1-11 Gods ways, mysterious, misunderstood yet sure

Habakkuk 1:1-11 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. How long, O
LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, Violence! but
you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate
wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict
abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked
hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. Look at the nations and watch
and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would
not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless
and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling-places
not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honour. Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than
wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; they all come bent on violence. Their
hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. They deride
kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps
and capture them. Then they sweep past like the wind and go onguilty men,
whose own strength is their god.
Let me say four words of introduction about the brief opening sentence.

i] This is an oracle given to Habakkuk. The word oracle is the same word that is
used for a literal burden. When the word oracle is used to describe a prophecy
then generally the message is one of judgment or doom. That is so in almost every
case, and thus it is fitting to translate the opening words as the burden that
Habakkuk the prophet received. A preacher may find the challenge of preparing
two or three sermons a week somewhat of a burden, but that is not a good
comparison. That is not a burden to me. For a more accurate comparison one must
think of the responsibility of visiting someone you love and breaking bad news to
them, telling them a message that will give them very great grief. You inwardly
groan and sigh at having to do it, but you must do it. What a burden! And
Habakkuk did not have to do that on one occasion but many times, virtually every
time he spoke, and it never got easier. Only the strength of the Spirit of God could
enable him to continue carrying this burden. So his prophecy will deal with sudden
savage death coming to people whom he loved; that was his burden. Think of
Jesus weeping over a city that refused to come under his sheltering wings. The
prophet Jeremiah compared his vocation to having a fire burning away inside him;
it was extremely painful. He couldnt contain such a furnace, but it always caused a
conflagration when it burst out. Habakkuk had to unload his burden, but how
painful that was.

ii] It was this man Habakkuks own personal burden, but who Habakkuk was, and
when he lived no one knows. His name is a form of the Hebrew word to embrace,
but this is not a kiss but the embrace of a wrestler gripping and contending with an
opponent. Think of Jacob wrestling at Bethel. This prophecy is about a prophet of
God who lived out his name by laying hold of God How long, O Lord, must I call
for help? He is in the ring hanging on for long minutes before the bell will ring.
That is a wrestler. Generally Habakkuk is thought to have lived at the same time as
Jeremiah just before the Babylonian invasion which resulted in the destruction of
Jerusalem and the ensuing exile. Whether he was married, what age he was,
where he lived, and for how long we know nothing, because none of those things is
important.

iii] What was important was that Habakkuk was a prophet. There are no prophets
today but there are millions of men who bring the message of the prophets to the
churches through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The prophets and
apostles were foundation gifts and now every congregation needs to be built on
their foundation. Thus it has been throughout church history and so on until the end
of the world. This prophetic proclamation by the energy of the same Spirit who
inspired the prophets is Gods appointed means of shaping every gospel
congregation. Prophetic preaching is the climax of their worship. But Habakkuk
was more than a preacher. As Walt Chantry says, God Almighty set Habakkuk
aside to be Gods spokesman, to declare the very words of God. He was Gods
mouthpiece to deliver a divine message to the world. He was a holy man carried
along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). Habakkuks words were breathed out by
God himself through his prophet (Walter Chantry, Banner of Truth Magazine,
February 2007, A Prophets Burden: Habakkuk 1:1-4, p.28). No part of
Habakkuks burden was self-invented; his strong prophecy was not his own
assessment of the situation, locally, nationally or internationally. The words we
have before us were not a mere holy mans philosophy of the problem of God
seeming far off, and keeping silent while his people cry, How long Lord? These
words are not a human answer as to why people suffer, or how you can reconcile
human pain to an all-powerful God of love. No, we are not going to waste time
studying the personal thoughts of a brilliant religious man. The burden this prophet
bore was measured out to him to the ounce by God and Habakkuk unloaded the
burden he had received on his hearers. They were yoked together, the preacher
and the congregation, under this burden that comes to the church from its Lord.
iv] So it was from Jehovah that Habakkuk received all this message. Literally we
are told that he saw this revelation. Again, Walter Chantry is helpful saying, Even
when Habakkuk saw, it was not like our seeing. The Holy Spirit does enlighten the
eyes of our understanding through Scripture. Prophets, however, were (in the
earliest days) called Seers. In Numbers 12:6 the Lord said to Aaron and Miriam, If
there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision, I
speak in a dream. Not so My servant Moses. I speak with him face to face. God
made prophets to see truth directly in visions and dreams. Those things which they
saw, they conveyed to us in words of Scripture. The exceptions were Moses and
the Prophet like Moses, Jesus Christ. These two spoke with God face-to-face and
delivered more clear and complete messages in Holy Scripture (Chantry, op cit,
p.28).
So those are the four things I wanted to say about the first seven words of
Habakkuk. Now let us turn to the opening words of the prophecy, what the NIV
translation has headed Habakkuks Complaint. My first point is this:
 1. GODS WAYS ARE OFTEN MYSTERIOUS.
Let us look at that from three perspectives;

