Episode 8: Might To Make Us Tremble… And Wait (3:1-16)
Habakkuk responds to God’s mighty and impending judgement in a prayerful song.
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Read 3:1-16 out loud again. Try and capture the drama and expression if you can. How does it impact you differently from chapters 1 & 2?
How do we feel about justice coming? How do these verses help us see our need for it?
How does this chapter give us mercy chasing on the heels of justice? How does having both together help our heart response?
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This episode is sponsored by 10ofthose.com. 10ofthose.com hand pick the best Christian books that point to Jesus and sell them at discounted prices. The more you buy the cheaper they get! Check them out at 10ofthose.com.
10ofThose operates in both the UK and the USA.
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Felicity: Hi, everyone. This podcast is sponsored by 10ofthose.com 10ofthose.com handpick the best Christian books at point Of View and sell them at discounted prices. The more you buy, the cheaper they get. Checked them out at 10ofthose.com after this episode of Word fuelled hearts.
Sarah: Hello and welcome to word fuelled Hearts.
Sarah: I'm Sarah and I live in the UK and this is my sister Felicity, who lives in the US.
Felicity: Hello, everyone.
Sarah: Felicity, tell us what's in your mug today.
Felicity: Well, in my mug today, I've gone for that classic Yorkshire Gray, so mixing the two. But really, the triumph of today is a homemade biscuit. And the surprise of this is actually it's an American recipe for a biscuit. And as I was making it, I thought, there is a possibility that this could turn out looking like an English scon rather than an English biscuit. But wonderfully. I have a chewy, delightful chocolate biscuit in my hand that I have made personally done.
Sarah: And then did the recipe say biscuit?
Felicity: It actually did. It English biscuit, so I feel like there was some clarification there, but I was not entirely sure until I put them in the oven as to what they were going to come out like. So I'm quite pleased. Good recipes you have in my back pocket.
Sarah: I'm quite excited for you.
Felicity: I don't know why I said that.
Sarah: Recipes in their back pocket, not me.
Felicity: What about you? What's in your cup and title?
Sarah: I got a hot water today in my cup and my biscuit is potentially quite controversial. It's a Jaffa cake.
Felicity: You went there?
Sarah: I went there.
Felicity: Over here. We don't really have Jaffa cakes. Could you just do a little explanation of a Jaffa cake?
Sarah: It's not a cake is the first thing to say. It's either biscuit and what it is, it's around biscuit with a layer of it's, like around kind of spongy base with orange jelly in the American orange and then chocolate on top, so it sounds disgusting, actually. I would not eat that if someone has described that to me. But they're very good and they're definitely a biscuit, because you find them in the biscuit aisle. And my husband would tell you there's some complicated tax reason why they're actually a biscuit as well, but I don't know.
Felicity: It is a matter of much debate. I seem to remember when I was an English teacher, setting up the debate on this fairly frequently as whether it's a cake or a biscuit. But they are surprisingly good.
Sarah: It's very good, yeah. I'm enjoying it a lot.
Felicity: Envy sitting here. I know, I forgot that for a moment. My biscuit is very good today.
Sarah: Now, before, we've had a lot of positive comments about the biscuit chat, so thanks, everyone, for embracing the biscuit chat with us, but what are we talking about with our biscuit chat today? We're talking about our episode in a couple of weeks time, round off our first series. I can't Believe We're already getting to this point. But to round off our first series, we are going to have an ask us anything episode. Lisa, tell us what that involves.
Felicity: Well, that really does do what it says on the Tin. You can ask us anything. It might be to do with how we read the Bible, how we've got our heads around have a cook in any sense, or Habakkuk. Or it might be just about how we choose what biscuits to eat or how to make a proper good cup of tea, or anything really. Anything. We'd love you to just get those questions into us, and in a couple of weeks we will do our best to answer your questions.
Sarah: I mean, you say anything, I think anything in within reason.
Felicity: I know, but then I was thinking, what am I nervous of? I don't think anyone's going to ask anything outrageous unless okay, ask us anything.
