EVEN WHEN I DON'T UNDERSTAND
Hi! If you don’t remember me, I'm Cai! It’s been a minute, I know. I took a break after the passing of my grandfather, and in that time, I struggled to understand God’s plan, what He was doing in my family, and why it didn’t exactly make sense to me.
I want you to reflect on yourself too.
How many times have you asked, “Why God?”
How many times have you asked, “What are you doing?”
And how many times have you been humbled by His response?
Today, I want to talk to you all about how Habakkuk faced these same questions and how God shaped his understanding and used the things that Habakkuk didn’t understand to build him up as a man.
Habakkuk was written by the prophet Habakkuk - although we honestly don’t know a whole lot about him personally, and I think that’s actually pretty interesting because the book isn’t really focused on Habakkuk’s life. It’s focused on his conversation with God and his struggle to understand what God was doing.
The audience is also a little different from some of the other prophetic books. Habakkuk isn’t primarily preaching a message directly to the people. Instead, he’s bringing his complaints and questions directly to the Lord.
The book was written during the reign of King Jehoiakim, during a time when Judah was experiencing a lot of corruption, violence, and injustice.
The setting is also important because this is shortly after the fall of Nineveh, which marked the collapse of the Assyrian Empire. At the same time, Babylon had major world power.
And that’s really where the tension of Habakkuk comes from.
Habakkuk looks around at Judah and sees all of this wickedness, and he’s asking God, “Why aren’t You doing something about this?”
And eventually, God tells Habakkuk that He actually is doing something. But God’s answer creates another problem for Habakkuk because God says He’s going to use Babylon to bring judgment.
So, Habakkuk’s problem isn’t simply that he doesn’t believe God is powerful.
His problem is that he doesn’t understand God’s plan.
This is one of the things that makes Habakkuk so different from some of the other prophets. And we have to pay attention not only to what the prophet says to God’s people, but also to the prophet’s interaction with God. And that’s really important in Habakkuk because we’re watching a prophet wrestle with God throughout the entire book.
And I think the easiest way to understand Habakkuk is:
Chapter 1 is the complaint.
Chapter 2 is the correction.
Chapter 3 is the response.
And chapter 3 is really where I want to spend most of my time.
Let’s start with chapter 1.
In Habakkuk 1:2–4, Habakkuk brings his first complaint to God.
He basically asks, “How long, Lord?”
He sees violence.
He sees injustice.
He sees wickedness.
And it seems to him like God isn’t doing anything about it.
Habakkuk says that he cries out for help, but it seems like God isn’t listening.
And I think this is really important because Habakkuk isn’t necessarily rejecting God.
He’s struggling with God.
There’s a difference between saying, “I don’t believe God exists,” and saying, “I believe in God, but I don’t understand what He’s doing.”
He knows that God is just, but what he sees happening around him doesn’t seem to match what he knows about God.
Habakkuk sees so much wickedness that he begins questioning why God would allow it.
And I think Habakkuk is incredibly relatable for that reason.
We can look at the world and ask:
“God, why are You allowing this?”
“Why does injustice continue?”
“Why do people who do evil sometimes seem to get away with it?”
“Why don’t You just step in?”
But then, God answers him.
And God’s answer creates an even bigger problem.
God tells Habakkuk that He is doing something among the nations.
He tells Habakkuk that He is raising up the Babylonians.
And Habakkuk’s response is basically:
“Wait… what?”
Because Habakkuk wanted God to deal with the wickedness in Judah, but God has determined that He is going to use Babylon to do it.
And Babylon is also incredibly violent and wicked.
So now, Habakkuk has another complaint.
He’s essentially asking:
“How can You use someone more wicked than Judah to judge Judah?”
And this is where we really see the tension in Habakkuk.
Habakkuk knows that God is holy.
He knows that God is righteous.
But he doesn’t understand God’s methods.
He’s wrestling with one of the major issues of the prophetic books:
How can God remain just while using wicked nations to accomplish His purposes?
And that’s a question that doesn’t get completely answered in the way Habakkuk probably expected.
Instead, God begins correcting Habakkuk’s perspective.
And in chapter 2, Habakkuk basically says that he is going to wait for God’s response.
And I think this is an important moment.
Instead of continuing to argue, Habakkuk stops and waits.
God tells him to write down the vision and wait for it because it will come at the appointed time.
And one of the most important statements in the entire book comes in Habakkuk 2:4:
“The righteous shall live by his faith.”
And this is where the book starts moving from Habakkuk asking,“God, why are You doing this” to learning“God, I have to trust You even when I don’t understand this.”
He learns that God sees the entire picture when Habakkuk only sees part of it.
And that’s what sets up chapter 3.
Chapter 1:
“God, why aren’t You doing something?”
Chapter 2:
“God, I am doing something. Trust Me.”
