Nahum and Habakkuk (Sections 113-116)
Section 113
"The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble;
and he knoweth them that trust in him."—Nahum 1:7.
Here we come upon an island in Nahum's stormy lake. All is calm in this verse, though the whole context is tossed with tempest. The text is full of God, and brims over with his praise.
I. God himself.
"Jehovah is good."
1. Good; in himself essentially and independently.
2. Good; eternally and unchangeably.
3. Good in each person: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
4. Good in all his acts of grace.
5. Good in all former acts of providence.
6. Good in his present act, be it what it may.
7. Good for a stronghold: to be trusted in trouble.
8. Good to his own people, who find their goodness in him.
Let us praise him as good in the most emphatic and unlimited sense. Whoever else may or may not be good, we know that the Lord is good. Yea, "there is none good but one, that is, God": Matthew 19:17.
II. God to us.
"A strong hold in the day of trouble."
1. Under special circumstances our resort. The day of trouble, when trial is special and vehement. The day of trouble: temporary, but yet long enough to last through our life unless the Lord prevent. The day of trouble: when within, without, around, there seem to be only care, and fear, and want, and grief.
2. Securing our safety at all times: for a stronghold is always strong, even when there is no immediate war.
3. Maintaining our peace. Within the walls of a castle men walk at ease, for they are shut in from enemies.
4. Defying our foes, who dare not attack such a fortress.
5. Abiding for ever the same: always a sure refuge for the needy.
Let us run to him, as the poor people of the open country fly to the walled towns in the time of war.
III. God with us.
He knoweth them that trust in him." The term "he knoweth them" includes—
1. His intimate acquaintance with their persons, conditions, etc.
2. His tender care to supply all their necessities.
3. His divine approval of them. To others he says, "I know you not": Luke 13:25.
4. His loving communion with them, which is the best proof that they are known to him, and are his beloved friends.
5. His open acknowledgement: he owns them now, and will confess them before assembled worlds: Revelation 3:5.
Let us believe in the goodness of the Lord even when we cannot discern it with the eye of sense.
Let us fly to his protection when storms of trouble fall.
Let us confide in his loving care when hunted by our enemies.
Let us take care that we rely upon him, in Christ Jesus, for salvation.
Testimonies The only place of safety in this world is the one in which we are sure to meet God, and to be "under the shadow of his wing." The Bible sets forth, in grand metaphor, this idea, by speaking of a "fortress into which the righteous runneth, and is safe"; and of "a strong tower," and of "the shadow of a great rock." When we were in the Yosemite Valley, lately, our driver told us of a series of terrific earthquakes, which visited the valley several years ago. The few inhabitants who dwelt there were thrown out of their beds in the night. Frail cottages were overturned. Loose rocks were hurled down from the precipices into the valley. These shocks were repeated for several days until the people were panic-stricken and ready to despair. "What did you do?" we inquired. The driver (pointing to the mighty and immovable rock, El Capitan, which rises for three thousand feet on the south side of the valley, and has a base of three solid miles) replied: "We determined to go and camp under old Capitan; for if that ever moved we knew the world would be coming to an end."—Dr. Cuyler.
Tamar may disguise herself, and walk in an unaccustomed path, so that Judah may not know her; Isaac, through the dimness of his sight, may bless Jacob, and pass over Esau; want of time may make Joseph forget, or be forgotten of, his brethren; Solomon may doubt to whom of right the child belongeth; and Christ may come to his own, and not be received: but the Lord knoweth them that are his, and his eye is always over them. Time, place, speech, or apparel cannot obscure or darken his eye or ear. He can discern Daniel in the den; and Job, though never so much changed, on the dung-hill. Let Jonah be lodged in the whale's belly, Peter be put into a close prison, or Lazarus be wrapped in rags, or Abel rolled in blood, yet can he call them by name, and send his angels to comfort them. Ignorance and forgetfulness may cause love and knowledge to be estranged in the creature, but the Lord is not incident to either, for his eye, as his essence, is everywhere; he knoweth all things.—Spencer's "Things New and Old." A safe stronghold our God is still, A trusty shield and weapon;
He'll help us clear from all the ill That hath us now o'ertaken. The ancient Prince of hell Hath risen with purpose fell;
Strong mail of craft and power He weareth in this hour, On earth is not his fellow.
