Bible study

Titus 2:1-10, Adoring God and Adorning the Gospel

/ Melissa / Leave a comment

The title of our Titus study is Living the Truth: Belief and Behavior that Adorn the Gospel. That word “adorn” comes from this week’s text in Titus 2:1-10. Verse 10 says, “that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” It’s one of several purpose statements in this section, but it captures the essence of all of them. The word “adorn” in Greek is “kosmeo”—the same word we get “cosmetics” from. It’s the idea of putting in order or arranging in a way that makes it more beautiful or attractive. And that is God’s intent even as He calls Titus to put the church in order—that the doctrine of God might be beautiful and attractive to those who see it lived out.

The female body is considered the most beautiful and by far the most painted, sculpted, and sketched subject in all of human history. And yet, we spend countless hours, great effort and expense adorning our bodies, trying to make them more attractive. We do this on a regular basis, but I want us to think of the image of a bride getting ready for her wedding day. She wants every detail to be perfect. Think of the care it takes to fashion a wedding gown or veil. Many of these are still sewn by hand, adding to their intricacy, value, and beauty. And that’s just the dress—there’s makeup and hair and nails, flowers and rings. All kinds of ways that the bride is adorned. This is what Jesus is doing for us, by His grace. He’s preparing His bride by arranging the Church in an order that makes it so beautiful—to God and to man. And at the same time, we adorn the doctrine of God our Savior—the gospel—the good news that Jesus came to rescue us from our sins and transform us by His grace. It’s the good news that Jesus is coming again to share His glory with His purified people.

But as we wait for the glorious hope, we cling to this gospel—doctrine—the teachings of Jesus and His prophets and apostles, the elders of His Church—on Who He is, and how to follow Him. The gospel is beautiful. In fact, it cannot BE more beautiful; YET it can be displayed as either dull or dazzling. So, we adorn this gospel. How? We adorn the gospel by how we speak and how we live.

Main Idea: Our words and walk must reflect the worth of the Word of God.

I want us to see this passage, not as a list, but as one big idea: God’s word is valuable. And if that big idea is true, then how we speak and how we live matters because it reveals what we value.

I want you to feel the sweet mentoring tone in this section. Paul speaks as a loving father to his son, who is becoming a father. And it’s like we get a little glimpse into the spiritual delivery room, as Titus looks down at these little infant churches, newly in his care, and then quickly looks up at Paul, as if to ask, “What do I do now? How in the world am I supposed to teach them how to be mature, responsible human beings?!” And Paul smiles at him, and puts his arm around him, and says, “Ok, son, this is what you’re gonna say.”

Our words and walk must reflect the worth of the Word of God. We’ll come back and look at our words and our walk. But first, we have to get a grasp of

I. The Worth of the Word of God. Adoring God and His Word.

    V1: “But as for you [Titus, in stark contrast to the false teachers from last week], teach what accords with sound doctrine.” This word “teach” is literally “keep speaking.” And what is Titus supposed to keep on the tip of his tongue? Everything that fits with sound doctrine—this is healthy teaching and practices for healthy souls. If it’s consistent with Scripture, keep saying it; if not, don’t. It’s that simple.

    V5: “that the word of God many not be reviled.” We value the word of God too much to live in a way that would allow someone to speak spitefully or disrespectfully of God.

    V8: we have “sound speech” (logos, literally “healthy words). And we have another “so that”—“so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say (lit., no evil word) about us.”

    Finally, in v. 10, we see “so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”

    As Titus speaks to the people in the churches, he’s not just preparing the elders, but in reality, the whole household of God, to live out the gospel appropriately and attractively. As they did this—as WE do this—instead of households being led astray, our faith will be furthered, our knowledge of the truth will grow, and we will live in a way that is fully pleasing to the Lord. We’ll be accomplishing those good works that God created for us to do before He even created us (Eph. 2:10).

    II. The Words and Walk of God’s People. Adorning the Gospel.

      I love the familial language in this passage—God intentionally designed the Church to work like a well-managed household. Within a household, there are roles and duties. And you don’t get to choose which role you serve in; it’s assigned; these are God-ordained roles. There’s a male father, a female mother, children (young men, young women), and possibly some household help. Each person has a purpose and specific ways in which he or she contributes to that household. And remember, I said our one big idea for today is that God’s word is valuable. So, we want to look specifically at how each of these roles reflects the value they place on God’s word. How we live (our “orthopraxy” or our practices) directly results from what we believe (our “orthodoxy” or doctrine).

      A. Older Men, v2 “Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.”

      1. They’re serious, respectable, and mature. They act their age. We want to be around men who have proven themselves in how they think, how they speak, and how they act; men who have lived long enough to stand in awe of God and know He’s worthy of respect.
      2. Sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older men have learned true, healthy doctrine—their faith clings to truth, and they pass that on to the younger generation, just like Paul did to Titus. They have a healthy love for the people of God. They’ve learned to use their spiritual gifts in the body by having an agape love that is patient and kind, not envious or boastful, self-sacrificing and rejoicing in the truth. And they’re sound in steadfastness—they have a hopeful endurance about them. They’re neither grumpy old men nor simply sentimental. They’ve weathered the storms of life and their spiritual skins have grown thick, still holding to the anchor of Jesus as their hope.

      B. Younger Men

      While we’re talking about men, let’s jump down to vv. 6-8. “Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”

      This section is short and sweet. As a boy mom, with 3 boys, I completely get why the one thing Paul tells Titus to teach the young ones is self-control in all things. But what I love here is how? “urge” or “encourage” ; ‘parakaleo’ means coming alongside; it’s a word used of the Holy Spirit, our “Comforter,” the one who “calls us close.” It’s this arm around the shoulder, side by side, encouraging mentorship going on. It’s John Gardner, taking my son aside at a funeral and asking him, “Do you see your mom’s sad? How can you help her? Are you being respectful?” It’s my dad, looking around and inviting men he knows to gather around his kitchen table and talk about a book of the Bible. When an older man calls a younger man to come alongside and learn self-control from him, and the younger man listens, and learns, that’s reflecting he values the Word of God.

      And Titus does this by modeling it. It’s not just words, it’s that life on life discipleship. Titus is told to mirror Christ in his good works and in his teaching… he’s to show integrity, dignity [seriousness], and sound speech that cannot be condemned.  “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Who else uses selfie mode on your phone’s camera as a mirror? As we adorn the gospel, reflecting its beauty, what kind of mirror are we using? A compact mirror or a full-length version? What if we used the word of God like that? Would our teaching and tongue and tone reflect a beautiful gospel? Or does it look like a distorted mirror in a funhouse?

      C. Older (and Younger) Women

      Okay, so I want us to look at this text as one chunk to the older women. This is how Calvin saw this passage, based on the “to be” phrase throughout. It’s a grammar thing, and I think it makes sense because in order to train the younger women, the older women would have had to learn and practice the whole list first. And younger women, that means this whole list is for you too, as you train to become older women in the body of Christ.

      v. 3-5, “Older women likewise are:

      • to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
      • to be teachers of what is good, and so train the young women
      • to be lovers of their husbands
      • to be lovers of their children, 
      • to be self-controlled,
      • to be pure,
      • to be working at home,
      • to be kind, and
      • to be submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 

      Let’s look at a few key ideas here and how the way these women live adorns the gospel.

      • To be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

      Reverent has the idea of “befitting a holy person or thing,” like a priestess in the temple—I have the image of Anna in the temple when she sees baby Jesus for the first time; she’s waited her whole life for her Savior, and she recognizes Him when He comes. Reverent has the idea of someone in the presence of God. She lives in the Word of God, letting it sink down deep, and then she submits herself to it and is changed by it! And she glows with the glory of God, living like she was on that mountain with Moses, her face shines. I want to be that kind of woman. Don’t you? Let’s practice the presence of God. This isn’t just studying God’s Word. You can go to all the Bible studies in the world, but if you’re not willing to submit yourself to what God says to do, your life shows that you don’t actually value God.

      Older men and older women are both told to be “sober-minded” or “not given to much wine.” These ideas are parallel. The reality is, the greater the age, the greater the aches and pains. Wine would have been what they had to ease their pain—physically and even life’s heartaches. [Psalm 104:15 tells us the LORD gave “wine to gladden the heart of man.”] Even a good gift can be abused though. The culture around them (and let’s be honest, around us too) gives into one more glass and one more glass, and as their bodies loosen up, so do their tongues. And they begin to speak maliciously—gossiping, putting others down. This word “slanderers” is “diabolous” (accuser, the same word used of the devil himself). As Christ followers, our words and conduct reveal who we are serving and what wisdom we are following—we are to be servants of God not wine—and our speech is to reflect heavenly wisdom, not devilish.

      • To be teachers of good and this teaching has a focus—SO THAT they can train the younger women.

      This is not calling every older woman to lead women’s Bible study! (Some of you are relieved by that.) In fact, there wasn’t a formal lecture or classroom setting available to them. This isn’t necessarily deep theological training. This is the practical life stuff, and a lot of this is domestic. How in the world do I get that stain out? How do you get your bread to rise so beautifully? How do I figure out what my priorities need to be? It’s personal, one-on-one discipleship. If you don’t have a spiritual mom or grandma in this church, look around this room, your small group, your shepherding group, and think, “Who do I want to be like when I grow up?” Invite her over for coffee. Older ladies, you do the same, “She reminds me of me when I was her age. What would I tell my younger self?” Invite her over for tea. Dig in the garden, bake bread, play with the kids. Just do it together. And talk about Jesus while you do it.

      This training word literally means, “to make of sound mind” or “restore to one’s senses.” This is helping someone hold to their duties, admonishing, earnestly exhorting, curbing our affections. This is discipleship! We need one another to help us think rightly! Don’t get me wrong, we need the weekly teaching and preaching of our elders, but God designed us to need discipleship too. This is a special role reserved for the older women of the faith. [Several commentaries actually said that one reason this kind of instruction was to be given thru the older women instead of thru the elders was actually to protect both parties from forming attachments that could lead to sinful relationships and harm the gospel. Every church needs mature women in the faith to do this.] As we age, we never retire from usefulness in the church. If anything, it’s the exact opposite. As we mature in the faith, our role is not just useful but essential, critical to the life of the body. This is what you’ve trained for—to train the younger women!

      • V.5-6, We’re called to be lovers: husband-lovers, children-lovers, home-lovers

      Notice, it doesn’t say the women have to be married; it’s that same mentality we saw with the elders—their values about marriage reflect biblical teaching: one man, one woman,  faithful till death. If you’re married, notice the order here…our husbands come first, before our kids, before our homes. This love is the “phileo” love, the familial, friendship love. You surprised? It’s not just attraction or even the self-sacrificing kind (that falls more under the submission, we’ll get to in a minute). It’s showing affection with a tender touch, welcoming him as a friend, working hard to be interested in him & his interests, and that includes making it possible for men to develop male friendships—send them out for coffee or pizza, and pray for them while they’re out. We need older women to help us love these very different-from-us creatures. God designed it to be possible.

      Next, it’s the same affectionate love for children—biological, adopted, or spiritual children, like Paul loved Titus as his “true child in the faith.” Loving our kids well can be hard, messy maddening, heartbreaking, and sometimes completely overwhelming. When we hit that wall, we don’t need another book or YouTube. We need older women in our church to be right up in our business, praying with us, holding us, reminding us that they’ve been there, and that God’s grace is too glorious for us to give up on our families. He will get us through!

