When God Does Nothing

So chapter one, the book of Habakkuk. Oh, Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear, or cry to you violence and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise. So the law is paralysed, and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted. The Lord answers Habakkuk's complaint in this way. Lord, look among the nations and see, wonder, and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

They are dreaded and fearsome. Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar.

They fly like an eagle to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings, they scoff, and at rulers, they laugh. They laugh at every fortress for they pile up earth and take it.

Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men whose own might is their god. Are you not from everlasting, oh Lord, my God, my holy one? We shall not die. Oh Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, oh rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you look idly at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook and drags them out with his net. He gathers them in his dragnet, so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore, he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet, for by them, he lives in luxury and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever.

It would be possible to go to church just like this Sunday after Sunday, and then maybe for many decades never ever hear a sermon from the book of Habakkuk. It's one of the shortest books in the Old Testament, just three chapters, potentially three sermons. And here's the reason why we're going through it. Let me show you almost immediately why this book is so relevant to us and why we're looking at Habakkuk at the beginning of a new year. We're looking at this little book of Habakkuk because it's going to teach us how to handle evil times.

Whether those evil times are in the society in which we live and work in, or whether those evil times come to us throughout the world and the nations of the world, or even if those evil times are within the ranks of our own family, our own personal evil times. Before we delve into that, however, a little context. Habakkuk, a minor prophet towards the end of the Old Testament, before the time of exile into Babylon. Habakkuk was called to minister to Israel, and it was a difficult time. It was a time of tension in the nation.

There were rumours of an invasion, a potential war, a real threat to her borders. You see, there was a growing world superpower, an emerging superpower. The ESV translates it as the Chaldeans. We might know it better as the Babylonians, the Babylonian Empire. And it was a nation about to conquer the people and lands of the world for themselves.

In this chapter, Habakkuk details what he saw, what he did, what he heard from God, and what it meant. And there are our four points this morning. What he saw, what he did, what he heard, and what it meant. And then, actually, that will help us move into the celebration of the Lord's Supper. As you can see, it has been prepared for us this morning.

First up, what did he see? Verse three answers that question. Why do you make me look at injustice? And what he's saying is he, why have you put me in a position where all I see around me is evil, sorrow, and grief? The reason for this happening is, as he says, the law is paralysed and justice never prevails.

And therefore, what you're left with in society is evil times. This evil is identified as evil coming from within Israel's borders. Habakkuk sees that. He sees it clearly. But he also suffers the reality that God seems to be doing nothing about it.

He says in verses two, three, and four, Lord, why are you not listening to me? Why do you do nothing? Why do you tolerate this? Why are you absent? Why have you abandoned us?

Now the reason to be bringing this up now is because you might be thinking that last year, you had a relatively good year or a relatively bad year, but I mean, everyone's looking forward to a better year this year, 2025. I mean, things are on the up and up, are they not? Essentially, we all make the assumption that our lives are going to get better. Even one, five, or ten years from now, we'll be better off. That our children's lives will be better than our own lives.

That our investments will potentially go up. That the value of our homes will increase. And that basically things will get better and better. You might have had a bad year last year, but maybe you've turned a corner, and 2025 will be a better year. But if we're honest this morning, we need to face reality and recognise life is not like that.

Think of the last century, the twentieth century. Two world wars. After World War One and the Great Depression. Only last week, we've been reminded of the Holocaust, the eightieth anniversary commemorations that took place in Poland. Six million Jews were sent to the gas chambers.

And by the end of the nineteen forties, people were starving to death. Thousands of people were starving in Europe. During that time, nobody believed things were going to get better. It's the reason my parents, and maybe yours too, left Europe at that time to go to a new country in pursuit of a better life here in Australia. Now where are we today?

Is this still our expectation? Certainly, it would be too soon to panic, but on the other hand, it would be silly for us to bury our head in the sand. Economically, financially speaking, and leading up to the federal election, are you able to make sense of what the federal treasurer has been trying to tell us about the economy? Can you work out where the Reserve Bank is going with interest rates anytime soon? And how is it possible that in our country, what happens between Palestine and Israel on the other side of the world affects us here?

