Be Amazed!

Have you ever had legitimate questions you wanted to ask God?

We’re not talking about questions that are accusatory and blame God…where we are tempted to shake our fist at God in defiance...

No, we are talking about legitimate questions that pour out of our hearts from confusion, troublesome situations and circumstances...

Questions that come from a desire to know God more and in seeking to understand what God is doing?

Questions about His timing…

Have you ever thought God was a bit slow in the customer service department?

you’ve prayed for something over and over and over again…just doesn’t seem to be any movement on that request.

Or questions about God’s plans?

Do you ever look around and say – how could a just God allow that?

Joel Osteen’s church just last week…shooting…5 year old was shot

Hamas and Israel war…

How can any of that be a part of God’s divine plan?

Or questions about the violation of God’s law/Word…

especially among His own people…I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but I would venture to say that every single one of us here this morning has experienced some level of hurt from people INSIDE the walls of the church.

People who know what they are doing is wrong, but do it anyway…the gossip, the backbiting, the accusations, the lies, the cold shoulders, the willful disobedience...

people who claim to know Christ, but live in open rebellion to God’s Word…they know what the Bible says and then the next words out of their mouth is BUT...

Worse yet, they seem to get away with it, others join with them, and then the whole group is okay with it…and sometimes they even seem to be prospering…

How could God allow His Word to be ignored like that…to become powerless?

How can I walk by faith, striving to do what pleases God, and then see those who show no desire to please God continue to live the way they do with no consequences?

We are in week two of our study of Habakkuk…and those are the very type of questions that created difficulty for Habakkuk.

If you haven’t already, please turn to Habakkuk 1:5-11.

Background to Habakkuk

For those of you who were not here last week, Habakkuk was a prophet who lived and wrote in the late 7th century to the southern kingdom of Judah.

God’s people had been immersed in idolatry for a long time, Israel had been in captivity to Assyria for hundreds of years, but Judah was still on the scene.

God had been very patient with his people

One good King , named Josiah, was characterized by godliness—he actually made reforms and made God’s Word a primary part of the nation once again

But after he died—the nation went back to its old ways---

Habakkuk lived through King Josiah’s reforms and now he is witnessing the deterioration of His people...(read the book of Jeremiah and you can see all that was happening in this kingdom)

He observes the wickedness …the injustice ...the utter chaos of people living without any regard for God and His Word.

And He wonders “WHERE IS GOD?” in the midst of what he is seeing?

Habakkuk is deeply troubled by the chaos all around him and it leads him to cry out to God seeking answers.

Remember the thrust of this short book is found in Habakkuk 2:4 ““Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.”

So the entire series through this book presents an ultimate question for all of us…

In a world filled with and characterized by chaos, how can the believer live by his/her faith?

We are given the privilege of hearing this dialogue between God and Habakkuk to discover the answers to that question.

Pastor Matthew walked us through the first four verses to help us identify the chaos that existed in Habakkuk’s time and quite frankly, still exists in ours…wickedness, violence and perverted justice…

That chaos prompted him to go the Lord, to find out what God planned to do about it

So in our text before us, God answers Habakkuk’s questions.

Our main point actually comes from the commands of verse 5.

Habakkuk 1:5 ““Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.”

These commands are plural meaning God’s answer is not just for Habakkuk, it is for the entire nation of Judah.

Main Point: Walk by Faith Being Amazed by God’s Sovereignty!

You don’t see the term in this text, but God makes it abundantly clear He is not idle nor indifferent to what is happening in the world and with His people.

What do we mean we talk about “God’s Sovereignty”?

God’s sovereignty is His constant care for and absolute rule over all His creation.

So as we answer the question “How can a believer live by faith?”, the answer that should jump off the text in front of you is to be amazed by God’s Sovereignty.

So what does this text contribute to our understanding of God’s Sovereignty and why it should amaze us?

Let’s look for 4 truths regarding God’s sovereignty that ought to amaze us and motivate us to live by faith…

God’s Sovereignty Means He is Always At Work (5).

Habakkuk’s View is Short Sighted

Look at verse 2…Habakkuk 1:2 “How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save.”

Implied in his questioning of God, Habakkuk thinks God’s silence and inaction means God is not paying attention to his prayers or to the situation.

