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Habakkuk
Habakkuk 1-12

Are You not from everlasting,
O LORD, my God, my Holy One?
We will not die.

It would be a great earthly comfort, although in a hospital bed, to awake alive; to return to the land of the living from a state of lengthy comatose.

Imagine yourself as such. You are in a state that seems neither death nor life. Things happen. Images seem real, but they are blurry. The sound is muffled and distorted. It is as though you are underwater with your eyes open, only the scenes that pass before your eyes and the sounds you hear do not there take place.

And then, suddenly, you are lifted to a world that seems familiar. Your eyes begin to open, for real. The light, though very bright, seems more genuine and real. Sounds gradually turn from a general hum to more definiteness and distinction. You see someone approaching you, and you can tell that the white resembles a physician's coat. In fact, it is. And although you have not seen him before, you 'just know' that he is the one assigned to your care.

'What has happened?' you wonder, as your mind begins to move more rapidly than it has in the nether realm, reaching for things of substance again.

As he approaches, you notice the steady, focused look on his face. You are taken by the fact that he is not smiling. He reaches your bed.

Of course, you are glad to be alive. But you are unsure as to what news he may offer, how his words may help bring clarity to what is now still confusion. You brace yourself as he easily thumbs over your chart. He examines it, wordlessly, still in deep concentration.

And then he looks up and greets you with what strikes you as a smile, 'Well I'm glad you've finally awakened! Things should be all right now. You're going to make it. You had a terrible accident that required many people to unpin you from your vehicle.'

You seem to sink back into the washout of oblivion, as what he says does not register at all in your memory. He is to you as a total stranger, but yet, friendly, and you desire more of his words.

He continues, 'We performed major surgery on many sections of your body. And it was truly successful. We got you just in time. And you're going to make it. You'll not die from this.'

And it is only after the operation, only after that brief conversation with the doctor, only after your time in the hospital, that you come to find out that the doctor you had was world renown for his abilities, often published in the medical journals, well respected among the community of top-notch surgeons for decades. And this one, with his great capabilities, has saved your life.

And if you are touched by a scene like that, then you can relate to what Habakkuk said at the beginning of his second 'complaint' to God, beginning at v.12, 'Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die.'

The book of Habakkuk is about the coming of the Chaldeans as God's instrument of judgment on a covenant breaking generation of Jews in the 6th century BC. It is also about how the righteous among them are so by faith, and thus live by that faith in difficult, even grievous times.

And although there are great jewels to mine from the prophecy of Habakkuk on the theme of faith (as we have in an earlier preaching series), this 12th verse of chapter one is itself a crown-worthy jewel. As it lies on the page sparkling before us, it reflects this light: It is a major comfort that, because God is who He is, we will not die. It is one thing to be spared from death by the specialized skill of a surgeon. But it is another to be spared from the realm of death by the Almighty and eternal God, underneath whom are 'the everlasting arms.' And as we rotate that gem, verse 12, its sparkle and luster indeed reflects that it is a major comfort that, because God is who He is, we will not die.

'Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die.' Although he indirectly emphasizes other attributes or qualities of God - lordship, sovereignty, personableness, and holiness - Habakkuk primarily focused on the eternality of God. 'Are You not from everlasting?' he says. (And that is not a question so much as it is a rhetorical device to make a statement of fact. He is holding God accountable to who He is as an everlasting God). Habakkuk rooted the major comfort of not dying in the reality that God Himself is eternal. 'Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die,' he says. Escaping death is here closely associated with the eternality of God. I.e., since God is everlasting, His people will not die. The lives of His people are bound up in His eternal life, and their death prevented by His everlasting nature. The firm truth of God's eternality was the basis for Habakkuk boldly and dramatically to state that Judah and he would not die. That is the implication and how the verse holds together. The experience of escaping death for the people of God by faith is dependent upon and relates to God's own character as the eternal, everlasting God.

