A Plead for Mercy

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Habakkuk’s third prayer is more a song to be sung not in the way we would sing, but it worked for them.  But shall we learn from the second verse, “O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear?  In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.”  Habakkuk is reflecting on what God has shared with him, and more than likely it is how He is going to use evil Babylon to punish Judah.  Habakkuk understands that God holds his people to a standard, and sin brings about judgment, so he pleads for mercy. 

In verses 3-7, Habakkuk has a vision of God marching north in power and wrath, and it is more a vision of how God is going to bring nations to fear his power and anger, not by military ways, but by lightning bolts, plagues, earthquakes, and pestilence.

I have read that the people of Babylon put faith in the goddesses Tiamat and Marduk that controlled the rivers and sea, but Habakkuk sees in his vision God displacing their little gods with His power and might.  For God is going to save His people and keep the lineage of David, that all people could have the promise of the coming Messiah.

Now it is time to get excited, and we also should have the same confidence in God as Habakkuk and be open to express it as he has in verses 16-19.  “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.  Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.  The prophet is waiting for the judgment of Judah and the destruction of Babylon.  When he talks about his body trembles, he is referring to Babylon’s invasion of Judah.

Now listen to Habakkuk; Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, 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.  God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.”

Habakkuk’s victory was his faith in God, and that is the only place you and I will find victory.  If we moved this to 2018, we might say, though the grocery stores have no food, and my savings account is empty and powerful nations are coming against us, our only hope is God.  And we, like Habakkuk should say the righteous must live by faith.  Or what about this faith; “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Let me close with this word from Oswald Chambers; “If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice