Wait… justice is coming! (Habakkuk 1:5-2:20)
God’s ways are higher than ours. His providence in governing a world of injustice and violence often perplexes us. In response to the prophet Habakkuk’s complaint (1:1-4) that the Lord does not do anything in the face of violence and injustice, the Lord replies in 1:5-11 that he will bring judgment against his people, Judah. But the instrument of judgment is not what Habakkuk expects. “I am doing a work [of judgment] in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans…” The Chaldeans, also known as the Babylonians, were rising as the world superpower of the time. They were ruthless, power-worshipping, colonizers – a law unto themselves. Habakkuk is shocked. In his second complaint (1:12-17) he complains to the Lord, that you, Lord, are too pure and holy to use the Babylonians to bring judgment against us. They are even more violent and evil than us! They capture people the way a fisherman nets fish (1:14-15). How long will they mercilessly treat people like this?
In 2:2, the Lord answers Habakkuk with a vision. “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Habakkuk is to live by faith (2:4). He’s to take God at his word and believe the vision will be fulfilled. The vision is of the tables of history turning – the nations that Babylon ruthlessly conquered will taunt Babylon (2:6) as she is judged by God. “Woe to you” (2:6, 9, 12, 15, 19) basically means “you’re doomed!” Babylon’s day will come. She will get what she deserves. Sure enough, the Lord raised up the Medo-Persians to conquer Babylon. He later raised up the Greeks under Alexander the Great to conquer the Medo-Persians and then the Romans to conquer the vast Greek empire. But every time the Lord judges one evil nation through another evil nation, the problem of justice remains. No instrument of judgment is pure and good. This problem finds resolution in the gospel. As Paul wrote in Romans 2:16, according to the gospel, God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, the once crucified, now risen King.
The only way a holy God can judge evildoers with perfect justice is if his own righteous Son judges the world. God’s judgment on Babylon foreshadows that final day of judgment which is to come. If it seems slow, wait for it. Justice is coming. The only way to escape getting what we (who have done evil) deserve is to trust in Jesus, the righteous one, who died on the cross in place of unjust people like us. On the cross, Jesus was treated the way we deserve to be treated so that God treats us who trust in his Son the way his own Son Jesus deserves.
In the future devotions, we’ll reflect more on how the gospel helps us to live with joy in an unjust, violent world. For now, it’s clear that we’re to live by faith, not by what we see now. Don’t think God is indifferent to evil because he is not doing anything about it now. Justice is coming!
