SECOND COMPLAINT
Chapter 1: 12-17
Habakkuk was horrified with the solution that God gave to his first question. How could God correct His people by using a nation far worse than his own as an instrument of punishment?
It was still alive in their memory how, little more than a century before, the Assyrians (which God called "rod of My anger"- Isaiah 10:5) had invaded the territory of the ten northern tribes and taken all the inhabitants captive, thereby taking asunder that idolatrous nation and leaving only the two tribes that formed the kingdom of Judah. It seemed that history would repeat itself now, using Babylon to punish Judah, the remnant of Israel.
Habakkuk recognized the eternity and holiness of God, and declared his conviction that He would not allow his people to die (having made unconditional promises of perpetual blessing to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua and David). Habakkuk was right because his statement was confirmed through the ages until today. There were never a people so hated, persecuted and massacred since antiquity until now, and they still have few friendly nations, but they are far from dying, and with the approval of the United Nations have recovered part of their territory. For us it is a guarantee of the infallibility of God's promises.
Thus, the Babylonians would be used only for correction. But still, how could God, so pure that He cannot even see evil, grant the Babylonian people, where all known ungodliness, wickedness and perversity were to be found, the power to "devour" the remnant of Israel that were more righteous than they? Habakkuk could not understand (like many of us still cannot) certain aspects of the hand of God in this world.
In verses 14-16 Habakkuk makes an analogy with the life of a fisherman, where the fisherman catches with his hook, collects with his net and gathers with his dragnet, then pays divine honours to the net and dragnet that enrich and nurture him. In this comparison, the world is the sea, the inhabitants of conquered nations are the fish, the fisherman was Nebuchadnezzar, and the nets were his military power, by which he could gain great wealth through conquest of other peoples.
The analogy reminds us of the callousness with which the Babylonians treated the people conquered by them, like fishermen handle the fish they catch. They were like objects without value, without any right to life, to meet the wishes of their lords without protest. Besides the cruelty of the Babylonians, this analogy also speaks of their idolatry: their sacrifices and incense were offered to the objects which brought them food and wealth.
Habakkuk did not understand how God could use the Babylonians to discipline His people. Pointing the finger to Babylon, he said to God: "Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?” He did not use the correct word here: no one among men is righteous. Also nobody can be "more" righteous than another because to be righteous already means to be without sin, there are no stages. What he meant is that the Israelites were "less sinful" than the Babylonians. In other words, Habakkuk is suggesting that who needed more punishment were the Babylonians, as sinned more. He was already moving away from the main subject of his interrogation, in which he accused God of doing nothing to correct His own people. He was now examining and criticizing the instrument of correction.
But God didn’t say that He would punish on the basis of "who has less sin punishes he who sins more”. Perhaps this seems to us a fair criterion, but God does not make use of it and we cannot doubt His justice. Nebuchadnezzar was a cruel and terrible tyrant, but the Lord called him "my servant" because through his conquest and dominion God carried out His plan for His people (Jeremiah 27:6). The prophet, finally, humbly expresses the hope that God will not allow this destroyer of humanity to continue to thrive in this way.
We often come across the question: why does God allow evil to happen? And we are tempted to seek an answer from Him to the case which concerns us at the moment. We would do well to take our anxiety to Him in prayer, as did Habakkuk.
In our days we are better placed than Habakkuk, because we have the perspective of the whole of history since the beginning of the human family until today, twenty-six centuries after him. Looking back, we see how God has worked with the nations of this world and the nation of Israel. God has also acted, and is acting with the church of Christ that is in the world. God works in mysterious ways for us, as He himself said: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
Great patience is also one of the attributes of God. Because of it we must bear the great evils and injustices of this world waiting for His providence, which in our impatience can take longer than we wish. Habakkuk complained that God's patience was being abused, and because the punishment did not come quickly on the wrongdoer, he was encouraged to intensify and expand the evil he did, glorifying the instruments used. But we know that God was using Nebuchadnezzar for His purposes and that this tyrant was punished later on, and then recognized the sovereignty of God over him (Daniel 4:28-37).
We should not be disturbed if we fail to think as God thinks. Unfortunately, many try to put themselves in His place. Instead of blaming the world, our nation, our church or our home for the problems we are involved in, we should fall on our knees before God and confess our own sins, and acknowledge those of our family at home, the brethren at church, or those of our fellow citizens.
“You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness" is a correct statement. Sublime holiness is an attribute of God, and cannot be tarnished by the sight of evil and wickedness. That's why nobody can go into His presence in heaven, taking sin with him. We all therefore have to be justified by the blood of the Lamb and receive a new holy nature, through the new birth.
Just as God has an eternal purpose for the people of Israel, He also has one for the church that he is harvesting from this world. Every child of God can say, "I live never more to die." In Jesus Christ, God came to this earth to die in our place, and "was delivered up (died) because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”(Romans 4:25). The Lord Jesus said to the two sisters who mourned the death of Lazarus "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26).
However, we know that God is holy and does not approve of evil. His eyes are too pure to approve such a thing. It is we who offend Him, so it is not fair to blame Him for the evil that comes from our behaviour, and we should bear patiently the wrongs we see around us, though the lack of direct action by God may sometimes seem incomprehensible to us. His justice will not fail, but will come at a more opportune time, which only He knows.
R David Jones
12 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he?
14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea, Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with a hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, And burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is sumptuous And their food plentiful.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, And continue to slay nations without pity?
Habakkuk chapter 1 verses 12 to 17