As we go through life, we often see wicked people be more successful in life than righteous people. Sometimes evil people persecute good people. This happens on an individual basis. Sometimes it happens in global politics. All of this appears to us to be wrong and unfair, and we wonder why Yahweh doesn’t bring justice. Sometimes we demand that God fix the inequity.
The book of Habakkuk contains two lessons for us regarding this inequity.
Watch the video to learn more or scroll down to read the transcript.
Transcript:
As we go through life, we often see wicked people be more successful in life than righteous people. Sometimes evil people persecute good people. This happens on an individual basis. Sometimes it happens in global politics. All of this appears to us to be wrong and unfair, and we wonder why Yahweh doesn’t bring justice. Sometimes we demand that God fix the inequity.
The book of Habakkuk contains two lessons for us regarding this inequity. First, life is not fair. Second, Yahweh works on a different time table than we do.
Habakkuk lived during a time when the Israelites were very sinful and idolatrous. Habakkuk started his oracle, known as the book of Habakkuk, by asking why Yahweh forced him to live amongst evil people and did not deliver him from the violence that threatened him.
Yahweh responded by telling Habakkuk that the Chaldeans, a bitter, hasty, and powerful people, were on their way. The implication was that Yahweh was planning to use the Chaldeans to punish the Israelites for their sins. At that time the Chaldeans were invincible. They were sure to beat the Israelites.
Unfortunately, the power of the Chaldeans was also their god, meaning they were just as idolatrous as the Israelites.
Hab. 1:12 ¶ Are You not from everlasting,
O Yahweh, my God, my Holy One?
We will not die.
You, O Yahweh, have placed them to judge;
And You, O Rock, have established them to reprove.
One of the challenges in understanding the Old Testament is following the pronouns. Starting with verse 12, the first person pronouns refer to Habakkuk. Habakkuk was speaking to Yahweh.
Yahweh is everlasting, and the Israelites were not going to cease to exist. Therefore, when Yahweh placed the Chaldeans as judge over the Israelites to reprove them for their idolatry, it appeared to be a permanent situation.
Hab. 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to see evil,
And You cannot look on trouble.
Why do You look
On those who deal treacherously?
Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up
Those more righteous than they?
Habakkuk objected that Yahweh’s method of dealing with the idolatry of His people was to allow a country that was even more sinful than God’s people to swallow up God’s people.
In our world today there are many occasions when wicked people triumph over good people. Many Christians wonder why Yahweh allows that to happen. It seems very unjust.
Hab. 1:14 And You have made men like the fish of the sea,
Like creeping things without a ruler over them.
Hab. 1:15 The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook,
Drag them away with their net,
And gather them together in their fishing net.
Therefore they are glad and rejoice.
Habakkuk used the illustration of fishing to describe what the Chaldeans were doing. The people of the nations were fish, and the Chaldeans were capturing nations with their nets. The strength of the Chaldeans and their army was their net. Then the Chaldeans rejoiced whenever they conquered a nation.
Hab. 1:16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net
And burn incense to their fishing net
Because through these things their portion is rich
And their food is fat.
The 11th verse of chapter one tells us the power of the Chaldeans was their god. Therefore, when they had military success, they gave the credit to themselves. They celebrated their own military prowess.
Hab. 1:17 Will they therefore empty their net
And continually kill nations without sparing?
Habakkuk wanted to know if Yahweh was going to allow the Chaldeans to do this indefinitely.
Today, we often wonder the same thing. We ask God if He is going to allow evil people to practice their evil for as long as they wish. The reason we ask that question is because we believe it is unfair for Yahweh to allow wicked people to survive and thrive.
minor break
In the English language we use punctuation and space to break long text down into smaller portions. In Biblical Hebrew they did not have punctuation, and writing materials were expensive so they didn’t leave blank space on a page. Instead they used letters to create breaks in the text. They had two letters they used. One indicated a major break and the other indicated a minor break.
Habakkuk inserted a minor break at this point in his book. In the verses before the break, Habakkuk was speaking to Yahweh. In the verse after the break, Habakkuk spoke to himself.
