HABAKKUK Why Does God Do Nothing?

Series: Reasonable Faith in Unreasonable Times

Speaker: Steve Jeffrey

Date: 3rd June 2018

00:00:00 --> 00:00:04 In December 2004, many of you will know, remember,
00:00:04 --> 00:00:10 that there was a massive tsunami that killed more than 250 people
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 around the rim of the Indian Ocean.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:19 And in the weeks that followed, newspapers and magazines
00:00:19 --> 00:00:25 were full of letters and articles asking, questioning,
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 where was God?
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 In all of that, where was God?
00:00:32 --> 00:00:38 One reporter wrote, if God is God, he's not good.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 If God is good, then he's not God.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:49 You can't have it both ways, especially with the Indian Ocean catastrophe.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:56 Now, for many people, it's not the exclusivity of Christianity,
00:00:56 --> 00:01:00 Christianity, like the claims that we looked at over the last three weeks
00:01:00 --> 00:01:04 in our mission months, that pose the biggest problem.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:09 It's the presence of evil and suffering in this world.
00:01:10 --> 00:01:16 Some find unjust suffering a huge philosophical problem,
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 calling into question the very existence of God.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:25 For others, as I've just prayed, right now, it's an intensely personal issue.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:32 Don't care so much about the abstract question of whether God exists or not.
00:01:32 --> 00:01:42 For some, they just simply refuse to trust or believe in any God
00:01:42 --> 00:01:49 who allows history and life to continue to proceed as it has in the past,
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 with all the carnage.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:56 So, as James has said, we are continuing our series.
00:01:57 --> 00:02:01 If you were clued up, you would have seen it's still exactly the same series.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 Reasonable faith, unreasonable times.
00:02:04 --> 00:02:08 But this, what we're doing now is we're moving into the little Old Testament book
00:02:08 --> 00:02:13 of Habakkuk to continue the series of reasonable faith in unreasonable times.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:21 Habakkuk is a book that deals directly with the issue of evil and suffering.
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 Habakkuk lived in a world very similar to the world that we live in,
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 and he asked the sort of questions that we ask.
00:02:30 --> 00:02:35 Having said that, practically nothing is known about Habakkuk himself.
00:02:35 --> 00:02:44 All the information we have about this man is the very first verse of this prophecy,
00:02:44 --> 00:02:49 which says, the prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:57 There's no little bio outlining his education and his family, his hobbies,
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 what he does on a day off, that sort of stuff.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:08 There's only one clue about his place in history, and it's in verse 6.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:17 In verse 6, it appears that the Babylonians were about to pounce on Israel at any moment.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:26 That means that Habakkuk wrote sometime in the period between the rise of the Babylonian Empire
00:03:26 --> 00:03:33 in 625 BC and their attack on Jerusalem, which began in 592 BC.
00:03:35 --> 00:03:41 Now, Babylon was the world superpower of Habakkuk's time,
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 although they'd only held that position for about 80 years,
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 but they were pretty arrogant regardless.
00:03:48 --> 00:03:52 They were the schoolyard bullies that you kind of avoided
00:03:52 --> 00:03:54 and you didn't want to mess with at all.
00:03:54 --> 00:04:03 Now, the whole thrust of Habakkuk, the structure of it as little prophecy is really simple.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:08 It's straightforward and it's interesting and it's highly practical.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:12 So the general flow of Habakkuk goes kind of like this.
00:04:13 --> 00:04:19 First of all, Habakkuk complains to God about the evil and the injustice in his own nation,
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 and he wants to know why God's not doing anything about it.
00:04:22 --> 00:04:31 Secondly, God responds by saying, yes, I see it, and here's my plan to deal with it.
00:04:33 --> 00:04:43 Habakkuk, thirdly, responds with, hey God, that plan doesn't seem like a great plan.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:49 God responds, yes, it is a good plan.
00:04:50 --> 00:04:55 And I'm God, you're not God, and I've got it all worked out.
00:04:56 --> 00:05:02 Habakkuk closes out with this great prayer, which is basically saying,
00:05:02 --> 00:05:08 God, you're right, I'm not you, and I will trust you.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 So the structure is easy to understand.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:21 The arguments and the application are much harder for our hearts and our minds to come to grips with.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:28 So we're going to take a closer look at the 17 verses, and there are four things I want us to see today.
