Do you Ever Question God?
Sermon Notes
1. Let’s take a look at the background (2 Chronicles 34-36)
• Josiah began his reign at age 8 and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem as a great king (34.1-3)
• Josiah dies in a battle with Egypt’s Neco (2 Chronicles 35.20-23)
• King Jehoiakim did evil (36.5)
• King Jehoiachin did evil (36.9) – Habakkuk’s time
• Nebuchadnezzar comes against Jerusalem (36.6).
• Zedekiah did evil (36.11-13)
• The priests were evil (36.14-16)
• Israel judged by God (36.17-21)
Habakkuk was a prophet of the late 7th century B.C., a contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. He witnessed Judah fall from its spiritual high under Josiah to the depths of wickedness under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. Habakkuk writes sometime before the battle of Carchemish (605 BC – see 2 Chronicles 36.6).
2. Habakkuk’s prophecy is an important message from God that helps us understand better the mysteries of life. It is a prophecy to God’s people through a conversation between Habakkuk and God (1).
3. Habakkuk anguishes over the sin of Judah and cannot understand how a holy God can allow sin in His people to go unpunished (2-4).
4. God assures him that He will judge Judah’s sin – through the pagan Chaldeans/Babylonians (5-11). “Look!” “Observe!” – “Be astonished!” – ‘Wonder!”
5. This puzzles and confounds Habakkuk more than his first question (12-2.1). He cannot understand how God would use people more unrighteous than Judah to accomplish His purpose. Why would God allow the wicked to prosper (Psalm 73.3).
Some Applications
1. Disobedience always leads to tragedy and judgment. Remember history!
“Dwell on the past, lose one eye; forget the past, lose both eyes.”
2. How God deals with disobedience is a mystery, but it is a part of His sovereign plan.
3. His sovereign plan includes using evil itself for His purposes.
4. Habakkuk questions how God can do this. Seek His face when you don’t understand – and keep seeking Him.
5. Determine to trust Him in difficult times - even when you do not understand why.
6. Trust Him when you see the international trouble around us today. His purposes are no less true today than they were in Habakkuk’s day.
7. Have you trusted the death of Jesus of Nazareth for the forgiveness of your sin and placed you faith in Him for eternal life?
Further questions for thought:
Individual Christians often bewail the apparent activity of God in the circumstances of their own lives. How could God, the sovereign of the universe, appoint suffering for a believer? Why would God purpose that Christians should face sickness, injury, persecution, strife and hardship? Why does God not convert my children? Why does God resolve that believers should battle against the same afflictions as unbelievers? Is he not our God? Does he not often appear to be on the sidelines, leaving the believer in his suffering and hardship? Why is he not working? (Taken from The Expectant Prophet, John D. Currid, p.38.)
A Hymn for Meditation
As I ponder these questions and think of Habakkuk, I confess my love for the great hymn, “Immortal, Invisible” by Walter Chalmers Smith (published in 1839), as a commentary on Habakkuk. Meditate on these words.
“Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all life thou givest, to both great and small; in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish, like leaves on the tree, then wither and perish; but nought changeth thee.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light, thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all laud we would render: O help us to see 'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.”