God how long do I need to continue to pray for this? When are you going to answer my prayer?

Look at verse 3…Habakkuk 1:3 “Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises.”

Habakkuk finds himself disillusioned because his expectations do not coincide with what is happening.

Habakkuk interprets God’s failure to respond to him and the situation in the time frame he expects and in the way he expects as God doesn’t seem to notice or even care.

Now before you jump all over Habakkuk and get up in his grill, let me ask you how many times you have responded to God in the same fashion?

When OUR expectations of what God should do and when God should do it do not materialize, we then begin to doubt God’s goodness and care for us and that leaves us with the same short-sighted condition as Habakkuk.

What we need at that moment is for God to meet us face to face, to quiet our hearts, to work in us and on us to conform our expectations to His…

That is exactly what God does to Habakkuk here as He shares His plan with him…

God’s View is Much Larger!

In a real sense of irony, in an almost humorous way, God responds to Habakkuk’s complaint with the same verbiage Habakkuk used...

Habakkuk asked about seeing and looking...

God used those same verbs…Look and see...

Habakkuk 1:5 ““Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.”

Look = open your eyes…you need to truly see what is happening

…you’ve got a problem Habakkuk…your myopic…your vision is too small…your focus is limited to your present situation…you need to see the big picture.

Observe = take notice, give careful thought to...

God is telling them to not only see things correctly, but to think correctly about them as well...

Habakkuk you need to take a moment here and truly meditate on what you see happening…to allow what you see to penetrate your mind theologically…

Astonished = be amazed, freeze with fear, be horrified…bears the idea of being dumbfounded, stunned

Wonder = exact same word, he repeats it for effect....be amazed Habakkuk, be amazed…

If your vision was what it should be Habakkuk, you would truly understand that I have been working all this time to bring about my plan…and that plan ought to amaze you!

Habakkuk was so focused on his present circumstances that he failed to see God had been and is presently working the whole time and that God’s plan to deal with Judah was at his doorstep!

Habakkuk interpreted his situation through the lens of his senses, his experiences, instead of his faith...He needed to see the bigger picture!

Implications

Our perspective on situations is always so LIMITED

God is not obligated to respond to our situations in the way we think He should or in the time frame we think He should.

Our expectations of what God does and when are to be informed by the Scripture…what does the Scripture declare about God’s thoughts and ways?

We need to remember the truth of Isaiah 55:8–9 ““For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

The believer lives by faith with the realization that there is much more going on in God’s redemptive plan than we can presently see and experience.

We need GOD’s UNLIMITED perspective to begin to understand.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 13:40–41 ““Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: ‘Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish; For I am accomplishing a work in your days, A work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’ ””

Paul applies Habakkuk 1:5 as a warning to all about rejecting the gift of forgiveness and justification in Christ alone, it also served as a warning to Jews that God was now doing something by bringing the message of the gospel to the Gentiles…the Jews were no longer exclusively to be known as God’s people!

We can look around and see those who scoff at God’s plan of salvation in Christ alone and with bold assurance tell them they “better buckle up butter cups”…to reject the gospel is to reject God himself...

you have no idea when God’s judgment upon you is going to come…you better know it will come…and when it does, you will be so amazed by it, you won’t believe it is God doing it!

Scripture tells us that God’s ultimate plan in all the chaos is two fold...

to bring everyone to the place where we accept Jesus Christ as the only source of salvation and hope…2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

For His children to truly learn to trust Him for everything…Isaiah 26:4 ““Trust in the Lord forever, For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.”

Seeing the big picture of God’s sovereignty teaches us that He is always working…and to see that big picture it...

Starts with lifting our sights off of present distress

Unbeliever....God is at work in your life to bring you to salvation…God wants you to look up and see He wants you, He loves you and is working to bring you unto Himself.

Believer...God is at work challenging you to walk by faith trusting Him to bring about His plan in your life…talk more about this in a moment.

The first thing God wanted Habakkuk and us to know is He is always at work...

2nd truth of God’s Sovereignty is...

God’s Sovereignty is not Always Focused on Your Comfort (6).

Habakkuk questioned God about the wickedness he saw and His lack of deliverance from it.

