Title: Faith in the “Who” When we Don’t Know the “Why”

Intro 
John Piper tells the story he heard from Marshall Shelley who spoke at Wheaton College. Marshall told of the 
story of his son and daughter.  Marshall and his wife Susan had a baby boy at 8:20 on November 22, 1991, and 
he passed on into eternity two minutes later.  When asked if they had a name for the baby?  She replied, Yes, 
Toby, for the biblical name Tobaiah which means “God is good”.  Having lost his son now, his not yet 2 year old 
daughter, who had severe mental retardation, died just three months later.  So in the matter of three months 
these parents had lost not one, but two children.  When Marshall told these stories he summed them up with 
the statement that “Life is hard, and God is good”.   
This sermon today is for those of you living or have lived the Life is hard part, and you need to be reminded of 
the God is good part!  For some of us today, we know God is good and we can always here the trite statement 
God is good all the time and all the time God is good.  Sometimes we need to be reminded from Gods word 
about God in the midst of pain, pain you may be living now or pain you have lived through that changed you or 
the pain coming tomorrow that you don’t know of yet.   
Title:  Faith in the “Who” When we Don’t Know the “Why” 
Read Habakkuk (opening with Habakkuk 1:1-4) 
Background/Leadup/Sermon Intro 
● This book starts off with the oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 
● We know little about Habakkuk, and that is something to notice in this book, that it gives us no in-depth 
historical account of Habakkuk, but it just starts with its message! 
● The word used for Oracle is the same word used to mean burden or load that would be put on an 
animal to carry, so this book starts of with this so called minor prophet and this weight on his heart, this 
burden he is carrying, this brokenness almost in His heart! 
● So today I want to take us on a short journey through this rich but short book.   
● This book is a back and forth between the prophet Habakkuk and God.  Habakkuk starts off in chapter 
1 where we read and then God answers, Habakkuk responds and God responds back a second time 
and then the book closes with Habakkuk’s response.  
● This book is a conversation, a crying out of the hear, and laying out of a burden from the prophet to God 
and God’s answers and we get to see that conversation.   
● And so we start in chapter 1, Habakkuk’s crying out to God in frustration.   
1) Frustration By Who We know God to Be And What We See Happening – vs. 1-4 
a) Explain 
i) 
You can see the heart of the prophet right in the beginning: 
(1) Vs. 2 - I cry out God, and you don’t seem to listen, Vs. 3 - I cry out violence, or that things are 
wrong in the world around me or things even wrong in my life, and its seems you sit idly and do 
nothing!! 
ii) See how this is really a heart cry of the prophet 
(1) Now he is really crying out about the problem of evil, and I believe that we have significant 
parallels here, because the cause of the pain that all of us have or are experiencing finds its 
roots squarely on sin being present in this world.   
iii) He continues at the end of verse 3, destruction, violence are before me.. strife and contention arise. 
(1) When we look at our own lives, at the world around us in all areas, is there not something in our 
souls that feels this same way? 
(a) God, I see destruction and violence and pain and suffering and injustice, and I know who you 
are, God why aren’t you doing something about it? 
iv) He continues in verse 4 to his point. 
(1) The law seems to be paralyzed, have no effect 
(2) Justice seems to never go forward. 
(3) The wicked surround the righteous and justice goes forth perverted. 
v) Now Habakkuks context is probably a bit different than ours, he is crying out that the law of God is 
ignored, strife and contention are everywhere, but then is it really that different? 
(1) A quick look at the news shows Israel and Hamas violence with children killed in an attack, I saw 
this week Tim Tebow talking about his organization and the amounts of human trafficking, and 
child pornography in the US.   
(a) And then there is what is going on in your life right now.  Pain, tests, surgery, jobs, tariffs, 
marriage 
(b) Sometimes it is so easy to cry out - Oh God, don’t you know, Oh God, don’t you care?  Oh my 
God, do you hear my anguish.   Oh God, why aren’t you doing something?  Why God??? 
vi) Notice what he has said. look at the You in verses 2-3 
(1) You will not hear, you will not save, you make me see iniquity, you idly look at wrong. 
vii) What we see before us is a man who is distraught, a man who wants some answers, if you had to 
sum up verse 2-4 it might simply be, God WHY???   
