Serious Questions - Habakkuk 1:1-11
Now and Later: A Journey Through the Minor Prophets • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The other day, Gracie sat down beside me on the couch and wanted to talk. I thought she was going to ask about my day or tell me about hers. Instead, she said, “Dad, I’ve learned that Jews only believe in the Old Testament, and they don’t believe in Jesus. But, Jesus was a Jew who believed in the Old Testament, too. So, why don’t the Jews believe in Jesus, and why do we believe in the Old Testament also? I don’t know about y’all, but I was not asking someone to explain to me the difference between ethnic Israel and true Israel when I was ten. I was still preparing myself to be the first pick in the NFL draft.
We love faith questions from our kids, don’t we? We love them because it lets us know that they’re taking their faith seriously. They’re devoting mental space to it. But, as much as we love the faith questions that our kids have, our own questions scare us to death. As you get older, the questions that you have get deeper and bigger. They become more practical and painful. But, serious faith always has serious questions. A person who never has questions for their faith is a person who never thinks deeply about it.
God’s Word
God’s Word
Habakkuk is a book built upon questions. Verse one calls it an “oracle that Habakkuk saw.” Remember that I told you when we studied Nahum that “oracle” can also be translated as “burden.” This is the “burden” of Habakkuk. The other prophets all speak to the people on behalf of God, but Habakkuk speaks to God on behalf of the people. And, his speaking is built around a series of serious questions we all ask (Headline):
Why won’t God “stop evil”?
Why won’t God “stop evil”?
Habakkuk 1:2-4 “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”
I can think of no sin more egregious or more audacious than for someone who uses their pastoral authority and pastoral access as a means to prey upon the very people they’re called to shepherd and love. Yet, we’ve become too familiar with headlines that tell us that such behavior is far more pervasive within the church than we want to believe. With every Houston Chronicles article and Guidepost release, we ask: “How long, O Lord? How long, O Lord, will you allow this? When will you intervene? When will you stop it?”
This gets to the essence of Habakkuk’s great question for God. He sees great evil happening all around him, and it’s not just in the outside world. It’s among the very people who say they know God. “The law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.” Places of safety have become places of danger. People of holiness have become people of wickedness. And, Habakkuk wants to know why God won’t stop it.
Remarkably, God answers Habakkuk’s question, and by seeing his answer to Habakkuk, we can see how He might answer us, too.
He works in ways we can’t “see.”
Habakkuk 1:5 ““Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”
In verse 3, Habakkuk speaks so boldly to God it makes us uncomfortable. He has a serious question of faith, and he’s dealing seriously with it. It’s a lesson in how we ought to deal with our serious questions, too. Notice that Habakkuk emphasizes the eyes. He wonders why God “makes (him) see iniquity” and why God “idly look(s) at wrong.” He’s saying, “If I see it so plainly, why don’t you see it, God? And, if you see it, why don’t you do something about it?” That’s the question we have about evil, isn’t it? It’s so apparent to us that horrible wrongs are being done. Just look at our sex offender lists. Just read about child pornography cases. And, these things are happening within the church, not just in the broader culture. So, why doesn’t God act? How can He see what we see and stand idly by?
So, God says to Habakkuk: You need to “look” again. You don’t see as clearly as you think you do. I’m working in such a way and on such a scale that you aren’t capable of beholding it or comprehending it.” We’re prone to believe that if God doesn’t respond the way we would respond that He must not be responding at all. But, God works in ways too big for our eyes to behold, too mysterious for our minds to comprehend, and too wise for our foolish hearts to appreciate. After all, his Son was abused, and He was abused by the church. Yet, it was through their rejection, their abuse, and their assassination that He would provide the means for their forgiveness and salvation. Who could’ve seen that? “I am doing a work in your day that you would not believe if told” is not just a reminder for Habakkuk. It’s a reminder for all of us. Just because God isn’t responding our way doesn’t mean God is turning a blind eye. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
But, there’s another side to this we should consider. Not only does He work in ways we can’t see, but...
He works in ways we don’t “like.”
