“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?”
—Habakkuk 1:2 ESV
If you’re anything like me, when you are reading the first chapter of Habakkuk, an old saying immediately comes to mind: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Absolute corruption. No two words can better sum up the political landscape and social situation of Habakkuk’s day. Justice was corrupted.
“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.”
—Habakkuk 1:3–4 ESV
And God was about to use those more corrupt (I.e. the Neo-Babylonians) to bring judgment on those who in Habakkuk’s opinion were less corrupt (I.e. the Judahites).
“‘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, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!’”
—Habakkuk 1:5–11 ESV
At this point, put yourself in Habakkuk’s sandals. What is the prophet to make from the Lord’s recent revelation, full of unfortunate news for God’s covenantal people, the inhabitants of Judah?! Is God unjust? Is He, like fallen humanity, also corrupt?
Of course not! But, it does mean that not all questions have answers neatly wrapped, and tied with bows on top. Difficult questions sometimes have difficult answers. The difficulty is not with God and His ways, but with our limited understanding of Him. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV). Simply put: the human race struggles to understand God’s ways.
Therefore, let us beware of manufacturing a god—out of ignorance, misconception and misunderstanding—who is all mercy, but not just. Such a god is an idol of one’s own making. He is clearly not the true God of Scripture.
In the opening section of Habakkuk’s prophecy, it is evident that Habakkuk was personally adhering to a theological concept that was unscriptural: he was seeking after a godhead who was, in his mind, all mercy, at least, in regards to Judah and her sins. Many of us, today, are guilty of this self-same error. Often, on behalf of ourselves as well as loved ones, we ask for mercy from God under a pretense of justice. We ask outwardly for justice, when, in reality, we are seeking unconditional mercy.
In the famous Un-American Activities trial of the Rosenbergs of 1952, the defendants’ lawyers said to the court, “Give us justice. That’s all we ask for. That’s what we’re after.” The court replied, “No, what you’re after is mercy. But this court can’t give mercy—only justice. And what you’ve got is justice.” God is just. Never doubt that the one, true God of the Bible is a just God. And a just God must dispense justice as need arises. He cannot and will not sacrifice justice for mercy, or vice-versa.
God has plenty to say about humanity, and He declares it justly so: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside...no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10–12 ESV). “All are dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1 ESV). And pay particular attention to this statement, “And the way of peace they have not known” (Romans 3:17 ESV).
Surely, as Scripture attests, the way of peace, mercy and forgiveness can only be known by way of faith in Christ crucified and resurrected. Justice and mercy—those two, eternal foes—met at the Atonement Seat of Christ, and were reconciled one to another by Jesus’ substitutionary death and resurrection. This is why the gospel-call sounds as it does: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 ESV). REPENT and BELIEVE! Turn away from sin; receive God’s grace; escape the judgment through faith. BELIEVE! “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV; also read Romans 5:6–11). That’s good news for a world full of evil, sin-laden human beings in need of divine mercy—not justice!
“Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?”
—Habakkuk 1:12–13 ESV
So the next time you feel the impulse to cry out to God, like Habakkuk: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” (cf Habakkuk’s question in verse 13). Remember that the Lord has already answered that question in Scripture. Bad things happen as a consequence of humanity’s fallen nature, as a consequence of humankind’s sin. Bad things happen because we are all, naturally, bad people. Some are just seemingly worse than others—like the Neo-Babylonians, described in verses five through eleven. There is no such thing as “good people” outside of faith in Christ, and His righteousness. In our natural, unsaved state, “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 KJV). We are all in need of salvation. We are all in need of God’s amazing grace.
Let us praise the Lord that “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:6–11 ESV).
—Adapted from Ron Metheny,
“Why, God? Why?! (Understanding Habakkuk),”
pp. 15–18
Comments