      Let’s skip ahead to that “home-lovers” as JB Phillips paraphrased this “working at home” bit. This doesn’t mean you can’t have a career or work outside the home, but it carries the idea of being a good household manager. We’re busy at home; not busy-bodies around town. We need to learn to love the homes God has given us, to manage them well, to maintain them, and to make them a priority for the glory of God. And if we can’t work outside the home and be this, we need to reevaluate our priorities. One of the best exercises I ever did was to write down my top 10 priorities and then put that list in the order that I was realistically living it out. My priorities were completely out of whack and I had to quit a job I loved because my husband, my family, my home, had to be more important than I was making it.

      • To be self-controlled, pure, … and kind

      When we fix our minds on the word of God and value it as our supreme authority, we beg God to grow this fruit of self-control and kindness in our hearts, and in our homes. We remember that Jesus was kind and tenderhearted to us, forgiving us, and we can be kind and forgive too. We need to be pure in what we put in front of our eyes. When you’re watching TV or scrolling Instagram, and you find yourself comparing your husband in a critical way, or you find yourself cheering for a relationship that isn’t biblical. Don’t get your marriage advice from the world. Turn off the TV, stop scrolling, and call a grandma. Fix your mind on things that are good and pure and true, and commit again to being faithful to God’s word and your marriage vows and not let your heart wander.

      • To be submissive to their own husbands

      In a believing household, placing ourselves under the authority of our husbands should be joyful, because it also means placing ourselves under his provision and care and affection. If your husband isn’t saved, 1 Peter 3 tells us “this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands” and your submission may be what wins your husband over to Christ. It’s hard, but it’s holy work.

      In my experience, when I submit to my husband, it actually makes him a stronger leader. When I try to lead, I’m stripping him of the respect I vowed on our wedding day; I’m acting like Eve instead of Mary. This isn’t being a doormat; it’s honoring the God-ordained roles He created you to serve in. If this is weighing on you, I’ll say it again, “Call a grandma!” You don’t get to be one of those cute old couples sitting in Cracker Barrell without a lot of years of sacrifice and love before that point. When I let the word of God change my heart towards my husband through prayer and active obedience, it’s always worth it.

      So, what’s your place in God’s household? Older or Younger—probably a little of both for most of us. Are you humbly submitting to it? And reflecting that you value the gospel by your speech and behavior?

      D. Our final group is Bondservants, v. 9-10

      “Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”

      In Ancient Greek comedies, the term slave and thief would have been interchangeable. It was so common it became a societal joke. And yet, the gospel is for everyone, regardless of status or occupation. These bondservants heard the good news and received Jesus. He changed them from the inside out! They were free from sin, but they were still slaves on earth. Now they needed to reflect that change to their masters. They had to be taught to do this in very countercultural ways! Serve humbly, no matter what because Jesus humbled himself, submitting to the will of the Father in EVERYTHING for us. Be pleasant to be around. Being under God’s authority doesn’t give you the right to act like you’re superior to your master; don’t argue; don’t talk back; don’t mock. That doesn’t reflect the beauty of the gospel that you treasure. Show you can be trusted in everything. You don’t need to steal anything; the King of the Universe is your Father now! Stop this petty theft—a few extra pieces of food here, a couple of coins there, a few extra minutes on the time clock this day, etc. Your reward is in heaven. But serve Jesus now by serving your earthly master well.

      CONCLUSION: I want to go back to the bridal picture we started with and think about the ring. John Stott writes, “The verb kosmeo [adorn] was used of arranging jewels in order to display their beauty. And the gospel is a jewel, while a consistent Christian life is like the setting in which the gospel-jewel is displayed; I can ‘add lustre’ to it (REB).” (185) God chose to set the jewel of His gospel in the setting of His Church so that we might radiate His glory. Have you seen the splendor of the gospel and accepted the treasure of Jesus as your Savior? If not, come, repent of your sin and believe in Jesus—trust this beautiful doctrine of God our Savior that is free for all. And then, sisters, take care of the setting of the gospel—take care of how you live in the church, in your home, in your community, and may your words and walk reflect the immeasurable worth of God’s Word among your sisters today.

      Sing “I Love to Tell the Story” OR “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior”; and Pray

      A Working Structure of Titus

      / Melissa / Leave a comment

      Titus 1:1-4 True Child of the True Faith (Crete was known for its gods and lies)

      1. Know God’s Truth (Election, Eternal Hope, Sovereign Savior, Promise Keeper)
      2. Live Godly Lives (Hope, Obey, Serve one another and God)

      Emphasis: To further the lived out faith and truth of God’s people à Faith and Truth Lead to Godly Living

      Titus 1:5-16 Fit for Godliness—Task to Choose and Train the Elders (Crete was known for its many cities as well as its violence, seduction, and lies; myths of both Jews and Greeks—Zeus)

      1. Fit for Managing God’s Household
        • Teaching – encouraging, rebuking
        • Tongue – godly
        • Temper – hospitable
        • Trust – Truth of God
      2. Unfit for Anything Good – Time to Clean House
        • Teaching – false
        • Tongue – lies
        • Temper – violent
        • Trust – myths, humans

      Emphasis: How we manage our households speaks louder than our message sometimes.

      Titus 2:1-10 The Value of Teaching Godliness (Who to teach, what…, how…, and why…)

      1. Value of the Word
      2. Value to the Church

      Emphasis: TEACH + impact on view of God’s word – appropriate and attractive

      Titus 2:11-15 On Grace and Glory

      1. Grace Appears, v. 11-12, 15 (To Save, To Teach)
      2. Glory Appears, v. 13-14 (To Hope, To Redeem, To Purify)

      Titus 3:1-11 Stressed Out or Stressing God’s Kindness?  Or Distracted v. Devoted?

      1. Stressed Out (Our Past Sins and Failures; Our Present Distractions and Divisions)
      2. Stressing God’s Kindness (Gentle Reminders; Gospel Foundations; Good Works for God’s Glory)

      Emphasis: What to Stress / Insist Upon because of God’s kindness and love. Also, seems like I. and III. Go together and II. And IV. Go together.

      Titus 3:11-15  Our Devoted People

      I.   Devoted to Good (3:12-14; Help Gospel Partners; Provide for People in Need; Lead Productive Lives)

      II. Devoted to Grace (3:15; Grace-filled Greetings; Love in the Faith, because devoted to God; context: 3:4-8)

      Emphasis: Devoted to doing good (6th/final time “do good” is used in book—1:8; 2:7,14; 3:1,8,14).

      “Our people must learn to devote themselves to good works!”

      Habakkuk 3:8-11, I Sing the Mighty Power of God

      / Melissa

      Habakkuk 3:8-11, “8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? 9 You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah   You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.”

      Are you a mountain person or a beach person? I’m 100% mountain girl! And I love all things fall—especially fall in the mountains! So, a couple weeks ago, I drove up to NC with the boys to introduce them to one of my favorite fall hobbies: antiquing! I don’t know what it is about old things, but I could spend hours in an antique shop; and some of them you can quite literally get lost in! It was a good teaching day—how to look and not touch, how to appreciate without having to purchase.

      Maybe it’s the post-hurricane chaos, or maybe there’s a little extra grief because my mom loved fall so much, or maybe it’s the nostalgia from just reading Farmer Boy to my boys again, (or the fact that it’s an election year)—but, this year especially, I’ve been craving calm. Visiting these little towns is like going back in time; they’re smaller, slower paced—something I long for and strive really hard to hold onto for our family in our ever-racing spiral of a culture.

      When you’re antiquing, sometimes you have a particular piece in mind. And sometimes, you’re just browsing because you need a place to slow down and think and remember. It’s good for us to remember days gone by and to teach our children about them too. It establishes an appreciation of the blood, sweat, and tears that came before us, and grows a sense of gratitude for what we have now. It’s good for us to slow down and look back. And, oh, the smell of old books! It’s good for us to pull out the old history books and even collections of nursery rhymes. Frankly, if we studied our histories better, maybe we wouldn’t repeat them so often. 😉 And it’s good for us to pull out the old hymnals and sing through their melodies.

      Nursery rhymes and songs have been used through the ages to teach children history lessons. And Scripture uses poetry and song for the same reason—to teach God’s story to the children of His kingdom.

      Today we’ll learn that one of the things God’s people remembered and praised God for was His wrath. This sounds strange to us today, but we need to lean into this part of God’s nature because His wrath and His love are both perfect and inseparable. God uses His wrath to save His people! And we can absolutely rejoice in that!

      Let’s set the stage. Hab. 2:20 – Habakkuk sees the LORD in His holy temple! And there’s this cosmic mic-drop! The whole earth falls in silence at the woes the LORD has just pronounced on evil. But Habakkuk does something different—he can’t help but burst into a song of praise, recounting God’s past deliverance of His people, and resolving to wait for the coming deliverance of His Savior and LORD. And he calls the people of God to join Him in learning and singing this song in their temple worship as well.

      Remembering God’s past acts of deliverance grounds our faith in His future and final acts of deliverance. And… Recalling God’s covenant anchors our hope in God’s future and forever reign.

      Now, this song is structured in a way that points to the center; and the center of this song is verses 8-15. Now, we’re breaking this center section into two parts, which at first might seem a little odd, BUT I think it’s good to slow down and really dive deep into the center of this song because it holds a lot of rich theology. And the MAIN IDEA?  We don’t like to talk about this, but the main idea of this text is the WRATH of the LORD…and His SALVATION. God uses His wrath to save His people! God’s sovereign wrath is displayed over creation in v. 8-11, and then over the nations in v. 12-15; and the purpose of all of it? “in order to save His people.”

      I. First, God’s Salvation is Declared.

      I.A. Habakkuk starts this section with his final question, (again, starting with the LORD’s covenant name, as we’ve seen in each of his prayers thus far).

      v. 8, At what or whom is God’s wrath directed? Is it the rivers or seas? The small bodies of waters or the large ones? Because sometimes, it has seemed like it was!

      In last week’s lesson, we were drawn to thinking of the Exodus—being reminded of the plagues and pestilence that God used to draw His people out of Egypt. So, it’s natural to think of the Exodus again. Speaking of plagues, we remember the story of God turning the water of the Nile into blood, right? (Exodus 7)

      And, of course, we remember the crossing of the Red Sea. But in that story, the Egyptians were the ones riding on chariots, and what happened to them?  Exodus 15: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.”

      Was God angry at the waters? NO, God used the Red Sea that He created to swallow up the enemy of His people! And Isaiah tells us, that God divided the waters and led His people in order to make for himself an everlasting and glorious name (Isaiah 63:12, 14).

      This wasn’t the only time the people walked across on dry land either! God did it again! In Joshua 3, the people walked across the river bottoms of the Jordan River into the Promised Land! And this time in flood season!

      Why did God do this? Yes, to remind them of the Red Sea, but ultimately, He says it was “how [they] [would] know that the living God [was] among [them] and that He without fail will drive out … the Canaanites” (Joshua 3:10). But it wasn’t just for Israel; God says it was “so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever” (Joshua 4:24). The whole earth will fear the LORD! But He is our God forever!

