Why Them? When God Seems Unfair

Habakkuk 1:12-2:4

When it seems that God is silent and unresponsive to our prayers when conditions around us spiral downwards, God seems uncaring and unjust. How can a holy, loving God permit such immoral and unjust behavior to occur with seemingly no consequence?

But there is a second way that God seems unjust to us – when he does respond to our prayers and intervene in the unjust behavior around us, but his intervention seems either more confusing, difficult, or unjust than his silence.

There are times when a child becomes seriously ill, even though they may not feel terribly bad at first. When their treatment begins, their life changes quickly. Doctor visits increase, they go through uncomfortable procedures, and they have to take medicine that causes nausea, weakness, or other unpleasant side-effects.

To a young child, all these things feel incredibly unfair. The child didn’t cause the illness, and they don’t understand what the doctors are doing. They may wonder why their parents, who say they love them, are allowing these scary, painful, and uncomfortable things to happen to them.

As difficult as these experiences are to the child, parents know that without this treatment plan, the child’s illness will grow worse. They know allowing these uncomfortable and painful things now will save the child in the long run, while giving in to their cries instead will lead to devastating consequences later. So out of love, a parent permits what is necessary, even when it causes their child temporary confusion and hardship.

The key to these situations is for a child to trust completely in the character and words of his parents, even when their painful, confusing experiences seem to contradict their parents’ expressions of love and promises of better health and recovery.

The same is true for God’s people, and that is what Habakkuk begins to learn in our passage today. A person with truth faith in God endures hardship in the present because he rests in God’s character and promises, even if the immediate circumstances of his life seem to contradict God’s character and promises at the moment.

Sometimes God’s plans seem unfair.

For Habakkuk, God’s solution to the rampant, prevailing injustice of people in Judah seemed worse than his silence and apparent lack of intervention. As impressive as the Babylonian armies would be in many respects, they were also – by many observable measures – even more unjust and wicked than the people of Judah. While it was true that Habakkuk was bemoaning the rampant injustice and lawless behavior of his own people, seemingly without any consequence, discipline, or punishment from God, God’s solution of judging his people with an invasion of armies from Babylon seemed even worse. To Habakkuk, the problem seemed worse than the solution because the Babylonians seemed worse than the people of Judah.

Evidently, Habakkuk was already aware of the Babylonians. Somehow, he had kept up on news headlines from afar, possibly by interacting with traders and travelers coming to and from Jerusalem to faraway places. What he already knew about the up-and-coming Babylonians made him wonder greatly how God could use them to accomplish anything good at all. Here is how described them (1:13-17):

• They “deal treacherously.” This means that they deliberately break or betray trust, use behave in deceptive ways and are disloyal partners in any agreement.
• They “devour.” This means that they behave in an “all or nothing” way, unwilling to make deals and unwilling to negotiate.
• They are “less righteous” than the people of Judah. This refers to the fact that they worshiped pagan gods and had no allegiance to God’s moral expectations.
• They conquer other people easily as though they were helpless fish. It was like being a school of fish in a lagoon in which marauding fishermen all throw their fishing lines, personal nets, and dragnets in all at once, taking up all the fish with no contest.
• They gloat in their easy victories. This resembles what it’s like for a burly teen bully bragging to his friends about beating up a toddler on the playground. There’s no honor in that at all.
• They worship their nets for their victories, which is a way of saying that they gave zero credit to God for their military victories.
• They have no compassion, which means they were ruthless and showed no mercy.

Both according to the Bible and also external historical records and archeological findings, the Chaldeans (Babylonians) were known for being deliberately and excessive cruel to people they conquered. Their campaigns went far beyond military defeat and were designed to terrorize and humiliate the people they captured.

Scripture says when Babylon captured Jerusalem, they slaughtered leaders, executed King Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then blinded him and carried him into exile (2 Kgs 25:6-7). They burned the temple, dismantled the city, and forcibly deported men, women, and children, marching them by foot for hundreds of miles away (2 Kgs 25:8-12).

