THE PRESENCE OF EVIL
Notes
Transcript
LESSON 7 THE PRESENCE OF EVIL
Text
Habakkuk 1:1–4 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! 3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. 4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
Introduction
Introduction
Habakkuk was a minor prophet in the Bible. The designation “minor” for some of the prophets doesn’t mean that they are less important; it just means that the books of the Bible God gave them to pen are shorter.
In the case of Habakkuk, it will take you about six minutes to read through the book that bears his name.
The Book of Habakkuk, however, is packed with insight as to why God allows evil and suffering to exist in this world and how we should respond to it.
The name Habakkuk means “to embrace.” It gives the idea of embracing a child to comfort him.
Indeed, God used Habakkuk to bring great comfort.
This short book is presented as a dialogue between God and Habakkuk in which Habakkuk is wrestling with a problem that has consumed the minds of many: How can we reconcile the reality of evil and the existence of God?
As a prophet of God, Habakkuk had some understanding of God.
But he just couldn’t understand how the God he believed he knew would allow the suffering he saw around him.
Have you ever been working on a puzzle and been completely stumped until you walked away and came back with a fresh perspective? Habakkuk’s problem wasn’t so simple that he could just step away. But he did need a fuller perspective—which is what God revealed to him throughout this short book.
The Book of Habakkuk is special because it is the only book of the Bible that is entirely a dialogue between God and a person. It is also one of the two books of Scripture that is categorized as a “theodicy,” which is a justification of God’s ways to human beings. (The other book of this type is Job.)
The writing of this book occurred during a dark time of Israel’s history—just before the Babylonian captivity. It was a tumultuous time in Israel’s history, and even darker days were ahead. Habakkuk longed greatly for revival. In fact, he had seen a national revival as the people turned to God during the days of King Josiah. But those days were long gone, and from Habakkuk’s perspective, all he could see was the evil and suffering which now surrounded him.
What we learn through the Book of Habakkuk is incredibly relevant today.
As we look at the questions Habakkuk proposed to God and hear God’s answers to him, it gives us the perspective we need to face the problem of evil with the comfort of God.
1. The Problem of Evil
1. The Problem of Evil
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
When Old Testament prophets spoke of receiving a “burden,” it meant a “divine vision from God.” One hundred fifty years earlier, the prophet Isaiah experienced a divine vision of God in the midst of a divine assembly.
God showed Isaiah the throne room of Heaven.
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Habakkuk’s vision, on the other hand was not of a divine assembly but of daily atrocities.
Habakkuk looked around and all he saw was the ugliness of evil.
A. Habakkuk’s Questions
A. Habakkuk’s Questions
As in Habakkuk’s day, it doesn’t take us long to recognize a world full of evil and wrong doing. Acts of violence and hate, crimes against innocent people (including children), natural disasters, hunger and greed, and sickness and disease are everywhere around us.
In Randy Alcorn’s book, If God Is Good, he reminds us of the overwhelming suffering in the world:
“In Sudan, millions, including children, have been murdered, raped, and enslaved. The 2004 Asian tsunami killed more than 280,000 people. Malaria causes more than two million fatalities annually, the majority of them African children. Around the world, some 26,500 children die every day; eighteen every minute. The loss of American lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, numbered 2,973—horrible indeed, yet a small fraction of the terror and loss of life faced daily around the world. The death toll in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, for example, amounted to more than two World Trade Center disasters every day for one hundred days straight. Americans discovered in one day what much of the world already knew—violent death comes quickly, hits hard, and can be unspeakably dreadful” (emphasis original).
When we encounter the suffering of our world, we question: How can a good, loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing God be okay with this?
Slide Epicurus
Frankly, it’s a difficult question. And you and I aren’t the first who have wrestled with it.
In 350 BC, the philosopher Epicurus posed the questions this way: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not powerful. Is He able, but not willing? Then He is not good. Is He both able and willing? Then whence come the evil? Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?”
The question of how suffering and evil can be reconciled with God’s justice and love has been a problem for many skeptics.
Quote: “The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in every generation. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair.”—John Scott
It is not only skeptics who wrestle with this question, however.
