IN our first sermon on Habakkuk we concentrated solely on the obvious burden on the mind and heart of Habakkuk over the state of Israel at his time; and I tried to point out that his burden should also be ours. The state of our country and the church may be somewhat different than Israel in Habakkuk's time, but like Israel when Habakkuk prophesied, the same underlying condition can be plainly seen. Nations have departed from the Lord, and the church also, at the very least, has past its first love, and more often is characterised by a general departure from the truth of God's word, which has brought error in practice and belief into the life of the church.

Because Habakkuk felt this burden over the decline of true righteousness and godliness in Israel, he had been moved to urgent prayer. It was the burden on his heart that drove him to cry to God for his intervention. Without the burden it is doubtful if he would have prayed so urgently. Today we need Christians who feel the burden for the state of the church and the world, for it is only when we are so burdened will we cry to God with urgency for his intervention. God give us such burdened people today.

RESPONSE TO THE BURDEN.

If we are burdened with the state of things in the church and state, then Habakkuk's example is to be followed. He found that all his efforts produced little if any result, and so he turned to God in prayer for his intervention. This we must do also, for only the power of God can overthrow Satan's kingdom, and turn the tide back to the truth of God. Having said this, there is much we can learn from Habakkuk in prayer, both to do and to avoid.

The first thing we notice about Habakkuk's praying is that he had been praying for a long time. In verse 2 he cries to God 'How long ?' showing that he had been engaged in in his praying for some time. We must be prepared for this ministry in prayer to be one which requires great perseverance. Let us be spurred on in such ministry by the many indications in the Gospel's where perseverance in prayer is rewarded.

Secondly, Habakkuk laid before the Lord the needs and problems which he saw were so prevalent in the life of Israel. This is what prayer is all about. We bring before the Lord the needs and problems. Paul tells us in Philippians 4: 6,7 that we should bring our requests before God. Bringing our requests to God must not be a general petition for his blessing, but also the naming of the various matters for which we need his intervention and blessing. Paul also tells us that bringing our needs before God must be done with earnestness and urgency, for this is the meaning of supplication. We supplicate before God for his help and power. If we come with supplication then we must come with a humble and repentant heart, seeking grace and mercy which in ourselves we do not deserve, and can only ask in and through the merits of Christ our Saviour. Here it is that perhaps Habakkuk showed some wrongfulness in his praying. Habakkuk seems to come as one sure of his deserving of having God hear and answer his prayer. He complains that God seems to be indifferent to his requests, which to Habakkuk were ones God ought to answer positively. Further, Habakkuk seems to have in his mind what he believes to be the answer that is appropriate. He sees Israel departing from the Lord, with evil abounding and he feels God should intervene to turn Israel back to himself, so that Israel should be great under God's blessing again. This was very natural, for this is what God had done so many times before. However the right way for Habakkuk to pray was one of sorrow and repentance for the sins of Israel of which he was part, and simply plead for God to be merciful again. This spirit of repentance and sorrow for sin seems to be lacking.

Then further Habakkuk appeared to falter in faith. This is a failure which none of us can say we are free. God always hears and answers the prayers of his people, and he always answers according to his perfect will, and in his own wise time. When we pray we must come with such faith and submission. Faith to believe that God is hearing and his answer is on his way; and submission to the will of God to accept the answer which God in his holy wisdom gives. So often we miss noticing God's answer to our prayers because we are looking for our solution, and not submitting to the will of God.

There is a further weakness in Habakkuk's prayer which seems to be clear. It is that Habakkuk was seeking God's blessing, and the ease of life that blessing would bring to Israel. Instead he should have been concerned about the glory of God and how it had been abused and tarnished by the life in Israel, and seek God's glory more than his blessings.

Having said all this let us honour the example of Habukkuk in that he acknowledged that only in God and from God could there be any change for good in Israel. He tacitly confessed his weakness and impotence, and the ineffectiveness of his ministry, and acknowledged that only God was there help. This is an essential in prayer, first the acknowledgement of our impotence, and the acknowledgement that only in the power of God was their any help or hope. Prayer throws ourselves on God and his strength alone.

RELATING THE BURDEN OF HABAKKUK TO THE CHURCH TODAY.

It is so easy to say and think that the burden which Habakkuk so graphically describes in his day is something we don't identify in our day. However this is not true. Nationally and in a world context violence and perverting the cause of justice is plainly to be seen, and the same oppression and suffering is seen everywhere. But what of the church?

I speak with the situation within the church in the United Kingdom, but no doubt in the church worldwide the same evils can be discerned.

Habakkuk complained before God that the law was paralysed. By this he meant that the law of God had become paralysed in Israel. Although the nation, with the priests and prophets paid lip service to the law handed down though Moses, yet in practice the law of God was not only disregarded, but when observed it was altered and changed to fit what was acceptable to human wisdom. This was so evident when Jesus was preaching and teaching. Religious practice and duty had become hypocrisy.

This is so true in the church today. There is no doubt that the church is well organised, and very busy, and the life of the church is marked by hard work, and the pursuing of many good causes. The church is doing much good. In spite of all this the law of God is paralysed. How is this so? By the law we must understand the whole of the Bible. Such is the general attitude of the church today in Great Britain that the great truths of the the Bible have become paralysed and strangled by the opinions of men. Not only are large chunks of God's word taken as myth, and not believed; but also the revelation of God, of himself and his salvation, are openly denied and forsaken. When this attitude is questioned the response is one of patronising and despising as not acceptable to modern wisdom. From this cavalier attitude to the Bible, the great doctrines of sin and salvation, of God's holiness and love, of the greatness of Christ's saving work, are diminished to a mediocre belief in God's love, which embraces everybody, and so making the coming of Christ and his voluntary giving himself to death for our sins as redundant. There is no real place for this in modern church thought, and so preaching is marked by almost silence on Christ and his work for us. This is so different from the preaching of the apostles in the Acts.

From this comes something else which Habakkuk speaks of. In verse 4b Habakkuk complains that the wicked hem in the righteous. By this he surely means that the wicked acted in such a way as to make it impossible for the righteous to speak out, and if they did the wicked were active to ridicule the message, and make the witness of the righteous despised and rejected in society.

This is also very true of the church situation today. Those who are faithful to the Word of God are sidelined as far as possible. Opportunities to preach the truth are denied, and when allowed the message treated with contempt. Godly people offering themselves for the ministry are turned down because they don't hold the errors of the church, and the truth is treated as error in favour of doctrine which is contrary to the Word of God. In this way the righteous are hemmed in by the wicked. The wicked here does not mean moral decadence, but the greater wickedness of denial of the truth, and the perversion of the truth.

There may be evidence of moral wickedness in the life of the church today, but this is insignificant to the far greater wickedness of the denial of the truths of the Bible in favour of human wisdom and opinion.

CONCLUSION.