Title [Habakkuk's Transcendent Thanksgiving] Habakkuk 3:16-19
Contents
[Habakkuk's Transcendental Thanksgiving] Habakkuk 3:16-19 2007.07.22. Sunday evening worship
1) When you find gratitude, the conditions of gratitude are not far away, but are nearby. Looking back, everything is grace and something to be thankful for. I have a warm family, I have parents to rely on, I have brothers to discuss with, I have a job to work, I have daily bread and clothes to wear, I have a church to pray and worship at times, and I have saints to share love with. That's why I'm always grateful when I look back.
2) Among them, it is the greatest condition of gratitude that we are saved and live with Almighty God. With this kind of faith, we can even face tribulations and trials with gratitude. Then those conditions become a gift from God that is beneficial to me. This is because treasures such as gold are hidden behind hardships and refinements.
3) Habakkuk in today's text gives thanks as a person who found such a treasure, like a person who found the hidden treasure through a complicated maze. Habakkuk's gratitude is called gratitude that transcends circumstances. Let's take a look at his gratitude.
1. Habakkuk's transcendental thanksgiving is a thanksgiving given in front of the fear of war.
1) It is a situation in which war will soon rage like darkness, and Babylon, the strongest country in the world, is pushing to devour Judah. In a war all men will die and children and women will become slaves and slaves. The country will be destroyed and the people will have no way to live. It's a terrifying situation. Those rumors make your bones rot and your body tremble.
Habakkuk 3:16. “My bowels trembled because I heard, and my lips trembled at the voice of his voice. Corruption has come in my bones, and my body trembles in my dwelling place, as I await the day of tribulation when the multitudes come up against us.”
2) Habakkuk prays because he can't stand the hellish situation in which the whole country is devastated by the fear of war, the temple is destroyed, and people lose their lives. “Lord, why do we have to suffer like this?” Sometimes we cannot understand what God is doing. Such are the tribulations and difficulties experienced by God's people, and the sufferings of God's children in the world. When Habakkuk experienced this, he prayed to God and prayed again. He was able to give thanks as his continuous prayer changed into the image of God who was refined through tribulation.
3) A tree can bear ripe and luscious fruit only when its roots become thicker in drought, harden in the cold wind of winter, and endure storms and scorching heat. A mother's pain of childbirth becomes the life of her child, and as a couple go through tribulations and trials together, they experience a deeper sense of unity. Was Habakkuk's faith strengthened through tribulation?