Even If

Intro: Several years ago life felt like it might have felt for the prophet Habakkuk after he complained to God about the horrible spiritual atmosphere in Judah, only to be told by God that the answer to his questioning was the Babylonians. This was followed God’s answer to Habakkuk’s next question of God, “how could you use someone more wicked to punish your people?”, and God’s answer was simply, “When their sin is completely full, I will punish them as well.” At this, I’m sure that if the saying had been around, Habakkuk would have been saying “Out of the frying pan, and into the fire,” and then said only to have the fire turned up higher.

Have you been there? I know that I have. It started with a church asking me to resign. I felt like I was still supposed to be in full time vocational ministry, but after three months with no where to go, we had to leave the parsonage, move 6 hours away, and move in with Brenna’s parents. Six months in, I still had no job, and in the meantime Brenna had miscarried. It felt like we had asked God to protect us from the unpleasant within to be thrown into the wicked from outside. For three more years, I felt like I was wondering in captivity and waiting for God to make the next move. I know that those might not make the worst-case scenarios, but I felt like God was taking me on a journey I didn’t want to be on.

The question, isn’t “Will difficult times come?”, rather, it is “When will the difficult times come, and how will you react when they do?” Especially, if it seems like you are jumping from the frying pan into an ever-intensifying fire? Habakkuk had heard from God, and knew he could trust YHWH, and I would summarize his statement as “Even if,” even if I don’t see the other side of the God’s action I will still worship and wait. (Read Habakkuk 3:16-19 ) I don’t believe that Habakkuk ever capitulates on his stance that Babylon seems like a bad answer, yet what He says, is even if that is what you choose to allow, or use, I will trust you and watch steadfastly for you Word to come true. He starts by saying “Though” and that is where we begin this morning.

Habakkuk 3:16–19 NASB95

I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places. For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.

I. Though

A. Devastation

1. Bad to worse

a. inconveniences

b. Needed sustenance

c. Needed for provision of necessities

i. clothing

ii. field work

iii. meat

2. Dominoes falling

a. Dominoes can know over a domino 1.5 times their own size.

b. It’s called amplification

c. At the thirteenth domino falling, it would amplify the force by a factor of 2 billion

c. That would be enough to knock over a skyscraper!

d. The first bad thing wasn’t all that bad, the 4th, 5th and sixth seem much, much bigger!

3. We face the same things, or at least similar things.

a. loss of a job

b. a medical diagnosis

c. inflation pinching our living money

d. loss of homes

B. Results

1. Were not there yet, “Even If!”

2. In fact, history tells us, that even though Habakkuk probably saw the coming of the unbelievable, with the captivity, he likely didn’t live to see the downfall of Babylon.

3. But in the face of it all, Habakkuk was going to stand and watch

1. Remain faithful

2. Trust that God would do what He had promised

TRANS: It is what Habakkuk does in the waiting that is how we need to respond to the frying pan to fire times of life.

II. Yet

A. Rejoice

1. Even If

2. Not in the devastation

3. In the LORD despite the devastation

4. This meant that Habakkuk had to have learned to trust God before he went to ask God about the situation in Judah.

5. Doesn’t make the “Though” disappear. Rather it gives us strength to endure through it.

B. YHWH

1. Gives

a. Strength – I know where my help comes from, it comes from the Lord (Ps. 121:2)

b. Sure footedness

2. Is

a. Trustworthy

b. Strong

- A Mighty Fortress is Our God

c. Caring

- Salvation

Conclusion: Horatio Spafford was having one of those years. 1871 saw the Great Chicago Fire which wiped out much of Spafford’s real estate holdings and therefore his income. Still, he decided that he would take time for a vacation, and help out D.L. Moody, in England. Detained, he sent his wife and four daughters ahead and planned on catching up with them as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the second tragedy hit when the ship his family was sailing on was struck by another vessel and very quickly sank, drowning his four daughters. Spafford sailed to meet his wife, in Wales. On that journey, when they reached the approximate place that the ship with his family on board sank, the captain of the ship Spafford was sailing on alerted him to the fact. He was stuck with the comfort of God and wrote: “ When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll—Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.

Tho Satan should buffet, tho trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed His own blood for my soul.

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll: The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, “Even so”—it is well with my soul.

Like Habakkuk, worship was where Spafford found strength and comfort to go on. For me too it was worship. Mine however was the words from Lamentation 3, set to music and arranged to a modern hymn by Thomas Chisholm. He wrote: Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not: As thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Chorus: Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided—Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.