When The Answer Is Disaster

Sometimes we're overwhelmed with calamity, and it seems, when we pray, that God is nowhere to be found.

We lose a job, get a foreclosure notice, our health is suddenly at great risk. Despite earnest praying, our situation only gets worse. That was the cry of the prophet Habakkuk, and for many, it's our cry too.

Please stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. Today, we continue a series on the triumph of unanswered prayer, and our focus on this broadcast will be from the book of Habakkuk on how to handle those times when the answer is disaster.

The Moody Choir comes now to open today's service with a song of praise. Come praise the Lord with me, come praise the Lord, worthy is he to be praised and adored. Let us together, his qualities proclaim, joining our voices to honor his name. Who was the death he died when he was crucified? Harder he did provide, harder he did provide.

Though in the tomb he lay, death could not hold his prey, lead toward the bars away, lead toward the bars away. Though in his body he carries the scars, he is alive, he can shout to the stars, shout to the stars. Someday he's coming from heaven's dry form, coming as he comes to claim as his own, coming in glory with levers of hand, but I shall see him in Rome.

Jesus will grow, the world. Come praise the Lord with me, come praise the Lord, come praise the Lord with me, come praise the Lord, come praise the Lord. And our Father, at this moment we do crown you King of our lives. We thank you today that we can sing your praises. We ask, Lord, that even as we have been singing and will continue to do so, that the praise that is offered to you may be made acceptable through Jesus Christ our Lord, we ask.

Amen. We continue our worship as we read God's word. You'll find the passage in your bulletin from 1 Chronicles 16.

Please join me on the bold print. O give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wondrous works, glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually, remember the wondrous works that he has done. Ascribe to the Lord, O clans of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name, bring an offering and come before him. Then all the people said, Amen and praise the Lord. Praise to the Lord, O clans of the peoples, O clans of the peoples, O clans of the peoples, in the name of the Lord. Praise to the Lord, O clans of the peoples, Praise to the Lord, the Master, the Earth, and the Earth in me. Sure in his glorious embers, safe and free, Helper and blue from the almighty bamboo, If there's one wee, wee dragon in me. O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, At the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, You read the text and you continue on, and it's almost as if, well, after that, I'm sorry I asked quite frankly.

I could have lived without this. We cry up to God for the United States of America and say, God, you raised up this nation. Please bring righteousness.

Please help us. And God says, hey, I'm doing something. I'm doing something that is hidden, but it'll be revealed. I'm raising up a nation who's going to fly planes into some of your famous towers. I'm raising up a media that is going to assault your values through technology. I'm raising up mediums that will spread the world and the earth with your pornography and all that. And I'm raising up people that are going to understand that tough times are coming. As a matter of fact, I'm going to begin a recession.

And a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. That's the answer to your prayers. And we say, God, did we hear you correctly? This is not what we were praying for. Well, Habakkuk, God bless him. He was just like we are questioning God and wondering how in the world this could possibly be consistent with the God that he thought he knew. And he goes on now and he begins to dialogue with God. Look at his response in verse 12. You see, Habakkuk's problem is ours. He knows something about God and his attributes and he understands that the problem is he can't square that with what he sees in the world. It's like our problem. God is love.

Oh, really? God is love? So there's a young mother that dies of cancer leaving children behind. I mean, it's the struggle of every human being who's ever come to believe in God.

We can't put it together. And what Habakkuk is saying in the next few verses is, this seems to fly in the face of two of your attributes. The first attribute is holiness, or I should say justice. Verse 12, are you not from everlasting? Oh Lord, my God, my holy one, we shall not die. Oh Lord, you ever ordained them as a judgment and you O rock have established them for reproof. You are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. Why do you idly, there's that word again, look at traitors and are silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he.

