“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” That’s the
old saying. But where do the tough go when the going gets tough? If we take
Scripture seriously, as well we should, then we know that we go to the Lord in
prayer when the going gets tough. The Bible does not sugar coat life in this
fallen world. The people of faith whose lives are described in these pages were
real people who lived real lives in the real world. They endured hardships and
difficulties as great as, or greater than, any that we have experienced. Though
their circumstances and specific struggles varied, one thing they have in
common is that each one found prayer to be a refuge in the storm.
The prophet Habakkuk is but one of many examples to whom we
could point. His nation was filled with violence, corruption, and injustice.
The righteous were oppressed by the wicked, and immorality was rampant. Habakkuk
had prayed for a long time, with no answer, but then God spoke. His answer was
not what Habakkuk wanted to hear. Things were about to get worse, as God had
revealed to Habakkuk that He was raising up the Chaldeans (the Babylonians) to
come in as agents of divine judgment in the land. The going had gotten tough
and was about to get tougher. But these things did not drive Habakkuk away from
the Lord. He returned repeatedly to the Lord in prayer in the face of these
troubles.
Why did he do that? What is it about the Lord that keeps us
coming back to Him in prayer when the going gets tough? We come to Him time and
time again because of who we know Him to be. Because of who He is, we can
entrust to Him the concerns and burdens of our hearts and souls. So, who is He?
As we examine this portion of Habakkuk’s prayer, we find a vivid description of
who God is and what He is like.
Habakkuk addresses his prayer to God in a specific and
personal way. He is not crying out to some indistinct deity with agnostic
desperation. He calls upon the Lord by name. In verse 12, he addresses Him as
“Lord,” and when English versions
use all capital letters for “Lord,”
it is an indication that the Hebrew word underlying this translation is the
divine name YHWH. This is the name by which the Lord revealed Himself to Moses
at the burning bush, saying, “I Am that I Am.” The name is related to the
Hebrew verb “to be,” and speaks of God’s self-existence. He was not created by
anyone or anything else, nor is He dependent upon anyone or anything else. The
very mention of His name tells us that He alone is the only God who is. Habakkuk
called Him by that name which testifies to His existence and His attributes.
The attributes of God are not like pearls on a string, which
may be removed from one another and examined in isolation. Rather, they are
like facets of a diamond, which can only be appreciated fully when seen in
relationship to the other attributes. God’s attributes are revealed to us in
Scripture, and seldom do we find a single attribute stated in isolation. They
cannot be separated. As Tozer noted, “almost every heresy … has arisen from
believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain
true things so as to obscure other things equally true. … We can hold a correct
view of truth only by daring to believe everything that God has said about
Himself.”[1] In
Habakkuk’s prayer, he shows us that he dares to do just such a thing. He
believes what God has said about Himself – all of it! And, as he calls out to
Him in prayer, he reminds us of who this God is and what He is like. He is
YHWH, the eternal, omnipotent, holy, faithful, sovereign, and steadfast One.
And that is good news for us when the going gets tough, because we can get
going to Him in prayer.
I. YHWH is the eternal God.
Whenever we sing John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace,” we sing
a stanza that is not original to the song. It says, “When we’ve been there ten
thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s
praise than when we’d first begun.” We don’t know who wrote those words, or
when they first began to be sung with the hymn. [2] But
these words express how we typically think of the concept of “eternity.” Yet,
this is really not what we mean when we speak of God’s eternal nature. It does
not mean that He has existed for an infinite succession of days past, and will
for an infinite succession of days future.
We have to measure
life in days and weeks, months and years, and in terms of past, present, and
future, because it is all we know from our experience. But, there is no such
passage of time with God. God created time, but He is neither contained within
it nor confined by it. Before He created time, He existed in a dimension where
there is no time or passage of time. That dimension is eternity. The events we
perceive as past, present, and future, are all present before Him in one
eternal “now.” Thus, Jesus can say, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58). God
can say of Himself, “I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done”
(Isa 46:10). Peter says of Him, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand
years, and a thousand years like one day” (2 Pe 3:8).
If you and I watch a Christmas parade from the curb, we
would see the participants go by one at a time: marching band, then the civic
club float, then the military unit, and then Santa Claus at the very end. This
is very much how we perceive the passage of time: one thing happening, followed
by another. But, if we could watch from a hot-air balloon, we would see the
beginning and the end of it, and everything in between, in one glance. In a
very limited analogy, we can say this is how God exists. He is above and beyond
time. He is eternal. He had no beginning, He will have no end. So, we can come
to Him and cry out to Him, knowing that the end is already well known to Him
and well established in His divine plan. We might fret about the present, but
God does not. He knows how we got here, and He knows how it will all end. So
Habakkuk cries out in the midst of his crises, and we should too, “Are you not from
everlasting, O Lord?”
