A SIGHING FAITH
Habakkuk 1:1-2:1
S: Waiting on God
Th: Where is God when things go wrong?
Pr: WAIT ON GOD WHEN YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HIM.
?: [Inductive]
KW: Complaints
TS: We will find three complaints that Habakkuk has about God.
The ____ complaint is God is…
I. INDIFFERENT (2)
II. INACTIVE (3-4)
III. INCONSISTENT (12-17)
RMBC 10 February 02 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Erma Bombeck
It was Erma Bombeck who said…
“If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?”
Have you ever asked that question?
It gets asked, because often, life does not turn out the way we have expected it to.
It does not unfold according to our own plans.
It just doesn’t seem fair.
And it makes us ask the question…
1. Why is life so unfair?
ILL Notebook: Pain (Barb Johnson [steal])
I like the wry comment Barbara Johnson makes in her book, Splashes o£ Joy in the Cesspools of Life. She says…
The rain falls on the just and also on the unjust, but chiefly on the just, because the unjust steals the just’s umbrella.
ILL 9/11
While we all find healing in humor, none of us laughed on September 11. When the news of the coordinated hijacking of four American airplanes and the resulting death of thousands of Americans (and other nationalities), we were filled with fear, anger and grief. Within minutes, all four aircrafts, commandeered by terrorists, plunged nose first into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, into one of the five walls of the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania en route to further devastation. We were horrified as people leapt from the World Trade Center when the heat became unbearable. To make it worse, we then watched jubilant Palestinians dancing in the streets, celebrating this tragedy.
ILL Lisa Strozyk
We have also felt tragedy close to home this week…
We watched a 32-year-old mother succumb to a lethal enemy this week called cancer. For those of us who knew Lisa, we struggle to find meaning to the passing of one so kind and dedicated to her Lord and to her family. We are filled with fear, anger and grief. Her death makes us mad.
For why is it that evil prospers and God does not intervene?
Why is it that the wicked live lavishly?
Why do the arrogant thrive and fame fall on them?
I am sure many of us have asked such questions.
2. Many of us have been sent reeling by the circumstances of life.
We have been staggered, knocked off our feet.
I have asked such questions in my life.
I have felt the injustice of being lied about and the unfairness of misplaced blame.
I know what it is like to have one’s motivation judged not only incorrectly, but also with the presumption of wicked intent.
I have experienced the brutal act of losing a very close friend who was robbed and murdered.
I suffer the sorrow of watching my son live with a chronic disease.
The frustration of such matters builds in us and erupts like a volcano.
And we shout the question, “Why, God, did You let this happen?”
For we believe that God could rescue.
God could heal.
God could save.
But, He has not.
We don’t understand.
So…
3. We desperately search for meaning when we are disappointed with life.
We are created, I believe, to search for answers when things don’t make sense.
And when it does make sense, we are satisfied.
We get a sense of peace.
We can deal with it, even if we are unhappy with the results.
But, when there is an absence of meaning, the situation is so intolerable.
We feel distraught and we agonize.
TRANSITION:
1. The context of Habakkuk (1):
Today, we begin a three-week study on Habakkuk.
The first verse says…
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
The word oracle means “burden.”
And as we look at this small book, we will understand that Habakkuk certainly is carrying a burden.
Let me share the context…
1.1 History: The Northern Kingdom (Israel) is gone.
Because they consistently failed to follow the Lord, God used the very cruel country of Assyria to carry away the northern kingdom of Israel.
Assyria, though they threatened the southern kingdom of Judah, were unable to conquer it.
Now, as time as gone on, Assyria was in decline.
In the meanwhile, during Habakkuk’s early years, Judah has prospered under the reign of the good king Josiah.
He came to the throne at age 8, and began righteous religious reforms at age 16.
These were glory years for Judah.
The temple was repaired and there was a national revival.
But when Josiah died, things changed, and…
1.2 Setting: The Southern Kingdom (Judah) has made a quick turn from righteousness to wickedness.
When Josiah died, Jehoiakim would eventually comes to the throne, but he was not like his father.
Instead, he was evil, ungodly, and rebellious.
For Habakkuk, this spiritual about face filled him with disillusionment.
And he laments this turnaround.
When it comes to the person of Habakkuk, we discover that…
1.3 Person: Habakkuk’s name means to embrace.
It means to embrace or wrestle.
And I think this ends up describing him well.
For he reaches out to embrace God and to hold on to God when life is not making sense.
And he wrestles with God in a way, as he tries to understand Him.
As we give consideration to our text today…
2. We will find three complaints that Habakkuk has about God.
He has a faith in God, or he would not come to Him.
But it is a faith that is in sorrow.
It is a faith the sighs and has a heavy heart.
For he is attempting to reconcile what he believes about God with what he sees happening all around him.
OUR STUDY:
The first question is…
I. ARE YOU INDIFFERENT? (2)
“How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?”
Sometimes it seems that God does not care.
Habakkuk is looking at his own country of Judah.
He has sat under the righteous reign of Josiah.
Now his unrighteous son, Jehoiakim, has made a mess of the place.
And Habakkuk asks, “Don’t you care?”
Which leads to the second complaint…
II. ARE YOU INACTIVE? (3-4)
(3) “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. (4) Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”
Sometimes it seems that God allows evil to abound.
Habakkuk does not understand God’s silence.
Justice is being perverted.
A people that are to be holy, are not.