      Habakkuk is recalling these mighty deeds of God to mind and putting them into song, and he’s doing that to help himself and the people to remember that God is sovereign over His creation. The sea was a symbol of judgment in the Bible—from beginning to end. What was Habakkuk experiencing?

      Well, the main god of the Babylonians was Marduk, the god of creation, water and storm. So, judgment using water was a direct hit on the Babylonians’ god (just like the plagues of Egypt were direct hits on their gods)!

      Next, we know that Babylon covered much of the Sinai (now, Arabian) peninsula, which is surrounded by the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Mediterranean Sea; and Ur was on the Euphrates River, running right through the middle of the peninsula. We saw lots of fishing imagery in chapter 1, so we know they valued their seaports because it brought them their luxurious lifestyles.

      At the end of Habakkuk, he mentions figs, vines, olives and fields perishing—so they may have already begun to experience droughts—the drying up of the rivers and the seas, as one of God’s means of calling His people back. (“yet you did not return to me,” Amos 4.)

      So, we’ve seen God’s mighty deeds in the past, we’ve discussed a little of what He might have been doing in Habakkuk’s day regarding the rivers and seas, but then, because we’re looking at a prophet, we have to consider that there may be future ramifications as well.

      The Past Exodus always points to the Future Exodus.

      Remember, prophecy is kind of like a mountain range. I think we’ve talked about the mountain range before—how when you see a mountain range from a distance, it kind of looks like one big range, but the closer you get, you can start to tell that it’s actually a bunch of mountain ranges stacked against each other. So, with prophecy, it can have a direct fulfilment at the time it’s given, but then it can be fulfilled repeatedly throughout history—especially when it comes to the cross and Christ’s return.

      So where do we see God using raging waters in the future? If you look at Revelation 8-10, Jesus opens the final seal, which brings woes upon those who refuse to repent—they include the sea turning to blood, darkness, plagues, a third of the earth’s population being destroyed, because they would not repent of their idolatry, violence, immorality, and theft. Sound like Babylon? (It even mentions the Euphrates River.) And as Jesus sets his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, he declares that when the final trumpet sounds, “the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.” In Revelation 16-18, the same images are repeated for the same reasons, and he calls out Babylon specifically (which symbolizes all the evil nations by this point).

      SO, no, God isn’t angry at the rivers or the sea. But He is using them! Why is he pouring out this wrath?  

      I.B. God salvation is declared as He rides in wrath for salvation. What salvation? We have to look ahead to v. 13 – for the salvation of His people, and His anointed!

      Now we shift from the “horse and his rider being thrown into the sea” to a picture of God Himself on His chariots! It reminds me of one of my favorite songs, “O Worship the King,” verse 2 – “O tell of His might, O sing of His grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy space. His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.”

      I asked you to read a couple of psalms last week. Hopefully that was refreshing and helpful. Psalm 68: 17 The chariots of God are twice ten thousand,  thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary.  20 Our God is a God of salvation,  and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. 33 to him who rides in the heavens, …35 Awesome is God from his sanctuary; …—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.                    

      Who is this awesome God of salvation?  Rev. 6:2 says, “And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.”

      And then in Rev. 19: 11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. … 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and [His] name … is The Word of God. 14 … the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 …[He comes]  to strike down the nations, and … rule them …. [Then it says,] “He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  16…. [And his name is King of kings and Lord of lords.”

      Jesus Christ holds the reins of His Heavenly Horses, and He is riding in wrath to save us—to save you!—His beloved Bride—all those who repent and believe!

      TRANSITION: So, even though Habakkuk begins with a question, it’s more of a rhetorical one—he knows God’s wrath is right and good because when God shows His wrath to destroy the enemy, His intent is to save His people! Next, Habakkuk sees God’s Sovereign Splendor Displayed throughout creation! Let’s look at how creation responds to God’s chariot of salvation!

      II. First, God’s Sovereign Splendor is Displayed as

      II.A. God rightly judges over earth and heaven!

      He continues with this War Imagery:

      9 You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah

      I’m a boy mom; I have 3 boys, ages almost 3 to 9, and they all love weapons! They are especially into bows and arrows. But this is no child’s play, so I did a little research on Avid-Archer.com. 😊 Avid-Archer explains, “In contemporary films, archery often symbolizes empowerment and liberation.” “In literature, archery often symbolizes the dual forces of love and war, [get this!] both of which require precision, focus, and an understanding of the target. [I thought that was cool.] Arrows can represent: [1] The piercing nature of love … [he mentions Cupid]… [and arrows can represent] [2] The destructive potential of war….” He goes on to say that “the bow often… symboliz[es] … power within waiting to be unleashed… As the arrow is released, it represents the triumph over one’s struggles—a climactic release of potential leading to victory.”

      And there is no greater power than the power of our God. In v. 9, we see God as our Coming Warrior King, riding on his chariot. The sheath of the bow was part of the quiver; the sheath is what you would carry your bow in to protect it; the quiver would also carry the arrows. For riders, the sheath would either be worn on their backs or actually mounted to the side of the chariot, for easy access. When he strips the sheath from the bow, He is grabbing out his war bow.

      This should remind you of the flood—when God hung his war bow in the sky—what we now call a rainbow! This rainbow symbol has been manipulated for evil and flown to celebrate the “Pride” of and for the LGBTQ+ community; they’ve even distorted into 6 colors instead of 7 (number of man vs. number of perfection); BUT, it will be redeemed by its Maker! And this bow will bring judgment, not in a worldwide flood (because God always keeps His promises), but in fire. And the rainbow will be seen again… Ezekiel saw it: … his first vision is of a storm and fire, a man seated on a throne, surrounded by a rainbow. And he realizes he has just been given a glimpse into heaven. He says, “Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and [listened]”(1:28). Then, in Rev. 4:2, John has a similar experience: “I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne… 3… and around the throne was a rainbow. … 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder,” and we see burning torches of fire and a sea of glass, all reflecting the glory of our Coming Warrior God!

      Gospel Connection: FOR those of us who are believers, instead of using this bow on us, God stripped Jesus of His life at the cross, pouring out judgment on Him in our place.

      The next line is really hard to interpret. ESV says “calling for many arrows.”

      • Other translations use various words for “Calling”, such as “ordering, swearing, oaths being sworn, even as thy word, etc.”
      • “Arrows” can be translated “rods, chastisement, spears,” etc.
      • “Many” can be translated as “7” – signifying fullness, completeness or the perfect number—exactly what God needs. Complete Jewish Bible: “order it (the bow) filled with arrows”

      So, it is a perfect execution of this covenant promise to not only show steadfast love (Exodus 34:6), but keep reading the rest of the covenant… verse 7 says, “who will by no means clear the guilty.” God’s love and God’s wrath are inextricably connected! He must accomplish both things—rescuing His people AND destroying His enemy. If this idea of wrath and love being connected is hard for you, you might picture a mama bear acting in wrath to protect her cubs from a mountain lion.

      The word “Selah” is a musical notation that most believe is like a “rest” or “pause” in order to reflect. So, the fact that Selah is here makes me lean toward the idea of the reminder of the covenant – we can reflect on God calling His perfect Word back to mind and using the Word of God, Jesus, to pierce the hearts of His enemies. For us, the Word pierced and divided our hearts to see truth and repent of our sin; for those who refuse to repent, the Word will pierce to destroy.

      No matter how you translate this, God is intent on loving His people, and He releases a cosmic war effort to retrieve us. In the end, the cosmic battle will be once and for all won when all God’s enemies are cast into the lake of fire, and God’s people and brought to dwell with Him as His forever bride in His forever kingdom.

      Psalm 7:11-13 says, “ 11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels [wrath] every day. 12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; 13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.”

      Isaiah 43: the LORD says, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
      I have called you by name, you are mine.
      2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
      and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
      when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
      and the flame shall not consume you.
      3For I am the Lord your God,
      the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

      We love these verses, but I didn’t realize till I was studying for this that the context is God redeeming Israel from the hands of Babylon, v. 14, says “even the Chaldeans.”

      16Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,
      17who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior;
      they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

      And chapters 44-45 are where Isaiah foretells of not only their exile but their return…

      [If you have time, spend some time soaking in Isaiah 40-50 this week; it’s so refreshing!]

      TRANSITION: Salvation is Declared; Victory is Sure; God rightly judges over earth and heaven! A second way we see God judging rightly is how he “split the earth with rivers.”

      We’ve already covered a lot on water imagery, and we’ve seen firsthand in the recent hurricanes how God literally redirects the flow of water; He unleashes the power of water to move mountains! Sides of mountains fell off their foundations last month. Towns and bridges were annihilated—washed away. Routes have been changed—not just in the roads but in where the rivers will run for years to come.

      Several commentaries, and our workbook this week, pointed us to the splitting of the Rock in the wilderness, providing water for the Israelites, which is a valid point. But God has been splitting the earth and dividing waters since the very beginning.

      Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. … 7 And God … separated the waters [below] from the waters … above. … God called [this] Heaven. [Then] God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together … and let the dry land appear.” … 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters … he called Seas.”

      Gospel Connection: God is the Sovereign Judge of All Creation: He gets to decide where the land should split and the water run through. He Rightly Judges over Earth and Heaven. And He is Worthy of Worship.

      Application: By the way, God rightly judges our hearts too. Proverbs 21:2, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” He changes kings’ hearts, and he can and will change our hearts too. Have you experienced this? Do you need to experience this? Ask God to show you how your heart needs to change—towards Him? Towards your spouse? Your child? Your neighbor? Your coworker? Pray that God would turn your heart to be pleasing to Him. And then watch Him work.

      TRANSITION: Verses 10 and 11 switch from 2nd person (YOU) back to 3rd person, and we get to see how earth and heaven—all creation—responds to its Sovereign Judge. God came down, riding on his chariots of wrath, readying his bow and arrows, and

      II. B. The power of His presence is utterly intense and supremely glorious!

      The heavens and earth cannot handle it! How do they respond?

            ” 10 The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high.”

      QUESTION: Have you ever “writhed” in pain? Childbirth and back pain come to mind for me. Can you imagine the mountains doing this? The mountains (think the Appalachians, the Rocky  Mountains, Mount Everest). Writhing. God is so supremely glorious that the mountains themselves writhe!

      We saw this in v. 6, “the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low.” Now, “mountains” can also be symbolic for “nations”. So, both the literal, physical mountains, but also the symbolic nations, are writhing when God comes down. We see God as our Glorious and Sovereign Creator, but this time, He is leveling the landscape and beginning to make all things new, as He Recreates His Dwelling Place in the New Heaven and New Earth!

      The mountains saw the LORD and writhed…then what happened? More water imagery. The Deep sees God and gives up its voice, being rendered utterly speechless. Or… when the deep gives forth its voice, it’s crying out—lifting its voice and its hands in surrender to the Almighty! Water is symbolic of chaos. And just as God did in Genesis 1, God sovereignly brings order out of chaos again and again and again throughout history—and one day, there will be no more chaos! The LORD is on His throne, and the earth is silent, swept away.

