Why Doesn’t God Do Something? (Part Two)

When I was on a tour of the Bible lands, we made a stop in Rome. I have unforgettable memories of Pompeii, St. Peter’s, and the Sistine Chapel. But the scene that lingers in my mind is of hundreds of pilgrims in Rome climbing the Scala Sancta, the Holy Stairs. (Tradition says that Helen, the mother of Constantine, underwrote the expense of relocating these steps from Jerusalem to Rome; and it was believed that Jesus walked on these steps on His journey to the cross.) These visitors were on their knees painfully trying to reach the top as they kissed each step on their way up. Tradition says that as a monk Martin Luther was climbing these steps when a great text from the book of Habakkuk came to mind: “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4b). This climb was based on good works, not faith in the finished work of Christ. The rest is history—the 95 Theses at Wittenberg, excommunication from the church, and the launching of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther wrote three commentaries on New Testament books: Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews; and in each of those books, we find the Habakkuk text (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38).

This text not only transformed Martin Luther, but also was a great answer from God to the puzzled prophet Habakkuk. God had revealed that He was about to use a cruel and pagan people, the Babylonians, as a chastening rod. When we are perplexed about God or His silence, we can go to a quiet place (our prayer room) and wait to see how God answers our prayer. This is what the prophet did. What was God’s answer? “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (Hab. 2:2-3 NIV).

The Just Shall Live By Faith

The main message from God to the prophet is found in the words of Habakkuk 2:4b “The just shall live by faith.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes in his helpful booklet From Fear to Faith: “It is an absolute law in the spiritual realm that if we adopt Habakkuk’s method, and behave as he behaved, God will always honor His promises. In effect, God said, ‘It is all right, Habakkuk, I have heard your prayer, I understand your perplexity. Here is my answer. The Chaldeans whom I am going to raise up to punish Israel will themselves in turn be completely routed and destroyed.’ The greatness of the Chaldeans was going to be short-lived. It was God who for a special purpose raised them up; but they took the glory to themselves and became inflated with a sense of their own power. Then God struck, and raised up the Medes and Persians who utterly destroyed the Chaldeans” (pp.39-40).

In a later paragraph, he reminds us that there are only two attitudes available to us in this world—that of faith and that of unbelief. “Either we view our lives in terms of our belief in God, and the conclusions which we are entitled to draw from that; or our outlook is based upon a rejection of God and the corresponding denials” (p.48).

No passage of Scripture explains what this life of faith can look like in a clearer way than Hebrews 11, the faith Hall of Fame.

Consider the faith walk of some of the patriarchs:

• For Abraham, it was a trust in God’s promises so deep that he placed Isaac on the altar on Mt. Moriah (11:17-19).
• For Moses, it was trusting God for the whole Exodus experience after he had finally run out of excuses (vv.27-29).
• For Joshua, it was following God’s plan to conquer Jericho. Without weapons of war, he brought the walls down with the sound of trumpets and shouts! (v.30).

And what might this mean in our 21st-century life experience?

• We may face a great faith test with one of our children. Abraham and Sarah did. In my first pastorate, I received an anxious call from the parents of a 9-year-old daughter, who was being rushed to the hospital with a case of spinal meningitis. I met them at the hospital and we prayed. The father made promises to God about the sacrifices he would make if only his “Isaac” could be delivered. She recovered!
• We may face a great faith test dealing with our job. Many in these recession times are struggling to find a job. For me it was leaving a job and being faced with a “Moses-sized” task. Would my wife and I leave our current church and move to the Middle East to pastor an international church? We would leave behind our home and children and grandchildren and experience a different culture and language and church structure. Looking back 10 years later, we would not trade the experience and faith lessons learned for anything.
• Like Joshua, we may face a faith test and be subject to ridicule. We can imagine what Joshua heard as he led his people around and around the Jericho walls. Perhaps he met resistance from his own people and doubt and scoff from the people who felt safe inside the walls. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5 NIV).

We are saved by faith—and may we know the joy of living life by faith.