Word of Salvation – Vol.38 No.07 – February 1993
Waiting Upon The Lord
Sermon by Rev. H. DeWaard on Habakkuk 2:1-3
Reading: Habakkuk 2:1-14
Singing: 180,470:2,3, 429, 62, 361, 357:4
Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus,
How do you cope with the future? Do you have the resources to face tomorrow? It is increasingly difficult to make sense out of life because everything is changing so rapidly. We just cannot live the way we did 25 years ago. Even the church in the 1990’s is different from the 1950’s.
Thinking about moral issues has changed greatly. What was unthinkable 25 years ago is now openly discussed, if not accepted. Issues such as homosexuality, abortion, suicide.
How do you get a grip on these changes?
The power to face tomorrow lies in the verses of our text, which speaks about
WAITING UPON THE LORD
You may recall that Habakkuk had two problems. One, why doesn’t God do something about the rotten society of the day? When God said: I am going to use godless Chaldeans to punish my people, Habakkuk complained:
‘Lord how can you do that? How can you use people worse than we are? I don’t understand the way you are dealing with the problem.’
Ought Habakkuk to be talking to God like that?
Please, many of us cannot analyse a problem in a cool-headed fashion. Being human we have hot hearts as well. We must not condemn each other for asking the hard questions. We must not stop the cry arising out of the human heart.
Jesus in his perplexity cried out: My God… why have you forsaken me?, when the God He loved hid himself.
Because I am human and because I love, deep questions arise in my heart… questions about God.
After telling God about His problems, Habakkuk says in chapter 2:1…
`I will stand at my watch… I will look to see what he will say to me…!”
The only thing left to do is wait upon God.
Strange term, isn’t it? WAITING upon God.
We don’t like waiting. When I wait in line at the supermarket checkout, I feel as if I am wasting time. We have so many things to do, so let’s get on with it. Please, don’t keep me waiting. I can’t wait for you, because I have a deadline to meet.
I think you know what I am trying to say. Yet, waiting is also a very natural part of life.
I have to wait for others because I need them. I cannot live on my own. I need a doctor, I need my family and hence waiting is inevitable.
Habakkuk, by adopting a waiting attitude, expressed his need for God, which is faith. He stationed himself on a high point like a soldier on guard duty. In doing so he created distance between himself and his problem.
That is an important principle. Once we take a problem to the Lord in prayer we must leave it there.
But that is precisely my problem. When I worry – anyone here who doesn’t? – and seek God’s guidance in prayer, tell Him my need and ask for a way out, as soon as I get up I begin to worry and panic.
Does that sound familiar?
I have been told that pilots during the Second World War were trained not to do anything in an emergency but to THINK FIRST. If they would panic and press the wrong switch or pull the wrong levers it could very well cost them their lives.
Likewise, when in turmoil, THINK. We must learn to place our feelings under the control of a believing mind and will. What we tend to do is push all the panic buttons, sulk, wallow in self-pity, go around talking to others etc.
Habakkuk went to a high point….. and waited.
That is the attitude of faith.
Think of Job. How could anyone handle the perplexity and grief he had to face? Bankruptcy, pain, ten graves… loneliness.
How could he ward off bitterness or thoughts of suicide…? He did it by looking up: `I know that My Redeemer lives and one day I will see God.’ He confessed his inability to put it all together. He did not feel compelled to answer all the questions.
The way to face tomorrow is to say to God: ‘Lord, my life, my wife, husband, children, my work, Lord it is all yours. I commit it to you!’
But let us be honest. Prayer itself is becoming a problem to many. I am not talking about formal prayers before and after a meeting or a meal. I am talking about real, personal prayer. Why?
- Our view of God has changed. That rock-solid conviction that God has everything under his sovereign control is being shaken. The world is so cruel and so full of suffering that it makes you wonder…. God, are you really there?
- Humans seem to need God less and less, so why wait for Him? We don’t need God in sickness. We have anti-biotics. If it is really bad we’ll call on him. Most aspects of daily life we manage perfectly well without him.