i] God can seem inactive for long periods. Obviously Habakkuk had been a man of
God for a long time. Hed been calling to Jehovah to help him and help the people
of God for years. We know that because he begins his prophecy with the question,
How long? How much longer was Habakkuk going to be kneeling before God
and saying, Lord we still need your help. When are you going to send help? I am
calling for help; why dont you listen? Please send help. Habakkuk would hear of
some terrible atrocity, too ugly to speak of, and he would cry to God, There is
more violence Lord . . . terrible violence, but what are you doing to deliver us? Is
God deaf, or not powerful enough to deal with the situation? He appears to be
either unable or unwilling to do anything about the awful situation in society.
Habakkuk was a preacher in an age when the people had largely turned away from
God. They were serving the Baals and the land was increasingly full of
wickedness. When was the Lord going to do something? Habakkuk pointed out
these things to God but nothing happened. He simply saw more injustice; he found
the wickedness intolerable, but it seemed to him that God didnt. Why do you
tolerate wrong? he said to God (v.3). You of all beings, a sin-hating God; just and
holy is your name. This is the Lord who expelled rebel angels from heaven, the
God who destroyed the world in the days of Noah, Jehovah who poured out fire
and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, so why does he now tolerate behaviour
that was worse than in those times? Cant he see whats going on? What is before
the eyes of God? Habakkuk says, Destruction and violence are before me; there
is strife, and conflict abounds (v.3). Destruction and violence are Habakkuks first
mentioned crimes. He has a sense of horror at what hes seeing and hearing
about, and we share in his revulsion, the suicide bombers in London, the
destruction of unborn babies by the tens of thousands, battering to death little
children, knifing a vicar, shootings in schools, road rage, drug trafficking, crimes of
passion how long will it be before God will intervene?
Habakkuk took his incomprehension at this lack of divine interest to God himself.
He goes to the One at the top, the great First Cause of everything, the One in
whom men live and move and have their being, the One in whose hands is their
very breath. Habakkuk personally protests about Gods inactivity. He has been
bringing the nations evils before God again and again, but nothing happens. God
doesnt make bare his arm and smite the criminals. The statistics for crimes of
violence, rape and robbery, fighting in the streets, gang warfare, etc. in our own
days are all remorselessly increasing. People dont feel it worth reporting muggings
and burglaries. My grandson is held up by a man and has his phone stolen; later
he has his bicycle security chain cut and his expensive bike is stolen. What can an
over-worked police force do about thefts like that? Thousands of petty thefts like
that occur every day of the year. What is alarming is that the police often appear to
be defending the rights of criminals. Parents who correct their children are
threatened with having their beloved sons and daughters taken from them. Tract
distributors and open-air preachers are harassed. So Habakkuk says, Therefore
the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails (v.4). Never, he says, that great
word of the orator and the agitator, . . . no justice anywhere. The wicked hem in
the righteous, so that justice is perverted (v.4). Isnt this our concern? Dont our
prayer meetings reflect these very concerns? There is such evil all around us and
we gather and we cry to God about it. On Sundays I lead you in prayer and a part
of that intercession can be the atrocious wickednesses surrounding us, all the pain
that this brings into the lives of individuals and families.
How long have we been praying like this? We have had a prayer meeting for
revival every Friday morning at 7 a.m. for nine years and there is not a sign
anywhere of a movement of Gods Spirit, of conviction of sin, or numbers crying
out, Men and brethren what must we do? We want to see truth advanced and a
tide of righteousness and love flooding the land. God arise and help us! we cry.
There are huge challenges and we lack the man power and the spiritual conviction
to summon a nation to truth and salvation. There is the Dyfi valley north of us
stretching forty miles from Aberdyfi up to Dinas Mawddwy. Twenty thousand
people live there with just a couple of ministers of any theological persuasion to
serve them. There is one of our members living in the heart of that valley battling
