07 Jul Habakkuk 04: Rejoicing in pain

Habakkuk 3:1-19

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. ² 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. ³ God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. ⁴ His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. ⁵ Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. ⁶ He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. ⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 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. ¹² You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. ¹³ You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah. ¹⁴ You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. ¹⁵ You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. ¹⁶ I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. ¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no 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. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

When do we say that God is good? Let’s be honest. Do you know when we say that God is good? When things are going well for us. We say God is good when we get promoted at work. When our bank account is full. When we are healthy. When we get married. When we go on that dream holiday. When life is well, we say, “God is good.” But what happens when life is hard? What happens when we do not get that promotion? What happens when we pray for healing, but we get sicker instead? What happens when we pray for a child, and we are still childless? What happens when nothing in life works out as we want? Do we still say, “God is good”? This is what’s amazing about the end of Habakkuk. Until the very end, Habakkuk does not get what he wants. Not only that, but the description at the end of this chapter tells us that Habakkuk expects the worst to happen. He expects his situation to get far worse than it was at the beginning of the book. But at the same time, he says, “I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” Here is a man whose everything in his life is getting worse, yet he is rejoicing. Habakkuk is rejoicing in pain. How does he do that? What is his secret? How can he rejoice in God in spite of life’s circumstances? That’s what we are going to look at tonight.

Let me remind you what happened in the book so far. Habakkuk was frustrated at the evil and injustice he saw in Judah, and he prayed asking God for spiritual revival. But then when God answered him, Habakkuk was even more confused. Because God said, “I heard you Habakkuk, but I am not going to make your life better. I am going to make it worse. I am going to send Babylon to discipline Judah.” And Habakkuk was perplexed. “Babylon? Why Babylon? They are even more wicked than Judah. You can’t do that. You are a holy God. How could you favour the wicked Babylon over your beloved people? It does not make any sense.” And God replied, “You might not understand, but you have to trust me. I know what I am doing. I have a plan. I have a purpose. And I will accomplish it. The righteous shall live by faith. And Babylon will get what they deserve later. I will judge Babylon for their wickedness at its appointed time. And the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of my glory.” That’s where we left off last week. Three weeks sermon in two minutes.

Today’s passage is Habakkuk’s response to what God had just told him. Habakkuk 3:1 – A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. Two things about this verse. First, I know all of you are thinking, “What is Shigionoth?” Let me tell you what that is. I don’t know. I read many commentaries, and nobody quite knows. Second, Habakkuk is no longer complaining; he is now praying. And he is not only praying but singing. At the end of the chapter, this prayer is given to the choirmaster, and it becomes a song for God’s people to sing. And it is a beautiful song. I think it was John Piper who said that the greatest song always arises out of the greatest pain. I mean, if you grew up in church, I am sure you’ve heard the last part of Habakkuk 3 mentioned a lot. It is a beautiful poetry. It is one of the most powerful, eloquent lines in the Bible. But those beautiful lines do not appear out of nowhere. They come out of the deepest pain. And let me tell you what’s even more amazing. Nothing has changed in Habakkuk’s life. Life is not better for Habakkuk; it is harder. But Habakkuk sees better. He no longer sees life through his own lens but through the lens of faith. Let’s look at it together.

How do we rejoice in pain? Three things that we can see in the text: remember who God is; remember what God has done; rejoice in God’s salvation.

Remember who God is

Habakkuk 3:2 – 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.

What do you do when life is hard and does not work out as you expected? Here is what Habakkuk does. He looks up. Habakkuk looks to God and reminds himself who God is. As we have seen in the book, Habakkuk was brutally honest with God in the dialogues he had with God, and he is a changed man because of it. His conversation with God gave him perspective. He knows he cannot change God’s mind about using Babylon to discipline Judah, but he knows God is a merciful God. He says, “In wrath, remember mercy.” Habakkuk is saying, “I know we deserve your judgment. I know we deserve your discipline. But I have heard of your mercy. I know what you have done for us in the past. I know you are a merciful God. And wrath will not be your last word for us. Don’t treat us as our sins deserve. Treat us in your kindness.” Habakkuk prays for God to be merciful to his people in the light of the coming judgment because that’s who God is. Let’s continue.

