(REFLECTIONS ON Habakkuk 3:1-19)

When we read that we should fear the Lord in Holy Scripture, do we too quickly explain it away as not really meaning fear, like being scared, but rather awe and reverence?

Or is the fear of the Lord more complicated and more profound than that? Is the fear of the Lord like most of our faith as Christians, a journey of realization, repentance, restoration, and transformation?

Habakkuk the prophet feared, no not just awe and reverence, but feared, and in his fear asked for the Lord to have mercy.

2 Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear.
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years,
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.

If we don’t truly live first in the fear, to truly know God in His wrath because He is a just and righteous God, then is it difficult for us to go through the journey that leads to true transformation?

If we don’t truly live first in the fear of God, then do we understand the depth of what Jesus Christ means to our life, and how the power of the Holy Spirit is not a nice to have, but we have no other substance on heaven or earth than can cure us of our disease?

Habakkuk saw clearly that the God whose wrath caused true fear in his heart was also the God who would bring salvation to His people. True fear of God, leads to understanding of what true salvation is. Salvation is not salvation if we don’t need it or can find it elsewhere.

When Habakkuk says, “I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered,” it wasn’t just awe and reverence but true fear, that led to realization that in the Lord alone is salvation.

18 Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
19 The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

True fear in the wrath of God leads to a journey of discovery, understanding, from wrath to mercy, to being in awe and reverence because God has provided a way for the salvation of the world.

Salvation is in Jesus Christ His Son, by the work of the Holy Spirit, but without true fear and understanding the wrath of a God against His creation, will we know why there is a need for salvation?

In wrath remember mercy becomes astonishing when we understand what we actually deserve from a righteous and just God. God is a merciful God, full of grace and is the author of salvation, but His wrath is also real.

Yes we should first fear, and then be in awe that a God of wrath can have such mercy on us in sacrificing His Son, Jesus Christ, for the salvation of the world. Oh Lord, in wrath remember mercy!

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Habakkuk 3