Where is God When Life Hurts?

0:12 We are continuing in our series, Required Reading. As we have been so far, we are going to be spending tonight and the remainder of this month going through this short series while Pastor Skip is out of town. But the whole point of this series is to look at the books of the Bible that most Christians don't read. Most Christians don't spend time in. And tonight we are actually in what is my personal favorite book in the Old Testament, and that is the book of Habakkuk. The book of Habakkuk. May not be your favorite book in the Old Testament, but maybe it will after tonight. So you can turn there. You definitely are going to need a Bible. If you do not have one, there should be one somewhere under the seats in front of you. You can borrow one from a neighbor. You can use a fake one. That is also acceptable.

1:04 We do permit that. But we're gonna be jumping around all over Habakkuk. It's three chapters. So unlike last week, we went through basically the book of Philemon verse by verse. We're not really gonna have time to do that. So we're gonna be surveying it. We're gonna be trying to look at some of the major themes. But while you're turning to Habakkuk, I was thinking about my son, John. So I have two boys, two girls. My son, John, he is very justice-minded, very justice-oriented. He's a middle child, so that's kind of par for the course. So oftentimes I'll see him run in from outside or sometimes here at church, he'll be like, oh, it's not fair. It's not fair. And then anything can fill in the blanks after that. It's not fair that I didn't get to play Switch as long as my brother played Switch. It's not fair that I didn't get to pick a show like my sister picked a show. It's not fair that my teacher didn't call on me even though I had my hand raised.

1:57 It's not fair is John's favorite phrase to use. Again, pretty run-of-the-mill for a middle child. But I think that the frustration he feels that this isn't fair, I think that points to something deeper. Points to something deeper that life is not fair. I heard that from my mom growing up. Life is not fair. But it's true. Life is not fair. And that is the same issue that Habakkuk is frustrated with. That life isn't fair. Maybe Habakkuk was also a middle child. We don't know that. But we are going to cover tonight one of, if not the most difficult questions that any human can ever wrestle with. No, it's not red or green. No, it's not Argentina versus Spain.

2:51 Who do you think is going to win? I'm rooting for Argentina. Go Messi. But it's not Ford versus Chevy. ultimately the most important, the most difficult question that humans have to deal with is if God is good, why is there evil? If God is really good and if he is real, then why is this world so broken? That is the question that concerns Habakkuk. So this is going to be an intense ride tonight. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. This will be an intense ride, but I think that this has the power to really shape the way that we handle suffering. Because this problem of evil is not something that is new. This isn't something that is uniquely a Christian problem. Every single religion in the world has to deal with the existence of evil.

3:47 In Islam, their answer for the problem of evil is that basically, this is a test. That suffering in this life is a test from Allah to see if you're gonna make it. to see if you're good enough to get through. This is what Surah 67.2 says. Allah has created death and life so that he may test you which of you is best indeed. So the sufferings, the struggles of life are ultimately tests from Allah to see if you are going to make it or not. That might not comfort you. It doesn't comfort me. Or perhaps the answer that a religion like Buddhism might give, which is that basically, yes, they might say, okay, well, suffering is an illusion in an ultimate sense, because everything's an illusion, but in a temporary sense, the reason you're suffering is because you have accumulated bad karma in past lives. You have done something wrong, which is the reason why you're suffering now, so that ultimately, even indirectly, your suffering is your fault. And again, that might not be satisfying to you, and it's not satisfying to me. Every single religious philosophical tradition in human history at some point has to wrestle with this question. The Greeks wrestled with it. Medieval thinkers wrestled with it. Contemporary philosophers wrestle with it. What do we do if we believe that there is any sense of good in this world? How do we reconcile that with the very obvious existence of evil and human suffering. And Christians don't always know how to navigate this discussion, as I've discovered. Even with the best of intentions, perhaps, somebody is suffering, a believer is suffering, so well-intentioned Christians will come alongside trying to minister, trying to encourage this believer, but sometimes they don't stick the landing. Sometimes this person is suffering and a well-intentioned Christian will say, well, it's just part of God's plan. And I'm not disagreeing with you. That is true. God does

5:53 have a plan for what happens in our lives. We're going to see that, but perhaps that is not the best thing to say to somebody who is suffering. God has a plan. God has a plan. Don't worry about God has a plan. And sometimes when we say it so carelessly, it actually sometimes makes it as though God is the cause of their pain, which isn't the case. So we as Christians have not always done a great job navigating this discussion. But if we're honest, God does not give us a clear-cut answer to this problem. We might want a clear-cut answer, but when we read scripture, I actually believe that the answer that God does give us is less straightforward than we might want. And I would say this, speaking pastorally, the best answer that you can give somebody who is suffering is simply to say, I don't know. When you are faced with the weighty questions, when they are suffering and they're saying, why is this happening? Sometimes the best answer is simply to say, I don't know. In fact, as we will see, I believe that is a biblically accurate answer. Because on this side of eternity, we may not know the answer. So we should be very careful to jump to a conclusion when we don't know. I don't know why you are suffering like this. I don't know why you had that diagnosis. I don't know why your business is failing again. I don't know.

