30 Jun Habakkuk 03: God’s glory and our good

Habakkuk 2:6-20

⁶ Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own — for how long? — and loads himself with pledges!” ⁷ Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. ⁸ Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. ⁹ “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! ¹⁰ You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. ¹¹ For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond. ¹² “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! ¹³ Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? ¹⁴ For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵ “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! ¹⁶ You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! ¹⁷ The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. ¹⁸ “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! ¹⁹ Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. ²⁰ But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Today we are on the third sermon in our series on the book of Habakkuk, faith when life is hard. The book of Habakkuk is a book that tells us how to face hardships, whether hardships from our society or personal hardships that we experience in our daily lives. Habakkuk deals with the questions we often ask when life is hard. “God, where are you? Are you in control? Do you know what is happening to me? If you do, then why aren’t you doing anything? Where are you when I need you?” If you have been a Christian for a while, I’m sure you have asked those questions before. Let me refresh you on what we have learned so far from the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk was frustrated at the evil and injustice he saw in Judah, and he prayed asking God for spiritual revival. For a while, God was silent and Habakkuk was confused as to why God did not do anything about the depravity in Judah. But then when God answered him, Habakkuk was even more confused. Because God said, “I heard you Habakkuk, and here is what I am going to do. I am not going to make your life better. I am going to make it worse. I am going to send Babylon to discipline my rebellious people.” And Habakkuk said, “What? Babylon? That can’t be right. Babylon is even more wicked than Judah. You are a holy God. You cannot tolerate evil. How could you use a wicked nation to punish your people? I don’t understand.” And God replied, “You might not understand what I am doing, but the righteous shall live by faith.” That’s where we left off last week.

Today’s passage is a bit strange. It is actually a song that God is teaching people to sing. But it is a weird song. We would think that if God is teaching a song, it would be a song that praises God for his works or adores God for his beauty, like “His glory and my good.” But it is not. Instead, God is teaching his people a taunt song. It is a song of ridicule. It is the kind of song that oppressed people might direct against their former oppressors. If you have more than one kid, you know this. What do your kids like to do when they are fighting? They like to ridicule each other. They like to sing, “I know something you don’t know…” Or, “Bla bla bla bla… nya nya nya nya…” Do you know what’s that? That’s a song of taunt. Let’s go back to the last verse we covered last week. Habakkuk 2:5 – “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.” This is what Babylon is going to do. Babylon is going to march across the world of the ancient Near East and conquer nation after nation, including Judah. They are a bloodthirsty nation that never has enough. But in our passage today, God is telling Habakkuk what will happen to Babylon in judgment for their sins. So, yes, Babylon will conquer and destroy Judah and many nations, but then God will judge Babylon for their cruelty. God makes it clear that even though Babylon will be the instrument of his judgment, before long they will be the object of his wrath. God is saying that a day will come when all those nations conquered by Babylon will look upon the destruction of Babylon and they will join together singing a song of taunt, “You did something very bad, justice, justice…”

Some of us might think, “Really? That’s in the Bible? People come together to taunt? That’s so childish.” We might think it’s childish because we don’t know what it means to be oppressed. If we have been oppressed with excruciating pain, to see our oppressor defeated is bound to make us rejoice greatly. There is something right in seeing the bad guys getting what they deserve, right? We see this in many good movies. It’s like when we watched Thanos beat the heck out of every superhero in the Avengers Endgame. We longed for someone to beat Thanos, but no one could. Thanos was overwhelmingly strong. But there was one scene where Thanos beat up Thor. Do you remember that scene? And Thor’s hammer suddenly whipped across the scene and Captain America picked it up. Captain America was found worthy of holding Thor’s hammer and he hammered Thanos to a pulp. And do you know what happened? Everyone in the movie theatre shouted a cry of rejoicing as if that fight truly determined the future of our universe. Why is that? Why do we rejoice over something completely made up in front of a green screen with lots of CGI? Because we love seeing the bad guys getting what they deserve and justice being served.

