CAN GOD DELIVER?

Habakkuk 3:3-16a

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INTRODUCTION:  

My title for our series of studies from Habakkuk is, “Remaining Faithful When You Feel Forsaken”.  It is almost impossible to remain faithful if you believe God is impotent to deliver you from your afflictions.

Anyone here feel afflicted? 

§         Anyone here who is living with a terminal illness and you’ve prayed for deliverance but the doctors say you are still afflicted?

§         Anyone here who is living in a loveless marriage and you’ve asked God to resolve the marriage or release you from your vows but you still feel afflicted?

§         Anyone here with a wayward child for whom you have prayed without ceasing but your child is still far from you or far from your values or far from the Lord…or all three and your heart is afflicted?

§         Anyone here who is living with financial burdens that seem unbearable and you’ve sought the Lord’s help but you find you are still afflicted?

§         Anyone here who is battling emotional distress (depression, addiction, an eating disorder, a phobia, etc.) and you’ve prayed for healing but the cloud around you just won’t lift and you are still afflicted?

Don’t you want to know that God can deliver you from that which stresses, oppresses and distresses?  Don’t you believe you could remain faithful if you knew for sure that God is able to deliver you?

Psalms 34:19 reads, “A righteous man may have many troubles but the LORD delivers him from them all.”

There are two observations in this verse.  One is that we can expect to be afflicted if we want to be men and women of God.  But the second observation is that the Lord will deliver us from all of them.  ALL of them!!!

I could not sleep very well Monday night so at 4 AM on Tuesday, I was up watching a program on PBS.  It was about Niagara Falls.  One segment of the program dealt with the high wire artists who have walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.  One of the hosts of the show said that people would often ask the tightrope walker what it is like to get halfway across the Falls, to look down and to see all of that rushing water.  He said that the high wire walkers always reply, “You don’t look down.  You pick a spot on the wire about ten feet in front of you and you focus on that.  If you look down, you will fall.”

Can I suggest that the same principle applies in our walk through this life?  If you look down at the raging torrent that threatens, you will fall.  Don’t look down but look ahead.  The psalmist said, “A righteous man may have many troubles but the LORD delivers him from them all.”  Instead of looking down at your affliction, look ahead to your deliverance.

If you have been focusing on the torrent roiling beneath you, change your focus and look ahead.  If you are looking for a way to remain faithful in the face of affliction, there are some things you need to focus upon.

I.                    FOCUS ON THE MAGNIFICENCE OF THE LORD (3:3-4)

^3 God came from Teman,

the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah

His glory covered the heavens

and his praise filled the earth.

^4 His splendor was like the sunrise;

rays flashed from his hand,

where his power was hidden.

^Teman and Paran are located in the area south of the Dead Sea, near Mount Sinai.  For any Jewish reader, the reference to Teman and Paran would conjure up memories of Mount Sinai and God’s dramatic appearance to Moses at that spot. 

Three months after the Israelites were released from bondage in Egypt and began their journey to the Promised Land, they arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai.  When they got there, God told Moses to set the people apart for Him and spend two days preparing to meet their Maker.

Exodus 19:16 says,

“^16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. ^17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ^18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, ^19 and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.”

Can you picture the scene: a thick dark cloud, thunder, lightening, smoke covering the mountain, fire descending on the mountain, loud trumpet blasts that were getting even louder and then the voice of God is heard.  People who saw and heard these things must have told the story to their children’s children so that the whole nation knew that YHWH is a majestic God.

In Habakkuk’s prayer, it was right for him to focus on the magnificence of the Lord.  When we are facing the challenges, the afflictions and burdens of our lives, rather than focusing on them, we would do well to focus on the majesty, the splendor and the grandeur of the Lord.

We would also do well to focus on the might of the Lord.

II.                  FOCUS ON THE MIGHT OF THE LORD (3:5-12)

Listen to what, in his prayer, Habakkuk recalled about the power of God:

^5 Plague went before him;

pestilence followed his steps.

^6 He stood, and shook the earth;

he looked, and made the nations tremble.

The ancient mountains crumbled

and the age-old hills collapsed.

His ways are eternal.

^7 I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,

the dwellings of Midian in anguish.

^8 Were you angry with the rivers, O Lord?

Was your wrath against the streams?

Did you rage against the sea

when you rode with your horses

and your victorious chariots?

^9 You uncovered your bow,

you called for many arrows. Selah

You split the earth with rivers;

^10 the mountains saw you and writhed.

Torrents of water swept by;

the deep roared

and lifted its waves on high.