Habakkuk 3:3-7 – ³ God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. ⁴ His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. ⁵ Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. ⁶ He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. ⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

In these verses, Habakkuk recalls who God is. The theme of verses 3 to 7 is God’s splendour. Teman and Mount Paran refer to the boundary of Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. So, what Habakkuk does is he recalls the story of the exodus, where God was leading his people out of slavery in Egypt, through the desert, and safely to the Promised Land. Most of the imagery in these verses comes from the exodus. Verses 3 and 4 speak of when God’s glory appeared on Mount Sinai. It’s the scene where Mount Sinai quaked, and thunder and lightning echoed from the mountain. The Israelites were afraid of God and Moses went up to the mountain to meet with God. Verse 5 speaks of when God delivered his people with plague and pestilence. God struck Egypt with his mighty hand. Verse 6 speaks of the almighty power of God. He shook nations like a plaything, he scattered mountains like throwing seeds, he brought everlasting hills low like knocking over sand hills, and his ways were the everlasting ways. And in verse 7, the enemy of God’s people trembled before the greatness of God. Do you see what’s happening? Habakkuk is reminding himself that there is no God like the God of Israel. Nothing can stop God as he marches across the earth to execute judgment. The God of Israel is unstoppable. What Habakkuk does is he is trying to encourage himself. He reminds himself that God is the Sovereign God and God has not abandoned them to their circumstances.

What’s the lesson here? It’s simple. When life is hard, remember who God is. I know it sounds cliche, but it is actually very crucial. Because when life is hard, our tendency is to forget God. Our tendency is to look to everything else but God. We look to entertainment to forget our pain. We binge-watch the newest Netflix series. We played games all night. We hang out with friends. We go shopping. We do whatever we can to get our minds off our pains. Or we try to give ourselves a kind of pep talk. We tell ourselves that everything is going to be okay, and we live pretending that everything is okay. But Habakkuk does not do that. Habakkuk looks to God. He reminds himself who God is. Listen. Oftentimes, healing comes not from having our circumstances change; healing comes from switching our gaze from earth to heaven.

Let me give you two examples from the Bible. Do you remember when Jesus calmed the storm? Jesus was on a boat with his disciples and a terrible storm hit them. The disciples panicked and they went to Jesus and said, “Master, don’t you care that we’re perishing? We’re going to die! Do something to save us.” Jesus stilled the storm, then he turned to them and said, “Where is your faith?” Notice he did not say, “You need more faith.” He said, “Where is your faith?” Do you know what Jesus was doing? He was saying, “Don’t you remember who I am? You know who I am. You have faith in me. It should be there. But where is it? You’re not remembering.” In other words, the disciples knew who Jesus was, but they forgot to remember who Jesus was amid the storm. Their eyes were on the storm and not on Jesus. They knew who Jesus was, but they were not connecting it to their heart and storm. Because if they did, there was no reason for them to panic. They panicked because they were not remembering who Jesus was.

Let me give you another one. It was stormy and Jesus was walking on water. And Peter said, “Lord, if that’s you, let me come to you. Let me walk on water.” And Jesus said, “Come Peter.” So, Peter stepped out of the boat. That’s risky because there was a massive storm on the sea. The storm could easily kill Peter. But Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on the water. Peter was walking on water in the middle of a storm. But then Peter began to get distracted by the winds and the waves around him. In other words, he began to focus on the circumstance. He took his eyes off Jesus and began to focus on the situation. He was afraid, and he began to sink. Then Jesus immediately reached out to him and said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Do you see? As long as Peter was focusing on Jesus, he was walking on water. But the moment he started looking at how bad his situation was, he was forgetting Jesus, and he began to sink. The same applies to us. We will sink every time we focus on our circumstances and not on remembering who God is. But if we keep our gaze on God, we will walk on top of a storm.

Remember what God has done

Habakkuk 3:8-15 – 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. ¹² You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. ¹³ You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah. ¹⁴ You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. ¹⁵ You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.

There is a shift in these verses. In verses 2 to 7, Habakkuk refers to God in the third person. He is recalling who God is. But in these verses, Habakkuk refers to God in the second person – you. He is talking to God directly about what God has done for his people in the past. In verses 8 to 10, Habakkuk talks of how God showed his might against rivers and seas, just like God parted the Red Sea and Jordan River for his people to cross. In verses 11 and 12, he talks about how God made the sun and moon stand still. If you don’t know the story, it is one of my favourite stories in the Old Testament. God told Joshua to completely destroy the Amorites, including all the livestock. And Israel was far outnumbered, but they pressed the Amorite soldiers and had them on the run. But then the sun began to go down, and so Joshua, afraid that he was not going to be able to complete the task that God had given him, asked God for a few more hours of sunlight. He said, “Sun, stand still.” And God bent the law of physics and gave it to him. How cool is that? “Okay, Joshua. I am giving you three more hours. Finish it.” And Joshua wiped out the Amorites.

