Questioning Myself When I Question God Part 1 (Habakkuk 1:5–6)

GBCCR 2/16/25

Introduction

Comments-

It is great to have Pastor Ken here with us, thanks for being part of his fellowship again

and thank you all who helped with the memorial and baby shower yesterday

Prayers

We thank you for the memory of Bill Ellis yesterday and pray for the Ellis family

Lord, open our eyes to see wonders in your word

Catch-

It sometimes takes a lot of faith to trust the words of Jesus

He says some things like

Matthew 7:8–11- “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

What happens when John prays his child wold be ok but gets the call she died before he could even get to the hospital

What about the christians praying that Isis would be defeated and instead their husbands and daughter are found dead?

But what happens when marge asks for healing and gets told the cancer has metastasized

Habakkuk is having one of those moments as his prayers are being heard and it is getting even harder

But it is designed to setup him up for a greater moment of faith

David Powlison ended up dying from cancer and wrote how he was taught to look at the bigger picture

Cancer is designed to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness, procrastination—all these are the adversaries that cancer is meant to attack

Review of Habakkuk so far

Habakkuk the prophet has spoken to God with some big hard questions on what he’s been seeing

We can assume that Habakkuk saw the repentant period under Kings Josiah

He restored Judah with proper worship in 3 ways

a consistent purge of foreign cults and practices,

destruction of the high places in the territory of the former Northern Kingdom as well as in the south, and

centralization of public worship in Jerusalem (2 Chr 34:3–7).

But then he stood against Pharaoh Neco and he was killed

The Pharaoh then placed Eliakim on the throne of Judah, where he served as an Egyptian vassal. Necho changed his name to Jehoiakim (2 Kgs 23:34–35), another way of exercising control and establishing that Jehoiakim served the pharaoh

And he was a bad king who destroyed all the reforms of his father and many people followed, especially of the princes and priests

Habakkuk saw evil winning so he prayed

Habakkuk sees the law is not working, so he laments

So let’s see how God responds and then

Allow God’s answer to make you question yourself when SEEK understanding.

Self-reflection: Am I looking past myself? (v5)

Explanation

“Look is a second personal plural verb which could translated “you all direct your eyes”

While Habakkuk spoke singularly of himself calling for help and crying out to God

God’s response is to everyone

He repeats Observe

All the people need to take their eyes off the situation they see in front of them,

Do not just look at the wicked’s actions and look broader

They are be utterly astonished and amazed by what they notice as they look at

The nations

It is the reference not to geopolitical groups, but peoples or families all around the world.. like the Chaldeans

This reveals the righteous Israelites’ problem that led to all their questions was that they were not looking broadly enough

They were wondering why the wicked were getting away with it in their own city and nation

They were not looking and what was stirring in the East

The wicked think they are all powerful and nothing will hold them accountable, but God is saying, look at the power over there

Notice that he doesn’t tell them to look to the Lord

John Calvin comments says, “He might have said—“look to God;” but as the Prophet had so long spent his labour in vain and without profit while teaching them, he sets over them the Chaldeans as teachers. Behold, he says, ye teachers among the Gentiles.”

God said I am doing…present action

God is currently acting in this foreign power to deal with the issue in Israel.

Habakkuk wanted to know why god wasn’t doing anything, God’s response is I’m already working

It was common to say in those days just like today… well, Yahweh is just a tribal God that works in Israel, but not in Babylon

As v11 reminds us, the view was each nation had its own God & whoever won had the strongest God.

So the Assyrians said to King Hezekiah

2 Kings 19:10–12- “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ‘Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared? ‘Did the gods of those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?

But Psalm 96 and throughout the bible calls the people to remember that Yahweh is the only God for all the world

Psalm 96:7–10- Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name; Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the LORD in holy attire; Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.”

Yahweh is the one doing things in the nations because He is the god of everyone everywhere

And God would be working in their day

They had been warned repeatedly that the end was coming, but they didn’t listen

As we read during Josiah’s grandfather Manessah’s time:

2 Kings 21:11–15- “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. ‘I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ‘I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’ ”

The same warning was given to his father Hezekiah

2 Kings 20:17–19- ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD. ‘Some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away; and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days?”

