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Know we're currently busy with our series in the book of
Habakkuk under the subject to under the theme A nation under
God's judgement, A nation under God's judgement, Habakkuk
chapter 1 Amen. Please feel free to go to your
contents page and then look at where you can find Habakkuk
because it might take you a whole hour to get there.
Amen. I once preached from the book of
Obadiah and someone says, I never realized you have a book
called the Book of Abadiah in the Bible.
So it's one of those books that we really people don't read as
much. So Habakkuk chapter 1.
And we read last week from verse 5 to verse 11.
And so this morning let us quickly read from verse 12.
Are you not from everlasting? O Lord, my God, my holy one, we
shall not die. Oh Lord, you have ordained them
as a judgment, and you, O rock, have established them for
reproof. You who are of pure eyes than to
see evil and cannot look it wrong, why do you ideally look
at traitors? To remain silent when the wicked
swallows up the 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. He drags them out with his net,
and he gathers them in his dragnet.
So he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his
net and makes offering to his dragnet.
For by them he leaves in luxury, and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly,
mercilessly killing nations forever?
I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the
tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I
will answer concerning my complaint.
Take away to Pam Guba in Dulin and Dabba's back corner is with
our comedy calling me Gonna Pagadi Tetanathan Gallu Take
away to XNNG come, oh God, and dwell among us this morning
through the proclamation, the teaching and the preaching of
your word this morning, Oh God, we echoed the words of the
psalmist that oh, how much we love your law, for your law is
sweeter than honey. And so, Lord, we pray that come
and speak to us this morning for the right of Hebrews.
Oh, God declares that your word is sharper than a double edged
sword. Therefore release it among us
this morning. Therefore, that I pray that let
the Saints be edified this morning and you be glorified in
our midst. We ask this in your name, Amen.
So the title of this message this morning is The Mystery of
God's Ways. The interrogative statement for
this message today is how should you respond when we cannot make
sense of what God is doing? And we will look at that under 2
points this morning. I'm sure they'll probably be up
on the screen. And for those of you perhaps who
weren't here last week, and perhaps just a recap for those
who were here last week, because I think for us to understand
these verses from verse 12 to verse 17 and chapter 2 of verse
one, again, we need to be reminded of the context.
Indeed, Habakuk is not a easy book to understand.
But when we understand the context, it becomes a little bit
easy to unlock the the, the message that Habakuk wants to
bring to us this morning. And So what is the situation
that is confronting the prophet? As we have said last week, that
this is a lament that Haba Google sees Israel or the nation
of Judah, the southern nation of Judah has backslidden.
The people of God have moved away from God.
So we see wickedness, immortal decay, we see violence, and we
see injustice. Judah at this time is in the
brink of invasion. The economy is collapsing, there
is lawlessness and there is political chaos.
But more importantly so, the law of God is paralyzed that the
people of God have neglected the Torah.
Religion has become nationalistic as well as
ritualistic. In other words, there is no
longer true worship from Judah. Judah is no longer worshipping
in truth nor worshipping in spirit.
The situation is worse that as you read the book of Habakkuk,
you'll find that good man with silence and evil man had the
stage and is the complaints. In Habakkuk chapter one verse
one to four, you can see more clearly that those were supposed
to uphold the law of God, ignored the law of God
altogether. The guilty was set free and the
innocent was punished to such an extent that in Judah at this
time, the judges would ignore the crimes of the powerful and
the connected, and in fact they would punish the innocent.
It gets worse, Judah. At this point in time, the kings
themselves. In fact, if you study the
history of Abu, you'll find that the king that was leading at
this point in time was an evil king to such an extent that they
would offer, they'd offer sacrifices to Molech and burn
their own children towards that God.
It is a situation where godly worship is twisted.
Good voices have been silenced. We see the people of God have
rebelled against God. They have become wicked before
God. And in this situation, God
raises up a prophet because his own people have become so
wicked. He raises up a prophet to speak
on his behalf. Because a prophet is the mouth
of God to God's people. He is going to speak a message
of God. But Habakkuk himself is going to
struggle with what God is going to say to him.
Hence his name means an embracer because Habakug is going to have
to embrace the burden for Judah, but also he's going to embrace
his own strong faith towards Yahweh.
He's going to wrestle with theological questions because
God is going to rock his theological world because he is
living under the nation and he is living under God's judgment.
Habakug is wrestling with the fact that how can a good God act
in a way in which he's going to act?
As we're going to see now, he is struggling to reconcile the
goodness of God, the character of God, the nature of God, with
the reality that he sees right in front of him.
