Where are you, Lord, in a world of injustice? (Habakkuk 1:1-4)

Aren’t you sick and tired of the senseless injustice and violence?  We protest by posting #justicefor [insert the latest victim of violence] and yet nothing changes.  If anything, it gets worse.  Another young woman, full of life, raped and murdered.  Another headline about a violent criminal or about police brutality.  Another farmer attacked.  Another walker mugged.  Will it ever end?  And why won’t the God of the Bible, who loves justice and righteousness, do anything about it?  

The prophet Habakkuk asked God this question.  He was living in a chaotic time around 600 years before Christ.  Judah, God’s kingdom at the time, was full of violence and injustice (Habakkuk 1:2-4).  The prophet Habakkuk had had enough of it, so he cries out to God for justice (1:2-4).  

Habakkuk’s cries for justice sound, in one sense, just like the complaints any unbeliever would make.  We’ve all had friends who have looked at the violence and injustice in the world and concluded, “Where is God?”  The unbeliever complains about God – speaks badly about God to others: “The Christian God doesn’t care about justice. If he did, why doesn’t he do something about it?”  Habakkuk complains in the same way – “where is the justice?” -- except for one major difference – he complains to God.

It makes sense for a believer to cry out to God for justice.  We know that God loves justice and hates evil.  Therefore, the rampant violence and injustice we see now does not match what we know about God.  What do we do with that, as believers?  We live by faith, not sight.  What does such faith look like in practice?  Like Habakkuk, we ought to complain to the Lord. 

“Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.” Habakkuk 1:2

In other words, Lord, where are you?  Why don’t you do anything about the injustice?  It’s a heart-felt prayer, which is an expression of faith (Luke 18:1, 8).  He almost sounds rude to speak to God like that.  But the Lord does not correct Habakkuk for what he says or how he says it.  This gives us permission to, like Habakkuk, take our complaints and our frustration at injustice to God.  But often, instead of complaining to God in heart-felt, believing prayer, we only complain to other people on social media or elsewhere.  Like Habakkuk, may we cry out to God. 

The gospel gives us even more motivation to cry out to God for justice.  Where is God, in a world of violence and injustice?  God the Son became one of us.  He entered this violent world.  He often prayed, trusting his Father even as he faced the worst injustice imaginable.  At the cross, Jesus the Righteous One suffered a violent, unjust death – and he did it for sinners like us.  Three days later, he rose bodily from the grave, demonstrating his victory over evil and showing he is the one who will bring perfect justice – he will justly judge the living and the dead (Acts 17:31). 

So may we trust in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of our own sins.  And as we hear of more injustice and violence, may we complain to him to deliver the justice that is promised in the gospel.