Habakkuk
Faith and Doubt
Week of Monday, August 5, 2002
When I finished grad school in 1985, the job market for PhDs in
theology was horrible, so I was very thankful even to get a job. But it
was at a tiny college that paid a pittance, so I moonlighted at a local
Presbyterian church for extra income. My job as a part-time pastor was to
do home visitation, and although I always felt like my task was a little
invasive, I was pleasantly surprised how much people appreciated a home
visit from their church, how much I learned, and how much I enjoyed it.
I will always remember my very first home visitation in the summer
of 1986. The parishioner, Jan, had just lost her husband, her two sons,
her father, an uncle, and a nephew in a single boating accident on a lake
in Minnesota. Six people perished in a freak storm on what had been their
annual fishing trip. What was I as a pastor supposed to say to Jan? What
would you have said as a Christian?
Something like this is what the prophecy of Habakkuk is about,
although he laments not a personal, private tragedy but instead a national
tragedy that calls into question God's entire plan of salvation for
Israel. Scholars call this a “theodicy”, from the two Greek words theos
(God) and dike (righteousness). In its briefest form the problem of
theodicy is the apparent contradiction of affirming the following three
propositions: God is all powerful, God is all loving, and evil exists.
That is, if God is all powerful, then He surely has the power to prevent
evil, and if He is wholly loving, then it would seem from a human
perspective that He would want to end suffering. Nevertheless, horrible
suffering still exists. If you are willing to forfeit one of the three
statements, then the apparent contradiction is gone; but that is precisely
what a Christian refuses to do. We do not deny that God is all powerful
or all good, or that evil exists (Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science is
an exception on this third point).
Habakkuk stands at the threshold of Judah's demise; her hour is
not far off. Like Jonah, his prophecy is not really to anyone, and it is
not really a prophecy in the normal sense of that word. Rather, it is more
of an autobiographical account of his deep struggle to understand the
problem of evil as he was experiencing it. Habakkuk has two questions for
Yahweh.
First, he cannot understand why Judah has fallen into such
corruption and God seems not to answer or do anything about it. “The
wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice never prevails” (1:4). In
the face of evil and despite his prayers for God to do something, He
remains silent, aloof, not answering his prayers. Why does He not
intervene? Yahweh answered Habakkuk; but it was not what he expected or
wanted to hear. Contrary to outward appearances, God is not a silent and
passive spectator. “I am working,” said Yahweh, “I am going to do
something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were
told” (1:5). That's an understatement, because what Yahweh was about to do was
to use the pagan, ruthless Babylonians to destroy His own elect Israel.
That answer led to a second, deeper complexity on the part of
Habakkuk. How can God use such a wicked instrument to punish His
righteous people? Where is the moral calculus in that? “O Lord, you have
appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to
punish.” How can Yahweh tolerate these treacherous and cruel Babylonians?
Why is He silent when these pagans swallow up His own people who are more
righteous (2:12–13)? What, in short, is going on here? Yahweh responds
that Babylon will get its due, and thus pronounces five woes upon them
(2:6, 9, 12, 15, 19). Nor, of course, do they know that they are His
instrument.
At this Habakkuk records one of the most encouraging expressions
of faith in all of Scripture. He says that he will stand his ground, he
will watch and wait (2:1). In contrast to Babylonian arrogance, Yahweh
reminds him that “the just shall live by faith” (2:4). Good enough,
Habakkuk responded, but it all made his heart pound and his lips quiver.
“Decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait
patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading
us” (3:16). Who cannot love such candor, transparency and honesty?
The problem of evil is probably one of the two greatest
complexities for a Christian to experience and think about (the other
one, in my mind, has to do with the world religions). Habakkuk reminds us
of several important truths that have parallels in other parts of
Scripture.
Habakkuk reminds us that there will be times when we do not
understand everything. Paul reminded us that often we can only see
“through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Now we have, at best, a
partial and faulty knowledge of things. I think this is why Saint
Augustine once remarked that sometimes we must rest “patiently in
unknowing.” There are some things that do not admit answers and that we
will never understand this side of heaven.
Next, somehow and some way, it is simply true that sometimes God
uses something evil, painful or unpleasant—like the invasion of His
elect Judah by pagan Babylon—to make and do something good. There are
two other key passages that remind us of this Biblical truth. First,
Joseph was sold by his own brothers, who really intended to kill him, but
when he finally met his brothers again he assured them, “Don't be afraid.
Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”
(Genesis 50:20). Then, in the New Testament, Paul reminds us that in all
things, even things like those that bothered Habakkuk, “God works for the
good of those who love him.” Further, and even more importantly, says
Paul, nothing can ever separate us from His love (Romans 8:26, 28).
Most importantly of all, especially for those of us with
such an abiding sense of entitlement, Habakkuk writes that his faith and
trust in God do not depend upon a favorable outcome.
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 Savior. (3:17–18)
Recall Daniel when he was about to be thrown into a furnace of fire, and
his response to King Nebuchadnezzar: God can deliver us, but even if He
does not we will worship Him and not your idols (Daniel 3:17–18). In the
very same chapter of Acts 12, James is beheaded whereas Peter obtains a
miraculous escape. But either outcome, says Habakkuk, should find us
exercising faith.
There is so much more to say about this important subject. We
might explore how pain is “God's megaphone” (CS Lewis) to grab our
attention, how suffering can build character (James 1:2ff), how our
present sufferings pale in comparison to our future glory (Romans 8:18),
how the Psalms encourage us to bring our tears and emotions to God rather
than to suppress them (cf. Psalm 73), or how Jesus Himself is the
Suffering Servant who has experienced our every weakness and so encourages
us to come to Him boldly “for grace to help in time of need”
(Hebrews 2:14–18, 4:14–16). But at the end
of the day, Habakkuk says it all in
just seven words: “The righteous will live by his faith” (2:4).
The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself
Copyright ©2002 by Dan Clendenin. All Rights Reserved.
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