      Psalm 77: “16 When the waters saw you, O God, …, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled. […once again, we have thunder and lightning and earthquakes… Then it says,] 19 Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters;
          yet your footprints were unseen.“

      Gospel Connection: Jesus walked through judgement for us. We cannot always see God working, but we must trust that He is. He will make our paths straight, and He will win in the end! But, in His love, God often uses His wrath in order to save His people!

      In Revelation 16-18, we see the fall of Babylon, once again accompanied by lightning, thunder, and earthquake. Rev. 16:19-20, “And God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.”  In Rev. 17, God reveals a vision of mountains as actually the kings who “14make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

      TRANSITION: God rightly judges over earth and heaven, and God’s righteous presence is supremely glorious. The mountains and seas writhe. Next, the sun and moon stand still. Joshua 10:12-14 gives us the story of “when the Lord gave the Amorites over to …Israel,” through Joshua’s request. Joshua said, ““Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” 13 [and they did!], until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. 14…for the Lord fought for Israel.”

      Why did the sun and moon stand still? Was it a solar eclipse? No, Habakkuk says it was because of God’s speeding arrows of light and the flash of his glittering spear! They saw his glory in full display, as He came to take vengeance on His enemies once again. This is a supernatural eclipse, a revelation of God’s glory—the all-encompassing, incomprehensible sum of all of God’s attributes, shining forth in His presence.

      The sun and moon that God created were ordained to submit to their Sovereign Creator—as were we. One day, the sun and moon will stand still forever! In contrast to the city of Babylon being thrown down and her light being no more, we see in Rev. 21 “ a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [no more judgment or chaos] … 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb…and there will be no night.”

      God, as the Glorious Sovereign, Eclipses us with His Glorious Splendor!

      Speaking of the Heavens, we looked at prophecy as being like a mountain range. A second image that might help is a constellation. When we look up in the sky and see the Big Dipper, for example, it looks like a cluster of stars, but the reality is that these stars are literally Light Years away from us and each other! The stars in the Big Dipper range from about 78 light years away to 128 light years away! Just ONE light year = 6 TRILLION MILES. So, if we even COULD travel at 600 mph, it would still take us 1 MILLION YEARS to travel ONE light year! This is the vastness of God’s creative and redemptive power! He uses one text, one image, to remind us of His past, present, and future eternal reign!

      Conclusion: I want to look at one final passage in Revelation 18. As Babylon is falling, you hear a voice, which I think is an echo of Habakkuk, along with Isaiah and Ezekiel, and the rest of the prophets—warnings to the nations—and to us.

      Rev. 18:4-5 says, “Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

      It’s a call to repent. Will you listen to His call? Are you one of the arrows? Jesus gave His life for you; are you willing to have your blood shed for Him? OR will you join Babylon and refuse to repent? Oh, I hope not. For the end of those who refuse to repent is to be pierced by His mighty arrows, fatally, for eternity.

      God’s “splendor” and wrath bring salvation and destruction. God displays His wrath through creation in order to save His people. So, can you rejoice in God’s wrath better now than yesterday? The wrath of God is a sobering topic. But as believers, we can rejoice that God will rescue us through His wrath. He did this by pouring out His wrath on Jesus instead of us. And He will do it again when He comes to bring us finally Home.

      I got a glimpse of this as a summer camp counselor during my college years. We were on a hike at the 4th falls at the Wilds (which is a pretty intense hike), but an unexpected summer thunderstorm came out of nowhere. Thunder, lightning, even limbs dropping onto the trail. We tried to find hollowed out places on the side of the trail to shelter until it passed. And someone began to sing this song. “I Sing the Mighty Power of God.”

      So I want us to sing this together today. When I taught this to our preschoolers, we added a little bridge that can be sung at the beginning and end of the song. It’s really simple, and it’s become one of my sons’ favorite bedtime songs. It goes like this.

      Teach Bridge:  “There’s no greater power than the power of our God.” X2 (LifetreeKids)

      So we’ll sing the Bridge, all 3 stanzas, and close with the bridge. Let’s sing of the Glorious Splendor of our  Sovereign King, who will come in Victory—may it be soon!

      I Sing the Mighty Power of God (Isaac Watts, 1715)

      1. I sing the mighty pow’r of God, that made the mountains rise,
        That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
        I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
        The moon shines full at His command, and all the stars obey.
      2. I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food,
        Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good.
        Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where’er I turn my eye,
        If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.
      3. There’s not a plant or flow’r below, but makes Thy glories known,
        And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne;
        While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care;
        And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God, art present there.

      Habakkuk 1:12-2:1, My View from the Watchtower

      / Melissa / Leave a comment

      Before we get into our main lesson today, I want to take our first few minutes to look at a couple of study tools as we come to God’s Word.

      First, let’s talk Context.

      Context helps us get a fuller understanding of what’s being said. This might mean we study what’s going on during this time period. But it also includes literary context, which is the passage before and after your text. Habakkuk is such a short book that it can actually really help us to read the whole text each week…maybe even several times. If you have a Bible app, consider listening to it while you’re running errands or washing dishes. Soak in the text. The more you read it, the more connections you are likely to see.

      How did the book start? With a prayer… Habakkuk receives this heavy burden from the LORD and rightly brings this burden back to the LORD. Habakkuk sees and questions, “God, do you see what I see?!”

      Then, God assures him that He’s seeing it all and tells Habakkuk to look and watch because He’s about to do something that is unbelievable!

      Now it’s Habakkuk’s turn to talk. And, just as we saw in that first passage, in today’s text, we’ll see Habakkuk continuing to carry this burden back to the Lord for as long as it takes to see God bring about justice.

      What comes next? God answers again. The wicked will receive woes, and God will get the glory. And then the last chapter is a song of remembrance of God’s past deliverance and Habakkuk’s determination to sing praise to God no matter what. So that helps us remember in our text today that God will answer His people’s prayers. And God will execute perfect justice. And it helps our theme of waiting and watching for God to work to become a strong emphasis.

      The next tool in our toolbox is Parallelism.

      Did anyone find it hard to figure out who was who in this passage? We have to remember that we’re looking at Hebrew poetry. And Hebrew poetry is not about rhyming like our standard English poems. It’s not even about cadence or number of syllables. It’s more about parallel ideas that either compare and contrast or repeat and elaborate upon each other. So, let’s look at Habakkuk 1:12-13 in the ESV and NIV for just a minute to see if we can learn anything new by using this tool.

      I tend to go with the oldest date (if we know that), and the fact that the oldest manuscripts also reflect Hebrew parallelism seems to confirm this interpretation.

      Lines 3 and 4 (v. 13) follow the same pattern of parallelism as Lines 1 and 2 (v. 12).  Another reason I don’t think Habakkuk is assuming he won’t die or can’t die.

      Let’s say you’re not convinced. Is it okay to translate this we? Even if Habakkuk IS saying “We will not die,” He’s still basing this belief on the covenant nature of God that we’ll talk about in a minute. I don’t think he’s saying that he will never die physically, because he knows death has been a part of humanity since the curse; it’s appointed to every man and woman to die once. And he’s seen what happens when evil nations bring other nations into exile. People do die. But it may be that he’s confident that even unto death, he will live with God forever because our souls never die.

      “My View from the Watch Tower”

      Have you ever been in the middle of a really hard conversation and the phone cuts out? Maybe it’s an argument with your husband or a friend. Maybe you’ve been waiting all week for a response to a job interview—did you get it or not? I have two examples that come to mind… the first was when my twin sister was having her third child. So, we knew she was going into labor, we’re excited that this baby is coming, and then about 12 hours in, we get the dreaded phone call: ” Baby’s in distress, we’re going in for emergency c-section! [Click.]” And there’s nothing you can do. So, you pray and you wait and you watch the phone because you know that they’ll call you back as soon as they can, but there’s just not an answer. Then we got a second phone call: “The baby’s okay. [Silence.]” “And Michelle?” “We don’t know yet. [Click.]” And we wait again. And you don’t know if the answer will be positive or not. The other example was my brother this January, my dad called me and said, “I’m taking Jordan to the ER because we think he had a stroke.” And he did. And it was pretty serious. And I remember giving Callan a bath that night and just kneeling by the tub, crying out to God, “God, it hasn’t even been 6 months since mom died… please don’t take my brother too!” And you fast and pray and wait. And wait.

      And that’s the kind of feeling we drop into with Habakkuk. He is reeling with a pit in his stomach and holding his breath, and he cries out to God. (And, yes, we praise God that both my siblings are alive and well today, and God used those things in their lives to grow their faith in the LORD, just as He did with Habakkuk.)

      The poetry of this section is more of a personal lament than a complaint. We see the personal nature as he refers to God as “my God” and “my Holy One.” Then, there’s the typical lament pattern: there’s a statement of faith, followed by an extended question, then another statement of faith (A-B-A). He also seems to be elaborating on his first lament in verses 2-4, even using many of the same words.

      Don’t we do this? We pray a quick prayer and then the answer seems to be confusing, so we pray in a longer way? What attitude do we do this with? Is Habakkuk questioning God in a disapproving manner? I’d argue that Habakkuk comes to God in an attitude of confidence in God’s character and promises. And we can follow this pattern as we bring our laments to the Lord too.

      Habakkuk begins by taking a hard look at the character of God. So, let’s do that with Habakkuk.

      I. First and foremost, we need “A Right View of the Rock of the Ages.” (1:12-14)

      When God gives us heavy burdens, it is absolutely necessary that we are grounded in who God is. We cannot look at our circumstances and change our view of God. Rather, we look at our God, and let what we know to be true about Him give us perspective about what we’re going through. In fact, isn’t usually the hardest circumstances that actually help us get a bigger view of God and understand Him even better? This is God’s heart throughout Scripture—isn’t it?! To give us a big view of Himself. And He doesn’t change—so this is God’s heart for you and me too—to know us and to make Himself known to us in a big, personal way. Relationship, not just religion. So, what does Habakkuk know about His God?

      1. He knows God is a personal, covenant keeping God (v. 12)
      2. He knows God is eternal (v. 12)
      3. He knows God is all-powerful and good (v. 12)

      Let’s look at each of these attributes for a bit. First, God is a personal, covenant keeping God.

      One of the first covenants we have is the covenant between the LORD and Abram (Abraham). In Genesis 12, God called Abram out of his home country (Ur of the Chaldeas—ironically, the same people group that are attacking his descendants now) and God promised to make Abram a great nation and through him bless all the families of the earth. Fast forward over two decades, and Abram is still waiting for a single son, let alone a great nation! And this is where the covenant comes in. In Genesis 15, The LORD promises again to give Abram a son and make his offspring as numerous as the stars in heaven! “And he [Abram] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (15:6).

      Then God did something as a sign of the covenant He was making with Abram. He had Abram bring a bunch of animals and cut them in half and lay them out. Then Abram fell into a deep sleep, and the LORD said to him, “Know for certain” that I will do what I said I would do (15:13). Then Abram saw “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (15:17). This was a special ceremony—the smoke and fire were symbolic of the LORD Himself, and the cutting in half of the animals was saying in essence, “If I, the LORD, do not keep my end of the covenant, may I be cut in two just like these animals.” But we know that God always keeps His promises! God Himself cannot die! He is eternal! And He’s serious about keeping His word forever!

