Be Patient

Brandon Petras

Silence • Sermon • Submitted 9 months ago • Presented 9 months ago

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Intro

Nobody really enjoys waiting. Whether it is in line, in a waiting room, or on a phone call or message; we don’t like to wait.

And what makes our impatience worse is that we live in a society of immediate answers and gratification.

Before the cell phone was in widespread use, waiting was a more common part of life.

When someone was out of the office, you had to wait for them to return.

When someone was on vacation, you had to wait for them to get back.

When you broke down on the side of the road, you had to wait for a car to come by and hope they would stop.

These days, after sending a text, most people get frustrated if they don’t get an immediate reply. Even thirty minutes seems like a long time.

But when you look at the Bible and you read about the experiences of those within its pages you discover rather quickly that for the most part, they had to be patient people.

Rarely did God move on anything quickly. Often times he would make a promise or give a prophetic revelation about something and it might take years, decades, or even several generations to come to fruition.

As humans, we struggle with impatience, forgetting that many times growth happens in the waiting.

In the movie The Karate Kid, Daniel was getting bullied and wanted to learn karate in order to defend himself. His instructor, Mr. Miyagi, who was also the maintenance man at Daniel's apartment, agreed to teach him.

Each time Daniel showed up for instruction, Mr. Miyagi had him do what appeared to be a meaningless task (sanding a deck, waxing a car, painting a fence).

After several weeks of doing this, Daniel finally yelled at Mr. Miyagi in frustration, because he felt like he was being taken advantage of. In a powerful moment, Mr. Miyagi told him to do each motion, then showed him how it applied to karate.

Daniel then realized that the time he’d thought was meaningless was necessary.

We can be the same way: we don't think God is doing what he should do when we want him to do it.

But God doesn't waste our time. He uses these seasons to develop us and to bring about his purposes.

It was in the waiting that the people of God would often experience a season of growth and maturation.

And today I think we’re losing the growth and deepening of our faith that comes about through waiting.

We are becoming an impatient society. We see patience—or the necessity of it—as an inconvenience, not as a desirable fruit of the Spirit.

And if you are just joining us, last week we started a series called “silence”. Here we are studying the book of Habakkuk and learning how he responded when it seemed like God wasn’t listening or worse, didn’t care about evil and injustice around him.

Habakkuk was surrounded by a generation of people who had forgotten their covenant with God. A generation of people who had invited wickedness into their lives and trampled the law of Moses underfoot.

As a prophet, Habakkuk couldn’t understand why God was not only allowing this to happen, but it was almost as if the wicked were being rewarded for their disobedience.

Habakkuk’s prayer and complaint isn’t unlike our own today is it?

We too wonder sometimes why it seems as though the unrighteous and unrepentant seem to prosper, while the faithful followers of Christ struggle.

We too wonder why God allows tragedy to strike those who have committed their lives to serving God while those who mock him seem to be skating through life.

Habakkuk didn’t understand why God was silent on this issue. Then we see God respond. But his response wasn’t what Habakkuk expected.

God reassures Habakkuk that it hasn’t gone unnoticed. That he will bring correction, and that it will come by way of an even more wicked nation, Babylon, laying waste to the kingdom of Judah and exiling her people.

Well, this didn’t make sense to Habakkuk. And if you remember, we ended last week with Habakkuk responding to God by saying, “are you serious?!”.

This can’t be. How could this be the way God. How could you allow an even more evil nation to bring judgement on your chosen people. I don’t like this plan.

This morning we pick it up with Habakkuk waiting for God to help him understand.

Matter of Perspective

Habakkuk 2:1 NIV I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint [correction].

Chapter 2 opens with Habakkuk stating that he will stand at his watch post and station himself on the tower.

He has made his questions, frustrations, and objections known to God; now he is ready for God’s response.

Verse 1 in the NKJV translation discloses that Habakkuk plans to “watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.”

This mindset understands that when we are frustrated with what God is or isn’t doing, we are the ones who are missing the mark. Ultimately, our thinking needs to be corrected.

Though Habakkuk is upset, the entire premise of his question to God comes from an assumption that Habakkuk is wrong in his thinking. He never assumes God is making a mistake, but that he is and needs God to straighten him out.

God’s perspective is completely different from ours. We are limited by time and space; God is not. Our way of thinking sees only in part. God’s way of thinking sees everything.

No matter our age in years, it still bears no comparison to the eternal God. James describes our life in...

