I don’t know what lies ahead. It may be good things, it may be bad. The world is a crazy place no matter who’s side you take.
I find myself getting worried about this craziness that’s going on in the world. Just like Habakkuk in the Bible, when I look around and see a lot of sin, and wonder what God is doing about it, or if He even cares.
Habakkuk was one of God’s prophets and He complained to God. God’s response to Habakkuk was, “Don’t worry, I do care, and I’m going to take care of it. Before long, the Babylonians will come in and destroy Judah, because of their sin.” This confused and upset Habakkuk even more. He said to God, “I don’t get that. I mean, I know that Judah is bad, but you are going to use the Babylonians? They are the meanest, most violent, most corrupt people on the face of the earth. You’re going to use people like that to destroy us? That doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t seem fair.”
If you’ve ever had a hard time in your life, and thought to yourself, “that doesn’t seem fair“ (I think that’s pretty much all of us), then you understand how Habakkuk felt. Or maybe like Habakkuk, there’s been a time when you’ve prayed and prayed for God to do something, to help you out with a problem, but years went by without an answer and you just gave up, thinking, “God doesn’t seem to care about anything I’m going through.”
And when we’re surrounded by injustice And immortality and violence, as we are right now. It’s only natural that we pray for God to do something about it. We want to see change, we would like to see justice and godliness. But I think you don’t change, then we pray for God’s judgment. We pray for God to do something to make things right.
While we can be assured that a time of judgment is coming. We have a wallet phrases for this – what comes around goes around or you reap what you sow.
However, where you want to put it, sooner or later, we all face the consequences of the choices we’ve made. That’s true for nations as well as individuals. God cannot be mocked forever, and you cannot ignore Him or pretend He isn’t there., you cannot do as you please and rebel against God without inviting His judgment.
I want you to notice this, because it is important Nothing changed on the outside- Nothing changed on the outside, but Habakkuk changed on the inside. In chapter 1 Habakkuk is upset and confused. In chapter 3 he is at peace. The beginning of this book is filled with mystery (“God, I don’t understand), the end is filled with certainty. The beginning is filled with questions, they end with affirmation. The beginning is filled with complaint, and the end with confidence.
In Habakkuk 1 Habakkuk is saying, “God, I don’t understand.” In chapter 2, God said, “Be patient and wait.” And so Habakkuk did wait. And even though things around him, he didn’t seem to be getting any better, Habakkuk had peace in chapter 3.
So how did Habakkuk get from a place of confusion, worry and fear to a place of faith, confidence and joy? How was he able to make that transition when nothing around him had changed? The people were still mocking God, violence still filled the streets, and babylonians were still coming to attack Jerusalem. Outwardly, everything was still as messed up as it was in the beginning.
But something changed inside of Habakkuk. How did this happen? I want you to look at three things that Habakkuk did that we need to do to make the transition in our lives from confusion, worry and fear to faith, confidence and joy,
1. We need to remember what God has done.
This is a prayer that Habakkuk prayed… “Lord, I have heard the news about you; I am amazed at what you have done. Lord, do great things once again in our time, and make anything happen again in our own days” – Habakkuk 3:1-3
Habakkuk starts by saying, “ God, I know all the stories about the amazing things you’ve done in the past. I’ve heard about your miracles. I’ve heard about your power. I’ve heard about your glory. And I remember all of those things, but God, it just doesn’t seem like you’re doing any of that stuffs right now. Do great things again.”
If I’m being completely honest with you, I’d have to admit that there are times in my life when God’s presence has seemed more real than at other times. There are times in my life when God’s power seem to be more evident. I could see that God was doing this, and God was doing that, but then there are times when I get to the point where I say, “God, I remember when you used to do all this stuff. Can you please do it again.”
But it starts with remembering. We need to look back and remember the faithfulness, the character, and the goodness of God. We need to remember what God has done. And that’s what Habakkuk does as he goes down memory lane thinking about the goodness and the power of God.
The more we know about the Planner (God) the more we can trust the plans. It’s not that Habakkuk suddenly understands everything that God is doing. That’s not it at all. In fact, at the end of this book, Habakkuk really doesn’t understand any more that he does at the beginning. But he comes to the realization that it doesn’t really matter as long as he knows that God is in control, and that God will work everything out in His own time.
In these verses, there is a focus on gods activity in the past. Habakkuk Especially focuses on Exodus, the time in the wilderness, and the crossing of the Jordan River. That is the time in God repeatedly perform spectacular miracles. And the implication is that if God did it before, then He can do it again.
2. Accept what God is doing
That doesn’t mean that we give up on expecting God to do anything. But it does mean that sometimes the answer doesn’t come as quickly as we would line it to come, and so, we accept what God is doing right now even if we don’t like it very much.
In 2 Corinthians 12:29Paul has some sort of a problem in his life that he refers to as “a thorn in the flesh.” He pleaded with God three times about this problem and asked God to take it away from him. But God refused to remove this thorn in the flesh and said to Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
When God didn’t answer Paul’s prayer the way he wanted he could have gone into depression or he could have gotten angry with God. But, instead, Paul accepted what God had said, and wrote, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” – 2 Corinthians 12:10.
We see the same response in Habakkuk. When he questioned God, he didn’t get the answer he expected. God said, “ I am going to use the babyloniansto destroy your nation,” and here’s Habakkuk’s response. He said, “I hear these things, and my body trembles, my lips tremble when I hear the sound. My bones feel weak, and my legs shake. Yet I will wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us” – Habakkuk 3:16.
This is Habakkuk’s way of saying, “It makes me sick to my stomach to think about what’s going to happen. And there are times we just have to accept what’s going to happen. We don’t have to like it, but we must trust that God knows what He’s doing,
Before I read these scriptures. I was physically ill knowing that the Palestine’s attacked Israel. For I know America’s fate will come sooner or later. But I have to remember what God had done in the past, and then accept what He’s doing right now.
And then…
3. Trust what God is going to do in the future.
Habakkuk says, “I don’t understand what’s going on and I don’t like it. But he says “I will wait patiently for the day of disaster that will come to the people who attack us” -Habakkuk 3:15.
I’m going to wait because I believe eventually the people who attack us will get theirs, because God said so.
It’s not about have faith for Jesus only in the good times. If you only have God in the good times, you don’t have the God of the Bible. Because…
- Sometimes the fig tree doesn’t bud.
- Sometimes there are no grapes on the vine.
- Sometimes the fields produce no food.
- Sometimes there are no sheep in the pen.
- Sometimes there areno cattle in the stalls.
What happens then? You can get angry at God or you can give up on God altogether. Or you can choose to trust God anyway. Faith chooses to believe when it would be easier to stop believing. I choose to wait patiently.
I have walked with God long enough that I can trust Him with all my tomorrows. And eventually I will have the faithfulness to trust Him in all things..
“The Lord God is my strength. He makes me like a deer that does not stumble so I can walk steep mountains” – Habakkuk 3:19
We don’t know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.