Genesis 40 Series, Part 27, Habakkuk 3:2

Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Today is study #27 in Genesis 40. Last time we were looking at Habakkuk 3:2:

O JEHOVAH, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O JEHOVAH, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

We have been following this word “revive” in the Bible. We went to Judges 15 regarding Samson, and Ezekiel 37 regarding the valley of dry bones that stood upon their feet. We looked at Revelation 11 where the spirit of life entered into the two prophets, and we went to Genesis 45 where Jacob’s spirit revived in the midst of a seven-year tribulation. And that verse was helpful in understanding Habakkuk 3:2 where it says, “revive thy work in the midst of the years…in wrath remember mercy.” So we started to look at the work of JEHOVAH, and as we listen to the Bible, we found that God’s work has to do with salvation. We know this because Jesus was asked in John 6:28-29:

…What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

This is a very wonderfully designed scripture, is it not? It is the work of God, not your work. It is God’s work that you believe, as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Saving faith is never man’s faith – it is always God’s faith. “This is the work of God, that ye believe.” 

Then we went to John 9:3-4:

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Last time we related that to the day of salvation, which is not a single day. It was a prolonged period of time in which the Lord saved His elect people over the course of thousands of years. He accomplished His work in the day of salvation.

By the way, we at EBible Fellowship speak of the Day of Judgment, which is also a prolonged period of time. Some people respond, “Do you not understand the meaning of the word ‘day’?” Yes, we know that in secular society a day is a 24-hour period, but with the Bible we cannot use the world’s definition for words. Sometimes we must look for precedent that God has established concerning a word. The word “day” in the Bible can mean the typical meaning of day, but in other cases there can be a far longer period of time in view. One example of that is the “day of salvation,” and people seem to understand that it was not a 24-hour period, but it went on and on for thousands of years. And some people insist that it is still the “day of salvation.” And yet they think there cannot possibly be a prolonged Day of Judgment. Obviously, something is not registering with them when they hear “the day of judgment,” but it registers when they hear “the day of salvation.” And that is the “day” Christ was referring to in John 9:4: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day.”

I mentioned this in our last study but I want to go to Matthew 20 to look at the parable of the men who were hired to work in the vineyard. It says in Matthew 20:1-5:

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.

He hired at three-hour intervals, the third, sixth, and ninth hours of the workday. Then it says in Matthew 20:6-16:

And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

The few chosen are the elect. It means to be chosen, and the elect were chosen out of the many of the world. We see that the first group that was called complained about the last group that was called at the eleventh hour, and which only worked for only one hour. 

This passage tells us that the workday was 12 hours long. Jesus referred to the 12-hour day in John 11:9-10:

Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

So He said there are 12 hours in the day, and then He referred to the night in in John 9:4: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” What is characteristic of the day? The sun is shining down upon the earth, and in the Bible the sun is a figure of God Himself, and of the Lord Jesus Christ who is God. The sun brings light into the darkness of the world, and the world is in thick darkness, spiritually, in their ignorance of mind and blindness of heart. It is a spiritual darkness caused by sin, but when the Gospel came in the day of salvation it shined the light of truth, the light of the Bible, into the spiritual darkness of men’s hearts. And if one of those men were one of the elect that God had predestined to salvation, he was brought to life, and he was translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. And Jesus is light. All this was accomplished in the day of salvation, and then the night came.

Let us look again at the language in Matthew 20:1:

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.

What is produced in a vineyard? Fruit. The Bible likens the elect to the precious fruit of the earth, so everything about this vineyard has to do with salvation. It is the day of salvation, the day in which the work must be done to produce the fruit of the vineyard. Then the precious fruit of the earth would come forth. The workers performed the work during the day, and not at night. We know that naturally in the world because when you are working the crops, you normally go out in the daytime. 