He's saying this creates a bigger problem for me than I had when I began praying. God, it's inconsistent with your justice. Of course, we're evil as your people. I've already admitted that, you know, that there is no justice and there's violence in the land and your law is not being followed, but we're not as bad as the Chaldeans, not as bad as the Babylonians. Of course, we're evil as a nation. We have our evils. But you know, at least we don't kill people who convert from one religion to another. We don't condone the random terrorism of blowing up women and children randomly for political agendas. Yeah, we've got our problems, but we're not that bad.

We're better than they are. So how come you're going to use them to judge us? How come you are going to use some wicked judges in this land and raise them up?

And justice is going to be perverted. God, it doesn't make sense. It seems inconsistent with your justice, and it seems inconsistent with your holiness. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil. How can you stand this travesty of your law being maligned by us as a nation? And how can you stand all this when you are of such pure eyes that you find it difficult to even look at evil, though you know that it exists?

That's the question. So Habakkuk spills out his soul to God. And he pours it all out and says, I don't understand. Well, if you're following us, you know that so far we've looked at the prayer of Habakkuk, the perplexity of Habakkuk, and now the posture. I like it every once in a while when all of the sequences in my message actually begin with the same letter, and it worked out this time.

I don't do that too often, but occasionally. The posture of the prophet. Chapter 2, verse 1, I will take my stand at the 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. The imagery there is of a man who's on a rampart.

He is looking into the distance to see if any enemy is coming into the city. And what he does is continue to stare because he wants to be the first who's going to see it. And in the very same way Habakkuk is saying, I'm going to stand here on tiptoes in reverence. I am going to stand here because whatever God says, I want to make sure that I get it right and I can hardly wait to hear what he's going to say. So God begins to speak and God says, Habakkuk, I want you to write down the vision. And you say, well, did he do it?

Yeah, that's this book. You'd say, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could stand on the wall of the city and see God and see what God is saying? Well, just read the word. And when you read the word, you get what God is saying. You'll notice verse two, the Lord answered me, write the vision, make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time.

That's going to be critical in a moment. Verse four, behold, his soul, that is the soul of the unrighteous is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Okay. Very famous verse, by the way, quoted three times in the New Testament. The righteous one shall live by faith. But I want to ask at this point, faith in who? Well, we know that that is faith in God, but faith for what? Faith for what? Times are hard. We're in an economic crisis. There are those who experience sickness and poverty and we are in a desperate state as a nation morally and spiritually. So I want to know what I should have faith in God for? Hang on to that. What follows now in the next chapter is not a direct answer to Habakkuk's question as much as it is that God is affirming judgment for all who are wicked.

Of course, we need to simply point this out. There are five woes that God gives in answer to Habakkuk's prayer and question. Verse six, woe to him who heaps up what is not his own. Verse nine, woe to him who gets evil gain for his house.

To set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm. Woe to that person. We're living at a time when there are many people involved in a mortgage crisis. And I understand that part of the problem is predatory lenders who knew right well that those people could not pay. But because they were making money, they signed them up anyway. Woe to those who gets evil gain for his house to set his nest on high.

Saying, as long as, as long as I'm okay, I don't care about anybody else. Woe to them. Verse 12, woe to him who builds a town with blood. Verse 14 says that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Verse 15, woe to him who makes his neighbors drink.

All right. Verse 19, woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake, woe to idolaters. What is God saying here? God is saying, Habakkuk, you have to get one thing clear, okay? You have to understand this. It is not as if the violence in the land or the violence of the Chaldeans that they are going to bring upon the land, and they did. It is not as if wicked people of any stripe, of any religion, of any country, are ever going to get by.

I know what's going on and my standard of judgment and holiness has not changed one iota. What you must understand Habakkuk is that I am on a different timetable than you are. It's a different timetable.

Give me time. Did you notice that the vision talks about the time appointed? And we say to ourselves, I want justice and I want it today, preferably at least by tonight. And God says, I have my own timetable. In fact, there's a verse in Ecclesiastes that can be roughly translated this, because the judgment against sin is not executed immediately. People think it is safe to do evil. I'm not getting caught, they say.

