When injustice seems to prevail
The world we live in can be quite disheartening. From corrupt political leaders, to racial injustice, to the cries of the unborn whose blood has been spilt in the millions, we can easily find ourselves disillusioned living in a society that perverts good and champions evil. Sometimes this frustration can lead to our questioning God, wondering where He is in the midst of the darkness. “God, do you even care?” we sometimes think. “Do you not see that the wicked are getting away with it?” our hearts cry out. In the Bible we find one of God’s prophets who feels this way, and in the book of Habakkuk his laments to God are found, but with an interesting twist—God actually responds to him.
At the heart of both ours and Habakkuk’s question is this: “God, why do you allow evil and suffering?” What’s God’s answer? He doesn’t say it is because He would like to stop it, but is powerless to do so, nor does He say one man’s evil is another man’s good—God calls the evil for what it is. Instead, God explains to His prophet that He is using the evil for His purposes, and even if Habakkuk was told what those great purposes were, he wouldn’t believe it. What was God doing? For one, He was using the Babylonians to judge and purify His people for their many sins, but on a larger scale, God was working to destroy evil for good. In Habakkuk 2, verse 14, God says: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Right now, the earth is not filled with the glory of the Lord, but God promises us that this day is coming and so we are to wait patiently for it by faith. We are to trust God that evil will not get the last laugh and His timing is perfect. Yes, evil currently flourishes, but God is deeply aware of it and His plan is in motion to one day destroy evil for good.
Habakkuk lived many years before God’s plan of salvation in Christ was fully revealed to the world. Still, what God did reveal to Habakkuk turned the prophet’s sighing into singing, and chapter 3 records the prophet’s song. By faith Habakkuk trusts that God is good and His plan is perfect. By faith Habakkuk praises God and says that he will trust Him even if his circumstances are hard. By Faith Habakkuk trusts in God as the God of his salvation and he longs for the day when the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the water covers the sea.
Today, we know a lot more about God’s great and wonderful plan of salvation than Habakkuk did. Today, we look back at the cross knowing how far God was willing to go to end evil without ending us. On the cross, God came into the world in the person of Christ to face evil head on, by suffering and dying for us so that we might one day live forever with Him. Still, though evil often seems to flourish, like Habakkuk, by faith Christians trust that the day is coming when Christ will return and the glory of God will cover the earth as the water covers the sea. This is our glorious hope that enables us to face the darkness of our world with great confidence that evil and injustice will not prevail since the righteous glory of the Lord is coming!
