Week 6: Habakkuk

This week in our series "Drama & Dedication: The Life of the Prophets", we took a look at the prophet Habakkuk.  We started with playing a game called "Is that your final answer" where groups were given dates that commemorate actual events in history.  They had to come up with their own events for each date and try to convince the rest of the group that theirs was the real answer.  We had everything from Anti-Boredom Month (a real thing-July 1-31 every year!) to Cheeseball Day (a made-up date, though I wouldn't doubt it exists!).  We talked about how, like we did in the game, often people think they have the answers to questions and try to convince others that their answers are true.  We know when we have questions about God or our faith, we can look in the Bible and talk to God.  But, sometimes we are still not clear on the answers after we do those things.  The prophet Habakkuk was dealing with similar issues.

Habakkuk lived in Judah.  The good King Josiah had recently died, along with all of his spiritual reforms.  The new king, Jehoiakim II, was basically a puppet for Egypt.  He completely reversed all the good reforms of Josiah and his reign was unjust and violent.  In addition to the new reign of a horrible King, the country of Babylon was getting stronger and dominating all of the surrounding countries.  The Babylonians were ruthless, evil and destructive.  And this is when Habakkuk's dialogue with God begins.

Habakkuk complains to God about what is happening and asks his first question (Habakkuk 1:2-4).  He says, how long do we have to wait, God?  When are you going to help us out of this awful situation we are in?  So then God answers Habakkuk in verses 5-11 and tells Habakkuk that God is on the way and that he's going to use the Babylonians to accomplish His purpose....the Babylonians?  Really?  Habakkuk is very confused.  Why is the world would God use these horrible evil people?  But Habakkuk trusts God and knows that God will take care of things, even if he is confused at how God will actually do it.  So Habakkuk sits quietly, watching and waiting for God's explanation.

In time, God replies and basically says that He can use whomever he wants to accomplish His purpose.  But not to worry, because Babylon will not escape judgment for their unjust behavior.  Evil will not control the world!  Habakkuk still doesn't know what exactly is going to happen, but he comes to realize that God is in control and he must trust God.  So Habakkuk sings a song of praise to God's power, love and overwhelming majesty!

We then split up into middle and high school groups and talked a little deeper about how we can stop, look and listen for God like Habakkuk did.  Even when we don't get detailed answers to our questions, Habakkuk reassures us that God is always there, ready to listen to us in our doubts and distress.  How are you stopping, looking and listening for God?  What's preventing you from stopping, looking and listening for God?  Comment on this post with your answers.

Then we had a little fun, racing to build free standing towers made of spaghetti noodles and mini-marshmallows, and playing a game called bin ball.  Check it out: