Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
Nobleboro, Maine
August 11, 2019
Habakkuk 3:17-18
FOLLOW ME EVEN WHEN I SEEM TO FAIL YOU
I. The chaplain who hates God.
During the height of the Iraq War, Newsweek magazine profiled
Army Chaplain Roger Benimoff, a Southern Baptist.
Benimoff was on his second tour in Iraq and was counseling
stressed-out soldiers and providing death rituals for planes
full of coffins.
The chaplain was also struggling with his personal faith.
He had begun with much enthusiasm and a sense of mission, but the
tensions of war began to wear down his relationship with God.
Chaplain Benimoff kept a journal during both tours, but the final
entry said this:
"I do not want anything to do with God.
I am sick of religion.
It is a crutch for the weak. . . .
We make God into what we need for the moment.
"I hate God.
I hate all those who try to explain God when they
really don't know."
#34488
A. Many people can empathize with the chaplain.
1) When life becomes bitter, religion can seem hollow.
2) We know someone in Boothbay [Maine] whose young daughter
was diagnosed with cancer.
It was a strong Christian family, and they prayed for
the girl's recovery.
She did recover - for a while. Then the cancer returned.
When the daughter died, the mother became very bitter
with God.
Like the chaplain, she wanted nothing to do with religion
for a long time.
B. Is the problem due to God, or the shallowness of our faith?
The next issue of Newsweek had a letter to the editor about
the chaplain story that struck me powerfully.
Felice Sage made this comment:
"While one can only sympathize deeply with chaplains for
the horrors they have endured,
it's puzzling that it comes as an unwelcome surprise to any
adult that terrible things happen all the time to people
no worse than themselves....
Hasn't that always been obvious?
Genocide is committed, little children die of starvation,
people are tortured and maimed, and killed in wars.
None of this is new nor have these things happened only to
bad people.
Why then should those who have had no trouble maintaining
their faith question it only when they see such things
happen close to them?
Did they suppose that all those other suffering people
weren't deserving enough or praying hard enough or not
praying in the correct religion?
Did they believe in a God who would allow such things to
happen to millions but never to them because they had
chosen the right spiritual formula?
If that's the sort of nonsense they are losing faith in,
it's hard to see that as a bad thing." #34488
II. The paradox at the heart of our faith.
A. You become a Christian because you want good things to happen.
1) Instead of condemnation we get forgiveness and God's love.
a) No one wants to end up with a worse life.
b) We want joy! Peace! Answered prayers!
2) Jesus has many promises for us.
a) (Christian books that list all the Bible promises.)
b) A classic promise is found in John 14:13 --
"I [Jesus] will do whatever you ask in my name, so
the the Son may bring glory to the Father.
You may ask for for anything in my name, and I will
do it."
"Anything" is rather open-ended, isn't it?
c) Yet this promise, like many in the Bible, has conditions.
1> The very next verse says, "If you love me, you will
obey what I command."
2> Another condition is that it has to be according
to the Father's will.
3> Sometimes when we get bad things, it is because
we have violated these conditions.
B. At the same time, bad things are promised to good Christians.
1) Jesus promises his followers they will face rejection,
persecution, and even death.
2) The Apostle Paul says in Acts 14:22, "We must go through
many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."
3) Paul and other early Christians knew good people who became
sick and died, who were destitute, who were executed.
4) Bad things can happen to Christians - even to YOU.
III. The book in the Bible that highlights this dilemma.
A. Habakkuk is one of the more obscure Old Testament prophets.
1) As a new Christian in the 1970s I read Chick tracts,
small comic books for believers.
2) One of them emphasized being committed to reading the Bible.
a) (It has been called one of the most boring Chick tracts
EVER - all text and few drawings)
b) But one page in this tract grabbed me. It said:
"Won't you feel silly when you talk with Habakkuk in
the next life and you have to say to him,
'Uh, no, I didn't read your book. I didn't even know
it was in the Bible!'"
c) I immediately read the book of Habakkuk. (Have you?)
B. Habakkuk's important and relevant message.
1) Habakkuk was confused, even irritated, with God.
a) His way of doing things did not make sense.
b) It did not seem just. 1:2-3
c) The Jews of his time were corrupt and God did nothing
about it.
1> The land was filled with violence and injustice.
2> Sound familiar? (Interesting that he focuses on
society at large, not his own unmet needs.)
2) God tells him what he will do about it. 1:6
a) The Babylonians (Iraq) will smash Israel.