Sarah: Okay. As it says on the Tin, let's do that. So how do you do that? You do that by either emailing us at podcastingsisters@gmail.com or come on to Instagram or Facebook and tell us there. Message us, whatever, however you get hold.
Felicity: Of us, into the ether.
Sarah: Some questions so that we don't just spend the whole episode talking about biscuits.
Felicity: I know. I mean, to be fair, my stock of biscuits over here is getting limited, so I need more than biscuit chat.
Sarah: I need to send you a whole package of them. But I feel like at the moment we're not really allowed to go to the post office. I don't know, it's weird. Crack on with are you just saying.
Felicity: Let'S crack on with have a cook?
Sarah: Yes.
Felicity: Yes. I feel like I need to bring in more of the American pronunciation.
Sarah: Okay, so, Flisty, you're going to represent yes, indeed.
Felicity: I'm going to read chapter three of Herbacock. And I was actually listening to Nancy Guthrie speaking on this recently, and she did sing these verses. I'm not going to do that. But the point that she was making was that it is a song. It's a poem. It says, On Shigenath, which means that it was sung in the temple. So, chapter three, verse one, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet on Shigenoth. Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds. Lord, repeat them in our day, in our time. Make them known in wrath. Remember mercy. God came from Tea man. The Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise. Rays flashed from his hand where his power was hidden. Plague went before him. Pestilence followed his steps. He stood and shook the earth. He looked and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled, and the ageold hills collapsed. But he marches on forever. I saw the tents of Cushion in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. Were you angry with the rivers lord, was your roth against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory? You uncovered your bow. You called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and ride. Torrents of water swept by the deep roared and lifted its waves on high sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. In wrath you strode through the earth, and in anger you thrashed the nations. You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of the wickedness. You stripped him from head to foot with his own spear. You pierced his head with his. Warriors stormed out to scatter us gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. You trampled the sea with your horses churning the great waters. I heard and my heart pounded. My lips quivered at the sound. Decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of Calamity to come on the nation invading us.
Sarah: Thanks so much, Christie. Wow. I'm a little bit disappointed that you didn't sing that.
Felicity: Nancy Guthrie it can sing and I can't. But I think the point is that it is poetry. Like it is a song. A song and a poem are very similar in their kind of makeup. And so we have quite bombastic language. It's big language. It's quite extreme, isn't it? It feels extreme. I don't think it is extreme, but it feels extreme. We actually have heard we kind of know all this about God from habitatok, but I feel like he's saying it in song poetic terms, to really show us what God is like. It kind of puts flesh and color on two facts that we already know.
Sarah: Yeah. That's really helpful. I think it's worth remembering, isn't it? The context of this is that chapters one or two have just come before it. And this is the kind of habitat's heart response, isn't it, in prayer? But it's a prayer that is very different to the prayers of chapter one.
Felicity: Yes.
Sarah: It's a prayer full of praise of who God is and how mighty he is to judge. It's a prayer that is a song. It's a prayer of wonder and marveling, isn't it? And the tone and mood of this prayer just is very different to the beginning of the book.
Felicity: Yeah. And I think he says at the start, he says, I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time. Make them known. In a way, like the majority of this song is a vision of God making himself and his deeds known. Back in chapter two, we had the revelation awaits in a point of time. It speaks at the end. He has been waiting to see God in action and in a sense, this poem is like a picture of that God in action that he's waiting for while it hasn't actually happened. It's kind of pointing to the way that our mighty, mighty God is going to respond to all the injustice and the sin that is all over the place.
Sarah: And the way that Habakat prayed at the end of that verse two absolutely sums up God's character, isn't it? Remember mercy. So he's praying that because he knows God's character, what he knows of God is that yes, he will judge. And he's just heard God explain how he's going to judge completely and fully, but he has also been showing God's mercy and that the righteous will live by faith.
Felicity: Yes.
Sarah: This is wonderful, isn't it, to have that kind of summary of what's going on.