In verse 13, Habakkuk speaks of God’s intent to bring salvation for his people. God did not destroy the wicked simply for the sake of destroying the wicked. He destroyed the wicked for the sake of saving his people from their enemies. And I love verses 14 and 15. Because these verses tell us that God is so powerful that he used the enemy’s weapon against them. Habakkuk said, “You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors.” Do you know what that means? It doesn’t matter how strong the enemies are, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Listen to what O. Palmer Robertson writes in his excellent commentary on Habakkuk. “Often God’s people find themselves severely disturbed because they see no visible power as strong as their enemies. But the prophecy of Habakkuk encourages the faithful to assume a strange perspective. They must look at the strength of the enemy as the very source of their own protection. The stronger the enemy, the more sure its own self-destruction. For as God sovereignly raises up powers and brings them down again, he turns the strength of the enemy against itself.”

Don’t we see this happening again and again all over the Bible? Pharaoh thought he had Israel trapped between the Red Sea and his army. Haman thought he would have Mordechai hanged on his gallows. Daniel’s enemies devised a plan to have Daniel eaten by lions. But do you know what happened to them? Pharaoh’s army ended up being swallowed up in the sea. Haman was hanged on his gallows. Daniel’s enemies were the ones who ended up being eaten by lions. What we see in these verses is how God always worked for the good of his people. Wherever we see the enemies of God’s people, wherever we see injustice, wherever it seems like God’s enemy had the upper hand, God always has a way of turning their weapons against them. Habakkuk is pulling story after story from Israel’s past to remind himself that God’s victory is guaranteed, even when it seems like a long time coming.

The question for us is, do we believe that? Do we believe that God can turn what the enemies meant for evil for our good? This is why remembering what God has done is important. Listen. Looking back at what God has done creates trust and hope for the future. Remembering the past gives an anchor to the present while faithfully waiting for the future. Past experiences create future expectations. Listen to what David says in Psalm 103:2 – Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Do you know who David is talking to? Himself. Why? Because he is remembering. He is telling himself to not forget what God has done. Let me tell you why this is very important. Do you know what our number one problem is? The easy answer is sin. But do you know why we sin against God? Let me give you one case study from the Bible.

Isaiah 51:12-13 – ¹² “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, ¹³ and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor?” Pay attention to what God is saying to Israel. God is asking the people of Israel, “Israel, why do you fear men? Why are you afraid of them? Let me tell you why. Because you have forgotten me, the Lord, your Maker. You have forgotten how great I am and what I can do.” Do you see? Israel should have known that God is far greater than men, but they forgot. And because they forgot, they sinned against God. That was their problem and that is our problem as well. We forget easily. Do you realize that there is something about our heart that easily forgets the good but remembers the bad? That’s what sin does to us. Sin makes us forget the things that we should remember and remember the things that we should forget.

Let me give you a personal example. As a preacher, sometimes I received compliments from people. They would tell me how God used my sermons to speak to them and transform them. And I am always grateful for those compliments. But let me tell you. I might receive hundreds of compliments, but it only takes one criticism to outweigh all those compliments. It is as if the hundreds of compliments come in black and white while the one criticism is as clear as 8K high definition. Do you know what I am talking about? Why does somebody have to tell us that we are great a hundred times before we believe it, but only once do they have to tell us that we suck before we immediately believe it? Our heart is so corrupted with sin that it resists the good and puts a spotlight on the bad. Because of sin, our heart operates opposite from how it should. Most of the things we should remember, we don’t remember. And most of the things we should not remember, we remember. Can you see why it is very important for us to continually remember what God has done? When life is hard, when we struggle, sometimes all we have to do is simply remember. Remembering is connecting what God has done in the past to our present. When we don’t understand what God is doing in the present, we remember what God has done in the past. And the encouragement is that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If he did it before, he can still do it today because he does not change.

Rejoice in God’s salvation

Habakkuk 3:16 – I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

This is remarkable. After doing all the remembering, Habakkuk’s body still trembles. He knows the devastation that is coming for Judah. He knows the pain that his people will have to go through. Nothing can stop the tragedy. Babylon is coming. Destruction is just around the corner. That’s why his body trembles. But at the same time, Habakkuk is not without hope. God has told him that God will judge Babylon for what they are about to do to Judah. And Habakkuk will quietly wait for the day that God will judge Babylon. In other words, Habakkuk is saying, “I’m so filled with sorrows. I am weeping like a baby. I can’t stand on my own two feet. But I will wait for God to act on his words. I don’t see it, but I believe it, and I will wait.” Habakkuk does not like what he hears from God, but he accepts and trusts God over his preferences. He knows that whatever pain they will experience, whatever fear they will face, it’s not the end of the story. God will make everything right at its appointed time. Habakkuk has waited for God to answer him before, and now he will wait for the future fulfilment of God’s answer.