(1) What can we learn from this prayer of Habakkuk: 
(a) One of the main things is to be honest with God!  I don’t mean be cavalier, but be honest 
about your questions.   
(b) For every other person you know, you have to filter between the thoughts and the mouth..  
That is the ugliest shirt ever you might think, oh my goodness and their hair, yes that makes 
you look fat, is that you that smells like that?  We need a mind to mouth filter! 
(c) But, what about your relationship to God?   
(d) Before you even open your mouth, God knows your heart, he knows your mind,  
(e) Brothers and sisters, just be honest with God. he already knows what you think. you cannot 
hide from him; the bible says all things are laid bare before Him. 
viii) And what you’ll notice is that God is going to respond in verse 5-11, but he doesn’t rebuke 
Habakkuk.  He could do that, but he chooses to patiently answer Him. 
2) A Father Who Works In Ways that We Cannot Understand – vs. 5-11 
a) Explain 
i) 
God’s Response – 5-11 
ii) Vs. 5 - Look around you Habakkuk!  Look around you and be astonished!  Look around you and be 
amazed! 
(1) Why look again?  Because of the end of verse 5..  “For I am doing a work in your days that you 
would not believe if I told!!” 
(2) Did you hear that.. Habakkuk, look around, be amazed, For I am at work Habakkuk, and if I sat 
down and explained it all to you, you wouldn’t even believe it if I told you!!! 
(3) God says to Habakkuk, far from me sitting around idly and watching the evil around you I am at 
work Habakkuk, I am at work in ways that you cannot even begin to understand!  Even if I 
explained it to you!!! 
(4) And this is a great place for a reminder on this journey, I heard this song yesterday from SCREEN - Steven Curtis Chapman where the chorus says: 
(a) God is God and I am not, I can only see a part of the picture He's painting 
(b) God is God and I am man, So I'll never understand it all, For only God is God 
iii) What we see around us in verses 2-4, all the pain, hurt, struggle, and all I can see is what is right 
before me!  But let us never forget God is God and we are NOT God!  God sees and works and 
operates at a cosmic level that our little minds can’t even begin to comprehend. 
iv) Imagine if God sat you down right now and told you how He is working out the lives of the 8 
BILLION people on the planet, the geopolitical complexities, the technological things not to mention 
the entire universe hangs on the power of His words! 
v) The first thing we have to learn here, is that when you don’t understand and even when you don’t see 
it, God is still at work and even if God explained it, we wouldn’t believe or understand it! 
vi) But here is the rub, here is what so often gets at us, God my mind tells me that you are in control 
and working out a plan, but my heart and my eyes only see the pain from my surgery, the test results 
from the doctor, the pain of losing my spouse the sickness from treatments.  How could you 
possibly be working in something like this? 
vii) I love Isaiah 55 here.. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,  neither are your ways my ways, 
declares the Lord.  9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your 
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 
viii) 
Here is the truth we must get, just because you cannot see it and cannot understand it doesn’t 
mean God isn’t at work! 
(1) Like a child watching his mother cannot imagine how flour, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, 
oil, etc can make a cake, we often times see God at work and cannot imagine there is purpose, 
good or a plan at play, but God says there is! 
ix) And why do we get frustrated often and have a burden about us, because often we not only bring 
our pain to God, but we bring the solution as well.  We ask Him to do something and then tell Him 
how to do it, instead we ought to pray this is my will, but your will be done!   
x) We usually assume we have all the facts, we have all the angles, we know every facet of a situation 
and we do what Habakkuk has done.  When in truth, often we only see in part, we only understand in 
part. 
xi) In verse 6 what God tells Habakkuk, is that I’m going to use the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to judge 
Judah.  And he describes this amazing fighting force and God is saying they are His judgement. 
xii) Of course, this doesn’t help Habakkuk because now he knows what God is going to do and bringing 
this judgement against land is not what he wanted to hear. 
xiii) Aren’t we just like that at times, Habakkuk’s first complaint, God you won’t act.  God shows up, tells 
Him, this is what I’m going to do and then Habakkuk complains about what God’s going to do. 
xiv) In verses 1:12-2:1 Habakkuk responds: 
(1) Why are you using these wicked people to judge your more righteous people?But there is 
something to learn here, even when Habakkuk hears something he doesn’t like, instead of 
walking away from God distraught at His answer, He still knows where His help comes from!   