Hab. 2:1 ¶ I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the fortification;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me
And how I may respond when I am reproved.
The last word of verse 1 is reproved. Did Habakkuk know he was wrong and that he would be reproved by Yahweh? Or, was he afraid of being reproved because he believed Yahweh would justify Himself even if Yahweh was wrong for allowing the Chaldeans to triumph over God’s people?
Hab. 2:2 Then Yahweh answered me and said,
“Write down the vision
And write it on tablets distinctly,
That the one who reads it may run.
Habakkuk had a vision. Yahweh told him to write it down. I think the vision is what we will read in verses 4 through 8.
Hab. 2:3 For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It pants toward its end, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come; it will not delay.
Yahweh said the vision was for the appointed time. In other words the Chaldeans would see justice at some point in the future. Yahweh told Habakkuk to be patient.
Hab. 2:4 ¶ “Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith.
Yahweh drew a contrast between the Chaldeans and righteous people.
The proud one refers to the Chaldeans. Their soul was not right because of their wickedness. In other words it appeared the Chaldeans were getting away with sin, but their soul was not right, implying there would be eternal consequences for their actions, not necessarily earthly consequences.
On the other hand, righteous people are supposed to live by faith. Faith is believing in something unseen. Yahweh more or less acknowledged that life is not fair. Furthermore, He doesn’t even want life to be fair. Yahweh wants righteous people to follow Him even though life is not fair. When we are oppressed by wicked people, that tests our loyalty to Yahweh. It can strengthen our devotion to Him.
Hab. 2:5 And indeed, wine betrays the haughty man
So that he does not stay at home.
He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
And he is like death, never satisfied.
He also gathers to himself all nations
And assembles to himself all peoples.
The haughty man refers to the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans were never satisfied. They would continue to swallow up nations and people groups.
Hab. 2:6 ¶ “Will not all of these lift up a taunt-song against him,
Even satire and riddles against him
And say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his—
For how long—
And makes himself rich with loans?’
Yahweh assured Habakkuk that at some point in the future the conquered nations and people groups would taunt the Chaldeans.
The Chaldeans appeared to be successful, but they were making a mistake. They were gathering things that did not belong to them. The Chaldeans thought they were entitled to conquer, but they were not.
They were making themselves rich with loans. If a person borrows a lot of money, he can put all that money in the bank and appear to be rich. However, he really is not rich because he owes as much as he owns. Eventually the loans have to be repaid.
That is essentially what the Chaldeans were doing. That implied a day of reckoning would happen eventually.
Hab. 2:7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly,
And those who make you tremble awaken?
Indeed, you will become spoil for them.
Just as creditors can suddenly demand their money back, so too the nations and people groups who were conquered by the Chaldeans would one day rise up and turn the tables on the Chaldeans. Yahweh did not say when that would happen. Perhaps it would happen after the death of Habakkuk, meaning justice would take place, but Habakkuk would never see justice meted out.
Hab. 2:8 Because you have taken many nations as spoil,
All that is left of the peoples will take you as spoil—
Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,
To the town and all its inhabitants.
Major Break
The Chaldeans were ruthless. They shed blood and committed violence. Yahweh told Habakkuk that someday the Chaldeans would receive consequences for their actions.
Humans want life to be fair. We hate it when bad people triumph over good people. However, this passage in Habakkuk teaches us that life is not fair. We need to accept that.
Furthermore, God has a different perspective on time than we do. Humans live less than 100 years. If something doesn’t happen in our lifetime, we think it will never happen.
Yahweh, on the other hand, looks at a day as being a thousand years. When it appears to us that evil people are getting away with wickedness, that may not be the case. It may simply be a situation where Yahweh has not acted yet. Just because we don’t see justice take place doesn’t mean it will never take place.
The final fact we need to remember is that everyone will stand before God someday and give an account of their life. Wicked people may get away with sin on earth, but they will not escape the judgment seat. Perhaps Yahweh will not punish the wicked people who oppress us until after life here on earth. If that is what He chooses to do, we need to be okay with that.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”