      Habakkuk is grounding his prayers in his relationship with God. In fact, every prayer of Habakkuk begins with the word LORD in all caps (see 1:2; 2:12; 3:2). This is God’s covenant name, YHWH, revealed to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. All of our relationships with God are grounded in this covenant history—in this covenant name—and Habakkuk highlights this first.

      TRANSITION. The phrase “from everlasting” can point to both God’s eternality, but even more frequently, it implies a specific act of deliverance in Israel’s history. So once again, it points us to the covenant keeping nature of God—the Rock of ages—”our help in ages past,” “our hope for years to come.”

      The covenants of God are really important to understand as we look at OT prophecy. We don’t have time to dive into all of it, but I would recommend two books: 1. Christ from Beginning to End by Stephen Wellum and our pastor Trent Hunter, which points to Jesus in every book of the Bible! It’s fantastic if you’ve never seen that before; and 2. Covenants Made Simple by Jonty Rhodes, which is an easy-to-understand introduction to the covenants (this is a really excellent read and very helpful).

      TRANSITION: So, Habakkuk knows God is a personal, covenant keeping God. Next, Habakkuk knows that God is eternal—completely sovereign from eternity past thru eternity future. He has no beginning and no end. And His eternality is part of what makes Him supreme. We cannot comprehend this, but we must have this faith, as Habakkuk did and base our laments on it.

      God is unchanging. I love that Habakkuk calls God “my Rock.” Is God your Rock today? If not, He can be…when we fix our eyes on Him.

      Deuteronomy 31 is the passing of the torch from Moses to Joshua. Moses is 120 years old and about to die. He reads the Law to the people and he writes it all down (which we know as the Pentateuch, or first five books of the OT), then God tells Moses, “I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods” (31:18). Then God commands Moses to write a song and sing it to the people. And we find that song, the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. Let’s read v.3-4, and then if you haven’t done this yet, I’d make a little note to read through all of Deut. 32 and see what similarities you see and how often God is referred to as The Rock.

      “3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
          ascribe greatness to our God!

      4 “The Rock, his work is perfect,
          for all his ways are justice.
      A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
          just and upright is he.

      The song goes on to talk of God leading the people to the Promised Land, but how they grew discontent and “forsook [the] God who made [them]; [they] scoffed at the Rock of [their] salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods [idols]; …  18  were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.”  And it goes on about their idolatry against their Rock.

      I read this to remind us that what Habakkuk is seeing is not new. This is not the first time Israel rebelled. In fact, it’s somewhat of a broken record by this point. Verse 13 reflects Habakkuk’s wrestling with what He believes to be true about God with His circumstances.

      TRANSITION: Habakkuk knows the Scriptures, and more importantly, He knows God. A. He knows God is a personal, covenant keeping God; B. He knows God is eternal; and C. He knows God is all-powerful and good. God will execute perfect, right justice.

      Let’s read verse 13: “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do You idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?”

      Habakkuk knows God is pure and will not tolerate evil, because that’s part of His covenant promises, and yet the reality of Habakkuk’s surroundings and his theological belief do not seem to line up for him. He’s like, “I see all this evil all around me. How is God letting this go unnoticed? He sees everything, right? He’s all knowing, right? All powerful? I just don’t get it, God!”

      We’ve all been there—or if we haven’t, we will be at some point. I get Habakkuk’s paradox here! I know I’m only in my 40s, but the older I get, the more wickedness and brokenness and frailty I see in this world. And no matter how hard we try to guard ourselves from it, it’s simply unavoidable. We live in a fallen world, and we know that man apart from God is NOT essentially good—but rather, deceitful and desperately wicked. We are messed up! We need Jesus!

      When Habakkuk says that God has “purer eyes than to see evil,” does he mean that God is not omniscient? No. God sees all and knows all, and yet He cannot and does not dwell on the evil. Fast forward hundreds of years to Jesus on the cross—what did God do? He looked away from His Son. Jesus was forsaken for us—because Jesus took all of our sin upon Himself.

      So, we, like Habakkuk, have a choice—we can either let ourselves become overwhelmed by our circumstances and the wickedness of this world, and the wickedness of our own hearts and get depressed and doubt and even turn from God, like so many of the Israelites did! We can reject God and His covenant promise, and pursue idols and all forms of evil to fill up our own desires and pleasures, to try to fill the void and distract ourselves from our fears, OR we can run to God in prayer and faith and trust that God is doing something bigger and deeper and more eternally significant than we are able to see, even through these hard and horrible things. He is 100% sovereign over every aspect of His creation. And He is good!

      We don’t get to decide what “good” means. We want to think that “good” is subjective to what we like or want, but God defined goodness in Himself! Whatever He does is good, and we must align our hearts with His sovereign goodness.

      We will go through hard things, but hard is not the same as bad. When we go through hard things, we must remember that it is absolutely God who caused it! Is that hard to think about? To wrap our minds around? Sure. But v. 12 says that the LORD  “appointed” and “ordained” the Chaldeans for a purpose—“to execute judgment” and “to punish”—and the judgment and punishment was on the people of God in order to lovingly draw them back to God! The word “punish” here has the idea of doing what is right or just to correct AND to redeem!

      Now we come to v.14: “You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.” “You” refers back to the LORD! God is the one removing their kings and scattering them into foreign nations! We see this language throughout the prophets, God causing affliction through armies—of men or of locusts, through weather, drought, famine, and then saying, “Yet you did not return to me!” In Romans 1, it is God who gives those who refuse to repent over to the lusts of their hearts and a debased mind.

      God gives His people so many warnings, including this one in Deuteronomy 29:

      “18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.”

      We as a nation are consumed with the idea of safety—physical, emotional, all of it. But we’re also consumed with stubbornly holding to what I want to believe is true—whether it is or not—and attempting to silence anyone who dares disagree with me. We are not so far off from the wickedness of the Israelites, are we? The result of this stubbornness: the LORD overthrew them because they abandoned the covenant, uprooted them, and cast them out…and ultimately, blotted out their names from under heaven! This is serious! Do we think we can walk in our sin and still inherit the kingdom?!

      If you are walking around saying, “I’m okay,” but your heart is stubbornly set against God and His Word,   I beg you to repent of your sin and walk humbly with God! If you refuse to repent, you will find yourself among the religious crowd in Matthew 7 crying, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then Jesus answers, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Salvation was never about our works! Apart from God, there is ZERO goodness in any of us!

      Habakkuk was pleading with God because he saw God as being silent when the wicked were swallowing up Israel—he called Judah “the man more righteous than they” (referring to the Babylonians). But are they? Was Judah “more righteous” than Babylon? No! The Northern Kingdom had already been sent into exile, and now Judah was following in her footsteps! Judah had sinned every bit as wickedly as Israel AND Babylon. Why? Because they rejected God, which made them traitors and enemies of God!

      This is a distorted thought of comparison: “we’re more righteous than they are!” But no, God tells us it’s foolish to compare ourselves among ourselves. Rather, we must compare ourselves to God—and when we do that, He corrects our thinking by humbling us and drawing us to repentance and righteous living.

      Romans 3 (v. 9-12, 23) tells us that we are all sinners! The Jews aren’t any better off, and neither are we as Gentiles! There is none righteous, no, not one! God sent the Law and the Prophets, and then He sent Jesus—the righteousness of God manifested to us—to rescue and redeem us from our sin! We are not more righteous than anyone, except through faith in Jesus, the truly Righteous One, who loved us and gave Himself for us, taking our sin, and giving us His righteousness in its place.

      If you study through the prophets, you will see this theme over and over and over… God’s heart is always FOR His people. He loves us desperately! And will do whatever it takes to bring us to Himself. And that doesn’t always make sense to us as humans. But God’s ways are better than our ways. He does everything for His glory and our good, because He knows what our best good is…to dwell with God Almighty for all eternity! That is good! Because God is good! And we can be confident that God will always keep His covenant promises to preserve His children and destroy His enemies.

      Which brings us to our next point regarding God’s (and Habakkuk’s) enemies…

      II. A View of the Wicked Netsmen (1:15-17)

      We switch from “You” (referring to God) to “he” (referring to the Chaldeans). v. 15 – “He [Babylon] brings all of them [Judah] up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad.”

        Habakkuk keeps with his fish imagery here and sees the enemy capturing God’s people with hooks and nets—symbols of aggression, but also symbols of divine judgment in their day. And the evil nations were known to use hooks literally to drag their hostages away, treating them like hunted prey rather than human beings. The word used for “net” here in the original language is a wordplay, and in Deut. 7:26 it’s translated “devoted to destruction.” This is seriously awful!

        And then we see this phrase, “he rejoices and is glad.” Do we see this anywhere else in Scripture? Yes! The joining of these two words is throughout Scripture as a call to worship! “Rejoice and be glad!” But here it’s used of the wicked rejoicing in their conquests, not worshiping God! (v.11, “their god is their own might.”)

        v. 16 continues their false worship ceremony: “Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings [or burns incense] to his dragnet.” This is a very public form of idolatry!

        Why? “For by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.” The evil seem to be prospering here! They are very affluent, and they follow a very logical, and yet very wrong, line of thinking. They think, “Well, sure I’m cruel, but it must be okay because it’s making me rich, and if I’m fat and happy, then that’s a sign of the gods’ favor, right?!” “The end justifies the means.” But no, just because someone is rich and powerful in this world, it does not mean that’s because “the gods” or God Himself is blessing him!

        Habakkuk felt this… and he asks God directly (v.17), “Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?”, echoing the “O LORD, how long?” cry from his first lament (1:2). (Spoiler alert: Will the Babylonians keep doing this forever? No, the woes are coming in the very next chapter! And we’ll look more later at the end of Babylon in a future week.) 😉

        Asaph felt this in Psalm 73… he was so weary because he saw the wicked seemingly prosper and always at ease, increasing in riches. And he wonders, is being pure before the Lord and worshiping God worth it?! Then, he goes into the sanctuary of God and God revealed their end. They will be utterly swept away, but God’s beloved children will be received to glory, to be with God forever!

        We must remember that our sin is every bit as snaring as the enemy’s nets, but Jesus sets our hearts free to wait and to worship. We need to follow Asaph into the sanctuary of God and follow Habakkuk to the top of the watch tower… and look at Habakkuk 2:1 for a minute.

        III. Right Responses from the Watch Tower (2:1)

        We can’t look at verses 1:12-17 without finishing Habakkuk’s thought with 2:1, so let’s read that now, noticing the very personal language Habakkuk uses.

        “I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”

        Notice he doesn’t say “we”—he is in a lonely, isolated situation, with a heavy weight, or burden to bear, but he takes individual, personal resolve to take up the task that God has set before him. He uses words like “I” and “my” 7x in this short statement.

        Habakkuk began his lament with a personal relationship with God and now he ends his lament with a personal resolve to wait for God’s answer in God’s time.

        Hosea 9:8 tells us one of the main purposes of a prophet: “The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, [“the people of my God”].”(NIV) The watch post position was one of not only looking for the enemy attacks, but also sounding the alarm to the people! This is the job of a prophet—to watch and to warn! And this is what Habakkuk is resolved to do! He loves God and He loves the people of God, so no matter how hard it gets, he’s going to wait for God’s answer and continue to warn the people to turn back to their God.