Felicity: Yeah, absolutely. And there's another little moment in versus Twelve and 13 that help us see that. But before we kind of get the rough and the mercy kind of mixed in together, should we just dwell a little on the language that is used here? I don't know anything that struck you. I was really struck by the idea that the moon and the sun stands still. My God releases his arrows. There's just so much power in that picture.
Sarah: It's cosmic, isn't it? To go that wide, that broad, that deep in how you're going to describe what's going on here again, in contrast to what we've just seen last week in terms of the breathlessness of idols. You then get this picture and vision of the living God and just nothing stands in his way. Plague went before Him, pestilence followed the steps, he stood and shook the earth. He makes the fish tremble, he marches on forever. His glory covers the heavens. Like all that language just demonstrates again what we already have seen in Habit Cook already. But it's just this kind of praise filled prayer of wow, this is really who you are and we're in you.
Felicity: Yeah, I think praise filled prayer, but also kind of trembling at the sight of it, isn't it? This is a really scary picture of God, and in the midst of it, let's come to verses twelve and 13. So he says, in anger, you thresh the nations, which I think is really another term for judgment that could just be summarized in anger. In anger, all the injustice, everything. That's just so wrong. You are threshing the nations, you are judging the nations. But then verse 13, you came out to deliver your people, to save your Anointed One. I think when he's talking about the Anointed One, he's talking about his King. So all the way through the Bible, we see God saving His King David right through, but ultimately through to Jesus. So God delivers his people through His King in the midst of the judgment, which is a rough and mercy kind of crazy combination of things, isn't it?
Sarah: There's so much that you just said in that sentence that is like the summary of the Bible there and there, isn't it? It's really helpful you said that listed because I felt a bit confused about this language this week. But what do we know from this and what do we know from the book of habit kicks all the way through? Is that it's only God who can deliver his people. Yeah. It's only those who live in faith and that faith is by God, isn't it? And so what we have here is just, again, not being fleshed out because God himself is coming to deliver in the midst of judgment, he will also save in the midst of rough, he will remember mercy.
Felicity: Yeah. And I wonder whether you even could go even further than that and say that we actually need God to judge in order to then save. We need sin and injustice to be dealt with in order that things can be made right and made new and God's people can be brought through that, which is I don't know, that's a real challenge to my perspective on judgment. Like I hear the word judgment and I think, could we skip that? That just sounds a bit much. But I think here we're seeing just the necessity of it and that's what.
Sarah: We'Re seeing all the way through the book, isn't it? Again, that actually Habakkuk's heart has been wondering, lord, when are you coming to judge what's going on, why you're not listening and why you're not hearing me? Yeah, this has been a big challenge to my heart all the way through. Am I really praying in the same way? And am I really is my heart beating in step with habitat in that way?
Felicity: Yes. So burdened with the injustice around us and that we need God and only God can sort it out. And there's something in this mighty powerful picture here that it's a relief, I think, to see God in this way and therefore to believe and trust that he really is going to sort it out. He can and he will. And so as we then you look at verse 16 and Habakkuk says, my legs trembled, which is kind of right, isn't it? Like, you see this and you're like, yeah, that's about right. But then he says, yes, I will wait patiently for the day of Calamity to come on the nation invading us.
Sarah: And that's really important, isn't it, that we see what kind of because what we see here is Habakkuk, he's like the living example of what it is to live by faith, isn't it? We've seen him question, we've seen him wrestle through and we're now seeing him endure and kind of praise God for his character and what he's going to do. And I think that's really helpful for us as a model of what the life living by faith looks like. And here again, we get the encouragement to wait patiently to endure. What kind of faith is it that he has? It's an enduring faith. And I think what stones me as well is that this passage is again, bookended. I love these bookends and have a book. Verse two and verse 16. I have heard that he's listening to God at this point. He's listened to what God has said and he's acting on that by waiting patiently. So it's a hearing faith as well as an enduring faith. What's challenged me most, though, is that I don't feel like habit cook most of the time. I wonder whether you can speak into that for anyone else. You might be feeling like that. I've been really challenged by that this week, that I don't feel like I have this faith.