7:25 I'm sorry. Your pain is real. And I'm sorry that you are walking through this. we may not know why we're going through this pain at least on this side of heaven but what we will see is that Habakkuk reminds us of one truth that we do know and that that is God cares God cares for you you may not know why you're going through what you're going through but you can at least go through it knowing that God genuinely does actually care about you there are many things in life, especially in suffering that we don't know. But I believe that this short book of the Bible can give us four things that we do know, four things that we do know when life hurts. Here's the first one. If you're taking notes, he can handle the hard questions. God can handle the hard questions. And though the circumstances of Habakkuk's day, as we see, are very removed from us culturally, that we're talking about a book that was 2,600 years ago, written in a different language, in a different culture, many thousands of miles from where we live. So his circumstances were very foreign to us, but the situation he describes, I am routinely shocked at how much it seems to describe the world we live in.

8:48 So let's dive into this. Let's start in verse one of chapter one, the burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. And I want to linger on that word real quick, burden. Some of your words may, or some of your translations may say oracle. It's the Hebrew word masah. But I think that in this case, the New King James actually gets it right, where it says burden, because this message is a burden. Dealing with the problem of evil is a burdensome thing to think about. And delivering this message, as we will see, was, I'm sure, burdensome to the prophet. The burden which Habakkuk saw. Oh Lord, verse two, how long shall I cry? And you will not hear. Even cry out to you violence and you will not save. Why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me. there is strife. Contention arises. Therefore, the law is powerless and justice never goes forth.

9:46 For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, perverse judgment proceeds. Welcome to the book of Habakkuk. It doesn't get better from here. We don't know much about this prophet. In fact, there's not really much written about him outside of this book. We actually don't even know when this book was written, though we have a pretty good idea. And especially with the prophetic books, this is the second prophetic book that we've studied in this series so far. So it is important to try to figure out when this is all happening. And I believe that this book is written probably around the year 605 BC. Habakkuk is walking around Jerusalem. He's getting his morning coffee. He pays a shekel to buy his copy of the Daily Shofar. He's sitting down, he's eating a pastry, and he sees the headline, shock! Babylonians defeat the Assyrians and the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish.

10:42 The Battle of Carchemish, which I have a picture, I almost said photo, but this was 2,600 years ago, so we do not, in fact, have photography of it. But this is what we think the battle might have looked like. But this is a world-changing battle that happened in 605 BC. The upstart Babylonian empire, as they are expanding their territory, they go to war against the Assyrians. Remember, the Assyrians have been the bad guy of much of the Old Testament. They took the northern kingdoms into captivity. These are some bad dudes. And they're linked up with even more bad dudes, the Egyptians. But in a surprising turn of events, the Babylonians defeat these two armies at the Battle of Carchemish. And what happens is they send the Egyptians packing. they take over all of the Assyrian empire. And now the Babylonians are calling the shots. So what happens is Habakkuk is reading this headline. He's shocked by this. He's worried about this new global player, very violent nation has just won a major victory, very close to the borders of Israel. So he's stressed about what's happening, but the problem is that on the home front, things also don't look very good. What we see described here is a situation of moral decay because King Josiah, I'm sure you know that name because you're a Wednesday audience. You know that name, King Josiah, the boy king who instituted a religious kind of return to the principles of the Torah. He really, a religious revival happened under his reign. This king, who is really the last good king is dead. He died fighting the Egyptians four years before this. And since then, all of his reforms have been walked back. The nation has slid back again into idolatry, into injustice, into oppression. And that is what Habakkuk sees. He's looking at this. We know that this is talking about Judah because he says, the law, the Torah, God, your Torah is powerless. It's not working anymore. There is no justice in this nation anymore.

12:47 moral decay, oppression, political instability, economic uncertainty, corrupt leaders taking bribes, making sure that the courts do not render just verdicts. Does that sound familiar? Ring a bell. But like I said, the point of this series is to remind ourselves that all of scripture is applicable for us today. That this book written 2,600 years ago has something to speak to us today. Because I would say just in Habakkuk's day, our lives today, our world today is chaotic. It is confusing. At a global level, we see famines. We see a measureless migrant crisis brought on by all of these wars. People driven out of their homelands, going to different countries. We see a migrant crisis. We see widespread economic instability. We see joblessness.

13:49 We see political corruption. We saw the revelation earlier this year of a human trafficking ring at the highest levels of human society in our world. There is much evil that we see. But at a local level, I have good news. New Mexico won an award. We won the worst state to live in, according to one study. So we defended our title, guys. Kept it up. 50th in the state for safety, for poverty, for food insecurity. All of these fun, fun descriptors that definitely make people want to move here and build a family here. So things are difficult locally, but even personally. I know that many of you are in this room and you are dealing with personal chaos, personal confusion and suffering because the doctors may not know what's going on right now. You've been there for test after test and the doctors don't know what's going on. You don't know why your business is failing. You don't know why you're working multiple jobs and still can't make ends meet.

