That's kind of like hard to say. There's like
two different ways. You can do like Habakkuk
or Habakkuk. Either way it sounds like a cat
having a hairball. It's like Habakkuk. But either
way. it's my favorite minor prophet and I think
you'll see why as that this is a minor prophet
that was written thousands years ago but it's
still amazingly applicable to our lives right
now and that's what God's Word is it's always
sufficient and it's a minor prophet not because
of its value but because of its size it's just
smaller than like Isaiah or Daniel but this book
holds humongous truth for our life so go ahead
and turn with me to a backache all right have
fun finding your Bibles all right that'll be
a good exercise all right mine's on page 862,
if that helps you. That will not help you. So
before, I have a little illustration we'll do
in just a second. But I kind of want us to build
the context of the book, see what's happening
here. But we have some main characters. We have.
two main characters pretty much it's God and
his prophet Habakkuk and not much is known about
him he's probably a temple musician that's what
some scholars say his name most likely means
to wrestle or to embrace and we'll see him do
both of those things throughout this book but
he's a prophet to Judah and I encourage you to
kind of write these things down especially if
you take notes which is always a good thing to
do because you want to know how the story is
unfolding these next few weeks but we know that
he's a prophet and he's a spokesman for God,
and he's talking to Judah. And Judah, right now,
Israel has been split into two kings. You have
the northern kingdom, which is Israel, and they've
been dominated by Assyria. And then you have
Judah, which is the southern kingdom. And they're
kind of scared because they're thinking, when
are we going to get dominated? Now what's special
about Habakkuk is he doesn't ever, throughout
the three chapters, address Judah. He never yells
at them. He never tells them, hey, you're doing
wrong things. He addresses the idea of them or
what they're doing, but he never talks directly
to them. What the book of Habakkuk, what's special
about it is the whole book is a whole dialogue.
It's a question and answer. And what it's a question
and answer between is our two main characters.
It's Habakkuk who asks the questions and God
who does the answering. But where we find Habakkuk
in the first chapter is we find him confused.
We find him kind of perplexed. So I have a question
for you. Do you ever get confused? Raise your
hand if you ever get confused. I get confused
on a daily, moment -by -moment basis a lot of
times. I just have a face that all the teenagers
know if he's confused. He has no idea what he's
doing right now. Some things that always confuse
me are riddles. So here's what we're going to
do. I'm going to show you four riddles. I'm going
to do one at a time. And I want to see who can
give me the first answer. You don't have to stand
up. You just got to yell it. I'll try to find
the right person. And if you win, you get a high
five. But I know it's big stuff here. It's a
big reward. Go ahead and give me that first one.
Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If
you eat it, you die. What is it? It's good. It's
nothing. Get it? Get it? Nothing. All right.
Go back. Go back to the question. We'll make
sure we unpack a little bit. All right. Poor
people have it and nothing. Rich people need
it. They need nothing. If you eat it, you die.
You eat nothing. You die. Yeah. Get it? Okay.
All right. Okay. Next one. Let's see. All right.
Man, they're like weirdly positioned. Huh? Weird.
All right. What comes once in a minute, twice
in a moment, but never in a thousand years? Huh?
Good job. The letter M. All right, we'll go back
a little question. Sorry, Logan, I'm gonna keep
making you go back. All right, get it? Comes
once in a minute, letter M, and twice in a moment,
but never in a thousand years. All right, some
of you got these memorized. All right, let's
see, okay. I have backups, just in case we get
all these really fast. What gets bigger the more
you take away? How do you guys just know these?
All right, he's like, oh, I got it. All right,
good, okay. All right, this one will stump you,
okay. All right, next one. How is seven different
from the rest of the numbers between one and
10? No. No, no. All right, what else? I'm waiting.
Good. You're stumped. That's what I want. Do
what? That's a good smart person answer. But
no, not prime number. All right, what else? What
do you think? No, no. Huh? Someone was close.
Store it. That's two syllables and the rest of
them don't. Good job Stuart. Man, he deserves
a high five for that. All right, I'll give you
one more bonus one. It's not on the screen, but
just because we went through them really fast.
All right, what can you hold in your right hand,
but never in your left hand? Oh my word, Jimmy.
All right. Okay. All right. All right. Okay.
All right. I got one more. I got one more. Okay.
All right. This won't get everyone. Okay. First
you eat me, then you get eaten. Yeah. It's not
Joan of the Whale, but that's close. I'll say
it again. I got you. First you eat me, then you
get eaten. No, it's not pineapple. Who's yelling
pineapple over there? All right. First you eat
me, then you get eaten. Fish? Yeah, fish hook.
Good job, Michael. You got it. All right. OK.
There. Man. All right. You guys are really smart,
apparently. All right. But. My point with this,
all right, is that if we look around actual life,
all right, riddles, if I was looking through
a whole bunch of riddles, and they all confused
me, to be honest, all right, but I look around
life, and we look at life around us, and really
what it is, is it's this big, massive riddle.
And trying to get an answer to the riddle sometimes
doesn't make sense. If I can get the answer,
if you would just tell me the answer, like, like
even when we did some of those, like, oh, that
makes sense when I have the answer, all everything
kind of comes together. But what's weird about
life is the more you try to figure it out, the
actual more confusing it gets. And the longer
you stay in life, really, truly, the more confusing
it becomes. We see that in the book of Ecclesiastes.
And Solomon gets some closure at the end of that,
but a lot of people are just like, man, this
isn't fulfilling. This is confusing. This is
the thing I'm pursuing. I never feel fulfilled.
