Habakkuk’s ministry was during a wicked time, where sin ran rampant, and God’s patience would soon run thin. It seems that God’s ear had already begun to turn from Judah and Habakkuk’s burden to bear, including seeing firsthand the overflow of wickedness in Judah (1:3-4, NKJV). Still, secondly, the knowledge of the destructive force soon to come upon Judah.
Our minds can’t fully understand God’s timeless nature, just as it was challenging for the prophet Habakkuk to know why God was not responding to his cries of “violence” (1:2) in what he would consider a timely fashion. Habakkuk wanted to know how long it would be before God punished the wicked in Judah. Like many of us today, Habakkuk questions God concerning the injustice and wickedness that affects the innocent (1:13). He pleads with God to bring about righteous judgment because the “wicked surround the righteous; and perverse judgment proceeds” (1:4). All the while, God had already been lifting up a nation to bring about judgment on Judah, and the severity of it would be something Habakkuk would not believe though it were told to him (1:5). The Chaldeans (1:6), a nation more wicked than Judah would soon come in as if an unstoppable force wreaking havoc on Judah.
Understanding how God can use a nation more wicked than Judah to execute judgment on His own is challenging, but man’s injustices and evil ways will not go unchecked. Just as the chastening rod was coming for Judah, judgment will come for all creation. While Habakkuk questioned God, God gave Habakkuk two answers that we can still find comfort in today. God told Habakkuk that Judah would soon face judgment at the hands of the Babylonians. But also, He told Habakkuk that the “just shall live by faith” (2:4).
We sing the song “Farther Along,” and the lyric goes, “Then do we wonder why others prosper, living so wicked year after year.” We may not always understand how God’s providential hand works in our lives, nor will we know when His judgment will come, but we must live by faith and know that His eternal plan is still at work. Trust in God and His plan, strive to glorify His name regardless of what the rest of the world does and rest assured knowing the Lord will return. “Farther along we’ll know all about it, farther along we’ll understand why.”
By: Jerrod Hammond