none like me in all the earth.

Verses four and five. His brightness was like the

light rays flashed from His hand, and there He veiled his

power. Before him went pestilence, and

plague followed at His heels. The Exodus both revealed and

concealed God's power. It was open but hidden.

It was unmistakable. But if you were hard hearted

like Pharaoh, you could continue to reject it and blind yourself

to it. What did Pharaoh say?

Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice and

let Israel go. Now the references to pestilence

and plague here in verse 5 are some of the details that

specifically fit the Exodus. We know it's talking about that

past work of Deliverance, but then verses 6 and seven continue

to echo the Exodus, but in terms that seem to broaden the view to

something wider. He stood and measured the earth.

He looked and shook the nation's.

Then the eternal mountains were scattered.

The everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.

I saw the tents of cushion and affliction.

The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble when God

delivered his people from Egypt. Creation itself trembled.

We heard some of that earlier in Exodus 15, and we'll see that

theme again and again in our passage.

Mountains here are called everlasting because by our

standards, they're stable. They don't change as much or as

quickly as rivers or forests or fields.

Mountains stay put, but only God's ways are actually

everlasting. Mountains last longer than us,

but only God is eternal. Only God is creations, ruler and

Lord and judge. And he demonstrated all that

when he saved his people. These verses seem designed to

suggest that he's going to do that again, but on an even

grander scale. In verse 7, the reference to

Kushan and Midian likely refers to peoples who live to the

southeast of Israel who heard what the Lord did in the Exodus

and they were afraid of Him because of it.

When you look back at the Exodus, what do you see?

You see God's faithfulness to His promises.

You see His infinite majesty. You see His power over creation.

You see His judgement against sin.

You see His work of liberating from oppression.

You see that His grace can overcome and overpower any human

opposition. When you look back to the cross

and resurrection of Christ, what do you see?

You see that all humanity lives in a state of bondage worse than

being enslaved to Pharaoh. All of us are born into sin by

nature. All of us are born, as the

Apostle Paul says, slaves of sin.

As much as we like to think of ourselves as free, making our

own way and making our own destiny, we are enslaved to sin.

And we cannot break ourselves out of that bondage.

We don't have the power to do it.

We cannot work on ourselves to free ourselves from that inward

slavery. Not only that, but we've racked

up a debt. Our sin has created a mountain

of debt that we cannot pay off. So what did Jesus come to do?

He came to pay our debt by suffering God's wrath on the

cross. And he came to liberate us from

slavery to sin. He triumphed over death, He

conquered Satan, He ascended into heaven.

He poured out His Spirit all that to free us, all that to

break us out of our self-imposed prison in bondage to sin and

Satan. Jesus came to accomplish through

His death and resurrection a true and greater Exodus.

What Israel's deliverance was only a picture of is what He

holds out, what He achieved, and what He offers to everyone who

will turn from sin and trust in Christ.

If you've not believed in Jesus and turn from your sin, do so

today and trust yourself to Him. Submit to Him, repent.

Come to Him as your Saviour. When the present is painful, how

can you not only survive but thrive?

It's by remembering the decisive salvation God has accomplished

for you and all His people through the cross and

resurrection of Christ. Not only that, but like Habakkuk

does here, you should also meditate on the whole history of

how God has saved his people. One particularly fruitful way

you can do that is by studying passage of scripture that tell

that whole story or that tell a big part of it.

For instance, passages like Nehemiah 9, Psalm one O 6, Acts

7. Each of those gives us something

of a panoramic overview of how God has worked to save his

people. Let those surveys of God's work

stir up your confidence in God's faithfulness to his promises.

Habakkuk meditates on the exodus in view of his painful presence

to remind himself and us that God doesn't save his people in

vain. God doesn't save us and then

give up on us. God didn't rescue his people

from Egypt only to abandon them in the wilderness.

The God who brought them out of slavery will bring them into

their inheritance and His Kingdom.

God did not rescue you from sin only to give up on you.

The God who sent his Son to die for you is not a God who's going

to quit on you. God never quits halfway, as

Calvin put it, though the Lord did not daily shine forth from

heaven, and there were not conspicuous signs of His

presence as at Mount Sinai. Still we ought to establish that

He Himself is the same God who had exhibited such a clear

testimony of His power to the fathers, and that He is endowed

with the same power today and to the end of the world.

Although it may not be visible, although God now hides His power

and shows no sign of His grace, nevertheless reckon that not in

vain has He formerly appeared with so much power to your

Father's. When the present is painful, it

also helps to meditate on how God has been faithful to you to

provide for you and sustain you and care for you in your own

past. When Christian and I were

sharing with our good friend Welton Bonner about a hard time

our family was going through, Welton reminded us of First

1 Samuel 7:12

Samuel Chapter 7 verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set

it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer.

For he said, till now the Lord has helped us.

Why did they say till now? Because if he's done it till

now, he's not going to stop. If he's done it till now, he's

not going to quit, he's not going to leave the job half

done, Welton said to us. The Lord hasn't upheld you in

your trials and use them to do good to you and others through

you, only to quit on you now. Brother or sister, know that God

is not going to fumble you at the five yard line.

God is going to carry you all the way home.

When the present is painful, remember God's past.

But God hasn't just given us a past to look back to.

He's also given us His promises to hold on to.

So point #2 rest in God's future, rest in God's future

now. To get us to rest in God's

future is one of the main reasons for Habakkuk's

remembering God's past. What God has done partially in

the past, he will do fully in the future.

The deliverance he's accomplished in the past is a

guarantee of it's a down payment on the deliverance he will

accomplish in the future. For the sake of completeness,

we're going to briefly walk through the whole second-half of

the passage, verses 8 to 15. We'll see that some of this

language refers to the past, some of it refers to the past in

terms that can also fit the future, and some of it,

especially verse 14, refers explicitly to the future.

Start with verse 8. Was your wrath against the

rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the

rivers or your indignation against the sea when you rode

out on your horses, on your chariot of salvation?

Habakkuk's point here is that in the Exodus, God performed some

powerful acts of judgement by means of the created order.

He divided the Red Sea to let his people pass through, and

then he slammed it back together again to drown Pharaoh's army.

But his anger wasn't against the water.

It was against the people who opposed him and oppressed his

people. And so verse 8 also gives us a

picture and a preview of final judgement.

God will pour out his wrath forever on those who persist in

rejecting Him. Verses 9 to 11 describe more of

the effects of God's saving work on creation itself.

Again, Habakkuk describes the Exodus in terms that also fit

and resonate with Christ's second coming.

You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many

arrows. Sailor, you split the earth with

rivers. The mountain saw you and rise.

The raging waters swept on. The deep gave forth its voice.

It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in

their place at the light of your arrows as they speed at the

flash of your glittering spear. The point here is that God's

power overwhelms creation. When God brings his saving power

to bear, creation itself cannot just go on as normal.

And what poetically describes the Exodus will be more

literally fulfilled at Christ's second coming.

The whole order of creation will be shaken.

This whole world and universe as we know it will be completely

stripped down and instantly rebuilt.

As the author of Hebrews puts it in chapter 12, verses 26 to 29,

citing Haggai chapter 2. At that time His voice shook the

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

earth, but now He has promised yet once more I will shake not

only the earth, but also the heavens.

This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things

that are shaken, that is, things that have been made in order

that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a Kingdom that

cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable

worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

This is a warning that everything that you might rely

on for stability will be shaken, will be stripped away, will be

of no use before God's judgement.

This is a warning that whatever you think you can put as a

shield between you and God, whatever refuge, whatever good

works, whatever reasoning, whatever track record of the way

you've tried to live your life, if creation itself will give

way, we'll melt away, we'll collapse, we'll be shaken, we'll

be undone. How much more your excuses, how

much more yourself presentation to God of you should really

accept me because I've been a good person.

If creation itself will be shaken at Christ's return, no

human effort or achievement will be of any use on that day.

Verses 12 and 13 again return to the theme of God's judgement

against the nations that oppose Him and oppress His people.

