While we don’t remember every scene in every movie we watch, we often remember the climax. Luke Skywalker destroys the Death Star when he shoots two proton torpedoes into a small exposed opening. Marty McFly goes back to the future when lightning hits the clock tower simultaneously powering his DeLorean time machine. Lightning McQueen decides to help “The King” get to the finish line instead of winning the Piston Cup. Each of those are memorable climaxes for movies most of us have seen.
While Habakkuk 1:5 was the introduction of God’s oracle and Habakkuk 1:6-10 was the explanation of that oracle, now we see Habakkuk 1:11 is the climax: “Then they [Babylonians] will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.”[1]
We see that the Babylonians will reign and only God will stop them. As one Bible teacher has said, “God may seem to be strangely silent and inactive in threatening circumstances. He sometimes gives unexpected answers to our prayers. And He sometimes uses unlikely instruments to correct His people.”[2] That unlikely instrument is the nation of Babylon. But we also see that the Babylonian’s source of their reign will be temporary. The phrase, “whose strength is their god” indicates that their strength will be their demise. Their might will cause their downfall.
In Habakkuk 1:6–10 we learned that God is just in how he deals with Israel in a specific way. What we learn from Habakkuk 1:11 is that God is gracious in how he deals with us in a different way. Let’s look at Acts 13:39–41 to see how God interacts with us differently now than he did with Israel then:
And through Him [Jesus] everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: “Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish; for I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.”
Let me explain the significance of these three verses. While there are different ways to outline the book of acts,[3] I want to emphasize the gospel outline in which the gospel is directed toward the Jews (Acts 1—10) and then to the gentiles (Acts 11—28). God makes it clear in the book of Acts that God is no longer using one nation—Israel—to display his glory. No longer is Israel the mediator. Now all people have access to God through one man: Jesus Christ.
When Christ died on the cross he fulfilled the law. The end of that law is why we don’t sacrifice a lamb at the end of our church services, why we worship on Sunday(the day of the resurrection) not Saturday(the day of the Sabbath), and why we don’t practice the feasts of the Old Testament. We live in the time of grace. We interact with God because of the grace offered to us. We are not interacting with God based on the law that was given to Israel. We don’t have the same obligations as Israel under the law because we are gentiles living in the age of grace.
What implications do we experience because of that grace? If we forgot to pray this morning we don’t have to worry about God sending lightening to strike and correct us. God is not going to give us all red lights on our way to work on Monday to punish us for forgetting to put our tithe check in the offering plate on Sunday. We don’t worship a fickle god that has petty disagreements with us. We worship a God that gave his Son to die for us and his desire is that we place our faith in his Son and obediently follow him. That’s what it means to live in the age of grace.
[1] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
[2] Thomas Constable, Notes on Habakkuk, p. 21.
[3] There’s a geography outline focusing on what occurs in Jerusalem (Acts 1—7), Judea (Acts 8), and Samaria (Acts 9—28). There’s also a ministry outline profiling the ministry of Peter (Acts 1—12) and Paul (Acts 13—28).