Habakkuk 1:5–17 (KJV)
Habakkuk asked God how long He was going to let violence and injustice continue. Then God answered, and somehow the answer made things harder:
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. (Habakkuk 1:5)
It’s a beautiful-sounding verse when it stands alone. You may have heard it quoted before a new opportunity or a breakthrough, something so wonderful only God could have done it. But keep reading: “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation” (v. 6). The unbelievable work was Babylon. God was raising up a violent empire to bring judgment on Judah. When Paul quotes this verse centuries later, he uses it as a warning (Acts 13:41).
Habakkuk had asked, Why aren’t You doing anything about the evil I see? God’s answer was essentially, I am doing something, and it looks nothing like what you expected. That’s a harder place to stand. We assume an answer from God will resolve our confusion, but sometimes the answer creates a new question. The plan you were sure God would preserve changes anyway, or you pray for relief and find yourself enduring something longer than you expected. And the prayer shifts from, God, why aren’t You doing anything? to, God, why are You doing it this way?
Habakkuk doesn’t pretend God’s answer makes sense to him. He asks how a holy God could use Babylon, a nation more wicked than Judah, as an instrument of judgment. But notice what he does before he asks: “Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die” (v. 12). That order matters. Habakkuk begins with what he knows, You are from everlasting and You are my Holy One, before he wrestles with what he doesn’t understand. He even finds a thread of hope in the same breath. We shall not die.
He doesn’t say, Babylon is coming, so maybe God is no longer holy. He starts with God’s holiness and then asks how what he sees fits with what he knows. That’s a discipline we need. When an outcome confuses you, go back to what God has already revealed about Himself before you start interpreting Him through the outcome. He is still good when the answer hurts, and still God when you can’t follow the logic.
Then Habakkuk says, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (v. 13). That line is sometimes used to teach that God is literally unable to look at sin. But read the rest of the same verse: “wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?” In one breath Habakkuk says God can’t look on evil, and in the next he asks why God is looking at it. His question is moral, not visual. How can a holy God who never approves of evil appear to tolerate Babylon’s treachery?
Scripture lets that question stay on the page. We often rush to defend God before we’ve finished telling Him what we don’t understand. Habakkuk speaks honestly, but his honesty stays tethered to who God is. There’s a difference between saying, God, I don’t understand how this fits with Your goodness, and deciding, Because I don’t understand this, You must not be good. One is faith wrestling. The other lets our limited view become the final authority on God’s character.
In Christ, you have even more to anchor to than Habakkuk did. You’ve seen what God did with the darkest answer in history, a cross that looked like defeat on the day it happened. Before you read God through your outcome, read your outcome through Him.
Healthcare training will hand you plenty of moments when the method doesn’t make sense. You may do the responsible thing and still get the outcome you feared, or watch a patient deteriorate despite excellent care. Faith doesn’t require you to call those things easy. Habakkuk certainly didn’t. But when the answer is harder than the silence, anchor yourself before you interpret it. Before you say, God has abandoned me, ask whether He ever said that. Before you build a theology from the outcome, begin where Habakkuk began: O LORD my God, mine Holy One.
You may not understand the answer yet, and you may still need to ask another question. But confusion doesn’t get to decide who God is.
Reflect
Has God ever answered a prayer in a way that created more questions instead of fewer?
What truth about God’s character do you need to settle before interpreting your current circumstances?
Are you asking God honest questions, or have you already decided what His actions must mean about Him?
Prayer
Holy God, there are answers I understand and answers that leave me with more questions. When Your ways confuse me, keep me from rebuilding Your character around what I can see in one moment. You are from everlasting, and You are still my God. Give me grace to ask hard questions without letting them become accusations against what You have already revealed about Yourself. Hold me steady when Your answer isn’t the one I expected. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Before You Go
Write down the situation you’re struggling to understand. Underneath it, write what Scripture has already taught you about who God is, then ask your question again from underneath those truths. You don’t have to pretend the answer makes sense yet. Just refuse to let the circumstance become your definition of God. In the comments, tell us: what’s one truth about God you’re standing on while you wait to understand? And if someone you know received an answer they’re struggling to make sense of, send this to them.