With force of arms we nothing can, Full soon were we down-trodden; But for us fights the proper Man, Whom God himself hath bidden.
Ask ye, "Who is this same?"
Christ Jesus is his name, The Lord Zebaoth's Son, He and no other one Shall conquer in the battle.
—Martin Luther.
Many talk of trusting God when indeed they know nothing of real faith. How are we to know who is, and who is not, a believer? This question is hard to answer in times of prosperity, but not in the day of trouble: then the true truster is calm and quiet in his God, and the mere pretender is at his wits' end. Our text seems to hint as much. Everybody can find a bird's nest in winter when the trees are bare, but the green leaves hide them; so are believers discovered by adversity. One thing, however, should never be forgotten: whether we know believers or not, God knows them. He does not include one hypocrite in the number, nor exclude one sincere truster, even though he be of little faith. He knows infallibly and universally. Does he know me, even me, as one of those who trust in him? The Lord knoweth them that are his, and they know him as their stronghold. Have I such knowledge?
Section 114
"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch
to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
"And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon
tables that he may run that readeth 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 tarry.
"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him:
But the just shall live by his faith."—Habakkuk 2:1-4. The promise of God tarried, and the ungodly triumphed.
Here was the old problem of David in another form. "Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously?" (Habakkuk 1:3) is but a repetition of "I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (Psalms 73:3). This same problem occurs to ourselves, and this text may help us.
Observe with understanding,—
I. The sense in which there is a delay in the promise.
It is not every apparent delay which is real. Our time and God's time are not measured upon the same dial.
1. Each promise will bide in due season for fulfilment: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time."
2. Each promise in the end will prove true: "At the end it shall speak, and not lie."
3. Each promise will repay our waiting: "Though it tarry, wait for it."
4. Each promise will really be punctual to its hour: "It will surely come, it will not tarry." The word of the Lord is as true to the time as to the thing. To him its time of ripening is short: only to us is it long.
II. The attitude of a believer while the promise delays.
We should watch for the appearing of the Lord in fulfilment of his promise, and should be prepared to receive reproof as well as blessing. The prophet took up—
1. A determined and thoughtful attitude: "I will stand, and set me."
2. An attentive attitude: "and will watch to see what he will say unto me." He is engrossed in this one pursuit: he only desires to be taught of the Lord.
3. A patient attitude: "I will set me upon the tower." It is as if he had been set as a sentinel, and would remain at his post.
4. A solitary position if need be. He speaks of himself alone.
5. A humble and submissive frame of mind: "what I shall answer when I am reproved." In all respects the man of God is ready for his Lord. The delay is evidently a blessing to him. The blessing will be the greater when it comes.
III. The work of the Lord's servant while the promise delays.
1. By faith see the vision. Realize the fulfilment of the divine word in your own soul. "Watch to see what he will say."
2. Declare it as certain: record it in black and white, as a fact not to be questioned. "Write the vision upon tables."
3. Declare it plainly, so that the runner may read it.
4. Declare it practically, so that he that readeth may run in consequence of it.
5. Declare it permanently. Write down the matter for a record to be referred to: engrave it on tablets for perpetuity.
Sham faith prudently declines to mention her expectations.
It is deemed presumptuous, fanatical, and imprudent to be positive that God will keep his promise and still more to say so. The real believer thinks not so, but acts with the Lord's promises as he would deal with engagements made in business by honest men: he treats them as real, and would have others do the like.
IV. The difference seen in men when the delay of the promise tests them.
1. The graceless man is too proud to wait on God as the Lord's servant will do. "His soul is not upright in him."
He is himself dishonest, and so suspects his God. This prevents his finding comfort in the promise.
2. The just man believes the word of a holy God.
He waits serenely, in full assurance, and He lives in the highest sense by his faith.
"My soul, wait thou only upon God": Psalms 62:5.