Habakkuk 1:2 “How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save.”

God you are not rescuing me…us…there is his expectation…you’re not stopping this...I’m uncomfortable here God…when are you going to do something to bring me out of this uncomfortable situation?

Under the reforms of King Josiah, life was good, there was righteousness, justice and peace…we were comfortable.

It’s only natural that Habakkuk wanted things to return to those “good ole days”.

Aren’t we like that too? Having a longing to return to a time when life was good and comfortable!

Habakkuk expected God to intervene in a specific way and give him a comforting message like “The People will repent and I will restore a righteous Kingdom to Judah”

Perhaps he thought, just like He did in the past, God would take out the few bad apples, the rest of the nation would see that, repent, turn back to God and all would be well again.

(you can see this from Habakkuk’s response — next week — when He thinks God’s way is overkill…)

When God responded to Habakkuk with terms that meant “freeze with fear” you get a real sense God was tired of them being comfortable in their rebellion.

The message that Habakkuk had to face was not going to be comforting at all!

Habakkuk 1:6 ““For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.”

Chaldeans = term for Babylonians…they were already on the scene, they had been for centuries…

I am raising them up = God declares that He is going to use the Babylonians as His instrument of discipline for the people of Judah

The description God gives of the Babylonians communicates there is going to be a great disruption in the comfort of Judah.

God uses words like fierce, impetuous people, march throughout the earth, seize dwelling places which are not theirs…none of those terms communicate that Babylon will be concerned about making sure you are comfortable...

The Babylonians are not going to gallop into your land with their swift and fierce cavalry and ask you for permission to be there…

“Pardon me, but do you mind if I take your house, your cattle, your land, your donkey, your spouse, your children...

They are not going to ask you if their presence makes you uncomfortable and if you want them to leave…

Your comfort is the farthest thing from their mind...

What does God say about them?

…they are ruthless, they do whatever they want to whomever they want, no one is there to stop them, you will loose everything to them.

They are a law unto themselves, their own strength was their god and they were on the move, picture an army of terrorists swarming the land

Judah had become comfortable in her sin

…they were comfortable in forgetting God

…they were comfortable in living with no level of personal accountability to walk in God’s ways,

they were comfortable in the mistreatment of others,

they were comfortable in the level of violence,

they were comfortable with being like the world around them instead of being the nation God had called them to be.

There is a key word here that occurs six times in Habakkuk (1:2, 3, 9, 2:8, 17[2×]), a frequency exceeded only in the longer book of Psalms (14×) and Proverbs (7×)...

“Violence” (ḥāmās; GK 2805) denotes flagrant violation of moral law by which a person injures primarily a fellow human (e.g., Ge 6:11).

Its underlying meaning is one of ethical wrong, of which physical brutality is only one possible expression (e.g., Jdg 9:24; cf. TWOT, 1:297).

God was going to bring them a great amount of discomfort by allowing their sinfulness to be met with even greater sinfulness...

HAMAS in the Kingdom of Judah would be met with even GREATER HAMAS by the Babylonians

Notice Habakkuk 1:4 “Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.”

Now notice Habakkuk 1:7““They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves.”

They had become so comfortable in ignoring and perverting God’s justice and law that now they will face Babylonian justice and law.

God needed to get their attention…and He says this is how I’m going to do it!

We often struggle to walk by faith because we fail to see that God’s sovereignty sometimes has to make us uncomfortable to get our attention!

Sometimes we need to be uncomfortable because we need a greater appreciation for God and His Word.

Psalm 119:71 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.”

When we walk in disobedience to His Word, we need to experience the guilt of conviction by the Holy Spirit so we would turn back to Him and learn to walk in His ways.

Sometimes we need the uncomfortable to happen so we know the depth of God’s grace...

2 Corinthians 12:9 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

Sometimes we need to be uncomfortable because we need a better glimpse of eternity…

2 Corinthians 4:17 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,”

CLICK FOR NEW SLIDE

Ultimately, we need the uncomfortable to chip away the aspects of our life that are not conforming to Christ.

Romans 8:28–29 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”

We have a tendency to get a little too big for our britches and need God to knock us down a few notches because we are not as Christlike as we think we are…so God uses those uncomfortable moments to mold us...

