National pride and patriotism are something most Americans have for their country. We are grateful for a democratic government, see the benefits of a capitalist economy, and believe America is a great place to live. But when those values in our country erode often people experience sadness and disappointment.
Habakkuk was struggling with a similar sadness and disappointment as he watched the godly values of Judah vanishing. Habakkuk’s neighbors, fellow priests, and political rulers were practicing wickedness and had abandoned God. Habakkuk tells God, “Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted” (Habakkuk 1:4).[1]
The “law” here is the Hebrew word, torah, which was the authoritative teaching of God’s Old Testament that revealed God’s will and was supposed to direct the life of God’s people in righteousness.[2] Bible teacher Taylor Turkington explains, “The word for ‘law’ here speaks to what should be ruling in society, the law of the land. It also speaks to God’s teaching for his people’s spiritual and moral formation.”[3] But apparently the law was “ignored” and had no effect on the people. The rulers were not administering justice to those that needed it. Corruption and lawlessness were everywhere. But how bad was it?
Habakkuk lived under King Jehoiakim[4] of Judah who killed innocent people who opposed him, refused to pay poor laborers (2 Kings 23:35-37; Jer 22:13-19), killed Uriah the prophet for prophesying that Jerusalem would fall (Jer 26:20-23), and burned the prophet Jeremiah’s hand-written prophecy (Jer 36). Furthermore, prophets and priests were known to commit adultery and abuse their authority under his rulership (Jer 23:1-2, 9-11).[5]
What we learn from reading Habakkuk 1:4 is that questions of evil and suffering should acknowledge we live in a fallen world. One of the modern Christian myths we need to extinguish is that if we become Christians all our problems will go away. When we become Christians our spiritual problem of separation from God is fixed, but there’s still the problem that we live in a fallen world. We live in a world that does not follow God’s laws and that is ruled under Satan’s program (John 12:31; 2 Cor 4:3-4). This means we need to acknowledge that the world in which we live in is sinful, and that sinful world pollutes our lives.
When things don’t go the way we think they should we need to remind ourselves that there is injustice in this world.
We need to remind ourselves that the sin of the Old Testament still effects us today. In the book of Genesis Adam and Eve committed the original sin (Gen 3), then Cain kills Abel (Gen 4), then God sends the Flood to wipe out the earth because of sin (Gen 6), then God disseminates the people because they were prideful wanting to build a tower to the heavens (Gen 11), then God wipes out Sodom and Gomorrah because of the sin there (Gen 18). That’s a lot of sin for only half of one book of the Bible! And if that’s not bad enough for you, read the book of Judges, 2 Kings, or Jeremiah.
Pain, evil, and suffering are the fault of the world we live in, not God. God gave us the freedom to make choices and a byproduct of that freedom means sometimes we make decisions that hurt us. Sometimes our choices hurt us, but those are easier to wrestle with because we know who to blame: us. But when other people’s decisions effect us negatively, those are the hard situations to endure.
Habakkuk was probably a priest in the temple that taught the Law, led singing (Hab 3:19), and enjoyed a good life in Jerusalem. But as we will learn from Habakkuk 1:5-11, God is going to send the nation of Babylon to punish Judah for their sins. Nothing Habakkuk has done has caused God’s punishment to come on Judah, yet Habakkuk still has to endure it.
When I lived in Texas I knew a guy who raised his daughter to love God and follow God. She graduated college and married a man that wanted to be a pastor. She supported him as he went to seminary and served in his first pastor position. But after he had been a pastor a few years he felt like he should be in the Air Force instead of being a pastor. Again she supported him and his decision to leave Christian ministry to join the Air Force and pursue his dream to be a pilot. Soon she found herself alone with their three kids while her husband was flying around the world in the Air Force with his female copilot. It wasn’t too much longer till the man announced he felt he wasn’t supposed to be married to his wife, instead he believed he was supposed to marry his female copilot. The woman I knew found herself divorced, alone, and caring for her three children while the ex-husband was flying around the world with his new wife.
May I say something clearly and directly? Nothing that woman did caused her to have to experience the hurt she has had to endure. She did everything right. She chose a spouse that loved God, she supported him through Seminary, she supported him as a pastor, she supported his dream to be a pilot in the Air Force, yet she was divorced and had to raise three kids by herself.
When we have questions about suffering like this we simply need to acknowledge that we live in a fallen world. It is not fair. It doesn’t feel right. When we see evil and suffering it’s okay to feel hurt, but we should not be surprised.
[1] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
[2] One Bible commentary notes, “When used in the singular without clear definition, as here, torah signifies God’s covenantal code established with Israel, given through Moses and set forth particularly in the book of Deuteronomy (e.g., Dt 1:5; 4:8; 17:18-19; 31:9; 33:4; Jos 8:31-32).” Carl E. Armerding, “Habakkuk,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel–Malachi (Revised Edition), edited by Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 8 (. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 611.
[3] Taylor Turkington, Trembling Faith: How a Distressed Prophet Helps Us Trust God in a Chaotic World (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2023), 21.
[4] Jehoiakim ruled in Judah 609-605 BC under Egypt’s oversight and 605-601 BC under Babylon’s oversight
[5] Adapted from J.K. Bruckner, “Habakkuk, Book of” in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets, edited by Mark Boda and J. Gordon McConville (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 294-301, specifically p. 296.