Dear Family and Friends,

We all inherited attributes from our Father. They include love, goodness and justice.

It seems I was given a healthy dose of God’s justice trait. I know this because seeing injustice against anyone drives me crazy.

Have you ever stopped to wonder, or even ask God, why is He allowing an increasing amount of injustice and suffering across our world today?

I have. During one of those crazy moments, the following question came blurting out: Why God Why?

God heard my question, and answered within days. It was in a book a dear friend recently gave us as a gift.

The book is called Have Faith Anyway, The Vision of Habakkuk for Our Times, by Kent Keith.

Habakkuk was the prophet who questioned God. The Book of Habakkuk begins with this.

“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
 
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”  Habakkuk 1:2-4 NIV

This was the Lord’s reply to the prophet.

“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.”  Habakkuk 1:5 NIV

God went on to tell Habakkuk that things would get worse, a lot worse, before it got better – that the Judeans would be conquered by the Babylonians.

Not liking God’s answer, the prophet Habakkuk bravely asked a follow-up question.

“Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die.

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?”  Habakkuk 1:12-13 NIV

Simply put, the prophet could not understand why a good God would use unrighteous people to punish or even destroy the not-as-bad Judeans.

In His reply, God said two things that give our heart peace today.

“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—”  Habakkuk 2:4 NIV

Our Lord is telling Habakkuk and us that He’s identified the enemy. It’s not us. God is on our side.

He’s also telling us to live faithfully, to trust in Him through these times!

Next, our Lord listed five woeful acts of the enemy.

“Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion!”  v.6

“Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin! You have plotted the ruin of many peoples.”  v.9-10

“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice!”  v.12

“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!”  v.15

“Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”  v.19

The key messages of the five woes are: 

Our Lord sees all and knows all. No detail escapes Him. He sees the desires of their hearts.

And our Lord has a plan. He always has a plan. And in His plans, justice always prevails.

Ours is to remember that knowing and understanding God’s plans are well beyond our pay grade. (See Isaiah 55:8-9)

And to not fret because God is in control!

That said, let’s be like Habakkuk who, despite knowing that a bleak future lay ahead, prayed:

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength.”  Habakkuk 3:17-19

In love always,