Awestruck, Angry, and Amazed -- The Striking Contrast Between the Proud and the Righteous (Part 3) -- Habakkuk Lesson 10

Biblically speaking, have you ever stopped to think about what you are studying in depth at the moment? Off the top of my head, I would say Habakkuk (for this blog) and 1 Kings (in our women's Bible study group). As I was meditating on all that I am learning presently, I realized that our pastor just got finished expositing the book of Ruth and is heading into the book of Colossians. John MacArthur (our pastor from Cali and from the Grace Church live feed--which fits perfectly into our different time zones--thank You, Lord!) is expositing Ephesians; and various pastors are going through the minor prophets in the Sunday evening services. Outside of Scripture, but in keeping with it, our church's ladies book club just finished the apologetical book, Always Ready, and is now reading this month Beginning at Moses. My cup surely runneth over!!! As I began to think about this, I considered how the Lord is dovetailing and weaving all I am learning that should be applied to my life. How has your own study caused you to be awestruck by the Lord's majesty, to be filled simultaneously with a fear and wonder at His holiness?

Recently, I've been interested in how some are bringing new life to vintage pieces of furniture with chalk paint. It is always worth looking for the dovetailed detailing of a fine piece of furniture. The word dovetail originated in the 1580's. It is a term used in carpentry of the strongest of all fastenings. The word came from the shape of the tenon or mortise of the joints resembling that of a bird's tail display. 

The books of Scripture dovetail one another. The serious student of Scripture is the one who is firmly planted on the strongest of all foundations in the universe. We should be amazed at the way the books of the Bible contribute to the overall theological message. A disciplined study of biblical theology affirms the unity of the Old and New Testaments as well as the divinely inspired nature of the whole Bible. The Bible is one single theology. It is God's story of redemptive history. We should be amazed at this Author to whom all of Scripture points. Like a magnificently woven tapestry portraying a picture from the mind of its creator, Scripture portrays a picture of God's glory inducing its reader to worship in great awe and wonder. Scripture is also a safeguard over our hearts to keep us from idolatry and false worship. 

How does one come to follow after heresies and idolatries of false worship that provoke God to anger? Hosea 4:6 says: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children. Studying 1 Kings, one of the phrases that I have highlighted time and again regards how the children of Israel provoked God to anger. It was always in the context of their covenant relationship with Him and their adulterous idolatry and false worship.

In Acts 17, Paul was provoked to anger. Like Paul, we should be angry at idolatry and the power of false religion to delude people. Cults should anger us. Seeing the reckless devotion to powerless gods/idols that men, women, and children bow down to should anger us. The incredible wealth, sacrificially given, (really through extortion), to build cathedrals and temples to fraudulent deities that house these false idols should anger us. The Roman Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest institutions on earth and the biggest financial power on earth. It is said that it would be impossible to calculate its wealth. The security of her power and wealth, however,  will not save her in the day of judgment. Built upon a false gospel that instills fear and guilt in its people, she will fall as hard as Babylon on that day.

Beloved, do the things that anger God anger you? So many Christians appear to be angry at the very people God came to deliver from the kingdom of darkness. And they blast away at them instead of the false religion itself. I have been guilty of this in the past and am so grateful the Lord opened my eyes to this great sin and brought me to repentance giving me a love for the lost who are deceived and deluded. We must ask ourselves if we are even ABLE to speak the truth in love when angry. If not, why not? We must be angry, yet sin not. Righteous anger responds to what dishonors God; but the Christian must always be humble while boldly confident in the truth upon which he stands. So much of the Christian life is a balance that comes with maturity and much divine discipline! The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.  Don't you love that verse in 2 Timothy 2:24-26? It's the verse the Lord gave me right before being indicted, convicted, and sent off to prison. 

