GOD ENTHRALLED – Habakkuk 3: 17 - 19
Many of you may remember Victor Frankl who was the Austrian neurologist and
psychiatrist who spent time at four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz
during the regime of Hitler. And he is well known for his book, ‘Man’s Search for
Meaning.’ One of the things that Frankl underwent was tremendous suffering while he
was in the concentration camps. He lost his brother, he lost his parents, and he even lost
his wife. Only his sister would survive with him.
And while he was there he developed what is known as Logotherapy which is a
therapy that helps people to discover a sense of meaning. And one of the things that
Frankl began to observe during his time in the concentration camps is that those who had
a sense of meaning had a greater chance of survival. And those who did not have a sense
of meaning would die much sooner in those concentration camps. And there were
different ways to find meaning according to Frankl, be it through love, be it through some
sort of giving yourself away to a cause or project or something. You had to find a sense
of meaning. You had to become enthralled with something if you wanted to survive the
agonies of these concentration camps.
Frankl in his book, ‘Man’s Search for Meaning,’ which sold over nine million
copies, was considered by the Library of Congress one of the top ten books of the 20th
century. And I want to give you three quotes extracted from his book. He said “There
was nothing in the world I venture to say that would so effectively help one to survive
even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.” To
Frankl, if you didn’t have a sense of purpose and meaning, you would self-destruct.
Perhaps you are self-destructing in your own life because you have never tapped into the
meaning of life.
Frankl also said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are
challenged to change ourselves.” And no doubt he would see that in the concentration
camps when there was nothing that he could do to change the situation, he had to realize
he could only change himself.
And then here is the final quote from Frankl, “Everything can be taken from a
man, but one thing. The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any
given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” And Frankl would be able to
discover that even in the pits of despair, even in the midst of feeling utterly desperate, he
found how to find meaning through being enthralled with something.
Well, let me ask you a question. How are you doing today? Do you feel hopeless
with despair? Do you feel that life is meaningless, without purpose, without hope? Well,
as you know we have been studying through the minor prophet in the book of Habakkuk.
He was a prophet in the Old Testament and we have seen that he was someone that went
from feeling God forsaken to God enthralled. And we have seen in Chapters 1 through
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Chapter 3, even at the close of the book, Habakkuk’s situation is still despair. In fact it is
going to get worse, but his perspective has changed. Now Habakkuk is God enthralled.
He has found a sense of meaning. He has found a sense of hope. He has found a sense of
purpose in trusting in God.
Well, maybe you feel empty and meaningless. Maybe life is just filled with
doubts. And that was Habakkuk when he was questioning and having doubts that were
wracking him. And you know doubts will sap your joy very quickly. I got an email this
past week, and I will get different emails from around the world where people will have
questions about apologetics. And here is one of the emails I got last week but I will leave
the person’s name anonymous.
She says, “Hello, my name is ____, I am a 17 year old Christian. I have been a
Christian for many, many years. I have always had God inside of me keeping me
comforted. There has always been that comfort inside of me. But lately I have been in
what I would like to call a crisis of belief. So lately I have been having doubts in my head
about the Bible and what it says.
For example, how is it physically possible for one to rise from the dead? Is it
really God or is all this just in my head? Why isn’t God there to help me when I really
need Him? Doesn’t the Bible have Scripture that He will help? Sometimes the doubts or
statements that electrocute my mind and belief, such as you’re wasting your time, or you
are believing a fantasy. And it is only a part of your brain that makes you believe.
But it is not like I want to believe these doubts because when I think of them,
something burns in my heart and mind. My depression begins to act up really badly.
Lately I have had many anxiety attacks about it, along with other stress. It is not helpful
when I am surrounded by Atheists in my school too. There really aren’t many people I
can ask for help, so I am asking you. What do I do because I am scared to say, I’m
lost?”
Do you feel this person’s sense of being God forsaken, her hopelessness, no
longer enthralled with God, but struggling in despair? Maybe that is you. It certainly
was Habakkuk. But Habakkuk was able to shift from feeling forsaken to enthralled. And
this word enthralled is a word that would be used to describe somebody sitting before a
crackling fire, mesmerized as they just lose track of time as they watch the fire do its
work on the wood. So too, Habakkuk is now mesmerized; he is enthralled with God.
