Have you ever asked yourself the question; Why doesn’t God seem fair?
It’s a fair question, I mean we hear things on the news like a drunk driver kills a family of four coming home from a Christmas eve service. Or how a woman can jump from bed to bed and have abortion after abortion and for some God fearing Christians couple it can be so hard to have a family.
Sometimes God Doesn’t seem fair.
Over the next two weeks we are going to be looking at the prophet known as Habakkuk and he felt this same way
. Now not much else is known about the prophet, because this is the only place in the bible that he is mentioned.
This a very short book, but don’t let the size of it trick you because it is a non stop drama fulled book.
Today we are going to be looking at the first half and next week we are going to be look at the last half, because this 3 chapter book can not be done in just one sermon.
Now lets talk about The first part of Habakkuk.
Starting in Habakkuk 1 we see habakkuk first prayer to God. At this time God’s chosen People, the Israelite had turn away from God and were do ungodly things.
Now Habakkuk was a Godly man, because there still were some around, and he saw what was going on and how God’s people were doing ungodly things and he did the one thing we all should do and that was to call out to God, He Prayed.
Lets look at Habakkuk 1:1-4;
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw, How long, Lord, must I call for help and You do not listen, or cry out to You about violence and You do not save? Why do You force me to look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.
When we look at the book of Habakkuk we need to understand that the whole reason he was calling out to God was because of sin. Sin that was taking place of Judah and the sin that the Israelites were doing. All and all they have turn on God and were sinning against Him just like we all do. Sin has started at Genesis 3 and will continue to be a problem until Jesus returns.
We have here Habakkuk, a godly man looking onto God’s people turning and committing the sin of idolatry, violence, and corruption which to them seemed to do so well over the ages, as do we . Habakkuk knew something had to be done because he did not want to see his people suffer by rejecting God, so he turned to God.
So my first point today is;
Why God Why?
Now this was not the first time that Habakkuk called out to God. He says, “How long must I call for help.” This says that Habakkuk had been praying for some time but God just wasn’t answering Habakkuk’s cry, at least not in the way habakkuk thought as the answer.
verse 2 of this chapter has a lot of information about how Habakkuk was feeling. He felt mad, sad, alone, because the God he believed in was not answering him.
it can be in times like this where people can turn away from God. When things go so bad in a persons life and they are true to God but God just does not seem to be there.
Illus: I remember a time when I went through something just like this. I was dealing with a problem in my life and I cried out to God for an answer but it seemed like I was just talking to air. I was mad because it seemed like I was alone, but God always answers but we need to be listening for him.
Point 2
God’s Answer
now if we look at verses 5-11 we see that God had finally answered Habakkuk and it was an answer that shocked Habakkuk to his core. Lets look at these Verses.
5 Look at the nations and observe be utterly astounded! For something is taking place in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it.
6 Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter, impetuous nation that marches across the earth's open spaces to seize territories not its own.
7 They are fierce and terrifying their views of justice and sovereignty stem from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards and more fierce than wolves of the night Their horsemen charge ahead; their horsemen come from distant [lands] They fly like an eagle, swooping to devour.
9 All of them come to do violence; their faces are set in determination. They gather prisoners like sand.
10 They mock kings, and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their strength is their god.
See what I mean? Would you want a answers like the one Habakkuk was given? Put yourself in Habakkuk’s sandals for a moment, how would you feel?
Habakkuk was looking for Help from God and God told him that he was raising up the Chaldeans, better known as the Babylonians to over run the Israelites. This meant that the Israelites were going to be taken into captivity or worse even killed and Habakkuk was one of these unlucky people.
Now as we think about this, Habakkuk was a godly person. Now I shear he was not perfect because we know there was only one perfect person but Habakkuk was one of God’s faithful followers. And now he was going to be taken by the Babylonians. Now that does not seem fair now does it?
Point 3
Your Going to do What?
Illus: When I was a kid there was a road that had some headstones on top of a little hill, there were only about 3 of them so to me it looked a little out of place. So one day I asked my dad if he knew who they were that were placed there. He told me that he knew who they were and then told me the story.
One day a family was coming home from church after a Sunday service when they we hit by a big rig and the family was killed. I asked him how could God kill a family that was coming home from church and his answer was; “you will have to ask God when you see him.”
at times God does not seem fair and come on we all know that. We have all asked these kind of questions of God. Why would you Do that? Habakkuk really started to ask these questions in the last part of chapter 1.