3) In verse 13, Habakkuk becomes more angry. 1:13
a) His sharp-edged response to God:
"Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up
those more righteous than themselves?" 1:13
b) Jews may be bad, but Babylonians were far worse.
c) Absence of justice is wrong; unjust justice is evil.
IV. How people get angry with God.
A. Some conclude God isn't a good God after all.
1) Rabbi Harold Kushner had a son named Aaron who was born
with condition called progeria, "rapid aging", and who
died at age 14.
a) Why would this happen to son of good, religious man?
b) Kushner was compelled to write a book which became
a bestseller: "When Bad Things Happen to Good People."
#1434
2) The spiritual dilemma of suffering as summarized by Job.
a) God is all-powerful.
b) God is just and fair.
c) Job is a good person.
1> Job's suffering creates a spiritual problem.
2> One of above truths must be sacrificed.
3) Rabbi Kushner abandons belief in God being all-powerful.
a) God doesn't send suffering, and he cannot cure it.
b) But God feels our pain with us.
1> Some Christians like this - sounds like the cross.
B. An honest look at life leads to hard questions.
1) Is the rabbi correct?
2) If so, it abandons clear Bible teaching on God's power.
3) Habakkuk makes no decision on the matter, except to wait
for God. 2:1
C. God's answer comes in chapters 2 and 3.
1) In chapter 2, he announces judgment on the Babylonian leader.
2) In chapter 3, he gives a vision of his coming with great
glory to smash Israel's enemies.
a) God's judgment is selective.
1> Those who trust in God will be spared. 2:4
2> It is a wonderful Bible teaching: "The just live
by faith." (Book of Romans; Reformation)
b) His "instruments" of judgment will be judged themselves.
2:16
1> The Babylonians thought they were following their
own agenda.
2> They were wrong. God is still in charge. 2:20
3) Even when events seem out of control, God can be trusted.
a) God is the ruler of history.
b) Not everything that happens is good.
c) But God can take everything that happens and turn it
around for good.
4) Faith is required on our part. 3:16
a) Habakkuk chooses faith, and waits patiently.
b) Sometimes we will see our vindication, sometimes not.
c) God often works in round-about ways. (Babylonians)
V. Habakkuk never got to see the results of his prophecy.
A. Israel kept on sinning and Babylonians came.
1) Only years later did the Babylonians get theirs.
a) Their capital is now a pile of ruins.
2) In the end the Jews came out purer and more dedicated to God.
a) Disappointments can have a silver lining.
1> They are wonderful opportunities for humility.
2> They can deepen our faith rather than destroy it.
3> They can help us be wiser and more balanced.
b) How have you handled spiritual disappointments?
B. Nevertheless, Habakkuk was at peace with God.
1) Genuine faith doesn't require loose ends to be tied up.
2) You can have peace even in the midst of trouble. 3:17
3) Habakkuk was able to rejoice in God, anyway. 3:18
VI. Do we only believe when it "works"? 3:17-18
A. Habakkuk decides to have faith when there is no backup.
1) When everything goes wrong, he still believes, even rejoices.
2) Have you come to that kind of faith in your life?
B. Nothing should be able to stop us from rejoicing in God.
1) We don't thank God for hard times, we thank God that he
can bring good out of them.
a) Even if he hasn't done it yet!
2) And we need to be compassionate toward those who are
suffering and are not yet exhibiting this kind of faith.
C. When God seems distant, he is often the closest.
Poem shared with me by a church member years ago:
I asked God to take away my pride, and God said no.
He said it was not for Him to take away but for me to give up.
I asked God to make my handicapped child whole, and God said,
"No, her spirit is already whole. Her body is only temporary."
I asked God to grant me patience, and God said no.
He said that patience is the byproduct of tribulation.
It isn't granted; it's earned.
I asked God to give me happiness; God said no.
He said He gives blessing; happiness is up to me.
I asked God to spare me pain, and God said no.
He said I must grow on my own, but he will prune me in order
to make me fruitful.
I asked God if he loved me, and God said yes.
He gave me his only Son who died for me, and I will be in
heaven someday because I believe.
I asked God to help me love others as much as he loves me,
and God said,
"Ahhhh, finally! Now you have the idea."
#1419
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 1419 "I Asked God," by Claudia Minden Weisz, 1980.
# 1434 "The Reasons People Suffer," book summary of Rabbi Harold Kushner's
"When Bad Things Happen To Good People."
#34488 "A Chaplain Who Hated God," by Eve Conant, Newsweek Magazine;
Article: Faith Under Fire, May 7, 2007, p. 26. The reader's
comment is by Felice Sage of Littleton, Colorado.
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