7. Habakkuk 1:4-11 The Embrace Of Faith part 7

God lifts and adjusts are we learning?

The Defense Of God’s Response v.5-11

   The Coming Catastrophe v.5

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

                                          regard, and wonder marvelously

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

                     which you will not believe, though it be told you.

   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

According to the Theological Workbook of terms the word “lo” means to pay attention, to behold, it’s a term, which alerts us by demanding our attentiveness, responsiveness and consideration.

The item we’re to reflect on with deep reflection is that God is the one who allows things to unravel as they do.  When things advance it’s the Lord.  When things decline, again it’s the Lord.  We need the Lord to rebuke the destroyer. We constantly need to bow in recognition to the reality that without the Lord we can do nothing.

Psalms 75:6-8 For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.  But God is the judge: He puts down one, and sets up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; It is full of mixture; and he pours out of the same: But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. 

The Facts of Advancement v.6-7

   Where promotion doesn’t come from v.6

       Not From Sunrise For promotion cometh neither from the east, 

Ben Franklin was wrong.  It’s not early to bed early to rise that makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise.  The east is a symbol of the days beginning, and as valuable as it is to get a good nights rest, and start out early, and wakeful, the real key to promotion, or getting ahead, is not the beginning of our day, but the beginner of our life, the source of all of life is Jesus Christ.  He is one we’re to draw from and focus on.

Not From Sunset nor from the west, 

The west is symbolic of sunset.  We don’t advance in life by being a workaholic and whacking our fingers too the bone with late night endeavors.

Not from sacrifice nor from the south.  

The Lord has said he wants obedience not sacrifice, what a crazy sacrifice to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and fill the Sinai dessert up with the corpses of the rebellious.

How much easier, too by faith, enter in to the land of promise, with the Captain of our Salvation, who goes before us to defeat our enemies and collapse the walls of opposition against us.  The south is symbolic of the wilderness wanderings.  God gives grace to the humble, and promotion to the wise, but shame is the promotion of fools.

  Where Promotion Does Come From v.7 

God’s Providence But God is the judge: 

Abraham, as he prayed over Lot, and Lot’s family, and over the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, as He negotiated in prayerful arguing with God, He bowed in worship before the Lord.

Genesis 18:25 be it far from You to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from You: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 

We cry out to God for those He has given us too love, for all He has burdened our heart with.  We beg that He would touch them, heal them and make them whole and complete in Jesus.

God, does every thing right, we don’t understand the end from the beginning, or why things play out as they do, but we can cry out in pray, and rest in God’s actions, for everything He does is perfect.

God puts down he puts down one,

We are told that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. We are to humble ourselves into the mighty hand of God that He will choose when to exalt us in His time and way.

God Privileges and sets up another. 

Col. 1:17 tells us that Jesus Christ is before all things and that by Him all things consist. 

It’s not the atomic structure that’s holding every thing together, and it’s not gravity that keeps everything on the ground.  We can get caught up looking at the outer appearance of everything, but we need to behold, be alert, and look at the heart of the issue.  Behind it all, underneath everything, and the inner core and root of the burdens of our life is the Lord.

The Finality of Adjudication v.8  

God’s Punishment is Prepared   For in the hand of the

                                                                    LORD there is a cup, 

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane held a full cup in His hand.  He asked His Father that the cup might pass from Him.  But He added in obedient willingness, not My will, but Your will be done.

The cup was representative of all the sins of the world and the infinite wrath of God for those sins.  The contents of the cup were all the judgments, to be poured out on those actions.  Acts of hate, and performances of rebellion against God were all going to be dealt with.  We can’t really measure the contents, as the fluid was not finite in amount, and it presses beyond our ability to measure and estimate.

A.R. Cousin writes of this full cup:

Death and the curse were in our cup, O Christ, ’twas full for Thee;

But Thou, hast drained the last dark drop, Tis empty now for me.

That bitter cup, love drank it up; Left but the love for me.

God’s Penalty is Potent and the wine is red; 

Isa. 51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, Which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; Thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. 

We need to wake up to the fact that whatever negative the Lord allows into our life, that He means it for our good, and profit.  No chastening is pleasant, but it grieves, and is harsh, but it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness, as we open ourselves up to His process.

Jesus has taken the entire destructive wrath, and dealt with the results of sin, which is eternal death.  By receiving the Lord, and accepting what He has done for us, we are now placed in Him as our life. In Jesus is life, abundant life, eternal life.

Whatever He allows into our life is for our good and His glory.

But for those who reject Jesus, and refuse the sacrifice He has made in love to pay for all sins, there is another cup to be poured out.  This is the mixture that is the result of rejecting Him, and refusing to accept his offer of love and forgiveness.

God’s Price is Packed it is full of mixture; and he pours out of the                                                      same:

God’s Pour is Pointed  but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the 

                                               earth shall wring them out, and drink them. 

The Dregs of the Cup are the residues and deposits that settle at the bottom of the cup.

Revelation 14:8 Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. 

Babylon represents this vast commercial and religious conglomerate with headquarters in Rome. All nations will have become drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

There is an intoxication that slams a person, or in this circumstance, an entire population, with the titillating inebriation of fornication.

The double phrase, fallen, fallen means they are totally obliterated and drown in the cup of God’s wrath right down to the very dregs of the cup.

The reason for the smashing of all this Christ rejecting populace, is that in turning from Jesus in there rejection, they have embraced a full cesspool of inordinate relations, religiously, economically and politically.  The entire focus of the spirit of Babylon, is cheating and debauchery in the total rejection of God.

This is the final apostasy of Revelation 18:3 if any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture [undiluted] into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb Revelation 14:9-10). 

We read, in the same chapter, of “the great winepress of the wrath of God” Revelation 14:19. 

Our Lord has drunk that cup for all. But those who will not accept the cup of blessing and joy He now extends will have to wring out the dregs of God’s wrath and face His fury.

There is no logical reason to reject Jesus.  We can have all His resources, all His blessing as He gives His love for us.

But for those of us who have received the Lord we need to rest in the fact that when He allows bitter things in our lives, and we think He’s ignoring our prayers, we need to lean on His promises, for He will make a way through everything for us.

We can’t allow a bitter root to stem out in our heart, but allow the joy of His presence to take over in ever circumstance, knowing He is the one who sets down and the only one who lifts up.

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, and he shall 

                     pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god