After the death of the godly king Josiah in 609 BC Judah spiralled into a state of terrible corruption. Habakkuk is pained by this internal corruption accompanied as it was by terrible injustices and cries out to God. He asks why God tolerates wrongdoers. God then announces that he is going to raise up Babylon to destroy Judah. That compounds the problem for Habakkuk who wonders why God would destroy an evil nation by using a more evil nation. Here is the message that emerges from this unusual prophetic dialogue. Evil always destroys evil. It’s a ‘dog-eat-dog world’ they say. God’s response to Habakkuk is, in effect, that he is going to let the dogs out to eat each other. Everyone who plays worldly power games dies in the game. No one survives. And that’s the way God wants it, because he hates this game. So, God allows the cycle of destruction to continue. Those who play the game die by the rules of the game. So don’t be perturbed by those who win, just make sure you don’t join the game. Because in the end everyone loses; all the dogs get eaten. Habakkuk’s exhortation is, again, the same as that of the psalmist in Psalm 37:1-3: “Do not fret because of evil men or envy those who sin; for like the grass they will wither soon, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good” (Psalm 37:1-2).
Are you competing for worldly success?
Read Habakkuk 1