I made my money, perhaps unrighteously, perhaps by cutting corners, but I got by, my friends got by, everybody's doing it. And God is doing nothing. God says to Habakkuk, I am doing something and to keep in mind, I know exactly what is happening and judgment will come.

When Habakkuk hears about God's sovereignty and God's judgment, he says finally in verse 20, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Earlier in the first chapter, he said, Oh God, how can you be silent when all this is going on in the world? And now he begins to back up and to say, now it is my turn to be silent. As a matter of fact, it is the turn of the entire world to know that God is in his temple and in his presence, our mouths have to be closed. We might not understand his ways, but it's all under his control. So notice that we have moved now and we have moved from the idea of his prayer to his perplexity, to his position. And now I'd like to talk about his praise. We're going to go through the text, then I'm going to tell you what's going on, and then your life is going to be changed forever.

You'll never be the same. If you are open to what God has to say to you today through his word. He goes on in chapter three and he prays that in wrath, God would remember mercy. Last part of verse two. And then beginning at verse three and going on, he begins to talk about what God has done in the past. As he's contemplating the works of God, the splendor of the heavens. Verse four, his brightness was like the light rays flashed from his hand. Before him, verse five, there went pestilence and plague followed at his heels.

He scattered mountains. You can look through this yourself and see the wonderful hyperbole that Habakkuk has regarding what God is doing. Most commentators believe that what he's really talking about is the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. You know, it talks about the seas and the rivers opening and the pestilence that came upon Egypt and so forth.

And Habakkuk here is lost in wonder when he looks at the past and begins to think what God has done. And then we conclude, you'll notice it says, verse 16 of chapter three, I hear and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. A rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. Don't you feel that way when things go bad and when we read the headlines? Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who have invaded us. I am willing now to have patience to let God do it on his schedule and his agenda and not mine.

So that's what he's emphasizing. And then this book ends with this unbelievable, almost surprising burst of praise. Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit beyond the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food. The flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herds in the stalls. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deers. He makes me tread on high places and then he ends with a note to Jerry Edmonds. It says right here to Jerry Edmonds, the choir master with stringed instruments. That's right.

It's right there. This apparently was sung. This was sung. What's going on? What's the connection between what Habakkuk is learning about God and suddenly this great burst of admiration and praise?

What's the connection? How can we move from all these questions to praising God? How can we make that transition?

That's the question. There are two things that Habakkuk concluded about God. And he said, if these things are true about God, I can praise even though everything that has been nailed down is being torn up and everything is falling in around me. First, God is in control.

God is in control. The Chaldeans are coming. That's scary. They were wicked. They were evil. They used to skin people alive.

They were known for their violence. The Chaldeans are coming. God says, I'm the one that is raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation that shall come against you. That is part of my work as a discipline and as a judgment for your sin.

But I am in control. Have you ever wondered how strong the Chaldeans were? Have you ever wondered how strong radical Islam is, for example?

Have you ever wondered how much authority Pilate had over Jesus? Let me ask a different kind of question. Have you ever wondered how strong the devil really is? You say, yeah, I'd like to know. Today, I'm going to tell you. Whatever you may say about the service today, if you're listening by the internet, radio. However, finally, you will find an answer to the question of how strong the devil is.

Are you ready? He has as much power as God lets him have and not one whit more. That's how strong the devil is. He cannot even harass you unless it passes Jesus Christ's test of control. The devil wants to get to Peter, and Jesus says, Simon, Simon, Satan has desire to have you that he might sift you like wheat.

But he can't get to you until I've passed off on it. Once you understand this, you will pray against Satan, as we must and as we are instructed. But we will pray with great faith because we know that God is in control. And I will quote the words of Jesus to Pilate, words that I absolutely love. The words are, thou couldest have no power at all against me unless it were given to thee from above.

