Habakkuk 1:1-4, 12-13

Well maybe he is not really a hero of the faith like Ezekiel, Daniel, Ruth, David or Amos, but he offers us a unique perspective and gives us permission to question God.

“Now wait a minute pastor, you are not supposed to question God.” But, if we are honest with ourselves, we have all questioned God – over big matters such as war and suffering; over why bad things happen to good people; why God allows evil to exist; to those things that only matter to us – why is that child of mine acting that way; why did I miss the promotion, why did that marriage collapse around me; why did my lifetime of dreams and plans go out the window just before I was able to implement them?

In this small book, Habakkuk asks God the questions. The book is not a typical prophetic book where the prophet lambastes the people for their wrongdoing and calls down judgment from God as their punishment. The book is dialogue between Habakkuk and God. How long, O lord? Why, O Lord? I know we’ve all asked those questions.

A young business executive sent this letter to this pastor: “I see so many people around the church who have such strong faith that I feel like I don't fit in. I would like to feel confident. I wish I didn't have doubts, but I've got more questions than answers. Sometimes I wonder if I am really a Christian. Can you help me with any of this? [Signed] Bob"

Could you have written this letter? Whoever said that we should not question things surely never read the Bible. The Bible is full of questions. I hope we have created a community of faith where struggles are welcome and doubters are accepted, for there may be more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds.

He was a contemporary of Jeremiah. He lived about 600 B.C. His book is tucked in the Old Testament between Nahum and Zephaniah, but the three chapters of Habakkuk have different material from other prophets of his time. Old Testament prophets were known as bold proclaimers of God's Word. They called for sin to cease and justice to reign, and people to repent. Habakkuk takes another approach. Instead of delivering God's message to the people, Habakkuk delivers the people's complaint to God.

The book opens with a troubling question: HOW LONG? How long, O Lord, how long? How long should I cry for help? It's the question of every child traveling on vacation. It's the question of every mother in her ninth month of pregnancy. It is the question of everyone us who struggle with patience. As I spent several late night and early morning hours in the ER a couple weeks ago, I found myself asking, too, how long, O Lord, how long? Or maybe more accurately – How long, O doctor, how long until those test results are back.

Of course, Habakkuk had deeper things on his mind. He wanted to know. “How long must I cry for help, but you will not listen? How long must I cry, ‘Violence!' but you do not save?’” God had given Habakkuk the prophetic knowledge of the invasion Judah by Babylon. Judah was morally and spiritually corrupt, worshipping Baal at the high Holy places, offering child sacrifices to Molech, dedicating horses to the sun god, allowing the temple to fall into ruin. How long O Lord, will this continue? How long will this evil go on? How long will evil continue to run rampant in Judah before you do something?

As bombs once more burst over the same territory from whence Habakkuk cried violence so long ago, and little children hold their wounded loved ones in their arms with that desperate look of angst on their faces, if there is any human cry left it surely must be “How long, O Lord, how long?"

As mass shootings, political corruption and unending ridiculous rhetoric from all sides of the aisle and platforms become the news norms, we all throw up our hands and ask, “How long, O Lord? How long? How much longer?” Aren’t we there yet, where you step in to make things right? Need to be careful what we ask for.

God stepped in with Judah and brought the conquering by the Babylonians and the Assyrians, exile and slavery as punishment for their wrongdoings and to give Judah a time to reflect on her relationship and obedience to God.

Singer, song writer Roger Whittaker wrote and sang a hit song in the 80’s called why. It ends with this line: “The last word ever spoken will be WHY!

The questions of How Long and Why have caused people to abandon the faith. In the 1950's, Charles Templeton was a contemporary of Billy Graham. Both of them were holding crusades across North America. Charles Templeton started the Youth for Christ movement that brought thousands of teenagers to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As an aside, we now have Youth For Christ starting in South Walton that the SWMA is supporting.

One day Charles Templeton, a newspaper and magazine reporter turned evangelist had a change of heart. He went to his friend Billy Graham and confessed that he could no longer believe the Gospel. A troubled believer lamented to his friend, “How can a loving and omnipotent God allow such horrors as we have seen this century?" Charles Templeton was converted not to God, but from God. Years later in his book, Farewell to God, he explained his disbelief.

Don't let your questions do that to you, there is a better way.

We can be quiet. Habakkuk 2:20 “The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him."

People without noise are like fish out of water. We immediately start flopping around trying to find something familiar. We can't study without music. Some can't sleep without a fan running. We won't take a walk without music on our phone. We won't drive a car without radios blaring, horns honking, or telephones ringing. Let’s try an experiment. Let’s try to be quiet for a minute or two.

For most of us, to experience silence is to go through the kind of withdrawal that drug addicts must experience. Yet, we must dare to take the trip if our souls are to find peace, and our hearts are to become calm. Only as we find that place of quiet rest will we find new life.

We can be prayerful. Chapter 3 is Habakkuk's prayer.

A pastor I got an interesting note from one of his church members. She said, “When trouble comes at our church, we are used to doing something to make it better. We want to fix a meal, offer some transportation, cut the grass, or at least hold a meeting to discuss the situation. When we asked how to help you through an illness, you said boldly, ‘Don't do anything but pray.' I am not sure we know how to do that, but we will try." Now certainly there is a time to help. Burdens shared are halved, but let not our busyness keep us from prayerfulness.

Henri Nouwen says prayer is not our most natural response to the world. Left to our own impulses, we would always rather do something than pray. Prayer requires us to stand in God's presence with open hands, naked, vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and others that without God we are nothing.

To pray for others is not to convince God of something he already knows. To pray for another is to allow their pains and sufferings, their anxieties and loneliness, their confusion and fears to resound in our innermost selves.

Pray for peace. Pray for help in time of trouble and wisdom for the days ahead. Pray for this great congregation, that we may be all God wants us to be for the glory of God and the good of people.

How do we handle the questions of faith? How Long? Why? We can be quiet before the Lord. We can Pray.

We can be faithful. We ministers will be rewarded according to our fruitfulness. Jesus calls us to go and bear fruit. If we bear no fruit where we are, why do we think we can bear fruit if promoted to another place? There are so many Christians and churches that are so focused on themselves they bear no fruit. The attitude of “it’s all about me or it’s all about what goes on inside the walls of the church’ precludes us from bearing fruit in the community in which God has planted us. I believe in bearing fruit for the kingdom of God and I know this church does also. Are we all bearing fruit?

Even more basic than fruitfulness is faithfulness. I believe one of the finest affirmations of faith in the Bible is here in Habakkuk when the prophet ends his writing with these words:

So, on I go not knowing, I would not if I might. I would rather walk in the dark with God, than walk alone in the light.I would rather walk with God by faith, than walk alone by sight. For we will never know that God is all we need until God is all we have and therein lies the answer to our deepest questions.