Often, Christians also do not understand why the loving God that they know allows suffering to go on in the world.
A Barna poll asked, “If you could ask God one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?” The most common response was, “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?”3
In the opening verses of Habakkuk, the prophet is grappling with this age-old dilemma as he attempts to reconcile what he knows of the nature and character of God with the evil that he witnesses taking place around him every day.
One encouraging takeaway from the fact that God chose to include this book in the Bible is that God is patient and longsuffering toward those who ask these questions.
He was patient with Job, He was patient with Habakkuk, and He’s patient with us. As perplexing as the problem of evil is, let’s take our questions to God rather than insist that there cannot be any answers.
In Habakkuk 1:2, the prophet brought up a phrase that echoes throughout the Bible: “How long?”
Suggestion The problem of suffering is a personal one for many people. Often people don’t share these questions because they are afraid of censure or ridicule if others think they are accusing God. You can help show the Lord’s heart of patience by setting a tone of understanding and compassion as you teach this lesson.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
Habakkuk felt like he knew what he would do about all the suffering around him if given a chance. And he couldn’t understand why he wasn’t seeing God immediately answer and step in to stop the pain.
This cry of “how long?” is repeated frequently throughout Scripture, especially in the Psalms and the prophets. God is patient with us, but we are often so impatient with Him.
When we spot an injustice or when we have been wronged, we want God to address it right away.
Jonah is an example of a believer who was frustrated with God’s lack of judgment on those causing evil. Do you remember how even after Jonah had preached God’s Word to the people of Nineveh and had seen them repent and turn to the Lord, he was upset that the fear and pain they had inflicted on his people was not being dealt with?
Jonah’s desire was for God to pour out His wrath on Nineveh in compensation for the injustice that others had suffered at their hands.
In all honesty, we ourselves deserve much of the judgment that we desire for other people to receive.
When we think of the problem of evil, we tend to think only of the evil that surrounds us and not the evil that inhabits us.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
B. Habakkuk’s Hopelessness
B. Habakkuk’s Hopelessness
Habakkuk not only wondered how long, but he followed up with, “How long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!”
This is a strong accusation. He’s basically saying, “God, You’re not listening to my pain!” Habakkuk wasn’t the first or the last one to do this.
1 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
The irony of Habakkuk’s accusation of God not listening is that the book of Habakkuk is the only book in the Bible that is entirely dialogue. And the whole dialogue is between Habakkuk and God! Even as Habakkuk was pouring out his heart, God was listening. And He was recording the conversation for believers through the millennia to read and find hope in.
What Habakkuk didn’t understand is that God’s silence is not evidence of His absence.
Consider the children of Israel when they were suffering in bondage in Egypt.
23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
In the middle of their pain and bondage, the Israelites were tempted to believe that God did not see them and was not listening to them. Yet nothing could have been further from the truth.
7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
You have never faced a trial that God hasn’t already seen, heard, and known about.
There are three things that Habakkuk saw that burdened him: violence, injustice, and evil.
There are three things that Habakkuk saw that burdened him: violence, injustice, and evil.
3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me: And there are that raise up strife and contention. 4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: For the wicked doth compass about the righteous; Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
These three aspects of sin—violence, injustice, and evil—are familiar to us as well.
Evil can be divided into two categories: natural evil and moral evil.
Slide Two Types of Evil
Natural Evil
Natural Evil
Natural evil includes hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and other natural disasters. It would also include sickness and disease, which are part of the fallen human experience. Any catastrophic occurrences that cause pain and loss, yet are not the direct result of a personal choice to sin, could be defined as natural evil.
Moral Evil
Moral Evil
Moral evil includes hate, gossip, rape, murder, slander, theft, and any other sin that proceeds out of the human heart.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Both natural evil and moral evil leave many innocent victims in their wake.
But before we blame God for either type of evil, it’s important to recognize that no worldview can escape the problem of evil.
This is not a problem specific to Christians; it is a problem for everyone.
No matter what you believe, evil is a universal and inescapable part of the human experience. And there are no easy answers for it.