The threat of anti-Semitism has never been more real. Legally and morally, we're facing the greatest possible threat to the stability and the foundation of our own society. For at the very heart of our society is marriage, the institution of marriage, and the family. And quite frankly, it's under attack. Ever since the nineteen seventies, we've had no-fault divorce.

As recent as 2017, the definition of marriage has been changed to include same-sex couples. At the same time, incidents of domestic violence remains a scourge on our society and continues to torment. The number of single-parent families in our society increases as a result. And it's because both husband and wife need to go out to work to pay the mortgage that the children are outsourced, left in day-care centres. That has become the norm.

Now on the one hand, it would be too foolish to panic, but on the other hand, it would be foolish to think that in a year or two, good times are here to stay. Why? Because we quite frankly think good times are normal, as if somehow we were entitled to them. But that's not just true. For all I know, you might be staring into evil times already.

I want to ask us all the question this morning, are you ready? And Habakkuk is going to help us. Maybe I'm getting the book of Habakkuk out a little early. Maybe we like to think things are not as bad as they possibly could be. But I don't know that you ever can't deal with this too soon, and we all need to be prepared.

So what Habakkuk saw was evil. Evil times, bad days coming. Secondly, what did he do? How did he respond? Well, to understand what he did, you need to see that he did two things.

On the one hand, he was bold and honest. In fact, verse three is where he says, why, Lord, do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? And that's bold. That's being brutally honest with God.

He's challenging God. But in verse 12, he actually says something that's even more remarkable. O Lord, are you not from everlasting to everlasting? Which means infinite, no beginning, no end. Are you not infinite God?

It's a rhetorical question and rhetorical questions don't require an answer. And commentators agree that we should be almost reading that line as a sarcastic comment from Habakkuk. Essentially, he was saying something like this. You're supposed to be this great God over all of Israel. Infinite, wise, everlasting, but you are not.

Habakkuk's very close to saying that. In fact, there's nothing quite like this in the whole of scripture. God is not being approached with honour and respect. Habakkuk, you see, is in absolute anguish. He's a tormented soul, and you know why.

Because in the verses we've already looked at, Habakkuk's saying, God, why are you letting injustice reign supreme? Consider my world. Consider my country. You're supposed to bring salvation to all the nations through Israel into this world. But look at this world.

It's corrupt. It's a mess. Come on, God. Do something. Bring it on.

Well, God does bring it on, and He answers Habakkuk's complaint in the verses five through to 11. And here is what God says in a nutshell. I'm raising up the mighty Babylonian empire. I'm raising up the most ruthless and bloodthirsty people that the world has ever seen, and they're going to sweep across the world. They're going to crush and conquer lands, countries, and nations.

And Habakkuk says, you call that an answer? I just complained. And your answer is, wait until you see I'm going to send even more evil, more injustice, more violence, and more oppression. Habakkuk, you see, at this point is very close to saying to God, are you nuts? Are you crazy?

In a manner of speaking, he's lost it. He's over the top. He hasn't thought through who he's actually talking to. He's talking to God. But he is bold.

He's emotionally and intellectually realistic. He's wrestling. He's bold. He's honest, and he's challenging God. That's the first thing he does.

And you know the other thing he does? It's a little easier to see as the book goes on. You'll see it especially next time we look at this in chapter two where he says, now I'll wait to see what God says to me. I will look to see what He says to me. Here's what we realise.

On the one hand, Habakkuk is challenging God. He's asking questions. He's obviously struggling with the state of his nation and the world. But on the other hand, he never even hints. The thought never ever enters his head that he has an option to walk away from God, to stop obeying God, to stop praying to God, to stop following God.

It's not even an option, and you know why. Did you notice how he's dealing with his complaint? He's not blogging about it on the Internet. He's not posting it there on Facebook. He's not even talking it over with coffee with his friends.

Habakkuk is actually praying. This is a prayer. In verse 12, my God, my holy one. He identifies the one who will cop the barrage of his complaining. He's wrestling faithfully as he challenges God.

I've been talking to people about God for many years. It used to be my full-time job as a pastor. And I've seen how people treat God, but almost nobody treats God quite like this. On the one hand, you've got people in traditional churches who say, you don't question God. Just don't go there.

