| |
Book: Habakkuk
 Print ( PC Only )
Habakuk 1:2 When God is Silent
I. The silence of God is one of the most difficult things that the
believer has to contend with.
A. When you pray and it seems that God is not hearing.
1. O Lord how long shall I cry and you will not hear?
2. We have all experienced this kind of a test of faith in
our lives.
a. We pray for a situation and nothing seems to
change.
b. Or what is even worse, sometimes the situation
even gets worse.
B. Habakuk was concerned about the moral conditions of the nation.
1. The people had turned their backs on God.
2. They had forsaken the law of the Lord.
3. As a result, violent crimes were becoming common place.
a. He speaks of the spoiling or the robberies.
b. People had no conscience against taking
something that belonged to someone else.
c. It was not safe to go out on the streets.
5. The law was being slacked.
a. That is the law enforcement agencies were not
able to keep up with the rising crime rate.
b. There was not even a diligent attempt to
enforce the laws in many areas, because the
problem of lawlessness had become so great.
4. There was a breakdown in the judicial system, and true
justice was not being served.
a. If a criminal was apprehended, he would usually
get off with such a light sentence that there
was no real deterrent to crime.
b. There was a breakdown of the social order.
5. The forces of wickedness prevailed over the righteous
and therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
a. The wicked gained control of the government,
they wrote the laws.
b. The legislation seemed to favor the wicked, and
punish the righteous if they sought to stand up
against the wickedness.
C. The prophet was frustrated by what he was observing because God
did not seem to answer his prayers for changes.
1. Why do you even show me these things that are happening
if you are not going to do anything about it?
2. I think his frustration is much like the frustration
that we are feeling today as we watch the moral decline
in our nation.
3. We are appalled by the legislation that is being
proposed, yet we feel so helpless to do anything about
it.
4. Jesus said that the children of this world, in this
generation, are wiser than the children of light.
a. It would seem that they devised a strategy to
take over the public education system, so that
they could control the minds of the children.
b. They took over the media, so that they could
control the minds of the adults. They learned
the effective use of propaganda, so that they
can form the opinions of the masses.
c. You do not have true news reporting today, you
have a slanted view that is designed to create
a mind set in you.
5. In the letters to the editors, they are not truly
representative of the letters that are received.
a. When Dr. Shuller backed off from the support of
a judge who he discovered advocated the
legalizing of drugs, and it was reported in the
papers.
b. Later in the letters to the editors column of
the L.A. Times, they printed several letters
that blasted Dr. Shuller for his stand.
Absolutely no letters were published that
supported his stand. I would be willing to bet
that there were many letters that supported his
stand, but the liberal editorial staff chose
not to publish them.
6. The wicked encircle the righteous therefore wrong
judgment proceeds. The common ignorant people draw
wrong conclusions. If you did not have the wisdom of
the Holy Spirit, you would also be as desensitized to
the evil as the rest of the world.
II. There is only one thing that is worse than the silence of God and the
feeling that God is doing nothing, and that is: not understanding God
when He begins to work.
A. God told the troubled prophet that He was doing a work in his
days that if he were told, he would not believe it.
1. The prophet was crying, "God you are not doing
anything." God answered, "I am doing something, and if
you were told what I was doing, you would not believe
it.
2. Through the prophet Isaiah God had declared, "My ways
are not your ways, for My ways are beyond your finding
out."
a. I am convinced that God's ways are better than
my ways.
b. That His ways are wiser than my ways.
3. I do not always understand what God is doing. I do not
need to understand, all I need is to trust in Him.
a. This is where my faith is tested.
b. Trusting the work of God though I cannot
understand it.
B. As God began to reveal His plan to the prophet things only
seemed to get worse in the mind of the prophet.
1. God said that He was raising up the Babylonians who
were going to march through the breadth of the land and
possess it.
2. They were going to destroy the nation and take the
remainder of the people into captivity.
C. This announcement astounded the prophet.
1. God, you are the true God who has existed forever.
2. You mean that you have ordained them for judgment?
3. You are going to use them to correct us?
4. You so pure that You cannot behold evil.
5. Why would You a allow the wicked to devour a nation
that is more righteous than they?
a. O God, admittedly we are bad, but they are
worse.
b. I cannot understand why you would do this.
D. I am going to go and sit in the tower and wait to see what you
will say to me, and frame an answer when you reprove me.
E. The Lord spoke to him while he was sitting in the tower, and
gave him a truth, and a word by which he could survive the
coming holocaust.
1. "The soul that is lifted up, is not right."
2. "The just shall live by His faith."
3. He was going to need this word if he were to survive
the great calamity that was coming.
4. Things are not going to get better, but they will get
worse.
III. The faith to survive as it was manifested in the prophet.
A. I heard what you said, and it frightened me.
1. I don't know why you are doing what you are doing, but
just keep on doing it.
a. "Revive thy work" or literally keep alive Your
work."
b. Don't stop Lord.
c. I may be afraid, but my trust is in you.
2. In the days in which your wrath comes, remember mercy.
B. He saw next the vision of God as He was now doing a work of
awesome judgment upon the earth.
C. His faith was steadfast in the Lord to preserve His people.
1. Although the fig tree shall not blossom.
2. Though there is no fruit in the vine.
3. The olive trees are barren.
4. There is no grain in the fields.
5. The flock is cut off from the fold.
6. There is not herd in the stalls.
D. You cannot get more desperate or desolate than this.
E. "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation."
1. The word translated rejoice in the Hebrew is literally,
jump up and down.
2. The word translated joy is literally spin around.
3. An exuberant joy, such as is often manifested at
games.
F. How could this possibly be?
1. He knows that God will take care of those who trust
fully in Him.
2. That God has resources that we know nothing about.
|