That’s what we have in our text today. It is a song of taunt against Babylon that God gives to Habakkuk. God will hold Babylon accountable for all their sins. I have three points for this sermon: the song of justice; the folly of idolatry; the silent expectation.

The song of justice

In this song, we see five woes, five reasons God will judge Babylon. And this is not only for Babylon. In the context of the whole Bible, the image of Babylon is used to depict any nations that rise up against God. D.A. Carson puts it this way. “Babylon not only may refer to the ancient city that reached the pinnacle of its splendour about the sixth century B.C. but becomes a symbol – a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions.” So, the judgment against Babylon also applies to anyone who exalts himself before God. Five sins are revealed in these five woes, and there is God’s judgment for each sin. For each sin, there is a punishment that fits the crime. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We’ll go through the four woes quickly, and spend a bit more time on the fifth.

Habakkuk 2:6-8 – ⁶ Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own — for how long? — and loads himself with pledges!” ⁷ Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. ⁸ Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

The first sin is the sin of greed. The Babylonians ruthlessly took wealth not rightly belong to them. They plundered many nations. They are very greedy. And God’s punishment for them is the plunderer will be plundered. Like ATO who come to collect taxes, Babylon will be plundered by the remnants of the nation they plundered. God remembers every wrongdoing and Babylon will have to pay for each of them. And isn’t this the story of every selfish human empire in the history of humanity? There were times when the Greeks thought they had the world in their palms. There were times when the Romans thought they were invincible. There were times when the British thought they ruled the ocean. But it all came crashing down to the ground. That’s the first woe.

Habakkuk 2:9-11 – ⁹ “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! ¹⁰ You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. ¹¹ For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.

The second sin is the sin of injustice. Babylon sets his house in high places, far out of the reach of harm or violence. They think they are safe because of it. But Babylon has built their house by robbing people of their houses and committing injustice. They destroyed other people’s houses to build their fortresses. And they think they are invincible, untouchable, and secure because of it. And God’s punishment for them is the secure will become unsecured. What they have done to other nations will be done to them. They don’t have the security they sought because the ruined houses on which they built their house will cry out against them and God hears them. God hears the cry for justice and he will defend justice by punishing the unjust. In other words, what goes around comes around. It’s like a cat who is staring at a bird’s nest with baby birds up on a tree. The cat just sits there patiently, staring up, thinking, “Just wait. It is only a matter of time before something is going to fall, or I find my way to get up there. Meow…” So it is with the glory of Babylon. It is only a matter of time before it comes down and all the people that they have stolen from will cry out against them. God cannot be mocked. Babylon will reap what they sow. That’s the second woe.

Habakkuk 2:12-14 – ¹² “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! ¹³ Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? ¹⁴ For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

The third sin is the sin of violence. Babylon built their city with blood. They come into a city, killing people and enslaving them. And this is a universal sin. We won’t find any country or civilization on the earth that did not build its cities at the expense of other human beings. And God’s punishment for them is their civilization will be replaced by devastation. God will cause their labours to be burnt up and they will weary themselves for nothing. None of their great accomplishment will last. So, God is saying, “Babylon, you wearied yourself for nothing. You think you are amazing because of what you have accomplished. Newsflash, nothing you built will last. It will all turn into ashes.” But God doesn’t stop there. He continues, “Do you want to know what will last? Do you want to know what will cover the earth one day? It is not your kingdom. It is not your glory. It is my glory. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of my glory as the waters cover the sea.” So, here is a reminder for us as well. At the end of the day, nothing we do for ourselves will last. Nothing we accomplish will be remembered. But there is one thing that will last forever; it is the glory of God. So, if we live for any other thing but God’s glory, we weary ourselves for nothing. The only glory that will last, the only glory that will cover the earth is the glory of God. That’s the third woe.