Now, last week you saw that I walked you through Chapter 3 and we went
through verse 16. And in Chapter 3 and verse 1 Habakkuk identifies that Chapter 3 is
going to be a prayer. He says, “A Prayer of Shigionoth.” And I said this is not what you
order when you go to Kabota’s Steakhouse on Sunday. You won’t say, ‘I’ll that the
Shigionoth.’ No, I said that this is a prayer that Habakkuk lays out and it was very
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difficult terrain. I said it was the most difficult terrain of Scripture that I ever personally
had preached before. Some of you probably were scratching your heads.
Last week as we were walking through those verses we were in Takowsky, we
were looking at Mendelian, we were looking at Bach or Mozart or Beethoven. It was
tough. I mean we were playing the classics, and the genre is hard. And today at the end
of this prayer, you could say, ‘he’s gone country.’ Right? It is simple. These final three
verses are easy to grasp. It is kind of like a little breath of fresh air.
But at Life Fellowship, one of the things that we have shared before is when we
work through different passages of Scripture, it is important that we deal with all of
God’s word. And as listeners, you want to learn how to deal with different parts of the
Scripture too. And for me as well, as the teacher. It would be easy just too kind of go,
you know, I am just going to do the Proverbs all the time. Or we are just going to do the
gospels all the time. But when you do some of the apocalyptic literature, or when you do
some of the prophetic literature, there is some difficult terrain. It is like playing the
classics. And in order to appreciate all of Scripture you have to learn to appreciate these
different genres.
Well, the final three verses is still part of Habakkuk’s prayer. But even though it
is part of the prayer, it lightens up a little bit with this great declarative statement of faith.
And I want you to turn in your Bibles to Habakkuk Chapter 3 and we are going to pick up
in verse 17, knowing that it is still part of this prayer. And he is going to share some very
powerful words with us. I am first going to read verses 17 and 18, and then I will close
by reading verse 19.
Verses 17 and 18 in the Hebrew are basically one long sentence. So since it one
long sentence, I am going to go ahead and I am going to read verses 17 and 18 of Chapter
3. Remember in Chapter 1 Habakkuk is a prophet and he is a pre-exilic prophet. That is
to say he is a prophet to the people of Judah before they would be taken away by the
Babylonians into exile for seventy years of captivity. And so before the exile happens, he
sees Judah living in debauchery. They are living sinful, iniquitous lives. They are filled
to the brim with transgressions. And Habakkuk wondered through the form of questions,
‘God, don’t you care about how grotesque these people are living?’ And God said, ‘yes,
I am going to raise the Babylonians up and they are going to come and they are going to
deal with them.’
Well, then that created even a greater perplexity. How in the world could you use
an even more iniquitous nation to chastise this nation? And God would begin to lay some
words out in Chapter 2, and Habakkuk shifts from feeling God forsaken through this
prayer revealing that he is now God enthralled. And now listen and you will hear this
declarative statement of faith in verse 17.
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He says, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vine, 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.” Note the marked change. Do you see the transformation? The
circumstances have not changed. In fact they have gotten worse. Babylon is coming.
What has changed is Habakkuk’s perspective. What has changed is his attitude. And
now he is in a position to honour God in a powerful way.
Now when you look at those verses, let me draw on the Bobby Conway
paraphrase, the BCP, to help you to see what is going on here. It is like saying though
Harris Teeter has shut down, nor there be any BI-LO’s in near sight, though the produce
section lies bear with no lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, oranges or apples, or no bread is
to be found on the shelves, not even one final crumb; yes, even though there be no New
York Deli’s , no Five Guys, no taste of Krispy Kreme’s freshly baked glazed donuts, nor
nothing to kill and eat; even though chasing food will be like chasing the wind, through
all of this God, you will be the unconsuming fire that satisfies my divinely shaped soul.