The word 'ever' carries the sense of permanence to a word that comes after it. An 'evergreen' tree will always be green, whether summer or winter. 'Eveready' batteries are (apparently) always ready for use and (apparently) never wear down. The 'Everglades' always have glades and grass springing from their southern Florida waters. And so God, as an 'everlasting' God is One who lasts forever, One who not only always will be, but One who always is, in fact, always was. For this reason He is called 'the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, and the Beginning and the End' (Revelation 22:13). He is 'Him who is and who was and who is to come' (Revelation 1:4,8). He is 'the same yesterday and today and forever' (Hebrews 13:8). These are references to the eternality of God, a Being for whom the past, present, and future are all simultaneous and concurrent; One who concerning Himself knows no chronology, One with whom time has nothing in common, One who gives perfect gifts as 'the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow' (James 1:17). From everlasting to everlasting He is God (Psalm 90:2). He is 'L-O-R-D,' the 'I AM,' as God revealed to Moses (Exodus 3:14 and 6:2-3), not 'I WAS' or 'I WILL BE,' but 'I AM,' as Jesus taught (John 8:58). He is the ever- and self-existing God who knows no other Maker, either for Himself or His creatures. God is not in any way affected by time. He is the everlasting God who reigns supreme over time and space, over all creatures and all their actions.

Our minds have great difficulty, in fact we must confess it an impossibility, fully to comprehend the idea of eternity, and God as the eternal God. A cup is able to hold only a portion of the ocean, and so our minds only a bit of the idea of God's eternality. Our minds cannot contain a time when God was not. Neither can our minds grasp a time when there was only God and no creation. It is all shrouded in mystery. But the mystery invites us, compels us, draws us, to bow to Him in worship for even that about Him which we do not, cannot, fully understand. We marvel at the oceans, though we cannot fathom them nor contain them. And so it is with God.

Consider this 12th verse as a sparkling pool of summer refreshment. And as you would dive deep into its refreshing waters, you are surrounded with this comforting theme: because God is from everlasting, we will not die. To be comforted by this word of God, then, I want you to notice it in two ways:

1. In terms of Judah's exile and restoration

2. In terms of your sin and redemption

That is seen first, in terms of Judah's exile and restoration, for that is the context in which Habakkuk said it. This is the context of the book. Judah, the southern and remaining two tribes of Israel, were to receive the consequences for forsaking God and violating His covenant as the northern ten tribes did earlier. There was Judah, throughout much of her history, gradually and further turning away from God; serving Baal, burning incense to idols, walking after the way of the nations, trusting in them for security, not looking for Messiah to come.

They would be swept away in judgment to the land of Babylon. God warned them of this from long ago when He gave the curses found in Deuteronomy 28 (see Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 47-48, 63-66). And now, the time had come. God would not tolerate His name to be mocked by His people, or the surrounding nations because of them. He would show His justice in everybody's sight by sweeping Judah into the oppressive rule of the Babylonians just as a broom sweeps the floor's dirt into a dustpan.

But did God forsake Judah forever? No. As the passage itself states, He 'corrected' or reproved them. Their 'judgment' at the hand of the invading Babylonians was not Judah's final judgment. The judgment they faced, although it certainly brought about the deaths of many men, women, and children, did not bring an end to the people of God themselves. 'God's purpose according to election would stand.' Their national identity would take a serious blow, but they would not be completely annihilated. They would be chastened and corrected. And although many of them would die, they would not die as a nation.

Their exile in Babylon would be temporary. God gave two words of major comfort to the Babylon-bound Jews. First, He told them the exile would last for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12), after which Judah would be released and Babylon punished. And secondly, He told them there would be restoration after the exile (Jeremiah 29:10 see also 33:25-26; 31:35-37). Judah would be released, Babylon would be punished, and Judah would be allowed to reoccupy the Promised Land. There would be restoration, both to God and to their land.

Judah, as well as Habakkuk, then, knowing these things, could say with confidence, 'We will not die!' Why? Not only because of the promise made, but moreover because of the relationship God had with Judah. It was the relation of a Father to His children; and not just any father, 'the Everlasting Father' (Isaiah 9:6). Isaiah also said, on behalf of Israel, 'You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting' (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8). God was to Judah an everlasting Father who redeems from eternity, even as He chastened them for their sins.

