How Long, Oh Lord? Hope in the Midst of Brokenness

Bible Reading

Right ladies, we are going to dive right into our next Bible reading. Habakkuk chapter 3. Ladies, Habakkuk chapter 3 and we’ll start in verse one.

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendour covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels
He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
You stripped the sheath from your bow,
calling for many arrows Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
it lifted its hands on high.
The sun and moon stood still in their place
at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck.[c] Selah
You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
You trampled the sea with your horses,
the surging of mighty waters.
I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:1-19)
This is the Word of the Lord.

Hope vs Numbing

Well ladies, I don’t know about you, but I found Unathi’s spoken word perfectly summed up the struggle. It was beautiful, wasn’t it? She didn’t just leave us in the struggle, she pointed us to hope as well. Hope you noticed that.

And we’re going to think a bit now about Habakkuk and how it does that. Can I suggest that firstly, the way for us not just to endure the side of Heaven, the first thing we need to do is not numb ourselves. We live in a world that numbs itself. We numb ourselves so we don’t have to face sin – our own and others – so we don’t have to face suffering or face injustice. We numb to shut out the brokenness of the world, to not see it, to not hear it, to not feel it.

And the options to numb are endless. You can go the drug or alcohol route. The stats about teenagers using drugs and alcohol at school to cope are estimated to be about 16%, at school to get through the day. The number of adults who need to take something to make it through the day is suggested to be over 43%. In the end, the drugs and the alcohol and the medication will need larger and larger doses to be effective and soon dysfunctionality sets in.

Sadly, many of the drugs abused are legitimate, prescription medications that are often life-saving for some. I’m not talking about doctor prescribed and supervised medication. I’m talking about the popping of pills or the abuse of drugs that alter your mindsets and leave you feeling less self-controlled and less aware.

You could also go the cheesy slogan route, to box up pain so you don’t have to wrestle with the complexity of living in the world where things are hard. So you can go the good old toxic positivity route. This is often expressed as, “You must just think positively, it’ll all be fine, you’ll see”. Can you name one disease, one cancer, one disaster or a sudden death that can be taken away by being positive?

What about denialism? I just remove myself from that context or that relationship because it’s too hard to bear witness to. Sometimes within the church, even good doctrine can be weaponized to minimize someone’s suffering or create distance because, again, the pain is just too hard to watch.

Sometimes we use it to silence those who are even brave enough to confront our world’s sin and pain. It sounds like: “God will use this for your good. God will let this be a testimony to many others. He wouldn’t give you something too big for you to handle. That’s not God. Psalm 56 we’re told that our God has kept account of every single one of my tossings, he knows my tears. He’s put them in a bottle. They’re in his book.”

Now those doctrines are true and they are needed to guard our Gospel but our God is not naive to the pain and suffering that we have, nor does he tell us not to express our suffering and our pain.

Night bird, who was a singer songwriter who lost her battle to cancer, said, “God isn’t desperate, isn’t distant. When you are breaking in your pain, he’s right there with you on the bathroom floor, in the thick of it, in the mess of it. He’s with you in the pain. He knows it. He can handle it. He doesn’t call for distance.”

One of the other numbing techniques is distraction, mostly through device usage. I discovered a very cool word when thinking about this talk: “nomophobia.” A recent global study suggests that approximately 65% of the world’s population experiences nomophobia. To put that in context, that’s pretty much that sort of section of us. Nomophobia is a psychological condition in which a person experiences anxiety or fear when they do not have connectivity with their phone. You’re laughing because you know it’s true!

65%. The fear reflected behind that statistic is a fear of not knowing, not being able to control a situation or an outcome. So it’s called doomsday scrolling. I mean, that’s really interesting. Our first passage in Revelation was all about God revealing himself to us and here the fears tied to not knowing, not having something revealed. The fear is that if we know, if we don’t know, we can’t control the outcome, and so then we can’t be caught out. And so, we scroll and we scroll and we scroll.

Or you could use your device purely for entertainment: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, threads. It’s not, judge who uses what in this room, according to which age group. They’re there. Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime video, Apple TV, Britbox. It’s endless. Gaming, watching gaming tutorials, watching other people gaming. If you have a child under the age of 10, you know what I mean. Online shopping therapy, ladies. As if another pair of shoes will solve our pain. They do always fit though, which is great!

