I Object

Intro

Have you ever watched a St. Jude’s Hospital commercial? I mean, you see these kids, some not even old enough to talk yet sick and dying of cancer.

As a parent, I often find myself just silently thanking God that my kids are healthy and that we aren’t having to walk that terrible path.

I don’t know about you, but when I see those kids, I can’t help but question why?

Why God do you allow these innocent children to go through something so terrible?

And childhood cancer is just one of those things. There are a number of things that if I am honest, cause me to stop and ask why?

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation where you know that God is good, yet your experience or at least the experience of someone close to you challenges that notion.

How can God be good and loving and yet allow terrible things to happen?

Why when I look at the world around me does evil seem to prosper sometimes?

How do we process it when the drunken, wife-abusing child molester lives to be ninety-seven and the God-fearing, faithful husband, and father of three dies of cancer at thirty-seven?

How do we respond when the lying, cheating, backstabbing employee gets the promotion, and we don’t?

How do those in power who pervert justice and promote wickedness stay in power when those who actually want to do the right thing seem to get punished?

Sometimes we struggle with thinking God doesn’t care in such situations. Many times we think God should’ve handled a situation differently than he did.

Yet, we are called to trust God even in situations like this, and if we are honest with ourselves, I think we would admit that sometimes that is hard to do.

Have you ever prayed for God to intervene; to heal a sick person, save a loved one, to vindicate an injustice, or to make right some wrong only to hear crickets on the other end of our prayer?

How do we continue to trust God when all we hear is silence?

These are questions that many followers of Christ wrestle with and they are not unique to us.

The people of God have always wrestled with these questions.

So for the next couple of weeks we are going to be diving into the difficult topic of how we can trust God when he seems silent and distant.

I hope to do this by preaching through the Old Testament book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk, one of the Minor Prophets, faced many of the same questions and objections that we face today:

Where is God in the midst of injustice?

Why doesn’t God do something about wickedness and suffering?

How can I still trust God when what I believe in my heart doesn’t match what I see with my eyes?

A Little Background

To help us better understand what we are going to be reading together over the next couple of weeks, I think it is important that we understand the context of this book.

Habakkuk as I mentioned a few minutes ago is referred to as a minor prophet in the OT. Not because he was somehow inferior to the major prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Daniel.

Rather it is because there is far less written about him in the OT. In fact, Habakkuk is only 3 chapters long.

Habakkuk was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah during the divided kingdom era.

In fact at this point in Israel’s history the northern kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed by the Assyrians.

Habakkuk is unique to the other prophets in the OT in that he is the only prophet where his work is entirely addressed to God.

And it is this address where we see Habakkuk wrestling with some really difficult questions before God.

Does Anybody Hear Me?

We are introduced to Habakkuk in...

Habakkuk 1:1 NLT This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.

Habakkuk’s name means “he that embraces; a wrestler.”

In wrestling, one person is trying to exert their will on someone or something else.

This is precisely what Habakkuk is saying to God in 1:2–4.

Habakkuk 1:2-4 NLT 2 How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. 3 Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.

4 The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.

In other words, he is saying, “God, don’t you see what is going on? If you do see what’s going on, why aren’t you doing anything about it?” For many of us, these are familiar questions!

Habakkuk lays out his argument or complaint, asking, “Why do you make me look upon injustice? Why does evil seem to be winning?”.

The people of Judah were turning from God and practicing evil.

Habakkuk was proclaiming the truth of God as his prophet, but it seemed to be making no positive impact; in fact, quite the opposite was happening.

It appeared to Habakkuk that evil acts and injustice were not only going unpunished, but they were being ignored and sometimes even rewarded.

Habakkuk was asking God questions that many of us, if we are honest have had as well.

When we look around at some of the unspeakable acts of wickedness, perversion, and utter carnage of humanity we can’t help but cry out to God.

And if we are bold enough to speak out against sin and lawlessness, the world not only argues against us, but seems to almost set out to do even more evil acts.

