Habakkuk’s Complaint
Habakkuk’s complaint is but one of the places in the Bible where the writer complains about God. I have often said that if you do not have any discomfort with God, then you have probably made him into an idol conforming to what you want him to be.(This cannot be true) You likely did not do it on purpose. Our own hearts can deceive us.
I am a Christian. Why do I say we must have some discomfort? Well, we have all met many people in our lives, and if we look closely, we will find that which makes us uncomfortable in each one.
If God is real then he must have his own concerns and attitudes. He must have his own choice of behaviors. How could they possibly conform to all the biases that live within me? Let us face God as he really is. First, let us hear Habakuk:
How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
3 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.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk’s Complaint Gets Worse
Habakkuk is unhappy with God, and he honestly brings it to God. God does not bury this but puts it in the Bible. Habakuk goes on when he hears that the Babylonians will conquer Jerusalem.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
His complaints are all reasonable. We are people, and we see things like this and feel the wrong.
Sometimes, we are all wrong and finally need to go back and apologize to God. Other places, maybe only in heaven can we see enough to now God was always just and loving, We ought naught to deceive ourselves and say we are all comfortable with all that God does.
More than that, we must make sure that we are not changing God for God has not and will not change.
God does not apologize, but works to explain. God died on a Cross in Jerusalem. We can be confident that he cares about justice a lot more than we do. We can also be sure that he loves us more than we love him.
