“And yet: a story of hope” (Taken from Habakkuk 3)
A sermon given in Nashville
27 November 2022
I return to Sydney on Tuesday and get to work right away. Each week my team and I share significant times in our outreach book shop and in the homes and offices with Jewish contacts. We unpack the story of our Messiah, his death and burial, the resurrection and his soon return. It’s a joy to report of men and women making public profession of their faith. I’ll do my best to update you as often as you’d like to hear.
If you’d like to donate, that’s always welcome, and for those who prefer to fill out a paper form, I even have some of those with me.
When you pray for Patty and me, for the team back in Sydney, please pray for us to keep our eyes on the Lord of hope, as Thursday begins our summer outreach. Your being with us in partnership is something I would never take for granted. Thanks for listening to me today.
Thanks for listening to God today.
Thanks for sharing God’s awesome love and hope, to the Jew first, and also to all the Gentiles of Middle Tennessee.
SERMON
A very hearty thank you to Pastor David and Nic and to their family, to Charley and her bands, to the staff including Alec, Miller, Sarah, Brooke, and Kiefer and all who make The Church at Lockeland Springs such a great place here in East Nashville. Our mission here is to engage the whole person with the whole gospel of Yeshua the Messiah, anywhere, anytime, and why not today?
This is of course, Thanksgiving weekend, which includes the most travelled day in the US every year, and after Thursday night, the time when people bought more products on Black Friday and when Amazon makes enough money to pay for all their ads, they smile at us all the rest of the year. And a good time for us to remember to be thankful.
Today some say, is also the beginning of Advent, so to each of you and for those who might join in the celebration of Advent, may this season be full of joy and hope for you in knowing the living God. A season for anticipation, of getting ready to receive the promise yet again, and in the historic mainline church, a time to anticipate the 2nd coming of Messiah as well. Come, thou long expected Jesus.
Today is also the Fourth Sunday of the month when here at The Church at Lockeland Springs, we focus on global mission. As a missionary to Australia the last 25 years of my life, I appreciate that focus, even today.
So many events and notices to highlight, but I also want to bring to conclusion the study of the Jewish prophet Habakkuk whom you have been considering the last two weeks here.
In the last two weeks, David has told us about lament, the prayer he has offered to God 1,000 times, he said. Lament is when Habakkuk has this frustrated and yet faith-filled conversation. A conversation, mind you, and not a monologue. A conversation, not a lecture from heaven. It reminds me of the personal chats the fictional character Tevye had with God. If you remember the Broadway show or the movie “Fiddler on the Roof”, or you ever read the stories by author Shalom Aleichem involving Tevye the milkman, you would have met this Jewish man living in the Russian shtetl, the little village of Anatevka. His life was hard; the anti-Semitism of the local constable and the townspeople was palpable and painful; Tevye’s poverty overwhelming. No wonder he had so much to say, and he did say, in scenes like this one
Poverty; it’s no great honour either. I love the relationship Tevye had with the Almighty, and maybe you have experienced this example of prayer as well. Some of you will remember the account in Genesis (chapter 18) when Abraham negotiated with God—trying to prevent of judgment of fire and brimstone falling on Sodom and Gomorrah.
That scene started with this statement. “Abraham was still standing before the LORD. Abraham came near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?’ Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?” (Genesis 18.22-24)
Note this. Abraham was standing before the Lord. He had his relationship firm and stood his ground. This is not defiance; this is Abraham, the friend of God. (James 2.23) And what was God’s response to the question of the 50?
“If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.” (18.26)
In other words, yes, I agree with your request. This is the type of conversation I’m speaking of. Honest. Personal. A moment later perhaps, Abraham drops the threshold to 45. (.28) Again God approved of the new negotiation. And the contract’s data continued to be downgraded to 40, then 30, 20, and finally 10.
That’s the kind of prayer, the kind of conversation that God is hoping to have with us, during Advent, or after your parent-teacher conference at school, or when your company sends you a pink slip and you won’t have a job in 2023… God wants to be with you, to speak with you, to love on you. That day, and throughout your days.
With that in mind, let’s turn to Habakkuk chapter 3, and see what this one chapter has to say to us, now 2500 years after originally given to the people of Judah, in the uncertain times of 6th century BCE, in our uncertain times of COVID and beyond.
“A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.” (3.1)
Verse 1: A prayer of the prophet. We are used to prophecies coming from a prophet, but a prayer? Now we are talking. And you and I are learning what it takes to be a significant spokesman for God’s people in our days. Prayer.
