Why, Lord. Why must I wait?
How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
This was Habakkuk’s cry. He felt like the LORD wasn’t listening when evil was all around him.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
It’s frustrating when wickedness abounds. It feels helpless. You can speak and shout and demand justice, but sometimes it does not prevail. Law is one sided in that it the wicked go free time and time again and those in the right get unlawfully condemnded.
So God answers him and says justice is going to come. Babylon will conquer them. Habakkuk is like…what? They are more evil than us. How could you do this?
The LORD responds that in time, wait for it, they too will face his judgment. Just not now. The timing wasn’t right. First he had to deal with his own children and that meant bringing judgment through Babylon. But make no mistake, God would bring judgment against Babylon. Not only them but to all who do evil.
Habakkuk responds he will wait patiently for the Lord, even though he doesn’t see God’s justice. Habakkuk is strengthened in the LORD.
So What Do We Learn?
- God will deal with evil. Eventually. Babylon was inconquerable and no one believed they could be beaten. Their technology was just too good. But God said otherwise. They would fall. And the Lord would get the glory.
- God will use whoever it takes to bring judgment and discipline to his people. It says in Scripture judgment begins with the people of God. It’s not a matter of who is more wicked or more righteous, God’s judgment will begin with his people as he loves them. He loves them so much that like a parent, he will not let them continue in their sin.
- No Empire is too big not to collapse. Every nation will collapse in time. The only people that will stay a nation is Israel. Because they are in covenant with God.
- God is slow in bringing judgment. We see this over and over. Why? Because he want people to repent. He desires mercy, not judgment. That means when we see wickedness, we will see Him very slow to bring about his wrath. If there is not repentance, it will come. But not for awhile.
There are some important verses I think in this book that are important.
- God doing something we cannot imagine.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
In this verse it is not a good thing. What he is saying is that Babylon is going to fall, something everyone thought impossible.
On a pastoral note, I think if we know that Babylon can fall, then when he know any evil can fall.
2. An Important verse to remember (Hab 3:2)
in wrath remember mercy.
I do think this is something we need to be praying. Because evil is exploding and a time may be coming of his judgment.
3. A beautiful set of verses in a poem of judgment (Hab 3:16-19).
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights
These verses are beautiful. But what is the context? That God is going to judge Babylon. He is going to judge evil. Something that Habakkuk says he will wait for even when he does not see it. He will rejoice even though the wait is long.
Evil always harms people. Always. From the smallest of sin to the greatest, there is never a time where it doesn’t hurt the sinner and someone else. It’s Ok to want evil to be destroyed. Cast down.
It can be frustrating when evil seems to prosper. But like Habakkuk, we can wait patiently in the joy of the LORD knowing that he is a righteous God.