8. Habakkuk 1:4-11 The Embrace Of Faith part 8 

God Allows Bitter Storms To Provoke Our Prayers are we listening 

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

 They Are Broad            The breadth of the land,

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

Psalm 24:1 the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in                      it. 

One day when John Wesley was away from home, someone came running to him, saying, “Your house has burned down! Your house has burned down!” Wesley replied, “No, it hasn’t, because I don’t own a house. The one I have been living in belongs to the Lord, and if it has burned down, that is one less responsibility for me to worry about.”

The Lord, in Habakkuk’s time, was bringing a caustic storm down on the rebellion of Judah.  The storm was coming from the empire of the Chaldeans.

As we look at our World, all around from country to country. The power, possessions and privileges are not as it appears.  We see various individuals, nations and political posturers of our world, but the reality is that the Lord has allowed them the positions they have achieved.   Jesus in the great commission stated clearly, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth.  But was important to the Lord is that we go reach hearts for Him.

Psalm 50:10 for every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.   

What would PETA think of Jesus destroying 2000 pigs by casting a horde of demons into them?  The value was He was saving a man’s soul in the process.  It’s not what’s being destroyed; it’s who’s responding to Jesus, who’s letting Him in?

Daniel 2:20-22 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:  And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He reveals the deep and secret things: he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.

It’s not the Electoral College that controls who gets the nod to huff n puff ideas in the Whitehouse.  The Illuminati isn’t the one in control, nor is it some elitist group of president makers or war brokers.  It’s not the United Nations that decides national events.  It’s not even the hand that rocks the cradle that rules the world.

Samuel was told; don’t look on the countenance and stature, when he was called to anoint a King over Israel.  It’s not an IQ or personality evaluation, which tests the candidate or controllers of our World.  God looks on the heart, and He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.

Jesus knew that a caustic storm was brewing at the Sea of Galilee in Mathew 8:23-27

The Sea was really just a massive lake about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide.

This Sea is like a symbol of our World, and the various upheavals that grip it as it inches slowing in the contractions and birth pangs of prophetic labor.

Jesus could have prevented this storm, as He boarded this boat with this handful of followers; God could have kept it from brewing over the head of His Son. But God allowed it to burst down, with bitter fury.  Jesus didn’t stop it, but He used it to instruct His disciples, and to teach us.

The storm didn’t stir because the disciples we’re rebelling or disobedient.  They we’re with Jesus, following Jesus, had boarded the boat with Jesus.

Now the strange thing is the Lord curls up and peacefully snoozes while the storm is going so crazy to the point of the ship being on the verge of capsizing.

It was different when Jonah had boarded a cruise ship and a storm hit him.  He was in blatant bold-faced rebellion and aggravated revolt against the Lord.  Yet even in that incident with a raging sea the Lord over ruled and calmed the violent storm.

Mutiny wasn’t the case in this group of faithful sailors for Christ.  They were in God’s will for their life.  They followed Jesus up to a point, but when things got messy and chaotic, they yelled at Jesus, and they accused Him of not caring about them. They we’re terrified in the storm.

Someone has written when Jesus falls asleep all hell breaks loose. 

Baker wrote:

Master, the tempest is raging! 
  The billows are tossing high! 


The sky is overshadowed with blackness,
 No shelter or help is nigh;


Carest Thou not that we perish?
 How canst Thou lie asleep,


When each moment so madly is threatening
 A grave in the angry deep?

The winds and the waves shall obey Thy will,
 Peace, be still!


Whether the wrath of the storm tossed sea,


Or demons or men, or whatever it be


No waters can swallow the ship where lies


The Master of ocean, and earth, and skies;


They all shall sweetly obey Thy will,
 Peace, be still! Peace, be still!


They all shall sweetly obey Thy will, 
Peace, peace, be still!

Master, with anguish of spirit 
I bow in my grief today;


The depths of my sad heart are troubled  Oh, waken and save, I pray!


Torrents of sin and of anguish
 Sweep o’er my sinking soul;


And I perish! I perish! dear Master
 Oh, hasten, and take control.

Master, the terror is over,
 The elements sweetly rest;


Earth’s sun in the calm lake is mirrored,
 And heaven’s within my breast;


Linger, O blessèd Redeemer!
 Leave me alone no more;


And with joy I shall make the blest harbor,
 And rest on the blissful shore.

Mark 4:39 says when Jesus woke he yelled at the waves, peace be still.  It’s like telling a growling dog, be muzzled.

In His Word is the power to hush anything.  All fever, every disease, mental anguish, emotional heartache, all the waves and billows of life, and every demonic terror and tempest bow to His voice.

Jesus looked at His disciples, as He looks at us right now, and says: why aren’t you confident in me, why can’t you trust in me.  How is it that you have such little faith?

Now what is His choice, does He chooses not to heal us in this temporary, mortal life that we know and love.  Is it possibly because His will is a new body and perfect healing with Him in Eternal Life?

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 thanthe 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