Nobody likes a complainer, right?
I’ve worked in several offices in my time, and it seems like in most of them
there’s one doofus who loves to complain.
But when it comes to complaining to God, it gets a little. .
.complicated.
There are theologians and other big
brains whom I greatly respect who say that all complaining is wrong and sinful.
They point to passages like Romans
9:20—“But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “‘Shall what is
formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Of
course, to add a wrinkle, Paul’s quoting a prophet here, which is ironic
considering we’re looking at a prophet today who’s complaining—very loudly.
But on the other side, how are we to
deal with the Psalms? As we discussed
before, you can find pure “praise”
Psalms which have nothing but good to say about the world and how God is
running it. But you have to look for those. Most of the Psalms have something to
complain about, and either implicitly or explicitly they’re blaming the Lord
for what’s happening, because, he’s. . . well, sovereign, right?
Dennis Prager, a Jewish talk-show host I listen to, makes a
strong point about Judaism vs. Islam. Islam means “submission,” and questioning
Allah is not very encouraged. In contrast, Israel—stemming from Jacob’s
all-night wrestling match—means “he struggles with God,” and it was after this
wrestling match that God blessed him.
I
came to the conclusion that it’s not the fact of complaining per se that’s the
problem. It’s the attitude behind the complaint. Are we respectful? Do we
acknowledge that he's good, that he has our best interests at heart, and that
he really knows what he’s doing? Do we fully understand that when it comes down
to it, he owes us nothing except
judgment?
So
that brings us to today’s passage. The prophet records a conversation he had with
the Lord, one that wasn’t all sunshine and roses and kittens. He’s looking
around, and what he sees isn’t pretty. The poor and needy are being trampled.
God’s standards are being mocked and ignored. And worst of all—what always
makes situations like this worse—it seemed like the Lord was silent. Was he
blind to what was going on? Was he impotent to act? Or did he just not care?
The
Lord finally responded, but not in the way Habakkuk was expecting. He was
undoubtedly hoping to hear from the Lord that salvation was coming, that the
Messiah was about to arrive, wrong would be made right, and God’s enemies would
finally be given what they deserved.
No.
The Lord told him that he was going to deal with the situation by. . .sending
Babylon to come in, kill a lot of people, and carry off the rest into exile.
God was going to hand Judah over to the Babylonians, and these ruthless thugs
would have a free hand.
And
let’s be clear about this. The Scripture is not presenting the Lord as just
“allowing” these things to happen. God was coming to judge his people, and he
was using Babylonian soldiers as his tools.
I’m
trying to imagine Habakkuk’s face when the Lord gave his response to the
complaint. He was complaining about injustice in society, and it seemed like
God was going to make it worse! We’ll get to the prophet’s second complaint
tomorrow, but for now, let’s ponder this for a moment. When we question the
Lord about what he’s doing, we should be mindful of this: We might not like his
answer. His ways
are as far above our ways as the heavens are above the earth. He really knows
what he’s doing. Instead of asking for a specific answer, maybe we’re better
off just trusting in him and knowing that he does all things well. To our knowledge, God
never gave a direct answer to Job as to why he experienced the things he did.
Instead, the Lord had a face-to-face encounter with Job and showed Job his
incredible wisdom and sovereignty, and that was enough.
Instead
of asking for a specific answer, maybe what I need is more of him.
Lord Jesus, you’re my Shepherd, and I
trust you. Or at least I want to. I do believe, please help my unbelief.
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