What can he do who has no faith in his Maker? Hebrews 11:6. From our Tablets
It was a custom among the Romans for the public affairs of every year to be committed to writing by the pontifex maximus, or high priest, and published on a table. They were thus exposed to public view, so that the people might have an opportunity of being acquainted with them. It was also usual to hang up laws approved and recorded on tables of brass in their market-places, and in their temples that they might be seen and read. (Tacitus.) In like manner, the Jewish prophets used to write, and expose their prophecies publicly on tables, either in their own houses, or in the temple, that every one that passed by might go in and read them.—Burder. And though it linger till the night, And round again till morn, My heart shall ne'er mistrust thy might, Nor count itself forlorn. Do thus, O ye of Israel's seed.
Ye of the Spirit born indeed, Wait tor your God's appearing!
—Martin Luther.
Good old Spurstow says that "some of the promises are like the almond-tree—they blossom hastily in the very earliest spring; but," saith he, "there are others which resemble the mulberry-tree—they are very slow in putting forth their leaves." Then what is a man to do, if he has a mulberry-tree promise which is late in blossoming? Why, he is to wait till it does blossom; since it is not in his power to hasten it. If the vision tarry, exercise the precious grace called patience, and the appointed time shall surely bring you a rich reward.— C. H. S.
God's promises are dated, but with a mysterious character; and, for want of skill in God's chronology, we are prone to think God forgets us; when, indeed, we forget ourselves in being so bold as to set God a time of our own, and in being angry that he comes not just then to us.—Gurnall.
If we were more humble, we should be more patient. A beggar, who is worn with hunger, will wait at the rich man's gate for many an hour with the hope of getting broken victuals; but my lord, who is in no need, will soon be gone if the door does not open to his knock. We have kept the Lord waiting long enough, and we need not wonder if he tries our faith and patience by apparent delays. In any case, let us settle this in our hearts, that he must and will fulfil his promises. Our text shows us a punctual God, a patient waiter, and a published confidence; but it finishes up with a proud unbeliever. Or, if you will, it is man uttering a brave resolve, and the Lord answering to his faith; reasons presented to patient faith, and rebukes to impatient pride.
Section 115
"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in
him: but the just shall live by his faith."—Habakkuk 2:4.
Delay of deliverance is a weighing of men.
Suspense is very trying, and constitutes a searching test. This divides men into two classes by bringing out their real character. The proud and the just stand out in relief; the uplifted and the upright are tar as the poles asunder; and the result of trial in the two cases is as different as death from life. The tarrying of the promise—
I. Reveals a great fault—"his soul which is lifted up." The man is impatient, and will not endure to wait. This is pride full-blown, for it quarrels with the Lord, and dares to dictate to him.
1. It is very natural to us to be proud. So fell our first father, and we inherit his fault.
2. Pride takes many shapes, and among the rest this vainglorious habit of thinking that we ought to be waited on at once.
3. In all cases pride is unreasonable. Who are we that God should make himself our servant, and take his time from our watch.
4. In every case pride is displeasing to God, and specially when it interferes with the sovereign liberty of his own grace. Shall he be dictated to in the matter of his own loves? "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" Romans 9:20.
II. Betrays a sad evil—"his soul is not upright in him."
1. He does not know the truth. His mind is out of the perpendicular, his knowledge is incorrect, and his judgment is mistaken. He puts "bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter": Isaiah 5:20.
2. He does not seek the light. His heart is not upright: the affections are perverted. He has a bias towards conceited views of self, and does not wish to be set right. Obadiah 1:3.
3. His whole religion is warped by his false mood of heart and mind. The very soul of the man is put out of order by his vanity.
4. He will not endure the test of waiting; he will sin in his haste to be delivered; he will rush from God to other confidences; he will show by his life that his real self is not right with God.
III. Discovers a serious opposition.
He grows tired of the gospel, which is the sum of the promises, and he becomes averse to the exercise of the faith which it requires. His pride makes him reject salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus.
1. He is too great to consider it.
2. He is too wise to believe it.
3. He is too good to need it.
4. He is too advanced in "culture" to endure it.
Most of the objections to revealed truth arise from a mind thrown out of balance by pride of intellect, or pride of purse or pride of heart.
