Habakkuk: From Worry To Worship

By Matt Smith, 30 April, 2009

Habakkuk: From Worry To Worship<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

How many people in need of a message of comfort during tough times turn to the book of Habakkuk? I am perhaps less spiritual than most for I do not think immediately of this wonderful book. For starters a man with a weird name wrote it and secondly it is in a weird section of the Bible. By this I mean that every person that has tried and failed to read the Bible through, a wonderful thing we should all strive to do multiple times a year in my opinion, has failed somewhere between the begats and Numbers. The general population of believers does not read this section of the Bible and it is not often preached about in pulpits. It is no wonder we often miss such a gem in times of trouble.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary says it best:
In the dark days of Jehoiakim's reign just before the Babylonian Captivity, the Prophet Habakkuk penned an unusual message of hope and encouragement for God's people. Though doubts and confusion reign when sin runs rampant, an encounter with God can turn those doubts into devotion and all confusion into confidence.
Habakkuk's book begins with an interrogation of God but ends as an intercession to God. Worry is transformed into worship. Fear turns to faith. Terror becomes trust. Hang-ups are resolved with hope. Anguish melts into adoration.
What begins with a question mark ends in an exclamation point. The answer to Habakkuk's "Why?" is "Who!" His confusion, "Why all the conflict?" is resolved with his comprehension of who is in control: God![1]

With Assyria and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Judah on the brink of destruction and Israel in captivity there was not much to be excited about. Today as we are facing economic meltdown and an Orwellian government, in the midst of a culture more apathetic than any other in our recent history, we have much to fear. We are confronted in the second chapter of Habakkuk a most magnificent saying very reminiscent of the words of Paul:
And the LORD answered me: "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end-it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. "Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:2-4)

This wonderful clause, "the righteous shall live by faith," has been quoted three times in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). God is sending out a very important message about the believer's reaction to trouble. In this specific case, the basis for the believers' faith is not simply on what God had done in the past but on what He remained to do in the future; come back.
It is no small thing that a major fundamental of the Christian faith is the return of Christ. This return is promised as the time when God will execute His justice on the world. We are not to hope in governments nor are we to hope in worldly power but we are to hope in His return. John Macarthur, using much relevant Scripture, says it this way:
The hope of Christ's imminent return is therefore the hinge on which a proper understanding of sanctification turns. ! Steadfastness: "Be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand" (Jas 5:8). ! Kindness: "Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!" (Jas 5:9). ! Prayer: "The end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers" (1 Pet 4:7). ! Faithfulness in assembling together and encouraging one another: "Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching" (Heb 10:24-25). ! Holy conduct and godliness: "Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness" (2 Pet 3:11). ! Purity and Christlikeness: "When He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3). Those cover several broad categories, embracing every aspect of our sanctification. The hope of Christ's imminent return is a catalyst and an incentive for all these things-every fruit of the Spirit, every Christian virtue, everything that pertains to holiness and Christlikeness, and everything that belongs to life and godliness.
That is why it is so important to cultivate a watchful expectancy for the imminent coming of Christ. The point is not to make us obsessed with earthly events. In fact, if your interest in the return of Christ becomes a consuming fixation with what is happening in this world, you have utterly missed the point. The knowledge that Christ's return is imminent should turn our hearts heavenward, "from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil 3:20). "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless" (2 Pet 3:14).[2]

This is foundational in our faith as we live it out in this time of perceived threat. God is still in control and it is this fact, LIVED OUT that gives us such a powerful witness in this time of trouble. In fact, our faith will shine brightest as we demonstrate hope in God in the very heart of our darkest hour. When it comes can we say like Habakkuk:
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. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

Today our response, the response of faith, is JOY in the Lord. How much more ought we, Spirit filled people, proclaim the unfathomable Joy of the Lord. Lord let me be a LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. Amen!

[1]John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary., The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985), 1:1507.