14:57 You don't know how you're going to make rent next month. You don't know why your spouse betrayed you and now you are struggling to keep your family together. You don't know why. And it is perfectly reasonable to ask the same question that the prophet is, which is why? God, why is this happening? Why is all of this happening? This isn't how it's supposed to happen. Life isn't fair. And that's why I love the book of Habakkuk because this book, though it is intense, it is honest. It is honest because so many of us as Christians, we tend to sanitize our prayers. We pray very clean, nice, very religious sounding prayers. Habakkuk has no time for that. We need to understand this, that the role of the prophet in the Old Testament was basically they were God's district attorney. They were bringing a lawsuit against the people of Israel for breaking the covenant.

15:53 That is normally what they do. But here, Habakkuk flips the script. Look at verse two again. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear? Even cry to you violence and you will not save. Habakkuk this time is bringing the lawsuit against God. He's saying, I have beef with you, God, because this doesn't seem to square with what I know to be true. Things don't seem fair. Things aren't lining up. What we see expressed in this book is what theologians and philosophers will call theodicy. Theodicy, which is a fancy word that simply means how does somebody explain the seeming discrepancy between a good, just, loving God and an evil, broken world? How do we explain that? This book is a theodicy. I think this book is the best theodicy of the Old Testament. Look at verse three again. Why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me. There is strife.

16:58 contention arises. Therefore, the law is powerless. Justice never goes forth. These are real complaints that the prophet is bringing to God. And as I've read and wrestled with this issue in my own life, the problem of evil, I've read different Christian theologians and philosophers, and they're far more intelligent, far more brilliant than I will ever be. But I also have to say, when I've read some of the explanations, the clear cut, simple, straightforward, philosophical answers to the problem of evil, I haven't found them to be satisfying. I haven't found them to be intellectually satisfying. In fact, I've often found them to be academic, to be very cold and very detached. I'm coming at this as a pastor because I believe that the problem of evil is not an academic one. It's not a philosophical one. This is a personal one. Because every single human being on this earth will have to reckon with the problem of evil at some point. So often the problem of evil is cited as the top or one of the top reasons why people will leave the faith. Because I just couldn't get my head around how there could be a good God, there's so much suffering. The problem of evil is often what keeps people from becoming a Christian. The famous podcaster, ex-Navy SEAL, Sean Ryan. I'm sure many of you are familiar with him. You've listened to his show. For many years, he was not a Christian.

18:26 And the whole reason he said this is like, I couldn't become a Christian because of what I saw on the battlefield. The suffering, the death, the destruction that I saw. He said, I couldn't believe that there was a good God. Thank goodness he has given his life to Christ. He's a Christian now, but that was the reason that he gave, that he gave in his own words, why he could not be a Christian. This is real. This is personal. When we're dealing with a complex, weighty subject, like the problem of evil, we should be very careful about quick, easy, clean answers. this is something we should wrestle with and ponder and really think about and you probably know this if you've been through this that if you are suffering probably the last thing you need from a well-intentioned christian is a lecture on theology that is rarely helpful so word to the wise as christians when somebody around us is suffering and we want to serve them they don't need the lecture right now tell them that you love them that you're sorry that you're praying for them and it's okay to say i don't know why this is happening it's okay it's okay but many times believers can fall into this problem of trying to explain away suffering to theologize it to find that easy answer to explain a complex problem we see it in job you're familiar with job of course a man who suffered greatly more than most humans ever will and his friends they're saying but job i think you did something i think you sinned you definitely sinned. That's why this is happening. You sinned. And the whole book, Job's like, no, I didn't.

20:10 I'm not perfect, but I definitely didn't sin to deserve this. And they're like, I'm pretty sure you did, Job. I'm pretty sure you sinned. Because they had a very simplistic worldview that said that the good people are blessed and the bad people are punished. And this Job, well, this looks like punishment. So I guess you sinned. So fess up. What was it? Job didn't. He's like, I didn't do anything, guys. I didn't. We see this as well in the New Testament, that Jesus and the disciples, they're walking through town. They encounter a man who was born blind. And their first question is, Rabbi, whose sin is this the result of? Was it his sin? Did he do something really bad? Or was it his parents? Whose sin caused him to be blind from birth? And Jesus says, neither. Neither. It wasn't him or his parents. there are no clean cut answers to human suffering. Job did not suffer because he sinned. The blind man did not suffer because he sinned. And we need to be very careful as Christians when we try to jump onto a quick conclusion, we jump to a conclusion, we find a quick answer to try to explain someone else's suffering or our own. This is a complex topic. Though we might not ever know the reason for our suffering on this side of eternity, we do know from scripture that sometimes the just suffer unjustly. That bad things do happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Look at verse 13. Skip over a little bit. Why do you, Habakkuk speaking again. Why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he? How is that fair, God? How is that okay?