IV. Directs us to a pleasing contrast.
1. The man who is really just is truly humble. The text implies a contrast in this respect between the proud and the just.
2. Being humble, he does not dare to doubt his God, but yields to his Word an implicit faith.
3. His faith keeps him alive under trial, and conducts him into the joys and privileges of spiritual life.
4. His life conquers the trial, and develops into life eternal. The Believer has the blessing promised, and truly lives while he lives. The Unbeliever misses the blessing, and is dead while he lives.
What folly to refuse faith because of pride, and so to miss eternal life and all its felicities!
Quotations
"I think it is decidedly unscriptural to fix any time with God for his doing anything. The times and seasons the Father hath put in his own hand. The man Christ Jesus has asked for the heathen, and he will get them, but he has waited eighteen hundred years already, and has told us that as Man he knows nothing of the 'when.' Pray on, and believe; you shall reap." —From a letter of Brownlow North to a Christian worker.
Strange that the mortal, who cannot believe in the healing power of the sparkling Jordan, will often willingly go down to the muddiest creek of Abana and Pharpar!—Edward Garrett. As the first step heavenward is humility, so the first step hell-ward is pride. Pride counts the gospel foolishness, but the gospel always shows pride to be so. Shall the sinner be proud who is going to hell? Shall the saint be proud who is newly saved from it? God had rather his people fared poorly than live proudly.—Mason.
Poverty of spirit is the bag into which Christ puts the riches of his grace.—Rowland Hill.
We must be emptied of self before we can be filled with grace; we must be stripped of our rags before we can be clothed with righteousness; we must be unclothed that we may be clothed; wounded, that we may be healed; killed, that we may be made alive; buried in disgrace, that we may rise in holy glory. These words, "Sown in corruption, that we may be raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, that we may be raised in glory; sown in weakness, that we may be raised in power," are as true of the soul as of the body. To borrow an illustration from the surgeon's art: the bone that is set wrong must be broken again, in order that it may be set aright. I press this truth on your attention. It is certain that a soul filled with self has no room for God; and like the inn at Bethlehem, crowded with meaner guests, a heart preoccupied by pride and her godless train, has no chamber within which Christ may be born in us "the hope of glory."—Guthrie. A heart full of pride is but a vessel full of air; this self-opinion must be blown out of us before saving knowledge be poured into us. Humility is the knees of the soul, and to that posture the Lamb will open the book; but pride stands upon tip-toes as if she would snatch the book, and unclasp it herself. The first lesson of a Christian is humility; and he that hath not learned the first lesson is not fit to take out a new.—Thomas Adams. But for pride, the angels who are in hell should be in heaven (Jude 1:6); but for pride, Nebuchadnezzar, who is in the forest, should be in his palace (Daniel 4); but for pride, Pharaoh, who lies with the fishes, should be with his nobles (Exodus 14); no sin hath pulled so many down as this, which promised to set them up. Of all the children of pride, the Pope is the father, which sitteth in the temple of God, and is worshipped as God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). . . . But for pride, the Pharisees would have received Christ as gently as his disciples; but for pride, Herod would have worshipped Christ as humbly as the shepherds; but for pride, our men would go like Abraham, and our women like Sarah, as they would be called their children; but for pride, noblemen would come to church as well as the people; but for pride, gentles would abide reproof as well as servants; but for pride, thou wouldst forgive thy brother, and the lawyers should have no work.—Henry Smith.
Section 116
"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith."—Habakkuk 2:4.
"For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."—Romans 1:17.
"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for the just shall live by faith."—Galatians 3:11.
"Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."—Hebrews 10:38. When the spirit of God frequently repeats himself, he thereby appeals for special attention. A doctrine so often declared must be of the first importance. A doctrine so often declared should be constantly preached. A doctrine so often declared should be unhesitatingly received by each one of our hearers.
