Habakkuk is grappling with the age-old problem of evil: How can a good and just God allow evil to persist on the earth? The thing that Habakkuk is particularly concerned with here is why God would use an evil nation like the Babylonians to judge a less evil nation like Judah. He can’t see how this could fit into the plan of a good God. In some sense God answers Habakkuk but not enough to completely remove the mystery of God’s ways. And that’s important. How certain things can fit into the plan of God is an issue that we will all struggle with at some time in our life. There are many things that happen which we find impossible to reconcile with what we know about God. The fact is, however, we understand very little about God. We are not meant to live our lives based on understanding how the plan of God works out in its details. God’s central message to Habakkuk is that quoted by Paul as his central idea in Romans (Romans 1:17 Cf. Habakkuk 2:4): “The righteous will live by faith.” The problem of evil arose in the world precisely because people lived their lives based on their own understanding and intuitions. To walk in God’s ways you have to be willing to follow God’s lead without understanding things. That is what it means to live by faith. As the proverb says: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Are you willing to suspend understanding to live by faith when required?
What do you need to trust God with today?
Read Habakkuk 2
