Welcome back to another episode of Struggling Well. We're glad you're here and hope that you have been hanging in there with us as we've been just taking a skimming look, if I think I made that word up too, but a skim over the top of Habachok. And our hope is when we do these minor prophets or anything else from scripture is we're certainly not going to give you an exhaustive study in the 10 minutes that you're listening. But we want to kind of put out a little appetizer for you so that you will then decide, hey, I want to know more. that intrigues me. it challenges me maybe through what they're saying the Holy Spirit will convict your heart and urge you to move forward in your walk with Christ.
Yeah. And so in chapter 3 of Habachok, it is so as Habach has looked back on his complaints and God's response. this is a prayer that was sung by Habach and he goes back to remember what God has done in the past. He said, "I heard all about you, Lord. I'm filled with awe by your amazing works in this time of our deep need. Help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy." So, he's he realizes they're in trouble. This is just before the Babylonians just destroy the southern kingdom of Judah. But he goes back to a time past. And as you read through the verses, as Suzi said, we don't have time to go into depth on him. I believe he's talking about the time that he rescued his people. Israel out of Egypt and brought them out of their and defeated the Egyptians and the Pharaohs. and so he you as his prayer begins, what you see is that God appears in power.
The power of God gets revealed and all of it because he's sending his chariots, God's chariots of salvation for his people. So in the midst of 400 years of captivity and 400 years of being slaves to the Egyptian. God sees his people and God delivers his people in the midst of this dark and chaotic world. And Habach as he remembers that is saying to God, "Now I need you to do the same thing for us."
And it's I again I think for those of us alive today, we've watched how this world is dark. It's chaotic. It feels like evil is victorious time and time again. And our prayer is God, do something deliver us again. And I believe that delivery is coming, but we're going to have to wait for it. And that's what we're invited into this journey of faith by trusting God that he's at work even though we may not see it clearly right now. Th
this whole chapter is very reminiscent to me of the conversation that Job had with God. You know, he lays out all these complaints and then God speaks to him and says, "Where were you? those where were you which are unbelievable and at the end of that then Job realizes that you know he needs to repent himself because he had lost the a vision for God. What is true of both Job and Habach which is often not true of us is that they were bringing their complaints to God.
They were waiting for God to respond in some way.
I think because of the way that we are and I don't have any good answer for this right now. I'd have to give it more thought. But because we are so independent and as a nation, the United States in particular, we are taught to be independent, that we can do anything, which is such a big fat lie. I've always wanted to dance ballet, but I got news for you. I can't do it. But I've been taught that if I just try it, I can do it. Well, these two men, when they come before God and they lay out their complaint in complete and utter ness and honesty. They're waiting to hear from him. That to me is huge. It's a huge difference between Habach and Job and where I typically go.
And I love you know, so Job's response when he finally does see God and he finally has his five minutes before God, he says, "I repent and I'll be silent because my ears had heard of you, but now I've seen you. So I'm going to repent and be silent. I have nothing more to say." Habach when he sees God at work And his prayer kind of rehearses the things that God has done. In verse 16, he said, "I trembled inside when I heard this. My lips quivered with fear. My legs gave way beneath me. I shook with terror. I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us."
And so you get that sense of, "Oh my goodness, God really is who he says he is and I'll wait on him." And then verse 17 is the one that I love because it the circumstances of life may not change. Right?
You know, again, the comparison to Job, Suzi, is a great one. Job doesn't have anything restored to him. I know he eventually does, but when he repents and sees God for who he is, and he's willing to wait on God, he has nothing restored. And Habachir says, even though the fig trees have no blossoms and there's no grapes in the vine, even though the olive crop fails, the fields lie empty and barren, even though the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty, I will rejoice in the Lord.
Right? When there's no evidence that God is doing anything, right?