Habakkuk 2:15-17 – ¹⁵ “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! ¹⁶ You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! ¹⁷ The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

The fourth sin is the sin of immorality. Babylon not only destroyed the cities and killed the people, but they also stripped people of their clothes, honour, and dignity. What we see here is a depiction of a brutal, drunken party and sexual perversion. They raped people and used people for their pleasure. They brought shame and humiliation to the people they conquered. And God’s punishment for them is their pleasure will be turned into shame. God will make Babylon so drunk on God’s wrath that they will lie down in their own vomit. God will expose their shame for others to see. They who had no shame will be utterly shamed. Their glory will be swept away. And not only that, but the violence they did to Lebanon will overwhelm them. What is the violence done to Lebanon? It is the senseless destruction of God’s creation. God cares for his creation. God cares about the trees in Lebanon. He also cares about the animal kingdoms. It doesn’t mean that it is always wrong to cut down trees and kill animals. But God hates the cruelty of senseless destruction and senseless slaughter to his creation. And Babylon will receive what they deserve because God is just. But it won’t happen right away. Remember what we talked about last week. All of this will happen at God’s appointed times and Habakkuk has to wait for it. It’s kind of like when we were a kid and we did something bad, and our mom said, “What until your dad gets home.” And our hearts started beating 100kms/hr. That’s what happened in this passage. God is saying to Habakkuk, “Just wait until its appointed time because I am just and Babylon will get what they deserve for their sins.” That’s the fourth woe.

So, here is what the song tells us. God is the God of justice and he will do what is right in his time. The idea of reciprocal justice might not appeal to some people today, but it is essential to God’s plan of salvation. Habakkuk teaches us that sin will not go unpunished. Sin deserves to be mocked, to be ridiculed, and sin deserves shame. So, yes, God will use Babylon to discipline Judah, but then Babylon will get what they deserve. But there is an important distinction between what Judah will get and what Babylon will get. Both Judah and Babylon will experience pain. Both will experience suffering and chaos for their disobedience. But it is for a completely different reason and a completely different purpose. Judah will get discipline; Babylon will get wrath. Do you know the difference between discipline and wrath? Wrath is a form of judgment toward your enemy. Discipline is different. Discipline is a form of lesser evil to prevent greater evil that is done out of love.

Parents, you understand this. Do you remember what happened when you took your child for immunization? The doctor told you to hold your child on your lap as she stuck the needle in your child’s arm multiple times. And each time, your child screamed as loud as possible to let you know how painful it was. And your child looked at you with this face that said, “How could you do this to me? Why aren’t you doing anything about this mean woman in white who hurt me? Aren’t you supposed to love me? Do something about it. Help me. I am in pain!” But what did you do? You did not only not stop the doctor, you were helping the doctor by holding your child tight. At that time, your child could not understand why the only person whom your child could count on was not doing anything to help. In your child’s eyes, you helped the enemy. Your child couldn’t perceive that you were doing what you were doing because you loved your child.

The point is simply this. God in his infinite goodness and wisdom can allow something excruciating to happen because he knows something better will come out of it. Just because we can’t see any good coming out of it, it doesn’t mean there is nothing good coming out of it. God uses suffering, pain, and difficulties to discipline us because he loves us. They are for our good. We should not be afraid of God’s discipline; we should be afraid of God’s wrath. A lot of times, we think God’s wrath is when he punishes us for our sins. And that is certainly true. But there is another side of God’s wrath that is far more fearful. In Romans 1, Paul tells us that the wrath of God also involves letting people indulge in their sinful appetites. The wrath of God is when God lets people do whatever they want. So, if we live in sin and God does nothing, we should be extremely afraid. We should be extremely worried because that means God’s judgment is coming for us. But if God disciplines us today, we should be encouraged because that means he loves us and is working for our good. Let’s move on to the last woe and also my second point.

The folly of idolatry

Habakkuk 2:18-19 – ¹⁸ “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! ¹⁹ Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.

