NORTHERN STYLE NEWSWATCH No. 50 CREDO
`LORD, I have heard of Your fame . . . '
Those who accept the (Christian) Bible as the total and final revelation of God will have no difficulty in also accepting the Scriptures as ONE continuous sixty-six Books of His Will and Purpose. However, there are many who attempt to separate the Bible into `Old and New'; others `write off' the Pauline Epistles as divisive, out of date and in opposition to today's `tolerant society'; whilst still others are content to pick out the soothing words of the Gospels. To argue with such thinking is futile and we can do no other than to stay with Paul's words to Timothy that `All Scripture is God-breathed'! These opening comments, whilst hardly needing to be said, will lead us eventually into the third chapter of Habakkuk which opens with the words, `A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet . . '. It is usually considered that Habakkuk is complaining about what he sees coming against the Covenanted people of the LORD, but this would be failing to understand the awe and reverence those ancient people held for the LORD God of Israel - a sense of which can be seen in the opening words of the third chapter: `O LORD, I have heard Your speech, and was afraid'. As Habakkuk saw the apostacy of his people . . as he saw beyond the people's carelessness of their promise to God and to the invading armies of Babylon as God's chastening arm . . he was given the `burden' which in verse 2 leads to a cry for help in the face of the crushing devastation that was coming.

In the Hebrew text of these opening words, the emphasis is on the fact that Habakkuk did `see' (or as the NIV has it, `received'). In doing so the whole `burden' is placed back into the LORD's Will and Purpose, and, as such, no prophet of the LORD would hold a carnal grievance once he understood that God's Will was for his people's refining. Even so it led to Habakkuk crying out his distress at what was to happen.

It could be pointed out that a verse in chapter 1 speaks of Habakkuk's complaint when he asks of the LORD: (verse 3)

"Why do You make me look at injustice?
Why do You tolerate wrong? "
Once again the Hebrew text points not to the Babylonian armies but to the `injustice and wrong' of the LORD's people, who through their idolatry had caused the grievous burden, and Habakkuk is more distressed by his people's sin of idolatry than he is by the consequences that will now come upon them because of that idolatry! The prophet turns, therefore, not in condemnatory words to his people but in a cry, in a prayer of distress at the offence his people have committed against their LORD. As would be expected in a `Living Word' verse 4 of chapter 1 takes us beyond the Chaldean armies and forward beyond our present time to the Antichrist of the `immediate future':

"Therefore the Law is paralysed, and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. "
But `seeing' this burden, and understanding that what he `saw' was totally within the LORD's Will and Purpose, only deepened Habakkuk's trust in his God and led him to cry out in his prayer words which would reveal that total trust in his awesome God: (3:12)

"Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God,
my Holy One, Who dies not . . . "
Here we use a more primitive Hebrew text `Who dies not'. This is another occasion where the Sopherim, (those ancient scribes who had been given the task of setting the sacred text in order after the return from exile in Babylon) out of reverence for God, Who could not die, changed the text so that it read `we shall not die' . . . because of a God Who cannot die! And so, in reverting back to that primitive text in this Credo it places Habakkuk and his trust firmly back into the hands of `God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Who alone is immortal'. (Paul wrote those words to Timothy as one who had received the full revelation of God, which not even such faithful men as Habakkuk had received.) Nevertheless the prophet Habakkuk made that great declaration in chapter 2 which has inspired and sustained so many saints over the long centuries, `The just shall live by His faith'. In calling it a `great declaration' we need to place it within the context of the `burden' of Habakkuk in order to see that it is an answer from the LORD to the prophet's prayer of grief: (2:2-4)

" And the LORD answered me, and said, `Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay. See, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by His faith. "

Once again the Hebrew text implies not only one who is to run as a messenger, but also one who runs for refuge from what is to come, with the clear statement that the Purpose of God's Judgement will be dealt with together with the means of causing the persecution of the righteous ones who are caught up in those chastening fires of judgement. This clearly speaks of the Babylonian armies of that time and of the Antichrist who is yet to come. He will rise up against the LORD's people, for God's judgement in the Great Tribulation will cause many of His people to run, to flee to Him for eternal refuge!

This was intended only as a background so as to ensure that we may contextually use these Scriptures for our own times and we now turn at last to chapter 3 and to `the burden of Habakkuk'. As we set out in our last Credo (No. 49), in taking the principle seen in the structure of Ezekiel we see that there are countless numbers who, like that prophet, find themselves in `captivity'. There is amongst the Lord's people a false understanding that His people are taken into captivity solely because of sin - usually the sin of idolatry - but as we saw in the last Credo that is not always the case. If we are truly the Lord's people we go where we are taken by Him in order to fulfil His Will and Purpose. Ezekiel was such a person: In exile in Babylon he saw what would finally come upon the LORD's people who had refused to harken to the words of warning spoken by the prophets. Deep in the sin of idolatry they were led by shepherds and leaders who were false to their calling to guide and lead the LORD's people according to the promises their forefathers had made when they had entered into a Covenanted relationship with God. Habakkuk, although himself not in captivity, saw what was happening.

