Saturday 22nd July
Read Habakkuk 1:12-13
“Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
13 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?” (NIVUK)
Habakkuk’s prayer continues. His perplexity increases. If the awful Babylonians and their gods march unopposed across the world and establish their ‘law and order’ then aren’t they taking Yahweh’s rightful place? Is Yahweh not the true eternal god of the heavens and the earth? Is He not the Rock, the solid one against whom all are crushed and with whom His people should be secure? How can His rule be usurped by such demonstrably evil people?
These are not theoretical questions for Habakkuk. This is not an abstract philosophical discussion on the presence and tolerance of suffering and evil in the world. This is personal. ‘My God, my Holy One…my Rock’ (v12). His view of God’s holiness is so high that his faith trembles at these questions. Why does his God not speak, impose order and judge the wicked? Is God guilty of fulfilling the famous quote frequently misattributed to philosopher Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”?
Habakkuk longs to know the purpose behind God’s silence and inaction, the method to what seems like madness. It is personal and passionate. It is not philosophical or frivolous. So he brings it before his God in prayer. In prayer he may find understanding. He won’t find it in philosophy. Is that where you go when confused and perplexed?