What's also interesting is the longer you become
a believer, the longer you're a believer, sometimes
the more confused you become about the world.
where you where you get saved you have this triumphant
awesomeness of salvation but with that come these
other questions that sometimes don't make sense
if we're honest of common questions that people
ask that you should ask i think it's good to
ask or why do good people suffer and evil is
prospering look through the world it seems like
that it doesn't seem like that it's happening
why isn't god answering my prayers why why isn't
it as easy to serve god as it was before Why
is there so much pain in the world, yet God seems
so silent? And to make it really hit home with
us, let's look at some specific scenarios. Asking
God, why would you allow this to happen? We've
all asked that. Why would you allow this job,
this promotion, why would you give the promotion
to them? They've only been here five minutes,
and I've been here five years. Why would you
allow this to happen? Lord, why would you allow
that drunk driving accident to happen? That killed
an innocent person, Lord. Why do I raise my kids
well and they leave the Lord? I've done everything
right and they leave the Lord. It just doesn't
seem fair. And if you haven't said that, you're
not a human. If you haven't looked at your life,
looked at the things around you in life and said,
Lord, it's not fair. This makes no sense. And
then if you stay in that long enough, you begin
to have questions. You begin to have even doubt.
And why that's important for us to resonate with
is first because you do that. So we need to be
honest with ourselves, but also that's where
we pick up in Habakkuk. And Habakkuk's not like
some random person on the street that has no
idea of a knowledge of God. He's probably a temple
musician. He has a vibrant relationship with
God. But even he is saying, Lord, I don't understand.
This doesn't make sense. He's not someone faithful
heathen. He's a dedicated follower, but he's
struggling. And he lays the framework for how
we are to respond in our question or doubt. And
that's our main point tonight, is that every
believer, and that's a key, or we have that a
lot of our opening statements, but Why it's so
important is that we can face doubts because
we are believers. We have some hope that we can
work through this. But every believer can face
their doubts by understanding two vulnerable
complaints of Habakkuk. Now scholars call these
in the first chapter what Habakkuk is his questions.
They call them complaints. And because he's complaining,
he's complaining. This is not being done the
way I think things should be done. What I appreciate
is that Habakkuk doesn't just go into himself,
go privately and complain. He doesn't go to his
friend and complain. He goes straight to who?
He goes to God and he says, Lord, I'm struggling
here and I got to be honest with you. I love
you. I want to serve you, but I don't think things
are fair right now. And what I love about God,
and we see this even in the book of Job, is that
God is not mad at questions. He's not offended
when you ask questions. He's not threatened when
you ask questions. I believe that He's glad.
He's glad you're thinking and not just being
a robot. That's why He gave you free will. He's
glad you're thinking, processing, being real
with Him. He's glad you're going to Him with
Him because He has the answers. And that's exactly
what Habakkuk, he went to the Lord, and I think
we should follow suit. So let's start with prayer,
and then we'll dive right in. Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you so much for the good God you are. Lord,
thank you for this book of Habakkuk that is so
real. There's so much to unpack here, and it
applies right to us, applies right to me. I'm
just asking questions, wondering, even doubting.
Lord, what we can hope with, what we can move
forward with is that you do have the answers.
You have the hope we need. So show us that tonight,
work in our hearts in a way only you can, in
your precious holy name. Amen. All right, so
we see two complaints or criticisms from Habakkuk.
And the first one is the complaint of the absence
of punishment. He says there's no punishment
happening. And we see this in verses one through
four. Let's go ahead and read them together.
The burden in which Habakkuk the prophet did
see, verse one. Verse two, oh Lord, how long
shall I cry? And thou wilt not hear, even cry
out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not
save. Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause
me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence
are before me, and there are that raise up strife
and contention. Therefore the law is slapped,
and judgment doth never go forth. For the wicked
doth compass about the righteous, therefore wrong
judgment proceedeth. So verse one, we'll take
those verses apart, but it says that he's received
a burden, that word burden is mass, it's oracle
or burden. They kind of work together, they're
synonymous. What's implying there is that he's
got this heavy message that, this happened with
all the prophets, that they were given a message
that no one wanted to hear, right? No one wanted
to hear what these prophets had to say, because
usually it was like, hey, you're being dumb,
stop being dumb, or you're gonna die, or you're
gonna get punishment. And people don't want to
hear that. So he has this heavy message, right?
I mean, it's the same way, if you've ever had
a heavy message. I remember like, sometimes I
would break stuff. Like, I don't know if you,
I'm sure none of you have ever, let's see, I'm
looking at the kids over here, right? How many
of you have broken a tablet before? Okay, raise
your hand if you ever broken a tablet. None of
you, you're like, I'm not gonna raise my hand
on my parents, you know? All right, thank you.
I got honesty in the back row. Thank you, Angela.
All right, you guys are good. How many of you
broken something? Okay, I like the honesty, alright?
Okay, as soon as you break something, there's
like this heaviness of like, I gotta go tell
my parents about it. Like, I gotta go tell someone
that's not going to enjoy this message. And that's
what Habakkuk's feeling. We need to actually
get the emotion he's with. He's saying, I've
got this heavy message that I know is gonna provoke
a heavy response in the people around me. And
the question he asks, and we'll see this in verses
two through four, he says, God, why does evil
go unpunished? Even simply, like, Why aren't
you doing anything? And we see this in verse
2. He says, oh Lord, how long? That's a very
common question throughout the Bible. We actually
see it over 65 times, mostly in the Psalms. We're
just saying, Lord, how long is this going to
keep happening? Because I don't know how much
longer I can do it. Lord, how much longer do
we have to keep having suffering? How long will
this pain continue? And then he says, how long
shall I cry? And then he says cry later on. What's
interesting to me, this is why Hebrew is important,
is like those terms cry are two different words.
