Waiting on God
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Waiting on God
Waiting on God
Last week was a little heavy, and we got into a lot of questions about why do bad things happen, why is life unfair, or why has God allowed this to happen.
Just a little recap on who Habakkuk is:
Minior Prophet
Wrote this vision that he would eventually get from God about 600 years before Christ.
The book of Habakkuk is unlike any other book written by the minor prophets.
Normally the prophets would go to the people on behalf of God, and would normally get a very firm and fair warning of danger or judgement to come.
Habakkuk is not like that.
Habakkuk is goes to God on behalf of the people.
Habakkuk was seeing a lot of wrong in the nation of Judah.
He was seeing corruption.
He was seeing the wicked being superior over the righteous!
And this doesn’t make sense to Habakkuk so he goes to God, and he ask him why this is happening!
Why are the wicked doing well God, don’t you care!
Recall Habakkuk’s name means to wrestle and to embrace
A lot of times our pain or frustration is directed at God.
We tend to hold God to this level of accountability.
We find ourselves much like Habakkuk that when things in our life are not going well, we go to God and we complain, we seek answer, we feel ignored, we are upset, we get a little irritated, we complain.
When we are in the pits of life we are crying out to God and at times it seems like God doesn’t answer us, we feel like we are talking to a wall, and we just don’t understand it.
All of that happens in chapter 1.
This is how Habakkuk was feeling in chapter 1.
This may be how you are feeling about life right now where you currently are.
But that is chapter 1 and there is still two more chapters.
So often people walk away when they are in chapter 1.
They get mad at God and they walk away from him.
God understands our pain.
God welcomes our questions.
God knows are pain.
God would rather you yell at Him then walk away from Him.
In chapter 1 we were challenged to wrestle with doubts, to wrestle with the pain of life, to wrestle with trying to understand what God is doing.
Not only are we challenged to wrestle but we are challenged to embrace.
We are challenged to embrace God during those hard issues.
Trust in Him, lean into Him, keep our faith.
Embrace faith in God.
In chapter 1 we wrestle and embrace.
In chapter 2 we wait on God.
Waiting can be the hardest and most challenging thing that we can do at times!
I do not have to tell you this!
We are impatient people!
We hate— hate hate waiting on anything!
fast food isn't fast enough
Our instagram is down we angrily want it to work
We don’t even get us talking about if the wifi is down!
Or if halfway through a show on netflix you get that buffer circle!
or something my family experienced two weeks ago at a restaurant here in galesburg.
We wanted for our food for for a kid you not an hour and a half.
IT DROVE US CRAZY!!!
WE WANT OUR FOOD!
We don’t like waiting.
We hate waiting when we pray for an answer from God that to us is time sensitive.
We hate waiting to see if God is going to heal a family member.
He hate waiting to see if God will finally act and stop this burden that you have!
It is hard to wait.
We shared a little at the end of the message last week, that Habakkuk would wait for an answer.
We are going to dive more into that, tonight.
In chapter 1 the encouragement if you could say it is an encouragement is don’t walk away in chapter 1.
And in chapter two: don’t quit
Don’t Quit
Don’t Quit
When you are hurting coming out of chapter 1, life has knocked you down and you are hurting.
DONT’QUIT!
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.
Habakkuk 2:
Habakkuk didn’t walk away from God, He didn’t quit.
He dug his heels in and he waited on God.
HE was still hurting.
He was still wrestling, but he was also embracing God.
He didn’t walk away, he didn’t quit.
When we have moments where we are hurting I think the story of Habakkuk gives us some really good instructions.
When we are hurting what are we suppose to do?
Based on the story of Habakkuk here are a few things we can do as we are being patient on God.
Listen
Write
Wait
Let’s start with the first one listen.
Listen
Listen
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.
Habakkuk 2:
I look out to see what GOD WILL SAY TO ME!!!
Habakkuk didn’t walk away!
He didn’t say well God i see you don’t want to talk fine I am leaving.
He stays and he listens for God.
Many times when we are hurting, we want to do a lot of the talking.