So when you see these verses right here that helps to just show us a little bit about
the desperation of what is taking place. Habakkuk is saying man, if I go to the grocery
stores and they are shut down, if I go to the restaurants and there is no food, then I am
still going to praise you. If I go to the gas station and there is no gas, you are worthy of
being praised. I love that attitude. And you like that attitude too, don’t you? Good.
To help shed some light on this, let me draw on the Bible Handbook
Commentary. This is a rich commentary series that really gives great contextual
background to help you to understand what is going on. And in this Bible Handbook,
here is what is said, “The food items listed here in verse 17 seem to be mentioned in
ascending order of importance. Figs were perhaps the most luxurious items in the list.
They were important as a source of sugar, but were not essential. Grapes produced wine
which was the normal daily drink, to be without it was a hardship but would not kill
anyone.
Olives gave oil which was used for cooking and lighting, and the lack of this oil
would be a serious inconvenience. Grain, primarily wheat and barley, provided the
staple food for the entire population, and the loss of the grain crop would mean
starvation on a large scale. (This could be compared to Genesis 42 with the famine when
Joseph was the leader in Egypt.)
The death of all the sheep and goats would mean no meat, since these were the
animals most often eaten. It would also mean no wool from the sheep with which to make
warm clothes for the winter. And no milk or other dairy products like butter and cheese
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from the goats. Cattle were eaten rarely and only as a luxury, but without them there
would be no help with plowing to prepare the ground for a crop the following year.”
So here is a verse, and you look at this and it says all these things would be taken
away and Habakkuk is still going to praise Him. And when you kind of blow that verse
up and you see the context of what he is saying you really begin to grasp what he is
declaring.
According to Gowan in his commentary that I have really appreciated, he says,
“Though I starve to death, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” Do you realize how powerful a
statement this is? I mean here is Habakkuk who was disgruntled and now he is like you
can do whatever you want to do, lose my food, lose my clothing, and warmth and light,
take it all, and after hearing from God, he is saying he is still going to rejoice in God. He
is saying he is going to focus on Him.
Donald Gowan wrote a little book many years ago, and it has just been a real
source of inspiration for me as I read this little treasure in my studies. Speaking of
verses 17 and 18 where he talks about how Habakkuk as he is saying you can strip it all
away and yet he will still rejoice in God, here is what Gowan said: “These words haunt
me more than any other in the Bible. I have often thought about putting them up on the
wall of my study as a motto, but have never done it; partly because I am not at all sure
that is where they belong, up on a wall as a slogan, when they ought to be inside as one’s
entire orientation to life.
And partly I guess because they would mock me when I looked at them. Who can
really say that and mean it? Yet some have and do. I do not think one can really
understand Habakkuk’s words in Chapter 2 and verse 4, ‘The just shall live by his faith,’
until he begins to comprehend Habakkuk Chapter 3 and verses 17 and 18. For what is
faith? The former verse doesn’t tell us. But verses 17 and 18 make clear what it means
to live by faith, and to be faithful in our living.
Faithfulness means to go on doing the right thing no matter what happens.
Whether anybody ever rewards you or not, do the right thing because that is what God
wants. Faith means that you don’t do it as a sour duty, gritting your teeth like a stoic.
Faith means that you know the God who puts these demands upon you, and to know God
makes you rejoice no matter what.
Frankly, I don’t know if I could rejoice in the Lord in the face of starvation.
(Love the honesty.) And I suppose that is why I don’t have these verses on my wall as a
motto, but they challenge me constantly with the promise that I have a God so great that
nothing can ever happen which should decrease my joy in knowing Him.”
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Well said. So there you have it. Where do you feel famished today in your life?
Maybe you feel occupationally famished. You feel as though when you go to work it is
just brutal. Maybe you feel relationally famished with some friendships, or with your
spouse, or with someone else. Maybe you feel financially famished. Well here is what I
want to say. When you look at these areas of life that sap your joy and deplete you, we
need to realize that sometimes when these things come into our life that test us, these are
opportunities for us to ask ‘what is my real attachment in life? What am I really going to
be about? What is my joy really going to be placed in?’
