The Mystery of God’s Ways -Eric Mtimkulu

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Now let's dive into today's message as you.

Know we're currently busy with our series in the book of

Habakkuk under the subject to under the theme A nation under

God's judgement, A nation under God's judgement, Habakkuk

Habakkuk 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 Amen. Please feel free to go to your

contents page and then look at where you can find Habakkuk

because it might take you a whole hour to get there.

Amen. I once preached from the book of

Obadiah and someone says, I never realized you have a book

called the Book of Abadiah in the Bible.

So it's one of those books that we really people don't read as

much. So Habakkuk chapter 1.

Habakkuk 1 · chapter mention

And we read last week from verse 5 to verse 11.

And so this morning let us quickly read from verse 12.

Are you not from everlasting? O Lord, my God, my holy one, we

shall not die. Oh Lord, you have ordained them

as a judgment, and you, O rock, have established them for

reproof. You who are of pure eyes than to

see evil and cannot look it wrong, why do you ideally look

at traitors? To remain silent when the wicked

swallows up the more righteous than he.

You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things

that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a

hook. He drags them out with his net,

and he gathers them in his dragnet.

So he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his

net and makes offering to his dragnet.

For by them he leaves in luxury, and his food is rich.

Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly,

mercilessly killing nations forever?

I will take my stand at my watch post 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.

Take away to Pam Guba in Dulin and Dabba's back corner is with

our comedy calling me Gonna Pagadi Tetanathan Gallu Take

away to XNNG come, oh God, and dwell among us this morning

through the proclamation, the teaching and the preaching of

your word this morning, Oh God, we echoed the words of the

psalmist that oh, how much we love your law, for your law is

sweeter than honey. And so, Lord, we pray that come

and speak to us this morning for the right of Hebrews.

Oh, God declares that your word is sharper than a double edged

sword. Therefore release it among us

this morning. Therefore, that I pray that let

the Saints be edified this morning and you be glorified in

our midst. We ask this in your name, Amen.

So the title of this message this morning is The Mystery of

God's Ways. The interrogative statement for

this message today is how should you respond when we cannot make

sense of what God is doing? And we will look at that under 2

points this morning. I'm sure they'll probably be up

on the screen. And for those of you perhaps who

weren't here last week, and perhaps just a recap for those

who were here last week, because I think for us to understand

these verses from verse 12 to verse 17 and chapter 2 of verse

one, again, we need to be reminded of the context.

Indeed, Habakuk is not a easy book to understand.

But when we understand the context, it becomes a little bit

easy to unlock the the, the message that Habakuk wants to

bring to us this morning. And So what is the situation

that is confronting the prophet? As we have said last week, that

this is a lament that Haba Google sees Israel or the nation

of Judah, the southern nation of Judah has backslidden.

The people of God have moved away from God.

So we see wickedness, immortal decay, we see violence, and we

see injustice. Judah at this time is in the

brink of invasion. The economy is collapsing, there

is lawlessness and there is political chaos.

But more importantly so, the law of God is paralyzed that the

people of God have neglected the Torah.

Religion has become nationalistic as well as

ritualistic. In other words, there is no

longer true worship from Judah. Judah is no longer worshipping

in truth nor worshipping in spirit.

The situation is worse that as you read the book of Habakkuk,

you'll find that good man with silence and evil man had the

stage and is the complaints. In Habakkuk chapter one verse

one to four, you can see more clearly that those were supposed

to uphold the law of God, ignored the law of God

altogether. The guilty was set free and the

innocent was punished to such an extent that in Judah at this

time, the judges would ignore the crimes of the powerful and

the connected, and in fact they would punish the innocent.

It gets worse, Judah. At this point in time, the kings

themselves. In fact, if you study the

history of Abu, you'll find that the king that was leading at

this point in time was an evil king to such an extent that they

would offer, they'd offer sacrifices to Molech and burn

their own children towards that God.

It is a situation where godly worship is twisted.

