WHY, WHY, WHY
HABAKKUK 1:1 - HABAKKUK 1:11
Introduction: The great theological questions that have transcended through the ages are not only those that are recorded in theological textbooks, and discussed in seminary.
Believe me, I wish they all could be.
It would be easy to prepare when such questions arise if I’d discussed them before.
But we discuss transubstantialism, mellianialism, theocracy, substitutionary atonement, all of which have a place in my preparation for ministry, but where you’re sitting have relatively little if any meaning at all.
In fact big words and heady statements are probably more of a turnoff.
The great questions of the faith that make us search for answers are the everyday questions of life.
We can understand the road of salvation.
We can understand what Christ did for us on the cross and his resurrection.
What we have a hard time understanding is "Why bad things happen to good people?
Why does it seem that God allows the guilty and the sinful to go unpunished, and even advance in this world, and he chastises the Christian.
Why does God allow Christians to fall into sin?
Why did God allow 229 people to die on an airplane.
Why did God allow 160 people to die in Oklahoma, many of them children?
What did the children do that was so wrong?
Why did God to this?
Why did God do that?
Why, Why, Why?
We search for answers, and none seem available.
Many times we wonder, has God made a mistake.
Leslie and I went into Fredericton for the exhibition this year.
I needed to get my yearly fix of dippy dogs and candy apples.
We met my sister Nancy and a group of others there.
While having coffee we were talking about church things as our conversation often does.
In the process of the conversation Nancy said, "I think God made a mistake"
"He knew Adam and Eve were going to sin, He had to or He wouldn’t be all-knowing. Yet He didn’t stop or block the attempt in any way. It would all be different in God had of acted."
The same question is asked by a mother as she looks at her daughter who was just hit by a car driven by a drunk driver.
Senator Robert Kennedy asked the question as he came out of the hospital where his brother Ted was recovering from an accident "I wonder if God has taken a vacation when it comes to the Kennedys?
We are not alone in this quest.
Humanity has been searching for answers like these, since the times of the Old Testament.
While the circumstances for the questions may change, the questions remain the same.
It would all be different if God had of acted?
The reality of the matter is that God does act.
Many times we can’t see the action because we are caught up in the situation.
We also at times expect God to act the way that we want Him to, and can’t understand why He doesn’t.
A good example of this would be Jonah and Nineveh.
Have you ever sat down to a movie, probably a detective, or legal story, see the crook get caught, and say if he only did it my way he wouldn’t have gotten caught.
Armchair coaches are always questioning why the coach of the team cannot see things as clearly as they can.
I’ve even been called to account for illustrations that I have used in sermons.
Why did I use this one when another is so much better.
We’ve all been there.
The book of Habakkuk is a book that graples with that question.
Why doesn’t God act in judgement on the sinful people of Judah?
Habakkuk is surprised with God’s answer.
Dating: The reference to the Babylonians in 1:6 places the book within the seventh century B.C.
It can fall into the dating of any of three kings:
1. Manasseh (697-642 B.C.)
2. Josiah (640-609 B.C.)
3. Jehoiakim (609-598 B.C.)
Theologians point to the Babylonian victory at Carchemish as being a major event in dating the book, described in verses 7-11 and place a date of (606-604B.C.)
Setting: The setting of the time is critical as the sinfullness of the nation is what Habakkuk is addressing to God in chapter one.
Babylon was establishing itself as a world power.
Assyria, the dominant world power of the time was in decline.
As both powers faught each other it provided Judah with a time of prosperity under Josiah.
For Habakkuk the international situation was serious, but more serious was the internal situation of Judah.
When Josiah died, Jehoahaz rose to the throne.
They were immediately invaded by the Egyptians and Jehoiakim as placed on the throne as a puppet king.
Jehoiakim was evil, ungodly, and rebellious (2 Kings 23:36-24:7; 2 Chron 36:5-8).
"Nation rises up against nation, there is national corruption, immorality, and social injuctice. The country is being destroyed from within and without. There is an increase in crime, drugs, and a general falling away from God. Personal pleasure is the supreme rule of life. Decency dies and human life is taken very frivolious in the streets.
Now for the question, am I describing Habakkuk’s day or our modern day society?
You can’t tell the difference can you!
I know it sounds like a commercial for ABC detergent.
But it is much more serious for this reason.
If Habakkuk is lamenting as to why God is not acting in judgement for the evil in Judah, and God answers that He is going to act in Judgement, what is that saying for our society today. Yes God is acting in judgement.
Content:
This passage is the first complaint that Habakkuk has with God
In it four questions are raised to God:
1. How long must I call for help, but you do not listen?
2. Violence, but you do not save?
3. Why do you make me look at injustice?
4. Why do you tolerate wrong?
how long must I call for help, but you do not listen?
This is the eruption of emotion of a dedicated and committed believer, why can’t understand why God does the things that He does.
Habbakuk is asking why doesn’t God act on behalf of those who remain faithful to him and punish those who do not?
He is a person involved in a desperate search for what he called justice.
Hence the second question:
Violence, but you do not save?
It would be like walking down a street in New York.
Someone jumps up and begins to rob you.
In desperation you cry for someone to help.
And noone comes.
You cry "Violence", and noone acts, not even God.
And the question comes, God is all-powerful, He could have stopped this, Why didn’t he?
