Habakkuk 1

C—Habakkuk, a prophet, has received a divine communication from God. He is sharing his vision with his audience —Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel. It’s a cry for help from Habakkuk to God, an answer from God, and a follow-up question from Habakkuk.  Habakkuk calls God by His proper name, Yahweh; Qodesh in vs 12, which means holy or separate.  And  Eloah, also in vs 12, which is a general term for God, the same word God uses in vs 11 in describing the Chaldeans’ trust in their might as their god.  Chaldeans were ancient Babylonians who were known for their study of astrology and astronomy.  

I—Habakkuk is bold in his complaint to God.  He has a lot of questions! He doesn’t have the luxury of seeing the Big Picture, only just the snapshot he’s living in at the moment.  He wonders why he’s forced to watch all of this immorality, injustice, crime, unfairness, unrighteousness, wickedness unfold before him.  He wonders why God looks at it with no particular purpose or plan in place to fix it.  The law isn’t doing its job, so nothing gets fixed.  If there were righteous people to lead, they are so entrenched in wickedness that the justice they would offer in God’s Name doesn’t even look right.  

The Lord answers by saying “Look again! Try looking this time from my point of view.” God is at work, not that Habakkuk can see past the violence around him.  God is actually Raising Up the Wicked  to complete His purpose.  He knows this evil army is going to bring destruction across Judah, with no thought for life or property.  They should strike fear and dread in the hearts of those they are marching towards.  They are unwavering in their commitment to violence, nothing will distract them.  Authority is a joke to them, they sweep through, imprisoning and tearing up everything in their path.  They end the day by patting themselves on the back, proud of and pledging allegiance to themselves.  

Habakkuk responds with “Oh.  Ok. You ARE the One who sees the Big Picture, so You know what You are doing.”  Habakkuk sees that God has the Chaldeans planned as a judgement, as a way to punish and correct.  But wait...You, God, can’t look at evil because of Your all-encompassing purity, so why do You have no plan to stop the evil? You’ve basically set up mankind in a fishbowl and you have given  the Chaldeans the net.  But they don’t recognize any power they have is from God, all of their worship goes to their own power and to their  instruments of destruction.  How long will this go on? 😢

A—Wow.  I’m exhausted reading this.  It’s too familiar.  We look at the world around us (I did this chapter over the weekend, so I can’t imagine what has happened by the time we start on Tuesday) and we have to wonder “What is happening? And God, why aren’t you paying attention?!?!?!” But of course, just because we say God is sitting idly by, doesn’t mean He is!!!! He is always at work.  He always has a plan and it’s always for His glory and our good.  But how can we find that assurance in the craziness? By bringing our heavy questions to God.  God is perfectly confident in Himself and His choices and His motives.  Our questions will not in any way undermine God’s self-esteem.  We also need to be prepared for the answer.  It’s hard, so hard for us to understand a Big Picture God from our snapshot viewpoint.  A good way to train ourselves to trust God is to call Him by His names.  Our God, Our Holy One, Our Rock   When we feel hemmed in by the wickedness that so easily surrounds us, call out and question God.  When our faith is caught between a rock and a hard place, look again!! God alone is both our Rock and our Hard Place.  He has surrounded us with unmoving strength and a firm foundation.  He will shelter us even as war rages.  On Christ the Solid Rock we stand. ❤️