Text: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:4; 3:17-19
Habakkuk’s Objections and Response on Pain and Suffering (Sermon Manuscript)
Introduction:
Pain is the ultimate teacher. (Roger Collier)
C.S. Lewis said, “We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told in Matthew ‘Blessed are they that mourn.’” Indeed, pain has been present since the beginning of life—mothers feel the pain of birth—and until the last moment of life—death.
Main Idea:
- Habakkuk complained and lamented to God. He was questioning God. (1:1-4, 13)
- God answered that he was already at work even before Habakkuk’s complaints. (1:5-11)
- Perfect time – never delays. (2:3) Other people rely on their might, power, riches, and possession. (2:4a) – The kind of faith that Habakkuk describes, and that the NT authors promote, is continuing trust in God and clinging to God’s promises, even in the darkest days.
- But Christians—the called out righteous ones—are to live by faith. (2:4b)
How did Christ respond?
Matthew 26:36-45: Jesus prayed three times – in this the same story, in Luke’s version, he said, “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (22:44).
Christ sympathizes with you, in Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Dane Ortlund explained that “In our pain, Jesus is pained…His human nature engages our troubles comprehensively. His is a love that cannot be held back when he sees his people in pain. Jesus is able to sympathize. He “co-suffers” with us.”
Conclusion:
Same with Jesus, Habakkuk’s response was prayer. As Christians, this is our default setting. NT Wright says, “That is our vocation: to be in prayer, perhaps wordless prayer, at the point where the world is in pain.” (the temptation to be pragmatic or solution-oriented).
Habakkuk 3:17-19, Rejoicing! Yet even amid suffering and loss, Habakkuk has learned that he can trust God, and with that trust comes great joy, not in circumstances but in God himself: yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Yahweh has become Habakkuk’s strength.
Ptr. John Paul Arceno
UCBC New Jersey
March 13, 2022
This section is an excerpt only; download the full manuscript here.