22:00 Reminds me of the worst five days of my life that happened in 2020. Very beginning of COVID, but my oldest daughter, Everly, she was about eight months old then, she's very young. and she had a condition called an intussusception, which if you're not a medical nerd, I'm certainly not. But what happened is basically her lower intestine folded back over itself, caused a life-threatening blockage. I did not think that my daughter would make it. I did not. I did not think that she would make it. And it's funny what will happen when you are going through suffering. It's funny where that suffering will lead you to a place where maybe you're acting in a way that's not even in line with your theology. Because guess what? In that waiting room, I was bargaining with God. I was in the bargaining phase with God. I know that God doesn't work like that. You don't bargain with God.

22:51 But in that moment, I was so desperate. I had no idea. I was terrified. And I was bargaining with God for my daughter's life. Did my daughter deserve that? Did my eight-month-old daughter deserve that kind of suffering? No. Yes, she's born in a fallen world, but she's eight months old. Was it because my wife and I had sinned so terribly that that was her punishment? No, I don't think so. Again, my wife and I, certainly not perfect. Even the doctors didn't know why. In fact, there were no easy answers in that whole five days because basically they'd said, we don't really know why this happens. We just know that it does happen and we're going to try to correct it, but we don't know why. But I will tell you this, in that hospital room. It was just me, my daughter, and God because it was during COVID so my wife couldn't be there.

23:44 And then when my daughter was sleeping, it was me and God. Pretty intimate space and I wrestled with God. God, why are you doing this? Why is this happening? How is this fair? I would prefer that I was the one suffering, not my daughter. How is this even fair, God? I left a job in the corporate world and I became a pastor and this is what happens? I don't know why that happened still it's been six and a half years I don't know but what I what I do know is that in those moments I experienced a closeness and an intimacy with the Lord that I did not think was possible I'd never experienced a closeness with him because I wrestled with him I took him some very raw emotions I was very upset and though I didn't necessarily get the answers to what I was experiencing. What I did get was a level of peace in the midst of it. I knew that he was present with me in that hospital room. I brought some big complaints to him like Habakkuk did, like Job did, like you have done. And did God rebuke me?

24:48 How dare you say that, Taylor? What are you thinking? No. He loved me. He met me. He encountered heard me there. It reminds me of what happens in John chapter 11. You probably know the story. Jesus, one of his closest friends, dies unexpectedly, Lazarus. He goes to the funeral four days later, and Mary, the surviving sister, one of the surviving sisters, meets him. She also has a complaint. If you'd only been here, this wouldn't have happened.

25:16 Let's read what it says. This is what it says in John chapter 11, 32. Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews came with her weeping, he groaned in his spirit and was troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Never once did Jesus say, how dare you talk to me that way? Who do you think you are? I'm God. You're not. No, he just cried with her.

25:52 God can handle the hard questions. As we will see, he may not answer them the way that we might like, but he can handle the hard questions. He's got big enough shoulders to deal with your most raw, intimate emotions. The one person you do not need to sanitize them around is God. He's safe enough to process your feelings. In fact, why not process them with your creator. Who better in this universe is there to process those hard feelings and hard questions within God? God can handle those hard questions. We might not know why this is happening, but we know that God cares, that he is with us in the midst of it. And unlike most politicians, he does not avoid, he does not dodge the tough question. He doesn't change the subject.

26:45 He confronts them head on. He's willing to have that conversation with you. In fact, I believe that God invites you to bring those hard questions to him. he can handle the hard questions. The second thing we know is that he's still working, even if I don't understand it. My wife has the gift of dog whispering, really animal whispering in general. Like she's kind of like the Disney princess. Like she, she walks out and all the animals just come to her and she just has a way with them. But it really is a dog whisperer. It reminds me of my dog Remington and I have a photo with him and you're going to see this boy is trouble. Drama, this dog is. Most dramatic dog I have. Remington. One time, Remington got his foot stuck in the kennel, and he's freaking out. He's very vocal, as dog breeders would say. Very vocal. Yes, he's very vocal, and he's screaming, so my wife runs in to try to help him. She's trying to get his paw unstuck. He's screeching and freaking out, and he bites her.

27:46 He bites her. As she's trying to free him, he's trying to bite her because he didn't know what was happening. He didn't understand what the expert, the subject matter expert was in the room trying to do. He didn't get it. He didn't understand it. When life hurts, it is very hard to understand what God is doing. And sometimes it can feel that God is asleep at the wheel. We know that that's not true, but sometimes we might still feel like it is. God, are you there? Are you on break right now? Like, did you take a 15 minute lunch break? Where are you?

