When God doesn’t seem to keep his promises

—God’s Words and His Works (O.T. pt.50)

  • Andrew Fountain – May 8, 2022

 
 
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Goal

How do we handle it when God doesn’t seem to keep his promises?

When God’s Works don’t seem to match his Words

  1. Habakkuk’s (and Abraham/Sarah’s) problem with God
  2. The answer that Habakkuk gets
  3. Our problem with God

Habakkuk 1:1–13

A Fulfilling Life

Personal enjoyment of: Material blessings:
  • friends
  • kindness
  • faithfulness
  • family
  • health
  • prosperity
  • security
  • satisfying work

Problems in Life

Personal experience: Material problems:
  • loneliness
  • hostility
  • betrayal
  • bereavement
  • sickness
  • poverty
  • disaster
  • unemployment

Genesis 12

  1. Now the LORD said to Abram,
    “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
    to the land that I will show you.
  2. Then I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you,

Genesis 13

  1. I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth,
    so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth,
    then your descendants also can be counted.

Genesis 15

  1. After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
    “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield and the one who will reward you in great abundance.”
  2. But Abram said, “O sovereign LORD,
    what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?”
  3. Abram added, “Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!”

Genesis 15 cont’d

  1. But look, the word of the LORD came to him:
    “This man will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
  2. The LORD took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars — if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”
  3. Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD and he counted his faith as righteousness.

The Gap of Faith

image: traingap.png

Genesis 17

  1. Abram bowed down with his face to the ground, and God said to him,
  2. “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
  3. No longer will your name be Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham because I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.
  4. I will make you extremely fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you.

Genesis 17 cont’d

  1. Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; Sarah will be her name.
  2. I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. Kings of countries will come from her!”
  3. Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed as he said to himself, “Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”…
  4. God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac.

Genesis 18

  1. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing across from him…
  2. Then they asked him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He replied, “There, in the tent.”
  3. One of them said, “I will surely return to you when the season comes round again, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him.

Genesis 18 cont’d

  1. Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; Sarah had long since passed menopause.)
  2. So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, especially when my husband is old too?”
  3. The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child when I am old?’
  4. Is anything impossible for the LORD? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.”

Genesis 21

  1. The LORD visited Sarah just as he had said he would and did for Sarah what he had promised.
  2. So Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.
  3. Abraham named his son — whom Sarah bore to him — Isaac.

When God’s Works don’t seem to match his Words

  1. Habakkuk’s (and Abraham/Sarah’s) problem with God
  2. The answer that Habakkuk gets
  3. Our problem with God

Habakkuk 2:1–2:4

Habakkuk 3

  1. Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines;
    Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food;
    Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls;
    (in other words God’s Works all seem to be against him)
  2. Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
  3. The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And he will make me walk on my high hills.
    (he will nevertheless put his confidence in God’s promises.)

The Gap of Faith

image: traingap.png

When God’s Works don’t seem to match his Words

  1. Habakkuk’s (and Abraham/Sarah’s) problem with God
  2. The answer that Habakkuk gets
  3. Our problem with God

1 Peter 4

  1. “Beloved, do not think it strange
    concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,
    as though some strange thing happened to you;
  2. but rejoice to the extent that
    you partake of Christ’s sufferings,
    that when his glory is revealed,
    you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”

Ephesians 3:18–19

“be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height;
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”