Title: Habakkuk and the Wrestle!

Date: 14.1.18

Text: Habakkuk 3

Place: Rhema

Title: Habakkuk and the Wrestle!

File: Prayer 5 (Habakkuk 3)

Preacher: Stephen Taylor

I suppose everyone has questions they would like to ask God, if they had the chance.

Lord, why is there all this pain and suffering in this world? Why do bad things happen to good people? When are you going to return? How could Jesus be both God and man? How does the Trinity really work?

A number of years ago we gave the kids of our Kids Club a chance to ask the questions that had always troubled them and we sought to answer them. There were as you can imagine some very interesting questions. They asked us among other things ……Why is Jesus so powerful when he had an ordinary mother? How can God be everywhere at once?Why doesn't God help the people in Iraq? Do pets go to heaven? Why do dogs eat rabbits?

Questions, questions. But did you know that even prophets have questions about God. And in about 700BC, a particular prophet called Habakkuk, had some serious questions about how God was running his world. He looked around his country Israel and he saw injustice, he saw violence, he saw evil running rampant and he turns to God and he asks "Why? Why do you allow it to happen? And what's more Lord, How long till you will stop it? How long till you answer my prayer and put an end to all this?"

They're good questions aren't they? And they're questions we could quite easily ask today. But I want you to note that when Habakkuk has his questions he takes them to God in prayer. Now is it right to question God? Is it godly to bring God your doubts and your fears? Surely our prayers should be polite, respectful, full of praise and thanksgiving, not desperate, not full of doubt and certainly not a wrestle. For funnily enough the name Habakkuk means to wrestle!

A wrestle! I have been amused that in the last couple of years rugby league has become all about the wrestle. The way you tackle your opponent. The way you slow the play down, and take the momentum out of the other people’s attack. But maybe Christianity is also about the wrestle. It is about looking at our world and seeing injustice, violence, faithlessness, unbelief and then wrestling with God over these things. God what are you going to do about it? How can I live in such an environment? What on earth do you want me to do, to become?

Friends the Bible is filled with these sorts of serious questions given to God. Psalm 10:1begins rather abruptly: “Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Elsewhere the Psalmist says “Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?”

When you are troubled God is the best place to turn to. Don’t just go to your boss, your family, your GP. Go to God. Be honest. Reach out to Him. He alone is sovereign. He alone can answer. And He cares too. He wants you, he wants us to ask, to reach out, even to wrestle. Prayer is a place where we can be real not just put on our masks. Where others can see that we don’t always have it all together, where together we wrestle with God!

Pastor Shane Hipps wrote an intriguing article in Leadership Magazine where he suggests that when worship is just celebration it becomes a kind of pep rally to inspire excitement about who God is. And because grief is an unpleasant emotion we tend to deny our suffering in favour of celebration. But he writes “Authenticity and integrity in worship means expressing both lament and praise. Each element completes the other. Without lament, praise is little more than shallow sentimentality and a denial of life’s struggles and sin. Without praise, lament is a denial of hope and grace, both of which are central to our life of faith...”

And so when Habakkuk asks his questions of God, God answers, he actually answers! You are right Habakkuk to complain about the violence and injustice in your world. Good on you. In fact I am about to do something about it! I am going to send the Babylonians in to justly punish all those who have done the wrong thing!

Wait a second God. That’s even worse! Your solution is worse than the problem. The Babylonians are godless, blood thirsty and unjust themselves! Lord what are you thinking?

It would be like us complaining about the immorality, the corruption in our national leaders, and God saying "Yes I agree so I'll allow the government of Indonesia to come into your country and take over and give those guys some curry." Or we might be complaining about the hold that alcoholism has on our people, and say to God when are you going to help us with this addiction and God says "Yeah I'll stop the drink problem by allowing cheap heroin to come into the country and let it be legal and freely available." Or we might complain about the state of our Churches how there are so few good ones around and so many wish washy ones & God says, "Yes I couldn't agree with you more, so I might allow an ISIS to take control of Australia and they will make sure there are no churches at all, and especially no wishy washy ones!”

