When God Doesn’t Make Sense

When God Doesn’t make Sense

Habakkuk 1:1-11

I. Introduction

A. You are standing at the nase of Everest about to make a climb.  You are not sure whether you will make it to the top or die trying.  You have no idea what you will meet along the way.  You will see high winds, frigid cold, and dead bodies of people who did not make it.  All you see at this point is danger and potential death. To do it you must trust the process and the sherpa who guides you. Over the next three weeks we are going to climb a mountain of faith.  At times we will be like Habakkuk and we will wonder where God is and if there is any hope. Can you, though you cannot see a way through, trust God as guide and trust His process to the top?

1. Over 29,000 feet (5.5 miles)

2. Most trips take 2 months to get to the summit and back

B. Habakkuk is seeing a mountain higher than he can climb.  The people are in sin, they have left the law behind.  People are taking advantage if one another.  There are nations bearing down on them.  From his perspective there is little hope and little that he hears from God.

II. A faithful fear (1-4)

A. Explanation

1. This is an oracle from God – God revealing Himself to the prophet Habakkuk

2. He is crying out for help from God from all the sin and brokenness of the world

a. They had seen the great days of the rise of Israel

b. But they also saw corruption and sin bring division and pain for the entire nation

c. They saw their own brothers in Israel being defeated by the Assyrians and destroyed as a people

d. Now they knew there were other nations like the Assyrians who are oppressing them on every side

3. But the real problem was internal

a. They religious people were corrupt and doing things for their personal wealth and advancement.

i. They took and advantage of the faithful poor

ii.They were leading people to false gods

iii. They were causing the people to fall under the judgement of God by leading them astray

4. The questions - see if you relate

a. Why don’t you hear me? Habakkuk has cried to the Lord many times, but is left to feel that God isn’t listening

b. Why don’t you save us when we cry violence? – Habakkuk feels like there is more violence than help

c. Why do you make me see iniquity, look idly at wrong – Habakkuk is a faithful man longing to live in a faithful land – Why won’t God make it happen

5. Habakkuk’s conclusion

a. Destruction and violence are before me, Strife and contention rise

b. The law is paralyzed – The law is pointless if the people don’t obey it or are trying to work around it

c. Justice never goes forth – The right thing never happens

d. The wicked surround the righteous

e. Justice goes forth perverted

B. Application

1. Do you ever feel this way? It’s like sin surrounds the people of God, even the ones seek to live righteously

2. Sometimes when the consequences of the world’s sin is causing us pain, we are left to wonder why God doesn’t save us from it.

3. In our world it would be hard not to feel this way with so much sin surrounding us

4. We are not only surrounded by sin, but our culture is also bearing down on us trying to make us submit to it and participate in it

5. Not only should we share these questions, but we should also be crying out in the same ways.

6. Conclusions

a. It is OK to have questions about what God is doing in the world

b. It is never OK to doubt Him, His existence or His plan

III. A Fearful-follow-up

A. Explanation

1. His answer to the problem – I am raising up the Chaldeans

a. The Chaldeans are what is to become the Babylonians, a fierce nation of warriors

b. He refers to them as a bitter and hasty nation – They were known for going into nations brutally killing people and taking over nations

2. They are a morality to themselves –

a. Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves – They are not beholden to God’s truths of what makes men righteous or good

b. They find their own self-worth in their own morality of brutality and ferocity.

c. They declare themselves righteous and great based on their own definitions, with no regard to God’s standards

3. They are mighty in war and there is no chance of Judah stopping them when they arrive (8)

4. They are violent and take captives of the people

5. They laugh at kings and nations as they lay siege to them – there is no mercy or pity

6. They keep going on after that honoring their own might as their only God

a. They have no God but themselves

b. God has chosen a brutal nation to bring justice to Judah, the people of God

B. Application

1. This is a greater judgement for sin and idolatry than they could have imagined

2. It highlights the reality of their sin and the seriousness and holiness of God

3. His expectation of godliness is for His own people – They have not been holy, they have not upheld the law, they have not practiced justice in the land. They have been idolatrous          

IV. A supreme and sovereign Savior

A. God is painting a bigger picture than we can see – His work through the Babylonians will at once:

1. Bring judgement for the sin and idolatry of Judah

2. Will result in the judgement of the cruelty and sin of the Chaldeans

3. Set the stage for the coming of the Savior and a new covenant of grace

B. He is the God of all nations and people because He is the one and only true God, creator of all

C. He has the right to judge and to punish as He sees fit

D. What do we see through this passage?

1. God has a plan that is bigger than we can see

2. God is working even when we cannot hear Him or see His work

3. God’s expectation is that His people are Holy and faithful

V. Conclusion

A. Can you stand at the bottom and see that God has made a way to the top.  Can you look past yourself and put your faith in God and His plan for your life?

B. Can you trust Him with the big picture

C. Do you believe that God is redeeming this sinful world to Himself

D. Do you believe that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was the pivotal point of redemption?

1. In that moment was the worst that Jesus could have imagined

2. At the same time, it was the hope for sinners like you and me 2000 years later

Atheist Author on "Why I Raise My Children without God"

A few years ago, CNN published an article titled "Why I Raise My Children without God." Instantly it went viral. The author, a young mother named Deborah Mitchell, listed several reasons why she shielded her children from learning about God—most of them variations on the problem of evil. Mitchell argued that a loving God would not allow "murders, child abuse, wars, brutal beatings, torture, and millions of heinous acts to be committed throughout the history of mankind."

The classic Christian answer to the problem of evil is that God created humans with free will—and they have made a horrific mess of things. This is called the free-will defense, and it acknowledges the tragic reality of sin and suffering, while at the same time affirming human dignity. It portrays humans as genuine moral agents whose choices are so significant that they alter the direction of history, and even eternity.

Having rejected the Christian answer, what did Mitchell offer as an alternative? She proposed a materialistic worldview in which humans are completely determined, without free will. "We are just a very, very small part of a big, big machine," she intoned, "and the influence we have is minuscule." We must accept "the realization of our insignificance." Is that meant to be an appealing alternative to Christianity? That humans are little machines trapped in a big machine? That their actions are insignificant? Mitchell claimed that her materialist view leads to "humbleness." But it is not humbling; it is dehumanizing. It essentially reduces humans to robots. More importantly, it is not true. There is no society without some moral code. The testimony of universal human experience is that humans are not merely little robots.

Source: Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth (David C. Cook, 2015), pp. 141-142