Historical records match what the Bible tells us:

“Monuments from Mesopotamia document the custom of literally driving a hook through the lower lip of captives. Long lines of captives with hooks through their lips are depicted being hauled off to Babylon. In a second figure of Chaldean brutality, Habakkuk pictures the Chaldeans dragged along in a “net.” The figure is apropos. In one relief from this period the major Babylonian deities are depicted dragging a net in which their captives squirm.” (James Smith)

From these historical records, we see that the fishing illustrations that Habakkuk uses were not only for illustration purposes but reflected things which the Babylonians actually did. This kind of ruthless, unrestrained violence and inhumane treatment of people, marked by arrogance and lack of compassion, that made the Chaldeans extra famous for their cruelty, and this explains Habakkuk’s confusion at God’s decision to use them as his instrument of judgment for his own people in Judah.

How would you respond to this plan if you had been Habakkuk? Though Habakkuk expressed serious questions to God about this confusing and surprising plan which seemed entirely unfair, he first grounded his questions in what he already knew to be true about God’s character, promises, and ways.

Faith focuses first on correct theology.

If you noticed, our first point in the sermon today skipped v. 12 to look at vv. 13-17, instead. I did this to point out the reason for Habakkuk’s concern and confusion. But before he expressed any of those things to God, he first focused his heart and mind on what he knew to be true about God’s character, promises, and ways.

This is what I mean by “theology.” I am referring how anyone with genuine faith in God must develop a deep, familiar, and thorough knowledge of God by studying and meditating intentionally on what the Bible says about God. Last year, our church went through a preaching series called “Incomparable,” in which we focused closely on various attributes and qualities of God.

We can study many things in this world, and we can focus our hearts, minds, and energy on many things in life, but more than anything other thing, we must first and foremost be a student of God. More than anything else, we should dig deeply and drink regularly from the Word of God to inform our minds and strengthen our hearts with the truth about God. This appears to be true for Habakkuk. So, when he was faced with a confusing and frightening situation, before expressing his concerns and questions, he rooted his thinking and perspective in what he knew to be true about God.

From Habakkuk 1:12, we see that Habakkuk believed the following things about God:

• He believed in the eternality of God. (everlasting)
• He believed in God as the faithful and loyal to his covenant with his people. (Lord/Yahweh)
• He believed in God as the all-powerful deity. (God/elohim)
• He believed in the absolute holiness of God. (my Holy One)
• He believed in God the supreme judge of mankind. (appointed them for judgment)
• He believed in the consistent, unchangeability of God. (Rock)

From this we see that Habakkuk did not ask questions from a place of unbelief. He did not ask questions as though he didn’t believe in God. He asked his questions and expressed his confusion from a place of deep conviction and faith in God. He didn’t question God. He questioned, instead, how what he knew and believed about God coincided with what he knew of God’s plans and works. He didn’t doubt the justice of God. He wondered how the justice of God could be paired with God’s plan of raising up the cruel and ungodly Babylonian’s as his means for judging his people.

Is this how you respond to the confusing situations and difficult circumstances of life? Do you look at everything through a clear and consistent lens of serious, sound theology? How do you develop and strengthen your theology? How do you expand and improve your knowledge of God and his ways? Do you have a habit of reading and studying God’s Word and good theology books to do this? Do you have anyone in your life with whom you talk regularly about God and his ways? Are you involved in a group within your church that engages in discussions like these on a regular basis?

So, before Habakkuk expresses his confusion to God, we see that he grounded his questions in a strong personal theology. But we also see that he follows his questions to God not by abandoning or walking away from God, but by waiting for him, instead.

Faith waits patiently for God.

After asking God to help him make sense of this plan to send the ungodly nation of Babylon to judge the people of Judah for their seemingly lesser sins, Habakkuk behaves in a way that shows his faith is strong – confused but strong (2:1-3).

• He stands firm and resolutely.
• He watches attentively like a guard or sentry who scans the horizon.
• He looks forward eagerly to God’s response.
• He expects God to correct him somehow (not the other way around).

It’s fascinating to see here that Habakkuk does not attempt or expect to correct or criticize God with his questions. Instead, he seeks to clear up his own personal confusion. He assumes that God is right and he is wrong, not the other way around. And he fully expects that after asking his questions, God would actually correct and reprove him.

“Habakkuk expects that the message will bring correction and proper orientation to his anxieties. He is not so much challenging God with a complaint as he is desiring to have his perplexities alleviated and his viewpoint corrected.” (Richard Patterson)

In response to Habakkuk’s question, God answers him again – sort of. In his answer, he gives him no new information, though, but doubles down on what he has already said.