on with his poor health. How can that area be reached for God? That is just a
microcosm of our land; there are hundreds of areas like that far from the South
Wales Bible belt, but if your mind can embrace the nations of Europe to the east
and south of us arent there millions of square miles without Christ crucified. 40,000
towns in France do not have a gospel pulpit. We cry to God to open wide the
windows of heaven. Instead of a little watering-can sprinkling the window boxes it
is time for God to pour waterfalls of grace on these nations. Our hope of an
awakening of truth must be fixed on him. We cry to him for blessing, and have
cried, but where is a response commensurate with the divine glory of Christ? How
long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you,
Violence! but you do not save? (v.2). Why doesnt God answer our prayers? Why
does a loved one remain unconverted? Why do congregations grow smaller? Why
does God permit his people to be as she is today? Why doesnt he give honour to
the Son he loves by bringing many to confess him as Lord? So God has seemed
inactive for a long time. Think of the dark ages when the church was deprived of
the Bible. Medieval superstition dominated the professing churches. The papacy
was led by a series of avaricious sensual men. Christianity seemed to be all about
indulgences, relics, celibacy and secular power. This state of affairs continued for
centuries while God seemed inactive. Another mysterious way of God:
ii] God brings about unexpected providences. The Lord does not keep silent,
replying to Habakkuk. There is no rebuke offered. The Lord is fully in sympathy
with Habakkuks concern, in fact he perceives the problem more deeply than the
prophet. Habakkuk is counseled and given homework. This is what he has to do,
Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed . . . (v.5). The commands
are staccato and constant: Look! See! Be astonished! Wonder! Jehovah tells
Habakkuk that he is failing to look in the right place to see him at work. The
prophets eyes were glued to the sins of his own land, to the idolatry and
unrighteousness in Judah. That is all he noticed. He was longing for a work of God
restraining that sin, and because he saw no restraints he concluded that God was
doing nothing. Look beyond your little creek. Look at the nations and watch, said
Jehovah. Our God is the Lord of all nations. His purposes are global. Gods
answers are not always seen in the sending of revival. Sometimes they appear by
way of multi-national events. Then God announces something very different from
Habakkuks expectations: I am going to do something in your days that you would
not believe, even if you were told. (v.5).
God is always doing the unexpected. In Elishas day a city was dying because its
water supply was bad. Elisha threw salt into the spring and healed the water. Youd
think salt wouldnt help at all, making it undrinkable, but it was salt that caused the
water to be wholesome for ever (2 Kings 2:22). Again, there was a blind man who
cried to Jesus for sight and Jesus answered by putting mud on his eyes, something
one would think would be the most unhelpful thing he could do, but because of that
the mans sight was restored. Or think again of the action of Pilate in permitting the
Son of God to be crucified, the most terrible crime the world has seen, and yet God
decreed by this horrific cruelty of Gentile unbelievers that cosmic redemption and
eternal good would come.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, We all tend to prescribe the answers to our prayers.
We think that God can come in only one way. But Scripture teaches us that God
sometimes answers our prayers by allowing things to become much worse before
they become better. He may sometimes do the opposite of what we anticipate. He
may overwhelm us by confronting us with a Babylonian army. Yet it is a
fundamental principle in the life and walk of faith that we must always be prepared
for the unexpected when we are dealing with God. I wonder what our fathers would
have thought [eighty] years ago if they could have had a pre-view of the state of
the Christian Church today. They were unhappy enough about things even then.
They were already having meetings for revival and for seeking God. If they could
see the Church at the present time, they would not believe their eyes. They could
never have imagined that spiritually the Church could have sunk so low. Yet God
has allowed this to happen. It has been an unexpected answer. We must hold on
to the hope that He has allowed things to become worse before they finally
become better (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, From Fear to Faith, IVP, 1953, p.17).

