“Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?...Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?...So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted” (1:2-4, ESV).
Amid world affairs, and sometimes in personal life, these words have seemed true to us as well. Our mistake comes when we question why God allows bad things to happen. God answers Habakkuk regarding the Jews of his day, but this becomes a cautionary command and warning for our times as well:
“Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation…They are dreaded and fearsome…They all come for violence…They gather captives like the sand” (2:6, 7, 9).
This could as easily be China or Russia today, if God so desires.
Habakkuk tries to work out what he considers a conflict between God’s majesty and faithfulness to his people and God’s seemingly distracted disdain for what the enemy is about to do to the Israelites:
“Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained [the Chaldeans] as a judgment, and….have established them for reproof…why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he” (1:12-13)?
How many times have you, or someone you know, shaken a fist at God and cried, “WHY?”
How often do we find ourselves unable to explain why God would “idly look” while a child dies?
Habakkuk earnestly trusts the Lord and seems comfortable pouring out his frustration:
“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint” (2:1).
In other words, despite his frustration over God’s seeming indifference, he knows God has a plan. God answers Habakkuk’s deeper faith with a command:
”And the Lord answered me: ‘Write the vision; make it plain…For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, [the enemy’s] soul is puffed up; it is not right within him, but the righteous shall live by his [own] faith” (2:2-3).
God’s timing is perfect, always has been, and always will be.
Ours is to live every hour, every minute, every second, by faith – that is, unity with God.
Habakkuk has his answer, and we have ours: we must stand in the watchtower as long as it takes to see God’s plan completed:
“…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” (3:18-19).
If we hide in a foxhole, we cannot see God’s plan. If we live by faith, we become able to climb to high places specially prepared for us to be able to see God’s whole perspective.
The righteous live by faith alone.