The first cry is the word sava, which means he's
calling out for help. That's normal, like, help
me, please. I need help. I don't understand.
But then that second cry, even cry out unto thee,
is a different word. It's zake, which means scream.
It means he's crying out with a disturbed heart.
It means, okay, there's like, Lord, help me.
And there's, Lord, help me. I can't do this.
Right. Okay. Those are the two differences. Right.
But like that was a little bit extra. That's
what Habakkuk's doing. He's not just being the
silent prim and proper person sitting in his
seat like, Lord, I'm really strong. He's like,
Lord, I'm on my knees begging to you. I don't
understand this. And Habakkuk is crying out to
the Lord. And our question needs to be why. See
that in verse three. He's seeing all the iniquity
and the evil throughout Judah. He's looking at
his country, the one he's a prophet to, the one
he's a temple musician to, and he's like, they're
just evil. And what's even worse, he says, is
that, Lord, you seem to be just standing idly
by not doing anything. You're just looking at
the wrong. And he uses this vivid imagery to
explain it. He says, spoiling or destruction.
They're destroying things. They're having violence.
That's the word Hamas, right? You know the terrorist
group, violence. They're saying that there's
this great violence, this destruction happening,
strife, contention. He's saying Judah is morally
breaking every possible barrier they could. And
then what that's causing is strife, contention,
anger between everyone. So not only are they
breaking all the rules, they all hate each other.
And it's just everything's falling apart. And
what we see in the line of Judah is that they
had a king Josiah and he actually spurred reform.
Things were actually going well and there was
hope and they were going to God but then time
passed and they started going farther and farther
away from God. And they fell into, once again,
it's like the same old story, that they fell
into worshiping Baal, a false idol. They were
sacrificing their own kids to Moloch. They were
ignoring the temple. They didn't go to the temple
and they just let it kind of be destroyed, like
kind of condemn itself. And what was also happening,
verse four, is that there was injustice in the
court systems. It says the law was paralyzed.
That means that the judges who are supposed to
be practicing the law are actually ignoring the
law. They were unjust, and most likely, scholars
believed that they were being bribed. So like
they were unjust judges, the wicked were coming,
putting the righteous into courts, and saying,
so it's the idea of like, if I really want something
someone else has, all right, say I want, I don't
know, what can I, what do you have that's valuable?
All right, a pen, sure, okay. All right, say
I really want, Isaac's pen and I'm a wicked person
so what I do is I say all right I'm gonna take
Isaac to court I'm gonna give all this awesome
Mariam's just offering me a nice pinch so nice
all right okay say Tyrone you're a judge okay
and I pay him and I say all right I want what
Isaac has so I'm gonna go pay this judge right
here's 50 all right right there all right then
we take to court and then he sides with me and
then I get what Isaac has right that's completely
unjust that I'm a wicked person wants his belongings
and then I bribe the judge because of it that's
what's happening here thank you You're awesome.
All right, what is happening very simply is they're
just corrupting everything. They're back is looking
around all this corruption in the court systems
and their everyday life and their worship to
God and he's saying, do you see the sin Lord?
Like do you see it? Like how long are you gonna
let this go? And that's really not hard for us
to imagine. I did a practice that I actually
would not recommend anybody to do. I learned
that, all right, is that I went to like the breaking
news headlines on on the internet. I went to
like NBC News because the first one popped up.
I was like, I reading headlines is sad. I want
to go through some headlines I saw and they're
not happy. They're not good things. But this
is what's happened in our world today. The same
idea, the same sin that's happening. As I look
through the first article I saw is Mexico being
burned by cartel. I was like, not good. All right.
Next one was US and Israel strike Iran. Also
not good. I saw AI child exploitation. Didn't
even want to read into that because that just
discouraged me even more. I saw Epstein investigations
and the horribleness there and the mess that
is. I saw countless homicide investigations.
I saw multiple articles about these coaches fired
for inappropriate contact. And I was just reading,
I had to stop like after five minutes. I'm like,
boy, there's just so much filth and disgustingness.
It's just awful. And it's everywhere. It's awful.
It's evil. And really, it's discouraging. And
I read these headlines, and it's so easy for
me to do, even reading them, I'm like, Lord,
that's like evil. That's disgusting. And that's
happening in our world. Sometimes we try not
think about it, but it's happening. And I can
read those headlines and very easily say, Lord,
how long will you just sit by and ignore? Ignore
what's happening in the world. Ignore what's
happening in our country. Ignore what's happening
in my life. Now what I love is that God responds
in verse five. Verse five, let's look at it and
we're gonna read all the way to verse 11 Okay,
I'm gonna I think it's good for us to kind of
see it all together Well, the Lord responds verse
5 says behold ye among the heathen and regard
and wonder marvelously For I will work a work
in your days, which you will not believe though
be told you for though I raised up the Chaldeans
that bitter and hasty nation We shall march through
the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling
places that are not theirs They are terrible
and dreadful their judgment and their dignity
shall proceed of themselves their horses are
often also swifter than the leopards and are
more fierce than the evening wolves and their
horsemen shall spread themselves and the horsemen
shall come from far and they shall fly as the
eagle that hasteth to eat they shall come as
come all for violence their faces shall sup as
the east wind they shall gather the captivity
as the sand and they shall scoff at the kings
and the princes shall be a scorn unto them they
shall deride every stronghold for they shall
heap dust and take it Then shall his mind change,
and he shall pass over and offend, impugning
that his power unto his God. There's a lot there,
and it's very, very old English there, but it's
very easy to understand as we unpack it, and
it's very relatable. But what I love is, this
is a really encouraging verse, I don't want to
gloss over it, is verse five. We see first the
Lord answers, and he says a little bit of a kind
rebuke. He says, verse five, behold ye among
the heathen, in regard, wonder marvelous. He
says, get ready to wonder, because I'm, for I
will work a work in your days which you will
not believe though be told to you. He's saying,
Habakkuk, okay, if I told you what I'm about
to do, you would not even kind of believe me.