The fifth sin is the sin of idolatry. Do you notice anything different about the last woe? The other four woes begin the woe and then the explanation. But not the last one. God intentionally altered the order of the last woe to create a climax. Because this is the sin underneath all sin. This is the pinnacle of Babylon’s rebellion against God. Building from greed to injustice to violence to immorality, and now the pinnacle of people’s rejection of God is that they make gods for themselves. They trust in their own creation. And God’s punishment for them is having them experience the worthlessness of their idol. In these verses, God exposes the folly of an idol. God is saying, “What use is an idol after the craftsman has finished making it? Can that idol speak? No. Can that idol move? No. Can that idol teach? No. Can that idol breathe? No. If so, can that idol save? No. So, what’s the point? Absolutely useless.” That’s why an idol is a teacher of lies. It promises us the world but it delivers us nothing. An idol has no value because it has been carved by humans. It is dead. It is absolutely worthless.

And before you think that we are too smart to worship an idol today, let me read you a quote from Tim Keller. “The reason why the Babylonian culture is filled with people who are trying to make money and have militaristic power is that in their center, they are proud, and they are empty. They need to clothe themselves with glory.” Do you know why they are empty? Do you know why they need to clothe themselves with glory? Because their god cannot give them what they desire. Their god is dead. Their god is useless. Why? Because they invented their own god by their own hands. And that god cannot do anything. So it is up to them to seek their own glory. And this is important. Because all of us long for glory. All of us long for significance. And nothing in this world can give us the glory we desire. Nothing we do with our own hands can bring us the glory we crave.

Does the name Matthew Perry mean anything to you? If not, maybe Chandler Bing? He was my favourite character in the TV sitcom, “Friends.” Chandler was a very funny character, and he expressed his affection to his friends by constantly making fun of them. Needless to say, Matthew Perry became extremely rich and famous because of Friends. But last year, he was found dead because of an overdose of depression medicine. This leads to this question. How can someone who made millions of people laugh with his sarcastic jokes die of depression? It’s not hard to guess. Because the fame and riches he had could not give the glory his heart craved. Do you see? All of us are seeking glory. The reason we work extremely hard at what we do, whether it is preaching, singing, making money, parenting, moving ahead in a career, the reason we do that is because we are empty. We are insecure. We are trying very hard to cover ourselves with glory. We want to feel loved. We want to feel beautiful. We want to feel significant. That’s why we are working hard. And that’s idolatry. We don’t need shrines to worship idols today. Whatever we pursue to make us feel like we are somebody, that’s our idol. Whenever we look to God’s gift to give us only what God can give us, we commit idolatry. And that is foolishness.

However, there is one specific idolatry that Babylon is guilty of, and I think this is the main idolatry behind all idolatry. It affected all of us without exception. It is the idolatry of ‘me’. It is the idolatry of self. Another word for it is pride. Pride is the desire to be God for ourselves. It is the self-inflated view of self. It is that desire in all of us to call our own shots. It is the mindset that says, “I am the main character of my story.” Tim Keller calls it cosmic plagiarism. It is when we take what belongs to God and attribute it to ourselves. Let me give an example. It is no secret that one of my preaching heroes is Tim Keller. I know his sermons so well that I can detect the smell of his sermons from other people’s sermons. And sometimes I get upset because I would hear people plagiarise Keller’s sermon without giving credit to Keller. I am not talking about using Keller’s ideas and words in the sermon. I do that all the time. Let me tell you a secret. If you hear me say anything that sounds good or wise, it probably originated from Keller. But I am talking about plagiarism here. The sermon is exactly like Keller’s but does not give credit to Keller. And that person got praised for it. That is plagiarism. But that’s what we do with God.