You marched through the earth and fury.

You threshed the nations in anger.

You went out for the salvation of your people, for the

salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the

House of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.

Salah. Now I think the end of verse 13.

It is one of the places where the future focus becomes

explicit. This echoes God's ancient

promise from Genesis 315, right after Adam and Eve plunged the

human race into ruin and misery. To Eve, God promised, I will put

enmity between you and the woman, and between your

offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and

you shall bruise his heel. God granted A partial

fulfillment of this promise at the Exodus.

When Pharaoh was defeated, all the first born sons of of Egypt

were killed. He gave an even greater

fulfillment of this promise at the cross and resurrection of

Christ when Satan was disempowered and cast down.

But he will bring this promise to its full fulfillment when

Christ returns and destroys Satan's power forever.

On that day, Satan will be completely and forever defeated,

disempowered, done. And so we still look forward to

the day when he will fully crush Satan under foot.

Now, Habakkuk describes all this in the past tense, even those

events that clearly have a future fulfillment.

Why does he do that? I think mainly because it's all

part of the same prophetic vision.

In prayer form. It's a single seamless garment.

It's one big reminder that what God has done, he will do.

Even more So what God has started, God will certainly

finish. You might call this verb tense a

prophetic perfect. Habakkuk uses the past tense to

describe a future action, because God's future action is

so certain, it's as if it has already happened.

Verses 14 and 15 round off the passage by pointing forward,

then backward in quick succession.

You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who

came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour

the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your

horses, the surging of many waters.

Now again, verse 15 is another poetic reference back to the

Exodus, when God showed His supremacy over the sea and over

any other force that might stand in the way of His plan of

salvation. But then how do we know that

verse 14 points to the future? Michael was pushing me about.

How do we interpret this passage earlier this week?

I think verse 14 is maybe the clearest instance of how it

points to the future. It's because Habakkuk is

Speaking of those who came to scatter me.

Who are those who come to scatter Habakkuk?

It can only be the Babylonians. God has promised it.

It's going to happen soon. Throughout the Old Testament

prophets, that verb scatter is used for the punishment of

exile. God's people are currently

gathered in their land, and they're going to be scattered

out of it as God's judgement against their sin.

So when Habakkuk says they came to scatter him, what he's saying

is when the invading Babylonian army comes to carry out God's

judgement against his people, he's going to be there.

They're not just coming for them.

They're coming for us. They're not just coming for us,

Habakkuk is saying. They're coming for me.

This is going to happen to me now.

For Habakkuk, that temporal judgement he suffers will not be

a sign of final judgement. We trust Habakkuk is saved and

spiritually safe in the hands of God.

So for Habakkuk, this judgement will be divine discipline that

further prepares him to inherit eternal salvation.

But in any case, Habakkuk is staring down disaster.

He knows the bad news of judgement that God has promised

against his people will also be bad news for him.

God's hammer will fall, and it will fall on him just as much as

on the wicked in Judah. Habakkuk's present is painful,

and it's only going to get more painful.

But Habakkuk also knows that after God judges his own people,

he will judge the people He used to judge his people.

He will reverse the direction of Babylon's arrows.

Right now they are appointed and soon to fly at Judah.

But when the grand day of judgement comes around, the

direction of the arrows will do a 180 and we'll come back

against the Babylonians. When Christ returns, God will

avenge all evils committed against his people.

He will establish a perfect, permanent Kingdom.

He will deliver us from all evil.

He will cover the earth with the knowledge of His glory as we saw

last week, He will banish suffering and sorrow forever,

and He will give the new creation a newness that will

never grow old. If you're not a believer in

Jesus, what do you most look forward to?

Or as you look back over your life so far, what are the things

that you have most hoped in? Did they come to fruition?

Did they satisfy? One problem with every earthly

hope you project out into the future is that you don't know

how long you have. If you are living for your own

hopes, all of them are uncertain of fulfilment.

Our family recently planted a garden for the first time ever.