The great things I'm about to transform and do
in your life and in the life of Judah and life
of the world, you would not even believe it.
Like I think if like he told him his... perfect
plan for how the people will return back to Jerusalem.
I don't think Habakkuk would believe it, be like,
how is that possible? If he even went into even
kind of the gospel and try to share like, hey,
Habakkuk, I have this whole even bigger plan
about Jesus and my son being sent down to die
for you on a cross. Like, he wouldn't even believe
it. And that's so like encouraging to me because
there, if I look at, we'll illustrate it this
way. If I say to Brian Hendricks, right, Brian
Hendricks, in about, let's say, three months,
all right, you're gonna have a million dollars.
You're going to be living in retirement. You're
going to be completely retired. You're going
to be living in Cancun, all right? OK? He's probably
like, sounds great. Don't believe you, right?
Like, no, I don't believe that's going to happen,
all right? Say I gave, let's see. Alright, if
I gave Josh just a free Ferrari, like Josh in
about two hours, there's gonna be a Ferrari arriving
at your house. He's like, that sounds awesome.
Still don't believe you, right? Okay, if I tell
Eli that when he goes home, his parents have
designed this beautiful gaming room for him,
and he gets to use it as much as he wants, he's
probably like, Looking at it and say, like, dad,
get on that. Like, you're not gonna believe it,
right? If I make these grand promises to you,
you're probably not gonna believe it. You're
gonna say, that's just not possible. My own mind
state, my own logic, the way I see things. What
I love is that God's saying, Habakkuk, you're
so finite. You're so small. And he doesn't say
this derogatory, but he's saying, Habakkuk, you're
not God. You don't even kind of know what I'm
going to do. And then he says part of his plan.
It gives a little bit of a revelation here. And
what's a big thing that happens is I see in verse
five that if God really told me the plan he had
for me, I don't think I would actually believe
him. And if he told me at 13 that I'd be in Finley
with a family, with the church family, with a
new baby girl in Ohio as a youth pastor, I wouldn't
believe him. I'd be like, Lord, there's so many
things that have to happen for that to happen.
And I ask, why would we not believe that? and
what we tend to do is we tend to think we know
more than God and we tend to think we know better
and if God would just put me in control and we
would say things like I would never make a good
God but we tend to live our life that way of
that we try to make our own decisions we try
to do our own things our own way and we want
we want to have control and have our hand in
everything we act like God in our decisions and
how we critique things and how we complain and
our desires but the reality we need to always
meditate on And we gotta tell ourselves, because
we so easily forget, is that God knows better
than us. And we know that, but then we need to
know that in our hearts. Because when we get
anxious, we are not remembering that God knows
us. When we get angry, when we get upset, when
we get frustrated, things aren't going our way,
we're not remembering that God does know best.
And He has a better plan for us than we could
even imagine. He had a better plan for Habakkuk.
But it is not the plan Habakkuk expects. The
Lord answers, and He says, all right, Habakkuk,
Here's what I'm going to do. I hear your complaint.
I'm going to send Babylon to punish Israel. He
says, I'm raising up the Babylonians, the Chaldeans.
And then he spends these next few verses describing
what the Babylonians are going to be like. The
Lord gives his answer. I will send Babylon to
punish Israel. He says, here's what they look
like. They're going to be a bitter and hasty
nation. That just simply means they're mean.
They're just mean. And they shall march through
the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling
places that are not theirs. They're going to
take the land. I'm going to take possessions
that don't belong to them. They're going to say,
hey, you have something nice, I'm taking it.
You have something nice, I'm taking it. They're
going to take whatever they want. They are terrible
and dreadful. Everyone's scared of them. No one
likes them. You see the Babylonians, you walk
the opposite way because they're going to kill
you if you get any closer to them. Their judgment
and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
What that means is that they're not bound by
laws or by rules. They can do whatever they want.
There's no mosaic code they got to follow. They're
like, hey, I'm really glad. Jews, you follow
that rule. We're not following those rules. We
do whatever we want. And then verse eight describes
what they're like. It says their horses are swifter
than the leopards. And I have a picture up here
of some different animals I get described as.
But we see that there's three different animals
it kind of compares to. It says their horses,
which I really think, I don't know if this is
like a historical thing. I don't know. Does it
come up? Beautiful. All right. Horses were like
the machine guns of Bible times. Like if you
had a horse, dude, you could defeat like anyone,
especially if they didn't have horses. And their
horses are said to be faster than a leopard.
Like a leopard's pretty fast, but a leopard goes
like, I think I googled it, it's like goes 36
miles per hour. It's like, that's pretty fast.
And there's some hyperbole here, but like their
horses are like on it. They can go fast. And
what that means is that they can easily kill
you when you're trying to run away. That's what
that means. Their horses go. And then it says
they're more fierce than evening wolves. Why
it says evening wolves is it's implying a wolf
who is super hungry at the end of the day and
it's ready to eat on anything that comes near
it. Right? You look at that wolf. I saw that.
Like he's looking at his lips, man. Like if I'm
near that, I'm walking the opposite way. That's
what these were like. They're ready. They're
saying it's dinner time. We're ready to destroy.