II. YHWH is the omnipotent God.
The third commandment says, “You shall not take the name of
the Lord your God in vain” (Ex 20:7). It has to do with referring to God in a
meaningless and empty way. So, if one were to exclaim, “Oh my God!,” would that
be a violation of this commandment? In many cases, yes. It is a meaningless
exclamation, where any or every word might as well be used. But, there are
times in this fallen world when the expression “Oh my God!” is not a meaningless
exclamation but a desperate plea for the help of Almighty God. When we watch
events unfold such as we have seen in our nation and our world over the last
few weeks and months, it is entirely appropriate for the people of God to cry
out in brokenness, “Oh my God!”
Habakkuk does that here in verse 12. “Are you not from
everlasting, O Lord, my God.” He is
not taking the Lord’s name in vain; He is calling on that name in a cry for
divine deliverance and help! And the word translated “God” in our text is the Hebrew
word Elohim. It is the third word of
the Hebrew Bible, occurring in Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the
earth. The case could be made that all we need to understand about the Trinity
is bound up within that name, but time does not permit us to do so today.
Instead, we must focus on how Habakkuk casts himself upon God as the
all-powerful One, the One who created and sustains this world and for whom
nothing is impossible.
When things were dark and difficult in his day, Habakkuk
could turn to the God who created this world and all that is within and around
it by merely speaking a word of His power. When we say that God is omnipotent,
we mean that God has the power to do all that He wills to do, and more. Tozer
says, “All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that needs to
be replenished.”[3] Genesis
18:14 asks, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “Ah Lord
God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by
Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You” (Jer 32:17). The angel
said to Mary, “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Lk 1:37), and Jesus said,
“with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). So, when we are perplexed, we
can turn to this omnipotent God with the confidence that there is nothing that
He cannot do.
III. YHWH is the holy God.
To say that God is holy is to say that He is entirely
different from anything and everything else. There is nothing like Him. We
cannot merely think of something good, and then multiply it exponentially and
say that is what God is like. He is infinitely beyond even the best that we can
imagine. He is separate and distinct from all that He has made, and is “exalted
above them in infinite majesty.”[4]
Angels surround Him in heaven, crying out “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Isa 6:3; Rev
4:8). If there is one attribute of God that is central and supreme, it is His
holiness. Every other attribute of God is saturated with holiness.
Holiness also encompasses God’s perfect moral character. A
moment ago, I said there is nothing God cannot do. I need to clarify that,
because the Bible actually says there are several things that are impossible
for Him to do. He cannot lie (Num 23:19; Heb 6:18) or change His mind (1 Sam
15:29); He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim 2:13); He cannot sin or be tempted to sin
(Jas 1:13); and He cannot change (Jas 1:17). He cannot be anything other than
perfectly pure and righteous at all times.
Habakkuk calls out to God as the Holy One, and says, “Your
eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with
favor.” Knowing that God is holy emboldens us as we come to Him in prayer,
because we know that He do all things well. He will act rightly on behalf of
His own. He will oppose sin and uphold righteousness in His own way and in His
own time. He cannot let evil win the day, and will execute perfect judgment and
justice. In times when evil and terror seem to be running rampant, like they
were in Habakkuk’s day, like they are in our day, it helps us to know that we
can cry out to a holy God who can not only do anything, but will do everything
in perfect righteousness.
IV. YHWH is the faithful God.
Because Habakkuk knows that God is omnipotent and holy, he
knows that God cannot lie, change His mind, or go back on His word. He will
keep every promise He has ever made. That is why Habakkuk can say in verse 12,
“We will not die.” All outward signs indicate that the nation of Judah is on the
brink of destruction and annihilation. They are inwardly self-destructing, and
on the verge of being overrun by the Babylonians and carried away in captivity.
Things do not look good from Habakkuk’s vantage point. But he knows that God
has made certain and specific promises to Israel that He will keep because He
is faithful.
We have this same assurance as we approach the Lord in
prayer in difficult days. Are there promises that He has made to us in His
word? Surely there are! He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. He
has promised us a way of escape in temptation and the indwelling strength to
withstand it. He has promised to work in and through us to will and to do His
good purpose. He has promised that He will complete the work He has begun in
us, until we are glorified in His presence. Jesus has promised that He will not
lose a single one that the Father has given to Him, and He will raise us up on
the last day. He has promised heavenly glories beyond the ability of human
language to express. He has not promised that our lives in this world will be easy,
but He has promised that our lives will not come to an end in this world, for a
better one awaits us. So we cast ourselves upon Him and recite before Him in
prayer every single one of His promises in the faith that He will certainly
deliver on each and every one of them. People will lie to us, and will break
their promises to us. They will betray us and disappoint us. But God will never
do this because He is faithful to His word. We can say with Habakkuk, “We will
not die!” We have been promised a life that continues on eternally through
faith in Jesus!