And what we can see is if we are honest with ourselves we are people who lose
our joy too quickly. And what I want to say is don’t let anyone rob you of your joy. That
is one thing that does not have to be stripped away from you. What Habakkuk is saying
is you can mess with anything, the Babylonians can come in and take us into slavery, we
can have no food, we can have no money, we can have no clothing, we can have nothing;
but as long as he has you, He will rejoice. That is pretty good stuff! That is kind of the
Christian promise here. Right? Like, sign me up. I would like to be a part of this right
here. And this is what is going on, and it is powerful, and it such a declaration of faith.
You know what else I love? I love the rawness of Habakkuk because I have to be
honest. I have complained to God in my heart before. I have been the Habakkuk of
Chapter 1 and feeling defeated, feeling down, feeling depressed, and asking why. But I
also have known the joy of being able to think, thank you, God. And I love how
Habakkuk is in this because it kind of reminds you of Job’s statement, “Though He slay
me, yet I will praise Him.” Will you praise God? Will you be committed to rejoicing in
the Lord?
I think these verses have a question in it. Now it is not there with these three
words, but if you smell it you can sense it. And I think it would beg of us to ask
ourselves, ‘Is God enough?’ Is He enough? Because if we are honest, if we will really
be honest, we will go, you know what, God? It is you, plus. It is like, I like you, you are
great, I’m joyful in you, but if you were to take away my ‘stuff’ I don’t know that I
would think you are all that great anymore. Or God, you know what? I dig you and all,
but if you don’t provide a spouse for me pretty soon, it is going to become tough between
us. Or you know what, God? I like you and all, but if my bank account bleeds - well, I
like you as long as my bank account is good. Yeah, God, you are great as long as these
relationships are good. God, you are great as long as you allow me to prosper in my
company. You are great, God, as long as what – God, plus a little.
And here is what Habakkuk is saying. You can cancel it all out. It is God and
God alone that is sufficient for him. Think about that. So no matter what, you can sit
here and go, man, I am really blessed. Like, I feel blessed, right? I have my wife and my
kids and I am just fortunate. I get the privilege of serving this amazing church and this is
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all great. But though I have these things, and you have your things, here is what we
haven’t experienced. And this is what we need to know. Though the government fall
apart and we are shipwrecked, through whatever happens to us we should be able to still
praise Him. No one has to steal your joy. Joy is a decision internally. And you shine
incredibly when you have it.
We often show that we are joyful in God on a conditional basis, as long as He
meets our conditions, we are joyful. Sometimes God puts us through these brutal tests to
show us that we are really not all that joyful about Him and that we are playing Christian
games. That He is not the real deal in our lives. And we see it in the form of testings.
When they come our way we realize what our real Lord is – our occupation. What our
real Lord is – this relationship. What our real Lord is – our bank account.
So these verses have interesting language here of praise and commitment. And
then in verse 19 he says, “God, the Lord of my strength.” Habakkuk was weakened in
Chapter 1, now he realizes that God is his strength, that God will help him to get through
this tough season. If I don’t have food to give me energy, God will be my energy. If I
don’t have physical strength to do anything, God will be my energy. And it is a
declaration of trusting God in His strength.
He says this about God, “Oh, He makes my feet like the deer; He makes me
tread on my high places.” So just as a deer could go running through the rocky
mountains and stay stable, so too Habakkuk is saying he can go over jagged edges and he
can go over some tough peaks. And he could go through some tough valleys and he
could walk through some tough terrain. And God will keep him stable.
And then Habakkuk says, “To the choir master with stringed instruments.” So
where are we here? Well, it starts off with a stressed out prophet and it ends with song.
“To the choir master with stringed instruments.” In other words take this prayer, choir
master, and set it to worship. Set this prayer to song. Because that would happen. These
prophets would say a prayer, they would put it down and then it was meant to become
part of corporate worship. The transformation that happened in Habakkuk’s life was so
loud that it was meant to be lifted up to God in praise as an act of worship.
I think we can learn right here as well when it says, “To the choir master with
stringed instruments,” that interestingly enough it didn’t say with electric guitars.
