When God Doesn'T Make Sense

There are times in our lives where tragedy may strike or something hard comes into our life that is too large for us to handle and too heavy to bear. The event may be so traumatic to us that it makes us even question the goodness of God in that event. It's a time when God doesn't make sense.

Our message this evening, friends, is found in the book of Habakkuk. We will be in chapter 3. You can turn in your Bibles there now. We'll be in verses 17 through 19 to see a remarkable prayer of faith given by the prophet as he wrote to Judah in the southern kingdom.

The people of God were experiencing a time of famine in the land created by war as they had seen devastation and destruction at the hand of the Chaldeans whom the prophet mentions as the instrument of God's judgment. The land of Judah was invaded and spoiled by the Chaldean army and the people of God cried out to God and were in a place of great affliction and want as the ravages of war had taken its toll on them and their king Manasseh was captured and carried off to Babylon. We find the prophet pouring out his heart to God in a declaration of his enduring faith in God despite the circumstances as seen in our Texas evening, friends.

And the title of my message this evening is, When God Doesn't Make Sense, Here Now is the Word of God and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Let me pause here, friends, to comment on the dire circumstances of the people of God here.

Their hopes are not realized. The fig tree has not blossomed. Hardship is endured.

Labor of the olive fails. Heaviness of outward trial is encountered. The labor of the fields has no meat.

Heartache is experienced through personal loss. The flock are cut off from the fold. God seems a million miles away and heaven a closed door, for there should be no herd in the stalls.

All is grim, all is dark, all is hopeless. Perhaps you find yourself here, friend, in our passage tonight. Your life has been suddenly stripped bare.

You are an open wound and it hurts. The weight of your tragedy is too heavy to bear, the affliction too great to endure. You don't know how you'll even get through it all.

You're just numb inside. I'll say this from personal experience of a personal tragedy, that when God doesn't make sense, he gives you the grace to sense him. His presence will be with you and he will get you through.

Chapter two and verse 20 declares, the Lord is in his holy temple. There's an old hymn that states, when trials upset us and trouble besets us, God is still on the throne and he will take care of his own. Remember, friend, when God doesn't make sense, he gives you the grace to sense him.

He is with you in your trial. He knows your aching heart. He will get you through.

The prophet is finally enabled to get to the place of the realization that his joy is not in his outward circumstances, but in God alone. In verse 18, we read, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Then he goes on to say, the Lord God is my strength. That's what gets him through. He leans on his God and stands on his promises.

Let us pray.