Confronting Crippling Fear with Excelling Faith
“3
God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His
glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 And
his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand:
and there was the hiding of his power. 5 Before him went the pestilence,
and burning coals went forth at his feet” (Habakkuk 3:3-5).
“When
I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness
entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in
the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade
them with his troops” (Habakkuk 3:16)
“18
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’
feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief
singer on my stringed instruments” (Habakkuk 3:18-19).
Fear is always the enemy of faith.
Habakkuk chapter three is a revelation of the inherent weakness of
fear that lies within even the greatest man of faith. Yet chapter three
is the answer to that fear as the man of faith confronts it by turning
to the greatness and faithfulness of God.
There are three basic crippling responses of fear. Courage can be defined as doing what needs to be done in the midst of danger disregarding the danger to yourself. Faith-courage is different.
Faith-courage faces the issue knowing your life and soul in in the
sovereign control of God’s eternal promises. Faith-courage sees all
physical dangers in the context of our own eternally sealed redemption
in Jesus Christ. Faith-courage is love motivated and is exemplified by a
mother fighting off the restraints of three burly firemen trying to
keep her from running into her burning home to rescue her children -
“perfect love casteth out fear” (I John 4:18).
1. There is resignation.
Resignation says, “I suppose there is nothing I can do about it.
Everyone suffers. Everyone dies. I might as well resign myself to
it.” This may be better than crying, screaming, and pulling your hair
out, but it is not a response of faith.
2. The second response of fear is detachment.
Detachment says, “I don’t want to think about such things, it will
depress me. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away.” This type of
person will fill their life with amusements, hobbies, work, or anything
to keep his mind occupied and off of the problem.
3. The third response of fear is bravado.
This is the chin up, let’s face this with courage scenario. This is
quite difficult to do in a hopeless situation like the one Habakkuk
faced.
When your knees are shaking because the axe is about to take your head off, the last thing you need is a pep talk. You
need faith in a God Who is able to take your life beyond the
circumstances, even death itself. It is to this God that Habakkuk flees
in chapter three. We should learn some lessons of faith from Habakkuk.
Fear develops and evolves from unknown outcomes. Most
people are control freaks in that they want to involve themselves only
in known outcomes. The only way known outcomes can be controlled is by
controlling every aspect of every situation. Consider for a moment how
ludicrous this kind of thinking really is. In every situation of life,
there are a thousand variables with each of those variables having
thousands of other variables.
The more people that are involved, the more complex and difficult any situation is to control within the myriad of variables. Consistency
can only be achieved when everyone involved has common beliefs,
understand the objective purpose of the group, and share a common
methodology to accomplish the objective task. None of these things
existed within the children of Israel. In the corruption of their
pluralistic views of God, their diversity was so extreme that the only
thing they had it common with God’s will was false doctrine.
Habakkuk
abandons the unknown for faith in the known. Faith escapes the unknown
by immersing one’s self within God’s eternal constancy.
Habakkuk’s faith escapes fear by turning to what he knows of God.
Deliverance is the central theme of Habakkuk’s turning in faith to God.
He turns in faith to the memory of the miraculous way God delivered
Israel from Egyptian bondage. Now, because of corruption, Israel was in
spiritual bondage. God was going to use physical bondage to reveal to
them their spiritual bondage.
When
Habakkuk speaks of “Teman” and “Peran” (Habakkuk 3:3), he is speaking
of two mountain ranges bordering Sinai in southern Israel. He is
remembering that it was God Who initiated contact with Moses to raise up
a deliverer to deliver the nation of Israel from Egypt. This point of
remembrance is significant because Israel’s deliverance was not based
upon men’s prayer or their faithfulness, but upon God’s desire and
faithfulness to His covenant promise. It is to this constant of God’s
faithfulness that Habakkuk flees in faith.
Remembering what God has done reminds us of what God can do. When
Habakkuk speaks of God’s glory covering the heavens, this fact can
refer to either what Israel saw covering Mount Sinai or the pillar of
cloud that led them by day or the pillar of fire that led them by
night. Both truths would be significant things to think about and
remember when confronting fear with faith.
“21
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead
them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to
go by day and night: 22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day,
nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people” (Exodus
13:21-22).
