Matthew 4, my name is Steve Jeffrey. I'm the senior minister here at St. Paul's.
And as we've been told, we are already moving into a new season and we're looking at the book of
Habakkuk. So if you've got a Bible there with you, it'd be great if you could open up Habakkuk
chapter one, or you can go to the St. Paul's app and open that up and you'll find an outline for
my message, but also the Bible passages there in front of you. As we have said, we, and as you're
fully aware, we are in a, one of those strange and odd seasons. Last Thursday, as I was finalising
this message, there were 3.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections around the world,
of which the death toll at that point was 227,000 people. Now, while today this is not the worst
pandemic or in fact catastrophe that this world has experienced, we know that we are not at the end of
this just yet. We are living through a unique and what many have called an era defining period.
Many of our old certainties are now gone and whatever our view of the world or the, or whatever
our beliefs are, they are being challenged. So, so whether you are a Christian or not, this coronavirus
pandemic is perplexing and unsettling for everyone and we're reaching for answers. How do we begin to
think through and cope with this season that we are in? And while restrictions might be easing,
the pandemic is long from over. In the past, in times of national disaster like this, and especially
in the Western world, people have flocked into churches to pray in, in moments like this. And
such occurrences are fairly rare nowadays. Nowadays, fewer and fewer people in our society have any
God dimension in their lives whatsoever. Since churches all over the world are being closed in
order to limit the spread of this virus, you have to wonder where is God if it's impacting even the so-called
people of God? That is, is he there at all? Is he accessible? Is he self-quarantined? Where or from whom
can we get any solace or hope in a season like this? Now, for many people, the presence of evil,
the presence of suffering in this world is one of the biggest issues for them when it comes to the
existence of God. Some find the unjust suffering and especially the unjust suffering of innocent
people is a philosophical problem that they just can't intellectually get over. For others,
it's, it's, it's not so much an intellectual problem, it's an intensely personal issue for them.
They don't care so much about the abstract question of whether God exists or not.
They just refuse to trust and believe in any God who allows history and life to proceed
as it has for centuries. Now, this little Old Testament book of Habakkuk that we're beginning into
today really deals directly with this issue of suffering and evil because Habakkuk, even centuries
ago, lived in a world very similar to the world in which we live and he asked the sort of questions
that we ask. So if you've got the St. Paul's app there, you'll notice I've got an outline. It'd be
great if you could just launch into that and take some notes as we're going along. Let me just give us
some background information with this little book. It might help us understand a little bit. The very
first verse introduces us to the man Habakkuk. It just says the prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet
received. There's no little bio there outlining his education, his family, his interests. There's not
really much known about him at all, but there is a little bit of a clue about his place in history
when you look down into verse 6. And in verse 6, it appears that the Babylonians were about to
prounce on Israel at any moment. So what that means is that Habakkuk was written sometime around the
period between the rise of the Babylonian empire in 625 BC and their attack on Jerusalem in Israel,
which began in 592 BC. Now Babylon was the world's superpower in its day, although they only held that
position for about 80 years. They were the, if you like, the schoolyard bully who you really did not
want to mess with. They weren't particularly nice people. Habakkuk is written with Babylonians ready
to pounce. And it's a straightforward, it's an interesting, and it's a practical book. And the
structure of it is really easy. The argument, the application is kind of easy to grasp, and yet at the
same time, difficult for our minds and our hearts to come to grips with. So have a look at it with me.
Again, get the St. Paul's app open. And my first point, I want to go through four things this morning,
and let's first of all see what Habakkuk saw. As we kick off, there is something interesting to note
about Habakkuk. He's a prophet of God. We're told that in verse 1. And as a prophet, his job is to be a
messenger of God to God's people. And yet, this is the one prophet who says nothing to God's people at all.
Not a single word. This book is Habakkuk the prophet speaking to God about what God has revealed to him.
