6. Habakkuk 1:4-11 The Embrace Of Faith part 6  God always Answers are we Listening

The Defense Of God’s Response v.5-11  

The first four verses of Habakkuk 1 are a narrative of the prophet asking the Lord about why things are happening the way they are, to Judah, the people he was burdened for as a spiritual watchman.

The Lord has put spiritual watchmen and shepherds over His people to care, pray over, and protect them.

Moses was a spiritual watchman.  In his prayer of Numbers 11:11-12 he complained and demanded an explanation.

The Israeli’s we’re driving him stark raving mad.  It is an amazing display of feelings.

And Moses said unto the Lord, Why have You afflicted me, Your servant?  Why have I not found favor in thy sight?

Why aren’t you answering my prayer like I expected You to do?  I had a timetable and according to my expectation You are off target.

You lay the burden of this entire people upon me?  Have I conceived all these people?

Now that’s a hard line, if we’re complaining in our prayers about our children.  But we can get frustrated when others don’t enter into the burden we have for those we love.  When we want someone to step up to the plate and hit a home run for us, because we think they can have an impact, we can yell at God for not working it all out.

Have I begotten them, that You should say unto me, Carry them in Your bosom, as a nursing father bears the sucking child, unto the land which You promised them?

As fathers, we may have walked with our children at night when they were babies.  Rocking and comforting them while we pace and pray over them.  When they are grown and physically mature it doesn’t change.

We still pace and pray over them, we cry out for them, that they would walk with Jesus.

Moses was a road weary, worn out, frustrated watchman.  We can get in the same shape and become hacked off with God.

The function of a watchman was to give warning of impending danger to the city.  The cities we’re vulnerable to sudden attack just as we as individuals are susceptible to spiritual assault by the forces of darkness.

The watchman occupied an apt vantage point where they could survey the surrounding countryside; he would blow a trumpet to give warning of any approaching individuals, whether friendly or not. The amount of time a city would have to get its inhabitants safely into its city walls and ready for defensive action against marauders depended largely on the swift actions of its watchman.

The lives of people were dependent upon the vigilance of watchmen. The watchman had a responsibility; to warn of approaching danger. But the people were likewise responsible to react to the warning.  If they failed to run into the protection of the city, they had only themselves to blame if they fell under the sword of the invading army.

Habakkuk as a prophet, and man of God, was a spiritual watchman.  We are to be spiritual watchman bearing accountability for each other.  We are to be watching with scrutiny and praying over each other with aggressive praying faith.

We are in a war, a spiritual battle with invisible forces arraying a siege against us.

In Ephesians 6:11 Paul refers to the battle as fought through the devil’s ‘schemes’ or his ‘wiles’

He is crafty Gen. 3:1, and cunning 2 Cor. 11:3; he will seek to outwit us 2 Cor. 2:11, and set traps 1 Tim. 3:7; he’s the father of lies Jn 8:44, & can even perform miracles Matt. 24:24.

The battle isn’t always obvious, and sometimes we lose a clash before we’re even aware that we’re in it. We’re constantly to be on our guard. We can fall into sin through something that seems innocent and harmless. That’s part of the reality of demonic invisible trickery; it can be clever, concealed wiles, and obscure schemes of the devil.

Peter Jeffery in “Opening Up Ezekiel” says: Satan prowls around like a roaring lion & at other times impersonates and masquerades as an angel of light 1 Peter 5:8; 2 Cor. 11:14.

The angel of light is far more dangerous than the prowling lion because, the lion will put you on your guard, the angel of light will take you unawares.

I’ve been amazed how professing believers can ape and mimic almost as if they are under an alien influence and that in the strangest moments, when you want to help them get on there feet in the Lord, they act like complete cave in’s to the evil one.

In the Acts of the Apostles we see the devil as the roaring lion, stirring up his puppets into a fierce and bitter persecution of the Christians.  It was always under the guise of religion and serving some god representation.  He still works like this and will mount direct assaults upon us through various channels.

We find the classic example of his coming as an angel of light in Genesis 3, when he approached Eve full of superficial friendliness and concern, and yet craftily casting doubt on the truth of God’s Word and character v. 5.

When the enemy comes as an angel of light, it is the truth of God that exposes him for what he is. No matter how cleverly his pretenses, or how crafty his approach, the devil will always be in conflict with the truth of God as revealed in the Scriptures. God’s Word is the spotlight that exposes the wiles of Satan.   Intense study of the Word and prayer are our only weapons. 

As a watchman we’re not only to warn each other but we are to advise all humanity with a bold and consistent warnings to wake up to the consequence of sin.

Lives are at stake, anyone who is lulled to sleep and living on the edge of societies cliff is vulnerable to catastrophe.  We are to bear each others burdens, and if we see another overtaken in a fault, we are to humble ourselves to the Lord and cry to Him for there liberation from the destructive thing that is hampering and endangering them.

   The Coming Catastrophe v.5 

It Will Be A Spectacle Behold ye among the heathen, and 

                                                   regard, and wonder marvelously

God is answering Habakkuk and us in our concerns of those we are burdened over.  He says behold, which means get your eyes in focus to see clearly.  Behold means study with intent.

The heathen means all the nations, the people all around who reject the one true God and are either atheistic or mono theistic with a variety of idol type religious confusion.

We’re facing a seeming immediate havoc, maybe one heartache after another.  A pile of turmoil and grief, but we need to look out on a broader horizon.

Develop a worldview see the nations and their needs and burdens.  We need to also be attentive to the signs of what God is doing in the world.  There are prophetic keys that are rattling and opening doors of God’s actions all around us.

God is rising up various enemies that are furious in hatred against God’s people but it’s for a purpose. 

 It Will Be Surprising   for I will work a work in your days, which 

                                                 you will not believe, though it be told you.

In the middle of thinking that nothing is happening, the Lord is doing many things. I will work a work in your days means I’m doing something right now and it’s going to happen before you can shake a fist.  I’m about to burst onto the scene.  In your days, is a way of saying in your lifetime, or real soon.

You will not believe even when it’s told to you, means that it is going to be so shocking and outrageous that explaining it all out will not cushion the fact that you are going to be overwhelmed with the surprise and amazement of it all.

Answered prayer can be so wonderful that it’s breath taking.  There are times in our life when it helps to rehearse what the Lord has done in our lives to realize what He is doing at the present.  This is a way of tasting the Lord and savoring the beauty of His goodness and grace.  The evil one is always stirring the fog and dread of the moment to try to keep us in a state of discouragement and grief.

   The Caustic Chaldeans v.6-11 

  They Are Bitter v.6  For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter

They Are Brash  and hasty nation, which shall march through

They Are Broad The breadth of the land,

They Are Bombastic to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs

They Are Brutal v.7    They are terrible and dreadful: 

They Are Boastful   their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

They Are Baffling v.8  Their horses also are swifter than the leopards,

They Are Bloodthirsty and are fiercer than the evening wolves:

They are Brisk    and their horsemen shall spread themselves, 

                                        and their horsemen shall come from far;

They are a Blur   they shall fly as the eagle that hast to eat.

 They are Blinding v.9   They shall come all for violence: 

 They are Blustery   their faces shall sup up as the east wind,

They are Beyond Measure  and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

They Are Belligerent v.10 And they shall scoff at the kings,

                                                         and the princes shall be a scorn unto them:

They Are Belittling          they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust,

                                                     and take it.

They Are Blasphemous Then shall his mind change, & he shall pass over, & offend,        

                                               imputing this his power unto his god