After the hymn singing tonight,
we could just say amen and go home. We've heard good messages,
but we're not. We could, but we're not. If you will, open your Bibles
again with me to Habakkuk chapter 1. As you're turning here, I would
remind you that his name means to embrace. You might wonder
what's important about these meanings of the names in the
Old Testament. Well, God ordained these names,
no doubt, and they do have signification and teaching for all of us. To
embrace and abaca. is especially known for his words,
the just shall live by faith, that we embrace the Lord Jesus
Christ by faith and live. And the message tonight concerns
the prayer of Habakkuk here in chapter one, beginning with verse
12. Art thou not from everlasting,
O Lord my God? My 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, and
makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that
have no ruler over them. They take up all of them with
the angle. They catch them in their net,
gather them in their drag. Therefore, they rejoice and are
glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto
their net, and burn incense unto their drag, because by them their
portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore
empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? I will stand, notice verse one,
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will
watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer. when I am reproved." Last week,
I borrowed four words from Habakkuk's prayer, the four words in verse
12, when he said, we shall not die. And I borrowed those to
show the faith of Habakkuk, that in the darkest of times, he trusted
in God and knew that the nation of Israel, that these Chaldeans
that God had ordained to chasten the nation of Israel, that they
should not extinguish the nation. We shall not die. And he knew
that because of the promise that God had made with Abraham. that
in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. And
so then it would be impossible for the children of Abraham,
the nation of Israel, to be extinguished before the Savior was born. Habakkuk cried unto God for the
sin of Israel. And at first, it seemed to him
as though the Lord did not listen. The Lord did not hear when he
prayed. But then God told him, yes, he
did hear. And yes, chastisement was coming. That God had raised up the Chaldeans,
the Babylonians, if you notice in verse five, that God had raised
them up for this purpose. behold you among the heathen
and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your
days which you will not believe, though it be told you, for lo,
I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which
shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling
places that are not theirs. God had raised up this nation,
of the Babylonians to chastise, to punish His people, Israel,
because of their sin. I want you to look back into
the book of Ezekiel. Turn back a few pages into Ezekiel
chapter 21. If you begin in verse 18, we
read, the word of the Lord came unto me again saying, that is,
the word came to Ezekiel the prophet. Also, thou son of man,
appoint thee two ways that the sword of the king of Babylon
may come. Both twain shall come forth out
of one land, and choose thou a place, choose it at the head
of the way to the city. Appoint a way that the sword
may come to Rabbah, of the Ammonites and to Judah in Jerusalem, the
defense for the king of Babylon. Now notice this. Nebuchadnezzar,
as it were, came to what we would call a fork in the road. If he
went one way, he would go to Rabbah, which was the capital
of the Ammonites. And if he went the other way,
he would go to Jerusalem. of course, the capital of Judah. For the king of Babylon stood
at the parting of the way, at the head of two ways. Now, which
way am I going to go? He was very superstitious, as
most pagans are. Most pagans are superstitious.
You know, in Acts chapter 17, when Paul was in Athens, that
word Religious is the same word for superstitious, that he realized
by their many altars that they were too superstitious. They
were too religious. Nebuchadnezzar was a man like
that. And so he uses, I want you to
notice, he uses three different ways of divination to decide
to go to the right or to go to the left. Now, what has God appointed? God has appointed him to go to
Jerusalem. He's going to use him to punish,
to chastise his people. You might say, well, that's just
by luck or by chance or by fortune that he goes in that direction.
