2O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
3Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
Habakkuk 1:2-4
I had a fortuitous encounter with my friend the other day. It was a dark and wet Friday evening. I was supposed to go for youth, but I contemplated on staying home for the rest of the evening because I had a headache. I usually get a lift, but on that particular day, I would have had to walk for 25 minutes. You could say I had all the excuses to stop myself from going, but I set out anyways.
I had just begun walking when I saw my friend who hadn’t come to college that day walking towards me. I almost walked past him because I couldn’t recognise him in the dark. I asked the all-too-familiar question “How are you?”, and to my surprise, his answer wasn’t the usual “I’m doing good”. Rather, it was a heart-breaking reply. As we talked about it for the rest of the evening, ultimately scrapping my plan of going to youth, a question was raised that hits home with many of us: “Why would God allow this to happen? Everything seemed to go so well until now. Why would God do this?”
We’ve all asked that question, we’ve all wondered why bad things happen to good people believers and unbelievers alike. Even great men of faith from the Bible like David and Job were troubled by that question. One of the lesser known accounts is that of Habakkuk in his short eponymous book. That’s where we’ll be looking at for the answer.
The Familiar Context
The book of Habakkuk opens up with a plea for help and justice.
In a time when God’s chosen nation was divided, and Judah was wallowing in its violence and corruption. In a time when idol worship was at its peak and worship to the true and only God was at an all-time low, Habakkuk was deeply saddened by his nation’s despicable behaviour. He was suffering in the midst of such a perverse generation. He was facing the brunt of Judah’s sins and its consequences yet he hadn’t done any of the abominable deeds that were committed. Habakkuk was crying out for justice, he was pleading for his life, he begged God to respond.
We can relate to Habakkuk. We are living in a time where idol worship is prevalent. Not in the same sense as it was back in his time, with graven images and statues, but with other tangible or intangible idols like wealth, prosperity and fame; anything that usurps God’s place in our hearts. We are surrounded by wicked people who want nothing to do with God and instead blaspheme and commit all sorts of atrocities.
God cares and is in control
It may be tempting at times to look at our own dire circumstances and question God’s ways. We often fall to the temptation of comparing ourselves with others and complaining about our situation.
How sad it must be for a father to give every good thing to his children, share his every affection and spend all his effort and time to care for them, only to be accused, only to be questioned, only to be belittled. Only to be asked why he hasn’t given them what they wanted, why he hasn’t responded the way they expected, why he hasn’t loved them enough to bring them out of their misery, the mess that they have often put themselves into.
How much more disheartened must God be after listening to the prayers of every one of his beloved children, only to be accused of not caring.
Sure there are situations that are totally out of our control. Yes there are instances where we face unfair cases of injustice and mistreatment. There are boundless of things that we are not responsible for and cases that are absolutely egregious. But the difference for us is that we know a God who is in control. We know a God who knows exactly what is happening and what will happen. And for those of us who have not only heard of this God, but know Him intimately, we can take comfort in every and any circumstance knowing that God is sovereign.
God is wise and powerful
One unmistakable truth is this, God is all-wise, He is omniscient. Whatever happens, as difficult as it may be for us to comprehend, we cannot challenge His ways. He is God, we are mortals. We cannot compare ourselves with Him, we cannot reason like Him, we cannot question Him. To compare, to reason, to question, all require the faculty of our minds, all tremendous abilities that God has gifted us with when He created us.
Since God has gifted to us the capacity to use our minds, shall we use that which He has given us to challenge Him? God is far far far wiser than we can ever imagine. Since He created us in His image, He too is able to reason, to an unimaginably superlative degree, in fact He is wisdom. How are we then to question Him when we derive our wisdom, our being, our whole existence from Him.
He is able to do whatever He pleases. He does whatever He pleases.
Now this would paint a frightening picture of God, and in all reality it is a dreadful reality, that God is omnipotent and omniscient. Power by itself is worrying, but power accompanied with complete authority is absolutely terrifying.
God Loves and He is Good
Perhaps the greatest distinction between Christianity and other religions, one of the most pivotal differences, the one thing that changes everything is this: our God, who is the One and Only true God, is not only all-powerful, but He is also all-loving.
The definition of love has been so distorted now that love is seen as embracing everything and allowing anything, both the good and the bad. However, we often forget that sometimes to love, is to discipline and to correct in order to teach a valuable lesson.