Or to switch our brains off or to not think or engage with other people. I’m not talking about a reasonable amount of time on your screen or for your work or functionality, I’m talking about people who miss engaging with life and with people because the screen is more important. Because people are hard, and they disappoint and they mess up and I don’t have to put up with that with my device.

What about health? It might sound like a strange one, but the addiction to body image and exercise induced endorphins are on the rise. One third of teenage boys now use protein supplements as part of their gym routine to get the body that will make all the other things about life less important. Compulsive exercise is becoming a problem in some countries, with people opting out of work in lieu of exercise, opting out of community because “I need to go to the gym.”

The same is true about food addiction. More and more countries are now declaring it an official disease and offering counselling services to counter its rise. And again, both exercise and food are important, but I’m talking about obsessive exercise and eating so I don’t feel the pain, I don’t see the brokenness in my world.

Numbing is how our world navigates grief, loss, pain, suffering and sin. But not God. He speaks, he engages, he suffers too, and in Habakkuk, we’re going to now look at what healthy, God-honouring wanting help looks like.

Habakkuk’s Response to God

Did you notice in chapter 3:1 and 3:19? Two little information bits that the narrator has given us. Habakkuk has given us. 3:1,

“A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.” (Habakkuk 3:1)

And at the end, 3:19,

“To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.” (Habakkuk 3:19)

This might surprise you. It surprised me all over again in preparing for today, that Habakkuk’s response to God’s sure promise of final judgment and justice, is to sing, poetically. Shigionoth is a musical term often used in the books of Psalms and we’re told that this song has been written for stringed instruments. It’s lovely we’ve got a cello today. And of course, the term “selah” which is often repeated in the Psalms as well.

I don’t know about you, my default expression is not song. My friends will tell you that I’m a funny person and, in fact, it’s a long-standing joke amongst my friends that I am the funniest amongst us. And this is largely due to the fact that my default setting – when it comes to pain and suffering and conflict and awkwardness – is to break the tension with a joke. For those of you know “Friends,” I’m the Chandler. My default in navigating seriously hard stuff is not to break out in song!

Hope in God’s Judgment

But that’s exactly what Habakkuk does here. And we’re going to spend some time in just a moment talking about music and its role in our worship of God, and its instruction here is a right response to what God is telling us. But first, I want us to look at the content of the song. So won’t you have a look again in verse 2 with me.

“O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.” (Habakkuk 3:2)

Habakkuk looks back as to what he has heard about God and how God has acted. Do you see the revelation language again? “What I’ve heard; what I’ve seen; what I know.” And now he prays for God to do just what he’s promised. Habakkuk reflects on God’s power, his bigness and the judgment in the past in a poem that has a lot of Exodus-like imagery in it. God’s great rescue of his people, and the keeping of his promises to them, is in mind when we read this song.

God himself is coming. Did you see it when Hayley read? Look at verse 3:

“God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendour covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand…” (Habakkuk 3:3-4)

This isn’t some small, insignificant moment. This is describing a victorious ruler riding in, judging the world. The poetic language describes a battle. From verse 5,

Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.” (Habakkuk 3:5-6)

We also saw plagues and pestilence, which are judgments that God has used. You would have remembered them from the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers and here we see them too.

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
You stripped the sheath from your bow,
And called for many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
it lifted its hands on high. (Habakkuk 3:7-10)

Do you feel the immensement of this judgment? This wrath is big. It feels like it even comes against the river and the sea. In verse 11 to 14, we find arrows and spears and marching and threshing and crushing and exposing and piercing and trampling. It’s overwhelming, this language, and it’s meant to be that. That’s why it’s written in poetry. It’s not just a list of events. Habakkuk is very aware of the bigness of God’s judgment and he does not want us to miss it.

I think we’ve made the judgment of God a very small thing, a distant thing, even a tame thing. Please hear the warning of Habakkuk: this judge is not a tame being who you can shake your fist at or even give a piece of your mind to.

In Narnia, there’s a story where a little girl asks if the lion is safe and she’s reminded, don’t be ridiculous, of course he’s not safe, but he’s good. That’s our God.