12 Are You not from eternity, Yahweh my God? My Holy One, You [a] will not die. LORD, You appointed them to execute judgment; [my] Rock, You destined them to punish [us].
13 [Your] eyes are too pure to look on evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are You silene while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself?
14 You have made mankind like the fish of the sea, like marine creatures that have no ruler.
15 The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook, catch them in their dragnet, and gather them in their fishing net; that is why they are glad and rejoice.
16 That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet and burn incense to their fishing net, for by these things their portion is rich and their food plentiful.
17 Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?
The pain that Habakkuk was feeling must have been extreme. This mans life had just been ripped apart and it was only going to Get worse from here. See Habakkuk was appalled at what God was doing. I mean using one bad nation to punish his chosen people. So what would you do?
As humans we feel that we need answers to the questions in our lives. We feel that we are owed them. So just like any red blooded person Habakkuk asked God what was up.
This to me does not mean anything other then Habakkuk was trying to understand his God. He was asking God these questions because he loved God and wanted to know Him more.
Illus: when we’re kids we tend to ask our parents about their everyday life. For boy’s it things like shaving and for girls it how to put you hair up.
We ask these things because we want to understand what goes on in life. Why people do the things they do. Its nothing more then that.
See, some people will tell you that it’s wrong to question God but if we are wanting to understand God then we need ask some questions. The thing that matters is how we respond to His answer.
Point 4
How did Habakkuk response
What did habakkuk do in the time that God told him that Babylon was going to come in and take over his people. The bible is not to clear on what happened but I believe if habakkuk was the God fearing man that is recorded in this book then I’m sure that he went and told his people what was going to come and what they needed to do.
the sin’s that were running wild at the this time were the sins of idiolatry, violence, and corruption, but the worst of these had to be the idiolatry. It seems like this was one of the biggest sins for these people.
as I was writing this sermon I thought about the Sin of habakkuk’s people and then like a door slamming in my face I said, “hey that seems like the same thing that is going on now a days.”
We are in a world full of sin and we need to be a ware of the sins and the saving we can have from it.
Idolatry is one of the biggest sins in the world, past, present, and most likely, future. This is the sin of making something bigger than God or worshiping something more than God.
See, when people can’t understand God or get feed up with waiting on Him, some turn on Him. See sometimes it’s hard to understand God’s way and his will but we need to go along with it.
too many times people try to fit God into their own idea of the of this world or how I hear it, “their Box”.
Illus: Well I so happen to have a big box on stage right here and I would like to break something down for you today. This came about because of a news article first told to me by my wife and then about a week later mark passed a copy of it to me.
the article came out of US Today and it was entitled “Mixing of Religion.” It happen to be the cover story because it so close to x-mas and it shocked almost everyone who I talked to that had read it.
one of the biggest things in this article that stood out to me was when it said “Element of Eastern faiths and new age thinking have been widely adopted by 65% of U.S. Adults, including many who call themselves Protests and Catholics.”
This Statement concerns me. Now I’m not going to be PC here, these people are making their own god to fit their own lifestyle.
So I wanted to make a point of people that have done this in the past. You have people like Joseph Smith that did this when he created the Mormons. Or someone like Charles t. Russell who created the Jehovah Witnesses. Both of these cults have a god and a Jesus but not the ones of the bible, so there out of God’s box.
Then you have Muhammad that started the Islam faith or Muslim faith. He has a god but again not the god of the bible.
The you have David Koresh that clammed to be the second coming of Christ and had that whole mess in Waco TX. Again not in the box.
And then you have people like jim Jones and the whole mess in south America. Again not in the box.
And then you have this person, lets call him wil that decide that there was a God but did not believe in Hell. Again not in the box.
now I don’t know if these first five, in they end came to know the one true God but this last one, wil did see the error of his ways and the standing in front of you today.
The point to all this is that there is only 1 God and 1 Jesus and they are the one of the bible.
John 14:6, Jesus says; I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one can come to the father but through me.
See we can’t put God into a box, we have to get into God’s box and live by this will and His way. If we step outside of His box then we doom ourselves.
See God has a plan for everything. Just like for Judah, God had a plan. Habakkuk could not understand God’s plan and sometimes we also question His plan, but we need to follow it and know that God will never leave us and He will always be with us.
How about you today. Are you in Gods Box, have you given your life over to His plan. Maybe your have a ruff time in your life, God has a plan for you, but are you doing His will.
Let us pray.
