Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
Habakkuk 1:12 O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—surely you do not plan to wipe us out?
O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins.
13 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?
14 Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader?
15 Must we be strung up on their hooks and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?
16 Then they will worship their nets and burn incense in front of them. “These nets are the gods who have made us rich!” they will claim.
17 Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?
Habakkuk is furious! The Babylonians are coming, and Habakkuk knows that once the Babylonians have conquered, they will praise their false gods for giving them victory. Why doesn’t God do something? Is Yaweh really the One True Living God or not? Is He really all-powerful and all-knowing, and if He is, why isn’t He intervening? Surely, the Israelites can’t be as evil as the Babylonians, can they? Will the Babylonians get away with this forever? Doesn’t God understand how evil the Babylonians are? Why isn’t God protecting His people? Why isn’t God confronting the Babylonians directly?
Viewing the situation from this end of history, we know that the Babylonian kingdom will eventually fall to conquest by the Medes and Persians. That kingdom will also eventually fall. God actually is protecting His people, and many of the most faithful will be swept away into Babylon, there to prosper as God promises in Jeremiah 29:4-14.
4 This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. 7 Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
8 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them. 9 For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the LORD.”
10 For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
What Habakkuk and the rest of the Israelites fail to realize is that God has a divine plan of salvation for the Babylonians just as much as He does for Israel. God’s ways are always higher than ours, and God is always working to accomplish far more than anything we can possibly imagine. If the exiles in Babylon will obey God’s commands as transmitted by Jeremiah, they will immediately begin interceding for the Babylonians and for every town in the Babylonian Empire. God longs to bring salvation to the Babylonians just as much as He does to the Israelites. God has never chosen Israel to the exclusion of other nations but to be light to these other people.
Several years ago, there was an excellent book written about evangelism entitled Out of the Salt Shaker and into the World. The title stems from Jesus’ teaching that believers should be salt, flavoring the society of all around them and maintaining that saltiness, that spiritual truth. While faithful believers are cowering in Jerusalem or complaining vociferously as they are led off to Babylon, God is already preparing places for these people to live and work in neighborhoods where they will be able to share their knowledge of the One True Living God. When salt remains in any container, it is worthless; it is only when salt is added to food or used in some other form that it assumes its true worth. When salt draws moisture, it forms lumps and can rapidly lose its flavor. When we as believers insist on huddling in churches and sticking together, we are just like that lumpy salt-we have lost our flavor.
It is a mistake to assume that those exiled from Jerusalem were chosen at random. While the Babylonians might have thought they were in charge of selecting those to be exiled, God was moving the Babylonians, using them to save those who had been calling on His Name and who had been appalled at the evil practices of their fellow citizens.
One Christian writer has observed that there are no coincidences in God’s economy but only God-incidences; God is in control at all times. Had the Jews not been carried off to Babylon, we would not have had the miracle stories of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or of Daniel with lions pacing around like tame house cats, purring at him.
Before Jesus was crucified and ascended into heaven, he warned the disciples that there would be many wars and rumors of wars, natural disasters, and plagues and famines before the end of time. Surveying current news reports, we might wonder how much worse things can get, and we might join our voices with Habakkuk to complain that God is taking too long to intervene. But God is still on the throne, and He is the One who knows the end from the beginning. Let us continue to praise Him, even when things appear bleak and our desires remain frustrated, for God will bring perfect solutions even if we don’t agree with them.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to continue to trust You even when we are tired of waiting for deliverance. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen
Burunche's Blog 
Leave a comment