Hope in God’s Salvation

Did you notice, though, also that this judge isn’t coming just to judge, he also comes in salvation. So in verse 8, there’s a chariot of salvation. In verse 13 he goes out for the Salvation of his people. This victorious and powerful judge isn’t just coming to destroy wickedness, but is also coming to save. And we know that this is the gospel – how God chose to bring both judgment and salvation through the person of Jesus. Jesus destroys Satan by taking on the consequences of sin and death at the cross and then offers life to those who know him, hear his voice and follow him. Judgment, salvation. Justice, Mercy.

Don’t put this God in your pocket and only take him out when you have plans or your needs or your agenda. He’s bigger than that. He’s more powerful than that. He’s immense, uncontainable. He’s not tame. His plan is to bring justice and salvation and he will not be stopped.

This poetic song in chapter 3 is all about how God wins, how he’s acted to rescue his people and how he’s able to bring justice and salvation together. And so, Habakkuk trembles. Did you see it in verse 16?

“I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.” (Habakkuk 3:16)

Habakkuk trembles at the sound, what he has heard. He feels the weight of God’s coming judgment and chooses to wait patiently and quietly. The language of hearing and sound and Habakkuk’s response to be quiet is on purpose. It’s meant to show us a change in Habakkuk. Remember right at the beginning of the book? Habakkuk has been asking, speaking, challenging, crying out to God in response and now he’s quiet.

This isn’t a British stiff upper lip thing, or a minimalism of the pain and hardship that’s coming, or a trite saying just fired off to numb pain, or a good framework that chokes out the reality of the coming judgment, but rather a deep contentment in who God is. A deep reflection that Habakkuk can trust God to be good and able.

Don’t miss the significance of this: Habakkuk is a prophet – his job was to speak. It is remarkable that in this book he says, “I’m not going to speak.”

Habakkuk looks forward also to the day that the Babylonians will be judged. This is not a meanness or a spitefulness, but it’s a deep relief at the confirmation of God’s character. Evil will not go unpunished.

Trust in Relationship

I struggle with patience. I struggle with trusting that God has a better plan than I do. I struggle with God not removing pain caused by those inside the church or outside the church. I’ve hated disease and death and, at times, have let that hate rule me rather than the knowledge of who God is. Most times in those situations, it feels impossible to go back to God, to spend time reminding ourselves of who he is and what he is doing in a world that we cannot see.

Maybe we haven’t gone to God, like Habakkuk did, and said to God, “I know you, I just don’t understand.” Maybe we’ve sat in the stubbornness, sat in the pain and not dive deep into God’s Word and not lent on the fulfilled promises that we already have and lent into the ones to come. Maybe we haven’t let the writers of the Psalms, their words be our words, as we cry out to God. As if God doesn’t see or know or care about our situations, as if retreating into ourselves and our own thoughts will somehow help us grasp his cosmic eternal plan.

That’s not being in a relationship with God, not really knowing God. Habakkuk can only endure suffering and the pain coming his way because he knows God. God has revealed himself through his word over time and the writer to the Hebrews tells us that those who live this side of the cross, well we have an even better word than Habakkuk had. Our word is Jesus. He’s the author and perfector of our faith. We keep our eyes fixed on him, who suffered and endured the cross in obedience.

So, how are you going at reflecting on Jesus? A man who saw the vulnerable and disregarded, a man who honored women and counted them as his followers, when the culture of the day just dismissed them, a man who warned us against religion – against ticking boxes instead of knowing God. When asked about Heaven and how to get there, Jesus said, “I am the way. If you know me then you know the father.” (John 14:6-7) A man who endured suffering and the judgment of God for you.

Do you strive to know Jesus? Is a relationship with him at the heart of your identity? Is it reflected in your time, your priorities, your passion? Habakkuk can only endure because he has a deep knowledge of God.

Joy in Knowing God

But that isn’t all. Habakkuk doesn’t end there. Look at verses 17 to 19:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.” (Habakkuk 3:16-17)

Habakkuk says there’s more to just gritting your teeth, this side of Heaven – there’s actually joy.

