Trust The Process

Good Morning. This morning we are looking at the frustrations we may have with the world around us, but Trusting God’s Process as we minister in this world.

There is a tendency to place figures in the Bible on a pedestal, just because they are in the Bible. But the Bible records truth, and other than Jesus that truth doesn’t always reflect well on the figures we read about. Today, a close look shows Habakkuk the prophet, maybe not as a bad figure, but as a figure just like us, who honestly tries to seek God, but his seeking is more to stuff God’s suggestion box, than to find His will.

The book of Habakkuk is poetry written like as a stage play. It’s a script between the prophet and God. Unfortunately, it reads like a stage play that took out all the stage directions, and the places where it says which person is talking. I even cheated this morning, you can see in the bulletin, and added in one direction in a parenthesis at verse 5 to make it a bit clearer.

Habakkuk began his ministry as a prophet during the reign of a godly king, Josiah. This king spent years getting rid of the worship of false gods but when he died, the people turned back to idolatry. Habakkuk opens with the prophet crying out to God to change their hearts back to God.

In the first four verses, Habakkuk condemns the spiritual and moral decay in Jerusalem, and honestly, it sounds like an echo of people down through the ages. “God, Violence and immorality are getting worse, it’s not like it was when I was a kid anymore! What’s Your Plan God, because I’m watching the nation I love destroy itself? Why don’t you do something about this mess!”

Habakkuk sees a problem he knows God can fix and asks God to Do Something!!! He sounds like any of us.

Here’s the deal. God answers! But not how he wanted. In verses 5,6:

5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! You will be shocked and amazed! For I will do something … that you will not believe …

I am about to empower the Babylonians, that ruthless and greedy nation. They sweep across the surface of the earth, seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them. (then God describes how the Babylonians will destroy Judah and Jerusalem and take them captive.)

Obviously not the answer he expected. God says His plan to restore his people to humility and to end their idolatry, … is to allow an even more arrogant, bitter, and idolatrous people to make the people of Judah slaves. And God will even allow the Babylonians to say that their false gods are stronger than the True God in their victory.

Let’s make a modern analogy. Frustrated with the moral decay that we see around us, we pray to the Lord to do something about the United States. And the Lord hears us, and responds. The Lord tells us that the Taliban and ISIS are going to conquer our country to pound us into submission. To help America to get rid of the injustice, and immorality, God will remove our Government, and put us under a Califate that will attribute all its victories to Allah’s superiority.

To help us understand our need to not worship the god of money and pleasure, all our men will become slaves. All our women will wear hijabs and not be allowed to speak or travel in public anymore until we learn our lesson.

You can see why Habakkuk is upset. Obviously, if you were Habakkuk, this is not what you wanted to hear. You wanted to hear how the Lord was going to raise up a godly king.

How this king and the priesthood would lead the people back from idolatry. Verse 12 (begin) shows Habakkuk’s attempt to negotiate with God, and Prophet-splain why God has this all wrong.

12 Lord, you have been active from ancient times; my sovereign God, you are immortal. Lord, you have made THEM (?)your instrument of judgment. Protector, you have appointed THEM (?)as your instrument of punishment.

He goes on, but summing that up, Habakkuk’s response to God is....“Wait a minute God, they’re worse than we are.” “I know we’re bad, God, I just prayed about that a couple of minutes ago, but they’re so much worse!”

Imagine a prosecuting attorney switching sides in the middle of a trial because he feels he did too good of a job prosecuting, and he needs to help out the defense. Look at verse 13 again to get a sense of Habakkuk’s frustration at God’s answer to prayer. Speaking now defending Judah against the Babylonians:

You are too just to tolerate evil; you are unable to condone wrongdoing. So why do you put up with such treacherous people?