My grandmother was one of the healthiest people I have known. Every day, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, she would swim in the cold waters of Long Island Sound. She ate well, she was active, and she was faithful to God, her family, and her friends. She was smart, a voracious reader, and did crossword puzzles every day. In her 80’s she had a hip replacement and came through the surgery well, but had a stroke in the days that followed. Her stroke took away her ability to communicate. She could neither read nor talk. In the days that followed, I asked myself, why God? Why have one of the most active and intelligent women I know, a woman whose life revolves around reading and conversation, why allow her to suffer a stroke that takes away those things she loved the most? Maybe you have asked questions like that.
When I was a pastor in Altoona, I was asked to do a funeral for a 3 year old boy who drowned in a pool when his mother left him for just a moment. Again I found myself asking God why. When you could have done something to change this situation, why didn’t you act? Through the years I have asked God why He didn’t heal innocent and Godly people when the entire church had been praying for them. Why did bad things happen to faithful people and why didn’t God step in more often to help those of his children in need. Maybe you have asked questions like that.
These days we are asking similar questions. If God is all powerful, why do we see innocent children killed in drive-by shootings? Why do we still see injustice and prejudice take away life on our streets? God, why won’t you stop the spread of COVID-19? Why don’t you stop famines, drought, disease and war when we are praying for life and health and peace?
If you have ever asked these kinds of questions, you need to know that you are not alone. If you are asking these kinds of questions today, then I hope you will join us for the next few weeks as we learn some deep spiritual truths from a man who asked these same questions 600 years before Jesus.
His name was Habakkuk, some say Ha-bak-kuk, and others say Hab-a-kuk, but however you say it, his message is timely.
The book of Habakkuk is found at the end of the Old Testament in a section called the Minor Prophets. They are not minor because their message is not important, it’s just that their writings are not long. Most of these prophets wrote during a time when the people of Israel were experiencing corruption and injustice internally, and oppression and persecution externally. The people of God had drifted far from the life God had for them, and the nation of Israel and Judah were being attacked by enemies from both the north and south. It was a confusing and chaotic time for God’s people.
What’s important to know about the work of these prophets, and really all the prophets we find in the Bible, is that they were not people who would predict the future, they simply spoke God’s message to His people with power and authority. When the prophets spoke they usually said something like, Thus saith the Lord…. And then they would give God’s message.
Habakkuk, however, was different. Habakkuk didn't speak God’s word to the people, he spoke the people’s words to God. Habakkuk said to God all the things that the people in those days wanted to say, and in many ways he speaks for us today.
Habakkuk 1:2-4
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
There is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk is asking God why He has not answered the cry of his people. If God is good, why does He allow wrongdoing and evil? If God is just, why does He tolerate injustice? If God cares about and wants peace, why is there so much violence? Either God doesn’t care, or God isn’t fair. These are the questions that Habakkuk is asking.
And these are the questions we are asking.
● God, don’t you care that I’m in danger of losing my job and won’t be able to provide for my family?
● God, it’s not fair that I have done everything possible to take care of myself physically and now I am having to undergo all these tests to find out what is wrong with me.
● God, I have been faithful in my marriage and I have given my spouse so much, I don’t understand why they are leaving.
● God, where are you when we see injustice, protests, division, and violence in our nation?
The questions Habakkuk asked so many years ago are the questions we are still asking today, which leads us to perhaps the single most important lesson to learn from the book of Habakkuk:
It is always OK to ask God questions.
That Habakkuk’s words are included in the Bible shows us that God is ok with us asking difficult questions. When we are wondering where God is, or what God is doing, or if God is still with us and still loves us, it is always ok to be honest and ask Him. When my grandmother got sick, I asked God why. When I wrestled with what I was doing with my life, I asked God where He was and where He wanted me to go. When I have had to watch faithful people suffer and innocent children die, I have said to God that it just doesn’t seem fair. God, why did you not step out to help people more often?
The power of Habakkuk’s words being part of the scriptures is that it shows us that it is always ok to question God. It is always ok to cry out to God. God is big enough and strong enough to handle our questions. God is patient enough to deal with our uncertainty, and loving enough to endure our wavering faith. It is always ok to ask God questions. In fact, God would rather us question him than turn away from him. God would rather us yell at him than walk away in silence never to return.