2. The Sovereignty of God
2. The Sovereignty of God
An American Dictionary of the English Language SOVEREIGNTY
SŎVEREIGNTY, n. suv´eranty. Supreme power; supremacy; the possession of the highest power, or of uncontrollable power. Absolute sovereignty belongs to God only.
You cannot address the problem of evil from a Christian worldview without acknowledging God for who He is.
We tend to ask, “What does my problem say about my God?” But a better question is “What does my God say about my problem?”
19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; And his kingdom ruleth over all.
God was not surprised by sin and its effect on our lives. In fact, God prepared in advance for it. And He knew that His preparation involved suffering to deliver us from it.
23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Revelation 13:8 (KJV 1900)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Knowing that we would sin and knowing from the beginning that the Son of Man—Jesus Christ—would be despised and rejected, He still loved us enough to carry out His plan of sacrifice.
When we question God’s goodness and ask why He didn’t foresee all of this suffering, we must remember that He did foresee it and He sacrificed His own Son because of it.
Evil and suffering didn’t come as a surprise to God, and they shouldn’t be a surprise for us either.
Jesus warned us that we will suffer, but we can experience His peace in it.
33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
It’s curious that the question that so often comes to us in our suffering is, “Why?”
It’s as if we think that if we knew the reason for our pain, that would somehow make it more bearable.
When there is a mass shooting, the immediate question that comes to everyone’s mind and that is asked on every newscast is “Why? What was the motive?” It’s as if we think that knowing why would somehow make that tragedy any better.
But even when we learn or guess a probable motive, it never eases the resulting pain.
In reality, there are aspects of life that we will never have the capacity or perspective to unravel. But we can trust that God has a higher viewpoint and wiser purposes.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
What does it mean that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours?
A. The Providence of God
A. The Providence of God
Sometimes when we talk about God’s sovereignty we talk about His providence.
The word providence comes from the Latin word providere. If you break that word into its prefix and its root, you have pro and videre.
Pro means “ahead,” and videre means “to see.” (It is also the word we get our English video from.) Literally, then, providere means “to see beforehand, a prior seeing, a foresight.”
But God’s providence is actually more than this definition. It’s more than simple foresight.
In fact, the closest English word to this Latin providere is provision.
The idea is to see ahead resulting in providing for what will come.
God’s providence is a combination of His sovereignty (rule) and His foreknowledge. We could say that God not only sees ahead how everything will fit together, but He specifically plans for it all to fit together. It was this providence that God drew Habakkuk’s attention to in answer to Habakkuk’s charges against God.
5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: For I will work a work in your days, Which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
God responded to all of Habakkuk’s questions and doubts by telling him that He was about to “work a work” that would be beyond Habakkuk’s ability to believe—even if God told him about it ahead of time.
What are the works of God? They are the result of God exercising His sovereignty.
2 The works of the Lord are great, Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. 3 His work is honourable and glorious: And his righteousness endureth for ever.
The reference here is to God’s first recorded work in Scripture—the work of creation. If you visit the Cavendish Physics Laboratory in Cambridge, England, you’ll find this Latin sentence inscribed above the door: “Magna opera Domini exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus.” It is the Latin translation of Psalm 111:2: “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.”
God’s amazing work in creation is not only the foundation for understanding science, but it is also the foundation for understanding His other works in our lives. God’s work in creation helps give us context for suffering. The Bible tells us that God’s original design was “very good.”
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Sin did not originate with God, and its consequences were not His original plan. But God does allow personal choice.
Quote: “God is not the author of evil. Neither, however, is He ever the victim of evil.”—Randy Alcorn
Evil entered the universe through Satan, not through God. In fact, it is somewhat misleading to say that God created Satan. Rather, He created Lucifer, a beautiful being who lived in Heaven and seemed to have led the music in Heaven.
The prophet Ezekiel described what a perfect being Lucifer was.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
When Lucifer rebelled against God, his created state was lost and he was cast from Heaven, becoming Satan. It was he who tempted Adam and Eve with sin.
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
When Satan brought the temptation of evil into the perfect Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve fell prey to lustful desires and their act of disobedience to God brought sin into the world and corrupted that which God had made perfectly.
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
God’s original design was good, but Adam, mankind’s representative, sinned against God.