28:24 Like Mary and Martha, if you'd only been here, this wouldn't have happened. So like Habakkuk, we will ask God, why? Why is this happening? We know that God hears our prayers but he doesn't always give us the answer that we want. And sometimes his answer isn't as clear cut as we wish it was. Look at verse five. This is God's response to Habakkuk. Look among the nations and watch. Be utterly astounded. For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told to you. For indeed, I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. God just blew Habakkuk's mind because Habakkuk starts this conversation saying, God, Israel is in such a bad place. And God's response is, oh, I know. And even if I told you how I'm going to do things, you wouldn't really get it. That's frustrating. Can we just be honest?

29:27 That is, that's kind of a frustrating verse. God saying, yes, I am going to do something, but even if I did explain it to you in detail, you're not going to get it. That's tough. That's difficult. but let's be real. When you're in the midst of suffering, if God did explain to you in great detail from his eternal perspective, why everything is happening, would it make the pain go away? Probably not because the pain would still be there. The hurt would still be there. It's like when you try to explain a joke to somebody, it doesn't make it funnier. When you try to explain pain away, it doesn't make it go away. just because we don't understand what God is doing doesn't mean he's not working though just because it seems like he's not doing something doesn't mean he isn't actually doing something that's the perspective that God is trying to give the prophet here because God tells him hey Habakkuk I hear you dude I see it and I'm doing something but what I'm doing isn't going to be what you expect. In fact, what he says is just as I used you, the nation of Israel to judge the Canaanite tribes that lived in the land before you entered it, I used you to judge them. I'm actually going to be raising up this pagan Gentile nation of the Babylonians and they need to, they need to judge you because you have fallen so far from the covenant. That's difficult. That blew Habakkuk's mind. It's like, that's not what I predicted.

30:58 I didn't think that was going to happen. And Habakkuk doesn't get this. Again, verse 13, why do you look on those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked person devours a person more righteous than he? God, I know we're bad, but they're worse. How is this fair? How is this okay? But what this story shows us, what really the whole Bible shows is that God will regularly use broken, use flawed, and sometimes use bad people to accomplish his good purposes. That's the hard truth of this book, that God was raising up bad people to accomplish his good purpose, the Babylonians. But he's also reminding Habakkuk that, hey, just because things seem chaotic, things seem out of control, I need you to understand I'm behind the scenes.

31:51 I'm still on the throne. it's not as chaotic as it might seem. Just like with my dog, Remington, there was an expert in the room behind the scenes working, even though we might not understand what's happening. Just like my dog didn't understand what was happening when my wife was trying to free him. The people didn't understand what God was doing here. But Habakkuk is saying, I hear you, I'm still doing something. I love what one of my dear friends says. He pastors a church in town. But he told me one time, he said, Taylor, I need you to know that God works while you sleep. God works while you sleep.

32:30 Because God doesn't need a break. He doesn't need to go take a lunch. He doesn't need to go take a walk because we're too much. He's always working. He's always moving. He is always working to accomplish his purposes. He is always working all things together for the good of those who love him who are called according to his purpose. That's what God is doing, even when we might not feel it or sense it in the moment. But we do have to understand that God is working on a different timetable than we are. Look at verse two of chapter two. Then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. we might be tempted to think that God is tarrying in fulfilling the promises in our lives.

33:26 That God is taking his sweet time to fulfill what he said he was gonna do. But that is because we are looking at the issue from our limited earthly perspective. We as humans are anchored in this moment in time. We can't go back in time and we do not know what the future holds. That's a difficult place to be. And so yes, we have our own timetables, our own expectations. And God is saying, I am moving. I am doing something, but I'm not doing it on your schedule. It's exactly what second Peter says in chapter three, but beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, a thousand years is as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness. I'm not tarrying the way you think that I'm tarrying, but it is long. He is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We can't lose sight of the realities that God is always working. He will often use unexpected means to accomplish his purposes.

34:35 We also have to just accept that his timetable ain't mine and ain't yours. He's working on his own time, but you have to, in that moment, trust that there's something better that will happen. one of my favorite examples of God using unexpected means it's in Acts chapter 2 and also this is Peter's speech on Pentecost but he says this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men God raised him up loosing the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it the ultimate unexpected move of God is Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Unexpected. Because the Messiah, that is not the Messiah that the Jews expected in that day. He did not fit their template for what the Messiah was going to do. He didn't do what they thought he was going to do. He did something far better, far more unexpected, salvation. Because we are not God, we do not see the end from the beginning, we have to trust. I have to trust that the expert who can see the end from the beginning is moving, even if I don't see what he's doing. Another word for that is faith. Chapter, or I'm sorry, verse four of chapter two, but the just shall live by faith.