One third of the psalms are laments, or cries to God asking him where he is, and why He hasn’t done anything, and when He will help. I’m not sure where the idea came from that we can’t question God because the Bible is full of people who questioned God. Jesus, in a moment of pain questioned God. From the cross Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Where are you? This isn’t fair? Have you forgotten me? Have you stopped loving me? Why God? Why? When we think that we can’t question God, our questions will drive us away, but when we know it is ok to question God, those questions can draw us closer.
Habakkuk asked God questions, and God answered, but the answers actually created more questions.
Habakkuk 1:5-6.
Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.
What God is saying here is that in response to the injustice that Habakkuk sees among God’s people, God is going to raise up their enemy to sweep over them. God is going to use even more evil people to pass judgement on evil people. Well this doesn’t seem fair? In fact, this makes no sense at all. This raises more questions for Habakkuk but instead of turning away, Habakkuk turns toward God.
Habakkuk turned toward God and did two things, he embraced God and wrestled with God. The name Habakkuk means to embrace and to wrestle, and if you think about it, to wrestle someone you have to embrace them, you have to be willing to get close and hold on to them. And that is exactly what Habakkuk did. He embraced God and he continued to ask questions and wrestle with God.
Habakkuk 1:12-13
Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
Habakkuk embraced God by affirming God’s greatness. God is the Holy One who is from everlasting to everlasting. God is the rock on which all things have been set. Habakkuk embraces the goodness of God’s character, but then he honestly wrestles with God’s decisions. Why do you tolerate evil? Why are you going to use those who are evil to swallow up those who are good?
Habakkuk’s response to God leads us to the second big idea we need to learn from Habakkuk, don’t let your doubts drive you from God, let them draw you closer to God. We can’t allow the problems and fears and questions we have to push us from God when they can actually be the means by which God can pull us closer. When children come to us with questions or problems or fears, do we push them away or pick them up and embrace them? We embrace them. We may not be able to answer their questions, or remove their fear, and our response might not make them happy, but we can hold them tight while they struggle.
God wants to hold us tight as we struggle. God wants to embrace us as we wrestle. The answers we are looking for might not come today. The problems might not be resolved tomorrow, or next week, and we might not like the answers at all, but God will always be there for us and we can always be honest about our doubts and fears and questions. In fact, it can be those very questions and doubts and fears that can deepen our faith.
James 1:2-4. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Questions, doubts, fears, and frustration aren’t joyful or fun times to go through and they have the potential to drive us away from God, but they can also be the very tools by which God will help us deepen our faith and trust. It is always OK to question God and we need to allow those questions to draw us closer to God. Let me end with this quote from Craig Groeschel who wrote a book about the message of Habakkuk called, Hope in the Dark.
What if honestly acknowledging your doubts is the first step toward building a deeper faith? What if embracing your secret questions opens the door for a maturing knowledge of God’s character? What if becoming closer to God, developing genuine intimacy with him, requires you to bear that which feels unbearable? To hear him through an ominous utterance, to trust him in the moment of doom, to embrace his strength when you’re weak with a burden? What if it takes real pain to experience deep and abiding hope?
This is where many of us are today. We are asking questions. We are wondering where God is, and what God is doing. Things don’t seem right, or fair, and while we keep on praying - things seem to just get worse. We can turn away from God or we can literally be Habakkuk and turn toward God. We can wrestle and ask questions, and as we do we can embrace God and find in him hope in the dark.
Next Steps
Hope In The Dark
Why can it feel uncomfortable to question God?
How do you think questioning God can strengthen your faith?
Read Habakkuk Chapter 1.
Describe a time when you found yourself wrestling with God.
During a time that was (or is) difficult, how did you (or do you)
continue to embrace God in the middle of the trial?
Who do you have around you to pray with you and support
you? How can they be praying for you right now?
Be bold and pray with power:
“God, yes, we have questions for You, but we also embrace You. Help us, Father, to overcome the pain, doubt, and unbelief we’re facing. We are choosing to trust You. We are choosing to accept the hope You’ve given us through Jesus. We love You. Amen.”
Identify some things you might need to wrestle with God over so you can embrace His love for you. What questions, doubts, and disappointments do you need to share with God?
Ask someone to pray and stand with you as you let your pain,
doubts, and difficulties drive you to God.
One third of the Psalms are cries to God. Read some of these this week:
Psalms 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 36, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44.