Here is the problem with waiting. Waiting for the fulfilment of God’s answer is often hard because only God knows exactly how long it will take to fulfil his promise. Since God is not confined to time and space as we are, it can be challenging for us to wait, not knowing how long. There is almost nothing harder for us to do than to wait. We rather God give us 100 steps on what we must do than wait. Why? Because at least when we are on step 99, we know it is only one more step before we don’t have to wait anymore. We are in control. But to simply wait requires trust. Waiting requires us to let go of control. And that’s extremely hard. Waiting means we have no idea what is going to happen next and when it will happen. We can only trust God that he will accomplish his good purposes at its appointed time. And this is where our faith in God is tested the most. Do we trust God no matter how long it takes? Are we willing to persevere in faith to the end? Do we still trust God, even if the fulfilment of his promise doesn’t happen in our lifetime? Habakkuk has resolved in his heart that he will trust God whatever happens. Look at what he says next. It’s absolutely stunning.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 – ¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no 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.

I know these lines are very poetic. But Habakkuk is actually describing an extremely devastating situation. And he is not talking merely hypotheticals. He knows this is what is going to befall Judah. Habakkuk is describing an economic disaster because figs, grapes, olives, and grain were the four ways in which the land produced fruit so they could eat. It was also how they produced wealth. While sheep and cattle were their portfolio. In Habakkuk’s time, people did not put their investment in currency. Their investments were in their livestock and land. Therefore, to have no figs, no grapes, no olives, no grain, no sheep, no cattle is a complete economic disaster. It means their investments are gone. This is what O. Palmer Robertson writes regarding verse 17. “The fig tree, the fruit, and the olive represent the choicest products of the land. The grain of the fields and the flock and cattle encompass the necessities of bread, milk, and meat. The absence of these items means no fig cakes, no wine, no anointing oil for the sunbaked lady. No cereal, no vegetables, no milk, no mutton, no wool, none of these needs or pleasures shall be available to the prophet and his people.” Do you see? This is a starvation-level social collapse. The situation Habakkuk describes is extremely devastating. But listen to what he says in verse 18. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” Did you hear that? Even though his situation is going to get far worse, Habakkuk says that he will rejoice in the Lord, he will take joy in the God of his salvation. There may be nothing to sustain his life. No food, no milk, no clothes, no production, no money, yet he will rejoice.

Let me contextualise these verses for us.
“Suppose there is no money in the bank to fix my car.
Suppose I get laid off from my job and I cannot find a new job.
Suppose my annual health check-up tells me that I have a sickness that I did not know of.
Suppose my desire for a better marriage does not happen and I have to struggle longer.
Suppose my longing for a child is not answered and I have to remain childless.
Suppose my business fails and I am bankrupt.
Suppose my spouse cheated on me and left me for another person.
Suppose my worst-case scenario happens, suppose my greatest fear comes to be, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”
That’s what Habakkuk is saying. Do you see? Habakkuk has every reason not to rejoice, but he rejoices. Habakkuk rejoices in God when life is hard. And the reason he can do it is not because he is strong. Look at Habakkuk 3:19 – God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk is saying, “The reason I can rejoice in pain, the reason I can trust God despite my world falling apart, is because God is my strength. He is the one who enables me to do this. He is the one who makes my feet light. He is the one who enables me to walk on this mountain. I can’t do it on my own strength, but I am not doing it on my own strength. God is my strength. He is with me, and he is enabling me.” Habakkuk does not put his trust in his own strength but in God’s strength which enabled him to wait in faith and rejoice.