When a father disciplines his child with very firm corporal discipline, the child, in his frailty, could easily think that he will die under it. Even when it is properly tempered with great love and warmth, the child can easily feel as though it is his end! The crying! The fear! The misery! The regret! The pleas! (Is that not right, children? Parents?) And we fathers and parents encourage them to see discipline for what it is - a means of rescuing them from death, not of bringing it.

And as Judah was being chastened under the hand of the Everlasting Father, they could by faith agree with the proverb, 'Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.' (Proverbs 23:13). 'Are You not from everlasting, O Lord?…We will not die.' We rightly look at this proverb (and others) and see that God would have us not cower from loving, physical discipline of our children, when appropriate. But do we see its implication for His correction of Judah; of even ourselves, His children? Because the Everlasting Father is just that, He chastens, corrects, and disciplines with His rods of judgment so that His people will not die. 'Are You not from everlasting, O Lord?…We will not die.'

The everlasting God and Father has made an everlasting covenant with His people (Genesis 17:7,13,19; Psalm 105:9-10; Isaiah 24:5; 55:3; 61:8; Jeremiah 32:40; 50:4-5; Ezekiel 16:60; 37:26). And so, God dealt with Judah according to His own everlasting nature. He committed Himself to a people by an everlasting covenant as an everlasting God and Father. And because He ever lives, the elect will too. Judgments and corrections, then, are not a means of bringing about death under God, but enhancing life with God. Since the elect are intimately bound with the everlasting God, they will not - indeed, cannot - die.

And so Habakkuk could hear of an exile to come, could contemplate an everlasting God and Father of an everlasting covenant, and even in the midst of sore, national chastening under God's heavy hand because of the misery of sin and failure, could rightly say by faith, 'You are from everlasting…we will not die!'

It is a major comfort that, because God is the Everlasting Father, we will not die.

But if you are to receive major comfort from the refreshing waters of v.12, you must see it not only in terms of Judah's exile and restoration. But see it secondly, in terms of your own sin and redemption.

Habakkuk was a man of faith; saving faith in Jesus Christ, by which he (and others like him) were saved and acknowledged as righteous in God's sight. As the New Testament claims (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; Acts 13:41), Habakkuk spoke of something greater than his own time. In this complaint he not only acknowledged the significance of God as the everlasting God for his time, but for all times; not merely as a comfort for God's people in the 6th century, but in each generation, even you within reach of these words now. Habakkuk's words echo even today, 'Are You not from everlasting, O Lord? We will not die.'

What joy and happiness it would be to say about yourself, 'I will not die.' No need to experience, let alone fear, the separation of the spirit from the body. No more good-byes to sick and dying loved ones on hospital beds as they are taken off respirators. No more painful reminiscence of sunny, simple childhood days forever gone, never to return again. No longer a nostalgia over all the vibrant, but unfulfilled, hopes and dreams of life; the bad choices whose affects cannot be reversed. No more pains, tears, fears, or anxieties about death and the end of this life.

And yet as pleasant as the thought might be, it would not be a responsible handling of either the plain Word of God or yourself as a fallen creature of God. You must see:

First, the consequence of your sin is that you will die. That is what God warned our first parents, that if they sinned and broke the covenant, they would die that same day: 'You will surely die' (Genesis 2:15-17). And God showed His justice by bringing on mankind the curse of death.

But there are three aspects to death as the consequence of sin that are necessary to understand.

First, sin's consequence of death has a spiritual aspect. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit he died the same day, just as God said he would. Surely, it was not the physical dimension of death. He lived hundreds of years after that fatal day (Genesis 5:5). But the relation between he and God was such that there was no longer fellowship or peace. Adam and all his posterity became 'dead in trespasses and sins' (Ephesians 2:1); hostile to God and steering his every descendant after him to the same path of disobedience he himself took. And so each person, though alive physically, is born spiritually dead and lifeless, having no inclination to acknowledge, worship, love, or obey God as He commands.

