Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Do you want to learn how to study the Bible? Do you wish you could understand the Bible better? Do you want to know how you can remain faithful to historic Christianity in our contemporary society? Let's take a journey to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Faithfullyliven, the podcast is here to uplift your soul and encourage you to live a life honoring to God
Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Dialogues with God: Trusting His Plan in the Trials of Life
Ever wondered how to navigate your faith amidst the chaos and confusion of life? Join us as we unpack the powerful story of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, a man who dared to question God's tolerance of evil and His use of the wicked Babylonians as instruments of punishment. Through Habakkuk's honest dialogue with God, we explore the profound lessons on trust and faith, even when circumstances are bewildering. You'll discover how to bring your deepest concerns to God and find solace in His sovereign plans and divine patience.
References
Bible Overview (2012) Henderson Rose Publishing
The Bible Exposition Commentary Old Testament The Prophets Isaiah- Malachi by Warren Wiersbe
Systematic Theology 2nd edition by Wayne Grudem
Christian Theology by Millard J. Erickson
Do you want to learn how to study the Bible? Check out the YouTube channel Faithfullyliven youtube.com/@faithfullyliven
Do you want to read about how to live faithfully? Check out the blog http://lyfe102.org
Get a free Road Map to get started learning how to study the Bible https://mailchi.mp/88f9c9405da0/bible-study-road-map
Welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast, where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I'm Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hey everyone, welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully by offering guidance on how to study the Bible, how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity in a contemporary society. Let's jump right into our episode. So, looking at the culture and the world today, you know you can get a person depressed. You know there are a lot of behaviors and actions that are wrong, that people are saying that they're right now. You know, sometimes you wonder why God allows wickedness and evil to continue. And Habakkuk had the same question. So Habakkuk was an Old Testament prophet in Judah after the nation of Israel was divided into two. So it was divided into Israel, which is the northern kingdom, and then, which is the northern kingdom, and then Judah, which is the southern kingdom. So the people of Judah were wicked, you know, they had turned from obeying God and Habakkuk wanted to know why God was allowing this to continue. So here's kind of like an outline of the book of Habakkuk. So first is Habakkuk's first complaint, and Habakkuk has three chapters in it. So his first complaint why does evil go unpunished? And that's in chapter one, two through four. And then God answers his first complaint and he says I will raise the Babylonians to punish the wicked. That's in chapter 1, verses 5 through 11. And then Habakkuk's second complaint is how can a loving God allow the wicked Babylonians to punish a less wicked people? And that's still in the first chapter, 12 through chapter 2, verse 1. And then God answers the second complaint. He says I will eventually punish all the wicked, including the Babylonians, and that's chapter 2, 2 through 20. And then Habakkuk's prayer of praise, and that's in chapter 3, 1 through 19. The law has become paralyzed and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has been perverted. Habakkuk 1.4.
Speaker 1:So you know, living by faith it can be difficult because we don't always understand the ways of God. Or we don't understand the ways of God, and Habakkuk was pouring out his heart to God. He was broken over the sins that he saw that was happening in the land of Judah and he wanted to know why God was continuing to allow Judah to keep on sinning. And Habakkuk questions God in his honest and emotional prayer of lament, complaint, and wonder Like why was God tolerating evil? And why would God use wicked people to punish what he said that was less evil people? And each time God hears and answers Habakkuk, judah would be punished for the wickedness. All those who were wicked would be punished. Right?
Speaker 1:We have to remember that God is powerful and he's in control. So when we as believers generally believe in the sovereignty of God, we understand that we will never fully understand the way God works and the way he plans out things. As Christians we will not understand the plans of God, but he is working things out for his glory and for his pleasure. We see in Habakkuk how he comes to God out of desperation. He sees his country is engulfed in evil and injustice, evil leaders that are taking bribes, and it seems like God isn't doing anything. And Habakkuk does what you know every believer should do he goes to God with his questions. Habakkuk means to embrace or to wrestle with. So Habakkuk provides us with an example of how to go to God and wrestle with our feelings and emotions and have an honest conversation.
Speaker 1:Habakkuk wanted to know how a holy God seemed not to respond to the evil that was happening in his world but then allow a seemingly more evil and even more evil nation, the Babylon. Babylonians come to punish Judah for their sins. But Habakkuk, you know he also chooses to embrace and trust in the promises of God. I would encourage you to go and read the book of Habakkuk. It's just three chapters. When you read Habakkuk, you see how he draws from the character of God in his circumstances. You know, as a believer, we should do the same and if you want to learn more about the character of God, I did a number of episodes on the various attributes of God, so go check those out. That is more toward the first few episodes of the podcast.