Good voices have been silenced. We see the people of God have

rebelled against God. They have become wicked before

God. And in this situation, God

raises up a prophet because his own people have become so

wicked. He raises up a prophet to speak

on his behalf. Because a prophet is the mouth

of God to God's people. He is going to speak a message

of God. But Habakkuk himself is going to

struggle with what God is going to say to him.

Hence his name means an embracer because Habakug is going to have

to embrace the burden for Judah, but also he's going to embrace

his own strong faith towards Yahweh.

He's going to wrestle with theological questions because

God is going to rock his theological world because he is

living under the nation and he is living under God's judgment.

Habakug is wrestling with the fact that how can a good God act

in a way in which he's going to act?

As we're going to see now, he is struggling to reconcile the

goodness of God, the character of God, the nature of God, with

the reality that he sees right in front of him.

So chapters 1 and chapter 2, it is Habaggook's dialogue with

God, a conversation with God, a prayer to God, and God answers

Habaggook. And as we as we would see in

chapter 3, when God answers Habakkuk, Habakkuk worships.

He prays and worships and writes a poem.

And in this poem we read in chapter 3 that ought to be

played with an instrument. So chapter 1 and chapter 2,

Habakkuk is frustrated. In chapter 3 Habakkuk is filled

with faith for what God is doing and so having that background as

we look at the the verses from verse 12 to verse 17 and chapter

2 verse one church, we first ought to be reminded that the

manner in which Christians face trials sometimes is quite

different from the non Christian world.

Often we don't see things from the way the world see things.

We also have to see things from a God perspective and for us to

see things from the God perspective, we must have an

understanding of the character of God and who God is.

And so as we read Ephesians one, verse 11, it says this God is

working all things after the counsel of his will.

God determines history. God knows history.

God controls everything. In other words, there is nothing

in this world that takes God by surprise.

No matter how good, no matter how bad, God is never surprise.

We can never plan a surprise party for God because He knows

all things. God is all wise.

God sees far and in Habakkuk in chapter 12, you can see the

words that he is using there. In fact, you could just preach

on verse 12 here alone because verse 12 is loaded.

There's so much to say in verse 12 as you can see that God who

is everlasting, God, who is all knowing God's sovereignty is

never connect, is never disconnected from his character.

God remains good. God is all wise.

As I've said, He never acts in a way that is contrary to his

nature and his character. Unlike the God of the Chaldeans.

Habakkuk reminds us that God, he is from eternity.

From eternity, His throne is above the world and he is above

time and outside of time. And so God, we must be reminded

that God is supreme and sovereign.

And so even as ABBA book is battling and struggling with

questions, but he must still think about the very character

of who God is. Theology proper is very

important to understand the very nature of who God is.

Ecclesiastes 311 says can we cannot find out what God has

done from the beginning to the end.

Romans 1133, God's judgment are unsearchable and his ways

incomprehensible. To whom are they

incomprehensible to us? And so that is why Habakkuk is

battling because he can't understand what God is doing and

why is God doing what he is doing?

If God is holy, how does he use evil and sin towards his own

people? Habakkuk is battling with this.

He knows that these people are violent.

The the, the, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians are violent and they

are coming for the people of God to bring God's discipline to

them. And Habakkuk is battling because

he's battling with the fact that God, you have chosen us.

We are the children of Abraham. You are the one who have set us

apart. Why then would you use these

people to discipline us? Not as Habaguk says we shall not

die as he gives himself hope. But God had told him before.

Listen, Habagu is going to be bad man.

He's going to be bad. I am not sending a weak army to

deal with you. I am sending a strong, a

violent, a hasty army to come and deal with you.

They're going to wipe you out. Me.

I'm sending them and God is saying I am sending them because

they are going to be my reproof, my discipline, my judgment to my

people. We must never forget that God

does discipline His own people is throughout Scripture.

You can see it from Adam and Eve.

You can see it from David's life.

