Why is there so much bad news? Why doesn’t God put an end to all of it? Why does God let this kind of thing happen? If you’re someone who has asked those questions, then I think you could really relate to a guy in the Bible named Habakkuk.
Habakkuk was a prophet in the Old Testament (a prophet was someone who delivered messages from God to the people)…and Habakkuk was TOTALLY sick and tired of bad news…so in his anger and frustration, he turned to God!
“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. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:1-2)
It's almost as if Habakkuk was describing the evening news in 2019! “Violence is everywhere!”, “People are doing evil things!”, “Everywhere I turn is destruction and violence!”, “People love to argue and fight!”, “There is tons of injustice!”
Well, God responds to Habakkuk with some good news...but also some bad news... Habakkuk 1:5-6 says, “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.”
Ok, so far so good... but then in the next verse God tells Habakkuk,
“I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands”.
WHAT??? Basically, God tells Habakkuk that Israel is going to experience some bad times because of their sin and evil…that he’s going to raise up a nation (the Babylonians) to conquer them…and that hopefully through this process, the Israelites would turn back to God and change the way they were living. But the really bad news was that He was going to use a nation that was EVEN MORE EVIL and CORRUPT and VIOLENT than the Israelites to do it!
This led Habakkuk to question God further. In Habakkuk 1:12-13 he said "How can you be silent? How can you allow evil people do have success?" Habakkuk was so angry that in 2:1 he basically says that he's going to go on a hunger strike until he gets some answers from God.
In Chapter 2, God answers Habakkuk and tells him, "You need to have faith". In other words, "You need to trust me. You need to trust that despite the bad news, I'm in control. You need to trust that evil won't go unpunished. You need to trust that I will fix everything that's wrong with the world."
Well, that kind of happened—the Babylonians don’t even EXIST today while Israel still does…so, they didn’t get away with evil…and the Israelites DID turn from their sin and start following God again for awhile…but a lot of those same problems with the world that Habakkuk complained about are still happening today. The world isn’t perfect! People make terribly wrong choices which hurt other people! There is still A LOT of bad news!
You might wonder—why doesn’t God just stop it? Why doesn’t he just solve this problem once and for all if he loves us and wants the best for us?
Well, first of all, God doesn’t want to remove our ability to make choices. He didn’t want to make robots that were programmed to do the right thing and love him….he created us with the freedom to do good and evil! And unfortunately, most people on this planet make TERRIBLE choices that hurt themselves and others. God isn’t the one who has made a mess of our world… we’re the ones who’ve done that!
That said, God DOES plan on one day making everything wrong with this world right again… he PROMISES that the day is coming…that there will be an end to bad news…and 2 Peter 3:9 gives us the reason why he hasn’t done it yet…
“The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent”.
This verse gives us the reason why God hasn't yet become so fed up with the evil and injustice in the world that he puts an end to it all. While we can look at the news and wonder why God isn’t doing it right now, this verse tells us that it’s because God is being PATIENT hoping that more and more people will come to follow him. It tells us that God doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed! He wants everyone to repent! He’s giving people the chance to know and follow him! But one day, the time will run out and we’re going to have to answer to God for the way we’ve lived our lives and the choices we’ve made. God reminds Habakkuk that even if an evil nation seems to be succeeding for awhile, NOBODY is going to get away with evil. EVERYBODY is going to have to answer to Him!
Habakkuk’s story reminds us of two important things we can do when we’re stressed out because of bad news and all of the problems in our world…
1. RUN TO GOD!
Last week we looked at how Jesus wants us to run to him to experience peace, help and strength when we’re stressed out. That He is bigger than our problems and actually WANTS to help us like a mother hen wraps its wings around her baby chicks.
What I think is really cool about Habakkuk is that he was pretty open and honest with God. He was full of questions, anger, and frustration! He even accused God of abandoning them, of taking his sweet time to do something about the world’s problems! Habakkuk actually says to God, “Why won’t you save us?”
This reminds us something important. God can handle our questions, our doubts, our frustrations and anger. He wants us to be REAL with him. He wants us to express ourselves to him! In fact, the Bible is full of verses that are very REAL and RAW prayers to God.
For example in Psalm 44:23-24, it says,“Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Get up! Do not reject us forever. Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression?”
God wants us to turn to him with our anger, our doubts, and our frustration!
2. HAVE FAITH
When we don’t understand why God allows bad things to happen, God wants us to have faith--- to TRUST Him. To trust that even if something doesn’t make sense, he’s in control and he will ultimately FIX all of the problems with our world.
The Book of Habakkuk ends with Habakkuk singing a worship song to God where he’s full of joy and saying that God is his strength and help! That’s pretty cool. He started out all angry and frustrated with God, and ends up singing praises to God! Why the change? Because he knew that God hadn’t left him alone and he trusted that God was in control, even in the midst of really bad news.
When you’re stressed, when you’re overwhelmed by bad news, when you're feeling hopeless. Run to God! Talk to him about how you’re feeling! Express your worries, doubts, and fears to him! He wants to have that kind of relationship with us! And then, he wants us to simply trust him. Trust that he’s in control. Trust that he’ll bring good out of the bad. Trust that He’ll be with us on the bad days. And when we run to him and trust him with all of the problems in our lives and in this world, the Bible says that He will give us peace and help…we’ll find that, like Habakkuk, we won’t be as stressed out as when we started!
DISCUSSION FOR HOME
1. Talk to your teens about the news or world events. What are things that stress them out or worry them? What are some things that stress you out or worry you?
2. For the last two weeks, we've been looking at the importance of running to God when we're worried, stressed, or feeling overwhelmed. Ask your teen, "What does it mean to run to God? What are some practical things that they could do that would draw them close to God when they are stressed?" What are some things that YOU do?
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