And while the world continues to suffer because of sin, it refuses to care.

Even among Christians we have watered down the gospel so as not to offend. We preach salvation but fail to fully explain what we are being saved from.

We say that the Old Testament isn’t relevant or that the laws of God no longer apply.

It is true that we are not longer bound to the law. But we cannot forget that the function of the law was to reveal to us what sin was.

The law though impossible to keep, exposed our wickedness and need for forgiveness.

Charles Spurgeon had this to say about the law and the gospel.

The Evidence Bible: Irrefutable Evidence for the Thinking Mind, Notes Chapter 1

“I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. Lower the Law, and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion.

“I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary [its most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ. They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore, the Law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.”

Habakkuk was surrounded by a people who had the revelation of God’s law and yet paralyzed it. He saw no justice among the people of God and he wondered where God was in all of this.

An Answer He Didn’t Expect

In a very real and vulnerable moment, Habakkuk cries out to God and wonders if he was evening listening, and if he was, he must not care.

So God answers Habakkuk in a way that he did not expect.

Habakkuk 1:5-11 NLT 5 The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.

6 I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. 7 They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. 8 Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk.

Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey. 9 “On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.

10 They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! 11 They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”

God answers Habakkuk’s complaint and it is one of severity and justice: the Israelites will be corrected and disciplined.

God tells Habakkuk that Israel’s evil and injustice have not gone unnoticed. And since they will not be brought to repentance by the patience of God, he will take another course with them.

They have abused his loving patience and will now be judged. Here we see a prophecy that would be fulfilled in just a few short decades when Babylon would exile the kingdom of Judah and utterly destroy Jerusalem and the Holy Temple built by King Solomon.

God reveals his plan: he is going to use the Babylonians, a nation more wicked and violent than the Israelites, to punish Israel’s disobedience.

For Habakkuk, this must have been even more difficult to understand than Israel’s evil simply going unnoticed or unpunished.

From the perspective of an American, this would be the equivalent of God using a terrorist group or enemy nation to bring correction to America for our sin and disobedience.

Can you imagine the response from those asking God, “Do you see what’s happening in this country?” and then his response is, “Behold, I am raising up a group of people far more wicked to bring about my plan.”

Most people would be shocked and ask, “God, do you know what you’re doing? Surely this isn’t your plan!”

This is precisely what Habakkuk’s response is: “God, how can you possibly use a people more wicked than Israel to execute your punishment? I don’t like your answer!”

Habakkuk 1:12-17 NLT 12 O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. 13 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?

14 Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader? 15 Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate? 16 Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. “These nets are the gods who have made us rich!” they will claim. 17 Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?

For Habakkuk, worse than a silent God, is one who’s answer isn’t what we want to hear.

Application/Closing

Has that been your experience? You pray for God to do something only to have him do it in a way you never would have chosen?

It would have been better if God didn’t answer your prayer at all.

As we close chapter 1, the important thing to realize is that Habakkuk continues to stay in dialogue with God.

It’s easy for us to question God and even disagree with him, to wonder if he even cares about what’s going on or if he sees our dilemma.

When we find ourselves in this situation, we shouldn’t turn away from God in frustration and anger.

God can handle our questions, and he even invites us to wrestle with him; but we must always realize that he’s the potter and we’re the clay (Jeremiah 18:1–6; Isaiah 45:9).

Even as we bring our questions and doubts to God, it’s equally important that we bring an open heart for his inspection (Psalm 139:23–24) and ask ourselves if we want our will or his will to be done.

As we are going to see as we continue through this short book of the Bible, that God is big enough for our questions and our objections; he invites us to bring them to him in dialogue and to trust him with them.

When we are real and honest with God and tell him what’s on our hearts, he will lead us on a path that matures and deepens our faith.

Habakkuk isn’t there yet, but neither are we. Join us next week to see how a shift in perspective begins to change Habakkuk’s outlook on the situation.