You can see it from Jonah and many other people.

God does discipline his people. Job 517 says blessed is the man

who God corrects. God does discipline.

In fact, God's discipline is a blessing for the church.

Why? Because the discipline of God

purifies the church. God disciplines us for our good

so that we may share in His Holiness.

Now, is God's discipline easy? No, God's discipline is hard.

Listen to what Hebrews 12 verse 11 says.

Hebrews 12:11

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful later on.

However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and pit for

those who have been trained by it.

Discipline can be distasteful, it can be hard, but it is meant

to be corrective. God does discipline His own

people. It's not just a New Testament

thing, even Old Testament, but also we sit in the New Testament

where God disciplines His people to bring them into a new

direction, to change in their sinful attitudes, their actions,

their thoughts. God uses that, Puritan Stephen

Channock writes. We often learn more of God under

the road that strike us than under the staff that comforts

us. God disciplines those he loves.

Now think of yourself as a parent.

Imagine a parent who never disciplines their children.

That's not a good parent. But also we must remember that

children at times don't like to be disciplined.

You know, they'll throw toys at times, but they don't like

discipline. But the parent still needs to

discipline. And the child might even say,

Dad, I hate you, mum, I hate you.

But the parent still needs to to discipline.

Why? For the good of that child.

That's how God does it at times. When we say, God, why are you

doing this? And God said it's for your own

good that I'm actually disciplining you.

But I also want you to to note this and so that we are careful.

It does not mean when we go through difficult time in our

lives that God is disciplining us all the time.

OK, We must note that in Job, the Bible says he was an upright

man. He was a blameless man, and yet

he suffered. He didn't do anything.

So sometimes difficulty and suffering does not mean we've

actually done anything wrong. That's why even God rebukes one

of Job's friends by the times. God does use discipline to bring

us into the right path. And so Habakkuk is battling his

saying to God, I know the discipline is coming and the

discipline is going to be so he's saying God, but your eyes

are too pure to look at evil. In other words, God, why would

you use evil to discipline your righteous people while in verse

13 it says why do you either look at traitors and remain

silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than

he, Lee and and Ryan can come forward.

I just want to quickly illustrate this and come

forward, please. So here's the OK, we'll make you

have a cook today. That's fine.

Sorry man, you, you the bad guys.

OK, so so if we pretend this is have a cook and this is the the

Chaldeans, this is Babylonians and Habakkuk in chapter in in

verse 13, he is battling with a dilemma.

God, he is saying we have sinned against you.

We know that we've sinned, but we are much better than these

guys. These guys are violent.

These guys worship pagans. They worship, they worship false

gods. They don't know true worship.

At least we are your own people. Therefore why would you use the

worst people to discipline those who are at least OK?

Like why? We can sit down guys.

Thank you. So he, he is battling with the

character of God. He he's not denying that they've

sinned. He said, no, we know God, we

have sinned, but why would you use the Babylonians against us?

These guys are wicked. We, in fact, the Bible used the

word righteous. In other words, Habakkuk seems

to suggest it is we are a little bit more righteous than these

people. And so too, Habakkuk, he's faced

with two things. God, why are you using evil?

Why are you using sin #2? Why are you using these people

who are worse than us to discipline us?

Why are you dealing with them? You know they're evil too.

Why are you dealing with us only?

Why can't you deal with the Babylonians as well?

What a dilemma for the prophet don't we have?

Don't we sometimes have similar questions in our own lives?

Don't we sometimes ask why do we have wicked people in positions

of power? We ask the times, why are we led

by the wicked? Why are they in power?

We may even ask ourselves, why are we seeing those who commit

crimes not not not not being punished for that?

Why does it seem as though the corrupt is succeeding and and,

and it's flourishing? We may ask ourselves Lord, what

we saw at Tembisa Hospital when the SIU said 2 million has 2

billion has been stolen at the hospital and we can we say Lord

please what? What's that when 2 billion can

be stolen from the poor? We say Lord, what is this?

