Our scripture reading for this evening, to which I invite you to turn with me at this time, is found once again in the Old Testament, so-called minor prophet of Habakkuk. We begin once again in Habakkuk chapter one. In the Old Testament, near the end of the Old Testament, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk chapter one. We began our series of messages on the book of Habakkuk last Lord's Day evening concerning the theme when God doesn't seem to make sense, when God doesn't make sense. Since that time, I read in a commentary by the late Dr. James Montgomery Boyce that Habakkuk is a profound book, one which delves deeply into the mysteries of God, end of quote. And we look again at one of those deep mysteries of God this evening, concerning the theme when God doesn't seem fair, when God doesn't seem fair. We begin reading, brothers and sisters, in Habakkuk 1, verse 12. We read to the end of the second chapter, verse 20. And we will be looking at some of those verses in a bit more detail. And unfortunately, because of the limitations of time, we will have to simply summarize some of the highlights of others. But let us hear God's word as we pick up our scripture reading then in Habakkuk 1, verse 12. Let us hear the word of the Lord. Habakkuk continues, O Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O Lord, you have appointed them to execute judgment. O rock, you have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks. He catches them in his net. He gathers them up in his dragnet. And so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet. For by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. So to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy, I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts. I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Then the Lord replied, Write down the revelation and make a plain on tablets, so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. See, he is puffed up. His desires are not upright, but the righteous will live by his faith. Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at rest, because He is as greedy as the graves and like death is never satisfied. He gathers to Himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples. Will not all of them taunt Him with ridicule and scorn, saying, Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion? How long must this go on? Will not your debtors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? then you will become their victim. Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed man's blood, you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain, to set his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin. You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime. Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. As the waters covers the sea, Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that they can gaze on their naked bodies. You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn. Drink and be exposed. The cup from the Lord's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and your destruction of animals will terrify you, for you have shed man's blood. And you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation. He makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, come to life, or to lifeless stone, wake up. Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver. There is no breath in it. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him. Thus far, the reading of God's Holy Word. As always, dear friends, I ask and urge you to keep your Bibles open and handy as you look to God's Word together this evening. Dear congregation of Jesus Christ, That's not fair. Have you ever heard or thought or spoken those words before? Hey, that's not fair. Well, friends, these are the kind of words which one might hear from a child protesting their perception of an assigned punishment from their parents. These are the kind of words one might hear on a School playground, there's one group of classmates protest to another group of classmates that they are violating the rules of the game. These are the kind of words which we might prayerfully ponder in our own hearts and minds when we are informed that a young child has been stricken with what seems to be terminal cancer. Kind of words we might prayerfully ponder when we read in the news that a completely innocent bystander has been killed by a stray bullet in gang warfare in one of our inner cities. It's the kind of words which we might prayerfully ponder when we hear of a faithful spouse being divorced by a faithless spouse. It's the kind of words which we might prayerfully ponder when everything which you had planned out, everything which I had planned out, all of the things that we had set in place seemingly with such fine order and promise crumble before our very eyes. And as they say, our dreams are turned to dust, our dreams are turned to ashes. Sometimes we may ponder these things when we hear or read of people who are gaming the system. You know what I mean by that? They're gaming the system. And here we are, working hard, paying our taxes, paying our bills, and while they prosper, we seem to suffer for it. I had a seminary professor who was wrestling with this issue of suffering, the problem of suffering. And in a humorous vein, he wrote, and I quote, Why did Beethoven lose his hearing while the punk rock freak seemed to keep theirs? Sometimes life just seems unfair. Would you not agree with me, brothers and sisters, that there are times when it seems as if God is not being fair? Interestingly enough, this is precisely the issue. This is precisely the problem. This is precisely that which the prophet Habakkuk was wrestling with some 2,600 years ago. And as we begin to work our way through the words of our scripture reading for this evening as recorded in Habakkuk 1, verse 12 through 2, verse 20, we find that just as was true for the prophet of old, so too we as God's people also today we'll find ourselves being incredibly comforted to the extent we simply find ourselves walking before God's