O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

The prophets of Old Testament times were men who were called to act as God's ambassadors -- in a very real sense they were God's representatives in the communities in which He placed them or to the communities to which He sent them or instructed them to direct the messages He committed to their trust.
 

They were men who were tremendously used by God. But don't for a moment go off with the idea that they were simply passive messengers in the sense that they received their message from God and passed it on to those to whom it was directed without being affected by it themselves. Or without responding to it themselves.
 

The prophets of the OT were usually passionate men who believed what they were preaching. And of course the message they were preaching had an effect on themselves as well.
 

Very often, the messages God commissioned them to deliver concerned the future, but that didn't mean that they knew everything that they might have been curious about, concerning the future. Yet many of them clearly had a better understanding than most about the future.
 

And they were all people who had a real concern for God's cause and longed to see it prosper in a far greater way than they were seeing it prosper in their own time.
 

Many of them, like Habakkuk, lived in an era when there were many things to discourage God's people. So how was someone like Habakkuk to react to the message that God gave concerning the future?
 

Habakkuk was given a very considerable insight into how God was going to order things in the future. He knew something of the future coming of Christ and the work He'd do. How He'd suffer and die to obtain redemption for His people. Now, that in itself was reason for tremendous happiness. But God had also revealed to and through Habakkuk that there would be a great deal of opposition to Christ and His Church; opposition from both Jews and Gentiles. There'd be afflictions and persecutions, there'd be conflicts, temptations and difficulties.
 

And as he pondered over these things, it worried Habakkuk tremendously. They caused him pain and distress and uneasiness.
 

And it's against that background that we find Habakkuk in this chapter taking up his concerns in his prayer to God. A prayer to God to revive His work in the midst of the years, to uphold, upbuild and prosper His cause in those difficult years to come and bless it by making known more of Christ. That God would work in the hearts and minds of His people by His Holy Spirit. That God would revive His cause, that God would reveal to them more of the wonder of His own promises and His faithfulness in fulfilling them, that God would grant His people a greater understanding of the things that are of eternal importance.
 

And Habakkuk also prays that God's Church of the future, when it would go through those particularly difficult times, wouldn't be tempted to think that they were on the receiving end only of God's anger, but that God would rather enable them to turn to God in prayer that God would indeed act as they could confidently expect Him to in terms of what He's revealed in His Word about His covenant, about His promises, about His tremendous love towards His people -- a love that no other love can equal, and about His mercy.
 

Habakkuk had something of an insight into the problems that God's church would face in future eras -- but God also gave him an insight into the answer to the difficulties that God's people of those future generations would face. And the answer was in terms of looking to the God whose care for His people is perfect to uphold and upbuild His people.
 

N.B. here:

1. O LORD, I HAVE HEARD THY SPEECH, AND WAS AFRAID:

 
• Habakkuk addressed his prayer to the LORD. Now that tells us right away where Habakkuk's attention was focused. On the LORD. On Jehovah. On the Covenant God of His people. His attention was focused on the God who's not only sovereign but cares for His people. He's the One who not only has a legitimate claim over them but who makes it very clear in His Word that He has a practical interest in their welfare and is willing to meet with His people in their needs. It wasn't a waste of time Habakkuk praying to the LORD -- though if he'd brought the matter to anyone else it would have been an utter waste of time. Prayer to the LORD is never a wasted exercise.
• It might be wrong to say that in our own time praying's gone a bit out of fashion -- but you might certainly ask a few questions as to exactly what people understand by praying -- all too often it seems to be the case that people's prayers are addressed more to a worldly audience than to the Almighty. And addressed simply for things that the person making the prayer fancies for very worldly reasons rather than for things that God Himself has revealed are appropriate for us to pray for. It does matter that we should pray. It matters that it should be God that we address our prayers to. And it matters that we should pray about the sort of thing that God Himself has revealed it's appropriate we should pray for. And as we pray there should be a reverence for God in our whole attitude. You'll notice that Habakkuk wasn't praying for anything selfishly for himself -- he was praying for the good of people as yet unborn who would in the future form part of God's church.
 