So chapters 1 and chapter 2, it is Habaggook's dialogue with
God, a conversation with God, a prayer to God, and God answers
Habaggook. And as we as we would see in
chapter 3, when God answers Habakkuk, Habakkuk worships.
He prays and worships and writes a poem.
And in this poem we read in chapter 3 that ought to be
played with an instrument. So chapter 1 and chapter 2,
Habakkuk is frustrated. In chapter 3 Habakkuk is filled
with faith for what God is doing and so having that background as
we look at the the verses from verse 12 to verse 17 and chapter
2 verse one church, we first ought to be reminded that the
manner in which Christians face trials sometimes is quite
different from the non Christian world.
Often we don't see things from the way the world see things.
We also have to see things from a God perspective and for us to
see things from the God perspective, we must have an
understanding of the character of God and who God is.
And so as we read Ephesians one, verse 11, it says this God is
working all things after the counsel of his will.
God determines history. God knows history.
God controls everything. In other words, there is nothing
in this world that takes God by surprise.
No matter how good, no matter how bad, God is never surprise.
We can never plan a surprise party for God because He knows
all things. God is all wise.
God sees far and in Habakkuk in chapter 12, you can see the
words that he is using there. In fact, you could just preach
on verse 12 here alone because verse 12 is loaded.
There's so much to say in verse 12 as you can see that God who
is everlasting, God, who is all knowing God's sovereignty is
never connect, is never disconnected from his character.
God remains good. God is all wise.
As I've said, He never acts in a way that is contrary to his
nature and his character. Unlike the God of the Chaldeans.
Habakkuk reminds us that God, he is from eternity.
From eternity, His throne is above the world and he is above
time and outside of time. And so God, we must be reminded
that God is supreme and sovereign.
And so even as ABBA book is battling and struggling with
questions, but he must still think about the very character
of who God is. Theology proper is very
important to understand the very nature of who God is.
Ecclesiastes 311 says can we cannot find out what God has
done from the beginning to the end.
Romans 1133, God's judgment are unsearchable and his ways
incomprehensible. To whom are they
incomprehensible to us? And so that is why Habakkuk is
battling because he can't understand what God is doing and
why is God doing what he is doing?
If God is holy, how does he use evil and sin towards his own
people? Habakkuk is battling with this.
He knows that these people are violent.
The the, the, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians are violent and they
are coming for the people of God to bring God's discipline to
them. And Habakkuk is battling because
he's battling with the fact that God, you have chosen us.
We are the children of Abraham. You are the one who have set us
apart. Why then would you use these
people to discipline us? Not as Habaguk says we shall not
die as he gives himself hope. But God had told him before.
Listen, Habagu is going to be bad man.
He's going to be bad. I am not sending a weak army to
deal with you. I am sending a strong, a
violent, a hasty army to come and deal with you.
They're going to wipe you out. Me.
I'm sending them and God is saying I am sending them because
they are going to be my reproof, my discipline, my judgment to my
people. We must never forget that God
does discipline His own people is throughout Scripture.
You can see it from Adam and Eve.
You can see it from David's life.
You can see it from Jonah and many other people.
God does discipline his people. Job 517 says blessed is the man
who God corrects. God does discipline.
In fact, God's discipline is a blessing for the church.
Why? Because the discipline of God
purifies the church. God disciplines us for our good
so that we may share in His Holiness.
Now, is God's discipline easy? No, God's discipline is hard.
Listen to what Hebrews 12 verse 11 says.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful later on.
However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and pit for
those who have been trained by it.
Discipline can be distasteful, it can be hard, but it is meant
to be corrective. God does discipline His own
people. It's not just a New Testament
thing, even Old Testament, but also we sit in the New Testament
where God disciplines His people to bring them into a new
direction, to change in their sinful attitudes, their actions,
their thoughts. God uses that, Puritan Stephen
Channock writes. We often learn more of God under
the road that strike us than under the staff that comforts
us. God disciplines those he loves.
Now think of yourself as a parent.
Imagine a parent who never disciplines their children.
That's not a good parent. But also we must remember that
children at times don't like to be disciplined.
You know, they'll throw toys at times, but they don't like
discipline. But the parent still needs to
discipline. And the child might even say,
Dad, I hate you, mum, I hate you.
But the parent still needs to to discipline.
Why? For the good of that child.
That's how God does it at times. When we say, God, why are you
doing this? And God said it's for your own
good that I'm actually disciplining you.
But I also want you to to note this and so that we are careful.
It does not mean when we go through difficult time in our
lives that God is disciplining us all the time.
OK, We must note that in Job, the Bible says he was an upright
man. He was a blameless man, and yet
he suffered. He didn't do anything.
