Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1-6,12-13; 2:1-4; 3:1,16-19
Have you ever heard this expression, “An expectation is a planned resentment”?
An expectation is a planned resentment. I had the opportunity to use it in a text message to a long lost friend last week, and he said, “That’s very Zen for a Methodist.”
But he’s wrong… the expression doesn’t come from some eastern religion. It actually comes by way of Alcoholics Anonymous. And I love it! The point is, be careful about expecting too much in a given situation because, chances are, things will not go the way you hoped or planned. And when that happens, you’re going to feel resentment… when things don’t go as planned.
Today’s sermon is about what happens when “things don’t go as planned.” And I want to make two points, not three… Ignore Point Number Three in your bulletin. Point Number One has to do with “bemoaning,” which is an old-fashioned word for “complaining.” And Point Number Two is about the cure for bemoaning, which is believing. So… Bemoaning and believing…
But first “bemoaning”…
I wonder if the prophet Habakkuk can relate to this saying, “An expectation is a planned resentment”?
The prophet Habakkuk certainly seems angry in today’s scripture—at least in chapter 1. See verse 2: “How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! ‘Violence is everywhere!’ I cry, but you do not come to save.” These are among the harshest words that anyone speaks to God, or about God, in the Bible!
And what has made the prophet angry? Well… Habakkuk is living at an incredibly difficult time in the history of his nation, Judah—which is the southern kingdom of Israel. Just a reminder that at this point the southern kingdom is all that’s left. The northern kingdom is long gone… and soon enough, Judah will be, too. In fact, Habakkuk is prophesying around the same time as Jeremiah… not long after the reign of King Josiah. Josiah was an amazing king—far more faithful to God than any of his predecessors. He re-committed the nation to listening to, believing, and obeying God’s Word; he reformed the religious and worship life of his people; he destroyed all the idols he could find; he destroyed all the pagan shrines and sanctuaries—including those pesky pagan sanctuaries in the so-called “high places,” in the mountains — which even several good kings were unwilling or unable to destroy. Josiah was a righteous king… and then?
Then he was killed in battle… against Egypt… after which a succession of his unrighteous sons and grandsons took over… until finally, his nation, Judah, was conquered by the new superpower on the block, Babylon.
But that’s still a little ways in the future. My point is, Habakkuk is prophesying somewhere in between “the good old days” under righteous King Josiah and the exile of God’s people to Babylon. And right now, as far as Habakkuk is concerned, things are really bad in Judah.
“How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen!”
Habakkuk is looking around his nation—and looking at foreign adversaries outside of his nation—and he’s angry; and he’s complaining to God… But he’s complaining because God is not answering his urgent prayers for justice… for divine intervention… He’s bemoaning because God doesn’t seem to be listening… Indeed, he’s bemoaning because it seems like God doesn’t care!
Complaining, of course, is usually a symptom of anger. And often in scripture, like anger itself, complaining is a deadly serious sin.
We see how deadly it is to complain when ancient Israel was wandering in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. One example of complaining is found in Numbers chapter 11. The Israelites faced many hardships at the time, but their main complaint here is about their food. Verses 5 and 6: “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
Manna, please recall, was this miraculous bread from heaven with which God sustained the lives of Israelites for 40 years—free of charge, free of much effort on their part, and perfectly nutritious… and the people were complaining about it! And complaining was a deadly serious sin! We’re told in verse 1 that “the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.”
Why is God so angry about this sin?
Because at its heart, this sin of complaining, of murmuring, of grumbling—and the anger underneath it—says something like this to God, or about God… “God shouldn’t have put us in this situation! God is not treating us right! He’s doing us a great injustice! We can’t trust him to take care of us. We know better than God what’s good for us!”
Complaining is often rebellion against God. It’s often treason against Christ our King.
God is sovereign over everything, after all, and complaining is often our way of saying, “I know how to run the universe better than God!”
This weekend we had our very first annual conference of the new North Georgia Conference of the Global Methodist Church. And in the inaugural ordination service yesterday, we recited the famous covenant prayer of John Wesley’s, which includes words like these:
Put us to doing, put us to suffering.
Let us be put to work for You or set aside for You,
Praised for You or criticized for You…
Let us be full, let us be empty.
Let us have all things, let us have nothing.