00:05:28 --> 00:05:36 What Habakkuk saw, what Habakkuk did, what Habakkuk heard, and what it meant for Habakkuk and us.
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 So firstly, what Habakkuk saw.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:43 I want to take a look first of all at verse 2.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:48 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
00:05:49 --> 00:05:53 Or cry out to you violence, but you do not save?
00:05:53 --> 00:05:56 Why do you make me look at injustice?
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 Destruction and violence are before me.
00:06:02 --> 00:06:05 There is strife and conflict abounds.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:12 So Habakkuk here has got really two complaints to raise with God.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:19 In verse 2, he says, how long, O Lord, must I call for help?
00:06:20 --> 00:06:25 Then, in verse 3, he tells us what he saw.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:29 Why do you make me look at injustice?
00:06:31 --> 00:06:32 That's his two complaints.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:40 So Habakkuk here, in his nation, is surrounded by violence, injustice, carnage, sin.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:47 And in his frustration, he calls out to God and he asks God to intervene.
00:06:49 --> 00:06:50 And he gets nothing.
00:06:52 --> 00:06:53 That's his perspective.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:54 I get nothing from God.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 Habakkuk looks around in his nation.
00:06:58 --> 00:06:59 He sees the bad guys winning.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:01 He sees the wicked ruling.
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 He sees corruption everywhere in amongst the people of God.
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 This is Israel he's speaking about.
00:07:08 --> 00:07:12 He sees military threats from the outside, from Babylon.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:17 And he also sees corruption amongst God's people on the inside.
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 These are evil times.
00:07:20 --> 00:07:24 And he's wondering why God's not doing anything about it.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:32 He says to God in verse 2, 3, and 4, why aren't you listening to me?
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 He wants to know why God isn't doing anything.
00:07:40 --> 00:07:41 Why does God seem to tolerate?
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 How can you tolerate this evil God?
00:07:45 --> 00:07:46 Why are you absent, God?
00:07:47 --> 00:07:48 God, why have you abandoned us?
00:07:48 --> 00:07:57 He's tired of all the wrong, the destruction, the violence, the strife, the injustice, the corruption, and the conflict.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:05 He does not, in any sense, want to look positively about the world in which he lives.
00:08:07 --> 00:08:11 He doesn't want to venture down and think of positive thinking.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 A bit more education and we'll sort it all out.
00:08:14 --> 00:08:15 Let's just educate everyone.
00:08:15 --> 00:08:15 Let's educate everyone.
00:08:18 --> 00:08:22 In verse 4, he says,
00:08:22 --> 00:08:24 I can't even find justice amongst God's people.
00:08:25 --> 00:08:30 Even the law of God is perverted and the righteous people suffer endless abuse.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:34 The prayers of the righteous, he says, go unheard.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 Maybe that's something that you've experienced.
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 Maybe you're experiencing now something that you know firsthand.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:50 Where you have prayed and prayed and prayed and asked God to intervene in the situation.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 But it just appears like silence.
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 Just a buzzing noise in the background.
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 That's what Habakkuk saw.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:05 So what did he do?
00:09:05 --> 00:09:09 He did two things.
00:09:11 --> 00:09:15 Firstly, Habakkuk was bold and honest.
00:09:15 --> 00:09:19 In verse 3, he says, why do you tolerate wrong?
00:09:20 --> 00:09:21 Now that's bold.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:25 He's, that's bold, it's honest.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:31 What he's doing here is in fact challenging God at this point.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:41 But in verse 12, if you go down to verse 12, he does something that's even more remarkable in his challenge of God.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:44 Have a look at verse 12.
00:09:44 --> 00:09:49 Lord, are you not from everlasting?
00:09:51 --> 00:09:57 In other words, God, aren't you the infinite God?
00:09:59 --> 00:10:04 Now, in the English language, when you look at that, that doesn't seem terribly confronting at all.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 Just seems like a, you know, straightforward question.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:14 In the original language, the Hebrew language, this is a bold confrontation of God.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:19 This is, in fact, in the Hebrew language, a punishing statement.
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 Habakkuk is saying something like this.
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 I thought you were infinite.
00:10:27 --> 00:10:32 You're supposed to be the great God who is wise and who is from everlasting to everlasting.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:41 He comes very close to saying, the God, you are none of those things.