Habakkuk 1:6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.”
What Habakkuk is wanting is a revival in his land. He’s wanting God to intervene in a way that turns the hearts of his people to him. We all prefer revival to reckoning. We all believe that the greatest good for God’s people is to have their hearts turned to him quickly. But, God sees long-term. He see a hundred generations after us. And, sometimes discipline brings about more long-term good than a season of revival. Sometimes, an example must be made for the future generations to see. So, God is going to deal with the sins of Judah, but not in the way that Habakkuk wanted. He’s going to let Babylon off of the leash to wreak havoc on his people. They’ll be carried off to exile, and their children will be born in a foreign land. They’ll learn from birth how seriously God takes the covenant He’s made with them.
Sometimes, it’s not that we can’t see what God is doing. It’s that we won’t see it. We refuse to see it because we don’t like what we see. You learn who it is you really trust when you don’t like the will of God. When God calls you to a ministry that scares you or when you’re left to face an incurable illness or when your child has to face a harsh consequence for their decisions, it’s both a prime opportunity to trust God or a tempting opportunity to abandon him. Will you trust God when He works in ways you don’t like?
After God’s response, Habakkuk is left reeling. He’s unsure of what to do. So, he asks another serious question:
Why won’t God “say, ‘Yes’.”
Why won’t God “say, ‘Yes’.”
Habakkuk 2:1 “I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”
We ought to really be able to relate to Habakkuk. He asks God to deal with the evil in Judah, and God says, “Oh, I absolutely am.” Habakkuk immediately comes back with, “No! Not like that!” That’s pretty much a summary of my prayer life. Habakkuk wants revival, not reckoning. He wants justice, not suffering. And, God’s plan doesn’t make any sense to him. Why would God use a nation that so evil, so horrible that they make Judah look righteous to bring judgement against Judah for their sins? That seems unjust to Habakkuk itself. We don’t just want God to answer our prayers. We want God to answer them in the way we want him to. We want him to say “Yes!” to all of the plans that we have and that we understand.
So, Habakkuk plants his feet and wants to know how God could possibly overcome one injustice with a greater injustice, how He could overcome the sins of his people with the an even more sinful people. And, of course, God answers him, but not in the way Habakkuk wanted (again).
He’s “planned” a different “timeline.”
Habakkuk 2:3 “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
Again, God zooms out to the bigger picture. He humbles Habakkuk quickly. Dealing with evil and with sinners is far more complex than we could ever realize. So, God says to Habakkuk, “It’s not about me answering to you and your plan. The question is: How will you respond to me and to my plan?” God’s response starts with his timeline. And, it’s a funny way to respond, isn’t it? Habakkuk asks why God would allow someone more evil than Judah to discipline Judah. God says, “Let’s talk about timing.” Habakkuk wanted God to deal with Judah’s sins quickly. Then, He wanted God to deal with Judah’s sin’s differently. But, God wants Habakkuk, and us, to realize that it’s bigger than we realize, it’s more complex than we can understand, and it’ll take longer than we think.
Like Habakkuk, we’re trying to put the puzzle together, but we’re missing half the pieces. You only see right now, but God sees it all. He knows how the pieces fit together. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring, and that means that you don’t know what today needs. God always does what’s best for forever, not just what’s most expedient today. And, what’s best from the perspective of eternity may be excruciating during our short years on earth. John Bunyan wrote “Piligrim’s Progress” from a London jail. Jonathan Edwards wrote many of his most famous books after he was fired from the church his pastored for 25 years. That is, the greatest contributions of both to the work of God and the people of God came during their worst times. God’s timing often seems horrible to us. It often seems too slow to us. So, how will we respond to him when his timeline is different than ours. That’s the question at hand.
He’s “writing” a different “storyline.”
Habakkuk 2:4-5 ““Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.””