The Bible is clear that everything we have is a gift from God. God is the source of everything we have. Do we realize that we have no control over our lives at all? Who do we think gives us the talents that we have? Who gives us the ability to do what we do? Why do we have that opportunity? There is not a single thing in our lives in which we can rightly claim, “I deserve it.” None. But this is exactly what pride does. Pride makes us think that we deserve it and God owes us. Pride makes us think that we are the point of everything. And pride not only works in the good times but also in the bad times. If life goes well, pride says, “I deserve it.” If life does not go well, pride says, “I did not deserve it.” At the core of it is the thought that God owes us. If we get promoted at our job, we think that God owes it to us after all the hard work we put into our work. If we do not get promoted at our job, we think that God owes us to give us what we deserve. That’s why we are angry. That’s why we are frustrated. We do not realize that everything we have is a gift from God. God does not owe us anything, not even the oxygen that we breathe. But pride makes us think that we are in control. Pride makes us think that we are the point. And the reason we keep feeling empty though we work so hard to get what we want is because we are not the point. We do not have the glory we crave and we are hungry for it. We try to fill the earth with our glory, but God said the earth will be filled with his glory. So, the question is, are we living for God’s glory or our own glory? If we live for our own glory, that’s idolatry and it is worthless. But if we live for God’s glory, that’s worship and it is priceless.

The silent expectation

Habakkuk 2:20 – But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

The word ‘but’ at the beginning of verse 20 creates a contrast with the previous verses. If the idol can’t speak, can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t save, and is useless, the Lord is not mute, dumb, deaf, or powerless. Unlike idols that we can see, the God of Israel is invisible. We can’t see him. But just because we can’t see him, does not mean that he is not there. “But the Lord is in his holy temple.” The Lord’s presence in his holy temple means that he has not forsaken his people. The Lord is sovereign, reigning, and enthroned. He is in absolute control of everything even when everything seems out of control. God is saying to Habakkuk, “No matter how chaotic it seems, no matter how bad it becomes, I am still on my throne. I am still sovereign. I am still in charge.” Both the rise of Babylon and the fall of Babylon will happen under God’s absolute control. God never leaves his throne. He is always controlling everything even when life is extremely hard. And I love what God says next. “Let all the earth keep silence before him.” There is a Hebrew word here that’s kind of onomatopoeia. Do you remember what that is? Words that are what they sound like. When it says, “Let all the earth keep silence,” the Hebrew word is “has” and almost sounds like the English word “hush” or the Indonesian word, “hus”. When do we say that word? When the other person talks too much. When we want the other person to be quiet. And it is a perfect end to God’s reply to Habakkuk’s complaint.

Habakkuk has complained, “God, where are you? How long are you going to stay silent? Why did you raise Babylon to discipline Judah? Aren’t they more evil than we are? How could a holy God do that?” And God graciously replied to Habakkuk reminding him that he is not missing and that he is the God of justice. He told Habakkuk the five woes. Babylon will get what they deserve at the appointed time. But now that God has spoken, everyone should be silent and listen to God. Here is what it means for us. When we are confused, when we are having difficulties understanding what God is doing, sometimes the best thing we can do is wait in silent expectation. It is to hear God say to us, “Be quiet. I am God and you are not. I know what I am doing. I have a plan, I have a purpose, and I am going to accomplish it. I am the God of justice, and I will do what is right. You may not understand it, but you can be sure that my glory will fill the earth. You have to wait for it.”

Let me give you one example from the Bible: Joseph. Nothing about his life made sense from a human’s perspective. He was so idolized by his dad and that made his brothers hate him. But it was not his fault that his dad loved him too much. He was then sold as a slave because of his brother’s jealousy. That’s injustice. Then he worked hard as a servant and gained his master’s trust. But his master’s wife liked him a little too much and wanted his body. She said, “Hi Jo… rawr” and Joseph ran from her. Joseph did the right by fleeing the scene but he was put in jail instead. That’s injustice. Joseph experienced nothing but misery for twenty years. He did everything right but everything in his life went wrong. I am sure there were many nights Joseph asked God, “Why did you let this happen to me? Why all these injustices? God, what are you doing? I am confused.” But when we read the end of his story, we realize that every single thing that went wrong had to happen for God to accomplish his purpose in and through Joseph. God was in absolute control of everything that went wrong. God was using all those pains to shape Joseph for his destiny. And God is the God of justice. Joseph’s brothers had to beg Joseph for food or else they would starve to death. That’s justice. And all of Egypt was at the mercy of Joseph during the great famine. That’s justice. But if we were Joseph, while we experienced those injustices, nothing made sense. And yet it was through the injustices that Joseph experienced that all of Egypt got to taste the glory of God. God is always working for his glory and our good.

