Habakkuk 1:1-5
What is the mystery of lawlessness? It’s a mystery that is as old as God’s Word…
It’s a mystery that always starts with the question, “Why?” Why did this happen? Why do the good people
struggle? Why do bad things happen to
good people? Why does injustice seem to
prevail? Why do wars continue their
senseless destruction? The list of “Why”
questions could go on forever…But, the answer to all those questions and more
is the same; We live in a sinful world, where God will not override freewill.
The Prophet Habakkuk was forever asking;
“Why do you tolerate wrong?… Why are you silent when evil abounds?…This mystery
of lawlessness has a lot to do with the kingdom of God; the spiritual kingdom,
the physical kingdom, and the future kingdom. There is a malicious being called
Satan, with many followers who are in a headlong revolt and rebellion against
God. They are bent on destroying the plans God has for the human race. There is
also a “bent toward sin” within each one of us that constantly battles with the
kingdom of God within…And, of course this all has to do with the future kingdom
that is to come. God did not create evil. Rather, He created the possibility of
evil when He created human beings. He created the potential for evil when he
created us…Why? God gave Adam and Eve some moral parameters or boundaries, and very clearly told them what they could and could not do. But, in their freewill, they chose to defy and disobey His standards. Every one of us has been born with that same ability to make choices -- and because Satan won that first small battle, we all are born with the same rebellious bent for sin. (Who teaches toddlers or two-year olds jealousy, selfishness, and hitting and biting to get what they want?)
There is another aspect of freewill that we don’t usually think about …that is, how our decisions…our right to exercise freewill…affects others. We can make decisions that either build others up, or tear them down. In other words, our actions often have a direct impact on others.
Luke 13:1 tells us about a group of people who came up to Jesus and asked Him why Pilate murdered some men and women while they were worshipping in the Temple. After killing them, he took their blood and mixed it with the blood of their sacrifices. Our entire country asked a similar question after Larry Gene Ashbrook went on a shooting spree at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas on September 16, 1999, killing seven people. Both groups of worshippers were murdered because of the sinful choices made by two different men separated by almost two thousand years…– Pontius Pilate and Larry Ashbrook.
We wonder why God doesn’t step in and prevent people from doing bad things to others. He could have made Timothy McVeigh have an accident before he arrived at the Mura Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He could have stopped _______ from happening couldn’t He? Except then we’d be robots….and we would accuse God of loving some people and saving some and not others. You see, the bad thing about our freedom is that it gives us the ability to hurt others.
Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a best-selling book several years ago called, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” His title is deceiving because the Bible says that there’s no such thing as a good person. We are good stuff that has gone bad. We are a defaced masterpiece; A rebellious child.
When sinful people make decisions, God allows them to play out -- and sometimes those consequ-ences result in some bad things happening to you, and to others. I am not suggesting that we always suffer in direct proportion to our sin. In Luke 13:2, Jesus addressed this when He says, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no!” What I am saying is that many bad things are related to sin.
Secondly, is Corporate Sin. The second cause of bad things has to do with natural evil. The Bible teaches that this is the result of our corporate sin. We live in a disease and death environment. Before Adam and Eve exercised their free will and rebelled against God, there were no earthquakes, hurri-canes, natural disasters or diseases. They came rolling onto the scene after Adam and Eve sinned against God.
When Adam and Eve told God to take a hike, He partially honored their request. Nature began to revolt. The earth was cursed. Genetic breakdown and diseases were unleashed to do their work of destruction. Pain and death became a part of the human experience. In the picturesque story of Genesis, disobedience results in shame, alienation from God, and in the disruption of nature.
Third, is Satanic Influences. Many bad things are the result of the devil’s destructive designs. Satan is ultimately behind all the hatred, war, oppression, and evil in the world. He works behind the scenes to inflame our passions and to prompt us to make bad choices. He’s out to spoil God’s world in every possible way he can. Jesus referred to him as the murderer in John 8:44….and as the “a liar and the father of all lies.” The things that Satan does are all part of the “kingdom” around us and in the midst of us.
Fourth, is God’s Providence. This one is difficult for some of to swallow. God is in control. He allows suffering. Such was the case for Job…and we must understand that God is God and He may be allowing something for some reason that we don’t and can’t understand. And, He’s a good God even when bad things happen. That goes right to the heart of the question, doesn’t it? If God is good, why does He allow evil? I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t fully understand this one but I know that God is good and I know that bad things happen. It’s all part of His plan somehow. God puts it this way in Isaiah 55:9: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Evil is in this world partly because we give it its place but ultimately because God, in His sover-eignty, gave us freewill…He permits it and keeps it under His control. These are the reasons that I could find in the pages of God’s Word;
I. To Purge Out Faults. There is no doubt that sometimes God allows hardship on our lives to chasten and rebuke us.
2. To Prove Our Faith
3. As a Pattern For other Followers. There are times that we face hardship in our lives so that we can look back and say to some one else that is struggling hard…”Been there done that, and this is how God helped me through….”
4. In order to Produce Fruit. The last thing that I want to say about hardship in our lives is that sometimes they are allowed in our lives so that we can produce more fruit. Referring of course, to the trimming and pruning that the keeper of the vineyard does so the vine will be more productive.
I hope that somehow this short - and of course inconclusive - study of the mystery of lawlessness has helped to understand a little better the answer to the question “Why?”
Evil, pain, suffering, and hardship have slithered and hissed their way through every generation of man. However, let it be known that - before man appeared upon this earth - there was a cosmic, covert, operation being planned under the code name “LION OF JUDAH”! God knew in his infinite foreknowledge that given the potential of freewill, man would sin… And, here lies the mystery of lawlessness…that God’s love was so great, He made a way before there was a way!…. “The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” says His Word… When the mystery of lawlessness seems to have the upper hand, we will be able to understand…and STAND.
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