Sadly, God’s patience sometimes are used to excuse sin

Augustine of Hippo was a great theologian and pastor who was not always godly man

He wanted to do right, But there was always a delay

He put his struggle starkly in his autobiography: “As I prayed to you for the gift of chastity I had even pleaded, ‘Grant me chastity and self-control, but please not yet.’ I was afraid that you might hear me immediately and heal me forthwith of the morbid lust which I was more anxious to satisfy than to snuff out”

God will act, and he’s telling Habakkuk the time is now

Then Paul uses this same passage in His sermon to the Jews in Antioch so they would open their eyes to what God is doing among the nations

Turn to acts 13 with me

Acts 13:14–15- But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.”

Paul is given an opportunity to preach to the Jews in Antioch and he chooses this passage to quote after saying

Acts 13:27–30- “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. “And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. “But God raised Him from the dead;

He then states:

Acts 13:40–42- “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.’ ” As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

This is a great example of applying a biblical reference to his contemporary life

Paul is using the passage in its proper context, speaking to Israel before the soon-coming Babylonian captivity that started in 605 BC.

Israel’s wickedness and lack of justice was the problem, leading to God’s judgment upon Judah

In the same way, the Jewish leaders had killed the holy one

So, God tells them to be astonished at the thing God is already doing around the world

Now, the Gentiles coming to salvation would show God’s wok

While some of the words change, he is addressing that while Habakkuk is written to the righteous, the evil king would also hear this and be destroyed

So the Jewish listeners of Paul’s time understood they needed to believe in Jesus as the messiah

If they refused, the warning of Habakkuk 1:5 would apply to them

So, he is taking a moral lesson from the past and applying it to the present

Just as the people failed to see God’s merciful patience in past

and received judgement,

so they would too if they rejected their messiah

the consequence of refusing God’s gracious offer is a disaster. If they do not come to faith in Jesus … ‘what the prophets said’ will happen to them.”

And as much as fire and brimstone preaching is looked down upon today, the people wanted to hear more because they saw the ancient warning applied to them

Like in Habakkuk’s day, they wanted to get outside themselves and have hope

Illustration point- a bigger perspective is sometimes helpful

This is one reason being involved in our churches around the world is so helpful

If your view of christianty around the world is the sad prosperity gospel and entertainment driven nonsense on chanels like TBN, you are going to be discouraged

Or if you hear the latests culture war nonsense on the news, it is easy to be frustrated

And it can be a statement of judgment against American churches too

United Methodist Church experienced a million member exodus as a group of African Methodists declared they could abide the UMC’s theological liberalism and moral revolt no longer

Those churches were finally fed up with the mainline denomination’s refusal to stand by its clear doctrine and discipline on the issue of homosexuality

During the debate period one of the liberal americans got up and expressed concern for how their brothers and sisters in Africa would be able to prosper if they split from the west

The response from an african was simple… do not think you can bribe us to leave Christ for the sake of your money

One wrote, “When it becomes necessary to decide between submitting to the liberal agenda of Western Christianity and our commitment to biblical Christianity, we will choose the latter, because Jesus is our Savior and Lord. With God above our rights to prove, we shall prevail over principalities and powers, financial inadequacy, and any form of dependency currently plaguing the African church. The church in Africa will continue to progress in triumphant victory as we make disciples of Jesus Christ…..”

Like with Israel, that statement should be both hope and judgment against the churhces in america

We too should look to what God is doing around the world.

Application

How hard is to to know that our suffering and difficulty are not just about us?

Paul knew to get his eyes off himself in the midst of suffering

2 Corinthians 1:3–6- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer;

If you see what God is doing in the lives of others, how he is impacting them, will that make a difference to you?

Sometimes that means that God says no to your prayer requests to bring about a chain of events that will make you a blessing to other

Because remember the most famous no ever given in the bible

In Matthew 26 we read Jesus asking

Matthew 26:39 NASB95

39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”

Can imagine if God had not said no to Jesus’ prayer request?

Everyone would still be under the condemnation of sin

But God’s no to his sin means that Jesus died in the place sinners like you

He took the punishment for sin

Do you think that God’s answer to your prayers not being what you think could be a blessing to others?

Can He take you through a pain, through an injustice, rather than out of it

Can He do that to allow you to be a blessing to others? Absolutely

But, less you think that means it’s only good for othersGod does use all things for our good, but the greatest good is being like Jesus

God does use all things for our good, but the greatest good is being like Jesus

Remember, Hebrews tells us Jesus did not just endure the cross because he was told no and he HAD to be a blessing, but

Hebrews 12:2- Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I have to reference this passage often:

Romans 8:28–29 NASB95

28 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. 29 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;

Sometimes we have to get our eyes off your suffering and put them up on Jesus

We can see that what He is doing is making you more like Himself

And, if we truly love and worship Jesus Christ, then whatever it takes to become like Him is worth it.

