Why Is God Silent?

I want to begin with a statement in my sermon this morning that whatever God is doing… it makes no sense especially to the serious believers among us, to those of us who have taken the time to wrestle with our faith, have you ever noticed that there are seasons when God makes no sense?

Even though this planet earth may look marvelous from miles in space, but for those of us who live on this dusty globe, things tend to look rather grim from time to time!

Increased turmoil, rising terrorism, deepening trials, corruption, violence and wars, uncertainty, injustice, and unparalleled tensions cast dark shadows on our poor humanity…

So, is it any wonder that serious people begin to ask God questions like “why is there so much oppression?”

Why all the injustice? why do evil men prosper and the righteous suffer?

God, why don't you do something? why don't you clean up this mess? where are you when my loved ones die?

where are you when my teenager overdoses?

where are you in my misery, in my stress? Either you are all powerful but not loving…. Or you are loving but not powerful, or you are powerful and loving but you don't care!

Why? We have so many Whys, we have so many questions in our throat, and we are embarrassed to even ask them, we won’t question God because we were raised not to question God!

Don't ask God any questions, it's a sin to question God, it's blasphemous to question God, can the clay ask it’s maker? just take it like it comes, just accept it as a Christian.

They taught us that God won't put more on you than you can bear, just stand up under it … after you've done all you can just stand, don't ask God any questions!

But what kind of God would he be if he's intimidated by questions that I ask and raise?

Brothers and sisters there's no new thing under the sun, long before you and I ask God why… these questions that have clouded our mental and emotional skies for years, that get stuck in our throat, that we are afraid to ask… an ancient prophet by the name of Habakkuk looked around at the violence and the wickedness and cried out to God… why do you make me look at iniquity? And why cause me to see trouble?

why God, do you tolerate wrong?

why are you not saying or doing anything while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

Habakkuk prophesied in the 7th century BC during a time of violent, political upheaval.

He most likely lived in the final decades of the southern kingdom of Judah, his book teaches us both the faithfulness of God and what faithful living before God looks like when catastrophe strikes, and our lives are turned upside down.

A striking feature of the book of Habakkuk is the lively dialogical style of the writing of the book… both God and Habakkuk have an honest oftentimes heart-wrenching conversation about life, and all of its troubling events!

Habakkuk’s theology did not fit his experience of what God was doing, and more importantly, what God is seemingly not doing!

Because today in our theology, God gives you, or must give you everything you ask for…

In this pop gospel, in this name it and claim it counterfeit prosperity preaching, we are looking for God to answer every

prayer in the affirmative… we are waiting for God to show up in a prayer, and God is like a vending machine where you put your quick coin prayer and some instant blessing will come out like a can of coke… but brothers and sisters sometimes God says to us … you’ve got to suffer!

Because there will come a time in your life when there are some things, some fire that you just got to go through!

Sometimes you may get sick enough that God won't make you well…won’t come to heal you… you just may have to go

through it by yourself!

It may be God's will that you just got to go through storms,

it may please God that you got through struggle in that situation, because your struggle teaches you something about you and about God!

Because you never know what you can take, until you got to take it!

somebody here had been lied on,

somebody's been misunderstood,

somebody's been talked about,

somebody's been walked out on… but do you see how strong you are now? Do you see how much stronger your prayer life has gotten? because if God is going to use you… he got to prune you!

I’m kind of moving away from what I want to talk about but since the spirit led me there…. Have you ever seen a tree when it's being pruned? it's ugly, it's chopped up!