The Bethlehem Candle -Faith

Faith is at the center of the Christian life, and at the center of the advent season where we look for and anticipate the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Today we think about the Bethlehem candle, the candle of faith. For the righteous man must travel down the road called faith that leads to Bethlehem. We are reminded that Joseph and Mary were both righteous in that they believed in the promise of God and His plan to save His people. We read words like Joseph was a righteous man, that He was obedient, that the anticipated time for Christ to be born and they traveled to Bethlehem.

The righteous man takes his question to God and and then waits for the answer. (1)

Even Mary had questions, How can this be? Since I am yet a virgin? , and she heard the voice of an angel, and she replied

Luke 1:38 ESV

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

One key important aspect of being a successful archer is the follow through. It is not enough just to release the arrow and but one must wait to see whether he has hit the mark or not.

So the righteous man is one who asks the question and then waits for an answer from the Lord. This entire book is a series of questioning and ans waiting. Habakkuk sees the injustice of his people that he is living amongst a people who have committed great sin, the law that was meant to bless the nation that keeps it has been spurned and justice perverted. The Lord answers Habakkuk by saying that He will send a nation more wicked than they to judge the Land of Judah and the people.

Habakkuk’s reply to the Lord is a complaint about how the Lord could allow a nation more wicked than Judah to bring judgement. The Lord answers by contrasting the wicked and the righteous and reassuring Habakkuk that though Judah indeed shall be brought into captivity yet God will bring justice to the Babylonians. The term Chaldeans is sometimes a generic term for Babylon. Technically the Chaldean live in the southern part of Babylon which is in modern day Iraq.

The righteous man seeks his tall tower where he may gain a better vantage point. For when he waits here he can see past the trees, to gain a better vantage point than he previously had. In the Hobbit, the dwarfs are in this dark forest and cannot see the way forward, so Bilbo must climb to the tops of the trees. The light does not penetrate deep into the forest but when He gets past the tree tops he is refreshed by the light.

Habakkuk 3:3–6 ESV

God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah 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 nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.

The coming of the Lord will come, but it we must endure for now with patience.

“If it seems slow” the Lord does not operate on the timetable of man, nor does he run around in a frenzy like the wicked. Wait on the Lord, for it is the process of waiting that the genuineness of our faith is tested.

Revelation 13:10 ESV

If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

WAIT ON THE LORD

BUT WHEN THE VISION COMES RUN

The righteous man hears the hears the promise of God and runs. (2-3)

The righteous man first waits and then when the vision comes, when he has stood on his lofty tower and waited for the invading army to come, what does He do. He does not remain silent, but sounds the alarm and gathers his family, and prepares for the invading army.

From the trees Bilbo could see far off in the distance because of the vantage point.

There is one question that must be asked about verse 4. What does it mean he shall live by faith, does it mean that he shall conduct his life in a manner of faith, or does it mean that in the end he shall live because of His faith. And the answer is yes. Though mans future is eschatological in the sense that we will be saved, and yet we know that the necessary result of our justification is a life informed by faith. It is a life that is radically changed because of faith. A closer look at Hebrews 11 would reveal that Abrahams life was informed by his faith.

FROM FAITH TO FAITH. The moment our eyes and our ears see and hear of the vision of God we know that deliverance has come.

Galatians 2:16 ESV

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Eric Lidell “God made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure.” Missionary to China

The righteous man is satisfied in waiting on the Lord, for He knows that the Lord is working for Him. The vision of God which he receives by faith is his strength. It hastens and works tirelessly for him. The promises of God will not fail as the strength of man will. It hastens to its end, waiting for the appointed time, it is not in a fury or a frenzy, as the wicked but patient and steady, without delay. It is not early and is not late but arrives at the appointed time.

There is a state park in the northwestern part of Minnesota called Itasca. Lots of people gather there to small trickle of water where in certain place one can almost straddle the stream one foot on either side. It may not look like much but this small stream travels the US over 2,552 miles to empty itself into the gulf of Mexico. We know it as the mighty Mississippi River. Carrying a massive volume of water and over 200 feet at its deepest point, and 11 miles across at its widest.

So what has started with the oracle of God as a whisper the small trickle of a babbling brook, has become a raging river.

The righteous man relies not on his strength but on the strength of God. (4)

There is a direct contrast here with the wicked Babylonians and the righteous. The soul that is puffed up is a word that refers to the throat or neck, it refers to a man who is has an unsatiatable appetite, always consuming but never satisfied. He takes the rest of chapter 2 to describe presumably Nebuchadnezzer or perhaps the Babylonians in general as those who swallow up the nations. They are compared to death and the grave that are never satisfied and always wanting more.

Such a man is one who trusts in his own strength. Chapter 1:7 and following describe his strength and might.

The believer cannot hardly read this passage with out recognizing that the New Testament makes frequent reference to what has been called “the Golden principle of Old Testament theology”. Paul quotes this passage even connecting this passage to the faith of Abraham,

Genesis 15:6 ESV

And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

For even in the Old Testament righteousness came not by the law but by by faith in the promises of God.

What is it that the righteous are waiting for, what is the vision that Habakkuk saw? It was the appearance of both the justice and the mercy of God. For you see the Babylonians make no distinction between the righteous and the wicked, all are taken into captivity. But the Lord is faithful to His promises, he will deliver His people and bring justice upon His enemies.

Habakkuk 3:2 (ESV)

in wrath remember mercy.

Wrath and grace. This is the contrast even in Romans 1:17

Romans 1:17–18 ESV

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Wrath is the natural response when the righteousness of God collides with the sinfulness of man. Οργη θεου is the frenzy or the boiling over of God’s indignation. Like when one puts water into a pot of heated oil, it bubbles over violently, and this is the idea of God’s wrath.

But the righteousness of God how is it revealed? By faith. By faith in what? Well ultimately in the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Notice what is revealed, it is not the righteousness of man, for the Paul is clear that there is none righteous. But rather the righteousness is from God. The imputation of righteousness , grace, is the natural result of the collision of the gospel and the sin of man.

In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. One might think of the gospel as a force. Isaac Newton in the 17th after observing the apple fall from the tree as opposed to falling sideways or even upward developed the gravitational theory. Just as gravity is a force enacted on objects causing them to fall to the center of the earth, so the gospel is a force in that it is the power of God enacted upon the sinner. Think about it that is why it is called the power of God, because it has behind it all of the omnipotence of God. The only difference in gravity and the gospel is their effects and more importantly their origin.

The question brings us back to Habakkuk to answer, in what did he trust? What was the vision that he saw.

Habakkuk 3:17–19 ESV

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

What would cause a man to climb a tower and sit and wait on the Lord?

Faith look to the Lord, for His salvation is on the horizon.