Sunday EVENING Sermon

"Is God Not Holy?"
[Habakkuk 1:12-2:5]
July 24, 2006 Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church

We return to our look at the burden of the prophet Habakkuk this evening. We remember that Habakkuk preached around the same time as Jeremiah, and the Word that the Lord had given to Habakkuk to give to the people was a burden -- it was heavy -- it was not good news. At least not in the short run.

Habakkuk complained to God that Israel was sinning in many and various ways, and God seemed to be doing nothing: He seemed to be ignoring what was going on; He seemed not to be interested in bringing justice to Israel; the Law seemed powerless and useless. And Habakkuk wanted an answer from God. So God told Habakkuk that He was raising up the Chaldeans -- that mighty, awful, evil empire -- to slaughter them and take them into captivity.

In this evening's Scripture, we hear the prophet raising objections to God's Plan. Habakkuk had asked God what He was going to do about all their sin, and God told him that He was going to send the Chaldeans against them to punish them. And Habakkuk said, "Wait a minute..." Habakkuk objected and told God that God's Actions did not match His Attributes.

Habakkuk said, "But God, aren't You eternal? Aren't You that God Who made an everlasting covenant with Your people? Aren't You the God Who never changes? How can You break Your Covenant and change Your allegiance and send the wicked Chaldeans to punish us?"

Habakkuk said, "But God, my God, the God of Israel, how can You favor another nation when we are Your people? You are my Holy One, aren't You Holy? How can You be holy if You do this awful thing and send the wicked Chaldeans to punish us?

"No, we will not die, because You will change back again, O Lord. You will stand for Your Holy Name once again. How could You be our Lord and appoint them for judgement? How could You be our Rock, and use them to mark us for correction? No, Your Eyes are too pure: God could never do this, it will not happen.

"You cannot enjoy wickedness. You cannot enjoy the treacherous. You cannot hold Your Tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than themselves -- can You? Can You sit by and do nothing when the Chaldeans, who are so much worse sinners than we are, attack and enslave us?

"It would be as if You made us the fish of the sea, and the Chaldeans were the fishermen. And they would come and haul us all up with their hooks and their nets and their dragnets. Do You understand what You would be doing Yourself? They would rejoice as we are defeated, but they would not rejoice in You -- they would not give thanks to You or worship You. No, they would make sacrifices to their nets and burn incense to their dragnets. And they would live in wealth and prosperity, slaying nation afer nation, hauling them up in their net.

"No, God, You are Holy, God from all of eternity, our God, the God of Israel. All sin is against You, O Lord, so You cannot ordain sin. Think again, Lord, and do not make this mistake."

And Habakkuk went up into a tower and waited to hear a response from the Lord.

Habakkuk's mistake is a mistake we make as well. We know something about God; we learn how God acts in a situation, and we jump to the conclusion that God can or cannot x, y, z.

"God really loves us, so He does not violate our free will."

"God is Sovereign, He just restricts His Sovereignty so we're not robots."

"God is not the author of sin. Therefore, the future is unknown to God."

We've surely heard other true propositions with false conclusions.

Perhaps one of the best known and well-loved pieces of blasphemy is a book called, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner. I had to read this book in a Judeo-Christian ethics class in college, and then again in seminary, and I have seen it in countless church libraries. It ought to be removed.

Rabbi Kushner and his wife had a son, and the son was born with a horrible, incurable disease, and he died a horrible and painful death. Rabbi Kushner couldn't go on without an answer to why this happened -- why their son was taken from them. So he looked to the Old Testament to learn about the character of God. And he said there were two conclusions that he could come to: God is Good and God is Almighty. (Both of those are true, by the way.) But Rabbi Kushner asked how it was that such a bad thing could happen to his good son, much less himself and his wife. And he said there are only two options, either God is not Good or God is not Almighty. And Rabbi Kushner came to the conclusion that he would rather believe in a God that was Good, but not Almighty, than a God Who was Almighty, but not Good.

