Why God, WHHHHHYYYYYYYY???

Give the background for the book, historical context and what not.

Do you ever see people and wonder why they are doing so well? Why the Lord allows them to succeed when they are not honoring Him? Why evil goes unpunished? That’s where our guy Habakkuk is at in his book.

It’s different from most of the other prophets. Most of them receive a message from God to give to his people. Habakkuk goes to God with a question and then receives an answer from God and is told to write it down.

God’s justice will come and God’s people must live by faith in his purposes and plans as we wait.

pray

Habakkuk’s complaint

He sees evil happening among God’s people and those evil people are seemingly getting away with it.

You ever feel that way? You see people having success and they don’t deserve and you’re just like, “why?” That’s how I feel about the Paul brothers. They just seem like the worst. They think they’re so great, but they just seem like the absolute worst. Or the Kardashians? I mean what did they do?

This is where Habakkuk is, but in a much more real sense. He’s seeing the people who are supposed to be God’s people in the land that is supposed to be God’s promised land, and it doesn’t look anything like it’s supposed to…

read 1-4

Haby takes his questions, his frustrations, to God. He asks God what’s going on. He’s bothered by sin, as we should be. Jesus told us to be salt and light in this world. To teach people to obey all that he’s commanded.

Matt 5:13-16, Matt 28:20

He turns to God in faith rather than running from God in frustration. We should do the same…

God’s response about Judah

God will deal with his people in an unexpected way.

There’s an old movie called Major Payne. It’s a great movie, I highly suggest it. It’s about… There’s this scene at the very beginning where they’re showing how tough he his. Another soldier gets shot and Major Payne asks if he wants him to take his mind off the pain of that bullet wound…

God sometimes works in ways that we wouldn’t expect or understand.

read 5-11

Isaiah 55:9 CSB

“For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We need to understand that God is not causing Babylon to sin, they are doing exactly what they want to do. But God is using their evil for his good plan.

Genesis 50:20 CSB

You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

God is using evil Babylon for his purposes. It reminds me of when He lifted up evil Pharaoh in Exodus for his good purposes for his people. He works in ways we wouldn’t choose, but He’s always good! Perfect!

We’ve got to understand this about God and have faith in his plan and goodness. God works in ways that we don’t understand. But He is always good!

Even when we don’t understand or we are shocked by what He is doing, we can still take our questions to God.

Habakkuk’s reaction

It seems like he may think this situation is worse than the first! The first thing he does is focus on what he knows for sure and is most important; God’s character.

He’s feeling a little lost in God’s response, so he turns to the most important truth he knows; who God is. This is a good way to respond when you’re in an unsure situation, turn to what you are sure of. If you’re lost, you look for something you know. Where you came from, something you recognize. If you’re at a weird restaurant and you aren’t sure what anything on the menu is, you start looking for what you know; chicken fingers or a cheese burger.

He knows God is sovereign, eternal, and good. So he focusses on those things. We can remember these same things when we are unsure.

read 1:12

Romans 8:28 CSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

read 1:13-2:1

This is kind of bold! Borderline dangerous! He asks God if He’ll let Babylon get away with it and then says, “I’m gonna sit here until he answers!” Reminds me a little of Job…

But he’s speaking from faith, not doubt or arrogance.

He takes his concern, confusion, fear, frustration and gives it to God. You can do the same thing. He can handle it. And if you trust Him, if you have faith in Him, He won’t disappoint! He doesn’t disappoint Haby.

God’s response about Babylon

God says Babylon will be held accountable. His justice will be seen. He gives five woes to the Chaldeans.

read 2:2-20

He tells Haby that what he’s said will come to pass, He will use Babylon to judge Judah, He tells him that Babylon will be held accountable for all they’ve done, and He tells Haby that the righteous need to live by faith as all this is unfolding.

I don’t think this is the answer Haby was looking for, or at least as complete of an answer as He wanted. We won’t always get the answer or the information we want from God and we need to do the same thing that God tells Haby to do; live by faith. Faith in God…

Psalm 145:17 CSB

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all his acts.

Faith in his goodness, power, plan, justice, and love. Knowing these things, we can endure suffering and what seems to be injustice in this world, knowing that God’s perfect justice will be served in eternity.

Paul quotes verse four in the book of Romans.

Romans 1:16–17 CSB

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

God is just, as we have said. That means sin will be punished. Every sin we have committed. Either you will be punished for it by eternal separation from God or it was punished in Jesus on the cross. The righteous will live by faith and without faith there are none who are righteous. Righteousness only comes through faith.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.