35:58 The just shall live by faith. Live a life of faith by believing that God has an unbroken track record of keeping his promises. Faith that God has enough grace for you and that he is still moving and working and that even if God can turn the most tragic moment in human history, the death of his son into life, then surely he can turn your situation around. Amen. Third thing we can know is that he doesn't ignore injustice. God does not ignore or turn a blind eye to injustice. Many, many, many moons ago, early, you know, one of the first college classes I took, I think it was a humanities class. We did a group project. And as is often the case with group projects, somehow I found myself doing like 95% of the work because I really wanted a good grade. I cared about that. My classmates didn't. But here's what stung. I didn't even get the best grade in my project and I did 95% of the work. There were other lazier individuals involved.

37:05 I'm still bitter about this, forgive me, who got a better grade than I did. How is that fair? I do have a sneaking suspicion the professor did not like me because I was a Christian, but whatever. Nonetheless, it's hard when people who feel like they're worse than us, people who do less than we do, they're lazier, they have a worse attitude, somehow they're getting what we don't have. it doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem fair that the people who are worse than we are have the best things happening to them. Oh gosh, that's frustrating, right? life is already unfair life is already unfair we already accepted that but it's made worse when it seems like there is injustice that it's not just unfair it's super unfair because the bad people are getting all the good stuff and i'm getting the bad stuff how is that supposed to work habakkuk needs to understand and this is why god spends time in chapter two talking about the fact that, hey, just because I'm using the Babylonians doesn't mean I approve of them. I'm using them to accomplish a purpose that you won't understand yet, but make no mistake, I'm not stoked on how they live. I fully understand that they are violent, that they are pagan, that they are wicked. They are serving a purpose, but I do not approve of how they live. God wants Habakkuk to understand that. And so what we're going to see is there's several examples of corruption that God will list and call out and condemn. Look at verse six of chapter two.

38:49 Will not all of these take up a proverb against him, speaking of Babylon, and a taunting riddle against him say, woe to him who increases what is not his. Woe to the person who takes what doesn't belong to him? How long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges, will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you and you will become their booty? Just get it out now. Ha ha ha ha. It says booty. Ha ha. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you because of man's blood and the violence of the land and the city and all who dwell in it. Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster. Reminds me of all these like ultra billionaires who are spending millions and millions to build themselves like these apocalyptic shelters so they can escape the end of the world, right?

39:49 The Babylonians took pride in being stronger and being more dominant than everybody else around them. And they kind of had good reason. They sent the Assyrians packing. They sent the Egyptians packing. they took everything they had, and now they run the world, basically. They're a superpower now, and they are so wealthy. The way that they built the city of Babylon, we consider it one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens of Babylon. They had so much wealth, and it was because they took it from everybody else around them. They stole it. God noticed that, And even today, we see stories of government corruption. We see backdoor deals. We see no-bid contracts. All of this is built so that the people who are in power stay in power, and the people who should be in power never get a seat at the table. It's corruption.

40:40 We're used to it. In fact, we're so used to it that we just kind of joke about it. Like I Googled jokes about American political corruption. I got 2.7 million search results. People just like, that's all we know how to do. I can't fix it, so I guess we'll joke about it. I don't know what to do about it. We live in this age of political cynicism. In some ways, kind of rightly, because the political system has frequently let us down.

41:08 The people leading us have not done what we thought that they were supposed to do. And so it's easy to become discouraged where you think, is there any way to fix this? Is there any way that this will possibly get better? Because injustice happens when people who have much take advantage of those who have little. That's injustice. But just because it has become normalized in this society or ours does not mean that God does not take notice. Oh boy, does he? Because if you want to know where is God in the story of humanity, he's with the little guy. Israel knew what it was like to be the little guy and God heard them. The early Christians knew what it was like to be the little guy. David was the little guy in his family. God likes a good underdog story. And he takes special attention and care when people are oppressing those who do not have enough. Habakkuk's saying, man, not only is my society unjust, they're even worse.

42:07 And God's saying, oh, I know. Oh, I know. And it's not okay. Woe to him, verse 12, who builds a town with bloodshed who establishes a city by iniquity. Verse 15, woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk that you may look on his nakedness. Hey, I see what you're doing, taking advantage of those around you. Verse 19, woe to him who says to wood, awake to silent stone, arise that it shall teach. I see that you are making idols. I see that you're worshiping what you make. Babylon thought that they could do whatever they wanted to whomever they wanted. That was the way of the world back then. Babylon was the top dog so they could do whatever they wanted. But what's fascinating is that nearly all of these prophecies of condemnation against the nation of Babylon get fulfilled less than a century later. We actually see this in Daniel chapter 5. It's recorded for us. Later, what happens? The last king of Babylon, Belshazzar. This happens, chapter five. God has numbered your kingdom, a prophecy against him, and finished it. You've been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

43:17 Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes, the Persians. That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom. Like that. In a single night, all of these promises of condemnation and judgment came true. Less than a century after, God utters them. It's what the author of Hebrews says. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Babylonians fell into the hands of the living God. Much of it because of what they did to the Israelites and to so many others. God did not ignore their injustice. And you can better believe God does not ignore or turn a blind eye to the injustice that you are experiencing in your life. God sees it. Look at verse 13. This is basically what happens is Habakkuk responds. He's, because we're going to find out he's a worship leader. He's not a pastor. He's a worship leader. He responds to all of this pain and suffering, this heaviness with creativity.