John Newton asked God that he might grow in faith and love and ever grace, and
we pray that for our congregations. What is numerical growth if Christ-likeness is
virtually nil? God answered Newtons prayers by stirring up sin in him and making
him feel its power, upsetting his plans and laying him low. Newton cried to God,
Why is this?

Tis in this way, the Lord replied

I answer prayer for grace and faith.
These inward trials I employ
From pride and self to set you free
To break your schemes of earthly joy
That you might find your joy in me.
The Christian receives unexpected providences.

Another mysterious way of God;

iii] God uses unusual instruments. I am raising up . . . What? An army of
missionaries? No. God is absolutely content with one man Habakkuk; this prophet
is adequate for the task God has given him to do. I am raising up . . . What? The
Babylonians. Oh no! You dont mean that ruthless and impetuous people?
Exactly; that ruthless and impetuous people (v.6). Cant you see in the rise of
Babylon that I am at work, fulfilling my sovereign purposes against these evils
giving you such concern? He is telling Habakkuk to prick up his ears and take
note, Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed (v.5). Then God, in
order to underline the truth that he knows exactly the power he is unleashing,
describing in most vivid language I believe there are twenty different features
mentioned the Babylonian armies who sweep across the whole earth to seize
dwelling-places not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a
law to themselves and promote their own honour. Their horses are swifter than
leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their
horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; they all come
bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like
sand. They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they
build earthen ramps and capture them. Then they sweep past like the wind and go
on guilty men, whose own strength is their god (vv. 6-11). They end up exalting
themselves as god! Today with computer enhanced graphics it is possible to
picture on the silver screen chilling scenes of vast armies of merciless killers,
sharpening their swords, licking their lips in anticipation of young women and
plunder. They stretch out to the distant horizons, their war-horses champing at the
bit, and they advance when the signal is given, pouring over the borders and
descending on cities where fearful families and brave men wait dry-mouthed for
their arrival and the inevitable slaughter.
Are you saying that God is directing and using such monstrous hordes? That is
the unmistakable claim God makes, I am going to do something in your days that
you wouldnt believe even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians . . .
(vv.5&6). Their kings heart was in Gods hand. At that moment God was
strengthening Babylon, getting its war machine ready, making plans for an
invasion, working out the route and the supplies and so on. God was prompting
them to do that because the Babylonians would be Gods instrument of
chastisement upon Israel.
We know that Babylon came out of nowhere. They had been an insignificant little
country, and then God raised them up, so that in the year 614 they conquered
Assyria, two years later Nineveh, two years later Hanan, and five years later they
routed the armies of Pharaoh. They became the undisputed strongest power on
earth ruling over Babylon, Assyria, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Twenty years earlier
no one had heard of them and then God raised them up as his rod of
chastisement.

Today we have to think in terms of decades and centuries about the recapturing of
Europe for Christ. We must certainly get into our minds that whatever Babylonians
are attacking us its not that the devil sent them to mess up our party. It has been
God who has been doing the sending whether the Babylonians are in the form of
communists, or Muslims, or existentialists, or humanists. We see hordes of them
all around the church; the city of God is under siege. The beast that comes from
the sea has seven heads and whichever one is attacking the church at the present
we must go to God. We must ask him for grace to learn whatever lesson God may
teach us through this particular trial.

It was God who sent the ruthless pagan Babylonians against the people of God.
This is not a truth just found here in a tiny book in the Old Testament. Seven
hundred years before the time of Habakkuk the danger was made painfully clear to
the people by Moses. God spoke saying in Deuteronomy 28, If you do not obey
the LORD your God . . . The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away,
from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language
you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for
the young . . . Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of
the earth to the other (Deut. 28: 15, 49, 50, 64).
Again consider the mighty prophet Isaiah in the tenth chapter; we meet this
identical truth. In verses five, six and seven God says, Woe to the Assyrian, the
rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a
godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and
snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. But this is not
what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an
end to many nations.
In Isaiahs day God wasnt using the Babylonians to chastise his people, he was
using the Assyrians. They were the ones doing the clubbing, but behind the
Assyrian club was the arm of God. No matter what is going on or whom the Lord
chooses to be the means of his chastening it is God who is in control and making
sure that his will is being done. So God uses unusual instruments and his ways are
often mysterious.