And we are filled with holy anger at that moment as the

people who needs those services and money stolen, we say that

what is happening to our nation? Why are we seeing so much

injustice in our nation? And we cry out like Habakkuk as

well and we say, Lord, why don't you deal with the Chaldeans?

Why don't you deal with those who rob and steal a corrupt?

Why don't you do that? Let me guarantee you, God does

not look away. God deals with these things as

you would see. God has not ignored the

Babylonians. He has not ignored the Chaldeas.

He will deal with them in his own time, but for now He is

dealing with his own people. He's saying, let me start with

you, then we will move to them. God does not look away.

Therefore, if God does not look away from injustice, we too

ought not look away. Church we are not.

We are called to speak for the voiceless, those who are

marginalised, those who are at the bottom of the pyramid, those

who are unfairly treated. The church and all of us

corporate the voice for them. This work among family members,

we have to speak up in our country, the gender violence and

has been the president has declared it to be a national

disaster. It means something has got to be

done and the church cannot keep quiet regarding gender based

violence and femicide. The church has got to speak up

for women and children who have been abused and killed.

We can't. God must bring brings his

justice, but also he uses us to speak up.

It was Edmund Burke who said silence in the face itself.

Keep quiet around these. God calls us to speak.

I think I was sharing with someone the other day, the, the,

the lady, my former boys, my former boss, a lady that I work

with. I have so much respect for her.

I've worked for that Lady for 14 years of my life.

An extraordinary leader with a sharp mind.

But one of the things I loved about serving under her for so

many years was that she would never compromise her core, her

conviction at the altar of convenience.

She never did that and people would say can we give you money

for that and that and do the can we do money for this and this

and she would say if this thing does not align with our values

as a Christ centered organization, we don't want your

money. We rather not and we think we

need that money. This is not we can't keep our

kids this particular thing in Logue good Christ.

And that's what it means at times, the cost that one has to

pay because of their conviction, because of their own values and

what God has called us to do. Therefore, Habakkuk must be

reminded of God's covenant. Love Church.

I want us to remind us also too, that in in hard times and in

trials, at times we again may feel that God is distant, that

God has deserted us, that God is not longer close to us.

But can I remind you that the character of God and the nature

of God does not change? I want you to notice a few

people from Scripture. God did not stop loving the

apostles when they were imprisoned, beaten, whipped and

stoned and shipwrecked. God did not stop loving Job when

he lost his wealth, his children, his health.

He did not stop. God ultimately did not stop

loving Jesus when he was forced to convicted, beaten, tortured,

and crucified. God does not stop loving us even

when we find ourselves on the sea of affliction.

God has not stopped loving us. God is with us.

In fact, in Romans 83540 says Who shall?

What shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulations distress, persecution, famine or

nakedness, or dangerous sword as it did written for your sake?

We are being killed all day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquest through

Christ who loves us. I am sure that neither nor

death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present

things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything

in all of creation, we'll be able to separate us from the

love of Christ. Absolutely nothing can separate

the redeemed, the sanctified from the love of Christ.

No matter what is happening in our lives cannot remind you.

Do you want to know how much God loves you?

Look at the cloth. That is how much God loves you,

that He would give His only begotten Son on your behalf to

die in your place for your sin. That's how much He loves you.

Therefore He will not. He will not desert you.

He will not leave you. He is with us.

You ought to be reminded that He gave His precious, precious gift

to us. Therefore, when safety is taken,

when comfort is taken, when security and shelter and peace

are taken from us, He does not mean God does not love us.

He loves us infinitely. He loves us forever.

So God may be disciplining us, but he still loves us.

And so we're going to see, as we see now in Habakkuk verse 14 to

verse 17, there's an interesting imagery and analogy from verse

14 to verse 17. It's quite a, it's quite an

interesting analogy. And as you can see from those

verses, that mankind are like the fish of the sea.