Speaker 1:So in the book of Habakkuk we can draw on how God is patient with Judah, so patient that Habakkuk thought that God was overlooking evil. You know, without realizing it, the patience of God is displayed in our world today, you know, when we also. We could also also call the patience of God his long-suffering. Aw Pink says we define the divine patience as a power of control which God exercises over himself, causing him to bear with the wicked and forbear so long in punishing them. And then, in Nahum 1.3 from the ESV says the Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. Great in power and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
Speaker 1:So, over and over again, when we read scripture, god, you know, always gives a warning about sin and then waits and then punishment is given. You know, of course, you know, we see this is not always true that God is not often always long-suffering, ie um ananias and sophia. When they, when they lie, god instantly punishes them. But we see over and over again, especially in the new testament, how god is long-suffering, and we see this in habaka. You know god is patient with the wicked, despite their sins. So we have to think about ourselves. You know, when we're tempted to lose patience with someone, we just need to think about how patient God is with us all the time.
Speaker 1:So once God's patience is up, we see God's wrath against evil. You know God's wrath is something that we don't like to think about when it comes to the nature of God. Yet scripture talks about the wrath of God right that a good and loving, merciful and just and a righteous god should, can or should exhibit wrath. But you know I guess that's where you know we make a mistake, because god is perfect, he's holy, he's just and isn't his nature to detest sin. So hence we have his wrath.
Speaker 1:The wrath of god is his eternal abhorrence of a righteousness. It is the holiness of god strolls into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of what just sentence that he passes upon evildoers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebellion against his authority, a wrong done in his invulnerable sovereignty, aw Pink. So God's wrath is a result of people not repenting from evil after God has been patient and given them many chances to stop and obey his word and eventually there are no more chances with god. And remember, you know, god is not petty like us, he is holy and pure, pure. So he gives us opportunity to you know, stop, repent and obey him. And if we don't take that opportunity we have to face the consequences In his wrath.
Speaker 1:God is just, justice. Deuteronomy 32, 3-4 NLT says I will proclaim the name of the Lord. How glorious is our God. He is the rock. His deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong, how just and upright he is. So because God is righteous and he's not going to allow evil to continue forever, so he's going to punish wrongdoing.
Speaker 1:Wayne Grudem says God's righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final for all that is right and good. He's perfect, so he's in a position to judge those he created and he can judge according to what people deserve. God judges good and he's going to judge evil, and he's going to reward good and punish evil. You know, if God allowed evil to continue to go unchecked forever, then he wouldn't be good, because his moral standard is perfection and only he is and always will be perfect. So because God is righteous, his justice is right and good. Miller erickson defines god's justice as that he administers his law fairly, not showing favoritism or partiality. Erickson also says god's justice is his official righteousness, his requirement that other moral agents adhere to the standard as well. God is, other words, like a judge who, as a private individual, adheres to the law of society and, in his official capacity, administers that same law, applying it to others.
Speaker 1:Sin has, it has clear consequences. In Genesis 2, 17, we read God's warning to Adam and Eve. He says 2.17. We read God's warning to Adam and Eve. He says you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. And then we have the first part of Romans, 6.23. It tells us the wages of sin is death. Because sin is wrong against a holy and righteous God, it deserves to be punished. Romans 12, 19 says Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
Speaker 1:Aw Tozer tells us about justice. He said justice is not something that God has, justice is something that God is, and God will always act justly, not by compulsion from outside, but because that's the way he is himself. Justice must always prevail because God is the sovereign God who will always prevail. So when God, like we say, looks at people, we're all in the same category as our moral state. We're all sinners and we're going to be a judge according to our sins. But those of us who have been atoned through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, we are made right before a holy God. And those who haven't repented and believed in Christ as our Savior, are going to be judged according to our sin. Evil is going to be punished rightly by God. This is justice by a just God.
Speaker 1:1 John 1.9 says If you confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we learn about the character of God, we know that he can be trusted to protect and that we can lean on him in our everyday situations. So we need to strive to be faithful to him. But the righteous will live In the end. Habakkuk takes comfort that God will act in the right time and he will redeem those who are faithful. The God of my salvation, the sovereign Lord, is my strength.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes we just need to pour our hearts to God, our frustrations, our complaints, our fears and our worries. You know our heart can be heavy because we don't understand. You know we feel like Habakkuk did. So even though we feel like Habakkuk, let's also mimic him. Let's ask God our questions, go to his word, because God has given his word to speak to us. You know, when we wonder why it's important that we read about the attributes of God and his promises and by understanding the character God. It's going to help our faith. We learn that God will never fail the faithful. His plan for them is good.
Speaker 1:I like this, this quote from Warren Risby. He says God doesn't always change the circumstances, but he can change us to meet the circumstances. That's what it means to live by faith. Living life does not come easy for no one. But know that we have someone to help us navigate, someone who is is in total control and confronting, even though many times, you know, for me myself, I know that I don't always understand the whys in life. Which is why it's so important that we have communion and community Communion with God and community with other believers. God's word is going to provide us comfort in God's character and community. It's going to give us comfort, to remind us of who God is. So I pray this episode was helpful. Remember that God is always good. He's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.