00:10:44 --> 00:10:58 One Hebrew scholar says that the Hebrew word here that is used to translate, are you not, in verse 12, occurs 96 times in the Old Testament.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:11 And amongst, sorry, almost every time that it's used, it's a vigorous human argument against God.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:21 And so nothing could have been more abrupt in Habakkuk's second prayer at the beginning of verse 12.
00:11:22 --> 00:11:28 God is not being approached here with any sense of courtesy and respect by Habakkuk.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:34 Which makes the second thing that Habakkuk does quite interesting.
00:11:35 --> 00:11:39 And we're going to see this a little bit more in the coming few weeks.
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 But we get a glimpse of it here.
00:11:42 --> 00:11:48 Right after that challenge of God in verse 12, he's challenging God.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:59 And yet, on the other hand, he never even hints that it's even an option for him to abandon God.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:00 To walk away from God.
00:12:01 --> 00:12:02 To stop obeying God.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:03 To stop praying to God.
00:12:03 --> 00:12:04 To stop following God.
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 Not even an option for Habakkuk.
00:12:09 --> 00:12:14 You see, Habakkuk's not blogging about God at this point.
00:12:14 --> 00:12:20 He's not putting articles in the Sydney Morning Herald about God at this point.
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 He's praying to God.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:27 He comes to God with his anguish.
00:12:27 --> 00:12:32 And as soon as he accuses God, in verse 12, he calls him,
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 My God, my Holy One.
00:12:35 --> 00:12:41 He is wrestling with God in the safety of relationship with God.
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 That's what he's doing.
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 And hardly anyone treats God like this.
00:12:50 --> 00:12:57 You see, members of traditional religious communities, even traditional, you know, those who are traditional Christians,
00:12:58 --> 00:13:03 would say, oh, you don't talk to God like that.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 You don't ask questions like that of God.
00:13:05 --> 00:13:05 You don't, you don't.
00:13:08 --> 00:13:14 See, they, they seem to, they see God as a king who must be appeased.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:20 A God who you'd better not say anything negative to, or this God will just wipe you out.
00:13:20 --> 00:13:26 You've got to kind of, those who come from a works, good works mentality, that's how we have a relationship with God.
00:13:26 --> 00:13:29 We've got to do good things for him, for him to love us.
00:13:29 --> 00:13:33 If your relationship is insecure with God, you'll never speak to God like this.
00:13:35 --> 00:13:46 More modern people have such, on the other hand, more modern people have such an enormous confidence in human reasoning and perception.
00:13:46 --> 00:13:53 They just simply say, I can't see why God would allow evil and suffering in this world, and so I'm just not going to believe in him.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:59 So the traditional religious person says, no, no, you don't, you don't speak like that to God.
00:13:59 --> 00:14:09 On the other hand, the more modern person who has humanistic, very strong view of your perception of reason and will just go, well, I just don't believe in God.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 I've got a problem, philosophically, I just don't believe in him.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:16 And Habakkuk's neither of those.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:26 He is emotionally and intellectually frank and honest with God, but he wouldn't even think of leaving.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 My God, my Holy One.
00:14:35 --> 00:14:42 Habakkuk seems to be saying, if I can't figure out life with you,
00:14:42 --> 00:14:47 how on earth am I going to figure out life without you?
00:14:49 --> 00:14:54 This is unconditionally faithful wrestling.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00 So that's what Habakkuk saw, that's what he did.
00:15:01 --> 00:15:06 And thirdly, let's see what he heard from God that made him so frank, so blunt,
00:15:06 --> 00:15:11 and speak to God without courtesy and respect in verse 12.
00:15:12 --> 00:15:19 God's first answer to Habakkuk's first complaint starts at verse 5.
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed,
00:15:23 --> 00:15:29 for I'm going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.
00:15:29 --> 00:15:36 God says to Habakkuk, okay, I'll tell you, but you're not going to understand it.
00:15:37 --> 00:15:39 This is what's going to happen.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:44 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people
00:15:44 --> 00:15:48 who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.
00:15:49 --> 00:15:53 And then you've got a lengthy explanation of what the Babylonians are like.
00:15:53 --> 00:16:00 So what's God's answer to Habakkuk's problem of injustice and evil in the people of God in Israel?
00:16:00 --> 00:16:07 He says, I'm going to use the Babylonians to punish Israel for its evil and its injustice and its corruption.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:10 They are powerful.
00:16:10 --> 00:16:11 They are ruthless.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:17 If they want something, they will plunder and kill in order to get it.
