If you have a problem at work that you need help solving, you don’t go to the lowest employee on the org chart. You go to the person who has the most power and authority you can get on your side. And, when you have that person firmly on your side, the size and scope of the problem aren’t nearly as intimidating as they were before you secured their support. When we look at the world around us, it’s hard not to be completely overwhelmed by the problems we see. Sometimes it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the problems just in our own lives. There’s a solution for this. When Habakkuk was feeling overwhelmed by the problems he was facing, he prayed and came away with a new perspective that was up to the task. Let’s talk about what he learned and what we can learn from him in this third part of our teaching series, Asking God Hard Questions.

God Is Big Enough

So, I was watching the Chiefs play the other night, and Mahomes was running from a defender who looked to be about three times his size and absolutely intent on sacking him. Now, Mahomes has been there a lot over his career, and has a remarkable knack for getting out of those kinds of situations unscathed. Mahomes ran out of the pocket and back about 10 yards toward the sideline. Then, just when it looked like he was going to get caught and brought down hard for a rather devastating sack…he was. Rather than throwing the ball away like he should have so we didn’t get hit with a huge loss on the play, he just held onto it and got tackled while he was all by himself. There wasn’t another Chief’s player within 10 yards of him. That meant there were lots of available guys in whose direction he could have thrown the ball just to throw it away and avoid the loss. But he didn’t. He just let himself get sacked. Meanwhile, I’m busy hollering at the screen, “Throw the ball!” 

Isn’t it easy to know what a player or coach should have done—or, better yet, should do—in a particular situation? I mean, you can see it right there on the screen. You’re looking at the same set of data they are seeing. The answer to whatever their momentary challenge happens to be is as plain as the nose on your face. Anyone can clearly see what needs to be done. Except, of course, the guys who are there actually making the wrong decisions. If they would just put you on speed dial for those kinds of moments, you could save them (as well as all the other fans) so much headache and frustration—not to mention totally unnecessary losses. Their job is so easy! Why can’t they see that? 

There’s nothing quite so satisfying—and frustrating—as participating in the grand exercise of Monday morning quarterbacking. From the perspective of hindsight and detached interest, we can easily see what should have been done in just about any given situation. Perhaps, though, you’ve been on the other side of such a gift of clarity. From the midst of the conflict or chaos things typically aren’t nearly so clear. In fact, when you are having to make big and difficult decisions in real time based on limited and incomplete information, it can feel downright impossible to know with certainty which is the right way to go. 

This morning finds us in the third part of our series, Asking God Hard Questions. For three weeks now we have been working our way through the writings of the Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk. We have been sitting with him in some really tough places. We’ve sat with him through uncomfortable answers to hard questions. We’ve sat with him through seasons of waiting on God to deliver the answers He has promised where being patient is really the only response that makes any sense. As much as we don’t like to think about this, we find ourselves in places like this in our own lives way more often than we’d like to admit. That’s what Habakkuk’s prophecy speaks to, and what this series is all about. Sometimes we find ourselves in a place where we can’t help but ask God really hard questions. Habakkuk assures us that we can safely do this, that God will respond, and also how to receive that response in a way that points us forward toward faith and hope. 

Habakkuk’s journey started out hard. He was furious about the state of his culture. Everywhere he looked things were an unmitigated disaster. Worse, no one seemed to care. He had harangued and complained and berated his friends and neighbors and even strangers about cleaning up their act. Nothing was making any difference. He hated to call God’s judgment down on his own people, but he didn’t know what else would get their attention. So, he cried out to God for help. When are you going to deal with all of this nonsense? God responds that, come to think of it, yes, it was time to deal with all the nonsense. So, He’s going to send Babylon to bring the hammer of judgment down on the people. This, rather naturally, leaves Habakkuk unnerved and bewildered. How could a righteous and holy God use a vile and evil nation like Babylon to bring judgment to His own people? God responds with an assurance that, no, He hasn’t completely lost His mind, and that, yes, He is going to eventually deal with Babylon as well. In the end, He invited Habakkuk and the rest of the world with Him to simply be silent in His presence. He’s in His temple, presiding over creation from His rightful position as Creator and Lord. 