But here is what I want you to see. When does the rejoicing happen? Is it after the pain is over? Or is it in the pain? It happens in the pain. Rejoicing in God does not come after the pain; it happens in the pain. I know this is hard to take. We often think that we are either joyful or sorrowful. If we are joyful, we are not sorrowful. If we are sorrowful, we are not joyful. But that’s not the testimony of the Bible. The testimony of the Bible is that we can be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. How so? Because the reason we rejoice has nothing to do with our circumstances. The reason we rejoice is God. Even though we don’t understand it, we trust that God will accomplish his good purposes and that his glory will cover the earth as water covers the seas. Here is the thing about rejoicing in pain. We can’t force ourselves to rejoice in pain, but we can explain to ourselves why we should rejoice in pain. We can tell ourselves, “I know I am in a lot of pain right now. I know I am extremely confused. I know I am frustrated. But God knows exactly what he is doing. I remember who he is. I remember what he has done. And because of it, I have no reason to doubt him today. I can trust him even when my life is falling apart because his words will come true. He is the God of my salvation, and he will not fail to accomplish his good works in me. Therefore, I am going to rejoice. Not because my life is getting better but because I know who my God is. I am going to rejoice not in my circumstances, but I am going to rejoice in the God of my salvation.” Friends, this is the message of the book of Habakkuk. We can have faith when life is hard because our faith is not dependent on our circumstances but on the God of all circumstances.

So, here is how I want to end our study on the book of Habakkuk. I hope it is obvious to you that as the book progresses, Habakkuk’s situation is not getting better. It is getting worse. At the start of chapter one, Habakkuk is complaining to God about his silence on the depravity of Judah. But when God replies, Habakkuk has more reasons to complain to God. When we get to chapter two, the situation has gone from bad to worse. God is going to use the wicked Babylon to destroy Judah, and then God will make Babylon pay for it. And when we get to chapter 3, Habakkuk is ready for the starvation collapse of Judah. So, the trajectory of the circumstances around Habakkuk is going from bad to worse. But not the trajectory of his faith. Habakkuk’s circumstances have gone from bad to worse, but Habakkuk’s faith has gone from complaint to joy. But do you know what changed Habakkuk? He wrestled with God faithfully. He was honest with God about his frustrations and refused to leave no matter how painful. He did not arrive at joy immediately. It was only by wrestling with God through his deepest pain that he got to rejoice in God.

Some of us are thinking right now, “Yes, good on him. But I am not Habakkuk. I can never be like Habakkuk. I can never do what Habakkuk did.” And that’s true. If we look at Habakkuk as an example, we can never be like Habakkuk. But we can be better than Habakkuk if we know we have something better than Habakkuk. Do you know that we have something better than Habakkuk? What Habakkuk did is he reminded himself of the story of exodus. He reminded himself of the story of God’s faithfulness to his people. But the story of the exodus is only a shadow of the true exodus that Jesus accomplished for us. Did you know that Jesus met Moses while he was on earth? Moses and Elijah came to meet Jesus, and they were talking about Jesus’ departure. In Greek, it literally says they were talking about Jesus’ exodus. Moses knew that the exodus he pulled off was nothing compared to what Jesus would do. Because if Moses delivered God’s people through political and social bondage, Jesus was going to deliver God’s people through sin and death. If Moses risked his life for God’s people, Jesus gave his life for God’s people. If Moses slew a lamb to save the Israelites from certain death, Jesus was the lamb of God who was slain to save God’s people from God’s wrath.

Do you see? If we put our faith in Jesus today, we have more reason to rejoice in God than Habakkuk. Habakkuk knows God is faithful to keep his promises, but he does not know that God’s faithfulness means that God himself has to come to us and die to keep his promises. And if Habakkuk can trust God and his words on that side of the cross, how much more can we trust God and his words on this side of the cross? We have seen the greatest act of injustice at the cross. The perfect Son of God was crucified at the hands of wicked people. But death would not have the last word over Jesus. God used the enemies’ weapons against them. He turned what the enemies meant for evil for good. Through the horrific cross, Jesus conquered death once and for all, so today we can know for sure that death will not have the final word over any of us. Jesus’ death and resurrection tell us with certainty that God can turn the greatest pain into the greatest victory. This is why we can rejoice in pain.

I don’t know what kind of pain you are in right now. But I do know there is no pain that God cannot redeem. The gospel assures us that God is always working for his glory and our good. That’s why we can confidently say with Paul, “If God is for us, then who can be against us?” The answer is a lot. A lot of things can go against us. Cancer, failed marriage, bankruptcy, loneliness, childlessness, death, etc. The point is not that we won’t experience all those pains. The point is that while we experience all those pains, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. And here is the promise of Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We can get separated from our spouses. We can get separated from our children. We can get separated from our bank accounts, our houses, our bodies. But we can’t get separated from the love of Christ. So, we can rejoice in pain knowing that our pain will not have the last word; Christ and his promises will have the last word. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. Why is it important to have the discipline of remembering who God is and what God has done?
3. Give some practical steps on how to practice the discipline of remembering.
4. In your opinion, what does it mean to rejoice in God’s salvation?
5. How does the gospel enable us to rejoice in pain?