We've had earth boxes, we've had little pots out in front of our

apartments we've lived in. This is our first garden

Christmas wanted once and she was a kid.

Our the previous owners of our home had a nice little tomato

patch in the back corner of the yard that we've heard was very

productive. And so just last weekend Rose

and I put up some fence posts and strung it around with deer

mesh fencing. Don't get me started about the

deer. And then the whole family.

Well, me, me, Kristen, Rose, Lucy, we all planted.

We planted tomatoes and cucumbers and jalapenos and

herbs and all kinds of good stuff.

It was a ton of fun. We are eagerly looking forward

to harvest. But planting a garden is an act

of hope. When you put those little plants

in the ground, there are no full grown vegetables sitting on them

and there are not really any full grown plants you're putting

in. The whole thing is done in hope.

Many, many things could go wrong between now and us eating a

single thing that comes from our garden, especially deer.

It takes hope to plant a garden. The whole Christian life is much

more sowing than reaping. The whole Christian life is much

more planting than harvesting. God may choose to cheer us in

various laborers by granting us to see evident fruit.

And we should see some fruit of growth, of holiness in our

others lives in in our lives and others lives as we walk with the

Lord. We should see ourselves being

renewed inwardly day by day. But there will be many efforts

whose fruition either won't come or won't be fully known until

the day when Christ's coming brings everything to light.

That's why we have to sow in hope.

How can you rest in God's future?

Fix your heart on the greatest good that will be yours on that

day, which is seeing God face to face.

Biblical hope is the confident and patient expectation of

seeing God face to face and being made forever happy in Him.

Hope is resting in God's promise, trusting it, relying on

it. Hope enables you to be calm and

confident in God's promise, no matter what seems to threaten

Him. Biblical hope looks forward

confidently to being eternally caught up in the triune life of

God, to being brought up and included in Jesus own sonship

from the Father. Hope waits on God to hand

deliver the life that is truly life, the life that God Himself

is now. If you are remembering God's

past and resting in God's future, what do you still need

to do? You need to do what Habakkuk

does in verse 2 back to the beginning of the passage .3.

Request God's grace for now. Request God's grace for now.

Verse 2 is the petition that sets the direction for the whole

passage. Oh Lord, I've heard the report

of you and your work. Oh Lord, do I fear.

In the midst of the years, revive it.

In the midst of the years, make it known.

In wrath, remember mercy. I want to focus on three aspects

of this prayer. Submission, adoration, and

petition. Submission, Adoration, petition,

first submission. Oh Lord, I have heard the report

of you. What's Habakkuk saying?

He's saying that he is accepting what God has revealed.

Message received, vision embraced.

Habakkuk has picked up what God is putting down.

He's come to terms with the two judgements God has promised, the

near judgement of God by the Babylonians against Judah, and

the far judgement of God against the Babylonians and all God's

enemies that will deliver his people.

Habakkuk is not disputing the near judgement, and he is hoping

in the far judgement here. Habakkuk is a model of

submission for us. He's a model of submission to

hard truths. Some things in the Bible are

hard to understand. Some things in the Bible are

hard to accept. Some are both.

A necessary ingredient in spiritual growth is the humility

to submit to hard truths you find in scripture.

And Habakkuk is also a model of submission to hard providences.

For Habakkuk, this hard truth will soon turn into a hard

Providence. This judgement will fall not

just around him, but on him. Though he himself is righteous,

he will suffer along with his people.

That's a hard Providence. And Habakkuk says to the Lord, I

accept it, I embrace it. Next, adoration and your work, O

Lord, do I fear. This fear is an expression of

reverent praise. Habakkuk declares that he

trembles before God's work. He recognizes that God's work is

sovereign and supreme. This work is A2 sided act of

both judgment and salvation. And Habakkuk trembles before

both. He trembles before both God's

wrath and his mercy. How can you grow an adoration of

God? One simple way is to begin the

times of private prayer by studying Scripture, and then by

praising God for something you see and what you've just

studied. Declare what you see of God's

goodness and majesty, Acknowledge God's greatness.

Name some feature of God's glory you see in his word.

