A Faith That Sees

Habakkuk 1:1-2:1
February 27, 2022
Peter Yoo

Sermon Script

Introduction

Years ago, I tried to do something called a prayer journal. And if you’re not familiar with what a prayer journal is, it’s pretty much what it sounds like. Basically, you write down your prayers in a journal. Okay, simple enough. And my prayer journal was pretty scattered and inconsistent. There would be prayers written on one day, and then the next prayer would be like a week later. And then eventually I’d stop writing prayers in journals altogether. But there were times when I would look back at my prayer journal, and reread what I wrote on specific days, and I found that to be really helpful.

So it can be pretty helpful to have something like a prayer journal. Because let’s say something big happened in your life. Let’s say you got into the school you wanted to get into. Write your prayer down to capture in writing your heart before God. Or let’s say you met the love of your life, write your prayer down. Or after seeing your child born, or after getting your dream job, write your prayer down. And one day, you can look back at your prayer journal, and you can see what you prayed for. Even for on “ordinary” days or “special” days, you can see what you prayed for.

And a prayer journal is particularly helpful during difficult times. Let’s say you didn’t get into the school you wanted to. Write your prayer down. Or you got into a pretty big argument with the love of your life. Write your prayer down. Or when your child is sick, after you lost your job. Write your prayer down. And one day, you can look back at your prayer journal, and you can see the difficulty you went through and what you prayed for.

Okay, so why talk so much about prayer journals this morning, and what’s the relevance? Well, to try and keep things simple, we got a glimpse at Habakkuk’s prayer journal. I’m going to describe later how it’s not really like a prayer journal, but right now for the sake of simplicity, imagine book of Habakkuk somewhat like a prayer journal. And our passage this morning isn’t at the beginning of his prayer journal. It’s somewhere in the middle. You’re kinda just dropped into the middle of a difficult situation, and now you’re reading his thoughts.

Habakkuk is a prophet, and he’s writing during a time when the kingdom is split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And Habakkuk looks around at what’s going in the southern kingdom of Judah, and he’s seriously grieved. And I’ll explain more as the sermon goes on. But the main point of our passage this morning is that God calls us to have a faith that looks beyond what we can see. God calls us to have a faith that looks beyond what we can see. And we can see this in two main points. A faith that questions and complains, and a faith that watches and waits.

A Faith That Questions and Complains

First, a faith that questions and complains. Habakkuk’s faith is shaken. In verses 2-4, Habakkuk cries out to God. And I don’t know the last time you cried out to God, but it’s usually during times of serious difficulty. So what’s Habakkuk crying out to God about? What situation could so severe that would lead Habakkuk to cry out to God for help? It’s sin. Habakkuk sees the sin of Judah, and it seems like God doesn’t see anything. In verse 2, there’s violence in the streets, and it seems like God’s not doing anything. In verse 3, there’s destruction and violence, strife and contention. In verse 4, it seems like there’s only injustice and never God’s justice.

And remember, this is among the people of God, Habakkuk’s not talking about worldly people here. It’s as if you looked at Highland and saw only violence, fights, blood on the walls. You saw people sinning right in front of you. But nothing happens. And because nothing happens, it just leads to more sin. Soaring crime rates, smashed windows, broken pieces of glass, no Christian at Highland cares about God, no one wants to obey him, God’s Word is neglected and ignored, false teaching is embraced, sin isn’t dealt with, so people keep sinning. What do you do when you see Highland in shambles and in ruin? This is Habakkuk’s dilemma. And honestly, this can be Highland’s dilemma too, if it weren’t for God’s grace towards us thus far.

But Habakkuk sees all this. In verse 1, this is an oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. In verse 3, he asks why God makes him see iniquity and why God idly looks are wrongdoing. And so, Habakkuk sees what’s going on around him and now his faith is shaken. He questions God and he complains to God. Wouldn’t you? “God, don’t you care about Highland? Why do you make me see sin at Highland? It seems like you’re not doing anything about it! It seems like you look idly at wrongdoing and sin!”

And this is how Habakkuk isn’t like a prayer journal. Because God doesn’t respond in prayer. But here, God responds. What’s God’s response to Habakkuk’s faith? Look and see. In verse 5, “Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” What does God say here? “Habakkuk, keep looking and keep seeing. Because I’m doing something that you wouldn’t believe even if I told you.”

And what’s God’s plan? What’s God doing that's so unbelievable? What’s God’s response to Habakkuk’s shaken faith and complaint? “I’m raising up one of your enemies and they’re going to conquer you.” What’s interesting here is that in verse 5, when it says “you,” it’s in the plural. God isn’t just talking to Habakkuk here, contrary to what people think. God’s response is to all of his people, not just Habakkuk.