I must admit when I first read it, I thought surely someone gave Habakkuk all the happy pills, at just this point in verse 17. But that’s actually not what’s happened. I hope you see that Habakkuk hasn’t numbed himself to his circumstances, he’s in his circumstances. He hasn’t tried to minimalize its bleakness. Look at the passage again. No beauty or flowers or fruit or produce to harvest for food – no animals for food either – and Habakkuk says he will rejoice. He will take joy. His feet will be light and nimble like a deer.

So how is Habakkuk able to have joy? The answer is he knows God. Look at verse 18 again.

“Yet I rejoice in the Lord, (that’s the Yahweh) I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:18)

Habakkuk uses the deeply relational name for God – Yahweh – the God of promise. He knows this God, the God of promise and action, and he can take joy because this God will save. Habakkuk knows that God has acted to save in the past and does promise to save and so he can be safe. His joy isn’t tied to his circumstances or other people, which will only disappoint. Habakkuk’s joy is tied to who God is and how God has acted. A God who does not change, who is good, holy and other.

More so for us, right? So we live this side of the cross. We’ve seen Jesus. Habakkuk hadn’t even known about Jesus at this point. He didn’t see Jesus meet both justice and mercy perfectly at the cross. We can cling to the God who has saved and the God who’s deeply relational. The God who says, “Never will I leave you.” (Hebrews 13:5) The God who says, “Take heart, you will have trouble in the world but I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) The God who says, “I’m going to make a room ready for you.” (John 14:2)

Habakkuk has been on a journey, I hope you have this morning too, a journey in how to engage with God when pain both inside and outside of the church is overwhelming. You might have come in today like Habakkuk, with only questions and a deep pain and possibly barely even spoken prayers for understanding. Please take comfort in what you’ve heard from Habakkuk.

Maybe you already know this. Maybe you’ve been taught well but don’t be cold to what we’ve revisited this morning. Our God is present. He knows the pain in this world. He sent Jesus to experience it all: assault, prejudice, injustice, poverty, homelessness, and to die for it. He knows, he sees, he’s acting.

If that has become a cold fact to you, rather than the life giving breath of air to get through the next day, this morning, won’t you pray and beg God to re-fire that understanding in your heart, to reclaim that sense of God’s bigness, his goodness and his power. Grow in your knowledge of God so that your trust in him grows. Be in Scripture. Reflect on how God has acted according to his promises. Saturate yourself in testimonies, stories of God’s mercy, his kindness, his faithfulness and sing. Sing. Sing.

Sing

This last section in Habakkuk we’ve been looking at is a song. Like I said, it was surprising to me all over again. I wonder if it was for you. I have a confession to make: I am a live music woohoo girl. Any other woohoo girls? Yeah, you know who you are! I’ve been known to sing till my voice is hoarse, to close my eyes, lift up my hands, cheer on my favourite bands. Music is a powerful thing. It can be used to uplift, to tear down, to incite, to lament. In my teenage years, the music I listened to seemed to understand my angst in a way that I could not articulate.

But music is God’s design, God’s gift. He designed it to emote, to challenge, to stretch us, to grow us and to glorify him. Kirsty who’s up on this stage earlier is able to tell you about the incredible neuroscience implications that music has on us as creatures. How our memory and even our feelings are influenced by the patterns of notes, the rhythms and how lyrics can burn into our memories for decades.

It’s not surprising that music is throughout God’s story of rescue. We have Miriam and Moses’ song when God rescues his people out of Egypt. We have the song in the desert when God provides water in a well. Moses sings a song when he sums up everything God has done and the people are about to go into the promised land. The book of Judges has songs in it. The king David, we know, wrote songs and they are songs for battle, songs for victory, songs for grief, songs for the future. Song of Songs is full of love songs that speak of God’s love for us. Isaiah and many of the other prophets, like Habakkuk, have songs of warning or judgment. The book of Lamentations is all about singing through grief and loss and judgment.

Mary sang when the angel came to tell her about what was about to happen in her life with Jesus. Zechariah sang as he heard the news of the coming King. Angels sang when Jesus was born. Simeon sang as he recognized Jesus as God’s great, promised King. And of course in Revelation there is lots of singing.