- We have difficulty finding space for God. Our peace is shattered by radio/TV/, noise pollution, meetings, activities. We are on the go! Where do you find peace?
Perhaps that is an excuse. Maybe we are just neglectful of our spiritual priorities.
Martin Luther said: ‘Just as a cobbler mends shoes and a tailor makes a suit, so a Christian ought to pray.’
When we go through spiritually dry periods; when we just don’t know how to pray or what to pray for, don’t give up. Be encouraged. The Spirit will come to our aid. The Spirit prays for us and in us. He prods us to call on God as ‘Abba’, Father.
But are we really allowed to rise above the cares of this world?
In a sense we cannot get away from real life and its sorrows, either other people’s sorrows or our own. The sorrows of other people are our sorrows. God have mercy on us if we cannot pity or care for others.
Habakkuk’s attitude is not one of escapism.. He takes it all to the Lord in prayer with the expectation that God will answer – ‘I will look to see what he will say to me…!’ (vs.1)
We must eagerly and persistently look for an answer like a watchman on his tower.
Sometimes people ask: Does prayer change things? Or does prayer change people? Both.
God responds to prayer. (James 4:2). When Hudson Taylor came to China he prayed for two missionaries for each of China’s eleven provinces plus Mongolia, 24 in all. He could not support them, so he had to pray for sufficient funds as well. The Lord answered his prayer.
But God also changes us.
There is the story of a missionary who travelled home from Africa on the same ship as President Roosevelt. When they arrived in New York, the President was greeted with great pomp and ceremony. No one paid any attention to the missionary. `It’s not fair’, he said to his wife. We have served God all these years, yet there is none here to welcome us, we have no money. We have no house. It’s not fair. His wife said: You better talk to God about this. He did.
A little later his wife said; You feel better now, don’t you? Yes, he said, I began to pray and tell God how bitter I was that there was no one to welcome us home. When I finished it was as if the Lord put a hand on my shoulder and whispered, `But you are not home yet!’
His perspective on life was changed.
God answers in different ways. Sometimes He says: No. I have other things to do for you. You may be in an unrewarding job. You pray for another job, but don’t get it. Or you are unmarried and would like to be married. God says, Wait, I have something else for you first. Sometimes He simply says; this pain is good for you.
Whatever it is, eventually there is an answer, either through the Word or directly to our spirits.
Note vs.2,3. Write down the revelation, so that a herald may run with it….Though it linger, wait for it, it will certainly come and will not delay’.
God said: O.K. I have heard your prayer. I understand your problem. Here is my answer. The Chaldeans whom I am going to use to punish my people, will themselves be utterly destroyed. Habakkuk had to write this clearly so that anyone reading it could understand and run to tell others.
And it did happen that way. Remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar? He conquered Jerusalem, carried the articles from the temple in Jerusalem to his own temple in Babylon. It was his way of saying: I am stronger than Jehovah! He did not understand that God used him merely as an instrument of judgement on his disobedient people.
God punished him with insanity. It was God’s way of saying: If you take the glory for yourself I will make you slide downhill to become like a beast!
What God declares is certain.
Surer than eyesight, or subjective experience.
Faith rests on the Word. The word of prophecy which we have today. We believe things we have not experienced. e.g. I believe in the resurrection of the dead and everlasting life. We believe things we cannot prove. e.g. I believe in God the Father. I believe certain things in spite of experience. eg the providence of God.
I believe because the Word says it. Nothing can frustrate the purpose of God, namely, to redeem the world through Jesus Christ.
If any of you are confused because of what you experience; if you are bewildered by the changing face of the church, I would point you to God to whom the course of history is known. The future of the church is also in his hands. Everything He has purposed will happen.
How do you break the habit of worry about the future? The same way you stay in the dentist’s chair – you trust. You abandon yourself to One who is utterly trustworthy.
He cares. He is reliable. He knows what he is doing.
When He says: Behold I come to make all things new!
He means it.
And we believe it!
AMEN