Habakkuk is a prophet who has questions for God. He is looking around at the world, and in particularly, looking at his own nation and seeing wickedness and violence. Habakkuk is asking God why he does not do something about it. How long will he keep crying out to God and God will not respond to him? We saw in the last lesson that Habakkuk showed us how we can pray to God. Habakkuk showed us that we can take our questions to God and that God wants our questions. When we are confused by what is going on in our lives or by what is going on around us, we can take that confusion and perplexity to God. But now God is going to give his response. Habakkuk has been praying and praying. But now God will give his answer to Habakkuk. Open your copies of God’s word to Habakkuk 1:5-11.
God’s Unbelievable Answer (Habakkuk 1:5)
God’s answer begins by telling Habakkuk that he is going to do something that you will not believe even if you were told about it. You are not going to believe what I am doing even if I explain it to you. How many times do we think that God has to answer our prayers in a way that we completely understand what he is doing? Think about how many times God responds in ways that no one would have ever expected!
Therefore, I will again confound these people with wonder after wonder. The wisdom of their wise will vanish, and the perception of their perceptive will be hidden. (Isaiah 29:14 CSB)
For the LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim. He will rise in wrath, as at the Valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his unexpected work, and to perform his task, his unfamiliar task. (Isaiah 28:21 CSB)
Isaiah prophesied about how God was going to act in a way so that the wise and the perceptive would be completely confounded and astounded. God will rise up and do an unexpected work. Do not look to God and think that he has to do things the way you think he must do things. God will act in ways that even when he explains it, you will still be shocked. John 11 is a great example of this. In John 11 we read about Mary and Martha sending a message to Jesus that Lazarus, his friend, is gravely sick. But Jesus does not immediately come, choosing to wait two days until Lazarus dies and then going to Bethany. When Jesus arrives, Martha meets Jesus first and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Mary says the same thing when she sees Jesus (cf. John 11:32). They did not understand the way Jesus was going to answer their request. They thought the way for Jesus to answer them was to immediately come and heal Lazarus before he died. Jesus’ answer was completely different and completely unbelievable. Jesus was going to answer their request by raising Lazarus from the dead. Even after Jesus had spoken to both Mary and Martha, when Jesus asks for the tomb stone to be rolled back from Lazarus’ tomb, Martha pushes back, telling Jesus that it has already been four days now. The point is that God gives unbelievable answers to our prayers. Who would believe that the way God would conquer Jericho was by having the people march around the city? After speaking about how God reconcile both the Jews and Gentiles into his saving plan, the apostle Paul proclaimed:
Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? (Romans 11:33-34 CSB)
The point is that we should not be surprised that God will act in the world and respond to our requests in unbelievable ways. God does not fit in any theological box that we think we can put him in. As God had to tell Abraham, there is nothing that is too hard for him to do. There is nothing that is outside the realm of possibility for our God. So God challenges Habakkuk that he is going to do something that he will not believe. What is he going to do? Look at verse 6.
God’s Unbelievable Purpose (Habakkuk 1:6-11)
God’s unbelievable answer is that he is going to use the Babylonians (Chaldeans) to sweep across the earth. God is going to use this ruthless and impetuous people. Friends, the Babylonians are not a righteous people. They are not a God-fearing nation. They are not God worshipers. You will notice that God does not say that this nation is a good nation but that they are wicked. They are dreaded and fearsome. They are their own justice and authority comes from themselves, not God (Habakkuk 1:7). They come for violence and gather prisoners like gathering sand (Habakkuk 1:9). They mock rulers and laugh and fortresses (Habakkuk 1:10). They are guilty people, seeing their strength as coming from their own gods (Habakkuk 1:11).
God is saying that he is going to raise up and empower a wicked nation to accomplish his purpose. You will notice that God was right. God is going to do something that will challenge the way people think about God. God is going to raise up and use these awful people to accomplish his will. We can wonder if God can do this. Can God accomplish his will through wicked people, through wicked nations, and through wicked events? God is telling Habakkuk that he can. This is not the only time we see this in the scriptures. Joseph understood this truth at the end of his trial. He told his brothers:
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20 ESV)
Joseph understood that the brothers did evil to him. But God brought about good through the evil that his brothers worked. God was accomplishing his unbelievable purpose through unbelievable means. We see this in the New Testament as well. God would use Judas’ decision to do evil against the Savior as the way to save the world. His betrayal was the path to the world’s redemption. Again we see God’s ability to accomplish his purpose, even through evil actions and through evil people.
In short, God says that he knows what he is doing. God is sovereign over the earth. He knows the character of the Babylonian people. He knows that they have no regard for him. He knows they are wicked. But they are going to be God’s instrument to accomplish his will.
It is hard for us to appreciate this answer that God gives to Habakkuk. Imagine if we looked at our country with all of its wickedness and rejection of God’s ways and we cried out to God for judgment and revival. We cried out how long will God allow violence, murder of the innocent, abuse, sexual immorality, and corruption. Then imagine God’s answer to say that he will use China to sweep over the world. Yes, they have no regard for God. Yes, they have no regard for human rights. Yes, they are a wicked people who trust in themselves. But God says he is going to use them to judge. Or imagine if God were to say that he would use the Muslim people of Iran to sweep over the world. How jarring would these answers be to us! But this is what God is saying! God is saying that he will accomplish his will and his purposes in ways that he do not expect. In Revelation 6 when the saints who had died for their faith in Jesus were pictured as crying out for justice from under the altar, God’s answer again is completely unexpected. God tells them to wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are killed just as they had been (cf. Revelation 6:11). We get upset when our presidential elections do not go the way we want. Imagine getting answer like Habakkuk received!
When God’s Solution Seems Like a Problem
So here our challenging question. What will you do when God’s solution seems like a problem? God’s rescue of Israel from Egypt was to back them up against the Red Sea. God’s solution seemed like a problem. Jesus let Lazarus die. God’s solution seemed like a problem. God sacrificed his Son on a cross through the betrayal of one of his own disciples. God’s solution seemed like a problem. God told Abraham he would have a child when both Sarah and Abraham were told old to have children. God’s solution seemed like a problem. What will you do when God’s solution seems like a problem?
This is a critical message for us today. The apostle Paul quotes this section of Habakkuk in his preaching and its message is a powerful warning to us. In Acts 13 we read that Paul and Barnabas go into a synagogue in Antioch and they are given an opportunity to deliver a sermon to the people (Acts 13:14-15). Paul preaches about Israel’s history, how God worked to bring a Savior to the people but the people crucified him. But God raised him from the dead and forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed through the crucified and resurrected Jesus (Acts 13:38). In fact, everyone who believes in the crucified Jesus would be freed from the Law. Now notice how Paul ends the message by quoting Habakkuk.
Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: “Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.” (Acts 13:40-41 ESV)
What’s Paul’s point? Paul’s point is that we have the temptation to reject God’s answers when he gives us hard answers. When God’s solution seems like a problem, then we reject God. Paul says you are going to astounded and perish because you will not believe what God is doing, even if someone were to tell it to you. God is asking you what you are going to do when he gives an answer that you do not understand or cannot believe. What are you going to do when God’s solution for your marriage seems like a problem? What are you going to do when God’s answer for your family seems like a problem? What are you going to do when God’s answer for your suffering and your problems seems unbelievable? What are you going to do when the Shepherd leads you through the valley of the shadow of death? The problem is not that God is not working in the world, in this nation, and in our lives. The problem is if we will believe what God is doing in this world, in this nation, and in our lives. What will you do when God’s solution seems like a problem? Will you be astounded and perish? Or will you believe that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work in us (cf. Ephesians 3:20)?