So sometimes difficulty and suffering does not mean we've
actually done anything wrong. That's why even God rebukes one
of Job's friends by the times. God does use discipline to bring
us into the right path. And so Habakkuk is battling his
saying to God, I know the discipline is coming and the
discipline is going to be so he's saying God, but your eyes
are too pure to look at evil. In other words, God, why would
you use evil to discipline your righteous people while in verse
13 it says why do you either look at traitors and remain
silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than
he, Lee and and Ryan can come forward.
I just want to quickly illustrate this and come
forward, please. So here's the OK, we'll make you
have a cook today. That's fine.
Sorry man, you, you the bad guys.
OK, so so if we pretend this is have a cook and this is the the
Chaldeans, this is Babylonians and Habakkuk in chapter in in
verse 13, he is battling with a dilemma.
God, he is saying we have sinned against you.
We know that we've sinned, but we are much better than these
guys. These guys are violent.
These guys worship pagans. They worship, they worship false
gods. They don't know true worship.
At least we are your own people. Therefore why would you use the
worst people to discipline those who are at least OK?
Like why? We can sit down guys.
Thank you. So he, he is battling with the
character of God. He he's not denying that they've
sinned. He said, no, we know God, we
have sinned, but why would you use the Babylonians against us?
These guys are wicked. We, in fact, the Bible used the
word righteous. In other words, Habakkuk seems
to suggest it is we are a little bit more righteous than these
people. And so too, Habakkuk, he's faced
with two things. God, why are you using evil?
Why are you using sin #2? Why are you using these people
who are worse than us to discipline us?
Why are you dealing with them? You know they're evil too.
Why are you dealing with us only?
Why can't you deal with the Babylonians as well?
What a dilemma for the prophet don't we have?
Don't we sometimes have similar questions in our own lives?
Don't we sometimes ask why do we have wicked people in positions
of power? We ask the times, why are we led
by the wicked? Why are they in power?
We may even ask ourselves, why are we seeing those who commit
crimes not not not not being punished for that?
Why does it seem as though the corrupt is succeeding and and,
and it's flourishing? We may ask ourselves Lord, what
we saw at Tembisa Hospital when the SIU said 2 million has 2
billion has been stolen at the hospital and we can we say Lord
please what? What's that when 2 billion can
be stolen from the poor? We say Lord, what is this?
And we are filled with holy anger at that moment as the
people who needs those services and money stolen, we say that
what is happening to our nation? Why are we seeing so much
injustice in our nation? And we cry out like Habakkuk as
well and we say, Lord, why don't you deal with the Chaldeans?
Why don't you deal with those who rob and steal a corrupt?
Why don't you do that? Let me guarantee you, God does
not look away. God deals with these things as
you would see. God has not ignored the
Babylonians. He has not ignored the Chaldeas.
He will deal with them in his own time, but for now He is
dealing with his own people. He's saying, let me start with
you, then we will move to them. God does not look away.
Therefore, if God does not look away from injustice, we too
ought not look away. Church we are not.
We are called to speak for the voiceless, those who are
marginalised, those who are at the bottom of the pyramid, those
who are unfairly treated. The church and all of us
corporate the voice for them. This work among family members,
we have to speak up in our country, the gender violence and
has been the president has declared it to be a national
disaster. It means something has got to be
done and the church cannot keep quiet regarding gender based
violence and femicide. The church has got to speak up
for women and children who have been abused and killed.
We can't. God must bring brings his
justice, but also he uses us to speak up.
It was Edmund Burke who said silence in the face itself.
Keep quiet around these. God calls us to speak.
I think I was sharing with someone the other day, the, the,
the lady, my former boys, my former boss, a lady that I work
with. I have so much respect for her.
I've worked for that Lady for 14 years of my life.
An extraordinary leader with a sharp mind.
But one of the things I loved about serving under her for so
many years was that she would never compromise her core, her
conviction at the altar of convenience.
She never did that and people would say can we give you money
for that and that and do the can we do money for this and this
and she would say if this thing does not align with our values
as a Christ centered organization, we don't want your
money. We rather not and we think we
need that money. This is not we can't keep our
kids this particular thing in Logue good Christ.
And that's what it means at times, the cost that one has to
pay because of their conviction, because of their own values and
what God has called us to do. Therefore, Habakkuk must be
reminded of God's covenant. Love Church.
I want us to remind us also too, that in in hard times and in
trials, at times we again may feel that God is distant, that
God has deserted us, that God is not longer close to us.
But can I remind you that the character of God and the nature
of God does not change? I want you to notice a few
people from Scripture. God did not stop loving the
apostles when they were imprisoned, beaten, whipped and
stoned and shipwrecked. God did not stop loving Job when
he lost his wealth, his children, his health.