So then, what do we do next? Well, what does Habakkuk do next? Well, I don’t know about you, but my first response, especially in a heated moment, is rarely the right one. If you are at all an internal processor like I am, you almost always leave a conversation where you had to respond quickly to a stressful situation wishing you had said this or that differently than you did. Giving ourselves time and space to collect our thoughts and consider our words is always a good idea. After sitting in silence before the Lord for some amount of time, as we come to Habakkuk 3 this morning, we find the prophet has been able to get his thoughts together in order to be able to share them. What he shares is powerful. If you have your copy of the Scriptures handy, find your way with me to Habakkuk 3, and let’s take a look at this together. 

We’re told right at the beginning here that what we are about to encounter is a prayer Habakkuk prayed. “A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. According to Shigionoth.” There you have it. A prayer. It was more than just a prayer, though. This is a psalm. Habakkuk took his prayer and set it to music so that others could remember it and learn from it. We don’t have any idea what shigionoth means, but most scholars assume it is a musical notation of some kind. If you were to open one of our hymnals, and look in the bottom right corner of any hymn, you would see something like MCDANIEL (12.8.12.8.) or WORTHY (6.6.4.6.6.4.). My guess is that you don’t have any idea what that means. I don’t really either. But I do know that they are tune designations. They tell someone with the right musical knowhow something about the song and how to perform it. The very last sentence of the whole collection of prophecy is a note for the choir director that this song should be accompanied by stringed instruments. There’s something powerful about singing true things about God as a people. Conveying deep and spiritual truths through the vehicle of songs is a great way to help people remember them. That’s why the church has always included singing in its worship liturgies. 

In any event, what we are encountering here in the last part of Habakkuk’s prophecy which we are going to be talking about both this week and next, is a prayer that was also a song that was also a prophecy. It was a prophecy not in the sense that it is necessarily telling us something about the future, but in that it is describing the nature and character of God in a way that only He could have revealed. It is a word from the Lord, through the prophet, to the people. 

In his prayer, Habakkuk turns his attention directly to God to address Him yet again. Look with me at v. 2: “Lord, I have heard the report about you; Lord, I stand in awe of your deeds. Revive your work in these years; make it known in these years. In your wrath remember mercy!” As he has sat before the Lord in silence, Habakkuk has not been idle. He has been prayerfully reflecting on who God is and what God is like. Now, he is praying on behalf of his people. 

“I’ve heard about you,” Habakkuk says. “I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes.” Those things you did in the past to help our people? I want you to do it again. We need you. We need your help. I know we are deserving of your judgment. But when you bring that judgment, remember to be merciful. Prefiguring the prayer the apostle John would pray at the very end of his revelation of the end of the world, Habakkuk is praying, “Come, Lord, come.” But when you come, Lord, go easy on us. 

What comes next is not an easy read. This is true both in English and in its original Hebrew. In Hebrew, several of the next few verses are notoriously hard to translate because the Hebrew isn’t totally clear. This doesn’t mean we don’t have any idea what it says at all. The general thrust is clear enough. The specific wording, though, is tricky at best. The challenge in English, on the other hand, is that Habakkuk is using imagery drawing on ideas and beliefs that were common in his day but which aren’t exactly common knowledge in our own. In order to really grasp each of the images Habakkuk uses, you have to do some background research and investigate the common worldview beliefs in his culture. Once again, this doesn’t mean we can’t still understand and appreciate the big picture by reading it without any of that. It simply means we have to work just a bit harder to get it right. This is often the case with the prophets, which is, I suppose, why so many people don’t pay them very much attention. 

The other thing that makes this challenging is that it is an example of a theophany. A theophany is a dramatic encounter with God in which He reveals some aspect of His nature or identity to us, especially His power and might. Theophanies were typically experiences that went beyond what most people were prepared to be able to process very well. Seeing the raw power of God like that usually left people terrified. There’s a powerful theophany in Exodus 19 when God appeared to the people at Mount Sinai. It was characterized by clouds and smoke and thunder and lightning and fire and sound. The people were so frightened by this dramatic encounter with the power of God that they refused to go anywhere near the mountain. They quickly appointed Moses as their representative. Keep all of that in the back of your mind as we move forward. 

Let’s get started here at v. 3: “God comes from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.” Pause there for just a second. If you don’t know where Teman or Mount Paran are, this won’t make a lot of sense. Scholars aren’t totally sure where the exact locations of these places are, but we do know they are to the south and west of Israel. In other words, they are in the direction of Mount Sinai. Habakkuk asked God to do what He had done in the past. Now, God comes up toward Jerusalem from the direction of Sinai, where He started His great work in the past. This is an image of God coming in power to reassert His sovereignty, and with the covenant fully in His view. The word selah, which appears several times in the psalms, is another word whose meaning isn’t totally clear. Most scholars are in agreement, though, that it is a kind of invitation into prayerful reflectiveness about a particular statement. Here, it is an invitation to reflect on God’s coming. 

