Habakkuk 1:1-11
“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”
Have you ever asked God this question? It seems a brave, or maybe even a reckless thing to do, to ask an all-powerful God to explain himself. Yet at the beginning of Habbakuk, this is exactly the question that Habakkuk asks God. He sees evil all around him that seems to go unanswered and so he asks God, ‘Why?’. When we look at the state of our world, the injustices and natural disasters, don’t we share Habakkuk’s question? Or in our own experience of life as we suffer injustice or pain or loss don’t we call out for help and sometimes feel like God is not listening?
Habakkuk actually gets a reply from God but it’s not the answer he expected or hoped for. He discovers again that God’s way are not our ways. God’s action are unexpected and even disturbing and yet they are always right and good. God’s not fazed by Habakkuk’s question. Neither is he fazed by our question. In fact he welcomes it when, like Habaukkuk, we ask our hard question, all the while believing that he is good and faithful even when we are struggling to see it.
Supplied notes:
- It looks like God is happy to tolerate wrong.
- But God will not tolerate wrong forever.