Habakkuk Pt. 8 THE GLORY OF GOD ON DISPLAY!

Good morning...

Thank God that He gave us His Word! The world is full of all kinds of troubles and heartaches. Life seems especially filled with uncertainty as the new "normal" seems to be the absence of what we previously thought was normal. Things are in a state of flux and sometimes chaos erupts. Yet, as Peter says, we have a more sure word from God. It serves as an anchor for our souls to latch on to, the source of eternal, unchanging truth that we need. May our Lord open our minds to His truth and may His Spirit teach us and guide us in His truth.

The glory of God on display!

Habakkuk 3:3-4  God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4) And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. 

Habakkuk began this book by pouring out his cares, concerns and complaints to God. The holy law of God was ignored and judges perverted the law in making their decisions. Jehovah answered him in a vision and showed the prophet all things that were set in motion to judge Israel long before Habakkuk prayed about it. 

Then, God showed his prophet that He was going to use the wicked Babylonians to accomplish His chastisement of Israel. This was a shocking revelation to Habakkuk and he again sought answers from the Lord. After Jehovah answered him is when Habakkuk saw the glory of God. It was glory full of pure light, full of pure fire and full of unlimited power.

In his vision from God Habakkuk saw the glory of Jehovah on full display. What God allowed the prophet to see is what Moses saw when God came down to give him the Ten Commandments. Teman was a mountainous region that Moses also referred to as Seir. It was part of the land called Edom where Esau's descendants settled.

This was also land where Jehovah led Israel for 40 years in the wilderness prior to their conquest of the promised land. It was a location strongly connected with the presence and miracles of God for His people.

A shining presence and a fiery law.

Deuteronomy 33:1-2  And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. 2) And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with tens of thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them. 

Moses tells us that when Jehovah came to Mount Sinai from Mount Paran to give His "fiery law" to the people. He said that God shined forth like the increasingly bright rays seen at dawn through the full exposure of light at sunrise. Tens of thousands of His saints came with Him when the law was given to Moses.

A mighty storm, a loud trumpet, a trembling people and a fiery presence of God.

Exodus 19:16-19  And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. 17) And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 18)  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 19) And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 

In this text, we see on that day that Jehovah came to Moses in a mighty storm. Thick, slate gray clouds punctuated by lightning strikes and booming thunder. This was followed by a heavenly trumpet sound that grew exponentially louder and the mountain was covered in fire as the LORD descended. Mount Sinai literally quaked in the presence of God. 

I share these two texts so that we can have in our minds a more complete view of what Habakkuk described for us in Habakkuk 3:3-4.

God is a formidable enemy to those who oppose Him. 

Habakkuk 3:5  Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. 

Again, the prophet sees in his vision the Lord of Glory exercising His power upon the enemies of God's covenant people. He takes us back to the Egyptian plagues God used to free the Hebrew people from bondage (See Exodus 7 to 11). God also promised to judge His people if they fell into idolatry and to punish Israel's oppressors (See Deuteronomy 28:15-57). 

Habakkuk wanted us to see that God was not afraid to wield His fearsome power to those who refuse to walk in His ways.

God's vastness and man's smallness. 

Habakkuk 3:6  He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. 

This verse shows us the vastness of Almighty God. He stands to measure the whole earth. In fact, there are several instances in scripture where God is measuring things. 

Isaiah 40:12  Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

Isaiah tells us that Jehovah measured out all the water in the earth and that it only took the hollow of His hand to scoop and measure them. He measured out the heavens and all the stars, sun, moon and planets.  He knows how much dust or earth there is in the world that He created. He even weighed the mountains. Not even modern man with all the marvelous technologies at his disposal can do this with accuracy, yet God did!

Job 28:23-27  God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. 24) For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; 25) To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. 26) When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: 27) Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out. 

Job teaches us that only God has infinite understanding and he weighed the winds and the waters. He decreed how the water cycle would function. He did it all because He is vast, infinite in power, knowledge and ability. 

Habakkuk showed us these things because we need to be reminded that God is creator of all and sustainer of all that exists. 

Nations were filled with fear and trembled before God.

Habakkuk 3:7  I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 

The references to Cushan and Midian continue to connect us to the time of Moses when God led Israel out of Egypt. It was the time when He parted the Red Sea to allow the Hebrews to cross on dry land before He drowned Pharaoh's army. As the Hebrew people reached safety, there were two nations who were witnesses to this monumental miracle: Cushan and Midian. 

Deuteronomy 2:25  This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee. 

Moses spoke of the terror of the Lord being unleashed against the nations that Israel was going to drive out in order to possess the promised land. Just as the inhabitants of Cushan and Midian trembled in that time, so will the whole earth fear and quake at the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory when He comes to establish His kingdom on earth!

Thoughts to Ponder...

Habakkuk shows more of the visions that He received from Jehovah. First, he saw the splendid and sobering sights that Moses saw when God came down to Mount Sinai with the 10 commandments. 

His vision should cause us to reflect on our Great God because He is the same God today as He was then and as He always will be. Do we have a proper reverential fear of God? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and should impact our lives in tangible ways. 

Are we smitten with awe over the glory of God? His glory on display as Habakkuk tells us, speaks of our God being a consuming fire. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If God let go of the creation that He upholds with the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3) all things would be undone and cease to exist. He holds your life and my life in His hand. Should we not strive to honor Him in all our activities?

Habakkuk brings these things into perspective by showing us events that illustrate how vast and infinite God is and how puny and finite we are. God measured out the dirt on this earth and He weighed the waters and the winds. He counted the number of the suns, moons, stars, galaxies in the entire universe. Do we recognize our smallness and our utter dependency upon Him for life and breath?

As God showed His power and might and works according to His sovereign will, nations and people trembled and were filled with fear. We show our fear, respect and honor for God in the things that we say, do or think. 

Do we show reverential fear, respect and honor to God or do we choose to dishonor Him? Read that text from Deuteronomy 28. It contains a list of 14 verses describing the blessings of obedience but it has more than 50 verses of the curse for disobedience.

May we honor God with our response to His word today.

Bob