What comes next is a description of God as He comes. “His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. His brilliance is like light; rays are flashing in his hand. This is where his power is hidden. Plague goes before him, and pestilence follows in his steps. He stands and shakes the earth; he looks and startles the nations. The age-old mountains break apart; the ancient hills sink down. His pathways are ancient.” 

Now, there’s a lot going on here, including some notoriously difficult translation challenges, especially in v. 4. The idea that plague and pestilence are something that come with God is rather unsettling. And what’s the deal with mountains breaking apart and hills sinking down? Well, there are answers to all of those questions, but rather than getting bogged down in the minute details of what we are seeing here, let’s make sure we don’t miss the forest for the trees. 

From a big picture standpoint, what are we seeing here? We are seeing a picture of God’s coming in power. This is a picture of God’s coming in power that was designed at several different points to present God as stronger and more powerful than the various gods of the peoples around Israel, especially Babylon. One of the most commonly worshiped gods in the region was Baal. He was the lord of the heavens. Well, God’s renown covers the heavens. You can’t even see Baal and his supposed domain any longer when the Lord comes to town. More than that, His praise fills the earth. He’s not just the lord of the heavens. He’s the Lord of heaven and earth. He is not limited to one particular part of creation. He’s the God of all of it. When He stands to come to the rescue of His people, the whole earth shakes with the effort. In other words, He’s big. Really big. Bigger even than the whole of the earth. His pathways are ancient in the sense that He has walked them before. He’s not coming to do a new work. He’s coming to continue a work that was begun long ago. His actions in the present are always consistent with His actions in the past. 

In short: the God Habakkuk experienced is surpassingly greater than any other god of this world. He’s greater and more powerful than anything in this world. All of those things are just things. They are created. He is the Creator. He is one who can handle whatever it is we set before Him. There’s nothing too hard for Him; nothing too big for Him; nothing that can overcome Him; nothing that can even challenge Him. 

In the next part of Habakkuk’s prayer, he continues along the same lines that he has already started tracing out for us. Stay with me in the text now at v. 7: “I see the tents of Cushan in distress; the tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.” That’s not a statement of judgment. It’s merely another observation of the power and might of our God. He wasn’t coming for judgment to these places, they are merely places He is passing by on His way to bring justice and rescue to Israel. But the mere passing of His presence is enough to leave them quaking. 

“Are you angry with the rivers, Lord? Is your wrath against the rivers? Or is your fury against the sea when you ride on your horses, your victorious chariot? You took the sheath from your bow; the arrows are ready to be used with an oath. Selah. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains see you and shudder; a downpour of water sweeps by. The deep roars with its voice and lifts its waves high.” Throughout ancient Israel’s thinking and theology, water was often a source of and force for chaos. This goes all the way back to the creation narrative when God brought order from the watery chaos, beginning with His proclamation of light. Here, though, God is pictured as far greater than any waters. The chaos of sin is merely a foe God rides over victoriously in His great chariot. 

Yet, once again, God is not limited in His sphere of authority and sovereignty. He doesn’t merely tame the seas, He overshadows even the heavens. “Sun and moon stand still in their lofty residence, at the flash of your flying arrows, at the brightness of your shining spear. You march across the earth with indignation; you trample down the nations in wrath.” God is indeed a warrior. None can truly stand before Him. 

And this is—indeed it should be—a terrifying image to behold…unless you happen to be the beneficiary of such grandeur and majesty as this. So then, for whom is all this passion intended? Verse 13 now: “You come out to save your people, to save your anointed. You crush the leader of the house of the wicked and strip him from foot to neck. Selah You pierce his head with his own spears; his warriors storm out to scatter us, gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak. You tread the sea with your horses, stirring up the vast water.” 

God does all of this for us; for His people. That people was once Israel, but as the apostle Paul makes abundantly clear, the church has been grafted onto His covenantal tree. Those who follow Jesus are His people. This ferocious warrior is poised and ready to fight our battles. He has been a warrior for His people in the past. This is an image of His renewing His work, just like Habakkuk prayed. In a sense, this imagery from vv. 3-15 is God’s answer to Habakkuk’s prayer. Habakkuk wanted a God who was big enough and powerful enough and passionate enough to solve the problems he was facing. That’s exactly what we see here. God is all of those things and more. He is all the God we need Him to be for everything we need Him to be. 

