Habakkuk was one of Israel’s prophets of old who had cause to petition God saying in Habakkuk 1: 2-4, quoting from verse 4, “So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous — therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
He did not understand why evil and injustices were done against the righteous by the less righteous and why the LORD had kept silent. He said in Habakkuk 1: 13, why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they? In the view or belief of Habakkuk the situation was contrary to God’s promises. In today’s world as old as the days of Habakkuk, the righteous are being persecuted in many ways by the ungodly. Do we petition or complaint?
Did God breach his covenant?
By a covenant, God had promised Abraham in Genesis 12: 3, I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God had also said in Joshua 3: 7, know that I will be with you as I was with Moses. He said in Jeremiah 24: 7, they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Similar promises were also written in Jeremiah 31: 1, 33; 32: 38; Ezekiel 11: 20; 14: 11; 37: 23, 27; Zechariah 8: 8.
For these and many other biblical references, Habakkuk felt he was right or justified. Unlike others who condemn God in their complaint, Habakkuk did not condemn God but rendered a humble petition to God to remember his promise. He said in Habakkuk 1: 2, O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Habakkuk’s petition was a reminder of God’s promise to save the righteous by grace through faith. This was different from the Israelites’ complaint in the wilderness against God.
What was the Israelites’ complaint?
In Numbers 20: 5; 21: 5, the Israelites complained, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? For condemning God in the complaint, the LORD in Numbers 21: 6 sent poisonous serpents among the people, and bit them, so that many of them died. Complaints that confront God’s wisdom is a grave sin with consequences. Although the Israelites in Numbers 21: 7 said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us” their confession had two setbacks.
Rather than personally asking for God’s pardon for their individual sins, they asked Moses to do it on their behalf without theirs. Their request was also to escape the serpents rather than a genuine reform so it was a conditional confession. God nevertheless answered them because Moses had a genuine heart. David wrote in Psalms 66: 18, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. What is the state of our hearts?
How God answered Habakkuk?
Habakkuk was reckoning the time of God’s intervention but God was waiting to honour his unfailing promise in his own perfect time. We cannot set performance time for God but we can fit into God’s plan and time. Habakkuk 1: 6-11 say God would use the Chaldeans to fight for Israel against their enemies worse than what their enemies had done to them. God is always ahead of us to fight for us. Time was not of essence for God to act but his assurance by grace.
God’s promise is unfailing but always honoured in perfect time. God said in Habakkuk 2: 3, for there is a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and it does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. What we term a delay is no delay to God. Habakkuk 2: 4 says, the righteous live by their faith. We are often hasty in gross disobedience and that offends God.
The boastfulness of our enemies
Habakkuk was worried about how the enemies of the Israelites were boastful over their ill-gotten wealth from the righteous. Sometimes people of the world prosper at the expense of the righteous. In truth, God did not call us into righteousness to make us wealthy but to prosper our souls in eternity. God gives us what is necessary, not in excess that will destroy us.
God said in Habakkuk 2: 5-9, wealth is treacherous. God concluded in Habakkuk 2: 20, but the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him! In our relationship with God, we must listen to him more than we speak to and/or over him. What is our attitude in prayer?
How to receive God’s assurance
Upon this assurance from God, Habakkuk rendered a prayer which we must all pray. He prayed in Habakkuk 3: 2, LORD in our own time revive your works; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy. He prayed for revival in every aspect of his life and in his time. Do we feel the need for revival in our lives?
Habakkuk wanted to taste God’s power and glory first hand for everyone to see. After Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego survived the furnace heated seven times over, everyone acknowledged God including King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3: 29.Habakkuk’s final prayer was that in wrath God may remember mercy. We cannot do without God’s mercy. We are restored by God’s mercy not by works, Jeremiah 42: 12. Christ Jesus said of God in Matthew 12: 7, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. What is our complaint to God and why?
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, we unwittingly complain rather than petitioning you for mercy and we are sorry. Help us to focus on your promise and not our time. Let us be content with what we have and not chase what our enemies have. Revive our joy in you even if we have nothing knowing that you are more than sufficient for us. In our oppression, teach us humility, patience and endurance in your holy name, Amen!!
