Do you sometimes get frustrated? If so, you’re not alone. The prophet Habakkuk did! The golden days for Israel when King David and King Solomon ruled a united and prosperous nation were long gone. The nation had split in two and was held in scorn by its powerful neighbours. But what was worse, it had lapsed into heathen practices.
Habakkuk was in a minority of those who still held to the old truths of God’s revelation to Abraham and Moses, but it was hard to be a servant of Jehovah. Everywhere he looked there was violence and corruption in church and state. Justice and honesty were regarded as being old-fashioned. Habakkuk could stand it no longer! There was a pressure building up in his spirit and like a volcano which suddenly erupts, Habakkuk’s frustration exploded into words which astonished his hearers, "O Lord", he cried, "how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?" (1:2). It’s almost an accusation of God’s indifference, but in reality it was a confession of the prophet’s momentarily wavering faith.
I’m sure Habakkuk felt better after his probing, perhaps impertinent question to his God - at least it relieved the tension! Faith in God is a developing experience and its pathway sometimes comes across rough stretches when hard questions have to be asked. Habakkuk asked this question of God, not because he didn’t ultimately trust God, but because he was honest before him. Faith is all about relationship, and for a relationship to survive it must be real. God has no time for those who are merely acting a part in their religion - Jesus called those people hypocrites. So, if we are believers, we must be honest; and if we are honest there will be times when there will be questions to ask, even doubts to express. Habakkuk had his.
The problem that nagged Habakkuk is one that confronts all believers in God. Why does God allow evil to continue? In Habakkuk’s time it took the form of God’s apparent inactivity in a world of increasing wickedness. This is how Habakkuk summed it up: "the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails" (1:4). It’s the old problem that the Christian finds hard to answer: Why does the wicked prosper and always gets away with it and God never seems to intervene? Why does God tolerate the false religions and cults? Why does he permit the tremendous inequalities that exist in the world? The famine, the suffering? If we want modern day examples we have only to think of Darfur in Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Why didn’t God appear to be listening to Habakkuk’s cry for help? Was God unmoved by the injustice and wrongdoing? Why, oh why?
But then a word from the Lord comes to Habakkuk telling him that he is to "look among the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed." (1:5). God was working out Habakkuk’s problems even as he uttered his words. How? God’s solution was in a most unexpected means. It was through the invading army of the Chaldeans, poised to sweep through the countries of the whole region, including the Assyrians who were the traditional enemies of Israel.
We must never underestimate the power of God. In the last decades we’ve seen how the Communist regimes have crumbled. I stayed at a hotel in Monaco and was surprised to see a chunk of the infamous Berlin Wall as part of its decorations! It seemed impossible that the cruel East German regime could collapse almost overnight and the same happened with the Soviet Union - but they did! God went on to say to Habakkuk, "I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told" (1:5). Let’s never lose hope of seemingly impossible situations - God can do it again and again! He can do it in this Church; he can do it in our lives.
God’s message startled Habakkuk and his people, but eventually what had been predicted was confirmed by travellers from the East. The Chaldeans were the rising force and what terrible stories were told of their brutality and ruthlessness. But it posed a problem: how could a holy God consider using such unholy and idolatrous instruments to do his will? Habakkuk puts the question like this: "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?" (1:13). It’s a good question!
Habakkuk looked at this problem but he could see no light. He was faced with the fact that God was going to take up those appalling Chaldeans, people altogether worse than his own nation, and was going to use them for his own purpose. God sometimes uses evil people to accomplish His purposes. But He never condones evil, and those who do evil He holds accountable for their actions.
Habakkuk just couldn’t understand it, nor reconcile it with God’s holiness. But he could and did take the problem to God. I remember reading about a theological student who was puzzled by so many things in the Bible and the Christian faith. He was constantly pestering the principal of his college and in the end he was told, "My friend, you really will have to let God know some things that you don’t!"
At times like this we can take to heart the words of William Cowper’s hymn, "God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform." We may not understand his ways, but the person of faith will say "Amen". Habakkuk had a living faith in God and he was prepared for the possibility that his questions would not be answered. Faith asks, then waits and listens.
Habakkuk is known as "the prophet of the Watchtower". This is taken from his own words, "I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what God will say to me" (2:1). An answer came, but it wasn’t the answer to what had been asked. It was a word from the Lord that went to the root of his problem. It separated the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the evil, and pointed the way forward to eternal values - "The righteous will live by his faith" (2:4), or as the apostle Paul translated in writing to the Romans, "The just shall live by faith" (1:17).
Paul is telling us that the Gospel of God is that “those who are righteous by faith shall live.” “When it comes to salvation, our faith in Jesus is not our righteousness. Faith is simply the instrument by which we receive forgiveness of sin and Christ’s righteousness. It is His righteousness that puts me right with God, but it comes through faith” (D Martyn Lloyd Jones). Having been saved through faith in the Cross of Christ, how shall we live?
God’s answer to life’s problems don’t come in the form of neatly pre-packaged solutions, like strips of shrink-wrapped capsules labelled for each anxiety we have - health, wealth and happiness. Like Habakkuk we can only stand, watch and wait, knowing that God’s revelation will come to us at his appointed time.
A traveller in Africa was going through the jungle with a guide when he complained, "There is no road, no path in this jungle; we have lost our way." The guide replied, "There is no way. I am the way." He knows this jungle through and through. God knows what life is all about. He is bigger than all the problems we face. He is with us, he is committed to us. We can go through the darkness with confidence because He will see us through.