Not hardly. Not hardly. Even though he used
three different ways to decide where to go. First, he uses the
eras. You notice it says he made his
arrows bright. Now, from what I have read, what
they did, they shot, some say, two arrows up into the air. And
if one arrow went to the right, they would put names on those
arrows. And if the arrow went to the
right, or if the arrow went to the left, that's the way they
would go. That was the way they used to
discern what they thought was the will of fortune, the will
of their gods. And then you notice he had a
second way in case that one didn't satisfy him. He used his images. He had these images like Rachel. Remember when Jacob left his
father-in-law's house, his wife, Rachel, she brought those images
with her. What were those household images
for? in their opinions, in their minds,
a way to discern God's will, to know God's will. So the king
uses his images also, and then he had one other way. They open
up an animal, some kind of an animal, and they examine the
liver. Now this was very, very popular
in that day, in that time. And somehow they thought they
could discern by looking at the liver. God's will, the way that
they should go. Now, you know and I know from
the word of God, as the scripture tells us, the lot is cast into
the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. When
people shake the dice and throw it out there, it seems to be
so random the way the numbers that turn up, but there's nothing
random about it. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. And even this
wicked king, using these three different means to discern which
way he should go, either to Jerusalem or to Rabbah, the casting of
the lot, the Lord disposes. And so Nebuchadnezzar was directed
his armies to go into Jerusalem. At his right hand was a divination
for Jerusalem, to appoint captains to open the mouth in the slaughter, and lift up the voice with shouting,
to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast them out,
and to build a fort. And we know that God delivered
Jerusalem into the hand of the Galileans and it was all part
of what God revealed here to Habakkuk. There's nothing in this world
that happens by chance. Nothing. I know many people were disappointed,
I'll use that word, concerning the election this week and no
doubt we should be. But let's remember this. Last
Sunday evening, when we met here, we worshiped God who is on the
throne. And we come again tonight to
worship God who is still on the throne. And nothing has changed
as far as God is concerned. His will is being accomplished
in this world. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His will. Now, we don't know what God may
have in store for us, but we do know this. Like someone told
me, preacher used to say, I don't know what's in front of me, but
I know who's in front of me. And we don't know what's on tomorrow,
but we know who's on tomorrow. That's God almighty. Now let's
look tonight. Matthew Henry commented here.
The prospect of the prevalence of the Chaldeans, they were going
to prevail against Israel. The prospect of the prevalence
of the Chaldeans drives the prophet to his knees, and he takes the
liberty to plead with God concerning it. I have two parts to the message. First, I want us to notice his
prayer. I have three parts to the message.
But first, his prayer begins with several truths about God,
verses 12 and 13. We might, as I looked at this,
I wrote down, we might say that he begins his prayer like the
Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray. They came
to him, remember, and said, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught
his disciples to pray. And so the Lord gave them what
we call that model prayer. And it begins, our Father, which
art in heaven, hallowed hallowed, sanctified, be thy name. We begin our prayers with worship. We begin our prayers with, when
we go to the Lord in prayer, this is the way Habakkuk began
his prayer, and this is the way we should learn to begin our
prayers. This is the way the Lord taught us to pray. Our Father,
which art in heaven, we come to him first of all to worship
him. And we see these words here.
First of all, Oh Lord, my God, my Holy One. Our God, our Father
is the Lord. You notice those letters in that
name, Lord, all in capital letters, which reveals to us this is Jehovah. Oh Jehovah, my God, my Holy One. He is eternal. His name Jehovah
reveals unto us that He is eternal, that He is from everlasting,
that He is the Alpha and Omega and all in between. And He is
the one who was able to say, I am that I am. Not I was or
I shall be, but always I am that I am. He is Jehovah. He gives
to all life and breath and being. He is the fountain of all being. He is the fountain of all power
and of all perfection. So the first line in this prayer
is, O LORD my God, mine Holy One, O Jehovah. Second, notice
he says, O LORD my God. We pray, our Father which art
in heaven, my God. He is my God. He is my God by
His everlasting covenant. He made us His people. The psalmist said, we are the
sheep of His pasture, and He has made us to be His people. We didn't make ourselves to be
His people. He's my God, first of all, by
His everlasting covenant, that covenant which He made with Himself,
the triune God before the foundation of the world in which He chose
His children. My God, my God, by everlasting
covenant. He is my God by His sovereign
choice. He is my God by His purchase,
His purchase price, that is by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
His Son. Oh Lord, my God. In the Song
of Solomons, the bride says, I am His and He's mine. You can't beat that. You just
can't improve upon that, if you can say that tonight. He is mine. He's my God. He's my God by His