I. We will treat the four texts as one. The teaching is clear. "The just shall live by his faith."
1. Life is received by the faith which makes a man just. A man begins to live by a full acquittal from condemnation, and from penal death, so soon as he believes in Jesus. A man begins to live as one raised out of spiritual death so soon as he has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. No form of works, or profession, or knowledge, or even of natural feelings, can prove him to be an absolved and quickened man; but faith does this.
2. Life is sustained by the faith which keeps a man just.
He who is forgiven and quickened lives ever afterwards as he began to live—namely, by faith. Neither his feelings, nor devotions, nor acquirements ever become his trust: he still looks out of himself to Jesus. He is nothing except so far as he is a believer.
He lives by faith as to all the forms of his life,— As a child, and as a servant, As a pilgrim progressing, and as a warrior contending, As a pensioner enjoying, and as an heir expecting.
He lives by faith in every condition,— In joy and in sorrow; in wealth and in poverty; In strength and in weakness; in laboring and in languishing; in life and in death.
He lives best when faith is at its best, even though in other respects he may be sorely put to it. He lives the life of Christ most blessedly when most intensely he believes in Christ.
Hearty belief in God, his Son, his promises, his grace, is the soul's life, neither can anything take its place. "Believe and live" is a standing precept both for saint and sinner. "Now abideth faith." 1 Corinthians 13:13.
II. We will treat the four texts separately.
If we read with precision, we shall see that Scripture contains no repetitions. The context gives freshness of meaning to each apparent repetition.
1. Our first text (Habakkuk 2:4) exhibits faith as enabling a man to live on in peace and humility, while as yet the promise has not come to its maturity. While waiting we live by faith, and not by sight.
We are thus able to bear up under the temporary triumphs of the wicked. See the first chapter of Habakkuk's prophecy.
We are thus preserved from proud impatience at delay.
We are thus filled with delight in confident expectation of good things to come.
2. Our second text (Romans 1:17) exhibits faith as working salvation from the evil which is in the world through lust. The chapter in which it stands presents an awful view of human nature, and implies that only faith in the gospel can bring us life in the form of—
Mental enlightenment of life as to the true God: Romans 1:19-23.
Moral purity of life: Romans 1:24, and onward.
Spiritual life and communion with that which is divine and holy.
Naturally men are dead and corrupt. The law reveals our death, see Romans 3:10-20; but the gospel imparts spiritual life to those who receive it by faith.
3. Our third text (Galatians 3:11) exhibits faith as bringing to us that justification which saves us from the sentence of death.
Nothing can be plainer, more positive, more sweeping than this declaration that no man is justified before God except by faith. Both the negative and the positive are plain enough.
4. Our fourth text (Hebrews 10:38) exhibits faith as the life of final perseverance.
There is need of faith while waiting for heaven (verses 32-36). The absence of such faith would cause us to draw back (verse 38). That drawing back would be a fatal sign. That drawing back can never occur, for faith saves the soul from all hazards, keeping its face heavenwards even to the end.
What can you do who have no faith? In what other way can you be accepted with God? On what ground can you excuse your unbelief in your God? Will you perish sooner than believe him?
Breviates The Jews in the Talmud have the saying, "The whole law was given to Moses at Sinai, in six hundred and thirteen precepts." David, in the fifteenth Psalm, brings them all within the compass of eleven; Isaiah brings them to six (Isaiah 33:15); Micah to three (Micah 6:8); Isaiah, again, to two (Isaiah 56); Habakkuk to this one, "The just shall live by his faith." —Lightfoot. The soul is the life of the body. Faith is the life of the soul. Christ is the life of faith.—Flavel.
Inscribed upon the portal from afar Conspicuous as the brightness of a star, Legible only by the light they give Stand the soul-quickening words—
—Believe and Live. To believe God is not a little thing; it is the index of a heart reconciled to God, and the token of true spirituality of mind; it is the essence of true worship, and the root of sincere obedience. He who believes his God in spite of his sins, does him more honor than cherubim and seraphim in their continual adoration. A little thing faith! How is it then that unbelief is so great a crime that it is marked out for reprobation as the one damning evil which shuts men out of heaven? Whatever else you put in the second place, give faith the lead; it is not a vain thing, for it is your life.