44:17 I think there's something very beautiful with that. But he writes this Psalm in chapter three, but this is how he describes God. He says this in verse 12 of chapter three. You marched through the land in indignation. You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation with your anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked. Basically you decapitated the wicked person. And sometimes in the developed world like we live in, we get kind of squeamish when it talks about divine justice like that. oh does it have to that's so rough that sounds so mean oh that's uh that just makes me uncomfortable god beheading uh you know trampling people ah that's that's not the god that i that i like ah we get uncomfortable does it have to describe god so violently we might get squeamish when it comes to discussing divine justice but the bible is not the bible is not squeamish about this yes does jesus say that he is the good shepherd yes but in the old testament and in the book of revelation he also is described as a divine warrior who has a sword who cuts down his enemies and tramples them both are true and in fact the reason that we tend to get squeamish around injustice is because sometimes we haven't suffered the level of pain that these people have. Because people in the world who are suffering, like think in Nigeria, people who are the just mass amounts of Christians being beheaded, I don't think that they would be as uncomfortable with the idea that God will one day show up and fight their battles and crush their enemies. I don't think that they're going to be as uncomfortable with that as we are. Fact is, yes, we do experience injustice, but we are still quite comfortable in the grand scheme of human history. We're quite comfortable. We have things pretty good. When you are suffering, when you are the victim of injustice, and I know many of you

46:23 in this room, you are the victim of injustice. These passages, though they are kind of graphic, they actually should bring you comfort. Knowing that one day the people who hurt you are going to have to face up against God to bring a justice that human courts in this world couldn't do, God could. That God would fight on your behalf, that he would crush and win against those who have hurt you. That should be a comforting truth. That God wins in the end. He will fight on your behalf. So yes, even though the world right now may seem corrupt, that it seems to favor those who are evil and wicked, while the righteous do not have what they need, there is a reckoning coming. it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God you can take the hard questions about what you're experiencing to God you can know that he is working even when you don't see it or feel it or taste it or smell it you can know that God does not turn a blind eye to injustice and finally know that God is worthy of worship while I wait God is still worthy of worship while I wait and one of my favorite movie trilogies, if you know me, in fact, I would actually say the greatest movie trilogy in human history is the Lord of the Rings movies.

47:42 Hands down, can I get an amen for that? Best movie trilogy. Star Wars could never get this neo new age Zen mysticism out of here. I wanna see a literal angel squaring off against a demon saying you shall not pass. That's Lord of the Rings is Christian fiction, changed my mind. But I love this, that as they're going through the minds of Morio, You'll know the scene happens in the book as well. But Gandalf and Frodo are talking about what led them here. This is what Frodo says. He says that, I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish that none of this had happened. Gandalf says, so do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to do, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces in this world, Frodo Baggins, beside the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought. As we have seen tonight in the pages of this little obscure book Habakkuk, the Bible does not give easy, clear-cut answers to the problem of your suffering. In fact, while it does answer the problem, it doesn't always answer that in the way that we want. And sometimes that answer is not as straightforward as we might hope it is. That's why God says, for I will do a work in your days, which you would not believe though it were told you, Hey guys, I'm working, but you're just going to have to trust me on this one. Cause even if I did explain it to you, you wouldn't get it. So just hold tight.

49:21 We can cling to the promises of God, knowing that one day, yes, the promise of chapter two, verse 14, that for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Praise God. But that day is not yet. Right now you're still hurting. You are still suffering. You're still in pain. What do you do? In the meantime, what do you do? What happens? When you're in that waiting between the promise and its fulfillment, what are you supposed to do? I want you to look at the last three verses of this book. Verse 17 of chapter three. Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

50:14 I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet and he will make me walk on my high hills to the chief musician with my stringed instruments. I love that. Again, he's a worship leader, right? So he responds to all of this as a true creative. He writes a poem, he writes a Psalm. And he says, hey, when you play this, get my guitar. Mine's better than yours. You play on my guitar. Sounds better, right? My stringed instruments.

50:43 I'm sure we can assume that Habakkuk did not get the answer that he expected when he started this whole discussion three chapters ago. He didn't expect the answer that he got. But while he knows that there are still difficult days ahead of him, something has shifted in his outlook. Because now he knows that the only certainty is found in God. Not his circumstances, it's found in God. That God is still good.

