Why Doesn't God Seem Fair? Series

Why Doesn’t God Seem Fair?

HABAKKUK #1

Maybe you’ve noticed that there are so many questions in life

that are difficult to answer.

I mean, think about it.

Why do they say that an alarm clock is going off,

when it’s really coming on?

That kind of bothers me.

Why do they say that you,

you drive on a parkway, but you park on a driveway?

Why is it that people say,

“I slept through the night like a baby,

when everyone knows that a baby wakes up every two hours.

If you throw a cat out of a moving car,

is it called Kitty Litter?

These are the difficult questions of life.

I know, I just got all the cat lovers mad at me.

I actually like cats,

we had cats for years,

but our last one died and now Kathy has said that

absolutely no way can we get another one.

I don’t know what she has against cats.

I’m not going to say if Kathy is actually the person

who got me this little toy…

Cat’s tail sticking out of a sack, squeeze it…

The name of the book that we are about to study is Habakkuk,

If you have your bible, you can turn there,

Now, you may not be able to find it,

and its only 3 chapters long.

and maybe you didn’t even know it was part of the bible,

But Habakkuk is a great book,

and it is really applicable to our world today.

….pew bible page 639.

The driving question of the book Habakkuk, is this…

Habakkuk wanted to know,

Why doesn’t God seem fair?

Maybe you’ve asked that question before.

“Why doesn’t God seem fair?”

Habakkuk is what’s known as one of the

12 Minor Prophets.

Anybody know the difference between

the minor prophets and the major prophets?

Books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel

are called major prophets,

because their books are long.

Habakkuk is one of the twelve minor prophets,

which means his book is short,

but doesn’t mean its less important.

God spoke to Habakkuk,

and told him to write this down,

in about the year 600 B.C.,

give or take a little bit.

and this was a time period

when God’s people were becoming very corrupt.

There was a lot of violence.

There was corruption and injustice.

There was a lot of evil,

people ignoring God.

There were suicide bombers,

and school shootings,

and wars overseas,

terrorists,

harsh dictators…

Oh, no… actually,

that would describe our world today.

The point is…

you could say that Habakkuks world,

was a lot like the world we live in today.

There were a lot of bad people

doing bad things to good people,

but even the good people weren’t so good,

because they weren’t doing much to fix it.

Lets read the first 4 verses.

Habakkuk 1:1-4

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

2 How long, 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 wrongdoing?

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.

Habakkuk asks 3 questions in a row,

they’re 3 ways of asking the same thing,

God, why aren’t you being fair.

First he asks,

“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but You, [what?]

“You do not listen,

You ever asked God that?

“God, I need help.

God, you said you’d help.

God, you said you’d answer prayers.

But then I pray for help, and you don’t help.

How come?

How come I pray, and nothing happens?

Some of you have felt that way.

You prayed for things

and you thought you were praying in accordance with God’s will,

you were praying for things that were good,

but God didn’t do it.

So maybe you continued praying in faith, saying,

“Well, I just pray continually

maybe then God will do it.”

But nothing happens,

and eventually you start to ask,

Does God even care?

Is he interested in my situation?

Is he listening?

God, how come someone else prays,

and it seems like you do things immediately,

but when I pray,

You don’t do anything?

God, why is it that

I try to raise my kids according to Your word,

but now my kids are messed up?

but that guy that was a lousy dad,

never even took his kids to church,

and his kids seem okay?

What’s up with that, God?

How come I try to do what Your word says financially,

and I’m struggling to make ends meet,

but my neighbor is an atheist,