Habakkuk - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

March 22, 2013


 *OCT 1 - HABAKKUK: THE MYSTERIES OF PROVIDENCE*


 *1:1-2 (1:1-4, ESV) HABAKKUK: HIS PRAYER AGAINST ISRAEL. “The oracle that
Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you
will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” *Father,
You are not naïve, nor unaware of our weakness, rebellion and sin. Every
son You receive You chasten and discipline for his good. This is part of
Your Kingdom principles. *Hallowed be your :name!*


 *2. 1:5-6a (1:5-11) HABAKKUK: HIS PROPHECY OF DISPERSION. “Look among the
nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your
days that you would not believe if told. 6a For behold, I am raising up the
Chaldeans.” *Nothing can stay Your will, Father! If we submit, it comes
more easily; if we resist, it breaks us. *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 2:1 (1:12-2:1) HABAKKUK: HIS TESTIMONY OF GOD’S CHARACTER. “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.” *Great is Your Faithfulness, O Father! You are a God Who *speaks
* to Your people! We can *know* Your mind, heart and purposes. You do not
hide them from the asking, seeking, knocking soul. *Your :will be done, As
in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 2:2-3 (2:2-20) HABAKKUK: GOD’S VISION TO HIM. And the LORD answered
me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads
it. 3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end
- it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it
will not delay.” *Father, forgive us for our impatience and lack of
endurance. Work into us by Your Spirit and Word the *character* of Jesus!
Let the beauty of Jesus shine forth through us. Make us people of love and
compassion for one another, and for our fellow man! *Our :daily :bread Give
us this day.*


 *5. 3:2 (3:1-2) HABAKKUK: HIS PRAYER FOR REVIVAL. “O LORD, I have heard
the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the
years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember
mercy.” *Hallelujah! We join Habakkuk in praying this prayer, Father. We
join the Holy Spirit Who gave it to Habakkuk. *And forgive us our :debts,
As we also have forgiven our :debtors!*


 *6. 3:3-4 (3:3-16) HABAKKUK: HIS REVELATION OF GOD. “God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and
the earth was full of his praise. Selah 4 His brightness was like the
light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power.” *We
bless You Father with all our soul, and all that is within us! We loose
Christ Jesus and His abiding anointing within us, that as His body, *rays
of healing and blessing* may flow from our hands also. *And bring us not
into temptation.*


 *7. 3:17-19. HABAKKUK: HIS JOY IN GOD! “Though the fig tree should not
blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the
fields yield not food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no
herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in
the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet
like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” But deliver us from
the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: 2:4, 14 (2:2-20) HABAKKUK: **TWO REVELATIONS. “Behold, his soul
is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by
faith. 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of
the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” *We believe this, Father. We justify
You by receiving it.


 *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: “Are we saved if we do not … ?” *I remember one who
spoke on the missionary question one day saying, “The great question is not
“Will not the heathen be saved if we do not send them the gospel?” but “are
we saved ourselves if we do not send them the gospel?””


 *Our Psalm for the Day: 91:1-2 (91) MY REFUGE AND MY FORTRESS. “He who
dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the
Almighty. 2 I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in
whom I trust.’” *We do not look to the gods of the hills, or nature, of
Satan, or any other gods. We come to You alone, O Jehovah Father, and with
all our heart we *hallow your :name!*


 This Psalm is without a title, and we have no means of ascertaining either
the name of its writer or the date of its composition with certainty. The
Jewish doctors consider that when the author’s name is not mentioned, *we
may assign the Psalm to the last-named writer*; and, if so, this is another
Psalm of Moses, the man of God. Many expressions here used are similar to
those of Moses in Deuteronomy, and the internal evidence, from the peculiar
idioms, would point towards him as the composer.

In the whole collection, there is not a more cheering Psalm; its tone is
elevated and sustained throughout - faith is at its best - and speaks
nobly. A German physician was wont to speak of it as the best preservative
in times of cholera, and in truth it is a heavenly medicine against plague
and pest. He who can live in its spirit will be fearless, even if once
again London should become a lazar-house and the graves be gorged with
carcases.


 91:1. *He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High. * The
blessings here promised are not for all believers but those who live in
close fellowship with God. Every child of God looks towards the inner
sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place;
they run to it at times and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not
habitually reside in the mysterious presence.