Again, it is the work of God that you believe, so let us go back to Habakkuk 3:2:

…O JEHOVAH, revive thy work…

Please remember the places where we saw that word “revive” used. It said that after two days He would revive us. The spirit of Jacob revived. Samson revived when the water came out of the hollow of the jawbone. Again, it says in Habakkuk 3:2:

… O JEHOVAH, revive thy work in the midst of the years…

Again, there is implication that there was an earlier work (of salvation), and the work was interrupted, as it were, according to the pattern we see of the two witnesses in Revelation 11. They had their period of testimony and then they finished their testimony because they were killed and they were lying dead in the streets for a figurative three and a half days. So the work of God that ye believe was accomplished by the two witnesses in the churches during the church age then they were dead, and this identifies with the 2,300 evening mornings of famine between the early and latter rains. It is the same picture we see in Genesis 45 when there were two full years of famine of the seven years; the crops failed, and there was no rain, and food was scarce. But then something interrupted it. Joseph revealed Himself to his brethren.

By the way, Joseph did this literally. He said, “Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother.” And Joseph was a type of Christ. He was “hidden,” and he actually was trying to hide himself from his brethren for a while before revealing himself, just as Christ revealed Himself during the Great Tribulation period. But Jesus did not reveal Himself within the churches, but only outside the churches. We had to come out of the churches and congregations. During the church age Christ had dwelt in the midst of the churches, and then came the time of judgment on the churches. The church age ended and Christ departed out. He went into the world after those 2,300 evening mornings, where He eventually revealed Himself to His people to come out of the congregations, and He would feed His people spiritually in the nations, just as Jacob was told that he must leave Canaan. Joseph sent for him to come into Egypt because there was corn in Egypt. There were storehouses full of corn over against famine. So in the midst of the famine after two years, it was revealed to Jacob, and Jacob’s spirit revived.

And in the case of Samson, he slew 1,000 men with the jawbone of the ass, and then he was done speaking, and was so athirst (famine), and then God quenched his thirst with the water coming out of the hollow of the jawbone. 

So we see this picture in various places. Again, it says in Habakkuk 3:2:

  … O JEHOVAH, revive thy work in the midst of the years…

It is the work of God that ye believe, and here God is implored to revive His works in the “midst of the years,” or the midst of the Great Tribulation. It says in Matthew 24:20-22:

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

The shortening of the days implies salvation would again take place. And for the elect’s sake, the days were shortened, indicating that God did save the elect. This passage reveals to us that Great Tribulation came, and if the character of the Great Tribulation had continued, it would be like that famine of hearing when no one can be saved. It is like the two witnesses lying dead in the streets, and there was no more testimony, no more rain, or no more outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That was the character of the beginning stage (the 2,300 days) of the Great Tribulation, and if it had continued, the rest of the elect could not be saved, referring to the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation. But the days were shortened. What that means is that the famine continued in the churches for the entire 23 years of the Great Tribulation, and they had no Latter Rain, as we are told in the book of Jeremiah. None were saved in the congregations.

But by sending the Spirit into the world outside the churches after the 2,300 days, there was rain. The rain came again in the second part of the Great Tribulation, as typified by the continuing five years of famine in Egypt. All Israel had left the land of Canaan (a picture of the churches) and went into Egypt (a picture of the world), and that is what Habakkuk 3:2 is really saying. God would revive His work of salvation “in the midst of the years,” the dividing point of the Great Tribulation, which was the jubile year of 1994 with the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then Habakkuk 2:3 concludes with the statement:

…in wrath remember mercy.

And this actually confirms our understanding because we know that God only saved in the “day of salvation” while it was day. Therefore this reference must be within the bounds of the day of salvation, as this statement cannot possibly be referring to the Day of Judgment, our present time period. It can only refer to the day of salvation when the work of mercy – which is the work that ye believe – can be carried out. And it was carried out by Christ. The wrath refers to the judgment of God, and the only time that can qualify is when judgment began at the house of God, as that began the end time judgment program of God. In His wrath, He put out the light of the Gospel within the churches and congregations of the world. 

However, in His wrath that began with the churches, God remembered mercy because He soon sent the Holy Spirit to the nations to save the great multitude. And we could say that He was merciful to those in the congregations when He warned them, and He commanded them to get out of the churches. They were to depart out of the midst, and for a prolonged period of time we were beckoning those in the churches to depart out because the church age was over, and no one could be saved within the churches. There was no Spirit of God there to perform the miracle of salvation. And that was the mercy of God that the people were warned for a period of time, but most in the churches did not hearken. They would not obey due to the fact that they had no “ears to hear,” and that is because they were not God’s elect. Sadly, that led to them being bundled as tares for the burning.