Just like Amber LED us so well and praising God for his

character, his mighty works, his sovereign acts, Gather up what

you see in the Scriptures and translate it into praise of God.

So submission, adoration. Finally, in verse 2, we come to

petition in the midst of the year's, revive it in the midst

of the years, make it known in wrath.

Remember mercy. Habakkuk is asking God for

grace, and he's asking God for grace for now.

He acknowledges the justice and goodness of God's wrath, and he

knows that God is also abounding in mercy and forgiveness and

steadfast love. So he grants the rightness of

God's wrath, and he asks God also not to forget to be

gracious. Habakkuk is asking for grace in

the time in between, grace in the present, Grace to sustain

his faith and his people's faith.

Grace to renew the people's trust in God amid the

devastations that God's judgement is rightly going to

work. Habakkuk needed grace for the

moment, grace for the day, grace for right now.

My wife Kristen often wisely counsels others.

God does not give you grace for what you imagine.

God gives you the grace you need for now.

All of us who believe in Jesus need to depend on God daily.

Each day we need to draw fresh supplies from the well of God's

grace, the well of His promises, the well of His Word, the well

of His character. Just as you need to drink water

every day to survive, so you need to drink in God's grace

every day to survive spiritually.

Take the things that are hardest in your life and turn them into

prayer requests. Take the things you're most

anxious about and turn them into petitions for God's help.

Take the things you're most confused about and turn it into

a study plan for searching the Scriptures.

You need grace for now, and the only way you can live rightly in

the present is if you see everything about your present in

the light of God's past and God's future.

Your present must be anchored in God's past and God's future.

There are always temptations to live in the past you've had or

the past you wish you had. If you Daydream about past

accomplishments or achievements. You are marinating your soul in

pride if you let the loss of good things overwhelm your

present sense of God's love and mercy.

You're in danger of giving way to nostalgia if you can't stop

mulling over a wrong someone else did to you.

You are inviting bitterness to come in and remodel your life in

a way that leaves no room for God's grace.

Don't anchor your heart in your past.

Instead, anchor it in God's past, and similar temptations

confront us about the future. There are always temptations to

live either in the future you're planning for yourself, for your

good, or the future you're anxious and fearful will bring

you harm. Ambition can lead you to be

absorbed with your plans at the expense of God's promises.

Fear and anxiety can become overwhelming, all consuming.

You can become fixated on harms that might happen to you to the

point where you struggle to get any comfort from God's grace,

His presence, His promises. Don't anchor your heart in the

future that you either crave or fear.

Instead, anchor it in the future God promises.

Trust that God will come through for you.

Trust that the future that God will gift you is infinitely

better than anything you could achieve for yourself.

The solution to being wrongly attached to your preferred past

or dreaded future is to be rightly attached to God's past

and God's future. Remembering God's past and

resting in God's future brings grace for now.

To live in the present is not enough.

There is wisdom to be had from thinking about how to rightly

live in the present and not have it be hostage to the past or the

future. But any present you can build

for yourself is nowhere strong enough to withstand the

onslaughts of a haunting past or a fearful future.

What if your present is overwhelmingly painful?

What if your past is overwhelmingly shameful?

What if the future is overwhelmingly fearful?

No amount of self talk or positive thinking or mind over

matter can guarantee that you will survive or thrive in a

painful present. Only God's grace can do that.

Only God's mighty saving works, past and future, can do that.

And that's exactly what He holds out to all who trust in Christ.

God has proven His power and love and faithfulness through

the death and resurrection of Jesus, and one day what God has

granted to Jesus in his resurrection is what He will

give to everyone who believes in him and what He will grant to

this whole created order now and ever.

We confess Christ our hope in life and death.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have heard

the report of you and we fear your work.

Father, we pray that You would revive your work to us, sustain

those who are suffering and struggling, comfort those who

are convicted in the midst of the years, make known Your work.

Pour out Your great greatness and grace upon us, we pray.

O Father, in wrath, remember mercy.

May you grant us to tie ourselves to Your promises and

not let go of them. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.