• He tells him to write down the prophecy of Babylon as a permanent record.
• He wants it to be written in a plain, easy-to-see, easy-to-understand way.
• He wanted it to be spread broadly to the public at large. In other words, God wanted Habakkuk to make this message easy to read and easy to carry from village to village and city to city, so that as many people in Judah as possible could hear it.
• He also wants Habakkuk and anyone else who hears the message to wait – though Babylon would not march into Judah that same day or the next, they would come marching over the horizon soon enough.

And this is a major feature of genuine faith in God. Genuine faith in God grounds its questions, confusion, and anxiety in a firm, deep, thorough theology and then waits patiently for God to work out his plan over time. Genuine faith does not run away but rather runs to bring others to the truth with them, no matter how long they must wait for God’s promise of justice to occur. They do not abandon or disobey God because they hurt, because they are confused, or because it takes too long.

From beginning to end, faith relies completely on God.

In addition to God’s preview about a soon, devastating invasion by Babylon, God also gives Habakkuk a central, core, guiding principle of life. Rather than explain his methods and reasons for using a “more wicked” Babylon to punish a “less wicked” Judah, God instead gave Habakkuk a big-picture, overarching truth about life.

“Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.” (Hab 2:4)

There’s something important to observe about this truth: it always applies to all people everywhere, not just to people in Judah or Babylon. At the end of the day, and more specifically at the end of time as we know it, God is far less interested in comparing groups of people against each other, such as announcing who is more wicked than the other.

Isn’t Judah better than Babylon? This question was at the heart of Habakkuk’s question to God. Though he knew Judah was sinful, he believed Babylon was even more sinful.

Questions like these bother us today, as well. Is North Dakota better than Minnesota? Israel better than Iran, Ukraine better than Russia, and the United States better than any other nation in the world?

In God’s answer to Habakkuk’s question, he does not engage in that sort of conversation and comparison. After all, groups of people don’t stand before the judgment seat of God at the end of time, do they? God judges and God saves individuals, and so he does whatever he does in the world in such a way that individual people will believe on him.

In the next section of this prophecy, through the end of Chapter 2, God gives a strong message of warning to people who are arrogant, proud, and not right before him. This message applies equally to arrogant, self-righteous people in Judah as well as Babylon, and it always applies to all people everywhere, no matter what cultural, ethnic, national, or geopolitical group they may or may not be a part of.

But today, we must focus on the other side of this truth. On one hand, God judges every person who is arrogant and proud, but he preserves and saves everyone who lives by faith. And what does it mean to live by faith?

To live by faith is an underlying mindset. It describes the heart and perspective of a person who trusts in God rather than themselves. It means to trust in God alone for salvation of every kind.

• It describes a person who trusts in God for salvation from injustice around them – as Habakkuk trusted in God despite the widespread sin around him in Judah.
• It describes a person who trust in God for salvation from other larger evil powers and injustice in the world – such as trusting God with the coming invasion by Babylon.
• And most importantly, it describes a person who relies upon God for ultimate salvation in the end.

The point here is that no matter what confusing or difficult questions a person may have about God or his ways, and no matter what difficulties or injustices – real or imagined – they may be observing in the world or experiencing painfully for themselves, they can know they are in a right standing before God if – and only if – they rely completely upon God him.

To rely completely upon God consists of two key elements: (1) a strong inner, personal reliance upon what God has revealed about his nature and promises and (2) a daily, intentional perseverance in living according to what God has revealed in his Word.

To Habakkuk, God’s “the just shall live by his faith.” This means that a person who is in right standing before God is one who will live and not be destroyed by God for his sins. As Habakkuk clearly stated, despite a coming invasion and destruction of Judah by Babylon, “We shall not die” (Hab 3:12). But here, it is as though God is saying, I cannot make this promise to every inhabitant of Judah; I can only guarantee to preserve and save – on an individual, case-by-case basis – anyone who has faith in me.

This stands in contrast to the self-righteous people of Judah – Habakkuk’s own family, friends, and fellow countrymen – who believed they were okay with God only because they were a nation to whom God had promised special blessings, who practiced the sign of circumcision, and who possessed and followed the Law of Moses (though only in loose and minimal way).

This also stands in contrast to the ungodly people of Babylon who worshiped their fishing nets (1:15) and gave credit to their false, imaginary gods for their growing control and power (1:11). Neither the people of Judah nor the people of Babylon were trusting in God.

