Scripture Notes: Why, God? (Habakkuk)

The book of the prophet Habakkuk is quite different from the writings of other prophets. Habakkuk does not spend much time railing at people about their sins (although he is extremely conscious of them) or delivering messages of doom (although those stand in the background). Instead, Habakkuk is a prophet of questions. He asks, openly and honestly, “Why, God?” 

Why, God, does sin seem to go unpunished? Why do people still practice idolatry and injustice? Why aren’t they chastised? How can they get away with their crimes again and again?

God answers that the time will come. He will punish the sins of the people. He will bring chastisement down upon them. He will enact the covenant curses. Justice will prevail. But it will be in His own time and His own way. He has a plan, and while Habakkuk may not see the details or even understand what he does see, that plan is perfect.

God reveals some of His plan to Habakkuk: He will use the Babylonians to bring down punishment for the people’s sins. Habakkuk is horrified. Again, he asks, “Why, God?” The Babylonians are even more wicked than the Judahites. How could God allow such a thing, that a worse people conquers a better one?

God answers again. The Babylonians are merely His instrument. They, too, will be punished for their sins. God can and does use the tools He wills for His purposes, and His plan works out as He has determined it.

Habakkuk is satisfied, and he ends his book with a psalm of praise to God, the Divine Warrior, Who is perfectly just and perfectly loving and perfectly trustworthy and perfectly open to the question of “Why, God?”