2. GODS WAYS ARE OFTEN MISUNDERSTOOD.

i] Gods ways are often misunderstood by careless religious people. God says that
the people are going to be utterly amazed, and theyre not going to believe what
Habakkuk tells them (v.5). Have you heard the latest? Habakkuk was preaching in
the city this morning and he said that the Lord was going to use the Babylonians
against us! As if God would do anything like that! The whole idea was
preposterous. We dont believe it, and they scornfully reject it. When Noah
warned the people of a coming judgment and told them that God said his Spirit
would not always strive with man all the world mocked Noah. It was the same with
Sodom and Gomorrah, the inhabitants couldnt believe that judgment would fall
upon them. Their view of God was that he always gave a soft landing and a happy
ending, so they went on with life, Jesus said, eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the judgment fell upon them.
Many today in the professing church say, God is a good God and he only does us
good. But good was certainly going to come from this ruthless and impetuous
people who sweep across the whole earth (v.6). One of the terrible fruit of the
invasion and ensuing Babylonian exile would be a man called Daniel, and another
fruit would be Ezra, and another Nehemiah. The people would become utterly
disillusioned about the idols they had served in Judah for centuries, and they would
turn in repentance to Jehovah. So Habakkuks prayer for God to revive his work
would be answered via the Babylonian invasion and captivity of the church. God
would not solve the moral crisis amongst his people by Habakkuks preferred
method of revival. He would solve it in this unwelcome way
If today troubles come into a professing Christians life or into his church then that
man might instinctively blame those problems on the devil. What is that man
doing? He is backhandedly strengthening his own inflated opinion of himself and
his church. We really must be super-spiritual Christians to be attacked so strongly
by the devil. I am saying that you must always go back to the first cause of
everything that happens and see the hand of God in all things or you will go on
fighting God, and also failing to deal with the purpose for which he sent in the
Babylonians. Havent you heard misguided professing Christians blaming Satan for
what is the consequence of their own stupidity? Theyre thinking that the devil did
this to them because they are so spiritual. They cannot accept that their
circumstances have been sent by God. That is immature theology, and it is
keeping people from hearing the voice of God speaking to them in their trials; it is
hardening them in false spirituality. Evil does not have the initiative in human life,
however much at times it may seem so. God allows it to rage for purposes of his
own, long after we think it should be curbed. Men are too shortsighted and
distrustful of Gods sovereign omnipotence to realise this.

One great proof of the correctness of this interpretation is that Paul quoted from
Habakkuk chapter one and verse five as the climax of his sermon in the synagogue
at Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13 verse forty one, saying to them, You Jews wont
believe what I am saying about the Messiah any more than your forefathers
believed Habakkuk. You have crucified the Messiah; you refuse to repent and now
God will raise up the Romans and they will punish you, and that is what God did in
the year 70. Peter lays down this principle, The time has come for judgment to
begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of
those who do not obey the gospel? (I Pet. 4:17). There are the strange dealings of
God; he does act in such ways. It could be said that one of the by-products of the
world wars of the last century was that God punished the Germans and their
modernistic churches which had rejected the authority of the Bible and supported
Nazism. God raised up the RAF and the Allied armies. What of 9/11? There are
many American Christians grieving over the wickedness of their culture who say
that the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York was ultimately through God
raising up the Islamic terrorists to chastise a violent civilization. In the British Isles
we are witnessing how God has raised up Islam in our midst; it has invaded the
heart of Britain and in many mosques there is a militant, threatening scorn of our
civilization. We can sympathize with their moral outrage; the western world is faced
with chastisement. Who knows what horrors lie before us? We dare not become
smug and think God would not think of using such an instrument. God is using it at
this moment.
ii] Gods ways are certainly misunderstood by the enemies of the gospel. Neither in
Isaiahs day nor in Habakkuks day did the Assyrians or Babylonians have any
desire to do the will of Jehovah. That is not what Assyria intends, says Isaiah to
serve the Lord but intend it or not that is what these nations were doing. Pontius
Pilate and the Jewish chief priests did not intend to put Jesus on the cross in order
that Gods purpose and counsel determined before to be done. They just wanted to
see the troublesome Jesus of Nazareth wiped out, but God made sure that their
wickedness accomplished our salvation. So today Islam has no idea that the living
triune God is using Islams threats and acts to humble the European church and
make it love righteousness and preach the gospel with more earnestness. What do
the powerful enemies of the Lord worship? They are described here in Habakkuk
chapter one and verse eleven, Guilty men, whose own strength is their god. They
bow down before their numerical strength one billion Muslims, their oil reserves,
their military might. They dont realise that they are being led on a lead like poodles
to do the will of the Master Jehovah.
iii] Gods ways are often misunderstood by great men of God themselves. You see
Habakkuk here, How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or
cry out to you, Violence! but you do not save? Why do you make me look at
injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds. (vv. 2&3). If this godly prophet, to whom God
spoke, was perplexed at what God was doing in his day we might find hope in our
own discouragements. We often say with Isaiah, Who has believed our
message? Why do we go on preaching when it seems that no one is responding?
The answer is that we have a call from God to tell the world about his Son, and we
do not know when the set time to favour us will come, and when it does it will be
the message of the Bible God will bless.
3. GODS WAY IS CLEARLY REVEALED.
There are great principles we can glean from this opening chapter of Habakkuk.