V. YHWH is the sovereign God.
The American government, thankfully, was established with a
system of checks and balances to prevent any one branch from having unlimited
authority. The president can only do so much without the approval of congress.
The congress can only pass such laws as the courts deem constitutional, and so
on. There is no individual or body within our government that is sovereign. But God is sovereign. That
means that He is not subject to anyone or anything else. He can do whatsoever
He wills to do, and does not require permission or approval to do it. He
doesn’t answer to anyone but Himself. He cannot be hindered, compelled or
stopped from doing what He pleases “always, everywhere, forever.”[5]
This is why Habakkuk can say, upon hearing that God is
raising up the Babylonians to come against Judah , “You, O Lord, have appointed
them to judge; and You, O Rock, have established them to correct.” God does not
need the prophet’s permission to use any nation or individual of His own
choosing to accomplish His purposes. Nothing happens in the world without His
knowledge, apart from His divine decree, and outside of His purposes. This does
not mean that God is responsible for evil or unjust suffering in the world.
There are things that He allows, or that He does not prevent, of which He does
not approve, but all of them fall within His ability to use them for His good
purposes. Some terrible thing may come upon you in life (and will if you live long
enough), but this does not mean that God did it to you, or that God needed it
to happen to accomplish His purposes. Because of sin’s corruption in the human
race and in this world, evil and suffering can and often do happen for no
reason whatsoever. But they do not take God by surprise, they occur within the
realm of His permissive will, and they can be used by God for good, even if
they did not occur for that reason. He answers to no one, but everyone and
everything ultimately answers to Him.
I do not know if I could ever get a decent night’s sleep if
I were not completely convinced of the sovereignty of God. When things are at
their worst, what a comfort it is to us to cry out to a God who knows what has
happened, who can do something about it, do something with it, and do something
for us in the midst of it. That is what Habakkuk is doing here in his prayer,
and it is what we must do as well. Call out to this sovereign God.
VI. YHWH is the steadfast God.
Habakkuk calls upon God as a “Rock.” The image is one of
stability, strength, and steadfastness. Everything in this world is shifting
and changing, even ourselves. The only thing that seems to never change in life
is that change is always happening. Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher,
famously said that no man can ever step into the same river twice, because the
man has changed, and the river has changed. Everything is always changing
around us and within us. The world seems to change daily. Our nation has
changed dramatically within our lifetimes. We are always changing, getting
better or worse, growing and declining in various ways at all times. It is as
if we are sinking in quicksand, desperately seeking some immovable object upon
which we can rest our weight for leverage. And the unchangeable, immovable One
is God Himself, the Rock.
Habakkuk looks out upon a changing nation and a changing
world, and he reposes Himself in the Rock that never changes. God says in
Malachi 3:16, “I, the Lord, do not change.” With Him, James says, “there is no
variation or shifting shadow” (1:17). He is the same yesterday, today, and
forever (Heb 13:8). And so we can call out to Him in prayer in difficult days
and find in Him sure footing on which to stand when all around us and within us
is shifting and sinking. He is a Rock!
But the best news of all is this …
VII. YHWH is my God!
It would be tempting to read Habakkuk’s words here as a dry,
academic theology lesson. That would miss the point greatly! He is not merely
telling us what God is like; he is calling out to this God in the confidence
that he will be heard and answered because of the personal relationship that he
has with God. He calls Him “my God, my Holy One” in verse 12. In a special
sense, Habakkuk can say that this God belongs to him, because in an even
greater sense, he belongs to this God. And friends, the most important
attribute of God for you to cling to in your time of desperate need is this –
all that He is in His divine nature, is yours
if you belong to Him by faith. And He has done all that is necessary to
make that relationship possible.
This eternal God has stepped into time. The omnipotent God
has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. The holy God has dealt with
sin fully and finally while demonstrating his perfect love and mercy to us,
offering to us His own holiness in exchange for our sins. The faithful God has
upheld every promise of His word. The sovereign God has called us out of sin
and death into a personal relationship with Him. The Rock has become the stone
that the builders rejected, and the chief cornerstone of the true temple of God
[1] A. W.
Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy (New
York: HarperCollins, 1961), 79-80.
[2] We first
find this stanza attached to “Amazing Grace” in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. See Steve
Turner, Amazing Grace: The Story of
America’s Most Beloved Song (New
York : HarperCollins, 2002), 142.
[3] Tozer,
67.
[4] Louis
Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949), 73.
[5] Tozer,
109.
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