To more fully understand what “the just shall live by his faith” means, we should also hear how the NT uses this general principle and truth in its teaching to us.

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (Rom 1:16-17)

In this first occurrence of a quotation of this principle in the NT, Paul closely echoes what Habakkuk emphasized – that a person’s right standing before God is due to his faith in God. In this way, he refers to the beginning of a person’s life of faith before God, when he trusts completely in the gospel of Christ for salvation from sins and for a right standing before God at the future judgment.

We can only receive God’s salvation by faith, and this is true for every person. There is no “different way of salvation,” or “different way to God,” etc. relative to your cultural, ethnic, or national identity. Just as God told Habakkuk people of Judah needed faith in God for salvation just as much as people from Babylon did, so Paul says here that people of the Greek empire needed faith in the gospel of Christ just as much as people from Israel did. There is no difference – the only way to have a right standing before God is to believe on the gospel of Jesus. Have you believed completely in the gospel of Christ for salvation from sin and for a right standing before God at the future judgment?

But the life of faith is more than entering into a right standing with God or being in a right standing with God at the final, future judgment. As important as these guarantees of salvation may be, the life of faith is far more than a beginning and end, for in many ways, the greatest challenge (or rather challenges) to our faith is everything in between.

Paul touches on this reality by quoting “the just shall live by his faith” a second time.

That no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” (Gal 3:11)

Here Paul speaks not only of beginning or entering into a right standing with God by faith but by living in a perpetual state of right standing before God, as well. Here, Paul points out that it is wrong to think we gain a right standing before God by obeying the Mosaic Law or – worse yet – by obeying all sorts of additional laws and rules which we may create as additional safeguards to our relationship with God.

The law says, “Do these things every day and God will accept you,” but faith says, “Believe every day that Christ did all these things every day and God will accept you.” Just as we must reject self-righteousness and reliance on the Law for salvation from God, so we must continually reject self-righteousness and reliance on the Law for daily acceptance and closeness with God.

But there is a third way which God calls us to “live by faith” today, as well.

You have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Heb 10:38)

Here, the writer of Hebrews quotes from Hab 2 to look forward not to the coming invasion of Babylon (which had already happened centuries before), but to look forward to the second coming of Christ to judge the wicked and establish his kingdom of righteousness in this world forever, once and for all. And because Christ is coming again to make all wrongs right forever, we must live by faith in God’s promises in this way – we must confidently, faithfully, and joyfully persevere through the confusing questions, difficult dilemmas, painful experiences, and widespread injustices and wickedness of our day.

In summary, then, the NT quotes Hab 2:4 to teach us that:

• We are made righteous by faith. (Rom 1:17)
• We live daily by faith rather than self-reliance and self-righteousness. (Gal 3:11)
• And we endure to the end by faith. (Heb 10:38)

As we step back and take in all that God has shown us through Habakkuk, we are reminded of this unshakable truth: a person with true faith in God endures hardship in the present because he rests in God’s character and promises, even when the immediate circumstances of life seem to contradict God’s character and promises at the moment.

God did not give Habakkuk a full explanation for his confusing seemingly unjust plan. Instead, he called Habakkuk to keep on trusting in him as the God who is everlasting, holy, faithful, and unchanging.

That same call comes to us today. If you have never trusted in the gospel of Christ for salvation, this is where a life of faith begins, not with understanding everything about God and his ways, but with believing that Christ has taken your judgment, suffered your punishment, forgiven your sin, and secured your future and salvation.

And if you have already trusted in Christ as your God and Savior, then this passage calls you, like Habakkuk, to persevere: to wait, trust, and hold fast to God’s promises even when his ways feel difficult or unfair.

In just a moment, we will observe the Lord’s Supper together, and there is no clearer reminder of this truth. At the cross, God’s plan looked more unjust and confusing than anything else, yet it was there that God was accomplishing our salvation. The bread and the cup remind us that when God’s purposes seem hardest to understand, his love has never let us down. As we come to the table, let us examine our hearts, renew our trust, and rest in Christ in a stronger, greater way. Whether you desire to begin the life of faith today or are persevering through hardship, questions, and injustice, may this special, sacred act and moment of remembrance reinforce our confidence that God is faithful, and that the just shall live by faith.