face by faith. We will be finding ourselves incredibly comforted to the extent that by God's grace, we find ourselves walking before His face simply by faith, even and especially at those times when God doesn't seem fair. Now then, as we begin to work our way through the words of our text together, let us first of all consider Habakkuk's complaint. Look at verse 12 of Habakkuk 1 with me, if you would please. Here we read, Are you not from everlasting? In the Hebrew the word order is actually reversed. It says in the Hebrew, are you not from everlasting, O Lord? My God, my Elohim, my Holy One, we will not die. Now friends, think about what Habakkuk is doing here. Right at the beginning of this passage, Habakkuk is already calling on, he is drawing on the character of God himself. He refers to God as Yahweh. He is saying, Lord, You are a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. And He also refers to Him as Elohim. That's the word used of God in Genesis 1. In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. And so He's acknowledging God's creative power and glory and majesty and sovereignty. And He's saying, Lord, You have made a covenant with us. You have created us. You are a holy God. And as the prophet basked in the blessing of God's character, the Spirit moves him to pen the words, we will not die. In other words, Habakkuk is saying to you and me, brothers and sisters, no matter how dark, no matter how depressing, no matter how dire the circumstances of life may be, because God is God, Because God is who He says He is. Because we are His people. Because He has made a covenant with us. In an ultimate sense, we will not die. Think about that. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 1.21 says, For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. In John 11, Jesus said to a weeping Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he die. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. So Habakkuk, in the midst of, we went into the history of all this last week, so I'm not going to repeat all of the history of this book, of this time, of this prophecy. But in the midst of all that, he calls on the name of Yahweh. He calls on the name of Elohim. He says, in spite of it all, we will not die. Think about that, think about that. Writes the great reformer John Calvin, and I quote, This is a truth much needed. For Satan darkens, as with clouds, the favor of God when any adversity happens to us and when God himself thus tests or proves our faith." Anne adds the Reformation Study Bible, a personal relationship to the incomparable God, the Holy One. turns confusion into conviction that the present anguish will not be the end. End of quote. And brothers and sisters, that's true. That really is true. All glory be to God. But that doesn't end Habakkuk's concern, it does not end his pressing complaint, for he goes on in verse 12 to say. Oh, Lord, You have appointed them, that is the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, you have appointed them to execute judgment. That is, upon my wicked, unrepentant, rebellious people, Judah. O Lord, you have appointed them to execute judgment. O Rock, speaking of the strength, the stability, the security that God's people have in him, O Rock, you have ordained them to punish. And Habakkuk gets that. He concedes that. He realizes what God is doing. But brothers and sisters, that begs the question that he goes on to press before the Lord, and that is on your heart and my heart tonight, and that's in verse 13. And he says, your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? Think about that. Think about that. As I was pondering that complaint of Habakkuk, a particular psalm came to mind. And maybe it did to you, too. It's a psalm by Asaph, psalm 400 years prior. And in Psalm 73, the psalmist Asaph says essentially the same thing. And he says in Psalm 3, for I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Verses 12-14 of Psalm 73. This is what the wicked are like, always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure, in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued, I have been punished every morning. That's the burden that Asaph was carrying, and that's the burden that Habakkuk was carrying as well. And so he continues that burden, he continues that complaint, if you will, in verse 14 of our text. Look with me, please. He says, You have made men like fish in the sea. You have made men like fish in the sea. Did you ever hear the expression, brothers and sisters, wow, that's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Did you ever hear that expression? That's what he's saying. He's saying Babylon is a marauding power that is conquering other lands and enslaving other peoples as easy as it would be to shoot fish in a barrel. That's what he's saying. And saying, God, how can you look at that? How can you stand silent in the face of that? You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler. In other words, there's no one to protect them. Just as if many times in your life or mine, we may feel like there's no one to defend us, for example. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks. He catches them in his net. He gathers them up in his dragnet. And so he rejoices in his glad. Therefore, he sacrifices to his net. He burns incest to his dragnet for by his net. He lives in luxury and enjoys the choices food. Remember what we read last week, brothers and sisters, in verse 11? Look with me at Habakkuk 1, verse 11, speaking of Babylon. He said, Then they sweep past like the wind and go on. They're like a tornado that passes through, leaving destruction in their wake, guilty men whose own strength is their God. Whose own strength is their God. They worship their own power. They worship their own position. They worship their own plunder, that which they are able to do to other lands and other peoples. So they sacrifice to themselves, is what verse 15, 16 is saying. Then verse 17, it says he is to keep on empty. Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy, destroying nations without mercy? Friends, that's essentially Habakkuk's complaint. And if you and I were truly honest with ourselves, probably more frequently than we would care to admit. That's our complaint to God as well, Lord. It just doesn't seem fair. Ah, but notice, but notice. As we get to chapter two, verse one, Habakkuk seems to take a, what I'm calling a prayerful pause. Sort of the equivalent of the psalmist silah. He stops. He says in verse one, I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts. King James Version says on the tower. I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint. In other words, he's waiting to hear from God so he can go back to the people and answer that same complaint which they're sharing and which you and I share tonight. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts, I will look to see, he's waiting, I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Now friends, notice two things here, very, very important. First of all, please note that in a certain sense, Habakkuk has had to separate himself somewhat from the pressure of the problem in order to gain a proper perspective. I'm gonna try to say that again. Habakkuk needs, in a certain sense, to separate himself somewhat from the pressure of the problem in order to gain a proper perspective. That is, he went up on the watchtower, he went up on the ramparts, sort of to get away from it all. Very important. John Calvin says that the tower, listen, I'm quoting Calvin, is the recesses of the mind. Calvin says the tower is the recesses of the mind, the place to which we must retreat mentally in order to gain a proper perspective. Now, as I was prayerfully pondering that point, a passage of scripture came to mind, maybe to you too, and it's Colossians 3, verses 1 through 4. Colossians 3, verses 1 through 4, where Paul writes, since then, You have been raised with Christ. Put ourselves in the midst of all of these questionings of the fairness of God and the unfairness of life and the oppressive circumstances of life. But listen to this. Paul says, since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Calvin's saying, go to the ramparts. Habakkuk is saying, go up on the tower. Get away from it all, at least for a time. Get away from the pressure, so that mentally, emotionally, spiritually, you can gain a proper perspective. We need a heavenly perspective. We need a God-like perspective. We need to go up on the ramparts, you see. We need to go to the same place and we need to do the same thing that Habakkuk did. Friends, essentially, having done that, we have summarized here his complaint that God With all love and respect, you simply don't seem fair. Okay? How about let's go to notice now as our text continues. We're not going to simply focus on Habakkuk's complaint. But secondly, we are going to consider what I'm calling the Lord's comeback, the Lord's comeback. Look at verse two of Habakkuk chapter two with me if you would. Here we read. Then the Lord replied, write down the revelation. Write down, the Hebrew says, the Chazon. If you're taking notes, you would transliterate it. C-H-A-Z-O-N. Chazon. Unique term. Used only in reference to a vision which a prophet of the Lord has received and has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. That's the word. Vision, some of the translations say. Chazon. Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets. Brothers and sisters, you and I need to remember that as God's people, we are people of the book. We are people of the Bible. And that is why, if you're taking notes, you may wish to jot down the fact that God said that exact same thing to the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 30, verse 8. And He said the exact same thing to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 36, verse 2. And He says it here also to Habakkuk. He says, write down the revelation, make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. He said, this is the word of the Lord. It's got to go far and wide. It's got to reach into the hearts and minds of all of my people. Verse three, for the revelation, the Kazon, the vision awaits an appointed time. It awaits an appointed time. Brothers and sisters, think about that. The Bible says that God's thoughts are not our thoughts. The Bible says that God's ways are not our ways. In fact, it says that specifically in Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9. And God's timing is not our timing. God's timing is not our timing. In fact, if you would care to turn with me, let's go to the Gospel according to John just for a moment. The second chapter, the first four verses. In John chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, we read, On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to Him, They have no more wine. Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, My time has not yet come. God's time is not our time. Our time is not God's time. Let's go over to the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 through 7. The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 4, 4 through 7, But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. He said, when the time had fully come, He sent His Son. Brothers and sisters, I love prayerfully pondering some of these texts, because the Spirit brings other texts to mind. Another one he brought to my mind that I was considering, that portion of Habakkuk 2, was Psalm 130. In Psalm 130, verses 5 and 6, the psalmist says, I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. And in His word, I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman waits for the morning. More than the watchman waits for the morning, you see. And brothers and sisters, when God seems far off, But it doesn't seem to be like he's making any sense. When it seems like God just isn't fair. It's precisely. What you and I need to do as well. To wait on the Lord. To read his word, we must wait not for our time, but for his time. To be fulfilled, you see. In fact, back in the words of our text, look at verse three again with me. He says, For the revelation awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Get this. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay and will not delay. In other words, God is saying to the prophet and indeed to all of his people everywhere that even at those times when it seems, God says, if I'm not being fair, Rest assured of the fact that justice delayed is not justice denied. Justice delayed, God says, is not justice denied. And so He says, yeah, I'm going to use the wicked, unrepentant Babylonians to punish my people, Judah. But remember, brothers and sisters, Hebrews 12, verse 6 tells us, Hebrews 12, 6, the Lord disciplines those He loves and punishes everyone He accepts as a son. Even though I'm going to do that, He says to his people, rest assured that the Babylonians are going to get theirs. The Babylonians are going to get theirs. The Babylonians are going to get theirs. He says it speaks of the end. It will not prove false, though it linger. Wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. It's going to happen. Did a little historical research. And it did happen, it did happen. Historians record the fact that on October 29, 539 B.C., October 29, 539 B.C., the Lord our God used the Persian king Cyrus to invade and conquer Babylon, and Cyrus utterly destroyed the previously mighty and seemingly indestructible Babylonian Empire. That's what happened. It wasn't God's time, you see, but it happened. And in a nutshell, that was the Lord's comeback to Habakkuk's complaint. But friends, thirdly and finally, concerning the theme, when God doesn't seem fair, I would like us to consider our comfort, our comfort. Let's pick it up in verse four of Habakkuk 2. Look with me, please. See, behold, he is puffed up. A reference either to the king of Babylon personally or to the kingdom of Babylon corporately. It's interesting that in the Hebrew, the word nephesh is used. His soul, his nephesh, is puffed up. It's a good translation. It's a verb that literally means to swell. He's swelling with pride. See, he is puffed up. His desires are not upright. Notice. But, contrast, the righteous will live by his faith. He is puffed up. His desires are not upright, but the righteous will live by his faith. Brothers and sisters, we need to note that that particular text marks a critical turning point in the heart and mind of Habakkuk concerning the theme when God doesn't seem fair. And that particular text, brothers and sisters, also needs to mark a critical turning point in your heart and mind and mine at those times when we feel the same way. And God doesn't seem fair. Critical text. He is puffed up. His desires are not upright, but the righteous will live by his faith. Some of us may know that that text is quoted three times in the New Testament. If you're taking notes, it's quoted, for example, in Galatians 3, verse 11 by the Apostle Paul, Galatians 3, 11. It's also quoted in Hebrews 10, verses 37 and 38. The key text where it's quoted in the New Testament, to which I would like you to turn with me just for a moment, is in the book of Romans, the first chapter, verses 16 and 17. In Romans 1, verses 16 and 17, the Apostle Paul writes this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power, it is the dunamis, it is the dynamite of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, and here's the quote from Habakkuk, the righteous will live by faith. The righteous will live by faith. The righteous will live by faith. Now many of us may know that that was the text which God used to have a profound impact on the great reformer Martin Luther. In fact, in the Men's Bible Study Breakfast just a couple of weeks ago, I shared with them the impact that that text had on Martin Luther. And I read to the brothers at that time just this one little passage I want to share with you also. It says this, Luther's discovery of the gospel, as it has been called, came during his scholarly labors as a doctor in Biblia. The pivotal text was Romans 117. Quote, at last, as I meditated, Luther said, day and night on the relation of the words, the righteousness of God is revealed in it. As it is written, the righteous person shall live by faith. I began to understand that righteousness of God is that by which the righteous person lives by the gift of God. In this sentence, the righteousness of God is revealed to refer to a passive righteousness by which the merciful God justifies us by faith. As it is written, the righteous person lives by faith. This has immediately made me feel as though I had been born again, as though I had entered through the open gates into paradise itself. From that moment I saw the whole face of Scripture in a new light. And now where I had once hated the phrase, the righteousness of God, I began to love and extol it as the sweetest of phrases, so that this passage in Paul became the very gate of paradise to me." End of quote. Again, quoting the words of Martin Luther. The point, brothers and sisters, is that our faith in God, the righteous will live by faith, doesn't only have to do with deliverance of city-states like Jerusalem and Judah. It has to do with the salvation of our very souls and the way we view life as we walk through this veil of tears, you see. The righteous will live by faith. Habakkuk here is making an incredible contrast between those who wait upon God and put their faith in God and those who shake their fist in the face of God and go on their own sinful, selfish, unrepentant, prideful ways. You see? Tremendous contrast. That's why in verse 5, He goes on to say, indeed, wine, we don't know if it's literal wine, because the Babylonians were known to be heavy drinkers. Most commentators believe it's a figurative wine, the wine of an intoxicating pride in their own power, be that as it may. Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at rest, because he is as greedy as the graves, and like death, is never satisfied. The book of Proverbs, the 27th chapter, verse 20, Proverbs 27, 20 says that same thing, that the grave is never satisfied. He gathers to himself all the peoples and take captives all nations and takes captive all the peoples. Now friends, stay with me. Here's what we're gonna have to summarize, and I apologize for that. Beginning in verse six, there's a series of five woes. A woe, boys and girls, young people, most commentators believe is taken from a funeral lament. It's essentially a pronouncement of death, a pronouncement of destruction, woe. In fact, in the New Testament, in the Gospel according to Matthew, the 23rd chapter, our Lord Jesus pronounces a series of woes upon the scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of the law. There's five of them in the remaining portion of our lesson. But those five woes compose what biblical scholars refer to as a taunt song or a taunt poem. And the reason they refer to it that way is because what we are about to highlight only is that the previously oppressed people are now taunting their prior oppressor. They are taunting Him, they are taunting them because they know that their destruction is going to come. That those who seem so powerful and impregnable are going to fall. So they taunt them, they mock them, they scorn them, they laugh at them. These five woes kind of summarize it all. For example, and again I apologize for the brevity of this. The first woe in verse six following says, woe to those who pile up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion. If you drop down to the second woe in verse nine, woe to him who builds realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin, plotting the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The third woe in verse 12, woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime. It goes on in the fourth woe in verse 15, and following, woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that they can mock and shame and ridicule other people. And then the fifth woe is, it's in a different format, but it is a woe in verses 18 through 20. We read of what value is an idol since a man has carved it, or an image that teaches lies. For he who makes it trusts in his own creation. He makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, come to life, or to lifeless stone, wake up. Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver. There is no breath in it. We were talking in our catechism class this morning about all of the idols in this world. We are incurably religious. Romans 1, 18 and following says that we've denied the knowledge of the true God, though He displays His glory and His power in all creation. General Revelation. And I asked the young people, I said, well, if they deny the knowledge of God, if they deny the existence of God, then do they not worship anything? And these young people were so sharp, they said, no, they will worship someone or something, it's just not God. That's true. We are incurably religious. Pascal said there is a God-shaped vacuum inside every one of us, a vacuum that only God can fill. If we are not gonna worship the true God through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, we will worship someone or something. That's how we're made. And we talked about all the different idols in this world. That's a message for another time, but it was great. The brothers and sisters in contrast and stark and direct contrast to these idols, which cannot even speak. The one true God speaks, and he says in his word in verse 20, but contrast, the Lord Yahweh is in his holy temple. We have that printed in our bulletin every Sunday. But the Lord is in his holy temple. His temple in Jerusalem, his temple in the heavens, his sanctuary on earth. But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him. I was listening to Ravi Zacharias on Redeemer broadcasting the other day. He said, man, he said, sometimes you go into these worship services and as you're leaving, you're going, what in the world was that all about? All the noise and the chaos and the confusion. Why do you think we worship the way we worship? The Lord. Elohim Adonai Jehovah Jireh Is in his holy temple But all the earth silent Before him Verse 14 The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So it is any wonder the prophet says the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him. John Calvin, the great reformer, in his commentary on verse 20 of our text says this, and I quote, Calvin says, silence means voluntary submission. But the prophet here shows that there is power in God to lay prostrate the whole world and to tread it under His feet whenever it may please Him, so that the faithful have nothing to fear, for they know that their salvation is secured. For though the whole world were leagued against them, yet it cannot resist God. Forget Babylon, brothers and sisters. Let the whole world be leagued against us. I cannot resist God, you see. You know, several years ago, my sister Sue gave me a poem. The poem is entitled, The Master Weaver. And as we close, I share it with you. It goes like this. My life is but a weaving between my God and me. I cannot choose the colors he weaveth steadily. Oft times he weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride. Forget he sees the upper and I the underside. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason why. The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned. Think about that. Consequently, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard Habakkuk's complaint, as well as the Lord's comeback, may you and I be found incredibly comforted, may we be found incredibly comforted even and especially at those times when God doesn't seem fair. Amen. Let's bow our heads and our hearts in prayer together. Oh Lord, our God, in the midst of a fallen, sin-cursed world, which far too frequently doesn't seem to make sense. And also at those very personal and painful times in our lives when even you, a faithful heavenly father, do not seem fair. But Lord, especially at those times, by your grace, increase our faith, we pray. so that we would also be comforted by the sacred poet who penned the words, he knows, he loves, he cares. Nothing this truth can dim. He gives the very best to those who leave the choice with him. Hear us, oh sovereign God, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.