Now, we can be honest enough to acknowledge that the imagery here is hard. It’s hard to understand. But it’s also hard in the sense that it is uncomfortable for us to think of God in terms like these today. This is because we are so thoroughly Westernized and, frankly, Christainized, in our thinking. But for the audience for whom Habakkuk was writing this, these images were powerful and encouraging and exciting. But let’s not miss the point for the imagery. I’ll say it again: God is bigger than we are. He is bigger than our problems. He is bigger than the various forces arrayed against us whatever form they happen to take. No matter how wild things seem to get in this life, God is bigger still. He is more powerful. This is simply who God is. And, when we can see God as He really is like this, the various problems we are facing start to look a bit smaller by comparison. To put that a bit more directly, we can see them for the size they really have. We can see them for the seriousness they really have. We can see them as they really are. This goes for whatever challenge we might face in this life. The bigger our view of God, the more clearly we can see things as they really are. 

When we lived in Colorado, our townhome was right up at the base of the foothills. We lived right about at the point where the gentle slope of eastern Colorado suddenly turns steep. From that vantage point, you can’t see many mountains. You can only see the little one right in front of you. But when you back up a bit and take in the landscape from a bit broader a vantage point, suddenly you can see things more clearly. You can see that the hill that once seemed so dominating that you couldn’t see anything else really isn’t very big at all by comparison. In fact, relative to what lies behind it, it’s pretty tiny. Perspective makes all the difference. 

The same basic principle is at play here. The bigger our view of God, the more clearly we can see things as they really are. The bigger God is, the smaller our problems will seem by comparison. The more clearly we can take in the scope of His eternal kingdom, the shorter-lived the challenges we face now will appear—even the really big ones. The better we understand who God is, the more realistically we will be able to see our problems. When we have someone that big and good and powerful on our side, there really isn’t anything that can meaningfully stand against us. Oh, that doesn’t mean nothing is going to try. The world will put on a good show of opposition, and that opposition will come in all sorts of ways. But God is bigger. The one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. The bigger our view of God, the more clearly we can see things as they really are. 

Know well, though, that this isn’t just some Old Testament idea that doesn’t have any bearing on our lives today. Habakkuk was giving us something timeless here. It is the same sort of timeless perspective framing that Paul sought to give the Colossian believers in the first chapter of his letter to them. Listen to this: “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” 

A God that great can handle anything we might throw at Him. If we are willing to entrust ourselves to His care, He can handle anything the world might throw at us. How that handling looks may not line up with what we expect or desire in a moment, but if we will let Him, He will help us see the bigger picture that gives us the perspective to see our challenges as they truly are. The bigger our view of God, the more clearly we can see things as they really are. 

The worth of Habakkuk’s prayer  here is that it lets us look behind the curtain to see a God who is exactly what we need to find all the answers we seek. And even when the answer isn’t fully what we want, by letting us see Him in His true majesty and might, He gives us the perspective to see things properly. The bigger our view of God, the more clearly we can see things as they really are. 

So then, what does all of this mean? It means we can work for justice fearlessly. When there are people who have been denied justice, denied what is right in our midst, we can stand firmly in their defense knowing that God will have our back—and theirs. It means we can give generously without worrying about where that will leave us. A God this big has all the resources in the world. When we entrust Him with what He gave us in the first place and even though we don’t see how we are going to have enough if we do that, He’ll make sure that our needs are more than met. It means we can trust tenaciously even when circumstances seem to weigh against it. When we are facing the emotional pain of searing loss or the physical pain of some devastating illness or relational pain or financial pain, we can know that all such pain is temporary and that our God bears it with us in Christ. We can continue to pursue the path of His character because our faithfulness will be redeemed. It means we can show compassion and mercy to everyone without distinction. God is big enough that even if our efforts seem to accomplish nothing of significance, He can still do more. It means we can be gracious and kind with the people around us. It means, most of all, that we can love like Jesus did. 

The bigger our view of God, the more clearly we can see things as they really are. Our God is for us, and there is no power of this world big enough to overcome Him and those who trust in Him. He will yet restore all things. He will right all wrongs. He will make justice and righteousness flow like mighty rivers, washing away all the dirt of sin. This is all what is real. When we adjust our lives to it because of a proper view of God, then we get to enjoy the sweet fruits of reality. The bigger our view of God, the more clearly we can see things as they really are. Let’s see together at what really is and live in light of that.