That's a hard passage...
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That's a hard passage to take, though it is a very common one and can make some realize that they are not alone if they have serious problems. It is nothing new. Habakkuk is not stating a fact. It just seems to him and many others that the Lord seems too busy to answer us -- right now! Maybe his computer has crashed! As I always say, look at the news every day and you can imagine many people on earth shouting out Habakkuk's prayer. They see violence and injustice, strife and conflict every day all over the world.
If that was the only passage we had in scripture, we might not want to read any more. We would be tempted to give up. We might even look for another "god" or try to fix things ourselves by any means legal or not. It might even induce suicide.
The next verses do not answer the problem, but the Lord lets Habakkuk know that he is there and hears his cry. He promises that the answer will certainly come to all of us if we wait patiently and keep looking for it. God has a plan for everything -- which will come in his good time.
A young girl in Nepal was jailed for inviting a Hindu friend to church. The conditions in jail were terrible. There was not even a window in her cell. Relatives and friends had to bring her food. She could spend six years in prison if convicted. The father of the friend, who she was in jail for supposedly inviting to church was a Hindu priest and hated Christians. I received a letter from one of my seminary students asking for $100 for an urgent need. All their needs are urgent, and I get those letters constantly. I was tempted to tell him to wait and I would get it to him "sometime." But there was something about this letter that touched me and I sent him the $100 by the next mail. I never got an answer, but when I went back to Nepal a few months later, he invited me to his house for a celebration. When I came he introduced me to a pretty girl of nineteen who gave me a big smile and an unexpected hug. My $100 had bailed her out of that hell of a jail, and when her trial came up her friend admitted that she was the one who asked if she could visit the church. She was found "not guilty" and released. She told me that her prayer had been something like Habakkuk's prayer. She did not see how she could ever get out since her family did not have the money for bail. She was glad she had enough faith to count on the Lord.
How many examples we can give of times when we thought God was not listening. We may not have wanted to settle for our faith that God would answer in his good time. So don't lose faith!
If that was the only passage we had in scripture, we might not want to read any more. We would be tempted to give up. We might even look for another "god" or try to fix things ourselves by any means legal or not. It might even induce suicide.
The next verses do not answer the problem, but the Lord lets Habakkuk know that he is there and hears his cry. He promises that the answer will certainly come to all of us if we wait patiently and keep looking for it. God has a plan for everything -- which will come in his good time.
A young girl in Nepal was jailed for inviting a Hindu friend to church. The conditions in jail were terrible. There was not even a window in her cell. Relatives and friends had to bring her food. She could spend six years in prison if convicted. The father of the friend, who she was in jail for supposedly inviting to church was a Hindu priest and hated Christians. I received a letter from one of my seminary students asking for $100 for an urgent need. All their needs are urgent, and I get those letters constantly. I was tempted to tell him to wait and I would get it to him "sometime." But there was something about this letter that touched me and I sent him the $100 by the next mail. I never got an answer, but when I went back to Nepal a few months later, he invited me to his house for a celebration. When I came he introduced me to a pretty girl of nineteen who gave me a big smile and an unexpected hug. My $100 had bailed her out of that hell of a jail, and when her trial came up her friend admitted that she was the one who asked if she could visit the church. She was found "not guilty" and released. She told me that her prayer had been something like Habakkuk's prayer. She did not see how she could ever get out since her family did not have the money for bail. She was glad she had enough faith to count on the Lord.
How many examples we can give of times when we thought God was not listening. We may not have wanted to settle for our faith that God would answer in his good time. So don't lose faith!