And their horsemen, people on the horses fighting
their warriors, shall be like eagles. that are
ready to attack all it's all they desire and
think about like these people all they do all
they want is to destroy others and kill them
and make them suffer that's what it says in verse
9 they shall all come for violence their faces
shall step up as the east wind and they shall
gather the captivity of sand And what this is
implying is a lot of times when they were conquering,
say there was like a giant city that had a fortress,
what they would do is they would get a whole
bunch of sand and they would push it right next
to the city to create like a ramp so they could
climb up the sand and then hop over and go into
the city and then kill everyone. And what it's
saying is they're gathering up sand as they gather
up their captivity. They're saying as much sand
as they have, that's how many captives and prisoners
and countries they have defeated. Verse 10 says
they're stronger and more powerful than any king
or any fortress. Verse 11, they're so powerful
and unbeatable that they actually see themselves
as their own God. They say, why would I follow
your God when I'm already God? No one can stop
me. I'm most powerful. And like historical records
actually even tell us more about their weakness
is that they first had like a multitude of gods.
And as they serve those gods, a lot of times
it was through witchcraft, through even talking
to the supernatural. A lot of times they would
go, if they conquered a city, they would take
the king and to humiliate them, they put him
in a cage and just kind of have him walk around
with them. They had ferocity that just had no
boundaries. It says in the Bible that King Zedekiah,
the last king of Judah, what they did to him
to make him suffer, it's... gruesome, but I think
you need to know how gruesome the Babylonians
are is that they took Zedekiah and then killed
his entire family in front of him and gouged
out his eyes the last thing he saw was his family
dying. You're like, that's not good, Miles. That's
bad. Like, no, you need to know that because
we're just like, oh, Babylonians, like, they're
probably not great. Like, no, the Babylonians
are evil. They are wicked. They are disgusting.
And we got to step back from him and be like,
wait, so God, you're planning to use them? You're
not going to punish them. Like, God, you could
stop them, but you decide to use them instead.
And the Lord's answer to a backache didn't seem
like an answer. It actually spurred more questions
because God gave a revelation to him rather than
an explanation. He didn't tell him why, but he
told him, hey, this is going to be even worse
for us. Right. That was good timing. All right.
But maybe like this. All right. I have a flag
up here. OK. Anybody can tell me what the flag
is of. OK. Caleb? North Korea, good job. Yeah,
all right, North Korea. Not a great, not a great
country, all right? So say we have all of our
problems in America, okay? And if you're honest,
okay, probably at some point you said, Lord,
I'm not thrilled with all that's happening in
America. It's evil, it's awful. And then you
pray to the Lord, and he says, you're right.
It is awful. So what I'm going to do is I'm going
to take an even worse nation, have them come
and invade you, change your entire culture, kill
a lot of people, destroy everything you know,
take your sons and daughters, and take them to
do who knows what, and that's how I'm going to
solve this problem. It's like, that's not better.
Like, I'm not happy at that. America's still
wicked, and now we just have the wicked of the
North Koreans combining with it. It just spurs
more worrying, more wondering, more doubting,
more fear, and Habakkuk is very confused. He's
saying, Lord, I cried out to you saying, why
are you letting all this wickedness of Judah
happen? And then you responded by saying, you're
right. I'm going to use the Babylonians. You're
even more wicked. It's like, Lord, what are you
doing? You don't make sense. And that spurs him
to a second complaint. He starts focusing on
the instrument of punishment, the instrument
of punishment. He says, there was an absence
of punishment. You weren't doing anything, but
now you're punishing us that way. Let's look
at verses 12 through 13. We see what Habakkuk
is like here. He says, What we're picking up
here is that Habakkuk is mad, he's frustrated,
he's disappointed, he's confused, and he went
to the Lord and he said, Lord, I'm going to you.
But then he went there and he's like, my problems
only got worse. Not only is Judah still sinning,
but now there's even a bigger sinner being brought
in. And his question here is what we've already
said is, God, why would you punish evil with
more evil? There was bad Judah, now there's big
bad Babylon. And he's saying, Lord, make it make
sense because it doesn't. So what he says in
verse 12, he goes back to his theology. He starts
saying, Lord, here's what I know about you. First,
he says, Lord, I know you're everlasting. I know
you're eternal. I know you know the beginning
from the end. You know what's going to happen.
But I don't, and I'm very confused. You're not
surprised by what's going on, but I am. Then
he also says, I know you're my God. He uses the
term Yahweh here, the personal name. He's saying,
you're my God. I know you love me. I know you
care about me. I know I'm yours. He also says,
I know you're holy, you're the holy one. There's
no sin or impurity in you. No one can even come
near to your holiness. And he also says, I know
your promises. He says very shortly in there,
he says, we shall not die. That's interesting.
He's probably thinking about, I should have put
it on the screen, I didn't, but 2 Samuel 7 -16,
where there's a promise that Judah would not
end, right? That it would continue. He's saying,
I know we're not going to die. I know you're
not done with us. And he also says, I know you're
the rock. I know you're the most powerful and
mighty. But he also says, here's what I don't
understand. Why would you decide to use them?
Like that's the only people you could choose.
And verse 13 says that thou eyes are so pure
that you can't even look upon evil. I know you're
holy and pure and you hate evil, but yet you
decided to give the wicked more power and give
them the ability to destroy the few remaining
righteous people. Like we're already a dying
breed, Lord. There's not a lot of people who
are serving you. And then you're going to bring
in Babylon and kill all of us that are trying
to serve you. Lord, what are you doing? And then
he doesn't stop there. He keeps going in verses
14 through 17. And make us men as the fishes
of the sea, as the creeping things that have
no ruler over them. They take up all of them
with the angle, and catch them in their net,
and gather them in their drag, therefore they
rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice
them through their net, and burn incense unto
their drag, because by them their portion is
fat, and their meat is plenious. Shall therefore
empty their net, and not spare continually to
slay the nations? Like okay, what is that saying?
