The human body is one of the most complex systems in existence. With its mind-boggling ability to process excessive amounts of information, protect and repair itself, course correct and compensate, I’m not sure we humans will ever grasp the sheer complexity of this divinely created machine as discoveries of the body still amaze us.
The book of Habakkuk presents us with its own mind-boggling complexity that perhaps we humans will also never fully grasp either––the complexity of God’s justice. Habakkuk certainly found himself struggling to understand God’s justice as he accuses God of not acting on behalf of Judah’s people experiencing injustice by the hands of their fellow men. “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?” (Hab 1:2; NIV). To Habakkuk, God is not doing anything! God seems absent, quiet, and inactive, so Habakkuk concludes that God must then tolerate wrongdoing (Hab 1:3).
This same complexity is seen in Revelation 6 when the martyrs cry out to God for justice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10; NIV). They were surprisingly told to wait as more martyred Christians were to join them. What? How can this be justice? God, are you going to coldly and uncaringly allow more Christian victims to be martyred? Why aren’t you doing anything to stop this? Must we conclude that God tolerates wrongdoing?
However, Habakkuk mistakes God’s silence as uncaring and cold inactivity, when actually God is being true to his very character, practicing patience towards those breaking his laws. God revealed his very character to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin…” (Exod 34:6–7; NIV). Most of this description God gives of himself is weighted towards God’s patient, gracious, and compassionate character. Because of this, God often doesn’t act in the way we believe he should act for he exhibits patience hoping that the sinful will repent and turn to him.
The irony in God’s response to Habakkuk’s questioning is that God has neither been inactive nor unmoving. In Habakkuk 1:5-6, God tells Habakkuk he is going to do something incredible in Habakkuk’s very lifetime, for God is raising up the Babylonians to come and sweep through Judah––capturing cities, houses, and peoples. God revealed he has already been actioning a just solution to the seen and heard cries of Judah’s injustice. Though God’s character is certainly one of compassion, Exodus 34:7 completes God’s self-description by saying, “…yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Exod 34:7; NIV). This graciously patient God exhibits his slowness to anger throughout the long history of both Israel and Judah’s disobedience and false worship, and yet God assures Habakkuk he will punish the wrongdoers who are practicing injustice in Judah. His punishment will come in the form of the Babylonian enemy.
Habakkuk is now presented with a second complexity of God’s justice. God uses wicked people and evil nations as his instrument to implement his earthly justice upon “lesser wicked” people! Wait a minute! The Babylonians are everything God despises as they are arrogant, worship their own strength, they desire violence, and are greedy for more and more wealth! So, you are telling me that the Babylonians will sweep in, destroy cities and their fortifications, seize the land, and gather up Judah, carrying them off as captives into exile like a fisherman gathers up and carries off fish with his nets (Hab 1:12–17; 2:4–5). How is this possibly just?
Certainly, this was not the correction for injustice that Habakkuk was expecting. Why such an extreme response? Is total destruction of Judah’s cities, land seizures, and exile really necessary? Couldn’t God just swip-swop godless leaders out and put in new leaders who would promote justice?[1]
Perhaps God knew something here that Habakkuk did not understand. Firstly, Judah is not innocent here or a “lesser evil” as Habakkuk believed. Judah had been living in rebellion to God for centuries and had been warned sufficiently in Deuteronomy 28:45–52 that if they continued to disobey the covenant, they’d eventually experience the covenantal curse of national destruction and exile. Secondly, a simple “changing of the guards” would not turn the heart of Judah’s people back to God. Been there, done that! Periodically in Judah’s history, a good king would seek to return Judah’s worship back to God, but the results were always temporary; upon the king’s death, the nation would revert to their wicked ways.
Smith reminds us that justice is the “world rightly ordered according to God’s revealed truth” and injustice is the “world not rightly ordered according to God’s revealed truth.”[2] A society with an overwhelming majority of unrepentant people will never mirror a just society in any way.[3] A simple correction of changing kings would not be enough to turn back Judah’s proud heart to God; however, losing everything and hitting rock bottom would bring about a humble spiritual revival (Isa 29).[4]
From our limited earthly perspective, it may seem like the wicked prosper at the expense of the righteous and that justice never prevails (Hab 1:4). We may be baffled by the times when God uses evildoers to cruelly punish innocent people, making us question if God is truly holy, compassionate, and good. Yet, God assures Habakkuk that a calamitous day of reckoning is coming upon the wicked nation of Babylon, whom he pronounces five woes over, as they will be held accountable for their ruthless treatment of the nations.
Yet this revelation brings about a third complexity of God’s justice. One cannot help but be reminded of Pharoah, whom God hardened his heart (Rom 9:14–18) and used as a tool against God’s very own people, and yet God did not let Pharoah’s wicked treatment of Israel go unpunished. Through a series of plagues that struck the very heart of Pharoah’s household and with a mighty act of divine victory, God justly brought destruction upon the Egyptians. This God, who can utilize the wicked’s evil deeds for his purposes and yet not allow the wicked to go unpunished for these same evil deeds, confounds our understanding, adding to the complexity of God’s justice (Rom 9:19–23).
Despite these three complexities of God’s justice, Habakkuk helps us set our gaze toward the day when ultimate justice will be fully established in the eschaton––a day when all wrongs will be righted, all guilty will be punished and held accountable for their actions, when Satan and sin are struck the final blow, and when martyrs will be vindicated and rewarded (Rev 20:4). Only then will the world be completely ordered according to God’s revealed truth and a truly just society will be realized in this return to Eden (Rev 20–21). Perfect justice will never be an earthly reality but can only be a heavenly reality.
After questioning and being answered by God, Habakkuk’s initial cries of, “How long?” (Hab 1:1; NIV), turned into a submissive conclusion of, “I will wait patiently” (Hab 3:16; NIV). Habakkuk neither had all his questions answered, nor did he walk away fully grasping the complexity of God’s justice, but what changed was a renewed awe of God (Hab 3:1) and a humbled heart’s posture (Hab 3:16–19).
Likewise, I cannot claim that I perfectly understand the movements of God and the reasons for his actions, but I know the day of final judgement will come as promised. It will not delay. And like Habakkuk concluded, I choose to rest patiently and wait for God’s judgment, which he assures will certainly come, trusting God cannot be untrue to his very character. I may not be able to fully grasp the complexities of God’s justice, just like I will never fully grasp the complexities of this incredible human body, but I can trust that this God, who created the heavens and the earth (Job 38-41), knows best. He is God, and I thank God that I am not.
Sources:
[1] Kevin G. Smith, SATS Daily Devotions, audio recording, South African Theological Seminary, Johannesburg, October 3, 2024.
[2] Kevin G. Smith, SATS Daily Devotions, audio recording, South African Theological Seminary, Johannesburg, September 26, 2024.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Smith, SATS Daily Devotions, October 3, 2024.
Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent the views of SATS.