Remembering and Rejoicing - Habakkuk 3:1-19

Habakkuk recap

Latter third of the seventh century BC (630-612/05).

612 - Fall of Nineveh (Assyrian capital) and 605 - the complete downfall of the Assyrian empire.

This is when historians know that the Babylonians whom God mentions in Hab 1:6 began to rise up and become a world power.

Complaint and Response 1 (Hab 1:2-11)

Habakkuk is upset with his people. They have failed to be faithful to God and he wants to know what God is going to do about it.

God says, I’m going to judge them by sending the Babylonians to Israel.

Complaint and Response 2 (Hab 1:12-2:20)

Habakkuk is not too happy about God’s response.

How can it be that you’re going to raise up the Babylonians for this? They are even worse than my people!

God replies saying that though he’ll use the Babylonians to bring his judgment, they will eventually be judged for their own sins and misuse of violence.

God hates sin. He hates violence. He will judge it. He is in control of the world.

Habakkuk is faced with this reality as he’s cried out to God and heard His response.

The final words of Ch 2 show us that after all his wrestling with God and his fretting he is bought to silence.

Habakkuk 2:20 TNIV

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

God is sovereign and in control and ultimately Habakkuk has to humble himself before the Lord. And having come to terms with God’s responses to his complaints in Ch 3 we get Habakkuk’s final response to God in the form of a prayer/song.

Habakkuk’s Prayer/Song (Hab 3:1-19)

Habakkuk 3:1 TNIV

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.

It’s a prayer, but that funny word at the end of the verse indicates it was most likely a prayer written to music. Shigionoth being the tune.

And, having questioned God so much in the first two chapters now he prayers a prayer of faithful acceptance and trust in God.

Habakkuk 3:2 TNIV

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

I have heard (Hab 3:2-15)

I know what you’ve done and it amazes me. (v2)

Renew them - that is continue to act and open my eyes to see you at work. (v2)

Hab 3:3-15

Habakkuk reflects on what God has done in the past. On what exactly it is that he has heard.

Verse 3-5: Teman and Mount Paran - this is Mt Sinai territory. And in these verses Habakkuk is recalling how God rescued his people from Egypt.

And as God led his people into the promised land he drove out the people of Cushan and the Midianites (v7). These were tribes that the Israelites fought as they entered the promised land. God used nations then to bring about his judgment.

Throughout this section Habakkuk recalls how God used nature to bring about his deliverance of the Israelites and judgment on the nations.

Hab 3:5

Habakkuk 3:5 TNIV

Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps.

The Egyptians.

Hab 3:6

Habakkuk 3:6 TNIV

He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed— but he marches on forever.

Shaking mountains (earthquakes) bringing down city walls of Jericho (Josh 6)

Hab 3:11

Habakkuk 3:11 TNIV

Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear.

Josh 10 - God caused the sun to stand still so that battles could be won. Josh 10:14

Joshua 10:14 TNIV

There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

As you heard it read no doubt you got a sense of how Habakkuk is singing/praying about how God in his wrath has comes like a warrior against those who rebelled against him.

Habakkuk 3:9 TNIV

You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers;

Habakkuk 3:13 TNIV

You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot.

Habakkuk 3:15 TNIV

You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters.

Habakkuk has let the scriptures remind him of what God is like. He is a God who hates sin, who judges his enemies and yet he is still merciful.

Habakkuk’s faith (3:16-19)

And so Habakkuk comes to acceptance of his reality and a renewal of his faith in God in verses 16-19.

Habakkuk 3:16 TNIV

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.

Habakkuk is afraid. He is probably going to live through the judgment of God on his people. He’s going to get caught up in it.

He knows it’s going to be rough v17:

Habakkuk 3:17 TNIV

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,

And in spite of his circumstances how does Habakkuk chose to respond? Woe is me? No look at v18

Habakkuk 3:18 TNIV

yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

He will rejoice! Astounding! How can this be? v19

Habakkuk 3:19 TNIV

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Because God is his strength. As he goes through the tough stuff He will live by faith in God.

Habakkuk has had a pretty average experience. He’s living in a time where he’s seen the corruption of God’s people and is begging God to do something about it. And he realises he’s probably going to see God do something that to his mind is worse, raise up the Babylonians. If Habakkuk was a man whose faith was built on experience alone then he’d have every reason to walk away. All God’s people are hypocrites and life is just one hard thing after the other. And yet, the book of Habakkuk doesn’t finish with Habakkuk walking away, throwing in the towel. Insteead he is rejoicing and full of joy because he trusts in God who is his strength and saviour.

How can we be like Habakkuk?

Remember what God has done (Hab 3:1-15)

He trusts not in what he’s seen and experienced but what he has heard about God.

Primarily we look back to the stories of God revealed in scripture just like Habakkuk did.

Are you regular in the scriptures?

Accept our reality (Hab 3:16)

For Habakkuk he was terrified at the thought of getting caught up in God’s judgment and yet that was his reality.

I wonder what hard things God has called you to? For you have been called to suffer:

Romans 5:3

Romans 5:3 TNIV

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

James 1:2

James 1:2 TNIV

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

Phil 1:29

Philippians 1:29 TNIV

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,

Acts 5:41

Acts 5:41 TNIV

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

Suffering is your reality. And yet it is joy filled:

Rejoice in God in any circumstance (Hab 3:16-17)

Habakkuk turns his suffering into joy. And the NT calls us to do likewise. Those verse i just read (Acts 5:41; James 1:2)

That only works if we are like Habakkuk and working on growing a deep, intimate relationship with God.

Don’t whinge about suffering for Christ.

How is it possible?

Rely on God (Hab 3:19)

Habakkuk couldn’t rejoice in the face of suffering on his own. He needed God’s strength. So to do we.

Join me on your knees begging for God’s strength to get you through each day and rejoicing in your suffering for his glory. I pray each of us would be like Habakkuk. Desperately connected to our Father in heaven, hating sin, loving justice and rejoicing in God’s answers to our constant prayers.