Habakkuk, the man with the crooked name, is one of the celebrities of Heaven; one of the friends of God. I pronounce his name “Hab-a-kuk,” because both my first Bible and my last, gave him that pronunciation. If you want to pronounce his name “Ha-bak-uk,” go ahead, but you do so at your own risk. I probably will pronounce his name both ways before I am done this evening. Habakkuk will have one of those honored places among the servants of God. He will possess one of the crowns of righteousness “which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Ah, but we on earth know next nothing about the man. Praise God that it is possible to serve Him in obscurity, even in defeat, and yet to be honored in Heaven.
This little book begins with the Spirit-directed eyes of the prophet of God, peering onto eventual destruction. Habakkuk was looking at the imminent coming not of the Lord, but of the Babylonians. The Holy Spirit told Israel through Habakkuk, “Watch out, here come the armies of the Chaldeans.” Chapter 1:6 – “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.” The prophet may have been looking at the Babylon army looming in the northeast, but the Holy Spirit suggests the armies of the Antichrist and the days of the Tribulation.
And then Habakkuk pictures the Lord. Verse 12 – “Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?” God’s friend looks at the heathen hoards and finds it hard to believe that God doesn’t intervene. Chapter two finds Habakkuk awaiting the coming of the Messiah. “I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me… And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets that he may run that readeth it.” That sounds vaguely reminiscent of what the Lord Jesus tells the Jews in Matthew 24. The rest of Habakkuk’s second chapter speaks of judgment.
Then in the third chapter, the man of God begins with prayer. ” O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.” The next few verses, again, sound very characteristic of the Tribulation – the time of Jacob’s Trouble. “Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.”
Habakkuk was in a unique position – by grace he had some degree of knowledge about the future. As a result, his emotions went up and down, up and down. Israel will loose everything, and justly so, but God will eventually go forth for the salvation of His people. Similarly, like the prophet, we know that our future lives will have their ups and downs. We may not have as many specifics as the prophet, but we have a general knowledge of our future. What if we, too, loose everything? Can we conclude the last verse of our lives the way Habakkuk’s concludes? “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
The Christian ought to have joy which supercedes that of the world.
The primary color of Heaven is gold, so pure that it is translucent. That place is not draped in black, even though, today, no one enters that place without first dying. There isn’t a dark cloud sitting over it. Entrance to that glorious place isn’t through a back door or servant’s entrance. There is no sun there because our Saviour is the light of that place. The brilliance of the gold of Heaven will be broken by the abundance of diamonds and precious jewels.
Our God is not a God of gloom and doom, but of victory and grace. It is quite different from this world, but not entirely so. Yes, today we are surrounded by sin and by the effects of the curse. “The whole world is lost in the darkness of sin” – but – “the light of the world is Jesus.” Yes, “weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.” That verse from Psalm 30 may be taken as the summary of the three chapters of Habakkuk.
Why should we be joyful people? Because as the hymn suggests “Jesus is the joy of living.” The Christian has joy abiding in his breast – potentially, we can always be a happy people. Our joy isn’t a superficial thing – the kind that roars with laughter at a bad joke. It is unlike the laughter of the world – the exploding of a bundle of fire-crackers. The saint of God has within him a gyroscope of spirituality which should enable him to live on an even keel no matter what the hurricane is kicking up around us.
Why is that so many Christians lack this joy? Isn’t it because they don’t have faith even the size of the mustard seed? Trouble comes all by itself – we don’t have to work at it. Our bad health may not have a single self-inflicted cause – it just is. The pain that is inflicted by events in the lives of people we love – may have no source in us at all. Trouble will a part of this life until such time as the Lord comes for us. But joy, on the other hand, is a product of our relationship with the Lord.
It is the joy of the Lord – not ours – but His.
This means that, like Habakkuk, we must go to Him to enjoy it; we must KNOW Him. There are people who picture the love of God like they do the maple syrup they pour on their pancakes. There are others who see a useless God who refuses to clean up the messes that they make of their lives. This Old Testament prophet was trying his best to live somewhere between those two ideas and emotions. Joy becomes ours when we realize that the Lord is sovereign and lovingly gracious. Peace can be ours when we recognize that Jehovah looks at things in the long term, while we can only see a few hours ahead.
Joy comes when we learn, with Habakkuk, that the Lord will eventually answer all of our greatest questions. The mysteries of today will become the histories of tomorrow. Joy is a part of the fruit of Spirit. And of course, the Holy Spirit comes to us as a gracious gift at the time of our salvation.
So we are actually talking about the joy of redemption. “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines….. Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
Habakkuk has also the joy of anticipation. God had told the man – “Judgment is coming; do not rejoice.” Oh, but following this judgment there will be restoration. A few of Israel, wandering around in the wilderness for forty years, stayed motivated and focused in the joy of anticipation. – the Promised Land is just up the road. Do we really believe and “know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”? And haven’t we been told that “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ”? We need to learn to enjoy the joy of Godly anticipation. I am afraid that even though Revelation 1:7 should not belong to the saints, many of them have misappropriated the verse to themselves. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” We should be saying with John, “Even so, Amen.”
Obviously, the kind of joy that Habakkuk possessed was independent of earthly things. If it is dependent on the physical, we will live disappointed lives until that is glorified out of us at our translation. Job said, “through (the Lord) slay me, yet will I trust Him.” John Newton went to a friend who lost everything in a fire. He said to the man, “God offers you joy that the fire cannot touch.”
We should have treasures both on earth and in heaven. Our highest treasures on earth, should have eternal connections with Heaven – such as in loves ones who are saved. After these things, if we are laying up our treasures “where neither moth nor rust can corrupt,” then we can live joyful, peaceful lives on earth.
If God should choose to send Chaldeans to destroy everything, we should still be able to find joy. We live in the midst of an adulterous, idolatrous generation, so judgment should not surprise us. I wonder if Habakkuk knew Isaiah’s 12 chapter which was written about 90 years earlier? If he didn’t, we certainly should. “And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”