“LORD, I have heard the report about you, and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known. In wrath remember mercy.” (3.2)
Verse 2: I heard, and I fear. I take you seriously. God, you are not a once-a-week, Sunday 10:30 AM only deity. You have spoken and I’m listening. What is the report? For that I’ll only reference his contemporary Jeremiah and tell you that the report includes a promise of the Babylonian conquest. This takes place around 586 BCE. For Jewish people this is a watershed moment in our history and a terrible blight in that history. Remember in the genealogy of Yeshua, recorded in Matthew chapter 1, we read of three sections of Jewish history. “From Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and from the exile to Messiah.” (Matthew 1.17) Great person to great person, then great person to a horrible event, then from that event to Messiah. Messiah? After the captivity? Seems that, no matter what or how bad things turn, God seems to have a “And yet…” up his sleeve. There is hope. Somehow.
That horrible event-- the capture of our people from the land of Judah and the destruction of the Holy Temple by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans/ Babylonians-- defined Jewish people for generations. It’s the “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” event. It’s the “What were you doing on 9/11?” question. That’s what the captivity in Babylon was for the Jewish people for hundreds of years.
The promise given to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10) is God’s judgment based on three things, according to the rabbis. Our sins of adultery, idolatry and murder were the cause of the judgment.
When you think of promises, you probably don’t think of that one. You think of God’s promise to be with you always, to the end of the age. Or you might think of the promise that if we lack wisdom, we can ask of God who will give it to us without rebuke. Or how about the promise of eternal life for each person who believes in Jesus, no matter the depth of sins we have committed.
But God’s promise, or as it says in verse 2 ‘the report’ causes Habakkuk to fear. He believes that Jeremiah is correct. He believes that the Jewish people will be in captivity for the next 70 years or more. But listen to his clear hope, and you hear hope several times in Habakkuk 3… verse 2, “in wrath remember mercy.”
Asking God to remember something is what Abraham felt comfortable doing with Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s what Tevye felt comfortable doing in “Fiddler.” It’s what Habakkuk is asking with faith. Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. With faith, we have the victory. NOT the victory of beating the Babylonians. Not the victory of seeing our homeland in a decade or two. But the victory that our grandchildren will live in Judah again. The victory that we can have confidence in the living God to be with us, in captivity and in our home. In our failings and in our victories.
Listen to the Apostle Paul remind us of this same word, in Romans chapter 8, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Verse 35)
Do you hear the apostle shouting,”NOT ON YOUR LIFE!” All these things are real and worrisome at times, AND YET reality is above all these issues, all these troubles. Those troubles are real, but God is MORE REAL. He continues with the famous ending of Romans 8.
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8.38-39)
Remember mercy.
The rabbis teach that God has two hands, the right hand of mercy, the left hand of judgment. And “mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2.13) Remember in Jesus’ story, the goats are on the left, sheep on the right. I’m not telling you this to help with your seating arrangements for Christmas dinner, or to make you shake your head about Thanksgiving seating, but to let you in this priority system in God’s character. Yes, he’s the God of justice. Yes, he will bring Judah to her knees in the Babylonian conquest. AND YET… there is something greater. Mercy will triumph over judgment. After 70 years, not two weeks, not a couple of losing seasons, but after 70 full years, mercy will triumph. “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2.13)
A comment about that word we heard three times in our reading today. The word is ‘selah.’ End of verses 3, 9, and 13. It means that in a public or even private reading, one should pause, ponder, wonder, and listen deeply in your spirit. Don’t rush. Wait for it. Remember in chapter 2 last week,
“For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.” (2.3)
Waiting is something with which we all struggle. When you are on hold with a company’s telephone, and someone comes on and says, “thank you for waiting patiently” I wonder if they are talking with me. Me? Patient? Ha! Waiting, I’ll give you that, but patient? I’m working on that one.
Selah reminds me to drink deeply of the text. Selah tells me to wait for the information to sink inside me.
The major text today is found in the final section we read. Verses 16 and following: “I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us. For though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord GOD is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.” (3.16-19)
His fear is apparent. His trembling and the sound of his lips is quivering. Life in the Habakkuk household is stressed. He knows what is coming; he knows the end is near. He is not wearing a sandwich sign, no END OF THE WORLD language, but he sees the proverbial handwriting on the wall. The Babylonians are coming. We are losing.
