HABAKKUK LIVED AND WROTE from Judah in the seventh century B.C., during the behavioral freefall of the Jewish state and nation. The LORD gave him an undesirable vision. The prophet could see, very near in time, the coming of the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent deportation of the Jews out from Israel into Babylonian captivity. This will occur as judgment by the hand of God in response to the wickedness that permeated all of Israel. Habakkuk’s prophetic book is not written to Judah, but uniquely to God. In it, he begins by crying out two grievances to the LORD as he looks around himself in disgust at the low moral and ethical state of the Jewish nation and culture.
He makes his first anguished complaint. “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.” (Hab. 1:2-4) We understand Habakkuk’s vexing issue at a visceral level, for this is an issue we face in our own time. We watch in disapprobation as the disease of darkness perniciously spreads like a plague throughout nation and world cultures, and lawlessness breaks down the boundaries of governance that protect our civilization. We are mindful of the proverb, “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint.” (Prov. 29:18)
In Habakkuk’s time, the ostensibly theocratic nation of Israel’s divided kingdoms has turned its back to the laws of God. From kings and priests down to the common man, the effects of lawlessness have made every person a law unto themselves. God then answers the prophet. “I am raising up the Babylonians. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.” (Hab. 1:6-9) Judgment is coming.
Habakkuk makes his second plaintive outcry against the onslaught of social disorder. “Lord, are you not from everlasting? Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (Hab. 1:12-13) This is an old complaint that God has heard time and again before, common to human existence, stretching back to Job, the oldest book of the O.T. “Surely, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household. You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness.” (Job 16:7-8) The last book of the O.T. voices the same issue. “You have wearied the Lord with your words. ‘How have we wearied him?’ you ask. By saying, ‘All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’” (Mal. 2:17) Habakkuk is both impatient, and patient. “I will stand at my watch. I will look to see what he will say to me.” (Hab. 2:1) The prophet exemplifies the refining quality of long-suffering—the working out of faith and trust in difficult times.
In the N.T. we gain a more objective viewpoint. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.” (2 Pet. 3:9) This helps us understand God’s answer to Habakkuk. “The revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay . ” (Hab. 2:3) Peter further augments our understanding of the way in which God inexorably works out his purposes. “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Pet. 3:8)
Habakkuk will not live to see the social and cultural conditions of Israel, and in particular Judah, change for the better, for they do not. Neither will he see the Babylonian exile, nor will he be given a vision of Israel’s restoration from any of her three diasporas. But the urgency of his personal prayer is answered. Judgment will indeed come, both now on his people, and later on the Babylonian conquerors. But He is given this understanding of the ultimate blessing of God: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:14) And with this knowledge, he finds solace in his own circumstances. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength.” (Hab. 3:17-19)
Iniquity and lawlessness abound in all cultures at all times. It is the fate of fallen humankind. In our own time, we must consciously choose to live above the destruction of our peace that close contact with sin and rebellion brings. Paul says, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace . .” (Eph. 2:6-7)
It is our spiritual citizenship and existence in the heavenly realm that separates us from the effects of the world around us. This is the promised realm of the Spirit, and one of the fruits of this Spirit—an organic outcome of the life of faith—is forbearance, spoken of as “long-suffering.” (Gal. 5:22) This is to have *“a state of emotional calm in the face of provocation or misfortune and without complaint or irritation.”
Habakkuk’s final answer is also yours and mine. “The Sovereign LORD is my strength.” (Hab. 3:19)
Q. Am I able to suffer long without suffering loud?
*Louw Nida 25.166.
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