#49b - Habakkuk - How Does God Judge Evil?
How many times have I, have you, thought or said: “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (1:2)
The Israelites of old certainly cried it often. And it could be argued that it is the most often repeated prayer of all humanity. One of the reasons it is so common is because the suffering of oppression and violence is so common. Habakkuk describes our human environment in ways we all understand too well. “… Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. (1:2-4) Uniquely, Habakkuk is not a criticism of the Jews, but of God’s seeming indifference to their suffering. It could be called an argument between Habakkuk (me or you) and God.
God’s first answer doesn’t really satisfy. “I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” (1:5) He is right about that. Looking around it doesn’t seem like God is doing much to be “astounded” by. The Assyrians are still oppressing us. So, God’s idea is to use the Babylonians (Chaldeans), “that bitter and hasty nation … they are dreaded and fearsome, … they all come for violence, … they are guilty men whose own might is their god!” (1:6-11) This doesn’t sound like something a sovereign, pure God would do. “why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” (1:13) Is God’s answer to simply sit and watch evil people fight each other? Habakkuk says: okay, I’ll watch to see how God’s plan works out. (2:1)
God’s second answer, on the surface, is not much better than the first. God gives Habakkuk a vision: “judgment is coming, it seems slow but, wait for it.” “Have faith, trust Me.”(2:3,4)
Evil is like wine, a traitor to itself, it entices to satisfy, but never does. It relentlessly devours all around it and ultimately devours itself. And so, God, through the vision to Habakkuk, warns with a series of “woes.” “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own.” (2:6) “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm.?” (2:9) Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.” (2:12) “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink …in order to gaze at their nakedness.” (2:15) “Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise!” (2:19) The just results will be: “the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,” (2:8) “you have forfeited your life,” (2:10) “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,” (2:14) “you will have your fill of shame instead of glory.” (2:16) “there is no breath at all in idols.” (2:19)
Throughout human history each proud idolatrous individual, group and nation has imagined their plunder to be their triumph only to have it succumb to the next evil power. In their arrogance they ignore the fact that “The LORD is in his holy temple,” and in all their evil clamor “all the earth will keep silence before Him.” (2:20)
Did God, does God, listen to the cries of people suffering at the hands of evildoers? Does God judge evil oppressors? To the eyes of faith the answer is a thunderous YES. In Chapter three Habakkuk describes the fearful answer. God is always at work, emptying His wrath on evil by its own measure. READ Habakkuk three over and over. Evil always suffers the results of its own doing. It leaves ruin in its path. Yet in it all, Habakkuk pleads: “in wrath remember mercy.” (3:2) So, to the eyes of faith: “You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,” … You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,”(3:12-14) To realize what God has done, does and will do to the idolatrous and faithless makes Habakkuk tremble and quiver, “Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us.” (3:16) Thus, in the context of oppressive evil where it seems as if God neither hears nor acts, Habakkuk concludes: “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” (3:17-19) And Habakkuk writes so that “all the righteous who live by faith” will sing with “the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.”
Watch Bible Project video about Habakkuk
The Israelites of old certainly cried it often. And it could be argued that it is the most often repeated prayer of all humanity. One of the reasons it is so common is because the suffering of oppression and violence is so common. Habakkuk describes our human environment in ways we all understand too well. “… Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. (1:2-4) Uniquely, Habakkuk is not a criticism of the Jews, but of God’s seeming indifference to their suffering. It could be called an argument between Habakkuk (me or you) and God.
God’s first answer doesn’t really satisfy. “I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” (1:5) He is right about that. Looking around it doesn’t seem like God is doing much to be “astounded” by. The Assyrians are still oppressing us. So, God’s idea is to use the Babylonians (Chaldeans), “that bitter and hasty nation … they are dreaded and fearsome, … they all come for violence, … they are guilty men whose own might is their god!” (1:6-11) This doesn’t sound like something a sovereign, pure God would do. “why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” (1:13) Is God’s answer to simply sit and watch evil people fight each other? Habakkuk says: okay, I’ll watch to see how God’s plan works out. (2:1)
God’s second answer, on the surface, is not much better than the first. God gives Habakkuk a vision: “judgment is coming, it seems slow but, wait for it.” “Have faith, trust Me.”(2:3,4)
Evil is like wine, a traitor to itself, it entices to satisfy, but never does. It relentlessly devours all around it and ultimately devours itself. And so, God, through the vision to Habakkuk, warns with a series of “woes.” “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own.” (2:6) “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm.?” (2:9) Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.” (2:12) “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink …in order to gaze at their nakedness.” (2:15) “Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise!” (2:19) The just results will be: “the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,” (2:8) “you have forfeited your life,” (2:10) “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,” (2:14) “you will have your fill of shame instead of glory.” (2:16) “there is no breath at all in idols.” (2:19)
Throughout human history each proud idolatrous individual, group and nation has imagined their plunder to be their triumph only to have it succumb to the next evil power. In their arrogance they ignore the fact that “The LORD is in his holy temple,” and in all their evil clamor “all the earth will keep silence before Him.” (2:20)
Did God, does God, listen to the cries of people suffering at the hands of evildoers? Does God judge evil oppressors? To the eyes of faith the answer is a thunderous YES. In Chapter three Habakkuk describes the fearful answer. God is always at work, emptying His wrath on evil by its own measure. READ Habakkuk three over and over. Evil always suffers the results of its own doing. It leaves ruin in its path. Yet in it all, Habakkuk pleads: “in wrath remember mercy.” (3:2) So, to the eyes of faith: “You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,” … You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,”(3:12-14) To realize what God has done, does and will do to the idolatrous and faithless makes Habakkuk tremble and quiver, “Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us.” (3:16) Thus, in the context of oppressive evil where it seems as if God neither hears nor acts, Habakkuk concludes: “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” (3:17-19) And Habakkuk writes so that “all the righteous who live by faith” will sing with “the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.”
Watch Bible Project video about Habakkuk