Right? It didn’t say with drums in this moment. Not that those are bad but there is
something about the strings. A lady came up to me after the first service and said the
instruments were very soothing. Especially in the midst of suffering, stringed
instruments can soothe. I love the sound of the strings. And here Habakkuk is saying to
set this season of suffering that he has gone through to the soothing sounds of strings.
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Well, I think that Habakkuk teaches us something pretty powerful. I think that he
shows us that when life knocks you down, to get back up. I don’t know if you remember
in the 30’s the fight between Joe Lewis and Mack Schmeling of Germany or not. There
were two fights actually and Schmeling would beat Joe Lewis the first time. In the final
round Lewis would be knocked out and later Lewis would call for a re-match. Now the
first fight took place in Yankee Stadium with 70,000 people and this was a brutal loss.
Lewis was revered in particular by the African American community. And when this
second fight came, where Lewis would fight Schmeling the German again, it was
basically a fight against democracy and fascism. Lewis felt the weight of the world on
his shoulders. He wanted to be able to do his people well, the African American people
well, by winning this fight, with the hope that that would help bring about more liberty.
And unfortunately and sadly and grotesquely the African Americans had been
brutalized by the whites early on. And Lewis had hoped that this would mean something
powerful. And not only that but he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders because
everyone would tune in, something like a hundred million people listened to this fight via
radio. And in Yankee Stadium 70,000 people were packed in for this second fight.
And what happened after Joe Lewis had gone down in the first fight was he
trained and he trained, and he comes back and you know what would happen? Lewis
would win this second fight to Schmeling in the first round. He knocked him out within
two minutes and four seconds. Our nation went nuts. Our nation went crazy.
So what does Lewis teach us in that? Well, he says when you fall you have to rise
back up. Right? Well, what does Habakkuk show? When you are down, when you are
confused with God, when you are feeling doubt, when you are wondering where God is;
rise back up. Get back up.
Well, let’s wrap this message up and look at some lessons from Habakkuk. If
Habakkuk could come into this room right now in reflection, what would he want to say
to us? I think he would want to say first of all that inner peace is defined by our
relationship with God, not by the abundance of our resources.
In the Bible Knowledge Commentary it says this, “Habakkuk did not state that he
would merely endure in the hour of distress, he said he would rejoice in the Lord and be
joyful.” And so that is a good thing for us to remember that our inner peace is defined by
our relationship with God. And if we are honest, we may be going through life trying to
find peace in the external and it is important for us to make sure that we remember that
our peace is rooted in God, and in who God is. Where are you trying to find your peace
today? Where are you looking for that shalom as the Bible talks about it?
I think the next statement that Habakkuk would give to us or his lesson for us is:
God must be the ultimate object of our joy. In the first statement we should learn that
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God is going to be our peace and not the external stuff. God could take it all away and
still Habakkuk says in verse 18, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” God is going to be the
object of his joy.
Now the Bible Knowledge Commentary also said this, “Far too many people keep
trying to buy joy, but happiness is not found in circumstances. Joy is available to
everyone, even to those stripped of every material possession, for joy is to be found in a
person. It comes through an intimate and personal relationship with the Lord, so that
even those in the worst circumstances can smile.” Joy in the Lord. But God needs to be
the primary object of our joy.
Sadly, when it comes to the church I think we have way too many DMV
Christians. What is a DMV Christian? Well, my wife took Haley, believe it or not, it is
hard to imagine, but Haley just finished up her driver’s Ed school and she went out to the
DMV. My wife drives her 45 minutes all the way out to Lincolnton, and she had been
told to make sure she took a copy of Haley’s birth certificate. So she shows up at the
DMV with Haley and guess what? She had a copy of her birth certificate, but guess
what? A copy wasn’t good enough; it had to be the original birth certificate. And it was
said very harshly and kind of mean spirited. Now not every one that works at the DMV
is miserable, but a lot of them are. Right?
So my wife and I are talking, and she says she knows the kind of application
process they must go through at the DMV office to get a job there. She could just
envision it going something like this. Are you a miserable person? Yes. Do you dislike
people? Yes. Is it your goal in life to make other people miserable? Yes. You’re hired!
Anyway that was kind of the way it felt like. How many of you have been to the DMV
only to be sent away again? They need to work on their systems there.