Wrestling with God. And Habakkuk's got two complaints to raise with God. In verse 2, he says,
How long, O Lord, must I call for help? And then down in verse 3, he tells us what he saw.
Why do you make me look at injustice? So Habakkuk is surrounded by violence and injustice and carnage and sin.
And in his frustration, he cries out for help. And he asks God to intervene.
And it seems like he gets nothing from God. Habakkuk looks around and he sees the bad guys winning.
He sees the wicked ruling. Now this is Israel he's speaking about. This is historically to God's special people.
And he sees military threats from the outside. He sees corruption on the inside.
These are evil times. And he's wondering why God is silent. Why God's not doing anything about this.
He says to God in verse 2, 3 and 4,
Why aren't you listening to me?
He wants to know why God seems to tolerate the evil.
Why, God, are you absent?
Why have you abandoned us?
In verse 4, he says he can't even find justice amongst God's special people.
He says even the law of God is perverted and the righteous people suffer endless abuse.
That is, the prayers of the righteous are going unheard.
Maybe that's, you're sitting here this morning and that's an experience that you know yourself.
Where you have prayed and prayed and prayed and you've asked God to intervene in a situation.
And yet something, nothing appears to ever happen.
So what do you do about that?
What did Habakkuk do?
That's what he saw.
Now what did he do?
He did two things.
Firstly, he was bold and he was honest.
In verse 3, he says,
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Now that's pretty bold.
That's pretty honest.
He's actually, in actual fact, he's challenging God at that moment.
But if you cast your eyes down to verse 12,
he does something that's even more remarkable.
Have a look at it.
Lord, are you not from everlasting?
In other words, aren't you the infinite God?
The God who's always been.
Aren't you the infinite God?
Now that doesn't seem too remarkable or too confronting when you read it in the English language.
And yet in the original language that Habakkuk was written in, the Hebrew language,
that is a punishing statement.
Habakkuk is saying something like this.
I thought you were infinite.
You're supposed to be the God who's wise and everlasting.
And he's coming so close to saying to God,
you're none of those things.
One Hebrew scholar says of the Hebrew word that is translated in verse 12,
Are you not?
It occurs 96 times in the Old Testament.
And almost every single time,
it is in vigorous human argument.
Nothing could have been more abrupt in Habakkuk's second prayer than the beginning of verse 12.
God is not being approached here with any sense of courtesy and respect.
Which makes the second thing that Habakkuk did quite interesting.
Now we'll see more of this in the coming weeks,
but let me just give us a bit of a glimpse into it here.
On the one hand, Habakkuk is challenging God.
But on the other hand,
he never even hints that it's an option for him to walk away from God.
To stop obeying God.
To stop praying to God.
To stop following God.
Not even an option.
Because Habakkuk is actually praying here.
He comes to God with his anguish.
And as soon as he accuses God in verse 12,
he calls him,
My God.
My Holy One.
He's wrestling safely with God.
Hardly anyone treats God like this.
Hardly anyone does this.
Members of your traditional religious communities would say,
Oh, you know,
you don't speak to God like that.
You don't accuse God.
You don't challenge God.
You don't have doubt.
You don't question.
You don't have doubts.
You see,
they see God as a king.
As a harsh ruler that needs to be appeased.
A God you'd better not say anything negative to.
Or this God may well bring his big stick out and he'll wipe you out.
More modern people have such an enormous confidence.
This is us on the other hand.
Have such an enormous confidence in our human reason and perception.
And we say,
I can't see why God would allow all of this suffering or evil.
So frankly,
I'm just not going to believe him.
And Habakkuk does neither of those things.
He is emotionally and intellectually frank and honest with God.
But he doesn't even think about leaving.
Habakkuk seems to be saying,
If I can't figure out life with you,
how on earth am I going to figure out life without you?
This is unconditional faithful wrestling with God.
So thirdly,
God speaks.
And what does Habakkuk hear from God?
That made him so frank,
so blunt,
to speak to God without courtesy and respect in verse 12.