        We are not prophets, especially in the OT prophet sense of the word. But the crux of the word prophet is a proclaimer. And that we can do! We have this picture of a watch tower—this would be a position on the wall of a fortified city. In Habakkuk’s case, this would have been the watch tower built into the city wall of Jerusalem (before the wall was destroyed and the people taken into exile).

        For us, as women, we are to be keepers of the home—this has that same watch tower / gate keeper imagery. We fix our eyes on Jesus and set the tone for what comes in and out of our four walls. We are called to proclaim truth to one another—particularly to our own children and to women younger than us (as in Titus 2).

        Waiting takes time. We need this message more than ever! We must slow down and be still. We must resolve to look for God in every aspect of life and be ready and willing to warn those in our sphere of influence that Jesus is coming. This definitely includes home, but it might also include other spheres—whether it’s a leadership position at church or outside the home with a job or in your community. Each of us has been positioned by God in a personal watch tower of sorts. And we can and must proclaim God’s truth in these watchtowers God has placed us in. But how do we do this?

        Waiting requires perseverance, humility, and patience in quietness. When we see God for who He is, He gives us the gift of repentance to turn from sin to following our Savior. He gives us faith and other gifts to call others to join us in a life of repentance and faith, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus! Say with the psalmist, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made Heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2).

        These last five years have had a lot of laments for our family. We’ve had hard diagnoses, death, difficulty in relationships; I quit a job I loved because it was the right thing to do for our family. Life is full of hard things and various disappointments. Sometimes it seems like life is shadowed by a little black raincloud. BUT GOD! Through every single thing, we have seen God proving Himself over and over and over to be faithful to His covenant, and faithful to us as His covenant children. We have seen God strip away our expectations and lift our eyes to a greater understanding of His goodness and glory. And in those lonely, dark hours, we must follow Habakkuk’s example once again. Fixing our eyes on our coming King Jesus!

        So, when you are hit by a wave of emotion—grief, anger, fear, confusion, doubt—for whatever circumstance God has placed you in, remember God is with you! The God of Habakkuk is our God too! And we can follow Habakkuk’s example—confidently taking our laments to the Rock of Ages, and then confidently fixing our eyes on the God who will answer and rescue.

        Meanwhile, we wait patiently; we wait humbly; and we wait expectantly. So, take your stand and look to see what God will say! God will answer, and God will win! But you’ll have to keep reading for that part.

        Let’s pray. “O LORD, You are our Holy One, our God, our Rock—and we do not always understand Your ways, but we trust Your character. You are our stability and eternal hope. And we thank You for the hard realities that drive us to Your goodness. Keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who “endured” much more “hostility” than we ever have, and yet did so with “joy, so we may not grow weary or fainthearted.” Thank you for the “discipline” you use “for our good, that we may share in Your holiness,” by the mercy of our Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.”

        Ezra 1-2: The Stirring of the Spirit

        / Melissa / Leave a comment

        Before we dive into the book of Ezra, we need to make a few comments about the timeline of the book. In our English Bibles, it’s found right after Chronicles, in the historical or “writings” section and well before Psalms and the prophets. In fact, if you read the last few verses of 2 Chronicles and the first few verses of Ezra, much of it is identical! But chronologically, while it falls after the Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah was originally one book and falls at the end of the Old Testament. (Ezra may have actually been the author of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.) Prophets that correspond with Ezra-Nehemiah are Haggai and Zechariah, as mentioned in Ezra 5. Esther and Daniel also fall in this time period, as the kings mentioned overlap, so you may want to skim those books to refresh your memory of the time period.

        As for context, remember that Israel had disobeyed God and had been warned by God (repeatedly) that the punishment would be 70 years of exile if they didn’t repent (see Daniel 9:1-2; Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). As prophesied, Israel was taken into exile by King Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonian empire), then Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persians. In Isaiah 44:28-45:3, years before the exile, God prophesied through Isaiah that He would go before His people, providing and preparing their path, and calling them by name to return; and He specifically names King Cyrus as the “anointed” one He would use to “shepherd” His people back to Jerusalem! (Cyrus probably wasn’t even born when Isaiah wrote that, and he definitely wasn’t king yet!) Ezra 1 opens with the first year of King Cyrus’ reign in Persia (ca. 538-539 BC) and Nehemiah closes around 433 BC (just before the 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments).

        Some key themes in these first two chapters are as follows:

        • God’s Word (God always keeps His Word! Even the king’s proclamation that was proclaimed and written down in official records became part of God’s Word… and the fact that God moved in Cyrus to record his proclamation will be significant later on in the story when a future king looks it up and helps God’s people finish their work!)
        • God’s House (God’s desire has and always will be to dwell with His people! Even the temple articles that had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar were returned, which would be used to restore God’s Place of Worship.)
        • God’s Spirit stirring hearts of men (believing Jews as well as a pagan king) to accomplish His plan of Redemption, Return, and Restoration! (The King of Heaven’s Plans, Power, Presence and Provision are all very evident in these first two chapters!)
        • Two more themes we’ll see later in the book are Repentance and Rebuilding.

        A few more questions to ask as you study:

        • What other themes of repeated words do you see in these first two chapters?
        • What attributes of God do you see in these chapters?
        • How does the list of returnees in chapter 2 fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 45:3?
        • What parallels can you think of between the Remnant’s return from exile and the exodus out of Egypt? (Note: You may want to compare and contrast details about the tabernacle and temple; feasts and other celebrations; the Law given to Moses and taught by Ezra; etc. throughout the study as time allows.)
        • How do some of the returnees point us to Christ’s work as Prophet, Priest, and King?
        • How is the Spirit stirring in your heart today?
          • Is there anything you need to repent of and return to the Lord?
          • What “freewill offerings” are you able to give to His Kingdom purposes?
        • Do you believe God’s Word is true and God always keeps His promises?
          • How can you grow in confidence of God and His Word this week?
          • How can you grow in adoration of God and His Word this week?

        Conclusion: God was so incredibly gracious to work in individual hearts through the stirring of the Spirit to return to the promised land, contribute to His Kingdom plans, and help rebuild His temple so His people can dwell with Him. And this same God is so incredibly gracious to send us His Spirit to work in our hearts to redeem us through His Son’s work on the cross and to restore us to Himself so we can dwell with Him together forever!

        Next up: Ezra 3-4. If you’re studying along with these posts, take time to pray and ask God for wisdom, understanding, and insight; reread all of Ezra; then read the specific chapters a few times, looking for key words, ideas, connections to Jesus; write down any questions you have & see how God will use His Spirit to help you understand His Word and apply it to your life today. There’s no timeline to this, so take it a step at a time; slow down and soak in the Word.

        The Good Hand of Our God

        / Melissa / Leave a comment

        This summer, I’m studying through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah with a few friends from church.

        I’ve been wanting to study Nehemiah for a while now (it kept popping up as a cross reference in various other studies I’ve done). So, when I found out we’d be studying the book of Esther in the fall with our Ladies Bible Study at church, I knew it was the right time (since they take place around the same time). As I started into my preliminary study of Nehemiah, I quickly realized that Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book! So, we jumped back to Ezra and started there. We’re also doing a brief look at Haggai and Zechariah to give context to the prophetic voices of that day, since they’re mentioned in Ezra 5:1.

        Besides my NIV Study Bible, I also picked up a couple of ESV Scripture Journals for Ezra and Nehemiah, a copy of Sarah Ivill’s Ezra-Nehemiah Bible Study: The Good Hand of Our God Is Upon Us (which has been incredible so far!), and The Bible Speaks Today commentaries on Ezra and Haggai, Nehemiah, and Zechariah (I found all of them used on Amazon for around $4-7 each). And I listened to the Help Me Teach the Bible podcast episodes on Ezra and Nehemiah, which were very helpful.

        I’ll come back and fill in some notes from each of the chapters in later posts, but I wanted to get an initial post out there as I launch this new blog. If you’re interested in this study, feel free to start by reading through the books in your favorite version of the Bible, and check out Sarah Ivill’s Bible study book or any of the other resources mentioned above. There’s no timeline or pace, but if I had to make a recommendation, I’d say studying two chapters at a time for one or two weeks a piece works out well for our small group. And it’s totally informal–just four ladies meeting every other Saturday morning for a couple hours and sharing what God is teaching us, and maybe texting a few times in between to ask questions or encourage one another.

        The two phrases that have stood out the most (by far) are “the good hand of our God” and “steadfast love” (referring to the steadfast love of the LORD–the name God uses to remind His people of His covenant with them). I’ve been blown away by God’s sovereignty, provision, and care for His people through these books! The people of God have been in exile for 70 years, and God is calling them back to Himself and Jerusalem to rebuild and renew their relationship. Despite exile and countless setbacks and severe trials, God continues to keep His eye and hand on His people, guiding and providing in the most amazing ways–even by directing the hearts of pagan kings to make decrees and offer funding from the royal treasuries to provide for the rebuilding of the temple and the ongoing sacrifices to the God of Heaven. It’s a beautiful story!

        If you haven’t read these books in a while, go ahead and dive in. What key phrases stood out to you as you read?

        A Working Structure of James

        / Melissa / Leave a comment

        James: Bind My Wandering Heart to Thee

        1. Philosophy and Intro (James 1:1): “God, Our Steadfast Father, Calls and Equips His Children to Live Humble, Faithful Lives through His Perfect Wisdom and the Power of His Word.”
        2. Our Good Father: The Nature of God (1:2-19)
          • Life of Trials: Reality, Responses, Results
          • God’s Gifts: Faith, Wisdom, Life, Word
          • Father of Lights: Adopts to Bless
        3. Reflections of a Father: Adoption (1:19-27)
          • The Living Word
          • A Good Look in the Mirror: The Perfect Law
          • The Lived-out Word
            • The Bridled Tongue
            • Care for Vulnerable
            • Pure Life
        4. Favor vs. Favoritism: Election (2:1-13)
          • The Sin of Favoritism
          • The Savior’s Impartial Favor
          • What’s Showing? Mercy over Judgment
        5. Can Faith Save? Justification (2:14-26)
          • A Few Gospel Principles: Judgment, Faith, Justification
          • A Practical Grid of Faith
          • Anatomy of Faith
        6. Of Wisdom and Words: Sanctification (3:1-18)
          • The Power of Words
          • The Proof of Wisdom: Works
        7. On Fighting and Friendship: Repentance, as part of Sanctification (4:1-12)
          • Rebellion
          • Repentance
          • Reminders concerning the Law and Judgment
        8. On Timelines and Treasures: Providence (4:13-5:6)
          • Timelines: Man’s Proud Plans vs. God’s Perfect Providence
          • Treasures: Man’s Greed vs. God’s Rich Provision
        9. Blessed are the Steadfast: Perseverance (5:7-20)
          • Hope in the Lord’s Return: Patient in Suffering
          • Faith in Action: Speak Truth and Pray Always
          • Love for Weak and Wandering: Restoration

        Song: Come, Thou Fount

        Psalm 88: A Dark and Desperate Cry (Learning to Lament)

        / Melissa / 1 Comment
        1. Intro: A Look at Lament
        2. The Promise of God, v. 1a
        3. The Problem of Pain, v. 3-9a, 14-18
        4. The Prayer of Patience, v. 1-2, 9b, 13
        5. The Process to Praise, v. 10-12; Ps. 89:1ff

        Dear God, This is a dark psalm. It is heavy and we need Your wisdom. Would You give us that wisdom and help us as we seek to properly express our griefs and sorrows to You. Thank You for giving us this example and help us to go away changed by our meditation on Your Word today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

        Intro: A Look at Lament

        Psalm 88 is one of the great Lament Psalms–and it’s actually known as the “darkest psalm in the Psalter.” In all seriousness, there is a beauty in learning to lament. As Anne Bradstreet wrote, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

        What is lament? Lament is some kind of passionate expression of grief or sorrow, a complaint or even anger, over a significant loss or something that seems unreasonable or unfair; it’s often set to music, like a funeral dirge, and it can include physical wailing and sobbing. It’s personal and private and might even be loud and emotionally messy. On top of this deep grief, we often experience some measure of guilt for complaining to God. But, as we’ve learned, OVER HALF of the Psalms are laments! So, it’s clearly something that God wants us to be able to use in responding to Him. But we’re not good at this, at least I’m not. So, I’m thankful that our psalmist today models how we as believers in God can take these big emotions and rightly relate them to God when we don’t know where to begin.

