2013년 6월 23일 주일 영어예배 설교
하박국 3:16-19

Rejoice in the God of my salvation
(Habakkuk 3:16-19)

God judges and will judge the evils; God will annihilate them ultimately and permanently according to His plan and time. And this miserable, terrible, and evil situation of the world is attributed to human being’s sins and fall. God is not responsible for this sinful situation. In spite of that, God has mercy on and saves some of men as His chosen people, and doesn’t overlook evil and sins because He is a perfectly holy and righteous being. So according to the teaching of the Bible, we can reach the result that this evil situation and human’s suffering are natural outcomes of their own fall. And present partial realization of justice and perfect, eternal realization of justice in the future by God is God’s grace. And present partial comfort for man and perfect eternal comfort for man in the future by God is also God’s grace.
Habakkuk the prophet who appears in today’s text is groaning before the reality seems as if justice and God’s holy name have hit rock bottom. And he is groaning in pain because of the fact that God’s people are beaten and destroyed by an evil alien country. Through today’s text, we are going to appreciate how our reality is and how we can escape this doomed tragedy.
In verse 16, “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.” Habakkuk the prophet is seized with extreme terror. It is because he already heard from God that the people will be cruelly ruined by Babylon, and knows well that nobody is able to change God’s mind. The people’s sins drove them to their ruin. Moreover, they ignored their first duty and the first reason for their lives, that is, to worship and trust God. As a result of the ignorance of the ultimate and primary duty as human beings, they naturally corrupted morally from individual to society. So God decided to judge their sins using Babylon as a tool of the judgment, which was a hegemon then in the northern Near East after defeating Assyria and Egypt. The people were killed by the invaders’ swords or made captive as slaves. Before this revealed a scene by God, the prophet felt so horrible and extremely sad because the people’s situation was doomed and desperation itself. There was no hope, no hope at all. We can find the expression that shows how their situation was miserable in verse 17, “… the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls …” Here, fig trees, grapevines, and olive trees were the most common fruit trees in Palestine regions, which were used as food, drug, and sacrifice materials and so on. They were closely connected with the people’s daily lives then. And considering that the people made a living by agriculture or livestock farming, this expression shows that they were in the situation that existence itself was impossible for them in all aspects such as food life, religion, medical, clothes, agriculture etc. In a word, they are broken, come to an end. There is no hope, no hope at all. There is nothing they can do for survival. Many of them already were dead, they are slaves, and there are no fruits in trees, no crops in the fields, no stocks in their stalls. It’s doomed. There is nothing at all they can do. Even they don’t know what they have to do to figure out their terrible situation. Total depravity. Total inability. All the tragedies are brought about by themselves, their sins. But they are completely unable to find or suggest any way to escape the curses. The only thing they can do is to groan in agony and pain before their sins.
This is our sinful situation. We sinned before God. We are all sinners before God. All the tragedies and misery have been brought about by our very selves, human beings’ sins. We cannot dare blame God. The absolute justice and holiness of God cannot help but to judge the sins of humans. For us, men in their incurable sinfulness, there is no other way but to be judged by God and suffer from their sins. There is no other way but to wait for death, no life, death. Everyone is to die, no life, death. Under the mercy, perseverance, and control of God, although we are sinners, we lead our lives tasting some comfort, well-being, and sunshine and rain to some extent. Under the perfect control of God, we improve our lives through education, government policy, philosophy, and social systems to marriage, family, and relationships to some extent. However, we cannot escape our terrible sinfulness. We cannot help but die holding our sins. There is no life and hope in ourselves, just doomed. Every sin, literally every sin will be judged by the perfect and holy God, it’s time just depends on Him. Who can be free from this human being’s sinfulness? Who? Nobody! We are all sinners. We all sin and come short of the glory of God. Terrible, miserable, and sinful beings before God. There is no hope and no life in ourselves. Who can be free from the horrible judgment of God?
In verse 18~19, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” Even in the midst of desperation, the prophet is rejoicing and finds joy. Why does he rejoice? What does he find for his joy? He finds the crucial fact through the revelation by God. He realizes the amazing and graceful fact through the revelation by God. It is the fact that God will act. It is the fact that God will work as He has done so far. For what? For His people’s salvation! What an amazing grace! This is the gospel of Christianity. The only way to be free from the curse of judgment of God is to be saved by God Himself. It is totally impossible for men to be saved, or absolved from their incurable sinfulness. Our holy lives, New Year resolution, education, offerings, and continuous efforts cannot bring us to the salvation. It is because our hands are already daubed with sins, our brain that is supposed to work only for God’s glory are already disordered due to sins, and our mind is already too hardened to seek God due to sins. We are all dead. Spiritually and completely dead. We cannot react to any calling of the gospel as corpse is unable to react to any calling of rescue. There should be new life. There should be new sense. Someone should give us new life and new sense. Who can give it? Who can do it for us? God alone is able to do that. God alone has initiative and discretion to do that. Then here, God shows His graceful decision to the prophet that He will act for His chosen people’s salvation. The decision that God will put aside the remnants, who will be free from their sins by God’s grace according to His promise is given here. So the prophet rejoices in the God of salvation despite their doomed situation. Through whom will God accomplish the amazing salvation promise of Him? His only begotten son, Jesus Christ! Only the people who believe in Jesus Christ, be in Jesus Christ, firmly grasp the old cross of Jesus Christ, only the people who run to under the cross of the Calvary of Jesus Christ everyday will be alive, only they gain the eternal life triumphing over the curse of sins. There is no other way to be free but by Jesus Christ sent by God. This is the very good news given to humankind through Christianity, the only true religion. As the confession of the prophet in verse 19, “God, the Lord, is my strength”, for us, before our sinfulness and desperate situation, the unique strength to triumphantly overcome the curse of death, survive the judgment of God, and figure out our daily adversities resulted from our sinful reality is to hold faith in the perfect redemption and forgiveness of Jesus Christ for us. This is the only strength needed in order for us to be alive. Run to the Cross of Christ every day, and confess your inability and sinfulness, and hold the cross of Jesus Christ and His perfect sanctification for us, and rejoice in the greatest work of Him for us and the very union with Him.
And if you rejoice in the God of your salvation, Jesus Christ is the strength in your life, you need to enjoy the position as the prophet pleasantly confesses in the verse 19, “he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” Remember you were reborn, you received the new life, the new identity, the new sense, and the new goal in Jesus Chris our Lord. Now it is your duty to live out your life in a different dimension in this world as Christians. Don’t forget that God makes your feet like the deer’s; He makes you tread on your high places. You already won the world in Jesus Christ. You are safe in Jesus Christ forever. Go to the world and become deeply involved in this world in many fields, and triumphantly lead your life with the new life, identity, sense in the midst of this world remembering the fact that God makes your feet like the deer’s; He makes you tread on you high places. So rejoice in the Lord, the God of your salvation even in hard, sometimes risky situations while you live holding faith in Christ as Christians in this world.
Everyone, Christianity is life itself. Christianity is not about better life and comfort. Christianity is about life or death. There is no twilight zone between Christianity and non-Christianity. What is your strength? With what thing do you survive the judgment of God? With what thing do you solve the problem of your sin? With what thing do you gain the battle against the world? What is your strength? Our strength should be Jesus Christ. Only there is hope, life, and victory in Jesus Christ. Only with the name of Jesus Christ, we enjoy the victorious end when Jesus comes to judge the world. I hope you all confess and are convinced the same as the prophet confesses this, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.”