THE prophet Habakkuk had humbled himself under the mighty hand of God in the acceptance of God's revelation that Israel was going to experience God's judgement, and be carried off into Babylon as exiles. He has prayed that God will not forsake his faithful remnant, and indeed the nation, while in exile, by praying for God's reviving and renewing grace while in exile. The prophet now seeks to build up the assurance of faith in his soul by recollecting all the dealings of God with his people in their past history, and reminding himself of the great revelation God has given, both of his power and his mercy.

The prophet speaks out loud in this song of praise and prayer, but he leaves out so much detail concerning his thoughts, and this makes it difficult to get at where his mind is transversing as he dwells on all he remembers of God's dealings with Israel in the past. What we do get is the revelation of the majesty, holiness and almighty power of God. These days there is within the church an altogether weak perception of God in the true reality of his being, character and action. People are even ready to reduce God in their thinking to their human level. Such a reflection which the prophet gives in these verses is a great correction, and brings us back to the greatness of God, and our need to bow down in worship and adoration. Let us now go through the verses and seek to pick out, if we can, where the prophets recollection leads him.

In verse 3 where the prophet speaks of God coming from Teman and the Holy one from Mount Paran. This expression leads us to the prophets recollection of God's visiting his people in the wilderness of Paran, and particularly at mount Sinai. Teman lies N.E. of Edom, and Edom lies west of Paran, which is a wilderness in the Sinai peninsula. (See Deuteronomy 33: 2). God is seen by the prophet, at the time of the Israelites in the wilderness, coming to his people, revealing himself as the Holy one, and showing the people his glory from Mount Sinai by many fearsome expressions from the mount, and in giving them the 10 commandments, and showing his glory in the face of Moses when he came down from the mount. God's holiness was expressed vividly when the Israelites were told they must no touch the mount lest they die. From this the glory of God brought forth praise that is his due from his people, and indeed the whole earth.

Verse 4 continues the revelation of God given on Sinai and in those times when Israel was being led through the wilderness to the promised land. The Israelites saw and experienced the splendour of God in the revelation of his holiness and power, and the exercise of that power in blessing and in judgement. The prophet recollects God as having hidden power in his hand which flashes out from time to time in blessing and correction.

Verses 5-6 speak of particular manifestations of God's holiness and power. Verse 5 reflects on the power of God seen against Pharaoh in the plagues which God inflicted on the people of Egypt when he was working to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt. Verse 6 would seem to take us forward to the action of God at the Red sea, when he parted the waters to let the Israelites through, and then came together again to engulf and destroy the whole army of Egypt. It seems that the disturbance caused by the waters parting effected the mountain and hills in that part of the world. The measuring of the earth could be a recollection of the way God divided up Canaan for each of the tribes of Israel, and defeated the previous inhabitants.

Verse 7 clearly is a recollection of God's victories given to Israel in their possessing of the promised land in victory given to Israel from time to time later. The dwellings of Midian in anguish suggests the great defeat that God gave to Gideon recorded in Judges 7.

Verses 8 to 10 speak of God's control and sovereignty over his creation. The prophet recollected the times when God reordered creation to give victory to his people. The holding up of time so victory could be achieved, and putting the clock back. Also changing the course of nature in opening the river Jordan so Israel could go over on dry ground. Also causing the walls of Jericho to fall down and so delivering Jericho into the hands of Israel. These and many more demonstrations of God's power in defence and protection of his people could have been part of this recollection.

Verses 11 to 12 continues this theme of God's power able and willing to defend his people. So in verses 13 to 15 Habakkuk continues this remembrance of God's action as he continues this recollection of how God mightily defended his people from all their enemies, remembering no doubt that only when Israel sinned was God against them, and how he continually forgave and blessed them again.

APPLYING THIS RECOLLECTION.

All this recollection was the means which the prophet used to bolster up his faith as he sees Israel being brought by God to a time of trial and exile. In the past God had shown himself as a gracious and merciful God, and even when he chastised his people, he never gave up on his purpose of salvation in using Israel to be the means by which the Messiah and Saviour would be born.

The church of God has known afflictions and times of dearth all down its history. Like Israel God has brought chastisement and even judgement. Churches is different parts of the world which once were strong have disappeared. The example that comes to mind is the churches which flourished in northern Africa is the early times after Christ ascended which are now non-existent. The church of God has known times of decline and then in the mercy of God has brought revival again. At one time the church is strong in one part of the world, and then in another. In all the ups and downs of the life of Christ's church one thing is plain. It is that God has never forsaken his church altogether, and has revived his work massively from time to time. This gives assurance that God's purpose for his elect, those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, will never fail. At the end Christ will be found to be victorious, and not one of those given to him by the Father will be lost, and all will be gathered finally into Christ's everlasting kingdom and dwell in the new heaven and earth.

As the prophet Habakkuk strengthened and built up his confidence and faith as he contemplated the terrible action of God in delivering Israel into the hands of the Babylonian power, so we can build up our faith and confidence in God's blessing in the future by contemplating his great acts in history, and in applying the truth which Habakkuk saw that God would revive his people even in exile.

There is no doubt that the church in the west, in the United Kingdom and on the continent of Europe, is suffering decline at this time, and we may well feel cast down and fearing for the future, specially as we see how the visible church in so many ways has departed from the faithful living by the word of God, and have allowed the philosophy of the world to creep into the church, and cause error and sinful practice to infiltrate the church. It seems to the faithful that the decline will never cease. We must counteract this loss of confidence and faith with the example of Habakkuk. We must remember that the church has been worse in the past, and then has been revived by God.

We can remember the darkness prevalent in England and on the continent at the time of the Reformation, and how God raised up defenders of his truth, and England at least became a protestant country governed by the word of God. We can remember how the faith was preserved by the Puritan movement, and again in the terrible decline of religion and morals in the 18th century God delivered our land of England by what is known as the evangelical revival. At these times things were so bad that humanly speaking there was no way true godliness could be revived, but God revived it, just as he did in the time of Habakkuk, and in the exile in Babylon, and eventually brought his people back to their land, with the temple rebuilt and also the walls of Jerusalem.

Times of trial, and deadness in the church, are hard to bear. We can't see how things can be made better. In our own particular patch things may seem to be beyond improvement. Two things need to be remembered. The first is that the power of God is equal to anything, and what seems impossible to us can be marvellously achieved by God's power at God's time. The second is that God has shown in his word, and it has been proved in history, that God's purposes of redemption in Christ can and never will fail, and so God's people can work on and pray on knowing that their labour is not in vain in the Lord.