^11 Sun and moon stood still in the heavens

at the glint of your flying arrows,

at the lightning of your flashing spear.

^12 In wrath you strode through the earth

and in anger you threshed the nations.

^

When you feel forsaken and you think you may give up, instead of focusing on your problems, focus on the power of the Lord.  That is what Habakkuk was doing. 

§         Habakkuk thought about how God had used a series of plagues to soften the heart of the wicked Pharaoh in Egypt. 

§         He remembered how God sent pestilence on the nations that had opposed them when they moved into the Promised Land. 

§         He recalled cataclysmic events that God had sent for the purpose of accomplishing His will…events like floods, earthquakes, waters that parted, fire that fell and a host of other interventions.

§         He cited the example (recorded in Joshua 10) when God caused the sun to stand still in the sky so that the army of the Lord could defeat the Amorites.

When Habakkuk shifted his focus from his fears to his faith he realized that the infinite might of God brought him confidence that God’s will must overcome any obstacle in its way.

Friend in Christ, I want to tell you that God is more powerful than your problems.  I want to assure you that God is mightier than any foe you might face, stronger than any weakness you may have, greater than any evil that Satan can bring against you.  And just because He has not yet delivered you does not mean that He cannot.  He may be allowing your suffering to work a greater good than your deliverance could ever accomplish. 

Focus on the might of the Lord and not on the misfortune of the moment.

III.                  FOCUS ON THE MERCY OF THE LORD (3:13-16A)

^13 You came out to deliver your people,

to save your anointed one.

You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,

you stripped him from head to foot. Selah

^14 With his own spear you pierced his head

when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,

gloating as though about to devour

the wretched who were in hiding.

^15 You trampled the sea with your horses,

churning the great waters.

^16 I heard and my heart pounded,

my lips quivered at the sound;

decay crept into my bones,

and my legs trembled.

Sometimes that which afflicts us afflicts us because we believe God is out to torment us because of our sins.  It is true that the Lord is a God of justice but He is also a God of mercy and in our affliction, we need to focus on that.  That is what Habakkuk did in his prayer: he focused his attention on God’s grace toward His people.  When we know that God has a reputation for mercy, it becomes possible to endure the heat of affliction.

During the early days of the Civil War a Union soldier was arrested on charges of desertion.  Unable to prove his innocence, he was condemned and sentenced to die a deserter’s death.  At once, he filed an appeal of his conviction.  His appeal found its way to the desk of president Abraham Lincoln.  The president felt mercy for the soldier and signed a pardon.  The soldier returned to service, fought throughout the rest of the conflict and was killed in the last battle of the war.  Found within his breast pocket was the signed letter of the president.  Close to the heart of the soldier were his leader’s words of pardon. He found courage in the mercy he had received.

I wonder how many believers hold the news of their pardon close to their hearts.  I wonder how many Christians find the courage to fight on in the mercy they have received. 

In the face of the enemy of your soul, focus on God’s mercy instead of Satan’s wicked assault.

CONCLUSION:      

Frederick Douglass grew up as a slave in Maryland in the early nineteenth century and experienced slavery's every brutality.  He was taken from his mother when he was only an infant. For years as a child, all he had to eat was runny corn meal dumped in a trough that kids fought to scoop out with oyster shells.  He worked in the hot fields from before sunup until after sundown.  He was whipped many times with a cowhide whip until blood ran down his back, kicked and beaten by his master until he almost died, and attacked with a spike by a gang of whites.

But even so, when Frederick considered trying to escape to freedom, he struggled with the decision.  He writes in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave that he had two great fears. The first was leaving behind his friends: “I had a number of warm-hearted friends in Baltimore—friends that I loved almost as I did my life—and the thought of being separated from them forever was painful beyond expression.  It is my opinion that thousands would escape from slavery, who now remain, but for the strong cords of affection that bind them to their friends.”

His second fear was this: "If I failed in this attempt, my case would be a hopeless one—it would seal my fate as a slave forever."

Today, people who find themselves in slavery to sin, and who think about escaping to freedom in Christ, may have similar fears.  They may fear leaving behind friends. They may fear they'll fail in their attempt to break from sin and live free for God.  They should take heart from Douglass's experience.  On September 3, 1838, he remembers: “I left my chains, and succeeded in reaching New York without the slightest interruption of any kind. . . . I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free State. . . . It was a moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced. . . . I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions.”

Citation: Kevin A. Miller, editor and author, Wheaton, Illinois

Would YOU be free from your burden of sin?

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