And in verses 5-11, God is being very vivid and graphic here. God is so vivid and so graphic here, so that Habakkuk and his people can visualize and see the enemy that God is talking about. God says he’s raising up the Chaldeans, which are the Babylonians. They’re hateful; they don’t think, they just do, they’re impetuous; they conquer homes and places that don’t belong to them; the very thought of them brings chills down their spines; they’re a law unto themselves, thinking that their ways are right, even if they go against God’s law; they’re strong economically and militarily; they love and chase after violence; they mock other nations and rulers before they conquer them; and they just sweep through and destroy everything in their path.  They’re a powerful and wicked nation! It’s as if God said, “Highland, you know that gentleman’s club down the street? I’m going to make them profitable so that they expand, and they’re going to buy your building and turn your church into another gentleman’s club. And on top of that, they’re going to take some of your church members and make them work for them.”

And if you’re like Habakkuk, you might be thinking, “Uh, what?! God, okay yes, we’re sinful, but why is this happening? My complaint was with the sin of your people. But now, you’re going to make a more sinful people stronger than us and overtake us? Are you not from everlasting O Lord my God, my Holy One? You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” And Habakkuk is so upset with God, that he can’t even address him directly in his prayer journal. In 2:1, Habakkuk says he’s going to look out to see what he will say to me.

What started off as a faith that questioned and complained to God because of the people of God, now becomes a faith that questioned and complained to God because of the enemies of God. “God, why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer? Why do the bad guys win and the good guys lose?” And so, Habakkuk says in 2:1, “I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.” He’s no longer directly talking to God. And he says, “I’m going to wait for you to respond to me, God. Answer me! And while you do that God, I’m going to already come up with a rebuttal.”

A Faith That Watches and Waits

Which leads me to my second point, a faith that watches and waits. If we’re all honest, Habakkuk’s questioning and complaining to God is not unusual. We can all think of a time when our faith has been shaken by what we see around us. It might even be happening to you right now. You might be thinking, “God, there are so many things that are happening around me right now, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t make heads or tails of it. Why are these things happening this way?”

Sometimes, we can get to a point where we just question our God out of interrogation, thinking that he needs to answer and defend his reasons to us. “God, answer me! Now!” Some of us might be more prone to complain to God than question God. “God, I’m so sick of my circumstances right now. It’s so hard to love my family. It’s hard to love my spouse, it’s hard to love my kids. It’s hard to study and be a good student, it’s hard to be submissive to my parents. I really don’t like my coworker right now. I’m stuck at this dead end job, or I don’t even have a job. God, why am I going through this stuff?”

But our God calls us to have a faith that looks and sees beyond what we can see. There are circumstances that we can immediately perceive, but God is calling Habakkuk, and us today, to look beyond what’s happening around us right now. Our faith is weak, our faith questions, our faith complains, our faith changes, our faith is numb and indifferent. But the answer to all of the weaknesses and inadequacies in our faith is actually not to look to faith itself. What makes us more firm in what we believe is actually the object of faith, not ultimately the faith itself. The thing that you believe in can strengthen and mobilize any weak faith.

I teach you this morning that faith has three aspects: head, heart, and hands. Faith begins with knowing something in the head. Then after you know something in the head, that information changes the disposition of your heart, your desires. Once it’s affected your heart and you believe it in your heart, then you live it out (hands). Now, think about Habakkuk’s faith. He sees what’s going on around him, which is perceived in the head. What he sees deeply affects him in his heart. And this leads him to, in verse 2, cry for help and cry to God.

And so I ask you this morning, what’s your faith in? What’s it that you trust more than anything in this world? What’s your foundation that if shaken, it would almost shatter your whole worldview? I’m sure many of us as Christians would say, my faith is in Christ! And I say, amen, praise God. But it’s good to remember the head, heart, and hands of faith.

We must first have in our heads a proper understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ as he’s revealed himself to us in his Word by his Spirit. This way, we know we’re not worshiping a Jesus made after our own image. Then when we know the true Jesus as he’s revealed himself to us, the Holy Spirit will affect our hearts. The Holy Spirit brings the things we know about God in our heads 18 inches down to our hearts. Then once we embrace and love Jesus as he’s revealed himself to us in his Word in our hearts, then we live out the Christian life (hands). I’m being overly simplistic, but this is the main idea.

