Wrestling with God's Goodness
Notes
Transcript
The perennial question of “If God is good and powerful, how could he allow...?” is something the Bible does not shy away from.
Big Idea: We must care about injustice but also trust God when we do not see justice happening yet.
Big Idea: We must care about injustice but also trust God when we do not see justice happening yet.
Getting robbed, Ukraine, refugees, opportunities erased
Culture that hides struggle
Habakkuk’s backstory
1. Habakkuk’s complaint: Care about injustice.
1. Habakkuk’s complaint: Care about injustice.
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
Christians should care about injustice. We should look beyond ourselves.
You don’t have to see all injustice, but don’t ignore what God puts in front of you.
2. God’s response: Trust me. I am sovereign and just.
2. God’s response: Trust me. I am sovereign and just.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
13 Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
18 “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”
He uses wickedness to humble as well as condemn. Their idols are worthless. Their glory/success is a setup.
Success doesn’t come by running or chariots. God uses the apparent success of evil to show His ultimate greatness.
Don’t live for the world’s measures of success.
3. Habakkuk’s praise: God is my strength.
3. Habakkuk’s praise: God is my strength.
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.
Nations won’t last. God will act like He did before.
Even tho I do not experience material blessings in this life, I will still trust in God my strength because of who He is. I will live by faith.
16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Do you write songs of praise? Teach them to pray
Do you see who God truly is? 3 Selahs.
Who’s the hero of your story?
Will you trust Him even when things go wrong temporarily? What are you trusting in? Your nice home, great family, retirement, opportunities for fun? Or are you trusting in God because you know Him?
C.S. Lewis = “He’s good but he’s not safe”
Parenting
Community Group questions
What injustices really bother you? Why do you think they bother you and maybe not other people?
Does it bother you when other people don’t care about the injustices you see? Why? What if God didn’t care?
People often use the question about God’s goodness and power to actually ascribe to a non-belief in God. Why is that self-defeating?
God uses the apparent success of evil to ultimately show His own greatness. Why is that important?
How does Habakkuk’s praise of God help your own praise and trust in God?