sovereign choice, by His purchase price of His precious blood,
and He's my God because He conquered me. I was a rebel, I was on my
way to eternal damnation, and God conquered me and brought
me to the feet of the Savior. He's my God. He's my God, and
I am His. The third thing, O Lord, my Holy
One. Now, He's absolutely holy. Writers have said this many times,
that of all of his attributes, his holiness is his chief attribute. And when you think of his various
attributes, his wisdom, his love, his power, his omniscience, all
of these wonderful things that he reveals to us in his word
about himself, they're all holy. It's his holy love, his holy
wisdom, his holy power. Think of it like a wagon wheel
with all the various spokes going out and all of these spokes representing
one of his perfections, but they all come in to this one, his
holiness, and they all filter through his holy. He is the holy
one, the thrice holy God. And number four, oh mighty God. You see that? Look at the prayer
again. It begins, oh Lord, my God, my
holy one. Oh Lord, oh mighty God. The name that's translated here,
mighty God, is most often translated by the English word rock, rock. It's a word that we read in Deuteronomy
chapter 32 and verse 4. He is the rock. His work is perfect. All his ways are judgment. A
God of truth and without iniquity, just and right as he. And in
the word of God, we find out that their God, that is those
who worship false deities, would be gods. Their rock is not as
our rock. He's not. This word actually,
according to Strong at least, it's like a cliff that's hanging
out. And under it, there's shelter. There's a refuge. And that is
what God is to his people. He's a shelter in the time of
storm. We sing that hymn, Jesus is a
rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus
is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. So Habakkuk begins his prayer
with these truths about God, and we should learn from him,
from his prayer. God's eternity, God's eternity
here. Jehovah gave him hope even when
what he saw was most discouraging. When he saw that wicked Chaldeans
were going to come and run roughshod over his people, over the nation
of Israel. But yet God's eternity gave him
hope that even when what he saw was most encouraging, he could
hope in God. The psalmist wrote, we have heard
with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what thou didst
in their days, in days of old. Lord, Jehovah, thou hast not
changed, and what you did for them, you could do for us. This gave him hope, and God's
eternity gave him hope. that as he has always had a church
in this world, he always has. From the very beginning, he's
always had his chosen people in this world, his redeemed people. And that's never going to change
until he comes again and takes us out. He's always going to
have a church, his church, I should say, in this world. We shall not die. You've ordained
them for judgment. They're coming to chastise us,
but we shall not die. Not God's people. He always will
have a church in this world. And then God's holiness gave
him hope. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? That's what Abraham asked the
Lord, wasn't it? I'm sure you've asked him that
or thought about that. I know I have over the years
at different times and problems and perplexities. Shall not the
judge of all the earth do right? Yes, yes. I may not understand
it, probably won't, but I know this, he's going to do right. Whatever he does, it's going
to be right because he's right. Whatever God would allow the
Chaldeans to do, it could only do and only be what God ordained. They will do no more than what
God permits, no more than what God has ordained. Just like God
said to the sea, hitherto shalt thou come and no farther. Now,
we've got these crazy people in our day talking about the
seas rising, you know, and all of the environment and all that
stuff, you know. When you stop and think about
it, that has to be some of the most foolish thinking that man
has ever come up with. To believe that puny man, and
that's what we are in comparison to God, that we can somehow control
God's planet, and it's up to us to save the planet. I serve a bigger God than that,
don't you? Well, they can only come so far,
they can only do so much, and what they would do, as we see
here, they would attribute to the power of their gods. But we know, and Habakkuk knew,
it came from the living and true God. The wicked Chaldeans, these
Babylonians, they might prosper for a while. But Habakkuk knew
and confessed that God is a purer eyes than to behold evil and
could not look on iniquity. You know, there are three things
the scripture says that God cannot do. He cannot lie, He cannot
change, and He cannot deny Himself. Scripture says that. I noticed
several years back that some preachers began to include this
and say that God cannot look upon iniquity. But this verse
is in a different category altogether from those other sayings about
God. God cannot look upon iniquity
with pleasure, but God is omniscient, and he knows all the wicked and
evil that goes on in this world. He cannot look upon iniquity
with approbation, as John Gilb said. He just cannot do that
because He is a holy God. Well, let me go on to the second
part. His prayer, and this is important,
His prayer displays patience and long-suffering on God's part. It really does, as we read through
it. His prayer displays patience
and longsuffering on God's part. Arthur Pink said, God's attribute
of patience is probably the one that is less written upon than
any other. Because probably, now he didn't
say this, but probably because it is so associated with God's
mercy. But God is patient. And God is
long-suffering with his children, and I'm so thankful, aren't you?