But sin's consequence of death has a physical aspect also. Though spiritually dead, man lives unbothered by it, inattentive to it. His heart still beats. His blood still flows. He eats, drinks, and goes about his life. All is fine. All goes on as it did from the beginning. 'I sin, but have not died!' he says with pride of spirit. Yet he is like one who runs through poison ivy buck naked, and because he does not immediately itch or see red bumps on his skin, thinks he has avoided it altogether. But no sooner does he think this then he begins to itch. And in the same way, the effects of the curse of death for sin become all too obvious for the sinner. He sees and hears of others dying. He suppresses his own mortality by his youthfulness or endeavors after it. But grandparents die, and parents, maybe friends. And then he considers himself. His body begins to sense death as death pulls the sinner closer to itself like a fisherman his largemouth bass. And the harder death pulls, the less one is able to resist. And then man takes his final breath, gives it back to God, and leaves the evidence of physical death behind for the living to 'take to heart' (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Many not moved by the reality of spiritual death are so moved when they are faced with the reality of physical death.

And last, sin's consequence of death has an everlasting aspect. Beyond being separated from the life and fellowship of God (spiritual death), beyond the soul being separated from the body (physical death), there is everlasting death, or final death. The Bible refers to this as 'the second death' where the souls and bodies of the wicked are tormented in the Lake of Fire forever and ever (see Revelation 20:10, 14-15; 21:8); 'the punishment of everlasting fire,' as Jude put it (Jude 7). It is full, final, and everlasting death. It cannot be reversed. And that is the terror of it - never ending torment.

And yet it is at that very point that Satan would seek to deceive you. Satan lies even today when he says as he did in the garden, 'You will not die' in response to God's 'You will surely die' (Genesis 3:3-4). There is here a warning for any of you who would casually, thoughtlessly, foolishly disregard the serious consequence of your sin; to live as though life will always be what it is; to deny the reality of your own death. You should 'cease trying forever that you should live on eternally and not undergo decay…that your house is forever' (Psalm 49:8-9, 11).

It is very possible that you could easily mistake the words of Habakkuk and provide for yourself a major comfort that is in reality a major deception. And so it is necessary to see that the devil not only twists the words of God, but puts forth a false hope for escape from death.

God would have you know and believe that the consequence of sin is that you will die.

But the gospel of Christ declares that you will not die. 'To God the Lord belong escapes from death' (Psalm 68:20). I.e., only through and by God can one escape the curse of death. It is God, and God alone, who makes a way of escape. Man, like Houdini, may escape from all sorts of traps. But none can escape from death unless God grants it. And to His eternal praise, He has!

It is at this very point that the everlasting God, the God of the everlasting covenant, brings glory to Himself. For there in eternity, in counsel with the Son of God, the Everlasting Father chose a people to Himself 'in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago' (Titus 1:2). And so the Son of God came to earth, Him 'whose goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity' (Micah 5:2). But what was His mission? Well what does God require but to 'perform His ordinances, and walk in His statutes?' And what is the reward for the person who does these things? 'He will not die for his father's iniquity, he will surely live' (Ezekiel 18:17).

And so Jesus did what mankind does not - He lived for God. Jesus restored what Adam ruined; He reverses what man brought! He lived the obedient life required of Adam. What God requires of you is what Christ furnishes for you in the gospel - a perfect righteousness acceptable to God; a life to fulfill all righteousness, a death to remove all sin. So He gave Himself as a substitute on the cross.

