Is It Time Yet?
Read Habakkuk 1:1–3:19
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5. The Lord replied, “Look . . . and be amazed! For I am doing something . . . you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.
6. I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.
7. They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.
8. Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.
9. On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
10. They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them!
11. They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.” Habakkuk 1:5-11
To enjoy some good things we must wait. For instance, farmers must wait until the crop is ripe before harvesting it. Expectant parents must wait the full nine months for their child to develop before they can enjoy a relationship with him or her. And employees must wait for the coffeemaker to finish brewing before they can enjoy that first cup at the office.
Justice is no different. In this reading, Habakkuk struggles with waiting for God to deal justly with the wicked. But through his struggle he learns two important lessons: patience and trust. He also encounters God and is blessed by his presence. By the end of this book, Habakkuk’s outlook on life is remarkably different, and he no longer asks God if the time for justice has come yet.
Habakkuk was disturbed that evil and injustice seemed to have the upper hand among his people (Habakkuk 1:3). Habakkuk questioned God about the situation and pleaded with him to do something. God promised that he would. God assured him that all would be put right. “Wait patiently,” he said (2:3).
Like Habakkuk, we often feel angry and discouraged by what we see going on in the world. But we need to remember that God hates sin even more than we do. Certainly God will punish those who deserve it. If we preoccupy ourselves with the evil we see, however, and keep staring at headlines that mention rape and murder and watch the news programs that expose the latest scam, then we will continue to be frustrated and angry. But if we refuse to dwell on the evil in this world and trust God to deal justly with the wicked, then we will be able to wait for him to bring about justice.