Narrative is everything in our world, isn’t it? It appears as though whoever controls the narrative controls the future. And, we want desperately to control the narrative of our lives so that we can determine our future outcomes. And, that’s the issue with a world with evil in it. Evil disrupts our narrative. Sometimes, it’s the brokenness in the world. Sometimes, it’s the sin in me. Sometimes, it’s the sin of others against me, but it’s the evil in our world that prevents us from knowing how the future will come. All of us would write our stories differently than they are.
And, Habakkuk is not exception. But, Habakkuk’s response revealed the narrative that Judah had used to justify their evil. His prayer to God changed from “God, deal with our sin” to “but, God we’re not as sinful as they are!” The narrative of Judah is a common narrative in the church. It’s one of comparison. We believe that God is okay with us so long as we’re a little more moral, a little more forgiving, a little more generous than the people around us. So, God describes two different people in his response. One is meant to make Habakkuk think of Babylon. Arrogant. Puffed up. Treacherous. Greedy. Indulgent. The other is meant to make him think of who Judah is supposed to be. Patient. Righteous. Faithful. Trusting. You see, Babylon is not the standard. God is. And, Judah was a lot more Babylon than they were like their Lord. The first set of adjectives described them far more accurately than the latter.
So, the question facing Habakkuk is not: How would you write this story? The question facing Habakkuk and us today is: Which character will you be in the story? "The righteous shall live by his faith (verse 4)” is quoted 3 times in the New Testament. In Romans and Galatians, it’s quoted to show how we relate to God. We relate to him not on moral ground or through ritual acts primarily. We relate to him by faith. In Hebrews 10 though, it’s talking about how we persevere in the face of evil days. So, what’s seen here is both how you are saved and how you persevere. Will we live by faith when God writes our story differently than we would have?
What am I “supposed” to “do”?
What am I “supposed” to “do”?
Habakkuk doesn’t really know what to do. That’s the starting place of his prayer in chapter one, and that’s the starting place for most of our prayers. And, it’s like the more that God reveals to him, the less sure he is as to what he needs to do in such a desperate situation. And, that’s the question that faces us in hospital waiting rooms and when our children rebel and when cry through months of infertility. That’s the question that faces us when we’re forced to look the evil of this world in the eye. What are we supposed to do when we don’t know what to do? Habakkuk’s response informs ours:
Look “backward.”
Habakkuk 3:14-16 “You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.”
Gods going to deal with Babylon in due time. His five “woe’s” that end chapter two make that clear enough. But, it’s the way that God is going to deal with them that is striking. He’s going to kill them with their own arrows. Just like Pharaoh had tried to trap his people against the Red Sea, He will use the Red Sea against them instead. When it comes to dealing with evil, God loves poetic justice. He defeats Egypt with their own gods. He saves the sons of Israel through the brother they ousted. He hangs Haman on his own gallows. He saves Israel through their crucifixion of his Son. And, He loves poetic justice because it lets his people know in ways that are too clear to refute: “I’ve got you.”
Habakkuk three is a prayer of response (turned into a song of praise) to what God has said. And, in the first 16 verses, something extraordinary is happening. He’s speaking of the past and of the future at the same time. He’s recounting what God has done by looking at the Exodus and the victories of Joshua as what God has done. And, Habakkuk is recounting them as the expectation of what God will do. There will be a New Exodus. There will be a new Jericho experience. He’s looking backward at the poetic justice of God and knowing that his sufferings will tell the same story. Your suffering will only make sense when read backward. But, look back at the faithfulness of God and at the surprising workings of God, and you’ll know you can trust him. Look back, and quietly wait!
Look “upward.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19 “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.”
And so, Habakkuk lands on a praise that can bring tears to the eyes of any believer of God. “Though I don’t know where my paycheck is coming from, though everything in my life seems to be falling apart, though nothing is going the way that I want it to go, though I would’ve written this story completely different than God has written it, “YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD.”
What are we supposed to do when we don’t know what to do? What are we supposed to do when our lives have more questions than answers, more tears than laughter? How is it that we can like Paul in that Roman prison say: Philippians 4:12 “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” Rejoice in who you have, not what you have. What you have may be lost in a second. Who you have will sustain forever. Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Oh, when you don’t know what to do, look up!