He did not stop. God ultimately did not stop
loving Jesus when he was forced to convicted, beaten, tortured,
and crucified. God does not stop loving us even
when we find ourselves on the sea of affliction.
God has not stopped loving us. God is with us.
In fact, in Romans 83540 says Who shall?
What shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulations distress, persecution, famine or
nakedness, or dangerous sword as it did written for your sake?
We are being killed all day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquest through
Christ who loves us. I am sure that neither nor
death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything
in all of creation, we'll be able to separate us from the
love of Christ. Absolutely nothing can separate
the redeemed, the sanctified from the love of Christ.
No matter what is happening in our lives cannot remind you.
Do you want to know how much God loves you?
Look at the cloth. That is how much God loves you,
that He would give His only begotten Son on your behalf to
die in your place for your sin. That's how much He loves you.
Therefore He will not. He will not desert you.
He will not leave you. He is with us.
You ought to be reminded that He gave His precious, precious gift
to us. Therefore, when safety is taken,
when comfort is taken, when security and shelter and peace
are taken from us, He does not mean God does not love us.
He loves us infinitely. He loves us forever.
So God may be disciplining us, but he still loves us.
And so we're going to see, as we see now in Habakkuk verse 14 to
verse 17, there's an interesting imagery and analogy from verse
14 to verse 17. It's quite a, it's quite an
interesting analogy. And as you can see from those
verses, that mankind are like the fish of the sea.
And of course, mankind in this context represents the people of
God, the nation of Judah, the southern nation of Judah, the
Israelites. The fishermen in this context
represents the Chaldeans or the Babylonians.
Notice the imagery here or this analogy that you make the fish
of the sea like crawling things that have no ruler.
What an interesting analogy. And and you would see that if
you study the history of the Babylonians and you read Daniel
and you read Jeremiah, you almost see that the image that
God is wanting to bring you, that you have the people of God
just who are like the fish in the sea.
They have no one for them. They have no one to protect
them. That's what Habaku is saying
here. We are like the fish and there's
no one to protect us. But we also have this fisherman,
and the fisherman is going to catch the fish.
Not only is he going to cast the fish, is going to put the fish
on the net and is going to hook the fish.
What is that image all about? It is an image, an analogy of
slavery and captivity. When Babylonians would capture
their enemies, they would normally put them in Nets.
Not only and put them in Nets, they would take a hook and hook
your bottom lip as a way of dragging you around.
Imagine the pain. And they would drag you with
your upper loop with that hook and drag you with your, with
your lower lip and then and then put you in the net.
And so the image Habaku is talking about here is, is, is
he's showing an image of what these guys do.
And he's saying, God, this is what they're going to do in a
way to us when when we are being captured, this is what going to
do to us because the fish will not be able to fight back
because the fish has been captured.
The fish is unable to resist because it has been captured.
This shows the might and the brutality and the power of the
Babylonian army. They are strong.
Make no mistake. As I said last week, they are
strong. They have no equal and they have
no match. And Hapaku says, I this is what
they're going to do to us. They're going to inflict pain,
humiliation and suffering. And Habakkuk says, but God not
as the end and not as 15 and 16. They do this and then notice
that they live in luxury and and his food is rich.
In other words, they capture nations, they conquer nations
and they take the spoils for themselves and that's what they
enjoy them. They enjoy the luxury and the
sports because why? They have defeated all their
enemies. Notice the other thing Habakkuk
says that not only do they do that in verse 15, in verse 16,
therefore he sacrifices to his net.
This is an indication they have no God.
Interesting army here. They conquer other people and
then they don't go and worship anyone.
And Habakkuk says what do they do?
They go and worship themselves. They say, oh man, we are so
good. We're so good.
Look at how many armies we've conquered.
Look at how many nations we've conquered.
We are so good. Probably they look at themselves
in the mirror and says, wow, we're so good.
And in doing so, Habakkuk says they worship themselves, they
have no view of who God is. And Habakkuk says, therefore
God, how can you use uncaring, arrogant, evil and adulterous
people to discipline us? And then Habakkuk says in verse
17, interestingly, is he then to keep on emptying his net and
mercilessly killing nations forever?
Notice the word here forever. And God is saying no, no, no,
no, they are not going to do this forever.
It will come to a stop. Guess what?
In 539 BC, eight years after the book of Habakkuk was written,
the Babylonians were defeated. You can read that in Daniel 5.
They were defeated. And so their might was not going
to last forever. God was going to have His way
with them, and he did therefore be reminded that the Babylonians
are not the only one. There's been many people in
history who have wanted to destroy the church.
