The Sovereign Lord is my strength
That might sound a little simplistic, quick to read, easy to say. But have we ever thought of the impact of these words? Habakkuk had been warned that the Babylonians would attack his nation. He knew all about them. He knew they weren't facing being unable to go to church for a while. No, they were facing the total destruction of their temple, the focus of their religion and their national identity as the people of the Lord. It would not be rebuilt for seventy years. They were not facing a temporary impossibility of seeing relatives. They were facing the brutal massacre of many thousands of people - men, women and children - and the exile of anyone deemed important. They were not facing a restriction of their livelihood. They were facing the systematic and deliberate impoverishment of their people. Habakkuk was fully aware of this (Habakkuk 1:15-17). This whole impending disaster had previously been predicted by other prophets too (2 Kings 20:16-18). The outcome of this was far worse than recorded in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, which are both history books. The books of poetry in the Bible convey the full awful impact (Psalms 137:8-9; Lamentations 2:11-12; Lamentations 4:9-10; Lamentations 5:11-13). Starvation, cannibalism, violations, slavery, destruction beyond compare and the total loss of both religion and national identity (2 Kings 25:8-10)... Utterly defenceless, apparently hopeless and reduced from a proud nation into gut-wrenching poverty. This is what lay before them. And the evidence is there in Habakkuk that he was aware this would happen. Yet, in the face of all this, Habakkuk can still say "the Sovereign Lord is my strength". Imagine that! You see, there is a truth that is emerging in our disaster that is becoming acutely obvious. The politically correct might try and brush it under the carpet. The post-modernists might try to ignore it. But nonetheless, it is still true. Do you know what it is? What you believe really matters. Yes, it does. What you believe directly affects your ability to withstand the current epidemic. What do I mean by that? Well, if you believe that this epidemic is caused by another power - national or otherwise - then how will it influence your reactions? I believe it will make you afraid and hostile to others - particularly from the nation you are accusing. It will cause you to become a paranoid and potentially racist individual. Say you believe that this fuelled by a power grab on behalf of the elite. How will that make you feel? I would imagine you would be fearful, panicky, paranoid and afraid to do things that are necessary and good for you in case it's part of a master plot. Say you believe that the whole situation is made worse by 5G mobile phone towers. This will make you inclined to carry out acts of wanton vandalism without any scientific evidence at all to back it up, and at a time when our emergency services are already stretched to the limit. Do you see the problem? All of these beliefs lack any form of firm foundation. They are at best unsubstantiated and unproven; at worse, downright lies. We accept them and believe them without challenge not because they have evidence to back them up, but because they fit with our particular presuppositions, biases and attitudes. In a situation like this, these ideas leave us vulnerable, presenting clear and present dangers to our physical and mental health. For that reason alone, they must be rejected. However, what lies behind these theories is a desire for someone to be in control of the situation. It doesn't take a long time in front of a television to see that our leaders are not in control. Neither are our doctors, scientists, researchers or the WHO. Our presidents and prime ministers are deceiving themselves if they believe they are anywhere near control. So who is? Those idiotic conspiracy theories try to tell us that it's either the Chinese government, an elite cabal, or at one stage US President Donald Trump alleged that the Democratic Party were behind it. But these are demonstrably not true. Habakkuk tells Who is in control. It's there in black and white. Who is it? The Sovereign Lord. Habakkuk is a book about the impending chaos of war - the darkest event in Jewish history up to that point. Yet he calls the Lord Sovereign. In the original Hebrew this is Jehovah Adonai - the Lord God. It's the later Latin translation that translates this as Kyrios ho Theos - the supreme or sovereign God. Both carry the idea of a God who is above all others and utterly in control. Habakkuk was writing at a time when Judah was about to be invaded by a pagan power who worshipped a different god. They would absolutely claim that their god was greater than the Hebrew God. But Habakkuk stands in defiance of this. He states that his God is greater; that his God commissioned this whole mess; that his God was in control. There is a doctrine taught in these difficult days in which Habakkuk lived that we find very hard to take, but the ancients did not. It's because our thinking is like my daughter's when she was an infant. Fundamentally we see God as existing to make us happy. So if something happens that doesn't make us happy, we struggle and look for someone else to blame. However, the book of Habakkuk, and many other prophets and poets have a common viewpoint. In absolute unison and total unanimity, they describe God as the prime mover in their situation, yet their faith remains steady and does not miss a beat (Job 1:20-22; Job 2:8-10; Lamentations 1:15; Daniel 9:11-14; Habakkuk 1:12). All of these verses state a really uncomfortable truth for anyone with a modern view of God: that He is sovereign and in control, even when bad things happen, even if we believe they are unjust or undeserved. Now I fully understand that these difficult times cause us to question a lot of things. I'm sure many people are asking what God is doing with this virus. Do you know something? I don't know. I don't pretend to know. In fact, I believe that any human being who claims to know the mind of God in this is lying. I can trace some of His purposes in the areas of our lives that He has touched. But I cannot see His entire purpose. Do you know what? I am entirely comfortable with that. For God to truly be God, there must be times when we just can't figure out what He's doing (Isaiah 55:8-9; Psalms 115:2-3; Daniel 4:35; Romans 11:33-36). But there is one thing that constrains our God: His own character. In particular, His goodness. His plans are always for our good, no matter how we perceive them now (Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 8:28; Lamentations 3:22-24).
It really matters what you believe. Take this song from 1996: I believe I can fly I believe I can touch the sky I think about it every night and day Spread my wings and fly away I believe I can soar I see me running through that open door I believe I can fly Massive number one song for R Kelly in eight countries. He won three Grammys for it. More than likely made millions from it. Just one problem: he can't fly. Maybe he could if he travelled by plane. Now he's in prison in Chicago for some pretty serious crimes, including interfering with minors, trafficking and child pornography. Ironically the man who sung about believing he could fly is now using Coronavirus to be allowed out of jail, his main argument being that due to his fame, mostly generated by that song, he is no longer a 'flight risk'. He could sing about believing he can fly all he wants, but he can't. Especially now. We have a deep-seated psychological need for two things during this pandemic. We all need them. Firstly, we need to know that someone is in control of this. Our governments clearly are not. Neither are our scientists. Neither are our doctors. Neither is our media. Anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly deluded. Those who believe in a Sovereign God believe that He is. This Someone needs to also have a good purpose. They need to have our good at heart. Being in power is not enough. We need to know they will use that power for our good. Our Sovereign Lord fulfils that criteria. So there is only one power we can trust, only one Lord worth our faith, only one Person we can completely believe in: the Sovereign Lord God. And those who believe in Him become strong because they have someone to believe in who is in control and is good. Faith alone will not get us through our situation. We need a faith that gives us strength, like Habakkuk. His faith was in a Sovereign Lord. No other god or version of god will do: only the Sovereign God who is good and has a plan for our good. He alone needs to be the subject of our faith. So we have learned about strength. But what about AGILITY?
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