And then chapter 3:
“Okay, God. Even if I don’t understand everything, I will trust You.”
And that’s where the biggest transformation happens because the entire chapter is essentially a prayer or song of praise.
And what’s really interesting is that Habakkuk’s circumstances haven’t necessarily changed.
Judah is still facing judgment.
Babylon is still coming.
The problems that caused Habakkuk to complain in chapter 1 haven’t suddenly disappeared.
But Habakkuk has changed.
And I think that’s the biggest message of chapter 3.
God doesn’t necessarily change Habakkuk’s circumstances.
God changes Habakkuk’s perspective, and he starts remembering who God is.
He remembers God’s power.
He remembers God’s glory.
He remembers God’s presence.
He remembers the ways God has worked throughout Israel’s history.
And the language in this section is really powerful.
Habakkuk describes God as this incredibly powerful and majestic God who controls creation and the nations.
And I think that’s important because Habakkuk’s problem in chapter 1 was that he was looking at his circumstances and trying to figure out God based on what he saw.
But in chapter 3, he starts with God.
He’s remembering God’s character.
He’s remembering God’s power.
He’s remembering God’s faithfulness.
And that changes the way he sees his circumstances.
Habakkuk isn’t simply giving information about what God will do. He’s responding to God’s revelation. Habakkuk’s prayer shows us what happens when our understanding of God becomes bigger than our understanding of our circumstances.
And there’s a really important statement in verse 2.
Habakkuk says,“In wrath remember mercy...”
I think that line is huge.
Because Habakkuk has spent the first two chapters asking God about judgment, but now he’s asking God to remember mercy.
He’s beginning to understand both sides of God’s character.
God is just.
God judges sin.
But God is also merciful.
And Habakkuk is learning that God’s judgment isn’t something outside of His character.
God is still righteous.
God is still holy.
God is still in control.
Then, we get to verse 16 in chapter 3.
And this is another really important moment.
Habakkuk says that he hears God’s message and his body trembles.
And this isn't just fear in the sense of being scared.
This is the fear of the Lord.
Habakkuk has gone from basically questioning God to standing in awe of God.
Habakkuk’s understanding of God has become so much bigger that his response is no longer simply frustration.
It’s reverence.
It’s humility.
It’s worship.
God is not Habakkuk’s equal.
Habakkuk doesn’t have all the information that God has.
God is God.
And Habakkuk is finally beginning to rest in that.
In Habakkuk 3:17-19, he says that even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom…
Even if there are no grapes…
Even if the olive crop fails…
Even if the fields produce no food…
Even if there are no sheep in the fold…
Even if there are no cattle in the stalls…
“Yet I will rejoice in the LORD.”
He’s saying:
Even if I lose everything, God is still God.
Even if the crops fail, God is still good.
Even if Judah suffers, God is still worthy of worship.
Even if I don’t understand God’s plan, I can still trust Him.
Habakkuk didn't get every question answered but having questions isn’t necessarily the opposite of faith. But he brought his questions directly to God, and he went from looking at his circumstances to looking at God.
And in that, he learned that God Himself is enough.
And there’s this beautiful progression throughout the entire book:
Doubt leads to questioning.
Questioning leads to correction.
Correction leads to trust.
Trust leads to worship.
So, what does Habakkuk reveal about God’s character?
Habakkuk sees what’s happening right in front of him.
God sees the entire picture.
Habakkuk doesn’t understand why God is allowing certain things to happen, but God knows exactly what He’s doing.
Habakkuk’s questions aren’t just ancient questions. They’re questions that believers still wrestle with when they encounter injustice, suffering, and situations that don’t make sense.
But God sees wickedness.
God sees injustice.
God sees violence.
And ultimately, God will deal with it and is still a merciful God too.
It’s easy to trust God when everything is going the way that we want it to go.
But Habakkuk shows us a different kind of faith.
It’s faith that says:
“Even if things don’t work out the way I want them to, I still trust God.”
Habakkuk doesn’t say that everything is going to be okay, but he says that even if everything goes wrong, he will still rejoice in the Lord.
And I think that’s an important distinction.
Our faith shouldn’t be based entirely on whether our circumstances are good.
It should be based on who God is.
Sometimes we want to fix everything immediately.
We want to see results.
We want to understand why something is happening.
But Habakkuk reminds us that God’s timing isn’t always our timing.
And God sees things that we can’t see.
So, instead of trying to control everything or making sense of it all, we need to trust that God is working even when we can’t see exactly what He’s doing.
Because God is still sovereign.
God is still just.
God is still powerful.
God is still merciful.
And God is still worthy of worship.
Our circumstances can change.
Our understanding can change.
But God doesn’t.
And because of who God is, we can trust Him even when we don’t understand what He’s doing.
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