 
 
 
• Habakkuk had paid attention to what the LORD had revealed. I have heard thy speech he said. God had revealed a great deal to Habakkuk and Habakkuk was also, of course, in touch with what God had revealed to earlier prophets. And Habakkuk recognised that in God's revelation there was truth such as he'd not find anywhere else. God's messages are truth in an absolute sense. And the thoughts that Habakkuk was pondering over had been drawn from what God had revealed.
• Now, we can't overestimate the importance and the relevance of what God has revealed as the source of authoritative information. People are far to ready to believe theories that come from unauthoritative sources while at one and the same time they're rejecting the truth that God has revealed in Scripture. They'll accept the wildest theories from so-called scientists and the instructions of so-called social scientists, no matter how wild and woolly they may be, while at one and the same time they'll reject the truth of the living and true God on the grounds that it doesn't fit in with the theories of mere men. If we're ever going to base our whole way of thinking and approach to life on a sound foundation, then it's going to have to be on the foundation of the Word of God and we've got to start from the point that we're going assess the truth and reliability of everything we hear in terms of whether or not it conforms to the truth that God has revealed in His Word. God's Word has got to shape our thinking in every aspect of our lives!
 
 
 
 
• Habakkuk was afraid. Afraid for God's cause and God's people in time to come, that is. He was aware from what God had revealed that even though God was going to pour out on His people the most tremendous of blessings when in the future God would send the Messiah, the One who had been promised as long before as the third chapter of Genesis as the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of the serpent, that wouldn't be the end of problems for God's cause and people. They'd face opposition, they'd suffer persecution, they'd have tremendous difficulties and there'd be times when God's cause would be very low indeed. There'd be times when it would look as if God's cause were actually on the verge of extinction. And it was as Habakkuk thought about these things that he became uneasy and afraid. How could God's cause go on in those circumstances? How could it have a future? How could God's people cope? Surely the future of God's cause was a relevant subject for a worried member of God's church to bring before God in prayer?
• Is the future of God's church the subject of your prayers? If not, why not?
 
 
 
2. O LORD, REVIVE THY WORK IN THE MIDST OF THE YEARS, IN THE MIDST OF THE YEARS MAKE KNOWN;
 
• Habakkuk prayed for the LORD to revive His own work. Do you notice that he wasn't praying for some great genius with special gifts for doing this or that. And he wasn't praying for a whole series of trendy changes in the form of worship to make the church more like the world around it. What Habakkuk was praying was that the LORD would revive what was and would be, after all, His own work. If anything worthwhile was to happen and if the LORD's cause was to stand a chance of surviving, the action would have to come from the LORD Himself. Anything that was merely the result of human ideas and human effort would achieve nothing positive.
• Do you realise that that's still true. It's no use simply applying other people's worldly ideas to God's cause or applying our own worldly ideas to God's cause and expecting these things to lead to great long-term prosperity and growth for God's cause. Without the working of God by His own Holy Spirit, everything that's done will come to nothing. But what we can legitimately do and what we should be doing is praying that God would work among us by His Holy Spirit, that He would guide and direct us and show us how we can best act in accordance with His revealed will in ways that are honouring to Him.
 