Well, I think unfortunately people view the church that way too. They see
Christians that look like they are DMV employees. Miserable. They don’t understand
that we should have joy because we are the forgiven people. We are the ones that are on
our way to Heaven and that is what we are about. Right? Like, we are going to Heaven
when we die and our sins have been forgiven, and our guilt has been taken away, and we
have meaning and hope and purpose in life. And then people see us and sometimes they
don’t understand how we are. Everything about some of us is a contradiction. Why in
the world would someone want our Jesus when it means they will end up looking like
that?
And it doesn’t mean that we can’t go through hard times, and it doesn’t mean that
we can’t say man, I am struggling. But it does mean in the midst of our pain, in the midst
of our struggle we should be able to say, I am confused right now, I am struggling, but
there is an inner joy that Jesus gives me and I trust I am going to get through this.
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So we have an opportunity to show some joy, joy in the Lord. When I was a kid,
I hated to be alone. I always had sleepovers, I would go and spend the night places or I
had kids spending the night with me. And I think the reason in hindsight that I hated to
be alone is because I was left with myself. I needed to face my own issues and who I
was. And as long as I could be out and partying and drowning things out, I wouldn’t
have to think about how miserable I was. I didn’t have to think about how empty I was.
And so it was a lot easier to always be hanging out with people.
And then I became a Christian and fell in love with the Lord. And I began to fall
in love with reading. And then I started spending all this time alone and what was
amazing was I didn’t feel alone anymore. I felt like I was okay being alone because I had
this new identity in Jesus Christ, that I knew the Lord. And funny enough, growing up I
thought I was this total extrovert because I couldn’t stand to be alone and it turns out, in
Christ anyway, that I am an introvert. That I actually love being alone and studying and
growing and learning. In fact, I am convinced that most Bible teachers have a lot of
introverted energy; otherwise they wouldn’t have anything to teach. I still love to be
with people and can enjoy community and relationship, but I also love having time alone.
Because knowing God makes it very satisfying and there is a joy in the Lord which
makes me know that I am not alone anymore.
I think another lesson from God enthralled Habakkuk is this: When God speaks,
take heed to obey His word. See, Habakkuk utters his questions and his complaints and
then God did speak. And then guess what? Habakkuk took heed. He obeyed. And I
think so often we can get in the trap of knowing the right thing to do and not doing it.
But the Bible says, “He who knows what he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
Another lesson from this God enthralled man that we should take note of is: It is
not our circumstances that determine our joy, it is our attitude and perspective that does.
See we tend to believe that our joy has to do with circumstances. And there is a
difference between happiness, which has to do with our happenings, and our joy that has
to do with what has happened, namely Calvary. Joy has to do with what has happened,
and happiness has to do with what is happening. And so what we can learn from
Habakkuk is we can live in a miserable context. I mean it is hard to imagine but this is
one of the worst periods of history where Judah is about to go into captivity because it is
so X-rated and God forsaken. And in the midst of that, though those people were going
to experience what it feels like to feel God forsaken as they go into captivity, Habakkuk
was going to be God enthralled in the midst of it.
I read a book several years ago that has stayed with me. It is called, ‘Shattered
Dreams’ by Larry Crabb. And it is a book that traces the story of Naomi in the book of
Ruth when she loses her husband and her sons, and the agony and the pain she suffered.
And Naomi became very bitter. She became a very bitter person at God and at life and
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she was just miserable. And through re-orienting her life and seeing God’s hand at work,
her perspective would change and she would find a new joy in God. And Crabb talks
about how basically the apex of spiritual maturity is when you have nothing external to
find joy in. When your bank account is empty, your relationships and your job are all
bad; it just feels like it is all bankrupt, when all feels lost you want to know the apex of
the mature life? This is it. If you were to say, Bobby, how would you define a very
mature believer; this is it right here. There is not a more mature definition of a mature
believer than when you can still be ultimately satisfied in God and rejoice in Him when
nothing external can give you pleasure; and you find your joy in knowing that your
reaction to the miserable circumstances is pleasing unto God.
