WHY GOD PUTS TROUBLE IN OUR LIVES
Habakkuk 2:1-5, 3:17-19
God gave a warning to Habakkuk the prophet to be delivered to the nation that
His judgment against their sinfulness was about to take place. In the near future
He would send an evil nation to destroy them:
Habakkuk 1:6
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.
[That bitter and hasty nation] Cruel and oppressive in their disposition; and prompt and speedy in their assaults and conquests.
The prophet wanted to know why His righteous God would send a non-God-fearing nation
To punish Israel.
WAITING PATIENTLY FOR GOD TO ANSWER OUR PRAYERS
V:1. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
- In my mind, we are too ignorant to question God’s decisions regarding us.
His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.
- God’s end game is not punishment, but restoration.
- God can use the people you are fighting against to bless you.
- When we quit fellowshipping with God, we are fellowshipping with the
The enemy.
- God always has His eye on our spiritual growth and development.
- When we are too hardheaded to listen or follow His commands,
He may punish us in ways we can understand to get our attention.
- If we want to be like the enemy. God can raise the enemy to
Take control of us.
- Habakkuk took a stand to hear from God.
- There are three parts to our prayers; the request, the waiting and the
Answer.
- We have to condition our minds and hearts to wait on the Lord.
- God hears our prayers, but he answers in His time.
- We have to open our ears to hear His answer and be prepared to
Act on His command.
DON’T DELAY ACTING ON GOD’S COMMAND
V:2. Then the Lord replied: \”Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end and will not prove false.
Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.
- An answer from God requires us to take responsibility to proclaim
It to others.
- Some answers from God require immediate actions.
- Some command from God requires us to make the Word
Plain to others and request the help of others who believe to
Spread the command.
- We do live in a vacuum, we live among others who need to hear
God’s word from us.
- Each believer has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His
Enlightenment.
- God enlightens each of us in a way that is plain to us and in a way that we
Can proclaim to others.
- One of our major problems is believing that the Word of God applies to us
Today.
- God gives us time to get right with Him.
- We can’t take the prophecy of God’s Word for granted.
It was written to the Israelites, but it was preserved in print for us.
- Just because His judgment didn’t happen today does not
Mean it will not happen tomorrow.
- God has an appointed time for everything.
- His justice is due immediately upon our sins, but
His mercy gives us time to repent.
- The sooner we realize God\’s Word is true concerning us, the sooner
We will change our ways to please God.
- We will not escape God’s judgment if we continue in our sinful ways.
- For hundreds of years, God tolerated Isreal’s worship of idol gods.
He punished them but would restore them once they repented.
- Never had God completed destroyed Jerusalem or allowed the temple
To be burned.
- God’s coming judgment would allow the city and the temple to be burned
And the people will be taken captive.
- There is a time when the judgment of God takes place to keep us from
Destroying ourselves.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE ENEMY SENT BY GOD
V:4 \”See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright,
but the righteous will live by his faith— 5 indeed, wine betrays him;
he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave
and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations
and takes captive all the peoples.
- God described for Israel their future destruction by the Chaldeans.
- God described the ruthlessness of the enemy that HE would
Send against them.
- Man, by nature is greedy and dissatisfied with their possessions.
- Man, by nature is short-sighted and ungrateful for the blessings
Of God.
As a result, we invoke the wrath of God because of our
Disobedience.
- God promised to send an enemy against Israel, with worst
desires than theirs.
- What Israel did to their brothers and sister would be multiplied against
Them.
- They refused to worship God in spirit and truth, so He would
Take them captive in a nation that worshipped the idol gods they
Craved.
- They would be forced to worship the idol gods without freedom
God had provided.
- They would be subject to death for worshiping their true God.
- The greatest freedom we have is the freedom our Lord provides.
Habakkuk 3:17-19
THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF SINFUL MEN
V:17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING, THE RIGHTEOUS CAN REJOICE
V:18. yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
- God’s plan for our punishment is to make us realize the tremendous
blessings we have in worshipping Him.
- Our punishment can include the failure of all our efforts.
- For the Israelites, it was the failure of their crops and the
Lost of their livestock.
- In times of trouble we should not give up on God, but praise
Him for our existence,
- The good will suffer with the bad, but we can rejoice in the salvation
Of the Lord.
- We have a history with the Lord that our repentance restores
His blessing.
- When we are weak, the Lord is faithful to bring about our recovery.
- Those who are righteous before the Lord can stand in assurance that
God will take care of them.
- We need to take on the attitude of King David who said;
Psalms 37:25
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
- In troubling times, those who love the Lord can rejoice in His promises.
- In troubling times, God works all things for the good of those who love Him.
NIV
