Return to Faith & Joy
Steve McKenzie October 16, 2022

October 16, 2022

GOD, WHERE ARE YOU?

  • Habakkuk, whose name means ’embrace,’ is a lament – a prayer of wounded accusations against God and his loving response to our pain.
  • (Habakkuk 1:2-4) Prays but feels like God doesn’t listen, sees the brokenness and pain in the world but God is inactive, and feels the futility of righteousness.

 

GOD IS PRESENT & WORKING

  • (Habakkuk 1:5-11) God is working in ways that Habakkuk cannot see or fathom. God speaks to Habakkuk’s pain and is working to bring justice against the wrongdoing in Israel.
  • However, the way God is going to deal with Israel is by raising up the Chaldeans (think ISIS).

 

GOD, ARE YOU GOOD?

  • First, Habakkuk thinks God is absent but then as he understands God’s plan he questions God’s goodness. How could God use evil people like “them” to judge “us.”
  • In Habakkuk 2:1 he stands in arrogant defiance against God, demanding an answer.

 

GOD IS GOOD

  • (Habakkuk 2:2) Once again, God is present in Habakkuk’s pain and answers him – yes, God is good. And also he may use evil men for his own purposes this in no way means that God endorses or approves of such evil.
  • Application: (Habakkuk 2:4) The righteous will live by “Faith” – seeing things the way God says there are, not as my eye would see it apart from God’s Word. Dr. Randall Smith calls this ‘God Glasses.’
    • In the difficult and impossible situations of life we need to see things as God says they are and not through lens of human understanding and pain.
  • 5 Woes: (Habakkuk 2:6-19) God is holy, present, and working

 

HOLY, SILENT FEAR

  • (Habakkuk 2:20) The earth is silent in the presence of God
  • The Storm (Habakkuk 3:3-15) Describes God entering the scene in a poetic form by describing a storm rising over the desert region of Israel.
  • Application: (Habakkuk 3:17-18) Though God may take everything and everything that I touch fails – yet my heart will rejoice in God.
    • Joy is the resolute assurance that God is present in my pain and powerful to deal with my problems.

 

APPLICATION

  • In what life circumstance this morning do you need to be reminded that God is present, even in your pain, doubts, and questions?
  • In what life circumstance do you need to be remind that God is working all things out according to his purposes?
  • Put only your glasses of faith and rejoice our God who saves.