Third truth...

God’s Sovereignty Means He Orchestrates His plan in His Way (7-11)

Compare Hab 1:8 with Deut 29:49

Deuteronomy 28:47–49 (NASB95)

“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand,

Habakkuk 1:8 (NASB95)

“Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.

God had been patient with His people, He gave them years and years to repent, he had showered them with blessings, when they sinned he would incrementally discipline them…but they continued to harden their heart…

If God’s blessing and goodness does not lead you to repentance, then maybe His severe discipline will.

God’s patience will not endure forever…God told them hundreds of years earlier what was going to happen and they ignored Him…so as a result, what God prophesied in Deut 28 was now going to be unleashed…God had enough!

Their violence would be met with increased violence

Their injustice would be met with people who had their own form of justice

This was the right time and the right way and it was all according to God’s word…

By raising up the Babylonians, we see that God can (and often does) use anything and anyone He wants to accomplish His plan of redemption.

Here’s what God reveals to us about His plan...

God is not mocked-- you reap what you sow in increasing measure

Sometimes the chaos in our life is our own fault…we live according to our own wants and desires and the harvest of what we have sown is far greater than what we expected…

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

We cannot expect to live any way we want to live and think God is okay with our disobedience because nothing has happened YET!

Many in our time, including those who claim to be believers, live in total mockery of God and His Word…a day is coming when God will call for the harvest and what has been sowed will be reaped in far greater measure than people want to believe.

Are you prepared to reap what you have sown…are you presently reaping?

God always acts according to His Will.

Daniel 4:34–35 ““But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

God loves us deeply, but that doesn’t mean He needs to alter His plans to our whims and fancies…

The believer can walk by faith knowing that God is always at work, and in those moments that make us uncomfortable, we can trust God is working His plan in His way.

4th truth...

God’s Sovereignty Means He Will Deal with the Pride and Arrogance of Those who Ignore Him (11).

God’s ending response to Habakkuk's 1st complaint is that Babylon will be judged for its arrogance just as Judah was…

Habakkuk 1:11 ““Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.””

Babylon’s strength is said to be its god…Babylon trusted only in itself not the God of the universe and as such God will not bless those who think they are in control...

they set themselves up as god, and not only did God deal with Judah, but He also dealt with Babylon

You can read the first few chapters of Daniel and discover what happened within the kingdom of Babylon...

God humbled King Nebbie by making him wander the fields for seven years in a state of madness

God’s ultimate judgment of Babylon came at the hands of the Medes and Persians… the handwriting on the wall...

God assured Habakkuk that even though He was going to use Babylon as an instrument of discipline to Judah, Babylon would be held accountable for their actions.

Their arrogance and pride would not escape the sowing and reaping principle just like Judah’s did not...Just like ours will not….

In our world of chaos, many have set themselves up as their own god...acting as their own authority…the time is coming when God will deal with their pride and arrogance...God will not be ignored or replaced… remember this...

At no point in time has God ever given anyone absolute authority to act on their own without being accountable for their actions.

That includes us…the day is coming when every knee will bow…let’s make sure we do it now...

Lesson for Life…Let the Chaos Drive You TO the Lord, not FROM Him.

What Habakkuk went through was necessary for several reasons, but let me share one of them in closing...

The deterioration of God’s people, and specifically their hopes in the human Davidic dynasty, proved that on his own, man cannot bring in a reign of peace, justice and equity.

The people of Judah had to experience the disillusionment of the failure of their kingdom so that they would ultimately look for a King outside of themselves—The God king in the form of the Messiah...

Just as that rang true for them, it rings for us...

Jesus can be your Savior from your rebellion against God or He can be the one orchestrating events of history to bring against you the full calamity of what you have sown!

Unbeliever and Believer…God is trying to get your attention…does He have it?

Unbeliever…God is working to draw you unto Himself..

Believer who is living life against God’s desires—Please do not mistake God’s patience with his approval…He will not be mocked and He will not always be patient.

Believer who is living righteously and beholding God’s work of discipline all around….continue to live by faith that he is accomplishing his plan and the reality of the chaos is proof of his continued work and that he can bring good out of it.