 
 
 
• He prayed for it to be done in the midst of the years. Habakkuk recognised and readily acknowledged that God is working out in time His plan for His cause and His people. But he was also very conscious of the fact that God's people are living in a world where sin is tremendously influential and prevalent and in which God's people are sometimes a tiny minority of frail fallible human beings under tremendous pressure. God makes clear in His revelation that the outcome of history will demonstrate the triumph of God -- but what about God's cause in the meantime. What about the needs of those of God's people who are going to be living through the years of tremendous difficulty and opposition? How could their needs best be met? Well, in OT times, the promise of the coming Messiah was repeatedly spelled out to encourage God's people of the OT era. And one of the ways that God's people in NT times would be encouraged would be by their being reminded of the relevance of the finished work of Christ. They needed God to work in their hearts and minds by His Holy Spirit. They needed God working in them to reveal to them more of the wonder of His own promises and His faithfulness in fulfilling them. And they needed God granting them people a greater understanding of the things that are of eternal importance. That was what they needed and would need in the midst of the years.
• And that's what we need as well. Are you praying that God would grant us that?
 
 
 
 
• Habakkuk prayed for God to manifest Himself to His people in His works. God doesn't just deal with theory -- God deals with real people and real events in the real world. And God has given us His Word. Now there are certain things follow from that. One is that because we have the record of what God has done, and that record is spelled out for us in the Bible, we have a clear perspective on the events of history. And God's people could and can look back and think carefully about how God has dealt with His people down through the centuries. But the Bible also spells out for us the way that God has indicated He will work and so we can know in broad terms what to expect in the world around ourselves -- we needn't be surprised when certain things happen and we're to recognise them as the working of God. And there are other things that we can look to happen in the more distant future as God works out His plan towards the great culmination of all things.
• Do you realise that the workings of God are evident in history and ought to be an encouragement to God's people. He's in control! He hasn't abandoned us!

 
 
 
 
3. IN WRATH REMEMBER MERCY.

 
• Habakkuk prayed to God to teach His people to pray that God would remember His covenant. Time and time again in the Bible we're reminded that God is the Covenant God -- the God who not only cares for His people consistently and whose character is totally consistent, but He's also the One who in His love for His people has put his promise to act in a way that's for the good of His people in the form of a covenant -- a legally binding agreement or treaty. It's not that it makes things any more certain -- they were that already, because of His consistency -- but it helps His people understand just how much in earnest God takes this agreement.
• Have you stopped to think about how wonderful it is that God should treat His relationship with His people in such a tremendous way?
 
 
 
 
• Habakkuk prayed to God to teach His people to pray that God would remember His promises. Habakkuk was very conscious that God's church in years to come would face many problems. He knew all too well about the problems God's Church had faced in the past and the difficulties they'd caused for God's people. He understood about the difficulties caused by affliction and distress and temptation and desertion and how in the past even God's people had been tempted to imagine that God was ignoring them in their problems, the problems seemed so overwhelming. So what was the answer in that sort of situation? For God's people to come before God bringing their situation before Him in the light of His promises to His people. A difficult situation could be a blessing in bringing God's people to a new awareness of their dependence on Him and a new consciousness of the fact that they really could count on God.
• And we ought to be very conscious of the fact that when we face difficulties it's to God we need to turn, because not only is He able to meet with us in our difficulties, He's promised to do it!
 
 
 
• Habakkuk prayed to God to teach His people to pray that God would remember His practical love for His folk. Habakkuk knew experimentally what the practical love of God was like -- and his prayer was that God would bring people in future eras to seek not simply that their difficulties would be eased, but that God would surround them with His love and care, to seek that God would uphold them and upbuild them and that they might be able to rejoice in the midst of their difficulties.
• It would be easy to pray for a life without difficulties -- but what we ought to be praying for is a life lived in a right relationship to God, upholding and upbuilding by God and an indwelling by His Holy Spirit.
 
 
 
   
Overall Application  
• Does God's revealed Word shape every aspect of your thinking?

 
• Are you praying that God would open up our understanding as we see His plans worked out in our own time?

 
• Is it an easy life that your praying for -- or are you praying for a life lived close to God?
 
 

Sermon by Rev. John MacLeod, Tarbat Free Church, Portmahomack, Scotland

To contact Rev. John MacLeod Click Here
or email to: tarbat@bigfoot.com



To return to sermons index page Click Here
To return to Tarbat Free Church homepage Click Here