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 They have no mercy, these people.
00:16:19 --> 00:16:25 And Habakkuk hears that and goes, what?
00:16:27 --> 00:16:28 What?
00:16:29 --> 00:16:39 God's answer to Habakkuk's complaint about the injustice and the violence is to bring more injustice and violence.
00:16:42 --> 00:16:47 And this is how God is going to work his salvation into the world.
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 In Habakkuk's time.
00:16:50 --> 00:16:55 This is how God is going to deal with the injustice and the violence and the sin and the evil and the carnage.
00:16:55 --> 00:16:59 And it makes no sense to Habakkuk at all.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:14 How can God use a wicked nation like Babylon to punish a nation that on the surface appears to be more righteous than Babylon?
00:17:14 --> 00:17:21 It's like putting Adolf Hitler as the presiding judge of Joseph Stalin's trial.
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 Makes no sense at all.
00:17:28 --> 00:17:31 But in the end, the Bible is a theology book.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:33 It teaches about God.
00:17:34 --> 00:17:36 And we discover God's ways are not our ways.
00:17:36 --> 00:17:37 God's ways are surprising.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40 God's ways are often hard to work out.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:47 To our finite grasp of reality, God's ways will often seem wrong to us.
00:17:49 --> 00:17:58 You see, most of us, I think, certainly those who have a traditional view of religion and those of us who have no religion at all,
00:17:58 --> 00:18:04 we would tend to be more comfortable with a God who's a bit more like Oprah and Dr. Phil,
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 who gives out advice when we need advice.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:15 Or like the fairy who waves a wand and fixes them when we need things fixed.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:19 We're much more comfortable with Bruce Almighty than God Almighty.
00:18:19 --> 00:18:28 Now, to be fair here, God told Habakkuk he wasn't going to understand it.
00:18:28 --> 00:18:32 God says to Habakkuk and us, don't you dare judge me.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:36 Don't you dare judge me on your timetable and your calendars.
00:18:38 --> 00:18:45 Habakkuk knows that God promised salvation to the world through his people in the Old Testament.
00:18:45 --> 00:18:49 But his people are just as corrupt as everyone else.
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 And he wants to know that God's doing something about it.
00:18:53 --> 00:18:55 He wants to know God is doing something about it.
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 His plan for salvation.
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 And God says, yes, I am.
00:19:00 --> 00:19:01 I haven't forgotten it.
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 He's going to raise up the Babylonians.
00:19:04 --> 00:19:05 They're going to come in.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:06 They're going to conquer his people.
00:19:06 --> 00:19:07 They're going to take them away into exile.
00:19:08 --> 00:19:09 And Habakkuk says, what?
00:19:10 --> 00:19:13 You call that an answer to my prayer?
00:19:13 --> 00:19:19 Now, Habakkuk could not see what we can see.
00:19:19 --> 00:19:21 We got the benefit of history, the hindsight of history.
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 Habakkuk could not see what we can see.
00:19:25 --> 00:19:29 If Israel had never been taken off into exile,
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 then they would never have eventually spread throughout,
00:19:33 --> 00:19:39 over the centuries, to spread throughout the entire Roman Empire.
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 Babylonians were beaten by the Persians,
00:19:41 --> 00:19:42 the Persians were beaten by the Greeks,
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 the Greeks were beaten by the Romans.
00:19:45 --> 00:19:49 And each one of them, God has used each empire to build roads
00:19:49 --> 00:19:53 and to spread and to spread his people throughout the world.
00:19:53 --> 00:20:00 And wherever they spread, wherever God's people spread,
00:20:01 --> 00:20:04 they built synagogues for the Jews
00:20:04 --> 00:20:08 and they built synagogues for the God-fearers.
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 And the God-fearers were pagan Gentiles
00:20:11 --> 00:20:14 who got interested in the God of the Bible
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17 and joined one of these God-fearing synagogues.
00:20:17 --> 00:20:20 And every town that they went to,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:21 they built these synagogues.
00:20:22 --> 00:20:26 And when Christianity in the first century started to spread,
00:20:27 --> 00:20:31 the most receptive people in the entire world
00:20:31 --> 00:20:34 to God's message of salvation through Jesus Christ
00:20:34 --> 00:20:37 were the Gentile God-fearers in those synagogues.
00:20:37 --> 00:20:41 They embraced it.