You don't speak to God like that. You don't ask questions like that to God. What's important in our church is just doing everything right, making things right. On the other hand, modern people and especially younger people have this enormous confidence in human reason and perception. And so they say, I don't see how God can bring anything good out of this mess.

I don't see why God allows suffering and evil in the world today. And therefore, I'm not going to believe in Him. I don't need this. I'm out of here. Now Habakkuk is neither one of those two extremes.

Do you see? On the one hand, he's so honest, much more honest than traditional religion, not feeling like he has to bow and scrape before God and say all the right things. On the other hand, he would never think of leaving, not in a million years. He cries out, my God, my holy one, in verse 12. And in so doing, he's declaring loyalty, devotion, even dependence on God.

He's saying, where else would I go? You have the words of eternal life. That's the reason I'm so upset. This is so important. I hope you get that.

What we have here is unconditional faithful wrestling with God. Unconditional faithful wrestling with God. And I have to say that over the years, meeting that kind of a person who's prepared to engage with God that way is very, very rare. And you know why? Because it takes gospel grace, the good news of Jesus for a person to wrestle with God like that.

There are a couple of places in the Psalms, like Psalm 88 and Psalm 39. There are places in Job and in the book of Jeremiah that are just about as strong as what Habakkuk is saying here, where the psalmist will say, why are the heavens closed? Literally, he's shaking his fist at God. And these people are really, really upset. They're angry.

They're confused. And Habakkuk is too. Should we all be praying to God like that? Well, no. I never taught my children to pray to God like that when they were little.

Well, then what are these kinds of prayers in the Bible for? God wants to know our hearts. He wants to know how we speak when we're desperate for Him. So He listens, He hears, He inclines His ear towards us, says the psalmist. He reassures us He is our God, and it's all because of His grace.

Here's what God is saying. I remain their God not because they put on a happy face, because they don't. Not because they have emotional self-control, because they don't. Not because they're doing everything just right, because they're not.

I remain their God because of My grace. Because My relationship with them is not based on their performance. Because of My unconditional covenant love, because of the covenant of grace, My love for them will never fail. And if you know that grace of God in your own life, then that's what makes you an unconditional faithful wrestler. You know you can ask God for anything.

You know your salvation is not based on doing everything right or saying everything right. And you know there's no place except with God that you can possibly make it in life, and therefore you never leave. So that's how you deal with evil times. Look towards God and His grace in your life. He makes you into an unconditional faithful wrestler.

That's what Habakkuk's doing. It's what he saw and what he did to face evil times. Now thirdly, what did he hear? And what he heard was God's first answer, basically verses five and six. Two things God says, I'm going to do something in your day that you would not believe even if you were told.

In other words, Habakkuk, you're not going to get it. You're not going to understand. And then in the next breath, I'm raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless, impetuous people, unthinking, hot-headed, who sweep across the whole earth. Habakkuk, you're not going to understand it. But Habakkuk prays, God, come on.

Do something. And God says, I am doing something. I'm going to raise up the Babylonians, and they're going to crush you and take you out completely, eventually in exile, in captivity. And Habakkuk says, you call that an answer? We look at a new year, and we don't get a lot of perspective, do we?

Most forecasts for our country won't go beyond an election date that our prime minister still has to set when new policies and new funding for new programs will be released. We just don't have perspective, do we? Some of you have five-year-old children. And even if you don't, we were all five years old once. And you know why they're always screaming, carrying on?

Because they don't understand what you're doing. You know they want something to eat, so they reach out for it. And you know it's poison or it's got way too much sugar. And they reach out for something, so you take it away from them. And they scream.

Why? Well, they don't understand. You can sit them down and try to explain it to them, and you say, okay, little Johnny, let me tell you about the basics of a good nutritional diet. Or, you know, Johnny, there are going to be consequences if you have too much sugar. And you know full well that a five-year-old is just not going to get it.

So eventually, what you have to say is something like, Johnny, you have to trust me. And then about five minutes later, you have to say, shut up. You're not getting it. If you don't trust me, oh child, though you can't possibly understand why I'm doing many of the things that I do, you are going to die or at the very least become sick. Now consider this.