A people that are to spiritually aware and mature, are not.
Instead, they are faithless, backslidden, disobedient, and wicked.
They ignore the law and God is tolerating it.
To these complaints, though, God does answer…
God’s Answer: INTENTION (5-11)
(5) “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. (6) I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. (7) They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. (8) Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; (9) they all come bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. (10) They deride kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen ramps and capture them. (11) Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—guilty men, whose own strength is their god.”
This is not the answer Habakkuk was looking for.
For…
1. God is answering Habakkuk’s prayer in an unexpected way.
It is an incredible answer that is not to be understood.
For God’s ways are above our ways.
God’s thoughts are beyond our thoughts.
He is above us and beyond us.
So, God says, you will not only not understand it, you will not believe it.
Now…the silence was tough enough, but let’s admit, the answer was even harder!
For…
2. God gives a revelation of His work, but not an explanation.
We learn here that history is under God’s control.
Judah will be judged.
And the instrument of judgment is the Babylonians.
This is like the man who was told, “Cheer up! Things could be worse!” He said, “I tried it. I cheered up, and sure enough, everything got worse!”
The truth is, sometimes God lets us get exactly what we deserve.
And while Habakkuk had been concerned about what God was not doing, he now becomes very concerned about what God is going to do.
You know, it is amazing how a new problem can take your mind off an old one.
And now, Habakkuk has a third complaint…
III. ARE YOU INCONSISTENT? (12-17)
(12) “O LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish. (13) Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (14) You have made men like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler. (15) The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. (16) Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. (17) Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?
You know…
1. When you are perplexed with God, start with what you do know.
It is like when there is ice in a parking lot, you don’t look to start on the ice.
No, you look to begin with sound footing.
You look for the bare, dry, solid pavement.
You don’t start with the problem.
You start where your footing is sure.
And this is what Habakkuk does.
He begins with what he knows about God.
He knows that God is eternal.
He sees from beginning to the end.
Therefore, God is not caught by surprise.
He also knows that God is holy.
He is completely whole and pure.
Therefore, God cannot approve of sin.
And so now Habakkuk asks…is this consistent?
What Habakkuk discovers is that…
2. The way that God works can be confusing.
For how can God judge Judah using people more unjust than they were?
The very people that Habakkuk had been complaining about, he now saw as helpless.
They were to be caught in nets, brought in by greedy fisherman that already had enough.
These Babylonians would conquer people after people, country after country, and nothing would stand in their way.
Not only that, they were arrogant.
They were vicious, proud, fierce, ruthless, cruel, and irresistible.
How could God use them as an instrument of justice?
How could God use something so wicked?
APPLICATION:
As I stop to consider this last question of Habakkuk, I am struck by what we have in common.
I consider the events of this week as I watched a mom die who did not want to die, and I wonder how an evil disease could be allowed to have its day and its way over her and her family.
It is a mystery to me.
And yet, as I now consider the events of September 11, as horrible and evil as they are, I begin to see how God has used them for good—a good that I could not understand or believe at the time.
You know…
1. When we bring our complaints to God, we tend to prescribe our own answers.
But I have found that He often ignores our solutions.
It is not that God does not hear.
It is not that God does not answer.
It is that God knows better.
Again, it is only God that sees the beginning from the end.
So when we don’t understand, it is time for faith.
For…
2. The time for faith is when it is going wrong.
Let’s admit this truth, we don’t lean on our faith when everything is going great.
We should, but we don’t.
It is in the time of trouble that faith grows us and sustains us.
It is our faith in God that enables us to go through these tough times.
Yet, not everyone comes to the same conclusion.
They say, “I’ve tried faith and it doesn’t work.”
“God is a liar.”
“There is no real God, or He would have done something.”
But this is when we do take a lesson from Habakkuk and follow his example.
For we are to…
3. WAIT ON GOD WHEN YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HIM (2:1).
“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”
I have found it interesting that when things go differently than we want them to go, God does not consult us.
We also find that God does not owe us answers.
I like how James Dobson puts this in his book, When God Doesn’t Make Sense:
We must never forget that He, after all, is God. He is accountable to no one. He is not a genie who pops out of the bottle to satisfy our whims. He is not our servant—we are His.
This is where we must be fair in the evaluation of ourselves.
We are ignorant.
We do see so little.
We only understand a minute fraction.
So, let us follow the example of Habakkuk, and when we have gone as far as our reasoning can go, it is time to wait.
It is time to go to the watchtower and wait.
It is time to get out of the muddy valley and get a higher perspective.
It is time to look for the big picture.
For in time, it comes.
And it is then that we realize…
4. God never wastes pain.
You know, when we feel the deepest disappointment in the circumstances we are given and the pain we are feeling, it is then that Satan whispers to us that God is not there.
He tells us that we are very much alone.
But it is not true.
God’s heart is tender and He knows us by name.
He has seen every tear.
So, while He is not the creator of evil and sin, He will not waste the pain that evil and sin cause.
He will use it to accomplish His purpose.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Wait on God…even if you feel He doesn’t care.
Wait on God…even if you feel He isn’t working.
Wait on God…even if you feel He isn’t consistent.
Trust the eternal God who knows the beginning from the end.
Trust the infinite God who is above and beyond our rationality.
Trust the holy God who in His holiness purifies the worst of man to make the best for eternity.
Wait and see…and find that He is worth waiting for!
"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."
Amen.