This is often the way when you wrestle with God. You speak to Him. He answers through His Word and sometimes it seems like God is on another planet. For His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His solutions are not our solutions. So Habakkuk questions God again in the second part of chapter 1. But God you are perfect, holy, pure. How can you use a group of imperfect, unjust and impure people to do your work of judgement?

And God graciously answers Habakkuk a second time. You are right! That does seem unusual. But after the Babylonians come and sweep across the people of Israel I will judge them also and they too will experience my wrath, my judgement, my absolute justice. God may not follow our song sheet but he always does what is right and true. And it is in this context we get Habakkuk’s marvellous prayer in chap 3 which we will now turn to. And we will find in this prayer, Habakkuk,

1. Revere’s His God (verse 2)

“Lord I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”

Habakkuk has a sense of awe when he speaks to God. He is on holy ground. He is before someone greater and mightier than He. Only He could come up with the Babylonians as a way of bringing about His justice. Only He has consistently treated the people of Israel with grace and mercy when they deserved condemnation and judgement. He has done some great things in the past but here he is about to do it all again in the future!

I think the modern Church has lost its sense of awe. I think at times I have lost that sense of God’s awesomeness. We use the word awesome so casually today. But God alone is awesome. And we should come before him with a sense of wonder and reverence. We should plead with God that when he comes in wrath he will remember also mercy. When he comes to look at my sin that he will remember mercy. When he comes to our nation he will not just give us the justice that we deserve but that he will remember mercy.

Do it again Habakkuk pleads. You have shown mercy to God’s people in the past. Do it again. Habakkuk’s prayer begins by revering God’s name and then

1. Review’s God’s actions

For from the middle of Israelite history, Habakkuk looks back at God’s great actions. How he came from the south from the area of Teman and in great glory rescued his people out of Egypt. How there was plague and pestilence sent to the people of Egypt and it made all the nations tremble. The tents of Cushan and the dwelling of Midian were in distress as God led his people toward the promised land. The Red Sea parts, the river Jordan is divided as you led your people to victory.

The sun stands still in the heavens. The nations are defeated beforehand. Habakkuk looks back at the actions of God in the past. God is great. God is all powerful. The one who made the earth has done great things on the earth. And he has promised to shake the earth again. To actually come down to reveal his righteous judgements. So this review of what God has done in the past is also a looking forward of what God will do again in the future.

Friends, it’s always a good idea to go back and remember what God has done for his people in the past. To reflect on your life and review His dealings with your family, your Church family and your nation. That’s why it’s good to sing the hymns, old and new. That’s why we read the Scriptures, old & new. We must remember that God has always come to the rescue of those He has redeemed. When we review we discover that God is doing much more than we thought. He is not uninvolved. He is not silent. But then he doesn’t always act immediately. There are times of silence and times of great activity.

Did you know that we are told to remember or not forget over 200 times in Scripture?200 times. Do you know that the Lord Supper was given to us so that whenever we eat this bread and drink this wine we are looking back to the saving acts of Christ. So when we pray we should review and reflect on God’s goodness. We should do so with our Bible’s open as God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Before we ask for more, remember what God has already given.

1. Revere, Review and RestVerse 16.

“I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, & my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.”

Habakkuk’s prayer affects him physically. His voice wavers. His heart pounds. His legs go weak at the knees. This is not just a not my will but thy will be done type prayer. This is an all of our hearts, all our minds, all of my life type affair. We were praying a few weeks ago for the future of our Church and one of the people in the group I was in was moved to tears. His tongue stuck to his mouth. His mind went to putty. That is what is happening here with Habbakuk.

That is why people of the past have often combined prayer with fasting so that the ache of their need for food would drive them to long for God in the same way. That is why Paul says I beat my body and make it my slave because he doesn’t just want his voice, his mind to look to God. He wants his heart and his hands and his feet to call out for the one who is in control.