Notice what this prayer doesn’t say… It doesn’t say, “Put us to doing. Let us be put to work for you, and be praised for you. Let us be full. And let us have all things.” No… When we pray this famous prayer, we are also inviting the Lord to make us suffer… if that’s what he wants for us… to be set aside… if that’s what he wants for us… to be criticized… if that’s what he wants for us… to be empty… that’s what he wants for us… and to have nothing… if that’s what he wants for us.
But notice those words: set aside for you… criticized for you… We’re not asking that God let unpleasant or evil things happen to us for no reason at all. We’re not gluttons for punishment. No… But we are asking that unpleasant or evil things happen to us if—and this is a big if—if by being subjected to these thingswe can glorify God in a powerful way… if we can bear witness to his Son Jesus in a powerful way… Listen: This is “advanced” Christianity, but of course the original Methodist movement was “advanced Christianity”… but it’s true: God may subject us to painful experiences in this life… evil, awful, painful experiences in this life… by all means…
But suppose that when we make it to the next life… when we arrive safely in heaven with Jesus… or when Jesus returns and we are resurrected into God’s new world…
Suppose we meet someone then… or perhaps many “someones” then… but we meet people who are there with us in heaven because they not only saw us suffer in this life, but they saw how we suffered… and they saw the difference that our faith in Jesus Christ made in our lives… and they thought to themselves, even if they never said it out loud, “He’s got something… She’s got something… that I don’t have… They’ve got joy… they’ve got peace… They’re kind… even though this bad thing is happening to them. I want that!”
In Romans chapter 9, verse 3—when Paul laments the fact that so many of his fellow Jews have rejected Christ, he says, “I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.”
I can hardly comprehend the kind of love that Paul has for his people: “I would suffer hell itself, eternally, to save them!”
When we Methodists pray that Wesleyan Covenant Prayer, and we say, “Put me to suffering,” we can be absolutely confident we’ll never suffer anywhere close to suffering hell! But it’s very possible that God will use our suffering, transform our suffering, into something that might save others. Shouldn’t we be willing to say, “It’s worth it.” In light of eternity, even the longest life is merely a blip. Can we endure it for the sake of the salvation of friends, family, neighbors, and others who are watching us?
My point is, if God wants Habakkuk to have nothing, and to be empty, and to be “put to suffering,” and to be set aside,and to be criticized… or worse… That’s God’s business.
But… let’s read on in Numbers 11. In verse 10, it says, “Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated.” So Moses is angry too. Verse 11: Moses asks God, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people?” Verse 15: “If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”
Truthfully, Moses’ complaint doesn’t sound so different from the way the Israelites are complaining.
Except in Moses’ case there’s no fire raining down from heaven on him. No threats, no anger on God’s part. God doesn’t rebuke Moses at all. Just like God doesn’t rebuke Habakkuk for what we might say are impertinent, disrespectful, not to mention “theologically incorrect” words about God. God approves of what Habakkuk wrote so much that he made sure it was included forever in holy scripture!
So what’s the difference?
What’s the difference between the Israelites’ complaint and the complaint of Moses and Habakkuk?
Only one thing: Moses and Habakkuk are complaining directly to God… rather than complaining to one another… It doesn’t mean they’re right in what they think and feel… It doesn’t mean their anger is justified. It means that God would much rather have us complain to him in prayer—even at the risk of espousing bad theology—than not to pray at all. And God would much rather have us complain to him in prayer than to complain to one another…
As we saw with the Israelites in the wilderness… God hates that kind of complaining!
So I hope that’s an encouragement: When you’re mad, when you’re tempted to complain… Go to the Source… Go to the One who’s ultimately responsible for putting you in that situation: Complain to God. And that’s Point Number One—about bemoaning…
Point Number Two: Believing.
I just said that God was ultimately responsible for putting you in bad situations. And he is! God wants Habakkuk to know that God is in complete control of the situation.
We see this in chapter 1. In verses 2 through 4, Habakkuk has just finished reeling off all these terrible things that are happening in Judah… and he’s saying, “God, do something about it!” Now listen to what God tells Habakkuk in verse 5:
The Lord replied,
“Look around at the nations;
look and be amazed!
For I am doing something in your own day,
something you wouldn’t believe
even if someone told you about it.
“All right,” Habakkuk must think. “Finally! Relief! Now, now… we’re getting somewhere! Now, God is going to do something to solve this problem.” And verse 6 tells us what God is going to do:
I am raising up the Babylonians,
a cruel and violent people.
