Faith in Action

Bible Passage: Habakkuk 3:1-19

Read NIV:
1. A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
2 LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

I. The God Habakkuk remembers V 1-2

A. A prayer that becomes a song – from petition to praise – Vs 1 “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.”

1. From supplication to song – The word shigionoth tells us the register. Ps 7 – An outpouring of a soul that has been through something and cannot contain it.
2. Habakkuk’s private prayer was given to the congregation. Personal lament, when it arrives at worship, becomes corporate treasure.

B. A prayer grounded in remembrance – Vs 2 “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”

1. The starting point: ‘Lord, I have heard of your fame’ – Past acts are the foundation of present faith.
2. The hearing that produces awe!

Notice the sequence: hearing produces awe, awe produces request, and the request is grounded entirely in the character of God

3. The request is grounded in God’s character: “Repeat them in our day.” & “in wrath remember mercy.”

He is making a bold claim on God’s own character

Gospel Connection: (Rom 5:8)The cross is God’s definitive answer to “in wrath remember mercy.” “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Read NIV:
3. God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
4 His splendour was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.”

II. The God Habakkuk Sees (Theophany) Vs 3-15

A. The theophany starts with the arrival of God Vs 3 – 4

1. The theophany begins with geography — The God who came from this direction before is coming from there again.
2. Notice who is coming. Not Yahweh the tribal deity.
3. ‘His Glory covers the heavens and His praise filled the earth’. Creation cannot remain neutral in the presence of its Creator.
4. Then Habakkuk tries to describe what God looks like — and immediately reaches the limits of language.

B. Creation responds to the advance of the Creator Vs 5-12

1. The divine warrior moves with plague before him and pestilence behind. Vs 5 – “Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps”.
2. God only needs to change his posture for creation to register catastrophic change. Vs 6 “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.”
3. Creation responds in totality V 7-12 “7. I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. 9. You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; 10. the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. 11. Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. 12. In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations.”
4. Habakkuk engages God with questions Vs 8. “Were you angry with the rivers, LORD? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory?” The question he asks reveals how he is now reading the past acts of God. The power was never aimed at the rivers. It was always moving toward salvation.

C. The purpose of God’s arrival is revealed Vs 13-15 “13 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. 14. With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.”

1. Yesa — mesihe. Your anointed one. God advances through history, commanding creation and crushing enemies, for the sake of his anointed.
2. The enemy is crushed with his own weapon — “with his own spear you pierced his head.” Gen 3:15
3. The final image of the theophany is God treading the waters Vs 15 “You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters.”

Gospel Connection: Col 2:15 — The divine warrior imagery of Habakkuk 3 reaches its fullest expression at Golgotha.

III. Habakkuk’s response: The God who is Enough Vs 16 “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.”

A. The man on the floor in response to the God he sees V16

1. The trembling is not a sign that the theophany failed. It is a sign that it worked.
2. Habakkuk is waiting on a known God to complete his known purposes on a known schedule. Babylon’s judgment is as certain as God’s character.

Gospel Connection: Rom 8:18–25 — Paul’s ‘yet’ is the same as Habakkuk’s: not the absence of groaning, but the presence of a hope that groaning cannot extinguish.

B. The man at the empty tree facing his circumstances V17-18

1. Active faith’s response in the presence of suffering
2. Habakkuk declares – exultant leaping joy and triumphant celebration.

Gospel Connection: Phil 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Paul wrote from prison. His fig tree was not producing either.

C. The man on the heights with feet for the new terrain V 19 “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.”

1. God is his strength: — the Lord of all, the Sovereign Master.
2. Feet like a deer: The image is drawn from Psa 18:33 and 2 Sam 22:34. The promise is not that the terrain will change. It is that the feet will.

Hand them your stringed instruments.

Takeaway:

Actively wait on God with faith to transform your feet for the terrain you are currently navigating.