What's saying verse 14 is that he make us men
as the fishes of the sea as creeping things He's
saying I'm really feeling like mankind is just
these these lower creatures that they have no
value no rules no boundaries They can just do
whatever they want in verse 15. The Babylonians
are like the fishermen. All right, let's think
of it like this Okay. All right. Where are my
people with pencils? Who's got the pencils remember?
All right, come right up to the to the podium
right here. Okay All right, okay I know it's
going to be nice and awkward. Your goal is to
put the pencil. I'm going to preface this in
a second. I want to be a jerk for a second. So
just be prepared. Ready? We're all like, we know
Miles. This is typical. You see a little hook
here? Your goal, without totally demolishing
the fishing rod. Bill Van Hoose gives this to
you. He's very precious. It's to get it on. You're
like, just do it. Ready? Go. This is kind of
fun. This is good. All right, OK. Let's go here.
OK. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, it's moving. It's moving.
Oh, that, oh, oh, OK. Got it, got it, got it.
I can't move it. It's, like, completely stuck.
All right. Who's got it? Who's got it? You're
like, it's not going on. Is it working? Slowly.
Are you trying to get all three of them on? That's
going to be an impressive. Oh. I think I won.
I don't know what that means. All right. Okay.
See if you see who can tag it first. All right.
See if you can. Eli, you're too fast, man. You're
killing it. All right. Give him a round of applause.
All right. But Eli, stay up with me. Tessa, Aiden.
Good job. Thank you guys. All right. See me after.
Okay. I got some. You can keep the pencil. That's
ours. All right. Eli, stay with me. Okay. All
right. Here's what I want to picture Eli has.
All right. They're saying in verse 14 that the
men are like fish. Like they're just there. What
the Babylonians are doing is they're trying to
tempt and trying to use their fishing rod to
capture these different people. All right, OK,
you're captured. Grab onto this. You've been
captured. OK, ready? All right, and what the
Babylonians would do is they take these lesser
men, and they would use them as fishing rods.
Come on up here. Come here. I'm catching you
as a fish. OK, OK, beautiful. And what they do
is they take them, and then they throw them in
their drag net. You kept saying that word, drag.
What that means is a drag net. And they would
throw them into a net, and they would take them
as captives. And they could do whatever they
want. And what it's saying is the Babylonians
seem like they're unbeatable. We're just these
men down here that are just fish and that mean
nothing. But like Babylonians, they seem like
they have the best fishermen lines, whatever.
And they're just taking all these men and taking
us as prisoners. We're helpless. All right, give
Eli a round of applause too. Thank you, buddy.
Good job. All right. And that's a simple illustration
to illustrate what he's saying here. He's using
metaphor. He's saying the goal of a fisherman
is to catch fish and Judah is the helpless fish
and Babylon are the catchers of the people. They
are the catchers of these captives of these countries.
and what he's actually alluding to is that what
the Babylonians would actually do is when they
would go and conquer a city they would go grab
some of the captives they would go get like a
fish ring and put it in their nose and then they
would grab them and put them on a line and then
they would have them walk together with their
fish hook on a line carrying them away and that's
what Habakkuk is thinking about he's like that's
what the Babylonians do they're treating us like
little fish that they just take And then verse
16, what they're doing is they're not just doing
that, they're sacrificing onto their net and
burn incense onto their drag or their dragnet.
It's saying they're being plenteous and prosperous
and they don't have to sacrifice to you because
they're just sacrificing to their own abilities,
to their own supplies. They seem like they're
always succeeding. And the metaphor, the whole
point of those verses, what it's saying is they're
out here killing us Lord, and you're not doing
anything, actually you are doing something, you're
blessing them and giving them more power. And
Lord, that's not fair, that doesn't make sense.
Habakkuk is clearly frustrated, he's hurting,
he's doubting. And it's not just a national doubt,
or a theological thing, it's spiritual, it's
personal. And where he's at right now, he's in
a series, or he's in a thing that we'll call
in the series, the dip, right? So I have this
guy up here. All right, go ahead and hit me with
it. All right, we have a back kick. OK, everyone
say hi to a back kick. OK, that was good. Thank
you. All right, OK. So in our life, OK, go ahead
and hit me that next one, Logan. All right, before
we're saved, we're going to be this lower x,
OK? Before we're saved, we haven't even begin
to uncover the amazeness that Jesus has for our
lives, right? Before you're saved, you're living
in a hopelessness and a sinful state. And everyone
who's saved says, amen. Before Jesus saved me,
I was nothing and he turned me into something
because he is the someone, right? So I'm seeing
that. Before I was saved, I'm kind of at this
bottom stage. I haven't even started the life
Jesus has for me. but when you get saved what
typically happens because one of the most amazing
things ever is when you get saved you have a
new passion for life go to him with that next
one and you begin to move up your life actually
starts going better you start getting pumped
as you should the savior of the world loves you
and died for you should make you kind of pumped
right you start to have joy and then you start
to realize I actually have a church family too
and I have community and I'm with others and
then I'm reading God's word and it's like jumping
off the page. Like it's telling me exactly what
I need to hear and I'm attending church. I'm
here when the doors open and I'm not only here
but I'm engaged and I'm only engaged. I'm serving
and then what's even more amazing is like I go
to my job in your blessing and then I go to school
in your blessing and in my relationships just
everything's going really well and you see that
very typically when someone first becomes saved.
