Ha-BAK-kuk, the man with the crooked name, is one of the celebrities of Heaven; one of the friends of God. I will try to pronounce his name “Ha-BAK-uk,” because both my first Bible and my current Bible, give him that pronunciation. But I have to admit that my tongue wants to say, “HAB-a-kuk,” and I probably will pronounce his name both ways before I am done this evening. Ha-BAK-kuk 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… at that day: and not to (us) only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Ha-BAK-kuk is in an honored place today, but we here on earth, know next nothing about the man. Praise God that it is possible to serve the Lord in obscurity, even in defeat, and yet to be honored in Heaven. There will be more Ha-BAK-kuks in glory than there will be Davids, Abrahams or Pauls.
This little book begins with the Spirit-directed eyes of the prophet of God, peering onto eventual destruction. Ha-BAK-kuk was looking at the imminent coming – not of the Lord – but of the Babylonians. The Holy Spirit told Israel through Ha-BAK-kuk – “Watch out, here come your enemies.” 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 also suggests the armies of the Antichrist and the days of the Tribulation. And then Ha-BAK-kuk sees Jehovah. 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 hords and finds it hard to believe that God doesn’t intervene.
Chapter two finds Ha-BAK-kuk 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 Ha-BAK-kuk’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.”
Ha-BAK-kuk 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 step in with salvation for His people. Similarly, like the prophet, we know that our future lives will have their ups and downs. We may not foresee as many specifics as the prophet, but we have a general knowledge of what’s coming. What if we, too, loose everything? Can we finish the last verse of our lives the way Ha-BAK-kuk’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.” Notice that the prophet wasn’t talking about the JOY of God’s salvation, but JOY of the God of salvation.
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 our eternal home. And our entrance to that glorious place isn’t through the back door or a 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 only by the abundance of diamonds and precious jewels, dancing in the light of the Son of God.
I hope that you’ve been thinking about Noah’s ark which we are coming to next Sunday. I know that I have no Biblical authority to say this, but it would certainly have been appropriate… if while outside the ark there was the darkness of storms, volcanic ash, and a hidden sun… Wouldn’t it have been appropriate if within the ark every corner was filled with light because the Lord gave them light?
Jehovah is not a God of gloom and doom, but of victory and grace. Yes, today we are surrounded by sin and by the very dark 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 heart. Potentially, we can always be a constantly happy people. Our joy isn’t a superficial thing – the kind that roars with laughter at a bad Dad 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. But why is that so many Christians lack this joy? Judging from my own heart; I can see two reasons for periodic gloominess: insufficient faith and inadequate thanksgiving. As we all know, trouble comes all by itself – we don’t have to look for it or 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. You and I have no control over inflation or what financial disasters the king might decree. 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. And we have some control over that – faith and thanksgiving.
It is the JOY OF THE LORD – not ours – but His.
This means that, like Ha-BAK-kuk, we must go to God 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 these ideas. Joy becomes ours when we realize that the Lord is sovereign, omnipotent and still 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. When there is Peace (Irene), her cousin Joy (Chara) isn’t far behind.
Joy comes to us when we learn, with Ha-BAK-kuk, that the Lord will eventually answer all of our 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.”
Ha-BAK-kuk has also the joy of ANTICIPATION. To use another Bible word, Ha-BAK-kuk has the joy of Biblical hope. 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 with the joy of anticipation. The Promised Land is just up the road – just across the river. 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.” “Even so, Come Lord Jesus.”
Obviously, the kind of joy that Ha-BAK-kuk 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,” and that gave him a unique kind of joy. John Newton once went to a friend who had lost everything in a fire. He said to the man, “God offers you joy that the fire cannot touch.” The question is, “Am I willing the accept the joy the Lord is offering?”
We should have treasures both on earth and in heaven. Our highest earthly treasures should have eternal connections with Heaven. 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 Ha-BAK-kuk knew Isaiah’s 12 chapter which was written about 90 years earlier? If he didn’t, we certainly should. And I’ll close with this: “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.”