So, here is a question I want us to ponder. When all of the earth is filled with God’s glory, what will we experience? Will we bathe in God’s glory? Or will we experience shame like Babylon? Because here is the problem. All of us are prideful. Pride is in all of our hearts. Instead of submitting to God and living for his glory, we seek glory for ourselves. Everything Babylon deserve is what we deserve. We do not deserve glory, we deserve shame. What we deserve is the cup of God’s wrath. What we deserve is judgment. So, how can we bathe in God’s glory instead of God’s wrath? There is only one way. Someone else needs to drink the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf. The good news is someone did take that cup for us. Philippians 2 says that Jesus emptied himself of his glory. Jesus, the one with infinite glory, left his glory and became one of us. He became weak, mortal, and killable. Do you remember what happened in the garden of Gethsemane? Jesus said to God, “Father, could you take this cup of wrath from me? Is there any other way for your glory to fill the earth beside me drinking this cup of judgment?” But the heaven was silent. And do you know what Jesus did? Jesus drank the cup of judgment.

Think about what happened to Jesus. Jesus was plundered, stripped naked, humiliated, mocked, violated, beaten, and crucified on the cross. Everything about the song of justice happened to Jesus. Why? Because he took the judgment we deserve. Our sins deserve punishment. They deserve shame, they deserve to be exposed, to be ridiculed, to be taunted, and Jesus took them all upon himself. While we desperately try to cover ourselves with glory, Jesus emptied himself of his glory for us. Can God just overlook sins and forgive without the cross? He can’t. Because he is the God of justice. If God overlooks sins, he is not just and we can’t trust him. But Paul says in Romans 3 that God is not only just, but he is also the justifier of everyone who puts their faith in Jesus. At the cross, the justice of God and the mercy of God meet. Jesus took the shame we deserve so that when we believe in Jesus, we can bathe in God’s glory. And right now because of our faith in Jesus, God the Father clothes us in the honour Jesus deserved. This is the gospel.

Let me close with this. Do you know what happens when we believe that we are already clothed with Jesus’ honour? We no longer need to seek our own glory. When we know that God has accepted us because of what Jesus has done, we no longer need to seek significance. We are already beautiful in God’s eyes. We no longer need to overwork ourselves for human achievements. Everything we desire is already ours in Jesus. We no longer live for our own glory, but we live for God’s glory. And this enables us to face hardship. When life is hard, people of the world get cynical and angry, and they blame others. They lose hope. Why? Because they have big views of themselves and small views of God. They are prideful. But we are different. We have small views of ourselves and big views of God. We do not lose hope because we know God is in his holy temple. We do not need to take matters into our own hands because we know God has it under control. He is the God of justice. So, listen. Rather than blaming God when life is hard, the gospel humbles us to acknowledge that we don’t know what’s best; God does. At the same time, we have the confidence that God is the God of justice and he will do what is right. And we know that whatever pain we experience cannot be God’s wrath. The cup of God’s wrath over us is empty because it was already poured out on Jesus. We are not under God’s wrath but his loving discipline for our good. So, when life is hard, we do not lose faith but we are both humble and confident. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. How can you tell the difference between God’s discipline and God’s wrath?
3. Can you see the symptoms of cosmic plagiarism in your own life? Give examples
4. What does it mean to wait in silent expectation? Be practical
5. How does the gospel assure you that God is always working for his glory and your good?