They will march across the world
and conquer other lands…
Until finally Babylon conquers his own nation, Judah…
So God is going to rid Judah of its sins of violence, idolatry, and greed: by sending the Babylonians to destroy Judah, to destroy the Temple, and to take many of their citizens into captivity.
Perhaps we wouldn’t blame Habakkuk at this point if he said, “God, I know I said I wanted you to do something, but not that!” Habakkuk doesn’t exactly say it like that, but in verses 13 through 17 of chapter 1, Habakkuk does complain that as bad as his fellow Israelites are, the Babylonians are much, much worse! Verse 13: “Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?” The “wicked” refer to the Babylonians; the “more righteous” people are Habakkuk’s fellow Israelites.
Habakkuk is not wrong… His point is, if Judah deserves punishment, how much more do the Babylonians! God’s solution to the problem doesn’t make sense to Habakkuk.
But then, in verses 3 through 4 of chapter 2, God answers Habakkuk’s concern with the theme verses of the entire book. God tells him:
This vision is for a future time.
It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled.
If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently,
for it will surely take place.
It will not be delayed.Look at the proud!
They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked.
But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
God’s good plans will come to pass. Notice that verse 3 says two things that may seem contradictory to us: “If it seems slow in coming”—that is, if it seems like God is taking too long to work out his good plans and purposes—“wait patiently.” As far as Habakkuk is concerned, of course, God’s plans and purposes are taking way too long. But then verse 3 concludes with these words: “for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” That is, God’s good plans and purposes will surely succeed. In fact, they will not even be delayed.
And we wouldn’t blame Habakkuk for saying, “What do you mean they won’t be delayed? They’re already delayed! My whole reason for complaining to you in the first place is that your good plans and purposes have already been delayed too long!”
But Habakkuk is wrong: Literally everything that’s happening in the world and in Habakkuk’s life is happening exactly on time… as far as God is concerned. As difficult as it is for us humans to see, God’s timing is perfect, and however long God takes, we can trust that that’s exactly how long it needs to take in order for God to accomplish his good plans and purposes.
We’ve often heard the old cliche, “God’s timing isn’t our timing.” And that’s true, but it doesn’t go far enough: The cliche should be this: God’s timing isn’t our timing, and God’s timing is always late… as far as we’re concerned!
Maybe not always, but close enough…
So what do we do in the meantime? God tells us: “the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.”
And how do the righteous do this? By having faith… by trusting… by believing… And what exactly are we supposed to believe?We’re supposed to believe that as hard as it often is for us humans to see, God really is in complete control… We’re supposed to believe that God’s timing really is perfect… We’re supposed to believe that everything really is going perfectly according to God’s good plans.
Remember what I said earlier about Israel’s complaint in the wilderness? “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!” 1
What is that? That is nostalgia… that’s longing for the so-called “good old days.” And it seems likely that Habakkuk, too, fell victim to that same way of thinking: “Things were so much better… back then… when I was young… when King Josiah was on the throne.” In fact, it’s safe to say that we often complain because we compare what’s happening today with the “good old days,” and today just doesn’t measure up…
… And then what happens?
Remember: “An expectation is a planned resentment”!
If we long for the good old days, we need to remember what the prophet Joel said… Billy Joel… in his hit song from the ’80s, which is called—appropriately enough—“Keeping the Faith”: He said, “You know, the good old days weren’t always good. And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.”
No, but he’s right: The good old days weren’t always good… We of course misremember exactly how bad they were at times. In fact, according to today’s scripture, “the good old days” were exactly what they needed to be in order for God to accomplish his good plans and purposes in our lives and in our world!
And as for the second part of Billy Joel’s quote, “tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems”? That’s an understatement! Far from being “not as bad as it seems,” tomorrow is going to be awesome… Or… if not literally tomorrow, at some point in the future… there will come a “tomorrow” one day that will be glorious beyond all human comprehension… and we can be confident that God is preparing us and our world for that future.
So tomorrow—like “the good old days”—will be exactly what they need to be in order for God to accomplish his good plans and purposes in our lives and in our world!
This is why the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, in Ecclesiastes 7:10, “‘Don’t long for “the good old days.’ This is not wise.”
Now let me show you what this kind of believing looks like. Habakkuk shows us in chapter 3 of this short book.