Untitled Sermon (1)

Habakkuk

How Long Oh Lord?

Have you ever asked that question? How long oh Lord until I am free of this problem, until I can quite this job, until I can breathe again, until someone notices me until I find my purpose until this suffering passes? How long?

It’s Habakkuk’s question too.

What’s interesting about the book of Habakkuk is that it reads more like a conversation between God and Habakkuk than a prophecy. There is certainly prophecy in the book, but like Job, Habakkuk has some questions and God certainly has some answers.

Let’s look at the opening chapter. I

The Bible doesn’t really answer the question. Look at Habakkuk…”How long, Oh Lord, will you not listen?” Habakkuk is staring down a tidal wave of pure evil and God seems distant and silent. But He’s not, God answers, but not with the answer that we want but with the answer we need. “See what I’m doing…and while it doesn’t make a bit of sense right now, there is a grand something going on that is being divinely orchestrated. There are things that are far above our ability to comprehend. There are some things that the divine council within the Trinity has not allowed us to know, yet and it is for questions like these that Duet. 29:29 was written, “The secret things belong to the Lord.” Belong! They don’t belong to me, for God has not seen fit to give us that knowledge. We would do well sometimes to rest in what we do not know.

God is in control over everything. We have seen in this book that God wields the nations for the sake of His glory and for the sake of His divine purpose. We might not get a window into all the details but the why is certain because God has willed it. V. 5 of chapter one, “Look at the nations and observe — be utterly astounded! For I am about do something in your days that you would not believe…Look, I am raising up the Babylonians to seize territories not its own.

Sin has perverted how everything is supposed to be. When Adam sinned, it fractured everything. There is no scope to the degree that sin has affected, tainted, and altered a good world.

God uses evil and sometimes God sends evil for His divine purposes. We have this real problem we want to create a safe God that makes sense to us. What man meant for evil, God meant for good…the same thing that we might think is evil God means it for good…he didn’t make it good, he meant it for good.

God is good and our right response is to, like Habakkuk, submit to Him and His faithfulness in a way that honors His supremacy above all things. You can try to answer all the questions, or you can submit to the King of Kings and rejoice.