Have you seen the 1st part of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy? There is a scene where the fellowship is passing through the dark Mines of Moria. And after defeating a band of orcs and a cave troll, they are chased and surrounded by more. But then the Balrog - this massive creature of smoke and fire - begins to rumble from below. So they run. The orcs chase with arrows. They come to a gulf, able only to be crossed by a narrow stone bridge. They begin to cross. Because of the rumbling and rise of the Balrog below, it cracks, and separates. But Gandalf manages to bring the fellowship over to the other side. And then, when the Balrog is standing full length, smoking, and breathing fire, Gandalf turns around, his staff raised in both hands. He slams it into the stone bridge and shouts to the Balrog, 'You shall not pass!' The Balrog attempts to come closer. Again Gandalf slams his staff into the stone bridge and shouts, 'You shall not pass!' And as the Balrog takes another step, it is his final step. The bridge collapses and down goes the Balrog to the nether world taking Gandalf with him. But the fellowship is safe on the other side because of Gandalf's courageous death.

That is a picture of the gospel. There was Jesus, allowing for his fellows to pass beyond Him to a point of safety on the other side of the gulf, with only He between them and their common enemy. And then He turned to the Balrog of sin, death, and the devil himself, lifted high His cross and declared to them, 'You shall not pass!' He went to His death for the destruction of sin, death, and the devil, but for also the safety of His people.

It is as Jesus said, 'he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life' (John 5:24). I.e., 'he will not die!'

And even as Gandalf the Grey returned as Gandalf the White, so Jesus the Taker of death in His crucifixion returned as the Lord of life in His resurrection; ready to conquer the forces of Hades as Gandalf did the Uruk-Hai at Helm's Deep.

Jesus said, 'because I live, you will live also' (John 14:19). Did you hear that? 'Because I live, you will live also.' If your life is bound up in His everlasting resurrection life, then your death was bound up in His. Christian, He took your death, and gave you His life! You have entered into the everlasting fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (see 1 John 1:3). 'Are You not from everlasting, O Lord? We will not die.' And so you can confess to Him from the bottom of your hearts and from top of your lungs, 'Dying you destroyed our death. Rising you restored our life.' Or to put it into a psalm of praise, you say, 'I shall not die, but live and tell Jehovah's power to save' (Psalm 118:17). You can also confess with Gandalf-like conviction: 'though danger come against me, though the devil tempt me, though the flesh entice me, though the world oppose me, and though my earthly life forsake me 'I will not die.' The Lord Jesus is 'the resurrection and the life,' and he who believes in Him will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Him will never die' (John 11:26). I.e., the only death for the people of God is physical death. And even as you go through this dark threshold, what is it, really, but a door that immediately swings wide open to everlasting life in the presence of your Everlasting God and Father. Dying physically, you will live eternally. And if you have ears to hear, it is better to die once and live twice than to live once and die twice.

But you must hear a closing word of exhortation. If you would not die, but live, you must repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ. You must leave your sin as a toddler does an approaching, barking dog; as a rocket does its launch pad. You must leave sin. And, you must take Christ to you by faith as a moth takes to bright light; as a child takes to a puddle of water. And if you do that, the Lord offers this promise through the prophet Ezekiel, 'Because he considered and turned away from all his transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die' (Ezekiel 18:28; see also 33:15). If you would not die, but live, you must turn from your sin to the everlasting God and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. And if you do, the words of the prophet Nathan will be true for you even as they were for adulterous and murderous David, 'The Lord has taken away your sin; you shall not die.' (2 Samuel 12:13).

'God,' the everlasting God and Father of Jesus Christ in the halls of eternity, 'so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life' (John 3:16). 'Are You not from everlasting, O Lord? We will not die.'

Whether concerning Judah in their exile and restoration, or your own sin and redemption, it is a major comfort that, because God is an everlasting Father to His people through Jesus Christ, they will not die. The consequence of sin is that you will die. But the gospel of Christ declares that you will live upon repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ.

Do you fear death? Are you afraid to die? Are you anxious as that inevitable day approaches? Have you taken responsibility before God for your sin and death, and so, prepared for eternity?

May it be that at the time of your death - whenever, wherever, and however that may come - you can lay down in peace to die as one ready and shielded by the grace of God in Christ. So I bid you to come to Christ now that you may live, and not die. 'Why will you die, O Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord. Therefore, repent and live' (Ezekiel 18:31).