The
book of Habakkuk is small and commonly overlooked, but carries a very timeless
and crucial message for us all. Habakkuk
was a prophet of Israel during dark times.
The nation of Israel had turned from God; they were sacrificing to
idols, killing their own children, and committing sexual sin; to list a
few. On top of that, the Babylonians
(people more evil then the Israelites) were rising to power and were pillaging
the people of Israel. They were robbing them,
killing them and kidnapping them as slaves.
Habakkuk was living during a time of fear, oppression and darkness.
Habakkuk
feels alone, his people are evil and God is judging them with people more evil
then they are. Habakkuk naturally
questions how God can allow this and still be good and holy (Hab 1:12-13). Then God answer’s him and defends His own
goodness and sovereignty (Hab 2:2-20).
During this process, Habakkuk’s heart is changed (Hab 3). That must have been nice.
If only we could just read it and
have it become true to us in our hearts.
But girls get molested by their dads, children are starving,
grandmothers get sold for drugs, and husbands beat their wives. By looking at the world you would determine
that God is either good but not in control, or in control but not good. But He couldn’t possibly be both…but He
insists He is (Acts 4:24, Psa 143:10).
So I would like to investigate.
Now to understand how God is good
and sovereign, let’s look and see how He was good and sovereign in the
beginning. God made all of creation
good, because He is good (1Tim 4:4, Gen 1:1).
And He ruled sovereignly over the creation He spoke into existence out
of nothing. Then He created man and
woman, with free will, and He called them very good (Gen 1:31).
Similar to the belief that God can
only be good or in control, is the belief that either God is in control or we
have free will. Again, the scripture’s
teach that the answer is “all of the above” (Jos 24:15, Psa 111:6). I believe that our ability to choose our own
moral conduct solidifies God’s sovereignty.
Because only a God that was totally in control of His creation, could
give us free will without fear that we would endanger His will. But if God is in heaven and we are mere
puppets, then how can we be judged and held accountable for our actions (1Pet
4:4-5)? God is in control, so we can
have free will.
Now, because of our ability to
choose, we chose rebellion against God and brought sin into the world. Sin, death, disease, poverty, and the like
are in the world because we choose for them to be (Gen 2:17). All of us.
All the way down to our first parents, Adam and Eve, but really we’re
all responsible (Rom 3:23). Because God
is good and gave us the ability to choose, and we chose sin, He respects that
decision. And as long as we continue to
choose sin, God will continue to respect that.
But now that sin is in the world
and His creation is no longer good, God must act. He must continue His work in creation by
using the sin that’s marred it. Only a
sovereign God can use sin to fulfill His purposes. God uses sin to prune and refine our
character (Rom 5:3-5). He also uses sin
to demonstrate His own righteousness and show His glory (Psa 51:4).
The fact that He uses sin to
accomplish His will is also a testament to His goodness. Sin is the direct rebellion against God. For God to cleanse all of creation from sin
and all those that are sinful, would be completely justified. But God delights in giving us grace (Psa
149:4). His kindness leads us to
repentance (Rom 2:4) and His gentleness makes us great (Psa 18:35). Jesus gave us a perfect picture of that and
proved it once and for all on the cross.
A good God is in control. It is only with this knowledge, can anyone
who has accepted His free gift of salvation say with confidence, “we win”. If God is not in complete control and He is
slave to the uncertainty of life and sin.
Then how can we trust Him and say we win a battle that isn’t over
yet? But God is good and in
control. And one day He’ll come and
rescue His church and reclaim the world.
And all of our work to bring heaven to Earth will be finished. Creation will be good again (Rev 21:3-6).
So in the mean time, when you turn
on the news and all you see is evidence of a fallen world. Or when you personally are going through a
tragic time in your life, remember the word He gave to Habakkuk. “The righteous will live by His faith.” I don’t know why it seems that all the
unrighteous people are in power and authority.
I don’t know why some girls are promiscuous for years without
consequence but a girl gets raped once and becomes pregnant. I don’t know why people smoke their whole
lives and live to be 80 but a baby gets a brain tumor at 2. I just don’t know. But it’s when we’re exposed to all of these
things that we have to stand firm on our faith that God is good and in
control. And when we see these terrible things we have to remember that its not evidence of a fallen God, but evidence of a fallen world.