James 4:14 NIV ...you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Habakkuk understood something that so many of us fail to realize. That it is impossible for us as humans to comprehend why God does what he does.

The reason we struggle so much when it seems like God is silent is because we are trying to rationalize or make sense of something that is beyond out ability to do so.

Another great of example of this is in the book of Job.

Remember him, the one who God said was more righteous than any other man on Earth and yet God allow great tragedy to strike him and his family.

And Job in his frustration says to God.

Job 30:20-22 NIV 20 “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. 21 You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. 22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.

In Jobs eyes, much like Habakkuk’s, what was happening in his life made no sense to him. Look at how God responds to him.

Job 38:2-7 NIV 2 “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

God’s response served to remind Job, and by extension, all of us that there is no possible way for us to understand why God does what he does anymore than we can understand how does what he does.

And this is the premise of Habakkuk’s complaint. He wants God to intervene when it comes to the wickedness of Judah, but he doesn’t like or understand why God is going to deal with them the way he is.

So he asks God to help him understand because he acknowledges that at the moment, he does not.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 NIV 2 Then the Lord replied: “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.

In verse 3 the Lord answers Habakkuk by telling him to write down what the Lord tells him. The prophet should make it plain, so that everyone who reads it from that day forward will see that God did exactly what he said he would do.

He tells Habakkuk that it’s going to take some time, and it may not make sense, but in the end it will make sense.

In the end, God will receive the glory. In the end, justice will come forth.

So Habakkuk is going to have to wait. Judah will be disciplined and for a season it may look like God has forgotten about his people.

But when the time is right, God will also deal with Babylon.

Habakkuk 2:4 NIV 4 “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness

Some translations here say faith.

The Hebrew noun translated “faith” here is also rendered at times “faithfulness.” It is based upon a verbal root that means to “be firm,” “be permanent,” or “be secure,” hence “be faithful.”

To the Hebrew mind no dichotomy existed between faith and faithfulness. The truly righteous person is the one whose faith is demonstrated in faithful deeds.

God tells Habakkuk that he does see, and he will deal with everything that is going on. Verse 4—“The righteous shall live by his faith”—is a powerful verse that Paul quotes twice in the NT. It’s also quoted in Hebrews.

This truth is echoed throughout Scripture. As believers, we do not live by what we see with our eyes. We do not live based on circumstances and situations. We live by the goodness, faithfulness, and promises of God.

In the remainder of Habakkuk 2, God makes it known that he sees the wickedness of the Babylonians. He knows their pride, violence, brutality, and godlessness.

I encourage you to read what all God will do to the Babylonians at some point

He is answering Habakkuk’s complaint that he is not dealing with their wickedness; in fact, it appears he is rewarding it.

God makes plain that the Babylonians’ day will come. God will not be mocked. He closes chapter 2 by saying...

Habakkuk 2:20 NIV 20 The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

Discipline vs. Wrath

In the first two chapters of Habakkuk, we see the difference between wrath and discipline.

God is bringing discipline to the Israelites and wrath to the Babylonians. Discipline is always redemptive in the long run. Although discipline may feel like wrath at the time, its purpose is to bring correction and a changed heart.

For the Israelites, wrath would have allowed them to continue in their wickedness and walk away from God.

It is far better to experience the active discipline of God than the passive wrath of God. We know that God disciplines those he loves.

While not all difficult situations are God’s discipline or his wrath, it’s important that we allow difficulty to turn us toward the Father instead of away from him.

God does not necessarily cause all the difficult situations in our lives, but he will definitely use them for his glory and for our good.

Application/Closing

In our shortsightedness, we often get frustrated with God when things don’t go our way.

Imagine praying for a promotion at work. You work with honesty and integrity. You do a great job. You are qualified. When the time comes for the promotion, another person gets it.

This person lacks your integrity and work ethic. They lied about their qualifications and cheated to get the promotion. When you find out the news, you ask God why.

Maybe you even accuse God of not being fair. But what we don’t see is that God may have something better down the road for us that isn’t even on our radar yet. Many times, God is either preparing us for, or saving us from something we have no idea is ahead.

Yes God was going to move in a way that Habakkuk did not expect, nor would he have perferred it. But it has a purpose.

To develop Israel and turn their hearts back to God

To bring judgment on Babylon for her many sins.

Patience is only possible through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so instead of accusing God, lets recognize that our lives are but vapor, trust his perspective, and learn to wait.

We keep asking God to change our cirumstances when maybe all along he wants to use our circumstances to change us.

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