Habakkuk's first answer to,
sorry,
God's first answer to Habakkuk's first complaint
starts in verse 5.
Have a look at it.
Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed
for I am going to do something in your day
that you would not believe even if you were told.
So God says to Habakkuk,
okay,
I'm going to tell you,
but you're not going to believe it.
You're not going to understand it.
This is what I'm going to do.
Verse 6.
I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
God is going to use the Babylonians
to punish Israel
for their evil and their injustices.
They are powerful.
They are ruthless.
If they want something,
they will plunder,
they will kill in order to get it.
And Habakkuk is horrified.
God's answer to Habakkuk's complaint
about the injustice and the violence
is to bring more injustice and violence.
This is how God is going to work out
his plan of salvation
for his people and for the world.
This is how God is going to deal
with the injustice and the violence,
the sin,
the evil and the carnage.
And Habakkuk goes,
what?
Are you serious?
It makes no sense.
How can you use a wicked nation like Babylon
to punish a more righteous nation like Israel?
Wow.
It's like Hitler being the presiding judge
at the trial of Joseph Stalin.
Makes no sense at all.
What are you doing, God?
In the end,
the Bible is a theology book
that teaches us about God
and the way things actually are.
And we discover God's ways
are not our ways.
God's ways are surprising.
God's ways are often hard for us to work out
because we do not have the mind of God.
You see,
to our finite grasp of reality,
they seem wrong.
Most people in our society
would be a lot more comfortable
with a God who's much more like Oprah
or Dr. Fenn
who dispenses advice
or prefer a God more like a fairy
who waves his wand
and fixes things
the way that we want them to be fixed.
Now, to be fair,
on God here,
he did say to Habakkuk,
if I told you,
you're not going to understand it.
God says to Habakkuk,
and it was,
however,
don't you dare judge me
by your calendars
and your time frames.
Habakkuk knows
that God's promised salvation
to the world
through his people
in the Old Testament.
Habakkuk knows that.
But his people
are just as corrupt,
just as wrong
and as evil
as everyone else.
He wants God
to do something
about his plan of salvation
and God says,
I am.
I'm going to wrap up
the Babylonians
to come on in
to conquer my people,
to take them away
into exile.
And Habakkuk says,
that can't be the plan.
See, Habakkuk can't see
what God can see.
And Habakkuk can't even see
what we can see
with the perspective
of history
from Habakkuk's time.
You see,
if Israel had never been
taken into exile,
then they would never
have eventually spread
throughout the whole
Roman Empire
centuries later.
Wherever they spread,
they built synagogues
for Jews
and synagogues
for God-fearers
these God-fearers
were pagan Gentiles
who got interested
in the God
of the Bible.
And when Christianity
began to spread
through those synagogues
and beyond those synagogues
in the first century,
the most receptive people
in the entire world
to God's message
of salvation
through Christ
were the Gentiles
in those God-fearing
synagogues.
They embraced it
and through them
the message
of salvation
went global.
And the great irony
of all this spread
of the Christian faith
in the early centuries
was that it,
in fact,
made the world
a less violent place.
the influence
of Christianity
changed nations,
changed cultural practices
in such a way
things like
human sacrifice,
infant suicide,
slavery,
gladiator competitions
were stamped out
right across the Roman Empire.
The violence
of the Babylonians,
the Persians,
the Romans,
the Greeks
led to a Christianity
which has made
all nations
less violent.
And Habakkuk
did not see,
could not have known
that perspective
on history
in the same way
that we can't see
what God is doing
right now.
For instance,
even more recent
than Habakkuk,
when the communists
took over China,
they expelled
all of the
Western missionaries.
And the church
in the Western world
assumed
that after
100 years
of Christian
mission work
in China,
the gospel
in China
was over.
At the time,
there was questions,
what is God doing?
What is he doing
abandoning China?
But we now know
with the perspective
of history
that because
the Western missionaries
were kicked out
of China,
the Chinese
made their Christian
faith indigenous
and now
is one of the
fastest growing
Christian movements
in the world.