“15
And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. 16 And
the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it
six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of
the cloud. 17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring
fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. 18
And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the
mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights” (Exodus
24:15-18).
The
news of God’s presence with the nation of Israel filled the world, and
the “earth was full of His praise.” In other words, the news of God’s
deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage had traveling like a grass
fire on a windy day through the nations. Egypt possessed the
greatest army in the world at this time and God had drowned most of them
in the Red Sea as they pursued the children of Israel. For the next
forty years, the children of Israel wandered in the Wilderness and every
nation in the Promised Land lived in fear of the God of Israel
fortifying their cities against Israel’s pending invasion of their lands
and city-states. The very fact that a nation of about three and a half
million people could survive in the dessert for forty years was a
testimony to the power of their God to the nations of the Promised
Land. The point is there no food or water in the dessert, and most
people would die there in a few days. Yet, three and a half million
people survived and thrived because of their God.
“8
And before they were laid down, she {Rahab} came up unto them upon the
roof; 9 And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you
the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the
inhabitants of the land faint because of you. 10 For we have heard how
the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of
Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on
the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 11 And
as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did
there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD
your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (Joshua
2:8-11).
Habakkuk
3:4 could be paraphrased, “His brightness was like the rising sun, and
lightning flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden.”
When
faith begins to fade behind the looming clouds of fear, the believer
needs a vision of God in power and glory. The picture Habakkuk paints
on the canvas of his faith is the looming radiance of the Person of God
as He fills the horizon like the rising of the Sun. As God’s
hand is raised in action, the lightning bolts of judgment flash in a
steady stream. Yet, not all of God’s power is revealed, but only a
small portion. Habakkuk’s faith reaches out and grabs onto the God of
his dependence, just as you and I can do by faith. When faith sees God
as real, it acts upon that reality. God has given us a word picture for
strengthening our own faith in Revelation 19:11-16. The next time you
think the world might be winning read this text.
“11
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon
him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge
and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were
many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he
himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his
name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven
followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should
smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he
treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF
KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16).
Habakkuk 3:5 is dualistic in its vision.
It looks backward to remember the national deliverance of Israel from
Egypt. It looks forward to the spiritual restoration of Israel and
God’s deliverance of the nation of Israel from the Satanocracy of the
Antichrist during the tribulation. “Plagues” or pestilences were God’s
method of purifying the nation of Israel after the Egyptian deliverance
to bring them to repentance.
“31
And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the
sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey {probably
about a radius of ten miles or about 800,000 acres} on this side, and
as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and
as it were two cubits high {the quail were thrown to the ground in heaps
about 3 feet deep} upon the face of the earth. 32 And the people stood
up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they
gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers {homer
is about 8 bushels, so 80 bushels}: and they spread them all abroad for
themselves round about the camp. 33 And while the flesh was yet between
their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled
against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great
plague. 34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah {kib-roth' hat-tah-av-aw' = a sepulcher for the greedy}: because there they buried the people that lusted” (Numbers 11:31-34).
How often has the greed of man led him to the sepulcher of the greedy!
In fact, many people spend their lifetimes living in the sepulcher of
the greedy. We must remember that it was the “mixt multitude” living
inside the nation of Israel that were the complainers. “4 And the mixt
multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel
also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? 5 We
remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and
the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 6 But now
our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna,
before our eyes” (Numbers 11:4-6).
The “mixt multitude” were those that believed in the God of Israel, but infected Israel with worldliness. This infection with worldliness is what defines the corruption of the “mixt multitude.”
The
“burning coals” (Habakkuk 3:5) from God’s feet literally refer to
lightning flashes from His feet and refers to the consuming fire of the
presence of the glory of God. The “burning coals” describes God moving
in judgment. In other words, God’s judgment is to be viewed as already
in progress. When we read the prophesies of God’s future judgment, we
need to be cognizant of the fact that those judgments are already in
motion. They are already released into the plan of
God. They will ultimately and finally reach the destination to which
they are directed.
The person who believes in a real God can have a real faith and that real faith becomes the substance of a real hope.
Confronting real fear requires real faith in a real God. The reality
of God’s existence is a matter of recorded history. The real God is a
reliable constant in an ever changing universe.
Trust Him!
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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