So you find joy in reacting properly to what has been dealt your way, and in
knowing that you are responding by faith. “Yet I will rejoice in him,” Habakkuk said.
And you will get a certain kind of joy in that process. That is the essence of it. And
sometimes we are tested as Christians. Maybe I would call it the ultimate test. When
nothing looks good externally and we get the ultimate test; can I still be joyful in God.
Or does it take God plus a little? God, plus something? Am I going to need a little extra?
The final statement I think that Habakkuk would say to us is: Take heart, the
seasons of life you feel despair the most are really the seasons you can grow the most.
Despair is the place where the greatest life change can take place. We have all been
there. We hate pain, but like working out in a gym if you want your muscles to grow you
must have resistance. It is funny, we get angry at God at some of the things that we
experience, but what if we are asking Him to take away something and it is the very thing
that we need to become more like Jesus Christ. What if what we are really saying, and
we don’t even realize it is, don’t make me more like Jesus. What if that thing is the very
thing that will make us more like Christ? And we are resisting it instead of embracing it
so that we can experience true Christlikeness.
I put together a chart of my final study observations of Habakkuk. What I wanted
to do for you was to juxtapose, to place side by side the transformation that took place in
Habakkuk’s life. In the beginning you see that Habakkuk is in the pits, but in the end of
the book he is on the mountaintop. In the beginning he is questioning, but at the end of
the book he is trusting. In the beginning of the book he is worried, but at the end he is
worshiping. In the beginning his faith is wavering, but at the end his faith is unwavering.
In the beginning he is filled with questions, but in the end he is filled with awe. In the
beginning he is venting at God, but in the end he is rejoicing in God. In the beginning he
is doubting, but in the end he is believing. In the beginning he is struggling, but at the
end he is singing. In the beginning he feels God forsaken, but at the end of the book he is
God enthralled. That is the story of Habakkuk. A man finely changed by God, not f-i-na-l-l-y, but f-i-n-e-l-y, finely changed.
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GOD ENTHRALLED – Habakkuk 3: 17 - 19
God wants to transform you today. God will change your life. Habakkuk’s
question at the beginning was, God, do you permit all this evil? Theodore Dostoevsky in
his book, ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ traces the story of these Russian brothers. One of
them, namely Ivan the Atheist, struggles and he says, “If God does not exist, everything is
permissible.” In other words, if there is no God there is no such thing as objective right
and wrong and we can all create our own morality. We would live in a relativistic world
where everything is permissible.
In Chapter 1, Habakkuk asks, ‘God, do you really permit all this; because if you
exist it doesn’t seem as if you would?’ In Chapter 2, God says, ‘no, I don’t, Habakkuk.’
In Chapter 3, he says, ‘then bless your Holy name.’
So how do we wrap up? What I want to say is if we are going to have faith in the
face of evil, we need to remember the one who dealt with evil once and for all – the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross,
scorning its shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus
Christ has dealt with evil ultimately once and for all. And if you want to make sure that
you are rightly related to God, you do so by looking back at what Jesus accomplished on
the cross for our sins. Three days later He arose from the dead. And right now you can
have your sins forgiven by realizing that our evil was laid upon Him so that we could
have His righteousness placed upon us. That is worth being God enthralled. Let’s pray.
Father, thank you for the book of Habakkuk, and for how relevant Scripture is.
What a treat it was to walk this flock through this book of life change. I pray that these
words will go with us forever. And I pray for anyone in this room that isn’t God
enthralled that they will become God enthralled. Nothing should enthral you more than
knowing that you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ because of what He did on the
cross.
Have your sins been forgiven? I mean have you told Jesus that you want your
sins forgiven and you want to walk with Him? And that you want to give Him your life?
Have you done that? Well a Christian is a follower of Christ, and if you want to be a
follower of Christ, will you just say something like this. This is not a magic prayer, but if
these words mirror the words of your heart would you just say this: Jesus, thank you for
dying on a cross for my sins. Forgive me for my sins. Thank you for rising from the
dead. By faith I ask you to be my Lord and my Saviour. Help me to repent and to turn
away from my sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual words
of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew and Greek
words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases.
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