When I was a kid, I learned pretty quickly never to tell my mom that I was bored. “You’re bored? Oh, great! Go ahead and clean your room, fold the laundry, and dust all the shelves when you’re done with that. That should keep you busy!” Obviously, that was not the answer I wanted.

My mom giving me chores when I’m bored makes far too silly of an illustration for what Habakkuk experienced, but you get the idea—God’s response was not what he was looking for, which the prophet makes clear in his second prayer. Hearing that God is raising up the Babylonians, the prophet responds, “LORD, are you not from everlasting?...Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (vv. 12–13). Habakkuk’s primary complaint now was that the Babylonians were even more wicked than God’s people. Surely God shouldn’t use evil to punish evil!

The prophet goes on to describe the Babylonians’ idolatry: “He sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food” (v. 16). The prophet here refers to the Babylonians’ insatiable appetite for conquering others. The net and dragnet refer to the military might by which Babylon funded its luxurious living.

Habakkuk concludes his prayer with another question: “Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?” (v. 17). You can hear the pain and longing in Habakkuk’s voice as He wrestles with God’s wisdom and sovereignty. Surely, the Lord would not, should not, cannot empower the Babylonians to continue wrecking nations and destroying lives! But it’s exactly what God has told Habakkuk He would do.

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Have you heard the saying that God always answers our prayers, but it’s not always the answer we want? Today’s passage offers a master class in exactly that principle.

In verses 2–4 Habakkuk questioned whether God would allow evil and injustice to rule the land of Israel. In verses 5–11 the Lord answers, but it’s not quite the answer the prophet had in mind. Verse 5 is one of the more well known verses in Habakkuk; it’s often cited as a promise that God will do something big and amazing—and it is! “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told” (v. 5). But we must be mindful of the context. What is this amazing thing the Lord would do? “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people” (v. 6).

The Babylonians! Isn’t this the people who would later sack Jerusalem, destroy the Temple, and take Daniel and his three friends—along with many thousands more— into captivity? Yes, those Babylonians. The Lord describes them more fully in the remaining verses of today’s passage. They “seize dwellings not their own” (v. 6) and “are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor” (v. 7). These people are “intent on violence” (v. 9), they “mock kings and scoff at rulers” (v. 10), and they are a “guilty people, whose own strength is their god” (v. 11).

In other words, the Lord responds to Habakkuk’s complaints about wickedness in Israel by saying that He is raising up a mighty and incredibly powerful nation—a nation that worships only itself. The implication is clear: God will use Babylon to discipline His people.

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Have you ever cried out to the Lord because of the evil you have experienced or seen around you? Have you wondered why God is silent and whether He’ll stay that way forever? If yes, then the book of Habakkuk is for you.

This short book gives us insight into a series of conversations between the prophet Habakkuk and the God of the universe. It offers hope to readers struggling to understand God’s long- suffering with evil and encouragement to trust the Lord at all times and wait patiently for Him.

Habakkuk opens, like many prophetic books, by introducing the prophet and describing the book: “The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received” (v. 1). Rather than a message from the Lord, though, the next verse is a question to the Lord: “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?” (v. 2). He asks two more questions in the next verse: “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” (v. 3). You can hear Habakkuk’s longing and his broken heart as he turns to the Lord, the only One who can help.

In the rest of verse 3 and verse 4 the prophet explains more fully what is causing him such angst. He expects righteousness and justice to characterize God’s people. But that is not his experience. “Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds” (v. 3). He expected Israel to walk faithfully with the God who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and gave them His Law at Mount Sinai. Instead, “the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted” (v. 4). Tomorrow we will learn God’s response to the prophet’s cries.

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