Habakkuk shoots his questions at God like arrows. But God quiets him with his answers. When Habakkuk cries out for God to act, God just patiently assures him that nothing is going on outside of his control. He tells Habakkuk, “I am doing a work in your days that would not be believed if I told it. I am raising up the Chaldeans…” Even the evil in the world is serving God’s good purposes in all of our lives. David Platt preached, “First, number one, God is sovereign. This line should just be a staple in pretty much every single sermon here because it’s evident in every single text. You might think, ‘Dave, why do you say this over and over and over again?’ Here’s why. Because I want you to be reminded—and the Bible seems to want to remind you—week in and week out that no matter what is happening in this world, no matter what is happening in your world, God is in control. He is on the throne. Always. God is in control, and Satan is not.” [1]
The purest mark of spiritual maturity is the confident acceptance and assurance that God is in control in all circumstances of one’s life and everyone else’s life as well. We need not understand the whys and wherefores or even the whens. We need to trust the one who is in control. It’s a waste of time to try to strive for control over what’s in God’s hands. Isaiah makes that clear for us in 45:9. He says, “Woe to him who strives with his maker! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, what are you doing?”
Even in the midst of Jesus’ execution, He maintained complete control. A mob of soldiers came and arrested him in the garden, and yet he was perfectly in control. He even took time to heal one of his captors by restoring the ear that was cut off by one of his own disciples, who was famous for always wanting to take control. He said, “Don’t you think I could call thousands of angels to rescue me.” God never loses control, even when things get ugly. Even that which appears to us as the ugliest will work out for the best. The resurrection is conclusive evidence for that in Jesus’ case. As believers, we know God is in control; nothing happens outside His knowledge, and underneath are everlasting arms. I’ve often argued that faith is not just believing that God exists. James tells us that even Satan knows this to be true. Faith is trusting God to have our best interest foremost in mind regardless of the circumstances we are experiencing at the moment. Habakkuk will say all that in Habakkuk 2:4 with just six words, “The just shall live by faith.”
[1] Platt, David. 2012. “What Ultimately Matters Regarding the Millennium.” In David Platt Sermon Archive, 3710. Birmingham, AL: David Platt.