Friend’s prayer isn’t always an enjoyable experience. Jacob wrestles with the Lord. Moses trembled before His God on Mt Sinai. Joshua fell on his face before the Lord. Daniel becomes exhausted and ill after seeing the visions God gave him. Jesus himself drops tears like blood the night before he dies. So when was the last time your left prayer exhausted? When was the last time my heart pumped long and hard in the presence of God? Friends we are today into the microwave prayer, a few minutes here and couple there that we know longer wrestle with God and are never physically spent by our time before the Lord in prayer.

Habakkuk does that until he gets to the point where he is no longer fighting but has entered the waiting room. He will wait patiently for God to act. He will rest in the presence of God. Even though he still doesn’t like what is happening around him. Even though he is still astonished that God would lower himself to use the Babylonians to bring about his judgement. He will stop speaking. He will shut his mouth. He will rest in Him rather than wrestle with Him.

Apparently Margaret Thatcher once said, “I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my way in the end.” God is calling us to be extraordinarily patient because God will get his way in the end. One way to move from worry to worship is to wait. To place your prayer before God and patiently look to Him for the answer.

4. That in turn will lead to Worship (verses 17-8)

“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, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.”

Habakkuk’s situation has not changed but Habakkuk himself has changed.Habakkuk is no longer looking outward and asking Why? He is looking upward & saying Wow! Disappointment does not always lead to despair. For in this great verse is the word Yet. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joyful in God my Saviour. Even though there is no food and no flocks. No bank account. No blessings. No safety & no safety net. Yet we can still worship.

Do you rejoice in God whether things are good or bad? Are you at worship when life is good and when life is tough? Are you generous with your giving when God blesses you with financial resources and when he doesn’t? For many God is the divine vending machine, you put the money in, the prayer in, the service in and out comes the blessings. Many are only Christian for what they can get out of it.

I remember reading a number of years ago a couple of Aussie backpackers who were employed by XXXX to stand on a platform outside of Lord’s Cricket ground during an Ashes test match and advertise the sponsors product by drinking it all day long. When interviewed they said they were in it for the lurks and perks. But that wouldn’t be true of us would it? Are we Christians for the lurks and perks? For the blessings? Or will we rejoice when our tummy’s are full and when they are empty. When we are blessed and when we feel forsaken? When God seems near and when he appears far away?

1. So lastly revere, review, rest, rejoice and Rely (verse 19)

The final step is to rely on God for strength. “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” Habakkuk holds on to the fact that God is sovereign. As one person put it: “If the Sovereign Lord is your strength, then your strength is more than sufficient.” Notice also that it’s not so much that God gives us strength; instead He gives us the strength of Himself.

Well how does this all work in practise? What can I do to allow this prayer of Habakkuk to become my prayer? The ancients used to say “we have pray until we pray”. Pray until we pray. What they mean by that is that most of us don’t even get warmed up in prayer when we stop. Prayer is something that we do but it is isn’t a priority. For example I was praying while I was preparing this message when the phone rang. So what did I do? I picked up the phone of course! Phones come first don’t they? Mobiles rule everything. But no they shouldn’t. Close the door. Switch off your phone. Turn off the TV and pray and pray and pray.

Pray as if your life depends upon it. Pray for your world, your family, your Church. Think and write down what God has done for you in the past. Stop and sing a hymn, a psalm, a song. Get on your knees until you physically hurt. And when you have spoken and spoken, wait patiently. Listen for God’s voice. Have your Bible open so that the passages that come to mind can be looked up. And then go and walk through the day as if you have left the burdens of your day on his shoulders.

It’s not rocket science. But it is how God gets us from earth to heaven and then back to earth. And for Habakkuk he might have gotten to see the Babylonian invasion but he didn’t get to see the Babylonians get their justice 70 years later. Nor did he see how God came down and walked on the earth in the form of Jesus. Nor did he find out about how God came and brought justice at the cross of Calvary but also showed mercy. To his people and to his enemies. No Habakkuk’s prayer was answered but he didn’t get to see it. But he didn’t have to see it because this prayer changed him and that was enough.

Alex Grant, pioneer missionary to China, once got up in a meeting in Singapore, and read solemnlyHabakkuk 3:17 “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall...yield no meat: the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: YET WILL I REJOICE IN THE LORD.”