Habakkuk Chapter 3 Verses 1 – 2a

• I love this. He asked, God answered and now the prophet sings. He doesn’t ask again. He has his answer. I have found that the answers to almost all of my questions are to be found in the Word of God. And the questions that aren’t answered, it’s not because they aren’t there, it just that I haven’t yet found them.
• I think at least an element of the Jesus peace that He promised in John 14:27 as Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you,” I think at least an element of that, maybe it entirely, is that He is able to meet all of our needs: material, spiritual, psychological but also…His Word answers all of our questions. There is such peace there…maybe…
• Ever had an answer but didn’t like it? Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Repay no one evil for evil. All from Romans 12. How about these? Husbands love your wives. Wives submit to your husbands. Or children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. All from Ephesians 5-6. There are answers there…right? But the peace is not in the answers alone is it? The peace is in the acceptance of the answers…same goes throughout the Word and as you find an accepting heart beating in your chest, you find Jesus peace…
• Habakkuk asked…God answered…and now Habakkuk prays a song. And his petition? Revival…good prayer…

Habakkuk Chapter 3 Verse 2

• A couple of important additional details here. Notice first that Habakkuk prays for God to revive…revival is God’s work, not mans. Mans role in revival is repentance. See that? We don’t need to put up a tent or schedule a revival hoe-down…we simply need to repent man…and God works the revival in our hearts…
• Also notice that Habakkuk prays, “O Lord, revive YOUR work!” This is so important because my natural inclination is to pray for revival of MY work…but true revival that has sustaining power…is when I repent and God’s ways become my ways…
• One last thing here…I see a revelation of Habakkuk’s Godly heart…remember way back when, in Chapter 1, his prayer of God was intense and aggressive against the wicked and yet now, after God’s response, He prays for mercy. Man, the wicked frustrate me. Unrighteousness angers me. Cruelty forces my heart to “flame on (and frankly so does stupidity and laziness).” But I remind myself, the unrighteous and sinning are to be pitied…because their trajectory is towards eternal hell, and their path to get there is pain…I love Habakkuk’s heart here…

Habakkuk Chapter 3 Verse 3

• Heavens covered and earth full with the glory and praise of God Almighty. I truly believe that I have only begun to scratch the surface of God’s wonder in my understanding!

Habakkuk Chapter 3 Verse 4

• I love this! In His hand…there His power hidden…two things here. First, there are 12 verses in the Bible that directly speak of Jesus being at the right hand of the Father. (Acts 7:56, Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:3, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 8:8, Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 3:22, Revelation 3:21, Matthew 22:44, Acts 2:33) but two in particular, 1 Peter 3:22 and Acts 2:33 stand out from the rest.
• Mostly all of them say that Jesus sits or sat down at the right hand of the Father but 1 Peter 3:22 says of Jesus that He, “Has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.” And Acts 2:33 says of Jesus that He, “Has been exalted to the right hand of God…” What’s my point? Simply this. All of the power of God is hidden in the Person of Jesus. It’s clear.
• AND, I love that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father…because the best way to walk with Dad, is to take His hand…It’s like God is walking next to you palms up all the time, waiting for you to take His hand and find hidden power!

Habakkuk Chapter 3 Verse 5

• Simple picture here…before Him…get out in front of God in your life…pestilence…stray behind Him…fall back…disease. Only in God, being right there with Him, will you find health…(material, spiritual, psychological health).

Habakkuk Chapter 3 Verses 6 – 13

• The powerful statement that the wicked will be laid bare from foundation to neck…why stop at the neck? Because the head of the house of the wicked has been struck. This is all speaking of the cross of Christ. How do I know? The Protoevangelium.
• The first promise given by God after the fall of mankind. The first direct proclamation of the gospel in the Bible and therefore it is called the proto-first, evangelium-evangelism. And here’s the wild part. It was a promise given to Lucifer, the serpent. Genesis 3:14-15 says, “So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
• Here’s the thing…woman does not have seed. The seed is in the man. Therefore the implication here is a virgin birth and this Seed, this miracle, this Son born of God will bruise the head of the serpent…the head of the house of the wicked and the meaning behind it is…He will inflict a death blow…but the serpent will bruise His heel…and the nail went through at the feet of Jesus…
• God went forth for the salvation of His people, and He did that by going forth with His Anointed…The message for us in the text, the song of praise of Habakkuk is clear…salvation is found in the Messiah…yes eternal salvation but also the power to inflict that mortal wound to evil and all of its effects in our hearts and lives and through sanctification, as you walk with God, the power to lay bare evil completely!

Habakkuk Chapter 3 Verses 14 – 19

• The hope of Habakkuk that turned his complaint into celebration and his weakness into worship is that in the midst of God there is strength and assurity for the day of trouble. Joy is present, God is strength and although he is in the valley today, he has a clear line of sight to the high hills!