The distance between our mind and God's mind is vastly, infinitely greater than the distance between the mind of a five-year-old and a parent's mind. And you expect to understand everything that God does, to say that, to hold that view makes no sense at all. For any one of us to say that I've got to understand God, it makes no sense. What He's doing makes no sense. If you say you've got to understand God, then you're worse than a five-year-old.

Because most likely, five-year-olds, at the end of the day, do trust their parents. But pardon me for saying this. You are less mature than a five-year-old if you don't trust God, if you walk away from God. If you don't trust God, even though sometimes what He says doesn't make any sense, then for sure you are going to die spiritually, maybe even physically. Trust and obey.

I know it's a cliche, but if you walk with the Lord, that is what you do. You trust and obey even as a little child trusts a parent. Now lastly and fourthly, what did all this mean? And how's it going to help us celebrate Lord's Supper this morning? When God said, I'm going to do something that you would not believe even if you were told, what was Habakkuk to make of that?

And what will you make of that if God tells you something that you don't believe even if you're told it? Years later, the apostle Paul in Acts 13:41 makes this amazing statement. He's talking to Israel. He's talking to Jews in a synagogue, and he's talking about the gospel. He's talking about Jesus.

And he says, God raised Jesus from the dead, and therefore, I want you to know that through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through Him, everyone who believes is justified. And then Paul adds this line, take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you. Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I'm going to do something in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you. What's going on?

Paul's looking at Habakkuk. He introduces a principle here, a truth, a doctrine about God's sovereignty. God declares that I'm going to bring salvation out of judgment. I'm going to bring salvation, redemption, and justice out of injustice and violence. Paul says, God was talking about Jesus.

You and I say, no. Wait a minute. He was talking about the Babylonians. What do Jesus and the Babylonians have in common? What Paul is saying here is the thing that God was saying to Habakkuk, that principle that I bring light out of darkness, that I bring redemption and justice out of injustice, evil, and suffering, that principle finds its ultimate fulfilment in Jesus.

I'm doing something out there in the nations that you will not believe. I know you don't understand it, but that's what I'm doing. Now consider Jesus for a moment. Jesus Christ experienced absolute injustice. He experienced violence.

He experienced shame. He experienced the ultimate evil when God turned His face away. Habakkuk says, I don't understand how you, God, can put up with injustice because of the fact that you are holy. You are righteous. But on the cross, Habakkuk, look at the one who hangs on the cross.

Look at all those who wrestle with God today on the cross because the one who hung there is holy. He's righteous. He can't just forgive sins. Sin has to be paid for. The debt has to be cleared.

And because of what we have done to Him and to each other, the price has to be paid and judgment has to be experienced on the cross. He paid our penalty. He took judgment on Himself. And so out of some of the worst evil the world has ever known, God brings salvation. There were people standing there at the foot of the cross thinking, I can't see what good God will ever bring out of this.

I don't understand this. But we believe, don't we? Because it was the ultimate good. Question for all of us this morning before we partake of the Lord's Supper together. Is that the picture we have in the Lord's Supper?

A perspective on evil and injustice that Habakkuk could never have. Will you be reminded of that when you handle broken pieces of bread? When you see wine poured out? Signs and seals to us from God of violence and oppression, of injustice leading to destruction, having their way with Jesus. His body broken, His blood poured out.

And now we must look at our lives, and we have to deal with evil times and say, I don't understand what God could possibly be doing here. But hey, stop right there. Look at the cross. Remember Jesus. Think of Him as you have Lord's Supper with us this morning.

Like Habakkuk, maybe it's time for all of us to do some unconditional faithful wrestling with God. Habakkuk is asking, where are you, God? Come on, God. Do something about evil. And He has.

Amen. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, teach us what it means to deal with evil times, we pray, whether they are personal, within our family, or our society, or even global. No matter where the bad times are, help us, we pray, to deal with that more and more so with integrity, knowing who Jesus is. Help us to look to Jesus and remember how out of the greatest evil and injustice the world has ever seen that You brought forth our salvation, that You've given us life and even life eternal.

Lord, we have nowhere else to go, so hear us when we pray. Amen.