Habakkuk asks, Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Point Two: The Wrong Questions:
Sometimes we ask God the wrong questions.
We ask why He hasn’t acted, rather than how he is going to act.
It’s human nature to want vengence, to see the bad guys get theirs.
God does not tolerate wrong.
A survey of the Old Testament, particularly what happened to Israel would have told Habakkuk that God does not tolerate sin.
He may choose to overlook it for a time, but he does not tolerate it forever.
He may overlook it for a time to allow humanity a chance at forgiveness.
He may need a time to raise up the agent of his judgement, but one thing is sure that judgement would come.
Habukkuk’s statement in verse four expresses his sentiments well when he says that the law seems paralyzed.
Illustrate: With King Arthur in First Knight.
All seems wrong for Habakkuk He complains to God, and now God answers:
The questions of Habakkuk were rhetorical in nature.
He did not expect God to answer.
Nor did he expect the answer he got.
God basically tells Habakkuk I’m going to tell you something that you just won’t believe.
Talk about a way of getting someone’s attention.
Let’s be honest
If I met you at the door today after the service and said,
"Have I got a story to tell you", I wouldn’t have to do much to get you attention.
In fact I would probably have to fight people off.
But tht is just what God tells Habakkuk.
Just as God dealt with Job on a personal basis, so was He to deal with Judah on a national basis.
Thus in verse 5 he tells Habakkuk to watch the nations and see what happens.
I am going to raise the Babylonians a ruthless and impetuous people as His agents of Judgment against Judah.
Verses 7,8 speak of their power.
Babylon was noted for its violence
They were a fierce and cruel people committing atrocities without forethought and remorse.
Babylon was without rival.
Their power allowed their status:
They were a law to themselves, their power promoted their own honor.
They recognized no other law or judge but theirown.
They had power in their speed:
They were swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Both animals are fierce, fast and excellent hunters.
The griffon vulture, is a majestic bird of Palestine.
They circle higher and higher above their prey as they build speed and then swiftlydive on their prey.
What a terrible enemy they were.
Their power made them successful:
The enemy was coming like a whirlwind and would gather prisoners like sand, a number too vast to calculate.
Their power made them scoffing:
Their power made them arrogant.
They scoffed at the fortresses of their enemies.
They were like sand castles built too near the water.
When the waves came in they destroyed the castle and nothing could be done to stop it.
Their power led to their Sacrilege:
They considered their own power as coming from them and not God.
Theurefore there was no mercy in their actions.
For them "might was right" and "might became divine".
Point Three: Habakkuk’s Dilemma: 12-17
Habakkuk was faced with a great dilemma.
Why would God use a non-Christian nation to judge his people.
Certainly a non-repentant Judah was better than a brutal babylon.
This leads us to Habakkuk’s second complaint: Why them? You are too pure to look at evil. Why use these evil people?
He also found unthinkable the extinction of the people of Judah to the Babylonians who could easily do this.
Two truths ring true in his considerations:
a) God would not forsake his people
b) God would not allow sin to go unpunished.
He reminded himself that Babylon was a messenger of discipline not destruction of Judah.
He had to realize that God was in control and could use any means He saw fit.
Did this leave Habakkuk in want of a further answer.
It sure did.
That question is what we deal with today?
Why does God do what God does, and not what we want him to do.
We will deal with this in conclusion.
Conclusion:
Why does God allow evil to continue unpunished?
The answer is that he does not.
God is not bound to act by our standards and therefore his actions may by confusing to us.
God also acts on his own time as well as in his own way.
It creates circumstances where we can ask as Habakkuk did, Why don’t you act.
The reality of the matter is that He does act in judgement today.
But as God acted in a way that Habakkuk didn’t understand, so too does God act in judgement today in ways that we don’t understand.
Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
It is because as we walk though the bad things of life, that we learn more of a dependance on God.
We learn patience, as we learn to wait on the Lord.
We learn of the sovereignty of God in our lives.
Why does he not judge our country for the sin that is in it?
I suggest to you today that God is judging and has sent our Babylonian army.
We see the recent decision of the Human Rights Council as being a defeat in the battle against homosexuality.
Might the question be, what right does the church of today, with the evils present within itself, have to judge someone else’s lifestyle.
Might the situation be a judgement against an unrepentant church by the vote of the human rights council.
An unrepentant church that tolerates:
a) sexual abuse and immorality
b) tolorating the homosexual lifestyle.
c) social injustices
d) a denial of the sovereign God
What right does the church have to speak out against homosexuality, when certain denominations perform same sex marriages.
When bad things happen to us, are we not victims of God’s judgement on the church for it not standing up and being the "holy people of God"
When we fall victim to the injustices of the world.
When we fall victim to a world that is under the curse of sin.
Is not one of the lessons that we can learn is that it is all right to question God?
To say I don’t understand.
We can be led to understanding through doubt.
Honest doubt may be a truer religious attitude than superficial belief.
Job, nor Habakkuk used their questions to shield themselves from moral responsibility nor shunned God’s claims on their lives.
LaSor, Hubbard, and Bush states:
God’s revelation of himself laid the ghost of the prophet’s doubts and gave birth to a finer faith; the redeeming God had used his questions as a means of grace to draw Habakkuk closer to himself.
Can He not allow the believer today the same freedom to question to draw closer to God.
