Timeless Truths: Higher Ground

#22. Timeless Truths: Higher Ground

June 9, 2016

The name, Habakkuk means embrace.

Habakkuk may not be on your "often studied books of the Bible." It is short, three chapters. It is a book of prophecy. In the course of this narrative, the author, one of the minor prophets of Israel, moves from frustration with God to confidence in God.

There are four life lessons we learn from Habakkuk.

1. My God accepts complaints.

2 How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted… 12LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. 13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

Habakkuk 1:2-4, 12-13

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV.

• God listens to us when we complain.
• It’s okay to go to God and ask questions.
• Dishonesty bothers God, not questions and complaints.
• Through it all, Habakkuk complains NOT ABOUT God but TO GOD.

2. My God acts in His time and in His way to
     accomplish His will.

. . . and sometimes that makes me mad!

"Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. 3 For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end--it will not lie. If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Habakkuk 2:2-4 (RSV)

• Habakkuk needed honesty AND patience.

“The problem is that I’m in a hurry and God is not.” Philip Brooks

• Most of our impatience is the result of our fluctuating faith. Habakkuk speaks of the importance of faith in 2:4, highlighted above.
• The Apostle Paul was well aware of the truth of these prophetic words. He quotes them in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11.

3. My God answers all my prayers.

1 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

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.

Habakkuk 2:1; 3:1-2

• Verses 1-16 of Chapter 3 are a prayer. Habakkuk pours out his heart to God.
• We need to remember that God always answers our prayers. He might respond GO or NO or GROW. The last two answers are the hardest to accept.
• Remember, the righteous live by faith.

 Often in Psalms, many of which are prayers, the psalmist uses the term “Selah.” 

• It means to stop and think about what’s been said or written.
• While Habakkuk doesn’t include that term in his prayer, this is a good time for you to Selah.

4. My God is able to lift me above the circumstances
     of my life.

17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 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.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

• Praise is not a result of circumstances.
• Praise is a result of choice.

I had a high school student who was happy every single day. This is unusual behavior in any situation, and exceptionally unusual in the life of a female high school sophomore.

I asked her, “Why are you always happy? None of the other girls I've ever had as a student were or are.”

“Why, Dr. Downing,” she answered. “Being happy is a choice. I wake up every morning and decide to be happy.”

What wisdom I heard from a determined young lady!

Praise is a result of choice.

• I know I repeated that statement.
• Think about it, and take action.
•  Between Chapter 1 and Chapter 3, Habakkuk stopped looking around and started looking to God.

What are you looking at?

Thanks to Dr. Keith Newman for the central teachings used in this blog.

Next Thursday's Timeless Truths Series: What God Wants – Part 1

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