He says, "I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy." Oh, this one gets me. In the God of my salvation, salvation means to be, you know, to be saved from. So, he's saying with zero evidence of God, I'm going to take joy because God is my salvation. So, in the waiting, it seems like his faith has been strengthened. Yeah. And I and again I think there's absence complete absence of any evidence that God is doing anything. And so if I bring it forward to today I don't know there's complete absence. But for a lot of us it feels that way.
It feels as we look around what God what are you doing? And yet I can find not only hope but joy. That's the part that gets really confusing to me. But not in the circumstances of my life in the Lord. He is the one who is my hope? And so then I fast forward that it's okay. When is that going to come? I don't know. But he promises that my savior, my risen living savior is coming back again. And he will make all things right. He will take care of all injustice, all iniquity. But it's not until he returns.
Right. And it's got to be Well, it is for Habach and for Job. It was more than a feeling of, you know, that warmth. fuzzy feeling we all yearn to feel. but it was God's presence, him t them taking God at his word. If he said he's going to be present, they believe that he's present. Again, I struggle with this so much myself because there's there are so many things that say to me, "You can do it. Try this. Do this. Do that.", you know, as opposed to saying, "Be still. Sit and wait for God. He's present. Wait for him to Yeah. And then the book of Habach ends, unlike Jonah, because we talked about this a few weeks ago, Jonah ends with in my mind it's like this is not good. He's an angry prophet who sits outside a city where he just saw God's salvation delivered and he doesn't like what God did. But Habach ends in verse 19, "The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes me as sure-footed as a deer, able to tread upon the heights." And That to me comes back to my strength is not something I generate. It's not something I do. It's not something I accomplish. My strength is in the one who brought salvation to me, who I will wait and put my trust in. And I hope in him and in that I can find joy. Again, not in my circumstances, but in the God of my salvation.
You know, when I hear this, and you and I talk about this all the time when it's just the two of us, And I look at our world often times I can feel myself getting afraid. it feels like evil is rampant. It feels like the enemy is winning and I don't theology wise and doctrinally wise I don't know. I don't get all that stuff. It's important though and so I tried to understand it but you know are we in the middle of the tribulation? Is the tribulation coming? That's not my problem. The problem that I face in my soul is how will I do Lord? Will I be faithful to you? Will I just lay down and want to die because I'm afraid that your presence is removed? And so I've been convicted and I feel this as I read Habach as well is convicted of that my life needs to be strengthened by his word, his promises, and his presence. Believing that
just like in Hebrews chapter 11 where everything was accounted to them because of their faith, because of their belief, believe that. live that out. So no matter what comes and I don't mean that lightly but no matter what comes my faith is firmly anchored to the truth because if it's not then as difficulty comes and you and I both know in our lives what has come and what will be yet to come then I am like this cork on the ocean just tossed back and forth. Nothing firm about me, nothing compelling to follow me because I follow Jesus. It's it just all kind of collides in my head that's what's important. I need to be firmly anchored to him and his word.
Yeah. And that's why, you know, okay, again, not to get into the theology of end times, but I think it would be safe to say we are living in the end times. Now, when will that all end? I have no idea. Nobody does except the father who will usher that in. But what is important is how I live in the midst of those times. And Darl Johnson is an author who I deeply admire and he wrote a book on his commentary on revelation and he entitled it disciplehip on the edge
and it we're on the edge of that return and how do we live and so as you were saying I want to be anchored in the word because that I know is truth it's absolute truth
I want to be given over to the spirit of God having rule in my life and I surrender my rule of my life to him on a regular daily basis and I find my hope in a returning savior.
Yeah.
And if I could live with that in the midst of I do I get saddened by the events of this world. I sure I do. But I don't want to live in fear and I don't want to let for a minute think that evil is going to win cuz I know that it's not.
And so can I point like Habach did and Habach's hundreds of years before Christ is born. But can I point like Habach did to what God has done in the past and trust him and believe in him? and find myself saying even if there's no evidence of it, I will rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in the God of my salvation. That's my hope and prayer for you and for me. And that's my hope and prayer for those who are listening.