And we see that in our life and we have these
things that are just ups like it's just awesome
to be a Christian. It's amazing. But there will
be times that will happen and it could be one
really big time or I've seen in my life multiple
different times and ups and downs where you'll
hit a dip. Who was that next one? You'll hit
a dip. You'll have a crisis of faith. Something
will happen. There comes a point for every believer
when it does where something changes. You started
praying and weirdly your prayers aren't being
answered like they were. You're talking to God
but it doesn't seem like he's talking to you.
Your devotional time is becoming less and less
frequent, and you don't really want to do it
anymore. It seems more like a homework assignment.
You're serving, but it's really inconvenient.
Like I'll serve if I get credit for it and people
notice me, but like I'm gonna wake up early.
I don't want to do that. My connections at church
are wavering. I start kind of slipping out. I
leave earlier than I did because I don't have
anyone to talk to. I don't really want to, but
worship becomes kind of like this song again.
Like, okay, yeah, it'll be a glorious day. And
then I go home. And the sermon, you're like,
When will this guy stop talking? It's lunch time.
It's dinner time. Get us out of here. Your passion
begins to wane. So it could be something like
that changes in your spirit. But it could also
be something bad happens. Some really bad thing
occurs. Someone passes away. A relationship is
severed. It changes. Or it becomes an absence
of one. You have job troubles. You're like, everything's
just falling apart around me. You get a sickness.
You just have a lack of motivation. What has
happened is you hit a crisis of faith. You've
hit a dip. And then we respond to the dip in
a few different ways. One of them is denial.
We just kind of ignore the dip and hope it goes
away. We're like, I don't want to admit that
I have problems because I don't know if anyone
else has problems. So I'm just going to try to
ignore it. Or we get angry and we get mad at
God because he's like, why would, like I was
up there. Why would you do this? Like I was serving
you. I didn't even do anything wrong. I wasn't
covered in sin. I've actually been doing better.
And then you just throw me into this dip. Sometimes
we, we can Abandoned everything and just say
I'm done. It didn't work. I tried it. Don't care
time to go What I've also seen Christians do
is they just feel apathetic. It's like I'm just
gonna go through the motions I'm just stuck in
this dip forever. It's like man I really like
that time where it was like exciting to serve
God But I guess I'm supposed to so I guess I'll
keep doing it and what happens is you get further
and further away from your relationship with
God And it seems like you can't avoid it It seems
like there's just this giant pit that you can't
get away from And that's exactly where we see
Habakkuk. He's at this pit. He's in this dip.
He says, what am I supposed to do? Lord, answer
me. And here's his answer. Hit me with it. It's
blank. Blank. It's blank. He didn't say anything.
Look at it. Verse 17 ends. And then we see. Chapter
one chapter two verse one, and we're gonna spend
too much time on this because we pass a coin
next week But we see what he does He says I'll
stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower
and watch to see what he will say unto me What
I shall answer when I am reproved He says all
right, I've asked the question He didn't respond
He didn't respond and I know you know, you're
like looking later on you're like, well, he does
respond later Think about a back it where her
back. It is that he's saying Lord I asked you
a question and you're not responding There's
just an absence. There's just nothing. Just silence
it seems like. Now what Habakkuk really knows
he's supposed to do when the Lord is seemingly
silent, because I never believe the Lord is truly
silent, but what he's really saying to do is,
we have it in our parentheses here, is like there's
a blank here, but what he's telling us to do
is to wait and trust. What he does in verse one
is he waits and trusts that a response will come.
And that's so incredibly relatable for life,
because here's what's not going to happen. You're
not going to get some new divine revelation.
You're not going to have this audible direct
conversation with God like Habakkuk. You might
not even get a direct answer in your life for
why some of the things are happening. And we
can get mad and say, Lord, answer me. Lord, answer
me. I'm asking you. I came to prayer. You told
me to pray. And then I prayed. And then now you're
not answering me. And we can get mad. And really,
like, Maybe maybe I'm the only person in this
room that's feeling that and I don't believe
I am because I've struggled with that You could
I could show you on a calendar what days I struggle
with that where I'm saying Lord answer me and
you're not answering me and I'm kind of demanding
like I'm miles like I'm a youth pastor at Trinity
Lord answer me like do you see how important
I am and There's this quote that I think is really
powerful. It's by Charles Spurgeon. There's a
good way with words He says if we're more humble
we should be more patient. A beggar who is warm
with hunger will wait at the rich man's gate
for many an hour with hope of getting broken
victuals, that's food provisions. But my Lord
who is in no need will soon be gone if the door
does not open to his knock. We have kept the
Lord waiting long enough and we need not wonder
if he tries our faith and patience by apparent
delays. In any case, let us settle this in our
hearts that he must and will fulfill his promises.
What I'm saying is like, if the Lord says wait,
you can't... We don't have the right to be like,
I don't want to do that. I don't want to wait.
Would you do what I say right now? It's like,
no, no, no. He knows better. And we've kept him
waiting a long time in our life, before we were
saved, and even after we're saved. We act like
the Lord doesn't treat us well, and I'm the one
who doesn't treat the Lord well. I'm not saying
to feel bad in the sense of like, oh, you're
right. It's like, no, but he still loves me.
And he still cares about me. He says, wait, you
have no clear answer. Wait, don't try to debate
me. Don't try to act like you know better. Don't
try to change my mind. Don't think I'm obligated
to respond. Wait and trust. And remember, the
Lord is never silent. Maybe we don't hear him
audibly, but he's not silent in his word. I mean,
there are countless times, Christian, where I'm
like, God, you're not talking to me. You know
what I haven't done? I haven't picked this up.