i] History is under Gods control. It is not that God is solely in control of the church
but he has the whole world in his hands. Just consider with me the most mighty
man in the world, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, unknowingly being used by
the Lord himself to punish Gods own defiant people. Listen to this proud man
parading his own sovereignty, As the king was walking on the roof of the royal
palace of Babylon, he said, Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal
residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? (Dan. 4:30).
Then keep following this passage and see Gods true sovereignty revealed, The
words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, This is what is
decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from
you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you
will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge
that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to
anyone he wishes. Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was
fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was
drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle
and his nails like the claws of a bird (Daniel 4:31-33). Then keep reading and see
that divine sovereignty of the Most High is acknowledged by Nebuchadnezzar in
verse 34, At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes towards
heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honoured and
glorified him who lives for ever. Then keep reading and see how Gods control
over all men is declared in the next verses, His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are
regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the
peoples of the earth. No-one can hold back his hand or say to him: What have you
done? (Dan. 4:34&35). That history is under Gods control is acknowledged by a
mighty pagan. He has more theology than many bishops.
ii] History follows Gods plan. We sing these words,
I know who holds the future and hell guide me with his hand.

With God things dont just happen, everything by him is planned.

Dr Lloyd-Jones could be commenting on these words as he said, Things do not

just happen. Events are not just accidental, for there is a definite plan of history
and everything has been pre-arranged from the beginning. God who sees the end
from the beginning has a purpose in it all, and knows the times and the seasons.
He knows when to bless Israel and when not to bless her. Everything is under His
hand (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, op cit, p.22).

iii] History follows Gods timetable. Again Lloyd-Jones says, It was when the
fullness of the time was come that God sent forth His Son. He allowed the great
philosophers, with their clarification of thought, to come first. Then emerged the
Romans, famous for ordered government, building their roads and spreading their
wonderful legal system throughout the world. It was after this that God sent forth
His Son. God had planned it all. There is a purpose in history, and what is now
happening in this twentieth century is not accidental (ibid).
iv] History is bound up with the Kingdom of God. Finally Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, The
key to the history of the world is the kingdom of God. The story of the other nations
mentioned in the Old Testament is relevant only as it bears upon the destiny of
Israel. And ultimately history today is relevant only as it bears upon the history of
the Christian Church. What really matters in the world is Gods kingdom. From the
very beginning, since the fall of man, God has been at work establishing a new
kingdom in the world. It is His own kingdom, and He is calling people out of the
world into that kingdom; and everything that happens in the world has relevance to
it. It is still only in process of formation, but it will finally reach its perfect
consummation. Other events are of importance as they have a bearing upon that
event. The problems of today are to be understood only in its light. What God is
permitting in the Church and in the world today is related to His great purpose for
His own Church and kingdom. Let us not therefore be stumbled when we see sur-
prising things happening in the world. Rather let us ask, What is the relevance of
this event to the kingdom of God? Or, if strange things are happening to you
personally, dont complain, but say, What is God teaching me through this? What
is there in me that needs to be corrected? Where have I gone wrong and why is
God allowing these things? There is a meaning in them if only we can see it. We
need not become bewildered and doubt the love or the justice of God. If God were
unkind enough to answer some of our prayers at once, and in our way, we should
be very impoverished Christians. Fortunately, God sometimes delays His answer in
order to deal with selfishness or things in our lives which should not be there. He is
concerned about us, and intends to fit us for a fuller place in His kingdom. We
should therefore judge every event in the light of Gods great, eternal and glorious
purpose (ibid, p.23&24).
21st October 2007 GEOFF THOMAS

[1] There are fine books on Habakkuk; John Calvins foundational commentaries
on the minor prophets have been reprinted by the Banner of Truth, Palmer
Robertsons superb commentary has been published by Eerdmans, while Walter
Chantrys series of articles on the prophecy in the Banner of Truth magazine during
2007 are surely destined for publication. Tim Shenton has written thoroughly and
helpfully (Day One), but over fifty years ago Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones studies in the
book entitled, From Fear to Faith, (Inter-Varsity Press) first appeared and since
1953 it has gone through at least fifteen editions. Never convinced about the value
of prominently announcing the headings of a sermon nevertheless for his
introductory sermon he produced a stunning three point outline with sub-points
which I gratefully took over, ending with a long quotation from his conclusion. By
outlines, one can gain clarity, but they can be at the expense of vital encounter.
The lecture form, alas, overcomes the proclamation, and that was ever Lloyd-
Jones concern. How he rightly deplored what he described as a glorified Bible
study masquerading as a sermon.