| HABAKKUK |
| The problem of evil. |
| Habakkuk's question: "Why is God silent while the wicked succeed?" |
| "The righteous will live by his faith." 2:4 |
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| The book of Habakkuk begins with a complaint. The prophet saw injustice, violence, and evil in his own country, yet God remained silent and invisible. Why didn't God intervene? Why did he give no answer when Habakkuk called out for help? Habakkuk took these questions directly to God, in prayer. God answered him, but hardly in the way Habakkuk had anticipated. God said he was sending the Babylonians to punish Judah. God's words described a ruthless, savage army that would tear Israel apart. So Habakkuk complained again. Could this be justice - punishing Judah through an even more evil nation? Deeply perplexed, Habakkuk waited to see what answer God would give to his second complaint. How long he had to wait, we do not know. But God did reply, and his answer is perhaps the best explanation we have of God's attitude toward evil. It satisfied Habakkuk, so that his book, which begins with a complaint, ends with one of the most beautiful songs in the Bible. Two Certainties to Live By God pointed out two certainties to Habakkuk. First, the violent, proud Babylonians would be paid back with the very weapons they had used on others. Just as they destroyed nations, they would be destroyed. "Has not the Lord Almighty determined . . . that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?" (2:13). Evil may dominate the earth, but it always wears itself out. The second certainty was God's character. He may be silent for a time, but not forever. "The earth will be filled with the |