He's patient. He's long-suffering. He was long-suffering
with the nation of Israel, when because of their unbelief at
one point there, he told Moses, leave me alone. I'm going to
destroy all of them, and I'll make of you. a greater nation. And you know, Moses, typical
of the intercessor, Jesus Christ, he interceded for the nation. And God showed his power, his
power in exercising patience. And as I read through here, that's
what I saw in this prayer, because Habakkuk takes a lot of liberty
here. And God gives us a lot of liberty
in prayer. He does. And it's because he's
patient. But Habakkuk uses this word wherefore. Wherefore? As though he's going
to call God to his judgment? As though he's going to demand
that God answer him and explain to him what he's doing? Wherefore? Notice that word in verse 13. Wherefore, lookest thou upon
them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue. I see patience on God's part
when this prophet's speaking to him like this. Wherefore,
Does he question God's right to do what he will with his own? Habakkuk stumbled over God's
actions. And this has been something that
good men have stumbled over all down through the ages. Wherefore
do the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper in this world? You remember the psalmist in
Psalm 73? He stumbled over this, didn't
he? Surely God is good to Israel. But as for me, look, he's not
the first. Habakkuk wasn't the first. And
I'm sure you've dealt with this yourself in some matter or another,
some way or another. It seems like the righteous suffer
in this world and the wicked prosper. The Chaldeans, they
dealt treacherously. with the people of God. They
had pretended to be their friends, pretended to be in alliance with
them, and now they have dealt and are dealing treacherously
with the people of God. And God, as it were, wherefore? God, it seems that you're holding
your tongue. as guilty of wickedness, and
Habakkuk complained about this. He complained about the wickedness
of his people, of his nation, but as wicked as they were, the
Chaldeans, in his opinion at least, were even more wicked. Turn with me to Jeremiah. Let's
look at this verse. Why do the righteous suffer?
and the wicked prosper. Jeremiah, this prophet, seems
to also have struggled with this. Jeremiah chapter 21, verses 1 and 2. The word which
came unto Jeremiah, and this is about the same time frame
that Habakkuk was prophesying. The word which came unto Jeremiah
from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent unto him Pasher, the son
of Micah and Zephaniah, the son of Maseah, the priest, saying,
Inquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us. For Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, maketh war against us. If so be that the Lord will
deal with us according to all his wondrous works. that he may
go up from us back to chapter 12 of Jeremiah. The Lord willing, I'm supposed
to have cataract surgery on both of my eyes within the next two
months, and I'm I hope you'll pray with me that I'll be able
to see better. I'm really struggling with seeing. But here in chapter 12 of Jeremiah,
righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee, yet let me
talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore, here it is again,
wherefore, doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore, are
all they happy that deal very treacherously? Thou hast planted
them, yea, they have taken root, they grow, yea, they bring forth
fruit. Thou art near in their mouth
and far from their hearts, from their brains. Wherefore? Back in Habakkuk. So wherefore
do the righteous suffer while the wicked seem to prosper in
this world? Number two, wherefore are thy
people made like fishes? Wherefore, are thy people made
like fishes of the sea? As easy as men take fish out
of the sea, and have no difficulty killing them, so the Chaldeans
would take advantage of the people of God, the nation of Judah.
Some men fish with an angle, that is, with a hook, and others
with a net, and take large quantities. the prophetess. Wherefore, number
three, wherefore is the idolatry of the Chaldeans not judged? Notice he said they sacrificed
to their own net. The power with which they had
taken advantage of Judah and were taking advantage of Judah,
they sacrificed or they attributed to their own strength, to their
own power, to their own wisdom. and not realizing that they were
just like that saw in the hand of God that Isaiah speaks about. The saw doesn't boast of its
work. It's the man that has the saw
in his hand that has the skill. And that's all the Babylonians
were. They were just like a saw, a
tool that God raised up to chase and his people for their sin,
for their iniquity. They give themselves credit for
their success. Their portion is fat and they
have plenty of meat. David in Psalm 103 explains this
to us, the patience and long suffering of God. He remembers
our frame. He does. He remembers our frame.
What are we? What is this frame? Dust. Dust and ashes. He remembereth
our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. And so we see the Lord deals
patiently with much long-suffering with his servant, allowing him
to take the liberty that we see that he did. Now, one other thing.
Verse 1 of chapter 2. It seems to me that Habakkuk
knew his prayer merited reproof, that he had taken a great deal
of liberty in speaking to God, and God had dealt with him in
patience, but he expected, if you notice that last part of
verse one, what I shall answer when I am reproved. I'm going
to put myself in my prayer closet, in my prayer tower, and I'm going
to watch, and I'm going to listen, and I'm going to see how God
reproves me for these words." I believe he knew. He knew that
he had taken a great deal of liberty. We have liberty to pray,
and I would not want to say anything that would discourage any of
us in prayer. But even still, we must remember
that when we pray, who we are and who we is. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts to us here this evening. We'll sing at hymn, A Shelter
in the Time of Storm.