It started with four highjacked airplanes and three downed buildings resulting in the deaths of 6,000 people. How did you react when you first found out about the attacks? For me it was scepticism. It looked more like a movie than reality. When the frightful facts finally sank in I was reminded once again that no one is safe from violence and bloodshed. Terror and strife are native to every country and municipality. Shootings that are prevalent in many North American cities take the lives of teenagers right here in Edmonton. Strife and contention caused by alcoholism, or financial difficulty don’t just break the hearts and homes of unbelievers; they smash the lives of believers too.
Now if God really loves us, and if he has power over all things why doesn’t he destroy the evil in the world so that we can live in peace? Why does he allow terrorists to operate and strife to infect our families? If you’ve ever asked yourself or God those questions you’re not alone. The prophet Habakkuk also struggled to understand why God seemed to do nothing as the wicked overran the righteous, and he cried out for an answer. Well, what started out as a sob turned into a song; that’s because the Lord led Habakkuk from confusion to calm. How did he do that? Finding the answer will transform our own sobs into songs.
Last Sunday we learned a little bit about the prophet Amos. Today we turn our attention to the prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk lived about 150 years after Amos - that’s still some 600 years before Christ was born. Unlike Amos, Habakkuk ministered to the southern kingdom of Judah. By this time already the northern kingdom of Israel had been carried off into captivity because of their impenitent sins of foolish boasting, and self-indulgent living. Unfortunately Judah wasn’t much better. Led by King Manasseh, Judah fell to an all time low in morality. Listen to how the Chronicler describes Manasseh. “He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger...Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites” (2 Chronicles 33:6, 9).
Faced with such evil every day Habakkuk and other God-fearing people cried out to the Lord. Habakkuk sobbed, “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? 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” (Hab. 1:2, 3). Interestingly Habakkuk’s sob has been echoed by the saints in heaven. The Apostle John reports, “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Revelation 6:9, 10)
Although it didn’t seem like it, the activities of the wicked had not escaped God’s notice. God not only knew what the wicked were up to he already had plans in place to deal with them. God said to Habakkuk, “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” (Hab. 1:5, 6). Just as the northern kingdom of Israel had been carried off by Assyria because of their sins so God would allow Judah to be carried off by the Babylonians.
God’s answer, however, only led to more sobbing from Habakkuk. “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?” (Hab. 1:12b, 13). “The Babylonians, Lord? Aren’t they even worse than the wicked that we have to deal with right now?” Habakkuk wasn’t so sure that God’s cure was preferable to the disease. Although the Babylonians had yet to become a superpower their reputation as being cruel and ruthless fighters was already well known and to fall into their hands would not be an enjoyable experience!
Has that ever happened to you where you pray for God to deliver you from some hardship only to see things get worse? What’s happening? Has God become so busy that he’s forgotten about you? Or even worse, are the events of your life beyond his control? We of course know that neither is true but we do see through the experience of Habakkuk that God is not shy about using hardship to draw us closer to him. Yes, the Babylonians would inflict pain on his people but in the end God would deliver them therefore he wanted Habakkuk and other believers to be patient. God said, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. 4 “See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous will live by his faith...For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:2-4, 12).
This prophecy was first fulfilled when the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians and God’s children were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and its temple. This would not be the last time that the prophecy would be fulfilled, however. The day the earth will be literally “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the water cover the sea” will be Judgment Day. Only then will every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Philip. 2:10, 11). It’s also on Judgment Day that God will put an end to all the strife and violence that we have to put up with right now. The Apostle John described that day like this. “ 9 They [God’s enemies] marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:9, 10).
God wants us to know that we can count on victory – so much so that he told Habakkuk to “make it [the prophecy] plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it” (Hab. 2:2). That verse could also be translated like this. “Write these words down clearly so that those running can read it.” In other words write this message in big letters so that even someone running by could read the message clearly. If God were speaking to Habakkuk today he might have directed him to put the message on a billboard. God is so certain that what he says will come true that he’s willing to put his predictions in writing.
Still, what God shared with Habakkuk is something that we have to take on faith isn’t it? We don’t have any proof that God will return, or that he will punish all evildoers and put to rest all strife. In fact recent world events would seem to indicate what God promised is not true. That’s why God told Habakkuk that the righteous will live by faith, not by sight (2:4). As Christians we are to focus on God’s promises, not on what we see happening around us. If we focus on what God has told us then we will be able to remain calm though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Psalm 46:2).
Habakkuk took God’s promise to heart and look at the difference it made in his life. While he had started out his book with a sob he ended it with a song – literally. The last chapter of the book of Habakkuk is a Psalm that he wrote in response to God’s words of encouragement. Let me share with you the last lines of that Psalm. Habakkuk wrote, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights” (Hab. 3:17-19).
What had moved Habakkuk from confusion to such calm? God’s promise of deliverance. Habakkuk realized that even if the crops failed and nothing went well in his life he could still rejoice because God remained in charge and had promised to deliver him. Doesn’t Habakkuk’s words remind you of Paul’s words in Romans 8:31, 32? There he wrote, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
When God tells us to have faith he’s not just telling us to have a vague feeling of euphoria that everything will work out. He wants us to be confident in him who sent his Son to die for us. Through faith in Jesus we have ultimate protection. Though terrorists may be able to kill us with anthrax they cannot harm our soul. Therefore we don’t fear death but welcome it. In fact Isaiah points out how death is a blessing to believers. “The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Isaiah 57:1, 2).
So have we answered the question why God doesn’t destroy evil? We haven’t have we? That’s because God doesn’t give us an answer other than that he is being patient, waiting for more to be brought to faith (2 Peter 3:15). In the meanwhile he reassures us that he remains in control and that in the end he will punish all those who have rebelled against him and refused to believe in his Son.
Therefore when you become disturbed at what’s going on around you, turn to God’s promises. Replace turmoil with trust; frustration with faith. For through the Word the Lord will lead us from confusion to calm and turn our sobs into songs. Amen.
