The Wonder of Habakkuk 3:2 - The Face In The Fire

This is the Truth Network. Bible Wonders of Habakkuk.

How fun! Today we get to dig into one of the great verses in all of Scripture. It's Habakkuk chapter three, verse two, which is the Bet verse, which is probably familiar to many. The Bet verse being understanding, and oh, what an understanding this is, and clearly Habakkuk had a great understanding to write this prayer.

And so, you know, it is an amazing thing, and we'll just dig right into it. Oh Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid. Oh Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years.

In the midst of the years, make known in wrath, remember mercy. So again, just wow, what a prayer, and I would point out that clearly, you know, one of the neat things about a prophet's prayer is the depth of the Scripture that's involved in it. And in this particular one, Habakkuk uses such syntax and so many words that are words of the Scripture, so to speak. So I looked, and there are actually 26 cross-reverences to this verse that were all written before Habakkuk prayed this.

And so clearly, you know, the verse is just loaded with references that were in the Bible elsewhere. And so, you know, when you think about what it's actually saying, right, he's saying that he's heard, and you might remember at the very beginning of Habakkuk chapter one, he's like, his first lament, his first prayer was, Lord, how long will I cry and thou wilt not hear? Well, now he's hearing what he needs to hear. In other words, he's wondering why he hasn't been answered, and now he knows he's gotten the answer. And not only did he get the answer, but it caused yireh, it caused fear, that idea of like, oh my goodness. But again, there was this delight in the fear of the Lord that takes place when we know that clearly God has really got all this going on. And the thing that, you know, I'll just jump to, you know, one of the conclusions I come to in this verse is that what may appear to us to be supreme judgment is actually a supreme mercy. When I look deeply into these words that, you know, in your wrath, well, that word wrath in its own way is just absolutely Jesus coming in all his glory. Well, when he comes in all his glory, for some it's going to be complete wrath, and for others of us it's a complete, you know, revelation of the face of Jesus Christ. And for some, when they see that face, it's over.

And for others, when they see that face, they're delighted. And so, you know, in this idea of reviving this work, in a way, you know, we all talk about revival, and a lot of people think about this verse when it comes to revival. And clearly the neat thing is when he says at the end of the verse, in your wrath, remember mercy, actually that word mercy, and Rashi makes clear reference to this, that he believes that that's Israel because it's clearly, you know, the bride of Christ here. Well, you know, again, the idea of the Jews is they feel like they are the ones that were betrothed to God at Mount Sinai when he gave the law. And of course, we the church think that we're, you know, and how that works is the ones that are truly the bride of Christ at the point in time are going to be the ones that are going to receive the mercy, right? Because they're the ones that are united with him, which is clearly, when you look at that word mercy, which is Raham, it has to do with the headwaters of our union with God, right? And that word mercy is everything to do with the marriage that's going to take place.

The marriage supper of the lamb is going to be horrible for those people that are essentially the meal, and it's going to be wonderful for those of us who are enjoying it. And so, you know, that's all part of what happens in that wrath. Remember mercy and Habakkuk uses that in the syntax. But one of the amazing things that I really just marvel at in this verse is the word that is translated work in English, and it's translated deeds in the way the Jews translate the word, but I would almost say the wages of work. In other words, here's the fruit of his work that is really what's going to happen, which when you look at it, that word in Hebrew starts with the letter pay, and the letter pay is a sense of God's presence and prayer and to be fully present with God, right? And so, and he says he wants us to make known, in other words, that yada that we hear in Hebrew all the time is to make known his presence. And the second letter in that word work, or slash deeds, is an I in, and so it's like being yoked to the face of God, and then the last letter is a lamed, which gives you that sense of aspiration. So when you, the fruit of God's work is you're going to aspire to be yoked to the face of God. In other words, it all gets back to this idea that when he makes his face known, he's going to revive. I mean, it's all going to come alive again, right? Because, you know, there's no, you know, no plant's going to grow without the sun, okay?

It just isn't, and no faith is going to grow without the sun, and by that I mean the Son of God. And so, you know, here, you know, what Habakkuk is asking for is absolutely spectacular, and I was thinking about it this morning that's so close in its own way to the Lord's Prayer, right? That when the disciples asked Jesus to pray, he used similar concepts here that, you know, that idea of forgiveness, and that idea of thy will be done, and thy kingdom come. It's all in here, okay?

And it's very much connected to this. So, you know, what I was thinking about is this idea of wrath and mercy, like when did you see God in the middle of wrath? Well, you know, clearly what I think we can see happened for in Habakkuk's time, or shortly after Habakkuk's time in the book of Daniel, which is what this prophecy is about, that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego couldn't have been in more trouble than to be in the fiery furnace. But when they were in the fiery furnace, what did they get to see? The face of God. And once again, for those people that were not receiving God's mercy, that ended up in that fiery furnace, you know, it just burned them, you know, the second they opened it up, you know, it's a complete different than those Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that didn't have one thread of their garments burned, because again, they could see the face of God. And so, you know, like Daniel in the lines then, the same kind of thing, that in the midst of our trials, if you're in Christ, you might be suffering from the world's point of view, because they see you in the fire, but from your point of view, you know, once you've got your eyes on His face, you know, it's a beautiful thing.

And so I thought about, you know, what is it, have you seen that in your life? And of course, I can always think back to when I saw the face of God at that night in prayer, and it did create this era, this idea of the fear of the Lord, believe me, it's all part of that that happens. But I also thought about, you know, my friend Bob Young, you know, talk about a severe, severe, horrible thing that happened to him, he lost his, I think his son was 26 at the time, he lost him on the 9th of January, his business was 109, you pull it, and he dearly, dearly, dearly loved his son, and he lost his son to a drug overdose, and he himself had struggled with drugs in his younger days, and he, you know, obviously had that guilt to deal with. And I don't know that I've ever seen suffering like man to see Bob, you know, at the loss of his son was just, it was brutal. But in the midst of it, you could tell that Jesus was always present with him. And so I think for an extent, for a lot of us, you know, we were looking at Bob like she at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, there he was in the fire of fires and flames of flames, yet he was standing for God in so many different ways.

You know, he did all these different things for the Winston-Salem Rescue Mission, and shared how people need to, you know, be dealing with drug addiction and all sorts of different ways. He honored his son's life in so many different ways as a result. But for a lot of us, you know, it's that idea of in suffering, you know, that we are a picture of what Jesus did. And that in its own way is Jesus's face when you think about it. And so I couldn't help but think about that verse in Colossians 1 24. It says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you knew and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for what is his sake, excuse me, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I've really had to think about that verse over the years many times, but I think the idea of Colossians 1 24 is what Bob Young experienced. In other words, the rest of us watched what happened, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He was in the fire. But to an extent, his sufferings are painting the picture of what Jesus's father and Jesus suffered through at the cross. In other words, God's love looks like suffering to some extent because that idea of the beloved is a dolla dolla dolla.

It's dust. It's dying to yourself often, right? And that picture of dying that allows new life, right? And so, you know, really, really cool verse. And I am going to meditate a lot.

I'm so excited to continue on in this. But you've got to admit, man, this is a bet verse. This verse has so much understanding in it of what's going on in the world. And here Habakkuk got his understanding. He got his answer, right? And he acknowledges that he got his answer to see, you know, that here he just begins the whole verse with, I have heard what you have said. Thanks again for listening. I hope you hear what God has to say with you in your suffering. God bless.