And of course, mankind in this context represents the people of

God, the nation of Judah, the southern nation of Judah, the

Israelites. The fishermen in this context

represents the Chaldeans or the Babylonians.

Notice the imagery here or this analogy that you make the fish

of the sea like crawling things that have no ruler.

What an interesting analogy. And and you would see that if

you study the history of the Babylonians and you read Daniel

and you read Jeremiah, you almost see that the image that

God is wanting to bring you, that you have the people of God

just who are like the fish in the sea.

They have no one for them. They have no one to protect

them. That's what Habaku is saying

here. We are like the fish and there's

no one to protect us. But we also have this fisherman,

and the fisherman is going to catch the fish.

Not only is he going to cast the fish, is going to put the fish

on the net and is going to hook the fish.

What is that image all about? It is an image, an analogy of

slavery and captivity. When Babylonians would capture

their enemies, they would normally put them in Nets.

Not only and put them in Nets, they would take a hook and hook

your bottom lip as a way of dragging you around.

Imagine the pain. And they would drag you with

your upper loop with that hook and drag you with your, with

your lower lip and then and then put you in the net.

And so the image Habaku is talking about here is, is, is

he's showing an image of what these guys do.

And he's saying, God, this is what they're going to do in a

way to us when when we are being captured, this is what going to

do to us because the fish will not be able to fight back

because the fish has been captured.

The fish is unable to resist because it has been captured.

This shows the might and the brutality and the power of the

Babylonian army. They are strong.

Make no mistake. As I said last week, they are

strong. They have no equal and they have

no match. And Hapaku says, I this is what

they're going to do to us. They're going to inflict pain,

humiliation and suffering. And Habakkuk says, but God not

as the end and not as 15 and 16. They do this and then notice

that they live in luxury and and his food is rich.

In other words, they capture nations, they conquer nations

and they take the spoils for themselves and that's what they

enjoy them. They enjoy the luxury and the

sports because why? They have defeated all their

enemies. Notice the other thing Habakkuk

says that not only do they do that in verse 15, in verse 16,

therefore he sacrifices to his net.

This is an indication they have no God.

Interesting army here. They conquer other people and

then they don't go and worship anyone.

And Habakkuk says what do they do?

They go and worship themselves. They say, oh man, we are so

good. We're so good.

Look at how many armies we've conquered.

Look at how many nations we've conquered.

We are so good. Probably they look at themselves

in the mirror and says, wow, we're so good.

And in doing so, Habakkuk says they worship themselves, they

have no view of who God is. And Habakkuk says, therefore

God, how can you use uncaring, arrogant, evil and adulterous

people to discipline us? And then Habakkuk says in verse

17, interestingly, is he then to keep on emptying his net and

mercilessly killing nations forever?

Notice the word here forever. And God is saying no, no, no,

no, they are not going to do this forever.

It will come to a stop. Guess what?

In 539 BC, eight years after the book of Habakkuk was written,

the Babylonians were defeated. You can read that in Daniel 5.

They were defeated. And so their might was not going

to last forever. God was going to have His way

with them, and he did therefore be reminded that the Babylonians

are not the only one. There's been many people in

history who have wanted to destroy the church.

We've had men like Nero who execute executed believers who

burned them alive and made them human torches.

We have Jessica's who also paid homeless to Roman gods and

killed people. We have people dying even today

in parts of Africa, but church dead.

Let me remind you, even as evil advances, Jesus is not losing.

Jesus is winning. That the church continued to

advance in spite of persecution and in spite of many kings who

tried to destroy it. But the church continues to

rise, and it will continue to do so until Jesus comes again.

All other empires have fallen to the ground, but Jesus is still

sitting on his throne to die, for only his Kingdom will stand

and remain forever. Lastly, he is not only reminding

him of his covenant love, he is also reminding him of active

endurance. Part of Habakkuk's process and

his knowledge of God being challenged, his theology, being

rocked by God, is also in a finding himself in a place where

he has to learn what it means to be patient with God.