We do a lot of the complaining! We are the ones doing all the talking.
We want people to know our hurt.
More importantly we want God to know our hurt and so we shout it, we wear it on our sleeves, we talk about it.
When we are hurting the last thing we want to do is stop and listen.
We want to tell God what He should be doing, but instead we need to listen.
Even when you don’t want to listen.
I must confess that I have never heard God speak to my audibly.
When I have cried out to God, he has never like tapped me on the shoulder and spoke to me like I am speaking with you right now.
But I have been in the darkness, and God has spoken to me through His word.
Remember chapter 1 we must wrestle and embrace
This never means that we stop praying to God, it never means that we stop reading His word, we must not cut ties with people, or stop going to church or youth group.
Because while God may have never talked to me physically.
He has spoken to me through His word.
He has used someone else to come along side of me and love on me and share with me wisdom that I can only accredit to God.
I have been broken durning a message, where the words that are coming from the pastor are the exact words that I needed to hear from God.
We have to keep wrestling and embracing, we can’t walk away and we sure as heck do not want to quit!
God will speak to you, he may just chose a different avenue.
Silence does not mean that God is absence in your life or in our world.
Just as we listen, A warning to you.
God may not answer in the way you want him too.
God may decide to answer in a way that doesn’t make much sense at the time.
God may choose to not do what you are asking.
God may choose something different for you.
A prime example is right here, Habakkuk is saying God SAVE US, don’t you care.
God is like I am raising up your enemies.
Paul, an apostle of the New Testament is a man who suffered greatly for the name of Jesus.
He was ship wreaked, he was beaten to an inch of life like several times!
He was left for dead, bitten by a snake!
Paul had this torn in his side that he pleaded for God to get rid of and God told Paul NO!
If I was Paul I would say NO Paul I don’t want your grace I want your power!
God remember what I am doing for you!
God I gave everything!
God Peter! Peter denied you three times! He needs your grace!
Thomas doubted you! He needs your grace!
God want your power, and I need you to take this torn out of my side!
And God tells Paul, look Paul my grace is enough for you!
When we beg for the pain to stop, when we beg enough is enough.
God may respond to you like He did with Paul, saying NO, but in your weakness I am strong.
We need to listen
Number 2 is write.
Write
Write
And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
Habakkuk was told by God to write this down.
Not uncommon for a prophet to be told this to do from God.
Habakkuk would write this on tablets.
This would have been one of the most reliable forms of writing down information.
So he may run who reads it.
This is an interesting term:
God was instructing Habakkuk to write this vision down on tablets so the person who reads it may run their life through it!
The tablets were written on because not everyone could read or write at this time.
The tablets needed to be easy to understand!
God appointed Habakkuk for this, and the vision that was given was for a time to come.
This term he may run who reads it, means that the message needs to be clear enough and written on the tablets enough that even someone running can understand it.
The words of Habakkuk needed to be able to be read a glance.
Habakkuk is waiting on God, he hasn’t quit on Him, and he intent on listening to God.
God saying Habakkuk write this down.
And write this down in a way that everyone can understand it.
Because what God is going to do is going to happen in the future.
Habakkuk write this down to offer up hope to those who read it!
Verse 3 and 4
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.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
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.
The hope is there!
Write this down Habakkuk!
God have faith!
Embrace God!
Have FAITH!
When we are in the valley, things are not going our way, may I suggest writing.
Write down how you feel.
Write down what God is saying to you!
Write down what peace God is giving you as you read his word!
The enemy wants to put doubts in your mind!
The enemy Satan wants to take those words from you and put doubts and disbelief in your mind.
Some of you may had that happen last week, God spoke you, he gave you a word to hold on too but when you got home and you were surrounded by the problem you start to second guess.
This is what happened in the garden at the beginning of time.
God told Adam and Eve, he don’t eat from this tree.
They say okay we will listen to you!
Then Satan comes in and he puts that doubt into Eve’s mind and for a second she failed to trust God and what he said.
Maybe she should have wrote it down. but she didn’t;
and many of you know rest of the story.
Sin entered the world and the need for Jesus become painstakingly clear.
