Habakkuk

Tuesday, 20 October 2020
12:00 am 12:01 am 00:00 00:01

Google Calendar ICS

How long, Lord?

Read

Listen

Every day we’re asking four questions about part of the Bible. Today Helen Leckie answers:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Habakkuk is one of my favourite books. I chose to read it as a teen, new to being serious about my faith – initially because it had a funny name and it was short. But it surprised me at the time with how relevant it was to my growing faith at the time, and how relevant it is now.

Habakkuk continues to inspire me with how bold he is, and how he dares to challenge the Lord with questions about why God is allowing suffering. These are questions I was asking myself at the time, and still ask to some extent.

The problem of suffering is a reason often given not to believe in a loving, all-powerful and all-knowing creator. And if we want to be authentic in our faith it is not a topic we can shy away from.

I love that Habakkuk has the courage to express the anguish in his heart about the injustice of the world.

‘Why do you make me look at injustice?
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.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:3-4)

And I love that God answers. Of course, it’s not the answer Habakkuk is hoping for. ‘Don’t worry, the injustice you see will be punished – I’m bringing up a really cruel empire who is going to defeat your nation’ (my paraphrase!). Erm, thanks God, sorry I asked… I love that Habakkuk doesn’t stop there but comes back to the Lord asking why he can ‘tolerate the treacherous’ (1:13) conquerors who will be defeating the Jews. And God’s answer comes again! Perhaps it’s not as specific as the first answer, but it is reassurance that God sees all the evil that is done in the world, and that he will deal with it, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (2:13).

I love Habakkuk's response to God as well '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 Saviour' (3:17-18) Habakkuk has faith that God will fulfil his promises and is able to wait. I also love that he calls God 'Saviour' - he obviously doesn't do it in the same way we call Jesus our saviour, but in the sense that God will eventually rescue him and his nation from those evildoers who seem to be getting away with everything in this world.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

Habakkuk shows me that I can bring my doubts to God – it can seem sacrilegious to tell God that I think he is being unfair, or to ask how life circumstances or events in the Bible fit in with God’s character and promises. But God is bigger than my doubts. I am not going to break God by questioning him. God is not going to stop loving me if I question him. If I am going to bring my whole self to God, that includes the part of me that questions and doubts and wants to understand. I might not get the answer I want, but I want to be able to praise God through it.

It also tells me that God sees all that goes on in the world – there is so much pain and suffering all around us, now as in Habukkuk’s day. He hasn’t forgotten us and he will intervene.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

This book isn’t a complete answer to why God lets injustices continue, but it’s a start, and it’s an encouragement to me to keep talking to God about parts of the Bible that seem cruel to me, or about people who are suffering. In the Bible app on my phone I highlight passages in red that I find hard to equate with a loving God and what I know of Jesus’s life and lessons. This book is an encouragement to go back to those passages and bring them to God, and read more around them rather than skimming over them next time I get to that part of the Bible.