The evil people that are harassing you, what is happening in your life, the injustice that you are enduring, the feeling that you are being marginalized and misunderstood. Evil can have no authority over you unless it is given from above. God is in control. And that's why we pray to God. And that's why we have a day of prayer and fasting. It is because we believe that ultimately we must submit everything to God. And we can come to God about anything because God is in control.

When Habakkuk realized that, he said, I realized that nothing is happening willy-nilly among the nations. Nothing is happening in the raising up of leaders and the taking down of leaders, that God stands back of everything. He does not do evil. He does not do evil. But through secondary causes, he's involved in everything that transpires on his planet.

So that's the first thing. Secondly, when Habakkuk began to go over the story of the Israelites and their deliverance out of Egypt, he learned something else about God. He learned about the control of God. But he also learned about the care of God. He began to think of how God led them through the Red Sea and how God dried up the Red Sea and how God fed them and how the mountains trembled and how everything else began to happen under his sovereign control. And God delivered his people. He said, you know what? I can also believe that God cares about me.

And Habakkuk finally realized something. He said, never again will I interpret the silence of God as the indifference of God. There are times when God is silent, but that doesn't mean that he's not working.

That doesn't mean that he is indifferent. It still means that the very hair of your head is numbered. Still means that he sees the sparrow fall to the ground and that you, as a child of God, are number one on his list of things to take care of in the universe. He says, I will accept, he says, the fact that there are times when God is silent, but he is faithful and he is working and that he cares about me. So what Habakkuk says in the last part of his book, verse 17, we could translate it for our era something like this.

And though the refrigerator is empty, and though I may lose my job or perhaps have, because that's exactly what Habakkuk is saying, the only means of livelihood was what grew and, of course, the animals in the field. Though things should turn against me and what I have planned not come to pass, yet I will rejoice in the Lord my God. I will take joy in the God of my salvation, for the Lord God is my strength. And I will go on believing and trusting no matter what. That's what the prophet is saying.

And so it comes down to this. Do you believe in the care of God and the control of God? Do you believe that when God puts us through the kiln, through the furnace, that he keeps his hand on the thermostat? And therefore, we can be assured that nothing is happening randomly. It is directed toward an appointed end. We have to understand that God is on a different timetable. God was saying, Habakkuk, you're absolutely right about my holiness. You're right about my justice.

You're wrong about the issue of time, because I'm on a different schedule than you are. William Cooper struggled with insanity and tried to commit suicide. You say, well, who was he? He was the man who gave us the wonderful line that God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.

He also wrote to the song, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. I mention that because there are people who are genuinely saved, who struggle with perhaps mental illness, with depression, with a sense of hopelessness. That's why, by the way, we need the church. That's why we have TMC communities, is because not a one of us can live the Christian life successfully on our own. And it's not enough simply for you to be here, though that's wonderful. You need to plug into our ministries.

You need to get to know people. You need to become part of a body that helps us in our walk with God. But I love what William Cooper wrote based on this text. Though vine nor fig tree neither their wanted fruit should bear, though all the field should wither nor flocks or herds be there, yet God the same abiding, his praise shall tune my voice.

For while in him confiding, I cannot but rejoice. God says, where you are, you can live differently. Now you say, well, Pastor Lutzer, I just don't see the connection. Now here's what we're going to do. The next three or four minutes, God is going to bring deliverance to hundreds of you who are listening when I explain what commitment means. Because you see, here's what we do as Christians. We hear a message like this, and then we pray. And we say, oh, God, I pray that things will work out.

I pray that this will happen. And we're just fidgeting, and we don't pray in faith because we keep praying over and over and over again and don't see anything, and we even get more nervous. God says, you're praying, and that's fine.

But what you aren't doing is you don't understand the meaning of the phrase commitment. The best way to illustrate it is the life of Joseph. Potiphar, the Bible says he committed all the matters of his house to Joseph.

And then it says, and concerned himself with nothing that was happening in his house. Now it turns out that Potiphar's wife tried to derail Joseph. But even then, Joseph was faithful.