When God answers prayers write it down.
When God speaks to you write it down.
When God uses someone else to speak to you write it down.
When you are going through hard times raw times and you are struggling, and doubting, having something written down to look back on is some of the most helpful things for you durning that time.
When my mom was diagnosed with skin cancer, I prayed for answers as to why.
But let me tell you something!
I had seen God move as a great healer with my daughter Evey born at 29 weeks but only measuring as a 25 week old!
Brittni was just over halfway through the pregnancy when turmoil began.
I almost lost Brittni and Evey in the same day, but by God’s grace He worked a miracle in Evey’s life and she is this amazing smart curly head humous child.
I knew that God could heal my mom, and peace was given durning that time.
She is cancer free, they were able to get all of it!
It is not very easy to forget miracles like that one, but some of the smaller ones it is.
Write it down, so you can glance at it and trust in God.
That your hope may continue to be found in God.
Number 3
Wait
Wait
Lets look back at verse 3 and 4 again
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.
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.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
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.
Habukku
The vision here is waiting for the right time.
The time is not yet.
Habakkuk must wait.
It will speak about the end and it will not be false!
God is true to His word.
It may seem slow.
The NIV says though it linger...
It may not happen right away--- WAIT FOR IT!
It will come it will not delay.
God works everything in his perfect time.
All things are perfectly timed by God.
Right now you may be waiting.
Waiting is awful!
Waiting stinks!
It is so hard to wait!
But trust that God will not delay.
Right now you may be in a place where you are waiting to hear from God.
You can’t force God to move or even answer
But when the appointed time comes and it has lingered; GOD CAN’T BE STOPPED!
Hold on!
Don’t lose faith!
Keep wrestling!
Keep embracing!
Keep waiting!
Habakkuk is waiting, and now he is writing, and final Habakkuk is going to hear an answer that he wants to hear from God.
verse 4
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
God is saying look, this nation I am raising up I know they are bad and if you have looked ahead at the rest of chapter 2 you see the 5 woe statements that are all directed at the Chaldeans!
God is saying look i am going to get them, I am a just God and they will get their Habakkuk!
The enemy is puffed up! The Chaldeans are arrogant they put their faith in their own doing!
But God isn’t talking to them! He is talking to Habakkuk!
God goes on to say that the righteous shall live by his faith.
We live by faith.
Even when I can’t see with my eyes God, I will wait for it!
I will let it linger!
I will wait!
Some of us have to wait and let it linger.
Look at the end of chapter 2
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
This is Habakkuk speaking now.
Habakkuk has written lots of stuff down for God now, and he says that God is in his temple.
Habakkuk may have been referring to Jersualem here but most likely he was saying that God is in Heaven.
He is the ruler of Heaven and earth.
God deserves and should receive the honor that is due to him alone!
Look at the last sentence of this verse.
Let all the earth keep silence before him.
This is Habakkuk the same dude who came out guns drawn, and looking to shot up the sky wanting God to answer him!
This is a much different person now who is answering God.
Habakkuk was making demands, asking questions, and he retreated to his watchtower to wait for answers, and he was impatient at God’s silence.
Now Habakkuk is saying let everyone hush.
Habakkuk knew that he could go to God and let me hear all that was on his heart, but now the time has come to hush.
Habakkuk was willing to let God act in His timing.
Listen to this commentary as it explains this last sentece of
The New American Commentary: Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah 5. Woe to the Maker of an Idol (2:18–20)
“Despite his apparent silence, he still remains with them; he has not lost control of their destiny. One should wait upon him in the awed silence that is often the most appropriate expression of true worship.”
In chapter 1 we wrestle and embrace
Some may walk away in chapter 1
In chapter 2 we wait
DON’T QUIT on GOD in chapter 2
Don’t let go of God!
He is big enough to handle the wrestling!
What happens in chapter 3?
You will have to come back next week for that.
But remember you cant have chapter 3 without going through chapter 1 where you wrestle and embrace
and you cant have chapter 3 without going through chapter 2 where you have to wait, let it linger...
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