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 And what God did through them
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 was the message of salvation went to the world.
00:20:47 --> 00:20:53 And the great irony that as the message of the gospel,
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54 the salvation of Jesus Christ,
00:20:54 --> 00:20:57 spread throughout the world in the first couple of centuries,
00:20:57 --> 00:21:05 it made the world in its time a less violent place.
00:21:07 --> 00:21:11 The influence of Christianity changed nations and cultures in such a way
00:21:11 --> 00:21:17 that things like human sacrifice, infanticide, slavery,
00:21:18 --> 00:21:23 gladiated competitions were stamped out because of Christianity.
00:21:23 --> 00:21:29 The violence of the Romans, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks,
00:21:30 --> 00:21:35 led to Christianity, which all made the world less violent.
00:21:36 --> 00:21:37 Habakkuk couldn't have seen that.
00:21:38 --> 00:21:41 He couldn't have seen that God was going to work it out in his timing,
00:21:41 --> 00:21:42 not Habakkuk's timing.
00:21:44 --> 00:21:45 You see, it's no different for us.
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 When the communists took over China,
00:21:47 --> 00:21:52 they had all the Western missionaries removed out of China.
00:21:53 --> 00:21:57 And the ethnocentricity of us white people
00:21:57 --> 00:22:02 assumes that nobody can work without us.
00:22:03 --> 00:22:04 We just assume that.
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 And so when the Western missionaries were removed,
00:22:06 --> 00:22:07 we thought, oh my goodness,
00:22:08 --> 00:22:10 the church in the Western world assumed
00:22:10 --> 00:22:14 that 100 years of Christian mission work,
00:22:14 --> 00:22:17 it was all over for the gospel in China.
00:22:20 --> 00:22:22 And at the time, there were questions
00:22:22 --> 00:22:24 why God was abandoning China.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 We just assumed, remove the Western missionaries,
00:22:27 --> 00:22:27 God's abandoning China.
00:22:29 --> 00:22:30 A whole lot of racism there.
00:22:30 --> 00:22:37 We now know that because the Western missionaries were removed,
00:22:37 --> 00:22:43 that the Chinese made the Christian faith indigenous
00:22:43 --> 00:22:48 and is now the fastest growing Christian movement in the world.
00:22:50 --> 00:22:52 Couldn't have seen that when it happened.
00:22:53 --> 00:22:55 Just assume God abandoned them.
00:22:57 --> 00:23:00 We do not have God's perspective.
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 We do not have God's timing.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:07 And yet we sit here and we say,
00:23:07 --> 00:23:08 God, we don't get it.
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 I want to know now.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:14 But we can't.
00:23:17 --> 00:23:19 That's what Habakkuk does in his time.
00:23:20 --> 00:23:22 Tell me what you're going to do, God.
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 And God tells Habakkuk,
00:23:24 --> 00:23:29 you're not going to understand the plan if I told you.
00:23:29 --> 00:23:31 Habakkuk says, tell me, tell me, tell me.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33 God says, okay, here it is.
00:23:33 --> 00:23:34 Habakkuk says, I don't get it.
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 I don't understand it.
00:23:40 --> 00:23:44 You do know why a three-year-old is always screaming.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 You understand why a three-year-old is always screaming.
00:23:46 --> 00:23:49 It's because they don't get it.
00:23:50 --> 00:23:51 They don't understand.
00:23:52 --> 00:23:53 You know, they want something to eat.
00:23:54 --> 00:23:55 And so they grab something to eat.
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58 And you take it off them because it's poison.
00:23:58 --> 00:23:59 Or it's got too much sugar.
00:23:59 --> 00:24:01 It's because it's the pet guinea pig.
00:24:01 --> 00:24:01 One or the other.
00:24:02 --> 00:24:05 And they scream because they don't understand.
00:24:06 --> 00:24:09 And you sit them down and you explain it to them,
00:24:09 --> 00:24:11 the basis of nutrition and cruelty to animals,
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13 if they happen to have the guinea pig.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:16 And they might, for a moment,
00:24:16 --> 00:24:17 understand the guinea pig thing.
00:24:18 --> 00:24:19 They might get that.
00:24:19 --> 00:24:22 But they don't understand the poison thing
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 and they don't understand the sugar thing.
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 And you sit them down and you explain to them
00:24:26 --> 00:24:29 and you say, honey, you've just got to trust me.