We don't have
God's perspective
on history
or his time
to bring out
his plans.
So often
we sit back
with our finite
view of history
and life
and we go,
I don't get it.
I don't understand
what you're doing
and so frankly,
I'm not going
to believe in you.
If you've got children,
you will understand this.
Maybe you don't
understand it,
but you've worked out
why a three-year-old
is always screaming
as they tend to
all the time.
It's because
they don't understand
what you're doing.
That's why.
They don't understand
what you're doing.
They want something
to eat
and so they go
and grab something
to eat
and you take it
off them
because it's poison
or because it's
a container of sugar
or it's because
it's the pet guinea pig
and they scream
because they don't
understand why
you've taken it
from them
and you can sit
them down
and you can
explain it to them,
the basis of nutrition,
the danger of poison
or the cruelty
to animals,
to the guinea pig
and they might get
the guinea pig thing
but they're not going
to understand
the poison
and the sugar thing
and you say to them,
you have to trust
me on this
and they go
on screaming.
The distance
between the capability
of the mind
of God
and the mind
of a human being
is infinite.
It's vast.
It's much greater
than the capacity
of a mind
of an adult
and a three-year-old
to grasp reality.
We expect
to understand
everything God
does.
To say that God
has to make sense
to me
in everything
he does
in fact
makes no sense
at all
that statement.
When we say
we don't believe
in God
because of suffering
and evil
makes us worse
than a three-year-old.
At least
they put their trust
even if they
don't understand
in their parents.
If we don't
trust God
with what
he says
even when we
don't understand
it
the consequences
we die.
So have a look
at what this
meant for Habakkuk.
This revelation
meant for Habakkuk
and also for us.
That's what he saw
it's what he did
it's what he heard
finally what it meant
for him
and what it means
for us.
What does it mean
when God says
I'm doing something
here
that you will
not understand?
What does it mean
for God
to bring about
salvation
out of judgment
justice
out of violence
and injustice?
Centuries later
from Habakkuk
the Apostle Paul
one of the
early
adopters
of Christianity
and certainly
one of its
major opponents
in the first century
if not the
major proponents
in the first century
was on his first
missionary journey
in Acts chapter
13
if you've got a Bible
in front of you
flick into Acts
chapter 13
and we arrive
we see here
that the Apostle Paul
arrives at town
into a town
and he does
what he normally
does
he goes into
the synagogue
and his sermon
on this particular
day
is a brief
history
of the Old
Testament
and how
all through
history
God has
been pointing
people to
the person
of Jesus Christ
how all of
history
is heading
in that direction
and especially
the death
and the resurrection
of Jesus
and then he adds
this
in verse 38
of Acts chapter 13
this is the
implications
of what he's
just said
he says
therefore my
brothers
I want you
to know
that through
Jesus
the forgiveness
of sins
is proclaimed
to you
through him
everyone
who believes
is justified
from everything
you could not
be justified
from by the
law of Moses
so what he's
saying there
is if
because of
everything I've
just said
if you put
your trust
in Jesus
Christ
you have
faith in
Jesus
you are
justified
that is
you are
declared
right
before the
God of
the universe
despite any
of your
evil
and
injustices
and violences
and wrongdoing
from the past
that is
there is no
fear in the
future
that the
righteous God
is going to
pour out
his
justice
on you
as he
does here
on his
own
people
Israel
through the
Babylonians
all of our
injustices
against God
and people
are forgiven