We've had men like Nero who execute executed believers who
burned them alive and made them human torches.
We have Jessica's who also paid homeless to Roman gods and
killed people. We have people dying even today
in parts of Africa, but church dead.
Let me remind you, even as evil advances, Jesus is not losing.
Jesus is winning. That the church continued to
advance in spite of persecution and in spite of many kings who
tried to destroy it. But the church continues to
rise, and it will continue to do so until Jesus comes again.
All other empires have fallen to the ground, but Jesus is still
sitting on his throne to die, for only his Kingdom will stand
and remain forever. Lastly, he is not only reminding
him of his covenant love, he is also reminding him of active
endurance. Part of Habakkuk's process and
his knowledge of God being challenged, his theology, being
rocked by God, is also in a finding himself in a place where
he has to learn what it means to be patient with God.
Let me remind you, precious Saints, that at times God does
not give us the answers that we expect Him to give.
But at this point in time, Habakkuk is asking questions to
God. God is going to respond in all
these things, and Habakkuk he is not.
He, but also Habakkuk has to learn what it means to wait on
God. Precious science, precious
science, Don't be too angry with God.
Don't be too frustrated with God.
Be patient, wait and trust. Psalm 130 says verse 5 and 6.
I wait for the Lord. My whole being waits and His
word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord.
More than Watchmen wait for the morning.
That is not a suggestion. It is a command.
It is an imperative wait on the Lord.
Habaguk had to learn what it means to wait on the Lord.
God is always doing something in the place where we are waiting.
Notice how Habaguk waits. He's not simply standing in his
waiting. Notice what he does.
He is. He is in a dialogue with God.
In other words, Habaguk. He's praying.
We pray while we wait. We keep on bringing our request
before God. While we wait, we become like
the widow who went back to the unjust judge over and over
because she needed an answer. Habakkuk is not pretending.
He's not saying God. I understand.
In fact, he's saying God. I do not understand.
But while I wait, I will be praying.
In my confusion, I'll be praying even when I don't have the
answer, I will be praying. God often teaches us patience
and patience is very hard in our world for some of us is going to
tomorrow is Monday on the traffic in traffic tomorrow
you're going to open up your window and you're going to start
doing this to people as they pass.
Why did you do that? Why did you do that?
Because we are just not patient for some of us don't like
waiting at the restaurant. Where is my food?
I want my food now. It's been more than 10 minutes.
And one place that will teach you actually what it means to be
patient is Home Affairs. If you want to learn what it
means to be patient, go to the Home Affairs and you will know
what it means to be patient. We've even coined the phrase
that time is money because we love everything that is easy.
We love the microwaved stuff. We don't like to wait.
We are an impatient generation. And because we are an impatient
generation, we expect God to hurry up.
And sometimes God says you're going to wait a little longer,
you're going to wait. But Habakkuk, in his waiting, in
his confusion, he's pressing on. He is praying, He is speaking to
God. So may I encourage you this
morning in whatever we are facing as a collective and and
as this community wait upon the Lord.
I think it is in Isaiah where it says those who wait upon the
Lord will renew their strength. Those who wait, I know it's hard
to wait, but we ought to wait. In times of change, he remains
the same. In moments of confusion and
uncertainty, God is stable, God is sure, God is setting and God
is steadfast. He never shifts, Habakkuk
reminds himself. You are my God.
He clings to him. So no matter what we may be
facing in our life today, whatever way might occur in the
world around us, we ought to be reminded, like Habakkuk, that
our Lord, you are my rock of refuge.
You are my protection, You are my strength.
God is unshakable and his character is unchanging.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you this morning too, to
be reminded of the mystery of your ways, just like Habakkuk.
Oh God, who battled you to understand as to why you would
use the Chaldeans to bring about discipline.
And yet, oh God, because you see far, because you know the past,
the present and the future. You knew what you were doing, oh
God. And so, Lord, even our own
lives, when we don't know what you are doing, help us to trust
in you. Help us to be patient, help us
to pray, O God, to be on our knees in those moments.
Help us to be reminded of your covenant love, that you will
never leave us nor forsake us. But O God, you are with us every
step of the way. Therefore, Lord, I pray this
morning, increase our faith. This morning, help us to stand
for those of God in our world, in our communities.
Lord Jesus, who who need someone to speak up for them, help us to
be that voice. Help us, oh God, in Jesus name,
Amen. Thank you for listening to
today's message. We hope you are encouraged and
challenged in your faith. If you're in the Saban suburbs,
we'd love to welcome you in person at one of our serves.
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throughout the week. Until next time, stay clear and
keep shining your light.