Today there are many saints, some of whom are still in the `land' of their churches and fellowships, and still more who are already in `captivity' (or, as some would say, `unchurched'), who can see the calamitous time towards which both the nation of Israel and the `nation' of the Church are rapidly approaching - joined as they are on a parallel journey. Together we see what lies ahead . . we see strong forces gathering which could engulf the nations in which the `Church' lives . . we see the attack upon Christianity . . we see the seemingly unstoppable march of Islam . . we see the appeasement of the political leaders who need everyone's votes in order to gain or remain in power, accomodating these hostile forces . . we see the ever-widening net of bureaucratic control of the European Union enveloping the life of individual nations and restricting the private lives of their people. Within the land of the `nations' we see the breakdown of the infrastructure of modern social, democratic institutions under the guise of `reform . . we see the rise of the old elite ruling class, those who know they have the right to power and for whom the past one hundred years of social democracy was but an unfortunate `blip', an hiatus, in their seamless right to rule . . we see it in the breakdown of moral standards that form the bedrock of all stable and cohesive communities, to the point that one dares not speak of unnatural practices for fear of prosecution, so intent are the politicians on promoting tolerance through intolerant laws. Need we go on? We must, for these are but hostile forces in the secular world of many nations!

But what of Israel, with whom God has entered into a Covenant relationship in spite of that nation's refusal to acknowledge it within living memory. Through the Oslo Accord it allowed . . no, agreed to . . `alien forces' taking over parts of the land that the LORD had given into their hands. It then builds a wall around the `heartland' in order to protect itself from those hostile forces which it allowed into the land! Despite protestations from many of its leaders meetings are in hand with the Palestinian Authorities over the so-called `final status negotiations' - that is the partitioning of the `undivided and eternal city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel'! Alongside these negotiations is the ever-watchful predatory work of the Vatican, which has an agreement with Israel to be installed in Jerusalem when it becomes the International City of Peace for the so-called `three great monolithic faiths'! Need we go on to `see' what is happening in the Church? Surely enough has been said to fill a library as it seeks to accomodate the secular, social and political developments in an ever-increasing `tolerant society'!

And so we move steadily towards the catastrophic end-time which Habakkuk in his time saw so clearly, and to his response as seen in chapter 3 of the Book of Habakkuk:

" A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On Shigionoth. "
The latter word, which has a meaning of `crying out aloud' was the response of this man to God. It was not a continuous recitation of the sins of the people which had led to this situation . . . not a `holy huddle' of a few zealots in order to rebuke and correct `in love'! Habakkuk turned to the LORD, for he knew the promise of God revealed in the title of `the LORD', for it is the Name of God by which He had entered into a Covenant with Israel, and there is within His Name the Will and Purpose to fulfil it even in the midst of the most appalling apostacy and with the armies of His judgement at the very gates of His City Jerusalem:

"LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known,
in wrath remember mercy. "
Habakkuk's great cry was a cry of total trust in the LORD, Who `came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran', Who gave Israel (through Moses) the Law by which they were to live, which had within it the certainty of Deliverance and Salvation. Habakkuk's `awe', which led to his great cry to the LORD, was not concerning overcoming great natural hostile forces but in the hearing, the knowing, of the LORD's fame Who had entered into an unconditional Covenant with His people grounded in . . compounded into . . His Name as revealed to the great patriarch Abraham. Habakkuk's awe and trembling was because he knew he could stand in the Presence of God and cry out for that Salvation to be revealed, even though: (verses 16 and 19)

"I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come upon the nation invading us . . . . .
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to go on the heights. "
There is no doubt in Habakkuk's mind that `even though the fig-tree does not bud', within the fig-tree is the seeds which will eventually blossom and ripen into figs as surely as the promises of God are in His Name! Habakkuk's great cry of this certainty is finally entrusted to the Chief Musicain for a future time yet to come for the nation of Israel when THE Seed will Blossom as Israel's Salvation is revealed in all His Glory - and it is entrusted to the Chief Musician on `Neginoth', which has a meaning of `to smite . . to strike' all the enemies of the LORD which seek to thwart the fulness of the promised salvation which is found in Christ Jesus alone.

In the times we face, as we wait patiently for the Lord to move once more amongst His people, we too need to remember Habakkuk's great crying out aloud to God, `remembering His fame and standing in awe of His deeds' and stand certain in the knowledge of God's faithfulness to His Covenanted people, both Israel and the Church:

"Renew (Your deeds) in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy. "


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