HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1200
Habakkuk
“ W H Y ? ” Anyone who has children hears that question dozens of
times, sometimes dozens of times in a single day. “Why are you doing
this?” “Why did you say that?” “Why does this happen?” “Why, why,
why?” Simple, childlike curiosity seeks answers. Wise parents help to
satisfy the curious mind.
What you will be
Habakkuk was like a curious child, except his
reading about
“why” questions were more than growing curiosity. Habakkuk saw injustice eating away at the
1:1-17
Habakkuk questions
fabric of Judah, where he lived. Maybe he was
God
frustrated that his own efforts to call people to
2:1- 20
right living were ignored, or even ridiculed. So
God explains his ways
Habakkuk asked God about it.
to Habakkuk
His first question is simple: “Why, Lord, do you
3:1-19
not punish this injustice?” God responds that he
Habakkuk’s prayer of
will punish it. In fact, he is already preparing the
praise
wicked Babylonians to be his agents of punishment. God will use them to inflict punishment on his people.
But this stirs Habakkuk’s questioning deeper. “Why, Lord, would you use
the wicked Babylonians to punish Judah?” Even at its worst, Judah was not as
wicked as Babylon. Was it right for God to use a wicked instrument to punish
people who weren’t as bad as they were? How could a just God allow a wicked
nation and people to prosper? Again, God answers Habakkuk. The Babylonians
are temporary agents of punishment. They, too, will be punished for their evil,
maybe not as quickly as Habakkuk would like. But judgment would come. All
sin is judged by God.
Habakkuk was not afraid to boldly ask God questions, and he never doubted
that God had the answers. Who among us has not asked why? Why do evil
people prosper? Why do they seem to enjoy life more than I do? Why do they
seem to have all the money? Why do good people suffer when wicked people
seem to escape?
Don’t be afraid to address your questions directly to God. But when you ask,
expect to receive a whole new understanding of the way he works in your life.
God knows what’s going on in the world. He declared to Habakkuk, “The righteous will live by their faithfulness to God” (2:4). God knows it takes faith to
trust him to have a plan when the pieces don’t seem to fit, to make things right
when they don’t seem to make sense. Remember that God may temporarily
allow evil people to prosper, but it is not an enduring or permanent prosperity.
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