There are those who timidly hesitate to speak the truth in love out of fear of man. (Without suggesting we live in an age when we are called to literally slay our enemies, think back with me to the story of David and Goliath.) In the presence of this threat-spewing behemoth, Saul and all Israel responded with dismay prompting them to flee in fear. Young David (whose confidence was in God alone), responded fearlessly in righteous anger, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" As the giant mocks and ridicules this puny little shepherd boy (who was treated like a nobody by his older brothers), he retorts: "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord's and He will give you into our hands." A shepherd boy's passion that called on the power of the Lord of Hosts to fight this battle gave Israel and Judah the courage they needed to annihilate the Philistines. We don't use weapons of warfare to fight our spiritual battles but the sword of God's Spirit...His Word. In this world, our spiritual battles are all we are really called to fight--and those by relying on the Lord of Host to fight them for us! That is not to say they are easy because our human depravity gets in the way far too often. As believers, if we really want to slay someone, we would be wise to slay our fleshly selves.

As we continue to see what is happening in Habakkuk, we know that God's judgment is coming for Judah...His own...because she refused to turn away from her idolatry and return to Him. She had provoked God to anger time and time again. Justice had disappeared from the land. Violence and wickedness went unchecked. These were all the natural outcomes from leaving their first love. Israel's only really strength was in her relationship with God. So, He would judge Judah at the hands of the Chaldeans, Israel's enemy and His. Then He would turn His wrath upon the Chaldeans/Babylon for being the instrument of judgment in His hands. 

Sometimes, God uses the wicked to judge His own with the purpose of turning His own back to Himself in repentance. Sometimes, the 'innocent' get caught up in the fallout of that judgment. He has a good purpose for those who simply get caught up in the raging tempest as well, with the ultimate result of  bringing Him much glory. We must remember in times of judgment that God will always turn back to judge the wicked once He is finished using them to accomplish His purposes. 

Last time we saw how the wicked Chaldeans with their endless appetite for conquest were intoxicated with their need for power and control. Though drunkenness was one of their sins, "wine" did not need to be interpreted solely in a literal way here. We continue to work our way through the woes that would surely come upon them. According to John MacArthur, woes in Scripture introduce a judicial indictment or a sentence of judgment.

Habakkuk 2:5b--He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples.

Verse 6-8--"Will not all of these (all nations in verse 5) take up a taunt-song against him, even mockery and insinuations against him and say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his--for how long--and makes himself rich with loans?' Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. Because you have looted many nations, all the remainder of the peoples will loot you--because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants."

This is what is known as divine retribution or exact retribution. Seen often in the imprecatory psalms, here is an example of this boomerang principle: Psalm 7:15-16--He (the wicked) has dug a pit and hollowed it out, and has fallen into the hole which he made. His mischief will return upon his own head, and his violence will descend upon his own pate (the crown of his own head). And Psalm 9:15-16--The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made; in the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made Himself known; He has executed judgment. In the work of his own hands the wicked is snared.  And my favorite, Psalm 35:4-8--Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them on. Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them, for without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my soul. Let destruction come upon him unawares, and let the net which he hid catch himself, into that very destruction let him fall.  Think of Haman in the book of Esther. 

So, not only greedy for power, the Chaldeans coveted wealth, which historically go hand in hand. Those with the most power are often those with the most wealth. Wealth can be used for good or for evil. If wealth is not granted by God's grace, the wicked will take it by forceful thievery. The first woe had to do with extortion. With the threat of great harm, the Chaldeans would make themselves rich by plundering, then heavily taxing, those nations they conquered. However, their power would not last forever.

How the mighty have fallen would one day apply to them. The nations who had suffered at her hands and still remained would make Babylon a proverb. She would be the brunt of satirical mocking. A bad taste would be left in the mouth of any mention of her name. She would be paraded by the nations' own Babylon-Bee for all the world to see! 

For now, our passion is to reach the lost for Christ while there is still time. We must tell them of the judgment to come if they will not repent of their sin and turn to Him for salvation. We must tell them that God is a just judge who is angry with them every day (Psalm 7:11). In awe of this great God we serve, we are angry at sin but love the sinner by telling him or her the truth. And we stand in growing amazement as we continue to learn about Him through His Word and get to know Him better as He works in and through our lives. Soli deo gloria!!!