00:24:29 --> 00:24:31 And then they go on screaming again
00:24:31 --> 00:24:33 because they don't understand.
00:24:35 --> 00:24:40 The distance between the capability of the mind of God
00:24:40 --> 00:24:42 and the timing of God
00:24:42 --> 00:24:45 and the mind and the timing of a human being is infinite.
00:24:46 --> 00:24:47 It's vast.
00:24:48 --> 00:24:52 It's much greater than between a parent and a three-year-old.
00:24:52 --> 00:24:55 We expect to understand everything that God does.
00:24:55 --> 00:24:59 And to say God has to make sense to me
00:24:59 --> 00:25:01 makes no sense at all.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:04 Get that?
00:25:05 --> 00:25:10 To say that God has to make sense to me
00:25:10 --> 00:25:12 makes no sense at all.
00:25:17 --> 00:25:21 Because God has to be limited to the size of my mind.
00:25:21 --> 00:25:24 And you ought to know this limitation of your minds.
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 That makes God know God.
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 That statement makes no philosophical sense at all.
00:25:32 --> 00:25:34 When we say we don't believe in God
00:25:34 --> 00:25:36 because of suffering and evil,
00:25:37 --> 00:25:39 in fact makes us worse than a three-year-old.
00:25:39 --> 00:25:48 At least, at least a three-year-old will trust their parent
00:25:48 --> 00:25:49 even if they don't understand.
00:25:52 --> 00:25:55 If we don't trust God with what he says,
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58 even when we don't understand it,
00:25:58 --> 00:26:01 the Bible says we will die.
00:26:01 --> 00:26:04 We will die.
00:26:08 --> 00:26:09 So that's what Habakkuk saw.
00:26:10 --> 00:26:11 It's what he did.
00:26:11 --> 00:26:12 It's what he heard.
00:26:12 --> 00:26:12 And finally,
00:26:13 --> 00:26:16 what it meant for him and what it means for us.
00:26:17 --> 00:26:19 What does it mean when God says,
00:26:19 --> 00:26:20 I'm going to do something here
00:26:20 --> 00:26:21 and you're not going to understand it?
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 What does it mean for Habakkuk in that moment?
00:26:25 --> 00:26:29 What does it mean for God to bring salvation out of judgment,
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 justice out of violence and injustice?
00:26:35 --> 00:26:38 Centuries later, the Apostle Paul,
00:26:39 --> 00:26:41 during the time of the Roman Empire,
00:26:41 --> 00:26:44 is on his first missionary journey.
00:26:45 --> 00:26:48 And he's in Acts chapter 13.
00:26:48 --> 00:26:51 We read he arrives in this town
00:26:51 --> 00:26:54 and he does what he normally does.
00:26:54 --> 00:26:58 He heads to the synagogue of the God-fearers.
00:26:59 --> 00:27:01 And his sermon is,
00:27:01 --> 00:27:02 when he preaches,
00:27:02 --> 00:27:05 his sermon is a brief history of the Old Testament
00:27:05 --> 00:27:09 and how God has been working out his plans and purposes
00:27:09 --> 00:27:11 and how all of God's plans and purposes
00:27:11 --> 00:27:13 point to the person of the Lord Jesus.
00:27:14 --> 00:27:17 And especially his death and resurrection.
00:27:18 --> 00:27:20 And then Paul adds this.
00:27:20 --> 00:27:21 He says,
00:27:21 --> 00:27:22 Therefore, my brothers,
00:27:22 --> 00:27:24 I want you to know that through Jesus,
00:27:24 --> 00:27:26 the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
00:27:27 --> 00:27:28 Through him,
00:27:28 --> 00:27:31 everyone who believes is justified
00:27:31 --> 00:27:33 from everything you could not be justified from
00:27:33 --> 00:27:34 by the law of Moses.
00:27:35 --> 00:27:36 So his point there is,
00:27:37 --> 00:27:38 if we believe in Jesus
00:27:38 --> 00:27:39 and put our trust in Jesus,
00:27:39 --> 00:27:40 we are justified.
00:27:41 --> 00:27:42 We're made right with God.
00:27:42 --> 00:27:42 He says,
00:27:42 --> 00:27:44 there's no more fear of God
00:27:44 --> 00:27:47 pouring his justice out on me
00:27:47 --> 00:27:49 because he's poured it all out on the Lord Jesus.