But here's the point. He so committed himself, the Bible says, to what Joseph was doing. He had such confidence in Joseph that he concerned not himself regarding the matters of his house.

Could you imagine what would happen if we committed ourselves to God like that? I told somebody yesterday via email who's struggling with anxiety. He believes that maybe he won't be able to earn enough money for his family.

Years ago, a young medical student met with me and said, I am so full of anxiety, I can't even sleep because I think I might flunk out of med school. I said, that's no problem. We can take care of all that right now. What you need to do is to commit yourself to God in such a way that you take the burden from your heart, transfer it to God, and say, God, you are fully in charge. I'll do the best I can, but this is yours, not mine.

He said, I can't do that. Because he said, if I do, God might let me flunk med school anyway. I'm saying, yeah, but how would you like to flunk? At peace or not at peace? You know, you can go through it joyfully or you can go through it with, you know, it depends.

Sure, it's no guarantee you're going to pass med school, but why not enjoy it either way? And he left filled with anxiety. I never did discover whether or not he passed. I hope he did. But if he didn't, how can you go wrong to simply transfer that burden from your shoulders to God in such a way that you say, God, as of this moment, I no longer concern myself with what is going to happen. Because that is your business, my confidence in you. See, what God is saying is you pray, you pray, you pray, you pray.

Don't you think it's time to trust? And when you trust, you continue to pray, but you pray very differently. Your prayers are filled with praise and adoration. You say, even though the worst time should come, I will still rejoice in God. You can't get that by praying, just praying. You can only get it by that transfer of trust to God. Now, I need to tell you from my own experience, I know you can't do this in this meeting.

You can start. What you need to do is to take out an hour, at least minimally, maybe longer, when you're alone with God. And then you say, God, I'm here for serious, serious business because I can't bear these burdens and you never intended me to. So what I'm going to do is I maybe get down on the floor in your face before God in silence. And by the way, if you were not here last week and you did not get one of those bulletin inserts, those cards that tell you how to seek God, we do have some extra ones over at the connection corner, I understand. But what you do is you say, God, I'm going to spend time in silence. I'm going to agree with you about everything. And I'm going to make a commitment of my life and my future to God that is so complete. Oh, I'll tell you, it's going to be a struggle. The devil's going to be there and saying, yeah, but what if God doesn't come through? Yeah, but you have to look out for yourself, the whole thing, stay there as long as you need to, bring your lunch unless you want to fast, and leave it in God's hands. So that you can say, even if the fig tree doesn't blossom, even if the crop fails, even if my job is curtailed, even if there isn't enough money, even if the relationship doesn't work out, I will still rejoice in God because it's not my burden, it's his.

And then we think of the verse of Scripture, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Get rid of that burden. Woman riding a bus, caught a bus, heavy suitcase, scarcely hold it, the bus stopped, she was so glad, she got in the middle of the bus and continued to hold it up. Somebody said, put it down, she said, I'm glad the bus is carrying me, I can't expect it to carry my suitcase too.

It's the way we are. Listen, if you're on your way to heaven, you're on the bus. All right, put down the suitcase and begin to do it right now. Let us pray. Father, bring deliverance to your people.

Bring the same faith that Habakkuk had. Because Lord, we're going through difficult times. All of us have challenges.

All of us have a future that is very, very unknown. All of us have issues that we bring to church and we keep in our homes. All of us have that, oh God, we pray. And I ask in Jesus' name that we might be able to say, though the fig tree rots, we will continue to trust you. Grant that, oh God, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. On today's Moody Church Hour, Pastor Lutzer opened the Bible to the book of Habakkuk to show us how best to deal with those tough times in prayer when the answer is disaster. Next week, Dr. Lutzer takes us to the book of 2 Corinthians to help us focus on those times when the answer is denied. Our six-part series on the triumph of unanswered prayer can be yours on CD for a gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Call 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry.

Our thank you to you will be a set of messages you can hear and then pass on to others. Call 1-800-215-5001, or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.