(2) Read verse 2:1, I want to hear from God! 
3) Faith In the Who When We Don’t Know the Why – 2:1-3:19 
a) Explain 
i) 
God answers Habakkuk again starting in chapter 2:2 
ii) Now God gives Habakkuk a vision and God tells Him to write it down.. 
iii) Notice verse 3 with me.. 
(1) It will not lie, meaning what I say is true Habakkuk.. you may not understand as I’ve told you, you 
may not believe it.. but it is going to come true..  
(2) “If it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay.” 
(a) Meaning, what God promises He’s going to do and He’s going to do it on His time. 
(3) But you are going to have to do something hard Habakkuk.. you’re going to have to wait.. 
(4) Oh none of us like that word.. we want now.. 
iv) So let me get this straight, so far what has God told Habakkuk: 
(a) If I told you wouldn’t believe me 
(b) I’m going to do a work, but you might think I’m not right on time and doubt me, and you just 
need to wait. 
(c) And God is still saying the same thing to us, with the clear direction here in 2:4.   
v) “The righteous shall live by his faith” – What is God saying?  He’s saying to Habakkuk, I know you 
can’t understand, I know you cannot see all that I am doing, I know you only see the bad around you, 
but Habakkuk,  trust me, trust me, trust me. 
vi) I’m God, I’m doing things you wouldn’t even believe on a cosmic scale, have patience, wait on me, 
but more important than anything, trust me, walk daily with your faith in me.  You’re going to have to 
live by faith Habakkuk. 
vii) Faith in me, Faith in my character, Faith in who you know me to be, in spite of what you see!  God is 
calling for Faith in the WHO when we don’t know the WHY. 
viii) This is a faith that trusts in God, trusts in His work, trusts when I cannot see because I trust Him 
who can, trust when I don’t understand because I have faith in the one who does understand.   
ix) Brothers and sisters, we have questions, but God is at work.  We may not see it, we may not have 
patience to wait for it, but God is a work. 
x) And he’s saying, trust me, live by your faith in Me.  I’m in control, I know what I’m doing, you trust me!  
Don’t just look horizontal at the world around you, but start your day looking vertical!  With Faith in 
God, and trusting in God. 
xi) After all of this, how does Habakkuk answer God, we cannot read it all, but it comes down to 
3:17-19.  Read Habakkuk 3:17-19 
xii) Remember they were an agrarian society, everything rested on crops and animals for life.  Even if all 
of that fails Habakkuk says, I will not just trust the Lord, but rejoice in Him, in LORD, Yahweh, my 
provider, my sustainer, my LORD, my Savior, my King, who is over all! 
xiii) Why does he say that?  Because God in this instant, in the way Habakkuk wanted God made 
everything good?  No, the Babylonians still came.  The cancer may not go away, your marriage may 
not be put back together, that job may still be lost, the very thing you ask God NOT to do He may 
very well allow. 
xiv) But you can trust Him, to do what in the span of eternity will be for your good.  And I think I can say 
that based on two promises in the NT: 
xv) Romans 8:28 - [28] And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for 
those who are called according to his purpose. (ESV)   
xvi) 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 - [16] So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our 
inner self is being renewed day by day. [17] For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an 
eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, [18] as we look not to the things that are seen but to 
the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen 
are eternal. (ESV) 
xvii) 
Live is Hard, and God is good - and when life is hard, Trust in the Who you do know, when you 
don’t know the WHY.