Everyone lives with questions.  From our first words, "Why?" or "What?", humans ask questions.  And we universally struggle when we don't get answers.  The "what" and "how" questions help to solve problems:  How does this work?  What does this mean?  The "whys" betray frustration:  Why so much suffering?  Why do they kill children?  Why so little common sense?  Why not tell the truth?

          Habakkuk is called a minor prophet, but he's more than that because he is asking questions of God, important questions:  "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?  Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?  Why do you make me look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate wrong?"

          There's nothing wrong with asking good questions.  I listened to the political debate last Thursday and wondered if my questions might have been similar to Habakkuk's:  "How long before you answer me?  Why is injustice ignored?  Why do you tolerate wrong?"  But I doubt the candidates would have had a good answer, for there are some questions that are unanswerable.  We can only live with the questions.  We can only live inside the questions.

          Life for the most part is living inside the questions.  They are all around us, in our heads, at work, in our homes, in the public square, here and around the world.  We live inside the questions when we realize we do not know all the answers.  We live inside the questions when we accept that some will never be answered.  The questions of life wrap us up, surround us, and can suffocate us if we let them.  Or we can acknowledge them, put them aside and move on with life.

          Habakkuk asked God, "Why is injustice ignored?"  The news of grownups killing nearly 40 children with car bombs this week turned my stomach.  "How can they do that?" I asked.  Can't they be stopped?  And don't say they are doing it for a just cause.  There is no cause that should allow human beings to sacrifice children.  Can't the Muslim community realize their hypocrisy - that not one of their clerics has strapped on a bomb?  Or that no family member of a Muslim cleric has been a bomber?  What we're seeing is not soldiers in a war, but evil men doing evil deeds to the innocent.  If we can't see Satan behind the terrorists, then we can't see at all.  Why is justice ignored?

          Habakkuk also asked God, "Why do You tolerate wrong?"  Of course God never tolerates wrong.  The Bible is replete with examples of His taking people to task for wrongdoing.  He fed ground up gold to the Israelites when they worshipped the Golden Calf.  He sent them poisonous snakes just for grumbling.  He struck down Ananias and Sapphira just for lying to Him.  God is not one to be trifled with.  Yet Habakkuk saw the evil in his day and wondered why God was letting it happen.  Bad guys were doing bad things to good people, and God was tolerating it.  And it seems the same today.  Why do good people tolerate so much wrongdoing?

          Then he asked the big one:  "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?"  You have asked that one yourself, I'm sure you have.  "How long till I find out test results?  How long must I put up with that person?  How long will this evil persist?  How long must I pray before God answers?  How long, God?"  Habakkuk was posing the big question, and God answered him.  "The Messiah is coming soon!"

          His name was Fleming.  He was a poor Scottish farmer and he often wondered why he worked so hard and achieved so little.  He had a fine family, but he could offer them nothing, and being a Christian man, he often asked God why.  Why did he have so little?  Why did God not seem to hear his prayers?  One day while working the bogs, he heard a cry for help.  He dropped his tools, ran over a hill, and there, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself, but sinking deeper into a bog.  Acting quickly, Farmer Fleming saved the lad's life.

          You and I cannot always see what God has in mind for us.  We work and slave, only to have illness or accident take away our livelihood, or even a loved one.  But though we may question why, we cannot stop doing what God wants us to do.  So often in times of trouble, we become angry and turn our backs on God.  Or we stop worshipping Him, waiting till times get better.  But when trouble strikes is precisely when we should worship God most, and when we should go to him in prayer most often.  For when we cannot see what the future holds, only then must we trust Him completely.

          The next day a grand carriage pulled up to the Farmer Fleming's little hovel.  An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Fleming had saved.  "I must repay you," said the nobleman, "for you saved my son's life."  "I cannot be paid for what I did," said Fleming waving away a sum of money, money that would have helped his family a great deal!  At that moment the farmer's son came to the door of the family's hovel.  "Is that your son?" asked the nobleman.  "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.  "I have an idea," said the nobleman, "Let me take him and give him a good education.  If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to be a man you can be proud of."  That that is what he did.

          When we're living inside the questions, God often surprises us.  We are looking for an answer here, but one comes over there.  What we hoped for didn't happen, but something better did.  It is human nature to assume life will go a certain way, but it is God's nature to show us a better way.  No matter what our plans, God has a grander plan in mind.  It's up to us whether or not we will let go of our personal plan and follow His better way.

          In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London.  WWI was raging throughout Europe and people were dying of infected wounds by the hundreds of thousands.  Dr. Alexander Fleming began experimenting with treatment and eventually discovered the miracle drug, penicillin.  He was later knighted and received the Nobel Prize for Medicine.  Oh yes, years later that nobleman's son was stricken with severe respiratory trouble.  What saved him?  Penicillin.  The name of the nobleman?  Lord Randolph Churchill.  His son, who was saved a second time, first by Farmer Fleming, then by his son?  Sir Winston Churchill.

          Our Lord Jesus lived inside His own questions.  "How long must I put up with these men?" He said of His Disciples.  "Why do the leaders of my church reject me?" He said of the Scribes and Pharisees.  "Can I complete what lies ahead?" He asked his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.

          Jesus Christ was a true man among men.  He was really human, not just acting a part.  He lived under the Law of God, for you and me, to satisfy God's justice against sin in the world.  As a true man, He died under the weight of those sins, and His followers asked, "Why?"  Jesus Christ was also true God.  As God's Son, He fulfilled all that the Law required.  He did that for us, we sinners who cannot keep the Law, we sinners who deserve nothing by punishment.  And as true God, He rose from the grave to give us hope for our own resurrection.

          We don't have to live inside our questions forever.  We can, by faith, sweep them aside, or at least step outside them, and know that God has answers far better than our own.  Heaven is coming soon!  One day He will stop outside our earthly hovels and offer us a ride in a grand carriage to a better life than we can ever imagine.  And the older I get, the more I look forward to that day.  Amen

Copyright © 2004 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.