Let me remind you, precious Saints, that at times God does

not give us the answers that we expect Him to give.

But at this point in time, Habakkuk is asking questions to

God. God is going to respond in all

these things, and Habakkuk he is not.

He, but also Habakkuk has to learn what it means to wait on

God. Precious science, precious

science, Don't be too angry with God.

Don't be too frustrated with God.

Be patient, wait and trust. Psalm 130 says verse 5 and 6.

I wait for the Lord. My whole being waits and His

word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord.

More than Watchmen wait for the morning.

More than Watchmen wait for the morning.

That is not a suggestion. It is a command.

It is an imperative wait on the Lord.

Habaguk had to learn what it means to wait on the Lord.

God is always doing something in the place where we are waiting.

Notice how Habaguk waits. He's not simply standing in his

waiting. Notice what he does.

He is. He is in a dialogue with God.

In other words, Habaguk. He's praying.

We pray while we wait. We keep on bringing our request

before God. While we wait, we become like

the widow who went back to the unjust judge over and over

because she needed an answer. Habakkuk is not pretending.

He's not saying God. I understand.

In fact, he's saying God. I do not understand.

But while I wait, I will be praying.

In my confusion, I'll be praying even when I don't have the

answer, I will be praying. God often teaches us patience

and patience is very hard in our world for some of us is going to

tomorrow is Monday on the traffic in traffic tomorrow

you're going to open up your window and you're going to start

doing this to people as they pass.

Why did you do that? Why did you do that?

Because we are just not patient for some of us don't like

waiting at the restaurant. Where is my food?

I want my food now. It's been more than 10 minutes.

And one place that will teach you actually what it means to be

patient is Home Affairs. If you want to learn what it

means to be patient, go to the Home Affairs and you will know

what it means to be patient. We've even coined the phrase

that time is money because we love everything that is easy.

We love the microwaved stuff. We don't like to wait.

We are an impatient generation. And because we are an impatient

generation, we expect God to hurry up.

And sometimes God says you're going to wait a little longer,

you're going to wait. But Habakkuk, in his waiting, in

his confusion, he's pressing on. He is praying, He is speaking to

God. So may I encourage you this

morning in whatever we are facing as a collective and and

as this community wait upon the Lord.

I think it is in Isaiah where it says those who wait upon the

Lord will renew their strength. Those who wait, I know it's hard

to wait, but we ought to wait. In times of change, he remains

the same. In moments of confusion and

uncertainty, God is stable, God is sure, God is setting and God

is steadfast. He never shifts, Habakkuk

reminds himself. You are my God.

He clings to him. So no matter what we may be

facing in our life today, whatever way might occur in the

world around us, we ought to be reminded, like Habakkuk, that

our Lord, you are my rock of refuge.

You are my protection, You are my strength.

God is unshakable and his character is unchanging.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you this morning too, to

be reminded of the mystery of your ways, just like Habakkuk.

Oh God, who battled you to understand as to why you would

use the Chaldeans to bring about discipline.

And yet, oh God, because you see far, because you know the past,

the present and the future. You knew what you were doing, oh

God. And so, Lord, even our own

lives, when we don't know what you are doing, help us to trust

in you. Help us to be patient, help us

to pray, O God, to be on our knees in those moments.

Help us to be reminded of your covenant love, that you will

never leave us nor forsake us. But O God, you are with us every

step of the way. Therefore, Lord, I pray this

morning, increase our faith. This morning, help us to stand

for those of God in our world, in our communities.

Lord Jesus, who who need someone to speak up for them, help us to

be that voice. Help us, oh God, in Jesus name,

Amen. Thank you for listening to

today's message. We hope you are encouraged and

challenged in your faith. If you're in the Saban suburbs,

we'd love to welcome you in person at one of our serves.

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throughout the week. Until next time, stay clear and

keep shining your light.