and then
what the
apostle Paul
does in
Acts 13
is he quotes
from Habakkuk
chapter 1
verse 5
look at
the nations
and watch
and be
utterly
amazed
for I'm
going to do
something in
your days
that you
would not
believe
even if
you were
told
Paul's
saying
God's
doing it
again
he's doing
something
that you
cannot
grasp
Paul
looks at
Habakkuk
chapter 1
verse 5
when God
says he's
going to
bring
salvation
out of
injustice
and violence
and says
God was
talking
about
Jesus
in that
moment
the thing
that God
said to
Habakkuk
the principle
that God
brings
salvation
through
violence
and injustice
finds its
ultimate
expression
in the
person
of Jesus
Christ
when God
came into
this world
and went
to the
cross
he took
the
judgment
that we
deserve
for our
crimes
against
God
he
experienced
absolute
injustice
he
experienced
the absolute
injustice
he
suffered
he died
at the
hands
of the
unrighteous
why
because
he
is
righteous
because
he
is
holy
Habakkuk
couldn't
understand
why God
put up
with all
the
injustices
and all
if
you're
a holy
God
why do
you put
up with
all the
injustice
and violence
and wrong
and on
the cross
it's
finally
explained
centuries
later
it's
finally
explained
because
God
is
holy
and
just
our
sin
had to
be
paid
for
he
doesn't
just
forget
it
in the
same
way
we
don't
just
forget
it
he
experienced
his
own
justice
on
the
cross
he
paid
our
penalty
he
is
the
ultimate
fulfillment
and
example
of
bringing
salvation
out
of
injustice
justice
and
violence
light
out of
darkness
redemption
out of
suffering
evil
and
difficulty
and the
cross made
no sense
to anyone
as it
often makes
no sense
to anyone
today
no one
could understand
what God
was
what good
he could
bring out
of the
cross
it
didn't
make
sense
and
yet
it
was
the
ultimate
good
and
because
of
it
because
of
the
cross
of
Jesus
Christ
we
can
look
at
our
life
we
can
look
at
evil
times
we
can
look
at
coronaviruses
and
we
don't
understand
what
God
is
doing
and
we
don't
understand
what
God
is
doing
but
we
can
know
that
he's
bringing
salvation
out
of
it
on
the
cross
we
also
have
the
ultimate
Habakkuk
in this
book
is
wrestling
with
God
and
yet
he
is
faithful
Jesus
is
the
ultimate
Habakkuk
in the
garden
of
Gethsemane
on the
night
that
he
is
arrested
just
before
his
execution
and
he
pleads
with
God
in the
garden
of
Gethsemane
if
there's
any
other
way
take
this
cup
from
me
if
there's
any
other
way
to
bring
salvation
out
of
the
injustice
and
the
violence
please
take
it
from
me
and
find
another
way
he
wrestled
with
God's
plan
of
salvation
and
yet
he
submitted
to it
regardless
even
at
great
personal
cost
he
unconditionally
faithfully
wrestled
with
his
father
for
your
sake
and
for
my
sake
for
the
sake
of
the
whole
world
Jesus
was
abandoned
on the
cross
so that
we
might
never
be
abandoned
by
God
even
when
we
might
feel
like
we
are
being
abandoned
by
God
his
promise
to
us
in
Jesus
is
that
he
never
abandons
us
God
is
always
working
he
is
always
doing
things
even
if
we
can't
see
it
even
if
we
don't
understand
it
because
Jesus
stuck
at it
on the
cross
when
the
evil
times
came
upon
him
for
you
and
for
me
when
the
evil
times
come
for
us
when
the
days
of
darkness
come
for
us
we
can
still
say
because
of
Jesus
we
can
still
say
I
know
God
is
working
I
know
God
loves
me
I
know
that
God
has
not
abandoned
me
and
so
I
will
trust
him
I
will
be
faithful
and
I
will
be
patient
and
I
will
live
by
faith
there
is
a
reason
for
everything
that
God
is
doing
we
may
not
know
what
it
is
but
because
of
Jesus
it
will
result
in
redemption
and
salvation
if we
put
our
trust
in
him
and
live
by
faith
in
him
but
there'll
be
more
of
that
next
week
as
Jane
comes
and
opens
up
the
early
parts
of
chapter
two
for
us
bless
you
a
tomb
a
wherein
another
kun
a
piece
at
a
high
and
to
a
good
and