You would think the summary of his views, near the end of this little book in the Bible would be hopeless. “Oh well, let’s get on with it. I’m consigned to my lot.” Mighty Casey has just struck out. Day of distress. People will invade us. It’s all there.
Habakkuk summarises the setting. The agriculture—gone. Fig tree? No blossom. Vines? No fruit. Olive’s yield? Zilch/ failure. Flock? Cut off from the main herd. No crops; no cattle or sheep. Ruin. Emptiness. He is probably going into a blues club, down to the basement, and start digging holes. The end is near.
Listen. Selah. Listen. Ponder. Pause. Listen.
“yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord GOD is my strength, and He has made my feet like…”
WHAT? You’ve got to be kidding! He says, I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice” He’s got to be joking. He’s got to be high on something. Nobody rejoices when things are so bad. Do they?
Do they?
You bet they do. That’s what the people of Hebrews 11 represent. They believed God when faith was a joke to everyone else. Chapter one of Habakkuk showed the Chaldeans laughing in mockery at the defences of all who tried to withstand them, like the Texans trying to stop Derek Henry. (1.10)
Faith though, sees beyond the natural. Faith sees the end of the drought. Faith sees the time 70 years down the road when the people of Judah can go back home, delivered from Babylon. Faith for the Hebrews in Egypt saw 300 years ahead when Moses delivered us. Many Jewish prophets like Isaiah and Micah saw even further, hundreds of years ahead and expected the Messiah to come, in Bethlehem, in Judah, no matter what the Babylonians would cause in Habakkuk’s days. They saw a virgin having a son who would be the hope of Israel. They saw by faith, for there was nothing else in view that would give them hope. And their ruthless faith in the God of Hope gave them joy; they saw the Advent of the Messiah, and they believed. They saw his healings and his salvation, and they rejoiced.
Faith sees beyond the natural. The natural man can see the fig tree and no production. The natural man can see no fruit on the vines. But the woman and the man of faith can still shout, “Yet will I exult in the Lord.”
They and they alone can sing, “Come thou long expected Jesus.”
Have you joined their chorus? Have you looked beyond your 401K to the God of all provision? Have you seen the world’s uncertainty and pretended it isn’t there, or have you looked to the Real One above the realities of homelessness and sadness? Is Jesus your Lord and Saviour? Are you calling on him to be your long-expected One in your days this weekend, even today? If you’d like to pray, a simple prayer, a prayer of professing who He is, Lord of Hope, Saviour even of your world, then join me.
SAMPLE PRAYER:
God, eternal God, who is not shaken when the world shakes, thank you for helping me see you beyond my circumstances. Help me to trust you, honestly, and to surrender to you. Even now. And give me gratitude to shout, “I exult in you” “I rejoice in you.” For you have done great things.
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Actual full text:
Hab. 3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. :2 LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear.
O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years,
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.
Hab. 3:3 God comes from Teman,
And the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.
His splendour covers the heavens,
And the earth is full of His praise.
4 His radiance is like the sunlight.
He has rays flashing from His hand,
And there is the hiding of His power.
5 Before Him goes pestilence,
And plague comes after Him.
6 He stood and surveyed the earth.
He looked and startled the nations.
Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered,
The ancient hills collapsed.
His ways are everlasting.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan under distress,
The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.
Hab. 3:8 Did the LORD rage against the rivers,
Or was Your anger against the rivers,
Or was Your wrath against the sea,
That You rode on Your horses,
On Your chariots of salvation?
9 Your bow was made bare,
The rods of chastisement were sworn. Selah.
You cleaved the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and quaked.
The downpour of waters swept by.
The deep uttered forth its voice,
It lifted high its hands.
11 Sun and moon stood in their places.
They went away at the light of Your arrows,
At the radiance of Your gleaming spear.
12 In indignation You marched through the earth.
In anger You trampled the nations.
13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
For the salvation of Your anointed.
You struck the head of the house of the evil
To lay him open from thigh to neck. Selah.
14 You pierced with his own spears
The head of his throngs.
They stormed in to scatter us.
Their exultation was like those
Who devour the oppressed in secret.
15 You trampled on the sea with Your horses,
On the surge of many waters.
Hab. 3:16 I heard, and my inward parts trembled,
At the sound my lips quivered.
Decay enters my bones,
And in my place, I tremble.
Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,
For the people to arise who will invade us.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
18 Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
19 The Lord GOD is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.
For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.