Why did God even allow for the possibility of sin? Because He granted mankind free will. God didn’t create sin, but He did create us with a conscience and the ability to choose.
Since God created us for a relationship with Him, He did not create us as robots. For while there would be no sin without free will, there would also be no love.
In fact, if we look back to the reality that no system of belief can fully explain the presence of evil, it is worth also noting that no system of belief—apart from God—can fully explain the presence of good.
For while we do live in a world with evil, we also live in a world—even in its fallen condition—with good!
The virtues we admire most are not possible without the existence of God.
So why does a good God allow evil? We may never be fully able to understand this side of eternity. But we do know that a better day is coming. Romans 8 tells us everything in creation and within us groans for God’s restored good creation.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
B. The Character of God
B. The Character of God
After God told Habakkuk that He was going to do a marvelous work in the saving of Israel, He went on to explain a little of His plan.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, Which shall march through the breadth of the land, To possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
In other words, God told Habakkuk, “You’re right. Israel shouldn’t get away with the violence, injustice, and evil. So I am going to raise up Babylon to take God’s people captive. They are terrible, dreadful, fast and they are violent.”
Now Habakkuk is really confused. His initial complaint was that God was letting people get away with doing evil. Now He hears that God is going to use the godless Babylonians to execute His justice.
Once again, Habakkuk protests:
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, And canst not look on iniquity: Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, And holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
Habakkuk didn’t understand how God, who is holy and pure, could use evil for His purposes. The truth is that God, in His amazing sovereignty, can use even evil to bring about good.
Consider Joseph who was hated, envied, mocked, beaten, and sold into slavery. Then he was wrongly accused, imprisoned, and forgotten. Yet God revealed that there was a greater purpose for all of this evil that he had to endure.
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Have you ever been in the middle of suffering and thought, “I just can’t see the good in this?” Just because you or I can’t see a reason doesn’t mean that a reason doesn’t exist.
Believers have a special promise in Romans 8:28.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Sometimes in our pain we think what Habakkuk thought “Why doesn’t God care? Why doesn’t He do something about the evil?”
The truth is, God does care, and He is going to do something.
In this very passage, He was telling Habakkuk that He was doing something—executing judgment. God always executes judgment and justice because that is part of His holy nature.
9 To execute upon them the judgment written: This honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord.
What Habakkuk wanted, however, was what we want—for God to execute judgment now. We want immediate justice. There are times when God allows evil and wickedness to continue seemingly unchecked because of His patience and longsuffering, but there will be a time when God calls all men to repentance.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
In chapter 2 of Habakkuk, God assures His prophet that He does see the evil and will judge it. He specifically mentions greed (verse 6), injustice (verse 9), violence (verse 12), drunkenness (verse 15), and idolatry (verse 18).
No evil will ever be committed without God being aware, and no evil will ever be unaccounted for by God.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
We can always trust that God will execute judgement against evil. It may not be on our timetable, but it will happen.
But God does something more than executing judgement.
He enters our brokenness The whole theme of Scripture is redemption. It is the story of God creating a perfect world, sin corrupting it, and then Jesus—God in the flesh—entering our shattered world to restore it and, most of all, to restore us to a relationship with Himself. Jesus understands suffering.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Don’t miss this truth: the cross is God’s answer to evil in the world.
People often ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The truth is, there was only one time that happened, and He volunteered.
Why do bad things happen?
We may not fully know, but we do know why not.
It’s not because God doesn’t love us. He chose to come to us, suffer with us, and suffer for us.
3. The Hope of Redemption
3. The Hope of Redemption
The hope of redemption is what gave Habakkuk the courage to keep going and trust God, even in such desperate surroundings. We will all experience difficulty and pain, but as Christians, we will never experience difficulty without hope.
The hope of redemption is ours through what Jesus did for us on the cross.
A. Forgiveness of Sins
A. Forgiveness of Sins
As Christians, our great hope lies in the redemption for sin that we have received through Christ.
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
The greatest tragedy that ever occurred—the death of Jesus on the cross—became the greatest triumph of all when Jesus rose from the dead, offering forgiveness of sins to all who depend on Him for salvation.
