To say that 2020 was a rough year for us is certainly putting it mildly. One of the most painful lessons it taught us was not to take the good pleasures in life that we have for granted because we never know when they may not be there. Some of us have been affected by Covid directly, others indirectly, and that is not even beginning to address all of the other events that took place this year in our country. I am sure that many of us, if we are honest, are asking God that familiar question, “Why?” or at least, “When will this all end?” or even, “Doesn’t God even care?” These struggles we face may be new to us, but the questions surrounding them have been asked by God’s people every generation, including the book we are looking at in this article: Habakkuk.
Habakkuk is located close to the end of the Old Testament, and although it is a small book, it asks a big question: Why does God permit the righteous to suffer while the wicked prosper? Habakkuk takes place after the prophecy of Nahum, and so God had indeed judged Assyria, that evil nation that had threatened His people, by raising up Babylon. However, rather than live in gratitude for God’s deliverance, his people had resorted to their old ways. Habakkuk asked the above question because the people of Israel were living lives of wickedness and sin rather than holiness and love. Habakkuk wanted God to do something about this but he didn’t expect the answer that God gave Him: God would indeed address the sin of His people but judging it, raising up the Babylonians against them, and would one day bring them back to the land so that they could be in it when the Messiah was to be born. This was certainly not the answer Habakkuk wanted! Hence, he protested. Surely, God could not use such an evil nation like Babylon in His work could He? God answers Habakkuk that yes, one day the Babylonians will be judged too for their sin, but comfort is found only in a relationship with Him by those who will live by faith (Hab. 2:4). Those who trust in their own power & might will be defeated but the righteous will live by faith. This is how the righteous face uncertain times: by trusting God despite the circumstances.
Yet, the good news is that this is not faith & trust in an “absentee” god, but a true and living God who acts in history, in real time events. That was the source of Habakkuk’s trust. He could look back and see God’s past victories and then look forward in faith that He would bring about His plans, that they are good, and that no evil can thwart them.
The book of Habakkuk can also be a practical text to teach us something about prayer. Habakkuk begins by not holding back, and you can hear his pain as you read his words. God then responds and gives Habakkuk an answer. That pattern repeats itself once more before ending with Habakkuk’s word of praise. This pattern also repeats itself in many of the psalms that we read. The writer is brutally honest with God and then after spending time in His presence, the writer then breaks forth into worship and adoration. The difference comes from spending time with God in prayer and in His presence and eventually He changes our perspectives to look at situations through His eyes rather than our own. God’s presence changed Habakkuk to understand that God never fails His people. Habakkuk’s last chapter ends with the truth that the world may be falling apart, but an all-powerful God is still in control. It may not have been the plans that Habakkuk wanted, but nothing can challenge an all-powerful and all-good God who is determined to redeem.
God’s strength and faithfulness is our comfort, and He willingly gives us His presence to remind us of that, especially when His presence took on flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus Christ. Jesus too lived during a time of hardship and God’s people were once again asking, “How long?” How long must they live under the Roman boot? How long until God redeems? Yet, Jesus reminded His listeners that God was still in control and proved that not only by His miracles, but by the greatest miracle of all: the Resurrection. This historical fact alone gives us many truths as we continue to struggle through these uncertain times and look forward to a new year: God’s care is constant, our future is secure, and He offers all who are willing to come to Him peace and rest (Matt. 11:28). Like, Habakkuk, we too can look back on God’s victory over sin through Jesus’ death and resurrection, and use that to look forward to a time when God will wipe away every tear, comfort every loss, and make all things new.
In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, and the Resurrection proves that the Lord Jesus has final authority over death and all disgusting and discouraging effects of sin. Therefore, because He lives we too have a living hope because we serve a living Lord who will never taste death again, but instead has defeated death so that we may have life. When circumstances are beyond our control, our comfort comes in relationship with the all-loving and all-powerful God. If we listen closely, we can hear the voice of the Shepherd of our souls calling us to His protective peace. Friends, may the gospel, the good-news that God the all-powerful and all-good one who loves humanity and offers them eternal life and peace, be the message we carry into 2021 and beyond.
Your Brother,
Craig