        These last few months alone have been full of grief and disappointment. In Psalm 88, we have an example of how it’s not only appropriate but actually proper to express our deepest, darkest emotions to God. My goal for today is two-fold: 1. that you go away from this lecture knowing that God desperately loves you and longs to hear your deepest, darkest cries and bring you out on the other side to a place of praise and blessing and beauty; He does. And 2. that you have empathy for others who are in seasons of lament and learn to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).

        So, personal side note here, I naturally tend more towards logic/administrative details and I’m really thankful how God is using this psalm to grow empathy in my own heart. It struck me that the Spirit was using His word to do this as I practiced this talk. This first time I read all the way through it, so many of your faces and stories flooded into my mind and heart and I literally cried the whole way through… So, know that God is working on your teachers’ hearts too and using His word to transform us…and know that you are very loved even when we can’t be in the same room.

        At the beginning of Psalm 88, we have a bunch of Title Notes. These header notes have been included within the Psalter since it was compiled and are actually considered part of the inspired word of God. So, let’s start by looking at those.

        A Song: It’s important to remember that the psalms are songs. Some of the best ways we can express our emotions is through music.
        A Psalm of the Sons of Korah: so this was either by or for the temple musicians.
        To the choirmaster: or another translation is “to dispose God to mercy.”
        According to Mahalath Leannoth: literally, “sickness” “to humble or afflict.”
        A Maskil: “to make wise.” This is “a psalm of understanding.”
        Of (by) Heman(Hebrew: ןמיח HaYMahN) the Ezrahite (or Zerahite): whose name means ‘Faithful’. And we’ll see how he lives up to his name in this psalm. We know he’s a court musician, but there are a few court musicians with this name in the OT, so it’s hard to know exactly which one he is. And that’s okay.

        In summary, Psalm 88 is a song for personal use when we are afflicted, to bring us humbly before God, and to help us understand how to beg God for mercy and faithfully pray to Him even in the midst of our hopeless feelings.

        CONTEXT

        We’re at the end of Book III, so over halfway through our Psalter. The first two books focused on God’s delivering his king–specifically, David, but as a foreshadowing of Jesus. Book III seems to correlate to the Exilic Period–the period where the nation of Israel had disobeyed and was punished by being exiles either in foreign lands or treated as exiles in their own land. We don’t know exactly when this Psalm was written, but it was either written during that exilic period OR if it was written during the time of David and Solomon’s reign, it still helps express the emotions that were felt during exile, so it’s well placed here in the larger book of Psalms.

        If you look at Psalm 87 (the psalm before this one), the theme is “God will keep His covenant!” The psalmist is convinced of it! Then we go in to this dark, almost entirely hopeless lament in Psalm 88. Then, the last psalm of Book III is Psalm 89, and the psalmist is praising God but still lamenting as he waits for the covenant promises to be kept. So that gives us some context. Psalm 88’s as low as we go, so it’s all up hill from here.

        Now, let’s look at our text: Psalm 88.

        Notice who’s talking: There’s a lot of “I” or “my.” “The psalm is written in first person, but,” as Schreiner points out, “it speaks of the state of Israel: troubled, enervated, depressed, friendless, grieving and most of all separated from the Lord” (The King in His Beauty, p. 268). So it’s easy to apply this psalm to ourselves, but let’s not forget to put ourselves in the Israelites’ shoes as we read it too–a nation in exile waiting for their Messiah to appear.

        There’s a lot of sporadic back and forth and then it ends…without really a resolution. When we’re experiencing these deep emotions, there’s often not a whole lot of order or logic in our expression of it, and I want you to know that that’s okay. The psalmist pings around a lot in this one, so I’ve grouped different verses together for an outline, but we’re going to walk straight through the text. I have four main categories: The Promise of God, The Problem of Pain, The Prayer of Patience, and The Process to Praise.

        The Promise of God, v. 1a

        We’ll see that the psalmist actually starts with where he wants to end. He states what he knows and wants to believe about God. We know that we should praise God, and we want to get to that point, but there are times when we just aren’t there. So how does Heman start?

        “O LORD, God of my salvation” — All throughout Scripture, and especially in the Psalms, God promises to hear and to rescue His people, to save us. The psalmist calls God “LORD” (all caps, YHWH, Savior) and repeats it by making it personal: “God of MY salvation.” He knows that salvation belongs to the LORD. That’s the promise he’s clinging to. If you think about, isn’t that the story of the whole Bible? “Salvation belongs to the LORD.” That’s the promise we all have to cling to as we walk through these dark nights of the soul.

        The Prayer of Patience, v. 1b-2

        He prays. Weaved in and out of all of his declarations of complaints and griefs and sorrows is this perseverance of prayer. Let’s read the rest of verse 1, “I cry out day and night before you.” Write off the bat, we see a connection to Psalm 1. The psalmist cries out day and night, just like the Blessed One “meditates day and night.”

        “Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!” (v. 2).

        He’s pleading with God, and then he lets us in on this raw, personal, cry that he utters to God in vv. 3-9.

        The Problem of Pain, v. 3-9a

        “For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol [grave/ death]. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose [“freed”] among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand” (vv. 3-5).

        He’s surrounded by troubles from every side–troubles from within (v. 3), and then troubles from outside (vv. 4-5). He feels cut off from God, which would be truly hopeless. Think about it, he’s a temple musician and he can’t get to the temple. He compares living to praise and not-living to not-praising; he desires to live and praise God, but he feels like death might be freedom. Before we go further, I want to be sure to say that if you are feeling like this…like death might be better than the suffering you’re feeling, can I encourage you to seek professional help? We are complex creatures living in a fallen world. And while we are spiritual creatures, we also have bodies. God remembers that we are dust (even when we forget sometimes). And God made us to live in community, so please don’t try to walk this path alone. Reach out to one of us or to one of the pastors or elders or elders’ wives. You are not alone. You are loved by this church, and more importantly, by our good, good Father!

        In this next section, we see the psalmist shift back and forth between “I”/“my” and “You”/“Your.” He’s blaming God for this deep, dark, overwhelming wrath and soul-crushing loneliness.

        Is it okay to blame God for our troubles? In Alec Motyer’s Psalms devotional, he counseled his readers, “Don’t hesitate to see your trials as coming from the hand of God” (p. 248). If we are in God’s hand, “the trial only means that he grips us more tightly!” (p. 248). He goes on, “Don’t bother your head with problems arising, or thought to arise, from seeing things this way. [From seeing God as the cause of your pain.] This is the truth of the matter: if we are in the soup it is he who has decided what sort of soup it is, and at what temperature, and how long, and why! He is God” (p. 248). The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, agreed with him, affirming that God caused his grief, but reminding us of the promise that God will have compassion according to his abundant steadfast love.

        “You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, [like a weight on your chest and you can’t breath] and you overwhelm me with all your waves” (vv. 6-7).

        Judgment and wrath are often conveyed with sea or wave imagery in the Bible. Sometimes we feel legitimate wrath for sin that needs repentance; remember Jonah? And yet even there, God had a divine plan to rescue His servant. Sometimes the weight of God’s wrath is just there, and it has nothing to do with anything you’ve done; think about Noah when the whole world was judged by a flood; he felt the waves, but he was righteous. Do you feel like God is punishing you, but you can’t for the life of you figure out what you did wrong? If there’s sin, repent; but either way, waves are meant to draw us down and into the embrace of our Lord.

        Then we get this little word off to the side. Selah [this would be a pause or rest in the music, and it’s like the psalmist is coming up out of the waves, gasping for air before the next wave hits.] Selah (deep breath)

        “You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape [I can’t get out]” (v.8)

        This is possibly a quarantine situation from a disease like leprosy…or I don’t know…another virus which shall not be named?? Anyone felt shut in or shunned recently? This psalm’s for you.

        “My eye grows dim through sorrow [or “has languished through affliction]” (v. 9).

        Have you been there? Do you feel alone, rejected by God and everyone else, for that matter? Do you feel like you’re trapped in a pit or in one of those Escape Room Adventures, but you have no one on your team and the timer’s gone off and no one’s letting you out? This is where the psalmist is. And what does he do with it? He prays again.

        The Prayer of Patience, 9b

        “Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you” (v.9b).

        This faithful psalmist is faithful in prayer, and his example compels us to be faithful in prayer too, even when we’re overwhelmed with dark feelings and deep sorrow. And it’s not a quiet prayer, is it? It’s physical. He spreads out his hands towards God, and he begins to ask a series of 6 questions in vv. 10-14. It’s as if this finite man is making every effort to understand His infinite God. He’s trying to comprehend what God is doing, but God is incomprehensible.

        The Process to Praise, v. 10-12

        “Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah [here he takes another breath] Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? [or literally, Destruction] Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” (vv.10-12).

        Even in his questioning, he rehearses certain truths–he knows God does mighty wonders and is worthy of praise; he knows God is supposed to have steadfast love and faithfulness; he knows God’s wonders and righteousness are to be known. And yet he questions all of it!

        Have you experienced this desperate cry? Have you ever questioned God like this? I’ve found myself here before–more times than I might like to admit. The first time I remember it was the loss of my great grandmother in the 4th grade; I was supposed to be singing with my class for the Senior Saints Luncheon, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it; and someone found me hiding in the bathroom, crying. It was the first close family member that I had experienced losing. Another time was when a friend died in a sudden, tragic accident when I was in college. Every time a wave of emotion or doubt would surge, I would fight it by repeating a phrase to myself, “God is good all the time. God is good all the time.” Over and over again in my head–and sometimes out loud–at least a hundred times a day for what felt like weeks or months, until I believed it again.

        Have you felt groanings too deep for words? The shock of coworker who had been part of our young adult Bible study and had been to our house for dinner with his house on a Friday night, then on Monday morning, his wife called to see if he had come to work. She couldn’t get ahold of him, and come to find out we were the last people to see him alive. He was a veteran and lost his battle with PTSD, leaving those of us behind with feelings of unbearable grief, betrayal, disbelief, and more unanswerable questions than you can fathom.