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
But it doesn’t stop with the forgiveness of sins. There is also coming a day when the curse of sin will be rolled back.
B. Renewal of the Earth
B. Renewal of the Earth
God gave Habakkuk a picture of the beautiful future that eventually awaited him. This same future awaits all who have believed on Christ for salvation.
Habakkuk 2:14, 17 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
This answer from God to Habakkuk’s questions refers back to a prophecy of Isaiah. It is a description of the millennium—the one thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; Their young ones shall lie down together: And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.
What Habakkuk was seeing before him was not going to be the end of the story. The pain and suffering would be ended when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord would take its place.
How would this be accomplished? God gives us a fuller answer in the final book of the New Testament.
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Someday, the curse of sin will be fully reversed, and God will restore the earth and mankind to the original perfection He created.
Destruction, pain, and suffering are not the final end of the story.
Conclusion
At the beginning of the book of Habakkuk, the prophet starts by questioning God. He starts out asking, “How long will I cry?” But at the end of the book, he has come full circle and—although he still hasn’t seen God’s judgment or fully understood God’s purposes—says, “But I will rejoice.”
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength, And he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, And he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Habakkuk began the book by accusing God of idly standing by and not saving, but he ends the book by claiming God as his salvation.
What changed? Habakkuk’s perspective changed. So often, when we look at the problem of evil, we become obsessed with trying to understand why it happens.
But when we understand God’s sovereignty—that He is going to execute judgment and that until then He enters our brokenness—our question changes.
Now we ask, “How should I respond?” So how should we respond?
What should we do in response to evil in this world?
Let’s briefly look at five responses we learn from Habakkuk.
Slide Our Response
1. Live by faith.
1. Live by faith.
We must trust God, and walk by faith. Habakkuk 2:4 … the just shall live by his faith. Our response in all of this should be to trust God and to trust the intricacies of His plan, even when we don’t understand all of them. This is essentially what Job said in the middle of his suffering. Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. We must acknowledge that our understanding of God and of His plan is limited, so our response must be to simply live by faith.
2. Pray for revival.
2. Pray for revival.
Habakkuk knew that while God alone was capable of reversing the evil that was occurring, it required His people to turn back to Him. His prayer was for revival—not only for the nation, but also for himself.
Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
Throughout this short, three-chapter book, we see God answer Habakkuk’s prayer as He works in Habakkuk’s heart. The final chapter of the book is Habakkuk’s prayer, written as a song for the nation. So the answer to Habakkuk’s prayer for revival started in Habakkuk’s own heart. Today, we continue to be blessed by the song that came from his desire for revival.
3. Rejoice in salvation.
3. Rejoice in salvation.
We can have joy in salvation regardless of our circumstances. At the end of the book, Habakkuk declares that his joy is found solely in God. Even if none of the evil got better—even if it got worse—Habakkuk had learned that he could always find joy in the God of his salvation.
Habakkuk 3:17–18 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
4. Rely on God’s strength.
4. Rely on God’s strength.
Habakkuk 3:19 The LORD God is my strength … In the middle of the greatest difficulties of life, God’s strength will be sufficient. Through sickness, pandemics, cancer, and family difficulties, we have access to divine help. In fact, we have a promise from Christ Himself that His strength will be made perfect in our weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Suggestion Give each member of your group a card with this verse written or typed on it, encouraging them to look at it throughout the week when they feel weak.
5. Continue with confidence.
5. Continue with confidence.
The end of this book leaves us with a beautiful picture to illustrate the confidence that is found in Christ.
Habakkuk 3:19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
The picture given to us is of a sure-footed deer who has the ability to walk easily without even looking down. This is the same confidence that believers have when our trust and strength is in the Lord.
Because of Scripture, we can live in confidence, knowing that our Savior has secured final victory.
All the moments of distress and sorrow in between now and then will be made new by Him.
When we don’t see the full picture, and when we don’t understand what is going on and why we suffer, we can confidently trust in the Lord.
He is the answer to our suffering.
Chappell, Paul; Chappell, Larry. Avoiding Confusion Leader Guide: Interpret Cultural Issues through a Biblical Worldview (pp. 184-212). Striving Together Publications. Kindle Edition.