 91:3. *I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. *It is but
poor comfort to say, ‘The Lord is a refuge,’ but to say He is *my* refuge
is the essence of consolation. Those who believe should also speak - “I
will say,” for such bold avowals honor God and lead others to seek the same
confidence.

Men are apt to proclaim their doubts, and even to boast of them; indeed
there is a party nowadays of the most audacious pretenders to culture and
thought who glory in casting suspicion upon everything; hence it becomes
the duty of all true believers to speak out and testify with calm courage
to their own well-grounded reliance upon their God. *My God; in Him will I
trust. *Now he can say no more; “my God” means all, and more than all, that
heart can conceive by way of security. We have trusted in God; let us trust
Him still. He has never failed us; why then should we suspect Him? To trust
in man is natural to fallen nature; to trust in God should be as natural to
regenerated nature.

 *And from the noisome pestilence. *He Who is a Spirit can protect us from
evil spirits. He Who is mysterious can rescue us from mysterious dangers.
He Who is immortal can redeem us from mortal sickness. There is a deadly
pestilence of error; we are safe from that if we dwell in communion with
God of truth; there is a fatal pestilence of sin, we shall not be infected
by if if we abide with the thrice Holy One; there is also a pestilence of
disease, and even from that calamity our faith will win immunity if it be
of that high order which abides in God, walks on in calm serenity, and
ventures all things for duty’s sake.


 91:4. *He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you
trust. *A wonderful expression! Had it been invented by an uninspired man,
it would have verged upon blasphemy, for who should dare to apply such
words to the infinite Jehovah? But as He Himself authorized, yes, dictated
the language, we have here a transcendent condescension such as it becomes
us to admire and adore. Does the Lord speak of His feathers as though He
likened Himself to a bird? Who will not see herein a matchless love, a
divine tenderness, which should both woo and win our confidence? Even as a
hen covers her chickens, so does the Lord protect the souls which dwell in
Him.

 *His truth* - His true promise, and His faithfulness to His promise, *shall
be your shield and buckler. *To quench fiery darts, the truth is a most
effectual shield, and to blunt all swords, it is an equally effectual coat
of mail. Let us go forth to battle thus harnessed for the war, and we shall
be safe in the thickest of the fight.


 91:6. *Nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. *Famine may starve
or bloody war devour, earthquake may overturn and tempest may smite, but
amid all, the man who has sought the mercy seat and is sheltered beneath
the wings which overshadow it, shall abide in perfect peace. Remember that
the voice which says, “You shall not fear,” is that of God Himself, Who
hereby pledges His Word for the safety of those who abide under His shadow,
nay, not for their safety only, but for their serenity. So far shall they
be from being injured that they shall not even be made to fear the ills
which are around them, since the Lord protects them.


 91:7. *It shall not come nigh you.* How true is this of the plague of
moral evil, of heresy, and of backsliding. Whole nations are infected, yet
the man who communes with God is not affected by the contagion; he
holds thetruth when falsehood is all the fashion. Professors all
around him are
plague-smitten, the church is wasted, the very life of religion decays, but
in the same place and time, in fellowship with God, the believer renews his
youth, and his soul knows no sickness. In a measure, this also is true of
physical evil; the Lord still puts a difference between Israel and Egypt in
the day of His plagues. Sennacherib’s army is blasted, but Jerusalem is in
health.


 91:11. *For He shall give His angels charge over you. *Not one guardian
angel, as some fondly dream, but all the angels are here alluded to. They
are the body-guard of the princes of the blood imperial of heaven, and they
have received commission from their Lord and ours to watch carefully over
all the interests of the faithful.


 91:14. *Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him.
* When the heart is enamored of the Lord, all taken up with Him, and
intensely attached to Him, the Lord will recognize the sacred flame and
preserve the man who bears it in his bosom.


 91:15. *I will deliver him and honor him. *Believers are not delivered or
preserved in a way which lowers them, and makes them feel themselves
degraded; far from it, the Lord’s salvation bestows honor upon those it
delivers. God first gives us conquering grace, and then rewards us for
it. *(From
“The Treasury of David” by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)*



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