The Wonder of Habakkuk 1:7 - A Force To Be Reconed With

This is the Truth Network. Bible Wonders of Habakkuk. How fun we get to dig around today in the seventh of the Zion verse of the first chapter of Habakkuk. And oh goodness, the letter Zion means to reflect. And certainly there's an interesting reflection we have going on. It reflects Jesus actually in an interesting way. And this is a fascinating reflection. So I'll read it in English.

And again, we're talking about the Chaldeans slash Clodbusters. And it says, they are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

So it's fascinating to me. And well, maybe I'll take you through, first of all, both Matthew, Henry and Rashi speak to how this is similar to what happens in 70 AD, right? When the Romans do the same thing, they're terrible and dreadful.

And what they say goes is kind of what, you know, what this is saying. But, you know, and when you think about it, well, I do want to read something Matthew Henry wrote about this that I think really speaks to the verse in a lot of ways. Here again, he's speaking of the Chaldeans.

Or the Clodbusters. And this is a quote from Matthew Henry. It says, appetite and passion rule them and not reason nor conscience. Their principles are my will is law. And this is my wish.

This is my command. It shall be done because I choose it. What favor can be hoped for from such an enemy? Note that those who have been unjust and unmerciful among whom the law is slacked and judgment does not go forth. Will justly be paid in their own coin and fall into the hands of those who will deal unjustly and unmercifully with them.

Wow. And, you know, again, Matthew Henry goes on to comment how those who despised Christ, the Jews, that, you know, it was interesting to me that Jesus prayed, you know, forgive them for they know not what they do. And there was a period of time that the church flourished and lots of them were forgiven those who chose forgiveness. And I know what happened, unfortunately, to those who did not choose Christ, even after his wonderful prayer. And, you know, if you look at the sieges that Rome did unto Jerusalem, you know, in 67, 68, 69 AD before the final fall of Jerusalem, just like the sieges that would happen later with Babylon, it was cruel and it was unbelievable. The pain that all happens as a result of essentially God just withdraws his hand of protection. And man, you know, I reflected on, you know, in the 119 Psalm, the last verse, the eighth verse in the very first Aleph section, it says, we will keep your statutes.

Oh, forsake us not utterly. Well, what you see here is, man, when God forsakes them and all this chaos and rubble, these people that are going to go forth are what, as they said, terrible and dreadful. But the interesting thing about those words, those words that are used there are the word Yireh. This has to do with the fear of the Lord. That's who you're supposed to be afraid of.

And they should have been afraid of long before this. And then the other word that is described as terrible is the very word that Jesus used in the Song of Solomon or the Beloved uses for his bride. He calls her as terrible as an army with banners twice.

And it is exactly the same word. So I find it very amazing what the Holy Spirit had Habakkuk use that word, that same word as terrible, that the idea of, and there's a psalmic in that verse, which is this really this force to be reckoned with. Again, going back to the 119 Psalm, what David would say is, you know, my flesh trembleth for fear of thee because I'm afraid of thy judgments. That's that psalmic. But here, you know, in the Song of Solomon, Jesus is describing the church as having that quality. Well, the only way we can have that quality, right, apart from us, we can do nothing, is God is literally the psalmic. This is the support that can make us that way once we are engaged with God the way that we should be. But when he withdraws himself, and again, the Chaldeans were agents of God as the Romans were agents of God. In the time that there was in order to inflict the coin with which, you know, that they were being judged as they had judged.

I mean, just simply, unfortunately, what happens? And so my biggest takeaway from this verse, or, well, I got two takeaways. Obviously, you know, the church is supposed to stand that strong and that powerful, just as, you know, Private Doss did on Hacksaw Ridge, right?

I mean, here's this unbelievable force to be reckoned with. All those men he saved because God was supporting him. I mean, he was as terrible as an army with banners right up there all by himself. He didn't take anybody's life. He was just saving lives, both his and the Japanese, both his people and the Japanese. But he was a force to be reckoned with, and that was as terrible as an army with banners. That's what we are supposed to be for good, right?

And that is really a spectacular thing. And the other takeaway I have is, unfortunately, you know, when am I not merciful? You know, when am I allowing the law to go slack, you know, because of my behavior when I'm not thinking about the people that have made me angry or that I'm contentious and striving. And all those words that we talked about in those previous chapters are very challenging, right? That we're to be that awesome and terrible as an army with banners, but at the same time, we were supposed to be loving and, you know, merciful. And I think that when you see Private Doss on Hacksaw Ridge, you know, he's not only saving his own people's life, he saves some Japanese soldiers' lives in the same time.

I mean, that's the picture. And Lord help me to be along those ways. I love this verse that is fearful and terrible. So getting back to the idea of the letter Zion, which is a reflection of Christ, and in his way, obviously, when we see him coming back in his judgment, he will be all of the above, a force to be reckoned with. That idea of this reckoning, it is coming because Jesus is all of these things way more terrible than the Babylonians when it comes to actual judgment being dealt out as he will slay the nations with the sword that comes out of his mouth. And interestingly, as we reflect Christ, in some ways, we're supposed to have that same force to be reckoned with. And so it's an amazing thing as we think about the letter Zion, and how can we reflect Christ in both this idea of a force to be reckoned with, but at the same time in mercy and love. Thanks for listening.