        Have your dreams been crushed? And you find yourself reeling between nearly every emotion known to man in 3-minute cycles till 3AM when you crash in exhaustion and there are no more tears and the only feeling left is numbness? I’ve been there. And those are just a few that I can share from my experience. Some of you have dealt with far worse than I. This psalm is for me, and this psalm is for you.

        “Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Destruction?” (v.11).

        Let’s think about this for a minute. Can death declare love and faithfulness? I’d argue that it absolutely can! In fact, it did in the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His death was the ultimate declaration of love and faithfulness! And in his death, our man of sorrows he took our griefs and carried our sins; he was crushed by the weight of God’s wrath because of me…and you…so that he could once and for all destroy death and heal our wounds, bringing us peace with God.

        Another prayer: The Prayer of Patience

        “But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you” (v. 13).

        In the middle of his list of questions, he pauses to pray and remind God that he’s been faithful in prayer. In the midst of feelings of hopelessness, yet still he prays to the LORD (YHWH). He knows his only help is from God, and he desperately cries for a Savior.

        Again, he lets us be a fly on the wall in this very vulnerable moment as he asks his last two questions in his process of learning to praise.

        The Process to Praise

        “O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” (v. 14).

        The process to praise often includes questioning God… Do you remember the story of Job? Job had lost his children, his livelihood, and his health all in one day…his friends accused him and shunned him and his wife even suggested that he just curse God so that God would kill him. Instead, Job determined to bless God. But in the midst of that belief, we have a lengthy record of his back and forth with God–a back and forth that’s full of questions. And God patiently met him where He was and responded with questions, leading him to truth.

        The Problem of Pain, v. 15-18

        The psalmist continues to enumerate his woes. Again, he’s skipping between “I”/”my” and “You”/”Your” in v. 15 thru the end of the chapter.

        “Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, “I suffer your terrors: I am helpless” (v. 15). These are ongoing struggles, maybe even lifelong ones.

        “Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me” (v. 16). This is a fierce wrath that flows over him like hot, fiery lava.

        “They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together ” (v. 17). We just saw fire imagery, and now we see flood imagery again. One of my sources referred to this as “the prison of the heart.” He was trapped between fire and flood and unable to escape.

        “You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness [lit., “darkness is my best friend”] (v. 18). The ones who you thought loved you the most have hurt you the most and abandoned you and you feel shame and oppression and loneliness and like the only one left to listen is darkness itself. Motyer calls this section “a climax of hopelessness” (p. 247).

        Isaiah 50:10, “Who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in the name of the LORD, and lean upon his God.”

        I’m reminded of a quote that Ken Collier often shares, “When there’s a gap between God’s ways and wisdom and our understanding of God’s ways and wisdom, we must fill the gap with trust.” How do we do this? By rehearsing God’s promises… And while we can’t choose our emotions, we can choose to persevere in prayer–and ask others to pray
        that our emotions will follow and we will be able to trust that God is with us, guiding us and caring for us…even in the “valley of the shadow of death” (Ps. 23:4).

        Let’s look again at The Prayers in our Psalm.

        We have prayers in vv.1-2; and another right in the middle in v. 9; then v. 13 is almost identical to vv. 1-2.

        Where else do we see patient, persistent prayer in Scripture? I think the greatest example is in our Lord’s life. He’s constantly going up to a mountain or off to some quiet spot to pour out his heart to the Father. In three of the Gospels [see Matt. 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22], we see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, pleading with God. This is just before he’s betrayed by Judas (one of his 12 closest friends) and would be sentenced to death on the cross (one of the most painful, humiliating deaths ever). He is “deeply distressed and troubled,” “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” and “in anguish.” He prayed three times that God would take this cup of sorrow away (referring to his own death on the cross), but says, “Not my will but yours.” I found it interesting to note that Jesus prayed three times about the thorns that were literally about to pierce him, and in 2 Cor. 12, Paul prayed three times that God would remove his “thorn in his flesh,” calling it, “a messenger of Satan to torment me,” why? “to keep me from becoming conceited” and “so that the power of Christ may rest up on me.” And we also have three prayers in this psalm.

        Three (3) is a significant number in Scripture; not only does it represent the Trinity, but it also symbolizes development or growth in an individual, especially through trials. Jesus brought three disciples with Him to the Garden to pray with Him–Peter, James, and John. He tells them to watch and pray as he goes a little further to pray alone; and in between His three prayers, He checks back in. What does He find each time? They’re asleep. They can’t stay awake. Luke tells us it’s because they’re “exhausted from sorrow.” Meanwhile, God sends an angel from heaven to strengthen Jesus as he prays, and it says, “he prayed the more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Sound like lament? Absolutely.

        What if Psalm 88 was one of the psalms that Jesus prayed during those hours of prayer in the Garden or while He hung on the cross paying for our sins, mistreated, abused, rejected, alone in his darkest hour? We don’t know exactly what he prayed that night, but we do know that our Lord used the whole book of Psalms in his personal worship of God. Jesus used the Psalms as his personal prayer book on this earth. And not only did Jesus pay for our sins, bearing all of our sorrow and pain on his shoulders, Scripture tells us he makes intercession for us! Jesus prays for us!

        Even in our groanings, we are not alone–“the whole creation has been groaning together” since the Curse. There will be horrible sufferings in this sin-cursed world, but we can be convinced that “nothing at all can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” His love IS steadfast!

        The Process to Praise, Ps. 89:1

        The Psalms lead us to this conclusion too. It is no coincidence that Psalm 89 follows Psalm 88; and it’s quite possible that the Ethan who wrote Psalm 89 is the biological brother to our psalmist, Heman, which is a pretty cool example of “brothers being born to help us in times of adversity.” Psalm 89 is still a lament, but there are glimmers of hope and praise and steadfast love.

        Psalm 89:1 says, “I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.”

        In Isaiah 38, we see that the prophet records a writing of Hezekiah king of Judah. Remember, he was the king who had been really sick and then restored to life for a certain period of years. Well, Hezekiah prayed a prayer really similar to Psalm 88. He talks about “walk[ing] slowly all [his] years because of the bitterness of [his] soul” (15). Then, he cries to God and begs, “O Lord, restore me to health and make me live!” (16). Then the beautiful part comes. He says in v. 17, “Behold, it was for my welfare [Look! It was for my own good!] that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.” God’s love really is steadfast and full of deliverance! God is abundant in mercy!

        Like Hezekiah and Heman and Paul, we groan in these earthly bodies. We lament. “We walk by faith, not by sight.” We pray, even when we don’t feel like it. We intentionally dwell on the truths of God. We “meditate on the law day and night” until we delight in it. And we hold on for the end of the story, knowing that it is the work of Jesus that can turn our lament to praise. One day, Christ will come again and these heavy weights will seem like the “light momentary afflictions” that Paul talked about, “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” and comprehension! But until then, He gives us His Spirit to walk with us as our “guarantee” of all of God’s promises to save us.

        Conclusion. Our song for the semester is “Christ is Mine Forevermore.” Verse 2 says, “Mine are tears in times of sorrow, Darkness not yet understood, Through the valley I must travel, Where I see no earthly good. But mine is peace that flows from heaven, And the strength in time of need. I know my pain will not be wasted, Christ completes His work in me.”

        As we wrap up, I want to jump back to Psalm 1:6. Do you remember this? “The LORD knows the way of the righteous.” No matter what we experience, or how we feel, the LORD knows! And He doesn’t just offer us sympathy based on knowledge. He does something better: He empathizes because He’s been there too. And because He knows, He calls us to “draw near to the throne of grace, praying confidently, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” And when we don’t know how to pray, the Holy Spirit does and prays for us. God knows.

        It’s ok to bring our darkest thoughts to God. In fact, it’s absolutely right to do so! He promises to hears us! And he promises to save us–after all, He’s the only One who can! Can I encourage you…Don’t run from the pain. Lean into it and pray. Learn to lament; pour out your heart to God. Trust that He will lead you out into eternal light…if not today, in eternity. Then follow the example of Jesus–show empathy and act. If you’ve experienced darkness and come out on the other side, how can you minister to others who are going through similar seasons of sorrow and desperation? And even if you haven’t experienced this form of darkness, ask God to give you compassion and wisdom to come alongside a friend who is; sit with them; and pray this psalm with them.

        Dear God, Thank You for including this saddest of psalms in Your Word and for teaching us the beauty that can be found in mourning. Help us to pour out our hearts to You–especially, in our darkest hours. Help us to follow the example of our Savior who poured out his laments to You often and faithfully, fervently and passionately. And help us to follow His example of patiently and sacrificially suffering and sorrowing and showing empathy to those who are afflicted. Thank You for these dark hours that teach us to trust in your faithfulness. Help us cling to the promise that salvation belongs to the LORD and You will save and bless Your people finally and forever, turning our mourning into glad dancing (Ps. 30:11a). And until then, we pray with Moses, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” In Jesus, Name, Amen.

        Further Study: Read the following passages. How does each one help you to understand this psalm better?

        • Psalm 139:11-12
        • Ecclesiastes 7:1-4
        • Isaiah 38:9-20
        • Matthew 27:46
        • Romans 8:18-39
        • 2 Corinthians 4:5-5:7

        Digging Deeper into Joshua 1

        / Melissa / Leave a comment

        I. Background:

        Feel free to use a study Bible, commentaries, Bible study books, or other online resources like Desiring God or Ligonier Ministries. I recommend reading through the passage and trying to answer the questions for yourself first and only using the study aids as needed after you’ve spent some time thinking and studying through the passage.

        II. Read the passage: Joshua 1.

        III. Ask Questions:

        A. Joshua’s Assignment:

        Arise: Get up
        Go: Move Forward
        Lead the people and Conquer the land! (Wilderness and the River Euphrates: geographical challenges; Hittites: political/military challenges)
        Claim the promise: God’s promise did not die when Moses died; God’s promises endure and will be kept!

        B. God’s Promise:

        v. 3-4, 6: Promised Land
        v. 5, 9: I (God) will be with you. I will not leave or forsake you.
        v. 7-8: good success wherever you go; prosperous

        C. God’s Command:

        v. 6: Be strong & courageous
        v. 7: Be strong & very courageous; be careful to follow God’s Word
        v.8: Talk about the Word, meditate on God’s Word day & night, and obey God’s Word.
        v. 9: Be strong & courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed.

        D. Joshua’s Response:

        v.10-11: Prepare for travel and possession of the land.
        v. 12-15: Reminder to remember God’s promise and help others remember and claim them!

        Joshua 1:13

        Remember the word that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, ‘The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’ (ESV)

        E. The People’s Response:

        v. 16-18: The people followed, obeyed, rehearsed God’s promise of His presence, and encouraged Joshua to “Only be strong and courageous” (18).

        IV. Meditate

        Joshua 1:7-9

        [7] Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. [8] This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. [9] Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. (ESV)

        V. Apply

        A. How is God asking you to trust Him?

        B. Why did God have to tell Joshua and the people to be strong and courageous? Why did he need to command them to not be frightened or dismayed?

        C. What causes you to fear or doubt God? What promises of God are you not believing today? What dismays you?

        C. Have you lost someone? What challenges are you facing as a result of that loss?

        D. How can you obey God’s commands?

        E. Who will you share this Truth within the next 48 hours?