Moreover, as much as God is love, He is also good. It may not seem like He loves when we go through the storms of life, but He loves us still. He loves us enough to be with us every step of the way. He is good because everything that He ordains, He does it for the best. For us, his loved and chosen, He does all things for our good (Rom. 8:29).
We can corroborate the claim of God’s unconditional love for his people throughout the Bible. Yet out of all the accounts, the love of God is no greater displayed, no better explained and no more beautifully presented than on the cross of Golgotha. Who would have guessed that on such a horrific and tragic occasion, the most poignant picture of God’s love would be painted.
The Logical Fallacy
From the fall of man, there has not been a single human being who has lived a righteous life before God. It doesn’t matter how many times they have breached God’s laws, or how small of a crime they have committed, ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) There is no one righteous, not even one. (Romans 3:10) Thus, everyone deserves the wrath of God.
Habakkuk cries out:
12 Are You not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One?... 13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? Habakkuk 1:12-13
Habakkuk here was correct in declaring God as Holy, that He was too pure to overlook evil. But he was wrong in assuming that he was more righteous than those whom he deemed wicked. And since God did not interfere to stop the wicked, Habakkuk thought God was contradicting His holiness.
All of us make the same mistake whenever we ask God to “do away” with wickedness, to remove the immoral from the earth and to bring judgement on evil. We forget that we ourselves fall into that category. We are no better than those whom we count as evil. We all have the same problem, we are all sinners. To ask for wickedness to be done away with, we would be praying for our own extinction. Since God is holy and just, if He is to remove evil from the world, He would have to remove ALL of it, every one of us.
Jesus Suffered
The only person who could rightly protest about injustice was Jesus. The only person who had every reason to complain about bad things happening to good people was Jesus. He was the only person who could have cried out to the Father and ask Him to wipe out all evil without having to worry about Himself. He was the Son of God, He was perfect, He was good.
But we all know what happened to Him instead.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. Isaiah 53:7
Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered.
R.C. Sproul
Instead of rebelling, Jesus acquiesced. Instead of complaining, He remained silent. Christ submitted to the Father, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8) If the spotless innocent, holy Son of God suffered at the hands of wicked men, men whom He Himself had oversaw the creation of with the Father, how much more are we to bear our sufferings, our temporary pain and our transient troubles.
10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:10-11
Eternal Glory vs Temporary Pain
As God answers Habakkuk in chapter 2, all the idol worshipers and their breathless, mute and impotent gods will avail to nothing. They can neither love nor show goodness. Those who worship them have no hope, they have no comfort, they have no profit for enduring pain and suffering in this earth. But, for us who are persecuted for righteousness sake, we shall inherit the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:10)
As gold is tested through the fire, so is our faith tested by our various trails and temptations. In the end, producing something far greater than any gold and wealth on earth, an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. (2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Peter 1:7)
If we suffer with Christ, we shall also be glorified with Him. (Romans 8:17)
As my pastor compared it, our pain is not like that of an ailing person’s cry in agony but rather that of a mother’s who labours hard in the process of producing something wonderful, something (or rather someone) so precious that once the mother holds the newborn in her arms, the indescribable pain suddenly becomes insignificant.
Suffering gives us a reality check. It reminds us that what lies in this physical realm isn’t our ambition, but our destiny lies up above. Our wealth is not in this world, but in the world to come.
If your hope is in this life, if you set all your targets on the fleeting objects of this world, then all your troubles and suffering have little value. All they do is impede, obstruct and even ruin your hopes and dreams. But, if our hope is in the unseen, in the things above, we have a greater hope, a brighter perspective, a most honourable pursuit.
The Bible doesn’t downplay or whitewash suffering, rather it engulfs it in comparison with what is to come.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18
Habakkuk’s Exultation
At the end, Habakkuk eventually realises his mistake. He asks God, “in wrath, remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2) We ought to be so much more grateful everyday, remembering that God has in fact shown mercy instead of the wrath we deserved. Jesus’ death has allowed us to become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Even in all our circumstances, the good and the bad, we remember that God is in complete control, that He is all-wise, He is good and He loves. He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins and to save us from the wrath to come.
Like Habakkuk in the closing verses of the book, we have every reason to praise the Lord regardless of what happens:
17Though 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:18-19