If you stop to look, you may see how God is blessing others and putting your eyes on Jesus

Trans: So God is working, yes, but secondly, is he in control

Entrust: Do I trust God is in control of everything? (v6a)

Explanation

We saw two weeks ago how Habakkuk had his questions because he had good theology that saw God was in control of everything

He didn’t say, God, I understand you respect the free will of man and thus we are suffering here

He said, why God do you make me look at iniquity?

And now God says the same thing

God is raising up the Chaldeans

Raising means to the cause or to confirm.

It is the same word used to describe how God established David as King instead of Saul

2 Samuel 3:10- to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and to establish the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.”

Thus the same God who raised up David, is raising up the Chaldeans

But Habakkuk and the others may have trouble believing this

There could be a historical reason

at this point, no one would expect Babylon to become the great power that took on Syria and Egypt

In 2 Kings 20:12-21. Hezekiah invites the Babylonian envoys to see all the treasure he had.

2 Kings 20:12–13- At that time Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

he felt no threat from these people.

Assyria is the power to the East at this point.

Assyria took pride in her wealth and military strength (Nah. 2:9) and self-confidently declared, “I am, and there is none besides me” (Zeph. 2:15).

But in 626 BC,

the new Babylonian King Nabopolassar (father of Nebuchadnezzar) declares independence from Assyria,

conquers Ninevah in 612,

and becomes the dominant power in 605BC.

Nebuchadnezzar led the Babylonians in this victory and consolidated the Babylonian Empire. After his father’s death in 605 B.C. he became king over the vast empire, which flourished until the Persians defeated it in 539

It only took 20 years for the Chaldeans to go from nothing to the dominant world power.

And Yahweh is the one orchestrating this all

The Bible teaches God is absolutely sovereign

He blinds eyes (John 12:4)

He hardens hearts (Romans 9:18)

He sends deluding influences so people believe what is false (2 Thess 2:11)

And HE planned for Jesus to die at sinful hands-

Acts 2:23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

Illustration point-Do you trust that God is in control?

Illus- There is great comfort in knowing God is control even in the midst of great threats

William Schauffler was a german missionary who went to Constantinople to preach the gospel in the 1800s,

he was warned by the Russian ambassador, who said, “My imperial master, the Czar, will never allow Protestantism to set foot in Turkey.”

Dr. Schauffler calmly answered him, “The kingdom of Christ, who is my Master, will never ask the Emperor of Russia where it may set its foot.”

He famously translated the bible into Turkish for the people to read themselves

If God is king over the Russian Czar, he is king over whatever is happening in the world

Are you entrusting yourself to God’s complete control?

Application

If God is not in control… how horrible is that?

One accusation I’ve heard against the doctrines of Grace or Calvinism as we sometimes call it

Is how can you say that God brought about the rape and subsequent pregnancy of a woman

My response is- How can you say that the innocent child inside of her was an accidetn that caught God off guard?

Instead, the hope is that while God does not approve of that evil and did not cause the evil

Yet we must hold in tension that God planned and was using that evil for a good result

Children conceived in sin and still gifts from God

But since God is in control, your suffering has a purpose

Perhaps he is using it to correct you

Perhaps he is using it to bless you

Maybe he’s preparing you for greater joy in heaven

But we know God is doing something

Next week will try to explain how God God this

Therefore

Since we have seen (Cohesion)- How we need to remember God si working

Get your eyes off yourself and onto him

Remember he is in control of all

We know we must (Resolution)- So when your prayers are not answered the way you want remember

Charles Spurgeon said

If the Lord will but hear us we will leave it to His superior wisdom to decide whether He will answer us or no. It is better for our prayer to be heard than answered. If the Lord were to make an absolute promise to answer all our requests it might be rather a curse than a blessing, for it would be casting the responsibility of our lives upon ourselves, and we should be placed in a very anxious position:

So, may we learn to trust God’s answers

Closing prayer

Lord, it is hard when we do not get our payers answered the way we want

Please open our eyes to see what you are doing

May we be able to get past ourselves to see how we can be a blessing to others

May we see the good you are working in us

May we believe yoru control is worth it