We don’t know how long Habakkuk had to stand in his watchtower and wait for his particular answer. It could well have been over a long period. But notice his determination and persistence: "I will look to see what he will say to me" (2:1). He was prepared to seek God for as long as it would take. Habakkuk was a man of faith. He had a problem, yes, but he asked the right question, and he was going to look for the answer from the true source of knowledge until the answer came.
When we’re faced with some situation, let’s be sure to follow Habakkuk’s example of climbing into the watchtower of faith, and like him, station ourselves there for a long watch if need be, and wait expectantly to see what God has to speak into the situation. It will take time. Things of lesser importance will have to be sacrificed, but how worth while when the answer comes.
God, of course, may answer in a number of different ways. For instance, you can expect God to answer as you read his Word, for it is the commonest way of all in which he does this. As you are reading Scripture, suddenly a verse seems to leap out of the page, and a strange and wonderful light is cast on your problem. When that happens say to yourself, "This is the Word of the Lord", and then watch and wait for the answer.
God may answer directly in our spirits. Habakkuk said he was watching to see what God "will say to me", in fact "in me". God can so lay something on the mind that we have an inner conviction that it is the answer. He can impress something in our spirits in an unmistakable manner. We find ourselves unable to get away from an impression that is on our mind and heart. Try as we might to get rid of it, back it comes. That could well be the Spirit of God speaking to us.
Then again God sometimes answers our prayers by so providentially ordering our circumstances and the day-to-day happenings of our lives, that it’s plain what God is saying. If we are looking for guidance we may see ahead of us a whole series of possible doors, but which one is for us? If God is sovereign then he is in control and we may be sure that if we humbly seek his will and purpose he will not lead us up a cul-de-sac. He will shut fast the doors that we should avoid and leave open the particular door that will lead in the direction of his choosing. God often allows obstacles to arise, perhaps as a test of faith, but be sure that there is a planned way ahead. The point is that we must be looking for the answer: Habakkuk was and he was rewarded.
Habakkuk’s probing is a dialogue. There is question and answer. We read, "And the Lord answered me, ‘Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so that he may run who reads it’" (2:2). Habakkuk is telling us that God has revealed a truth to him. Certainly it came to Habakkuk through his thought processes, but it was more than a mere insight into the religious and political situation of the day. It was a revelation. It was what the New Testament apostle Peter would call "a more sure word of prophecy" (2 Peter 1:19).
The vision Habakkuk received from the Lord was important and it had to be made known. He was told to make it plain. What a word to all whom have the responsibility to teach others - the young or the adult. The message was to be inscribed on tablets so that it could be clearly read and understood. This reminds me of the saying that most people do not read Scripture but they do read the lives of those who do. How important it is that our lives tell a message that cannot be misunderstood.
And now we come to the center piece of the vision, "He whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith" (2:4). What does it mean that "the righteous ... live by faith"? The truth of these words is that there are only two possible ways of life in this world: that of faith and that of unbelief. The way of the world is to ignore God’s revelation of himself as a God of holiness and justice who cannot tolerate sin. On the other hand, the way of faith is the guiding principle in life for those who seek to please God. Faith is the basis on which they stand, and faith is the principle by which they live.
In practical day to day life: what is meant by "faith"? Faith means taking the Word of God and acting on it because it is the Word of God. It means believing what God says simply and solely because God has spoken. But the faith that Habakkuk spoke of was more than something in the mind; it had to be expressed by the heart as well. The righteous are those who live by faith. In other words, it means basing the whole of our life upon faith in God - faith in Jesus as our Saviour; faith in our heavenly Father as our Provider; and faith in the Holy Spirit as our source of Spiritual Power.
What does living by faith mean today? It means deciding what is the controlling principle in our lives. Is it luck or chance? Some years ago I had just parked my car at the office and a lady came up to me and said, "That’s a nice car but I wouldn’t want to drive it!" I was rather puzzled and asked "Why not?" "Well" she said, "it’s green, and what’s more the registration number adds up to 13!" Fancy life being governed by superstition! I’ve still got the same registration number! It begs the question - what influences us? Is it fate of faith? Is it worldly wisdom? Or is it the Word of God, warning us that this life and this world are things that will pass away and both of them are merely a preparation for the world to come? Now this doesn’t mean that we have to turn our backs entirely upon life and become hermits. But it does mean that we must get our priorities right: "Seek first the kingdom of God," said Jesus.
Habakkuk had learnt that there was more to life than having difficult questions answered. If his soul was right with God the issues that troubled him would fall into place or could be lived with. But theory must be translated into practice. The Christian must continue to persevere in his faith to the end. I read of a man who went on a course and talked very enthusiastically about it on returning to work. His boss rather stopped him in his tracks when he said, "Don’t tell me what you learnt; tell me what you are going to do differently!"
God longs for us to join Habakkuk as watchman, to be honest before him in our questioning, to hear God’s voice through Scripture and the circumstances of life, to believe that God will indeed work his purposes out although we may not fully understand his ways. Habakkuk began with a wail of despair but through prayer and the word of His God, he ends the book with a shout of confidence: “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my Saviour” (3:18). He begins with an inquiry but ends with an affirmation of trust in God. We can trust God in spite of appearances because He has established a flawless record of faithfulness to His promises.
Habakkuk’s experience is a journey from ‘near despair to liberation’; from ‘prayer to praise’ and from ’why? to worship’. Habakkuk calls us by his example. Are we willing to follow?