And if your faith is shaken, if you doubt our God this morning, if you question him or complain to him, I ask you, what’s your view of God? How do you see him? Some of us look at our circumstances and then determine how much God loves us by the way he treats us. For example, if bad stuff happens to us in this life, sometimes we think, “God do you hate me?” And sometimes we think that God’s against us. So for many of us, our faith might be shaken because of a head problem. It might be that we don’t know our God as he’s revealed himself to us.

Others of us, we know who our God is and what he’s done for us, but we don’t embrace it, or it leaves us unmoved in our hearts. I remind you this morning that for our hearts to be moved, the Holy Spirit must take that information and travel it 18 inches from the head to the heart, which at times seems like a really long distance. But this is the work that the Holy Spirit does, and we pray that he might work in us in that way. We can’t force this change upon ourselves. A dead heart towards Christ can only beat by the work of the Holy Spirit.

So for some of us, we have a head problem; others of us we have a heart problem, but some of us might have a hand problem. We know and love Jesus, but we just don’t live out the Christian life. And honestly, it might be because like a chameleon, we have our eyes and our sights on two different things: the things of God and the things of the world. And both things fight for our heads, our hearts, and our hands. What we think, what we embrace, and what we live out. I remind you of Jesus’s words this morning, that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Consider where you are this morning and ask the Lord to change you, and all of us, from the inside out, from the head to the heart to the hands, that our faith may be strengthened.

But our passage isn’t focused on the weakness of our faith. Again, God calls us to have a faith that looks and sees beyond what we can see, beyond what we can observe, beyond what we can experience. God calls us to have a faith that watches and waits. Not out of arrogance, like in 2:1, where Habakkuk arrogantly waits for God’s response to his complaint. God is answerable to no one. Think about Job and how all of these horrible things happened to him. And then one day, Job finally lashes out at God and says, “Answer me! Why are these things happening to me?!” And then God answers him in Job 38: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know!” And God goes on and on and on about how powerless Job is and how Almighty he is, and how he answer to no one. He is God.

I ask you this morning, do you have a faith like Habakkuk, a faith that questions and complains? Or do you have a faith that watches and waits and seeks to look and see beyond that which is most observable?

Christ

But I have some good news. Our God has shown us his love for us in a way that’s visible and perceivable. Paul tells us in Romans 5:8 that God shows his love for us, God demonstrates his love for us, God reveals his love for us in a way that is visibly verifiable: in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Paul wrote this at a time where people could go to the cross and witness and see the place where Jesus was crucified, where he was buried, where he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time! Our Lord shows you his love for you through his death.

Well, that’s all good Pastor Peter, but I can’t just go over to Golgotha and see where Jesus was crucified, or I can’t go to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Does God still give us visible assurances and signs of his love, even now for people who live halfway around the world from the Mediterranean region? Can I still see that Jesus loves me? The answer is yes. The Lord has given us baptism and the Lord’s supper, both signs and seals of God’s love for us. And the reason why some churches do weekly communion or Lord’s supper is because they recognize that as Christians, we need these reminders. That despite the circumstances around us, despite how little we love God, despite how much sin we feel at the end of each day, Christians need to know that their God loves them, and that the body and blood of Jesus Christ is for them, and that their salvation is secured because he died. That’s why Pastor Abe always says in the Lord’s supper before we take of the elements, “Jesus loves you.” We’re so influenced by the world in so many ways, so we need these reminders that our Lord is with us, even when all of life seems to suggest otherwise! Our Lord knows that we need them, and so he gives them to us. Timeless, simple, ordinary signs that the Spirit uses to remind us of his love for us.

Application

We’re people of faith right now, we’re not people of sight, just yet. We will become people of sight, but we need to watch and wait for that day when Jesus comes. Our tendency is to be so myopic and nearsighted, that we forget the big picture of God’s salvation! We turn on the news and it’s one devastating story after another. For some of us, our tendency is to drown it out and turn to other things that bring us comfort. For others of us, we just want to go back and live in the “glory” days when things were “all good.” But I remind you that what we see right now is but a small piece of the big picture of God’s salvation. God’s doing much more grander works than our myopic and nearsighted minds can understand.

That’s why God calls us to have a faith that looks and sees beyond what we can see. You can’t see the new heavens and new earth right now. But it’s yours in Christ. You can’t see and perceive a life so pure and without pain and suffering. But you will when Christ returns. Don’t be deceived this morning by what you’re going through and what you’re experiencing. I encourage you this morning to embolden your faith in the Lord. You might not be able to see him, you might not sense the fullness of his glory right now. But that’s why God calls us to have a faith that looks and sees beyond what we can see. Look onward and upward to where Christ is, and where we will be when he comes.

Soli Deo Gloria