The Commentary

There is so much happening in Britain which is both depressing and quite frightening for Christians at present. How can we keep our spirits up?

The great anchor for the Christian’s joy is the sovereignty of God which does not diminish when times are bad. To encourage our own congregation recently we have been looking at the Old Testament prophecy of Habakkuk. They were dark days for the prophet. Because of their sins, his nation was facing invasion by the brutal Babylonians at the behest of God. Habakkuk had to work through some agonising questions about what God was doing. But one of the standout features of his book is his great prayer: ‘LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy’ (3.2).

Notice that he prays for God to renew his mighty acts ‘in our day, in our time’. What day is that? What time is he referring to? Clearly, it is the period of the invasion and resulting captivity.

Wrath and mercy

It is a striking truth that God often works most dynamically when things are at their worst. It was in the suffering of Egypt that God made Israel into a vast nation (Genesis 46.3). Revival usually begins in bad times. Think about some of God’s great Old Testament promises concerning the Spirit. ‘I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground’ (Isaiah 44.3). Into the devastating drought the Spirit comes. Ezekiel’s bones were very dry. They represent death to the nth degree. Yet they were revived! This principle can be gloriously illustrated from church history.

We can look back on what took place in the Reformation period. We know the condition of the church before the fuse of the explosive movement of God was lit in the ministry of Martin Luther. Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, had been in the Vatican. He filled the palace with his own illegitimate children and did not hesitate to lift them to positions of influence. He was succeeded by Julius II, the warrior pope. Then came Leo X, the Medici pope, who said, ‘God has given us the papacy; let us enjoy it’. All across Europe the church was in a ruinous condition; poor superstitious and ignorant people as sheep without a shepherd. But then came Luther with his rediscovery of salvation by faith alone. With the mighty hammer of the word of God he shattered the corrupt church establishment and held high the banner of Jesus Christ and him crucified. It was on dry ground that God’s reviving Spirit fell.

Confusion and decadence

The same was true of England in the 18th century. Bishop J.C. Ryle, in his Christian Leaders, tells of the great lawyer Blackstone visiting the principal churches of London early in the reign of George III. His report was that there was no more Christianity in the sermons he heard than in the writings of Cicero and that it was impossible to discover whether the preachers followed Muhammad, Confucius or Jesus Christ. Along with this, of course, many of the population were caught up in the decadence of the times and the gin craze so ably depicted in Hogarth’s lithographs. But this was the scene upon which revival burst through the ministries of Whitefield and the Wesleys.

Habakkuk knew that mercy could work in the midst of wrath. There may be very hard times coming for us. But God can simultaneously work great salvation. So let us not lose heart but pray like Habakkuk. Perhaps Passion for Life will be his vehicle?

Hope in hard times

Wrath and mercy

Confusion and decadence

John Benton

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