I haven't read it. It's like he gave me a whole
book where he talked to me. And then I have the
audacity to say, Lord, you're not answering my
prayers. Lord, you're not paying attention to
me. It's like I've given you an entire book,
66 of them. Read them. Go to the verses you know.
There's still the truth that works. He's not
silent. He's given you his word. He's giving
you the Holy Spirit. He's given you countless
blessings. And that's why we can do what James
chapter one, verse two says is my brethren, when
you fall, count all the joy when you fall into
diverse temptations, knowing this to the trying
of your faith work with patience. Count it all
joy. There was this story. that I heard of this
lady, Cindy Lipscomb and Jude Bonin. And they
went on this train and they kind of just met
each other and they became fast friends and then
their daughters became fast friends and they
were all so excited about. the life they got
to live together, the new friendships they had.
So they all went to Chicago, and they went to
have this grand time. It was like the New Orleans
and Chicago, whatever that is, right? And they
were really excited about it. And they went,
and they were on a train back from it. They had
a great day. And what ended up happening is Cindy
was in the back of the train, and she was with
her daughters. And they wanted to have a sleepover
with June and her daughters in the front of the
train. So she says, yeah, go ahead. They prayed.
They kissed each other good night. And then she
sent her daughters to be able to go have a sleepover
with them. Sometimes during that night, a steel
train stopped and blocked the entire track. What
would end up happening is, show me the picture,
is that there's this giant, giant collision.
And all these trains together, there was a giant
fireball that happened. And there were over 200
passengers on there. And one of the people that
died was June and her daughters and Cindy's daughters.
And it's just like an absolute travesty. that
June this lady who loved the Lord and like she
had just beat cancer like two months before this
trip so like Lord just delivered her through
all this time of cancer they go on this great
trip they go out to they're sleeping and they
hear this this boom and these giant explosions
And then Cindy, in the back of the train, she's
barely able to get out. She's barely able to
get her daughter out, Ashley, her youngest one,
who is about three. But on Ashley's way of getting
out, a giant train fell on her and snapped her
leg off. And it's just like, Miles, why are you
telling me this? That's gross. I don't need to
know that. No, what I'm saying is, I look at
those situations, and it's like, Lord, why do
you allow bad things to happen? Why would you
allow something like that of people who follow
you, who are not against you, who are faithful
followers, and yet they die? That doesn't make
sense to me And like one potential reason we
say Lord did this is they had this very big funeral
that was televised in Nashville and the gospel
got delivered by Cindy her husband and then June's
husband Like you could say it was a gospel opportunity,
but it's like that's a lot for a gospel opportunity
all these people dying suffering You know, I
don't I can't I I'm standing here. I'm like,
you know what? I don't know why God does things
all the time I would be a bad pastor if I was
like, I know why God does everything. Here's
what I do know, he says. Let's go Romans 11,
verses 33 to 36. To describe God, Paul says,
oh, the depths of the riches, both the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His
judgments and His ways past finding out. For
who hath known the mind of the Lord? Not me.
I haven't. Who hath been His counselor? No, I
don't. I get to tell him what's best. It's not
me. Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall
be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him and
through Him and to Him are all things to whom
be glory forever. Amen. Some people say this
verse like that's a cop -out. You're saying God
just knows everything and we just trust Him and
do whatever. He doesn't have to explain it. It's
like, no, it's not a cop -out. It's the most
incredibly comforting thing ever. That an amazing
God far above us, while I may not understand,
I know my God is above all. And He does understand.
And what baffles me, what doesn't make sense
to me is truly the gospel. The Lord in heaven,
who is so far above everything, saw fit to send
his son to die for me. And he knew my wickedness.
You think the Babylonians are bad. Miles's wickedness
is pretty bad. But Jesus came and Romans 8 .15
says it really well, these few verses. And I'll
summarize them for sake of time. But they're
up there. And what it's saying is that because
of God seeing his son, we first get to be born
again as we're learning about on Sunday. We get
to be adopted as a child. We get to cry, Abba,
Father. We get to be heirs of eternity, the verse
says. And verse 18 says, for I reckon not the
sufferings of this present time are worth to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. The greatest mystery is God's steadfast
love for me and for you. And I call you to believe
if you never have and what Christ has done for
you, because that's the only hope I can offer
you. A God who loves you and sent his son to
die for you. You know, questioning is a part
of our journey. There's crisis of faith situations.
But what I want to do really quick, really quick,
like really quick, is what to do when God doesn't
make sense. There's five quick things or four
quick things, and then we'll be done. Is first,
be real. Number one, you got to be real with
God. Don't fake it. He already knows the real
you. He wants to talk to the real you, not to
fake you. Go to God. Say, Lord, I'm going to
be real with you. And then number two, ask questions.
Like voice your questions. You have questions,
things you're wondering, things you're wrestling,
things you're struggling. And it's time to get
them out of your head and to voice them to say,
Lord, why would you, or why wouldn't you? This
doesn't sit right with me. This doesn't seem
fair. You're not saying, Lord, tell me what you're
doing. It's saying, Lord, I don't understand.
Help me to follow you. And then I need to have
a dialogue with God, start fellowshiping with
him, having time where I'm talking to him. And
they work together of asking questions and dialoguing
with God. That's the first instinct of Habakkuk.
He talks to God. Mean this week you might say
God. I don't understand, but I know you do Help
my doubts. I'm going to you. I'm going to others
godly people in life that can help me as well
and then finally trust the truth I Often don't
understand things, but when you're in a dip when
you're in the heights of heights you need to
hold on to God Be like a bucket don't let go
Because he never let go of you hold on to God
and say he takes perfect perfect perfect care
of you No matter what the storms of life, no
matter if they make sense or not, God does take
care of His children. Let's pray.