Felicity: Yeah, I think that's right, isn't it? When I think about my daily living, I'm not very Habakkuk. Like sometimes I think I'm more like the Babylonians than I am like Habakkuk, which is kind of unnerving because I really do want to be like have a cookie. But I think then in the midst of that, then we look at verse 13 from this side of the cross and we say, well, actually you have delivered your people. We are in the safety and the security of your king Jesus. And so while we don't feel like it and our hearts are still pulling kind of in an opposite way, actually objectively unchangeably, we are in Christ. And so we can wait with Habakkuk, even if C. S. Lewis talked about the human nature is undulating. And I think that's just such a good description. Like we go up and down, I'm a roller coaster, just like within the space of a day, but through the objective truth of Jesus, we are in the Habakkuk spot, more so than we feel that to be the case.
Sarah: Yes. That's really helpful, Christie. And I think what we've seen the whole way through is that our hearts should be pounding and our legs should be trembling as we see God in this way. But also we don't need to fear, as in being terrified of judgment, in the way that essentially people who don't trust in Jesus will be on the last day. We're completely safe. He is our refuge. We are completely safe in Him as approached that day.
Felicity: Yeah. And it might just be worth just clarifying so when he says Habakkuk says in verse 16. I will wait patiently for the day of Calamity to come on the nation invading us. Actually. While Habakkuk is thinking about the Babylonians and those who are causing all the injustice and actually God's people themselves who are doing all that injustice.
Sarah: Actually.
Felicity: That is also a picture of the final day of judgment. Which we are also waiting for. So Habakkuk is waiting for God to judge ultimately and we also are waiting for God to judge ultimately. And we wait, as you say, Sarah, without fear in the safety of christ's deliverance. And so we are able to wait with Habakkuk in that way. Does that make sense?
Sarah: Yeah, totally makes sense. But it just makes me think I need to keep coming back to this word and reminding myself of what it looks like, because as you say earlier, I just feel on a day to day I'm quite fickle and I'll be undulating all over the place. And this is why we need to keep our heads in the Word and remembering that.
Felicity: I think that's right. Yeah, that's right. Almost a sort of renewal of what we know. We need to keep remembering that this is our God. We really need sin to be dealt with. We really love that we're safe in Jesus. We don't have to have fear, but these are not our natural thoughts, so we have to keep coming back. I think that's been a real challenge for me this week, actually, as I've been thinking about it. Firstly, do I long for justice in the way that Habitat does? And then as I long for justice, do I see how much I don't deserve it, don't deserve to be saved from that? And then am I just so amazed and thankful for the Lord Jesus as I then wait patiently for Him to return? Yeah.
Sarah: Well, on that note, should I pray for us as we go? Let's pray. Father, thank you so much that every time we open Your Word, you choose to use it to challenge our hearts, to encourage our hearts. Thank you so much that you've done that again today. Father, we long that we would fix our thoughts on Jesus as we see that he is the center point of the book of Habakkuk and he's the center point of where we need to be rooting ourselves. Please help us to fix our thoughts on Him. Thank you. That in your Roth. You remembered mercy at the cross. And we pray that you'd help us to go into this week knowing those truths, loving those truths and drinking deeply of these truths. Father, please renew our minds in view of Your mercy that we would live to the praise of Your glory.
Felicity: Amen. Amen.
Sarah: As we wrap up, do you remember about the questions we need from our listeners? So please ask us some questions. Is there anything else you want to say? I think that's it.
Felicity: Have you finished your jaffa cake?
Sarah: Oh, yes, it went ages.
Felicity: I've got to say. My homemade biscuit went a while ago as well. Good. Well, we look forward to seeing you next time.
Sarah: Yes, indeed. And next time we have a very big announcement, so watch out for that one. See you next time.
Felicity: Bye. All right. Bye bye, everyone. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of word fueled Hearts. It's been sponsored by Tenofbos.com. Check them out for great discounted resources that point to Jesus.
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