00:27:49 --> 00:27:53 All of our injustices against God
00:27:53 --> 00:27:56 and against people are forgiven.
00:27:57 --> 00:27:58 And then,
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 the very next thing he does
00:28:01 --> 00:28:04 is he quotes from Habakkuk 1, verse 5.
00:28:05 --> 00:28:06 And he says,
00:28:06 --> 00:28:20 What Paul does here in this moment in his sermon
00:28:20 --> 00:28:24 is he looks at Habakkuk 1, verse 5,
00:28:25 --> 00:28:26 when God says he's going to bring salvation
00:28:26 --> 00:28:28 out of injustice and violence.
00:28:29 --> 00:28:30 And Paul says,
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 when God said that to Habakkuk,
00:28:33 --> 00:28:34 what Habakkuk couldn't see,
00:28:34 --> 00:28:37 but what I'm telling you now
00:28:37 --> 00:28:39 is that he was talking about Jesus.
00:28:39 --> 00:28:44 He was looking forward centuries
00:28:44 --> 00:28:46 as to how God is going to do this,
00:28:46 --> 00:28:49 and it's going to be about Jesus.
00:28:51 --> 00:28:53 The thing that God said to Habakkuk,
00:28:53 --> 00:28:54 the principle that God brings salvation
00:28:54 --> 00:28:56 through violence and through injustice,
00:28:57 --> 00:28:59 finds its ultimate expression
00:28:59 --> 00:29:00 in the Lord Jesus.
00:29:02 --> 00:29:03 When God came into this world,
00:29:04 --> 00:29:04 went to the cross,
00:29:04 --> 00:29:06 he took the judgment that we deserve,
00:29:06 --> 00:29:09 he experienced absolute injustice.
00:29:09 --> 00:29:11 He suffered, he died.
00:29:12 --> 00:29:12 Why?
00:29:13 --> 00:29:16 Because he is holy.
00:29:20 --> 00:29:23 You see, Habakkuk could not understand,
00:29:23 --> 00:29:26 God, I exist in a world of carnage
00:29:26 --> 00:29:27 and violence and injustice.
00:29:27 --> 00:29:29 How can you tolerate that?
00:29:29 --> 00:29:31 How can you put up with that?
00:29:32 --> 00:29:33 If you're a holy God,
00:29:33 --> 00:29:36 how can you put up with it?
00:29:36 --> 00:29:37 And on the cross,
00:29:37 --> 00:29:40 it is finally explained
00:29:40 --> 00:29:42 how God can put up with it.
00:29:42 --> 00:29:43 Because God is holy
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 and justice and just,
00:29:47 --> 00:29:49 our sin has to be paid for.
00:29:49 --> 00:29:51 Because he is both holy and just,
00:29:51 --> 00:29:53 our sin has to be paid for.
00:29:53 --> 00:29:54 He can't just go,
00:29:54 --> 00:29:56 oh, look, I'll just forget about it.
00:29:56 --> 00:29:58 A price has to be paid.
00:29:58 --> 00:30:01 He experienced his own justice on the cross.
00:30:01 --> 00:30:02 That's how it happens.
00:30:02 --> 00:30:05 God pours his own justice and violence
00:30:05 --> 00:30:06 on himself.
00:30:09 --> 00:30:10 He paid for penalty.
00:30:11 --> 00:30:13 He's the ultimate fulfillment
00:30:13 --> 00:30:15 and example of bringing salvation
00:30:15 --> 00:30:16 out of justice and violence,
00:30:17 --> 00:30:18 light out of darkness,
00:30:18 --> 00:30:20 redemption out of suffering,
00:30:20 --> 00:30:21 evil and difficulty.
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24 And at the time,
00:30:25 --> 00:30:27 the cross made no sense to anyone.
00:30:27 --> 00:30:31 It made no sense to anyone.
00:30:33 --> 00:30:34 In fact, the Apostle Paul said that.
00:30:35 --> 00:30:37 The cross is foolishness to Greeks
00:30:37 --> 00:30:39 and a stumbling block to Jews.
00:30:39 --> 00:30:40 There's no one else left.
00:30:42 --> 00:30:44 Foolishness to Greeks
00:30:44 --> 00:30:48 and a stumbling block to Jews.
00:30:49 --> 00:30:51 No one could understand what God was,
00:30:52 --> 00:30:54 that he was a good God
00:30:54 --> 00:30:56 and that he could bring justice
00:30:56 --> 00:30:57 through that way.