51:08 And I think unfortunately we can often have a transactional faith. Here's what I mean. I'm happy to worship God when things are good. When things are good and I feel good and everybody around me is happy, it's easy to praise God. But as soon as things get bad, I don't praise God. I'm not reading my Bible. I'm not praying. Things are bad, but then things are good again. And it's so easy to be in church and I'm with God's people and I'm just happy. And then things get bad and I withdraw. Transactional faith. Transactional faith falls apart in the face of suffering. because unless you believe that all of your suffering is your fault, which here's the deal, sometimes suffering is the result of your mistakes, but often it's not. Transactional faith can't survive that sort of pain. Just can't survive it. What kind of faith do I have if I only want to praise God when things are good?

52:09 Is that faith? Is that true biblical faith? That things have to be good for me to want to praise God? I don't think so. Because the fact is Habakkuk is looking around at his life, right? There's no fruit on the vine. There's no herd in the stalls. Harvest is still really bad. Nothing has changed since chapter one. Nothing has changed. Things are just as bad now at the end of the book as they were at the beginning of the book. Nothing has materially changed, but here's the operative phrase, yet I will praise. Yet I will worship God in spite of the fact that there is no material reason to praise God. I'm still gonna, I'm still gonna praise him.

52:56 Even though your situation has not improved, are you going to praise him? Even though the cancer is still there, are you going to praise him? even though your son or your daughter has still not come back to church yet, are you still gonna praise God? Are you still gonna praise him? Are you still gonna worship even when things are not good? Because you're not praising God because things are good. They're not. Your pain is real. Your suffering is real. Things are not good. We don't always know why God allows bad things to happen. We don't always know that. We don't always know what God is doing behind the scenes. I wish we did, but we don't. And like God, I don't think we'd understand it, even if he did tell us. We don't know why it seems that the evil are so good at taking advantage of the weak. We don't know why.

53:50 But that leaves us with two options. So we all have two options in this room. We can either let the pain give way to despair and just give up. We can take the King Saul approach. This is the worst. I don't wanna do this anymore. I'm getting off this ride. You're just giving to despair, to hopelessness. This is the worst. It's never gonna get better. Or you can do what Habakkuk is doing. You can let the pain give way to praise.

54:19 I don't feel like I wanna praise you right now, God, and I don't see a reason to, but I'm gonna do it anyway, because I know you're good. I haven't seen your promises come to pass yet, but I'm gonna keep praising until I see them. because the fact is we've spent so much time tonight focusing on the why piece of this. Why does this happen? That God does not always give us the answer to that question that we might want, but make no mistake. God did definitively deal with the problem of evil. He did not leave that question unanswered. If you want to know what God has to say about the problem of evil, look at the cross. That is God's answer to the problem of pain and suffering. That is his answer. What Isaiah says,

55:08 surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. God answered the problem of evil when he looked at evil and he said, I'll take it on for you. I'll suffer for you. I'll suffer with you. So don't walk out of here saying, Christians don't know how to answer the problem of evil. Yes, we do. Look at the cross. That's how God answered with the problem of evil. He says, I will deal with it myself. I will feel it myself. And I will defeat evil and death myself. there is reason to praise we do not have reason as christians to give into despair when we know that our god will triumph yes he is the the lamb he's the good shepherd but he is also a divine warrior like this book promises one day those who are evil will have to face up to him not our justice they'll have to look at the living god in the face and that is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. So no matter what you are facing tonight, there is still reason to praise God. Even if you don't have the answer that you want yet, doesn't mean that there isn't one. Just because you haven't seen God's promise fulfilled, doesn't mean that he's not going to fulfill it. You just haven't lived long enough to see it happen yet. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for not just the encouragement of scripture, but the challenge, the correction, but most importantly, the reminder that you do care, that nothing on this earth escapes your gaze.

57:03 You are not asleep at the wheel. You love us. You care about us. help us to look at the pain that we experience in our lives with your perspective. We don't understand it, God, but we trust that you do. We trust that there is an expert here who is working and moving even when we cannot see it, even when we do not understand it.

57:31 With everybody's heads as they're bowed and eyes are closed, didn't even plan this, but if you are in this room and you are realizing, man, I've been suffering so much and I was giving way to hopelessness. Maybe you were in a very literal way, considering doing what Saul did, ending his own life, because you said the pain is too much. I can't do it. with everybody's eyes closed, it's time to come back to Jesus. That's you. It doesn't make the pain go away, but it gives you purpose in the midst of it. If you're realizing, man, I've wandered, I've wandered from my God and I've lost sight of who he is and I need him back. I need that purpose. I need that fresh new start. That's you. Everybody else's eyes are closed.

58:25 Can you just shoot your hand up? I know there's somebody in this room. I see your hand. God bless you. See your hand. Anyone else? I see your hand back there. God bless you. I see your hand. God bless you. I see his hands over here to my left. Just right now where you're at. I say, Jesus, I need you.

58:50 I believe you answered the problem of evil. I believe that you suffered and died for me. because I deserve to die for my sins, but you died in my place.