I hope you’re seeing that there is singing in God’s rescue plan and that it’s a very biblical application in understanding what God has done and who he is. It’s incredible when we actually reflect on the words that are sung in heaven. In the book of Isaiah, when he has the vision of God on the throne, the song being sung is holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty the whole earth is full of his glory. And in Revelation, holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:3)

Can you see what both songs are doing? They speak of God’s character – holy. They speak of his relationship because they use the word Lord, and they speak of his power – Almighty. That’s just what we’ve been learning about in Habakkuk. We trust God’s character. He’s holy. He is good. And remind ourselves that he’s powerful to act.

How’s your singing going? Do you worship God in song? Do you praise him for who he is? Don’t be fooled by the lights and the crowd and the perfect band or the sound – that’s not the point. Don’t be a woohoo girl, like me. Don’t be taken in by the energy. Rather remember to be fixed on the object. Don’t spend too much time wishing you had the perfect opportunity or the right melody or that band in church. It’s about God.

So, when you’re in pain – sing. Sing God’s truth to yourself. Sing of God’s goodness. Sing of God’s greatness. Sing of God’s power and kindness. Sing of God’s uniqueness. Sing of God’s care. Sing of God’s character till your mind is renewed. Sing of God’s promises until your heart is comforted. Sing of God’s closeness so that you can face the next day.

Keep Your Eyes On God

I hope you leave here changed. I have been, by Habakkuk. I want to know God deeply in a tangible way through his Word and to find rest in both his goodness and his power.

A few years ago, I ended up on a last flight out of OR Tambo airport. There was a really bad electrical storm and all the other airlines had cancelled their flights but mine. I hate flying. I hate not being in control, not knowing whether we’re going to hit turbulence or whether it’s going to be smooth sailing. My flight that night had a very unexpected passenger. A pilot from another airline couldn’t get home because his flight was cancelled, and so he was given a spot on my plane. Him and the flight attendant had a little laugh because they were competing airlines, about the fact that he was sitting on our plane in his uniform, catching a lift.

But he sat next to me and I’m not exaggerating when I say that I spent the whole flight with my eyes glued to his face, not because he was an attractive pilot – actually can’t remember now if he was an attractive pilot. The reason I glued my eyes to his face was because I wanted to see if he got stressed out or if he was going to get up and volunteer to help the other pilots. He didn’t. He was thoroughly bored, actually. He read a newspaper, drank a hot drink and actually nodded off at one point. And I was calm, despite the flashes of lightning outside the window and despite the turbulence bouncing, I was calm because I was watching the one who knew. He never gave me any reason to be scared.

So same with Habakkuk. He says keep your eyes on God. He’s the one who knows. He is able. And when you do, that the ability to endure another day doesn’t become because it’s not scary or sad, it might still be scary and sad, but because of who God is. To be able to say in my circumstances, God has not changed. He can be trusted. God is Holy and able and I can rest in that for my pain.

For those who’ve hurt me or the ones I love from within the church: God is Holy and he is able, and the Holy Spirit will mould us to be more like Jesus. God is not finished with anyone yet.
For those who’ve hurt me or the ones I love from the world, God is holy. He is able. And justice will be met, either by them or by Jesus.
For those with aching, frail bodies, with all their limitations, God is holy. He is able to restore us and give us eternal bodies. Or as a precious child I love who’s been fighting cancer tells me – superhero bodies.

Don’t leave here unchanged. Don’t be stubborn to explore who God really is. Seek his voice, his truth, his love. Don’t let the world fool you. There is no real, lasting, comfort out there apart from God. They will all pass away and only God will remain.

God’s Promise for Heaven

So there’s only one last thing for me to do with you and that is to leave you with some of the words spoken by God, a promise he has for us of Heaven. Will you stand with me as I read this?
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:3-5)
Let’s pray. Father God, you are holy and you are able. Help us to put our trust in you again, refreshed by this truth. For those who are here tired and needing encouragement, lift their eyes to you. For those who are hurting from pain within the church and from the world, draw them close to you. For those who have caused pain, remind them of your mercy and forgiveness in Jesus. Help us to leave here changed, able to face the day, because you have not changed. In Jesus’ name, amen.