00:30:57 --> 00:30:59 It didn't make any sense at all.
00:30:59 --> 00:31:00 It was, however,
00:31:00 --> 00:31:02 the ultimate good.
00:31:03 --> 00:31:04 And because of it,
00:31:05 --> 00:31:06 we can look at our lives now
00:31:06 --> 00:31:10 and our evil times that we exist in
00:31:10 --> 00:31:12 and we don't understand
00:31:12 --> 00:31:13 what God is doing,
00:31:14 --> 00:31:16 but know that he is
00:31:16 --> 00:31:19 and he will bring salvation through it.
00:31:21 --> 00:31:22 On the cross,
00:31:22 --> 00:31:24 we have the ultimate Habakkuk.
00:31:24 --> 00:31:27 Habakkuk is wrestling with God
00:31:27 --> 00:31:30 and yet he trusts God.
00:31:31 --> 00:31:33 And Jesus has done that for us as well.
00:31:34 --> 00:31:36 He's fulfilled the Habakkuk bit for us.
00:31:37 --> 00:31:38 Jesus is the ultimate Habakkuk
00:31:38 --> 00:31:39 in the Garden of Eden
00:31:39 --> 00:31:40 on the night he is rested.
00:31:42 --> 00:31:43 And he's asking his father,
00:31:44 --> 00:31:45 if there's any other way
00:31:45 --> 00:31:46 that we can do this,
00:31:46 --> 00:31:48 come up with another plan.
00:31:49 --> 00:31:52 He's wrestling with God's plan of salvation,
00:31:52 --> 00:31:54 but he submits to it regardless.
00:31:55 --> 00:31:55 Unconditional,
00:31:56 --> 00:31:57 faithful wrestling.
00:31:58 --> 00:32:00 And he did it for you and for me.
00:32:03 --> 00:32:05 He's not just God coming in the world
00:32:05 --> 00:32:06 to deal with the issue of injustice,
00:32:07 --> 00:32:09 but he's the Habakkuk
00:32:09 --> 00:32:10 wrestling with injustice.
00:32:13 --> 00:32:15 Jesus was abandoned on the cross
00:32:15 --> 00:32:17 so that we might never be abandoned by God.
00:32:17 --> 00:32:19 even when we might feel it,
00:32:20 --> 00:32:23 God never abandons us in Jesus.
00:32:24 --> 00:32:26 God is always working.
00:32:26 --> 00:32:28 He's always doing things.
00:32:28 --> 00:32:30 And because Jesus stuck at it
00:32:30 --> 00:32:31 during the evil times,
00:32:32 --> 00:32:34 and when those evil times
00:32:34 --> 00:32:36 especially came upon him,
00:32:36 --> 00:32:38 when the evil times come upon us,
00:32:39 --> 00:32:41 we can still say,
00:32:41 --> 00:32:43 I know God is working.
00:32:44 --> 00:32:46 I know God loves me.
00:32:46 --> 00:32:50 I know the God hasn't abandoned me.
00:32:51 --> 00:32:55 So I will be faithful and patient.
00:33:01 --> 00:33:04 If that's a moment for you right now
00:33:04 --> 00:33:07 where you're really struggling with something,
00:33:07 --> 00:33:10 in the next 24 hours,
00:33:11 --> 00:33:12 in the next 24 hours,
00:33:14 --> 00:33:15 give yourself one day only,
00:33:17 --> 00:33:18 go away from here
00:33:18 --> 00:33:20 and read Habakkuk chapter 3.
00:33:23 --> 00:33:24 Read Habakkuk chapter 3
00:33:24 --> 00:33:26 and especially the last bit
00:33:26 --> 00:33:29 and ask God for Habakkuk's prayer
00:33:29 --> 00:33:31 to be your prayer right now.
00:33:34 --> 00:33:35 There is a reason
00:33:35 --> 00:33:37 for everything God is doing.
00:33:38 --> 00:33:39 We may not know
00:33:39 --> 00:33:40 and in fact most of the time
00:33:40 --> 00:33:42 we do not know what it is,
00:33:42 --> 00:33:45 but it will result in redemption
00:33:45 --> 00:33:48 and it will result in salvation
00:33:48 --> 00:33:51 for everyone who trusts him through it.
00:33:52 --> 00:33:52 Amen.