Rabbi Kushner looked at the Old Testament and saw that God is Good and God is Almighty, and he concluded that, based on his terrible experience with his son, one of those must not be true. So, in this book of comfort that has sold thousands and thousands of copies, Rabbi Kushner says that when bad things happen to good people, don't blame God. God is Good all the time, and He wishes that everything would go well, but He's just not that powerful. God is not Sovereign. God does the best He can, but He's not able to do just anything. Take comfort in knowing that God cares, even if He's impotent about your situation.

Habakkuk came to the opposite conclusion, God is Almighty, but sometimes He doesn't make the best choices. "God, I know You're Almighty, I know You are Sovereign, but if You consider Your Character as You've revealed it to us, You can't do what You're planning to do."

And God answered Habakkuk and told him to write down the vision -- the burden -- that he was receiving -- to put it all down so everyone could read it. To put it down clearly, in crisp lettering, so every people who ran by or were in a hurry could read what God had said and done because of the sin of Israel.

And God told Habbakuk that His Plan was set for an appointed time. God was not going to change His Plan -- it was not God Who had misunderstood, it was Habakkuk. The Chaldeans were coming against Israel, and they would win decisively. But, God promised, in the end, the vision, the burden, would speak against the Chaldeans. But its fulfillment would be in God's Time. And though there would be people who say that the time will never come, because so much time has passed, God keeps His Promises. The fulfillment of the vision would come.

So it is in this day: we have the nuts who are gleefully cheering about the conflict in the Middle East, praying that there will be a great slaughter that will bring Jesus back. And then there are those who say, "What return of Jesus?" "Knowing this first: that scoffers will come
in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.' For they willfully forget: that by the work of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (II Peter 3:3-8).

Just as God's Justice against the Chaldeans would wait about sixty years, so we are waiting for the return of our King and Savior, Jesus. He will return, in His Own Time.

But for now, "Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him." God understood perfectly well, the pride and the arrogance of the Chaldeans. He knew their sin and planned to deal with it, after God used them to punish Israel.

But there is good news, "the just shall live by faith." This verse is quoted three times in the New Testament. In Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.

In Romans, Paul writes, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith'" (Romans 1:16-17).

In Galatians, Paul writes, "But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith" (Galatians 3:3-4).

And the author to the Hebrews wrote, "For a little while; and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back; my soul has no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10: 37-38).

"The just shall live by faith." What is God telling Habakkuk? God is telling him, in the midst of the devastation that the Chaldeans will bring upon Israel for their sin -- Israel was not innocent --" there is salvation in trusting in God. If they knew and trusted and received the promises of God, they would be saved in the end.

Similarly, Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8). Just as with Habakkuk, our salvation is found in a sure trust in the promises of God. Neither Habakkuk, nor Israel, nor we can be saved from our sin by any work we do. Salvation is found as we receive, through the conduit of faith, that Grace God is pleased to give us according to His Promises.

Paul continues in Ephesians, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:9). Paul says that we who have been saved by grave and saved by faith will live out their faith by doing the good works that God has ordained for us to do.

The same implication is found in Habakkuk: the just, those that God has declared legally innocent by His Grace, these will receive God's Grace through faith and they will live out their faith through good works.

We come to the end this evening's Scripture with God telling Habakkuk that God is well aware of what type of people the Chaldeans are. The Chaldeans are an arrogant, greedy, insatiable people. Their pride knows no end. They are not satisfied with what God has given them. Their desire for more is like the desire of Hell to fill itself; it is like the desire of death to be full. They gather people after people, conquest after conquest, but it is never enough.

But, remember, Habakkuk, brothers and sisters, God is eternal; He keeps His Promises. God is Holy and Just. God will not allow sin and evil to go unpunished forever. Yet, God does use secondary causes, like the Chaldeans, to carry out His Will. Still, God’s Will is done, in God's Time, and according to God's Sovereign Good Pleasure.

Habakkuk's hope, our hope, and the hope of the Church, is that the just shall live by faith. Let us trust and hope in God and in Salvation in Jesus Alone, as we faithfully carry out those good works that God has set before us.

Let us pray:
Holy and Just God, we thank You that You never change or sway, but are always and forever our Holy and Trustworthy God. We thank You for Your Amazing Grace, for the faith to receive it, and for the ability to live out Your call on our lives. May we be pleasing in Your Sight. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.