Knowing the Almighty- Pt 2

The Hiding of God’s Power

“The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will may resolve…”

“God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature...”

“As His essence is immense, not to be confined in one place; as it is eternal, not to be measured in time; so it is almighty, not to be limited in regard to action.” —Stephen Charnock

Why is it important to study the doctrine of God’s omnipotence?

“Where is the hope? I meet millions who tell me that they feel demoralized by the decay around us. Where is the hope? The hope that each of us have is not in who governs us, or what laws are passed, or what great things that we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people, and that’s where our hope is in this country; that’s where our hope is in life.” —Charles Colson

If our hope is in the power of our God, then we must attempt to contemplate and understand just how great God’s power truly is. If we have never taken time to wonder at the greatness of God’s power, how can that power ever become our hope?

Habakkuk 1:1–4 ESV

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

Habakkuk the prophet is lamenting the symptoms of Judah’s rebellion. God what are you going to do about this?

God’s answer!

Habakkuk 1:5–7 ESV

5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

Habakkuk’s shock

Habakkuk 1:13 ESV

13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

God, how can you do this? The cure is worse than the disease!

Habakkuk 2:1 ESV

1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

God’s answer is found in chapter 2 in a series of woes against the Chaldeans. God is going to use the Chaldeans to judge Judah, but woe to the Chaldeans because God is not going to overlook their wickedness either.

In the midst of the woes God also gives two promises for the future that He will accomplish in his creation.

Habakkuk 2:14 ESV

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:20 ESV

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

How is God going to be able to accomplish all of this?

Habakkuk 3:1–3 ESV

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 2 O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O 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. 3 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.

Habakkuk 3:4 ESV

4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power.

“There will always be more hidden of God’s power than there is revealed, in any of His works. The most you can see is the edge of His ways.”

What can the edge of God’s power accomplish?

Habakkuk 3:6 ESV

6 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.

Habakkuk 3:9–10 ESV

9 You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high.

Habakkuk 3:11 ESV

11 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.

Habakkuk 3:12–13 ESV

12 You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. 13 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. Selah

Habakkuk 3:16 ESV

16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

“Who can think of His power so mighty, so irresistible—a power which is able to crush us into atoms with infinitely greater ease than we can tread the crawling worm beneath our feet—and not fear Him?”—John MacDuff

Habakkuk 3:17–19 ESV

17 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 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.

Do we have the same understanding of the all-power of God that Habakkuk came to understand? When you fear that life is too hard, and that nothing can help—remind yourself: all the displays of God’s power from the beginning of creation until now have hidden more of His might than they have revealed.

“With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.”—A.W. Tozer

This is a truth to keep the Christian going!

Mighty to Save

Endless gratitude is due our God because He has chosen our rescue as the chief display of His immense power. The person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ, is the premier showcase of God’s power.

A Sobering Reality-check

Psalm 115:2–8 ESV

2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. 8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

If you only kept those aspects of religion which demonstrated the working of an almighty God, what would you keep?

What would you remove?

How long will we settle for a type of religion that fails to reflect the God of the Bible?

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Romans 1:16 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Hebrews 4:12–13 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Ephesians 1:18–20 ESV

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

God is mighty to save us from beginning all the way to the end! Is this the Almighty God that is reflected in our lives? In our churches?

“What could shake our minds—if we did but firmly believe that God’s omnipotence is engaged to defend us to the uttermost?”—James Smith