Habakkuk Series-
Pt. 2

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Read Time: 5 minutes

by AJ Cantebury

God is mysterious.

He doesn’t always act in the ways we expect, or even in ways that strike us as right or fair. His ways, which are not our ways, can be downright terrifying, and we wonder if we really know this God at all. Are our futures safe with him?

Like Lucy from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” we hear Mrs. Beaver talk about the all-powerful, ferocious lion and we back into the corner and wonder, “Is he safe?” Only to hear the chastisement of Mr. Beaver, “Safe? Who said anything about safe?”

Habakkuk found himself staring at such an unexpected, mysterious God who is about to do something terrifying, and the prophet cannot connect the activity of God with the character of the God he serves.

The OT book begins with Habakkuk begging God to do something about the injustice among God’s people and God answered that he has always been doing something. He is not asleep and he is not unaware. Check the post out here if you missed it.

Habakkuk’s first complaint was WHEN; his second complaint has changed to WHY.

Habakkuk’s second complaint

God explains that what he is about to do will stun Habakkuk in wonder and astonishment. No one would believe it even if they had been told (Hab. 1:5). 

He plans to summon the wicked nation of Babylon to discipline the people of Judah. Babylon had a frightening reputation: a ruthless people who descended on weaker kingdoms like a swarm of locusts. There was nothing comforting about this revelation.

God would replace the oppression and exploitation within the people by squashing it with the oppression and exploitation of a bigger, more ferocious kingdom. He would use evil to punish evil and it would lead to more evil. 

This dumbfounded Habakkuk, and he had some more questions. His first complaint was WHEN, when are you going to do something; his second complaint has changed to WHY, why would you do it this way.

Who God has revealed himself to be does not square up with this harrowing plan. Habakkuk’s main concern is how God can keep being God after this. He is completely pure, holy, and good so how can he tolerate this.

“You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows of the man more righteous than he” (Hab. 1:13).

God’s use of the Babylonians to punish his people seems in conflict with everything Habakkuk knows about God and his character, yet he tells the prophet: you can write this down, count on it because it will come to pass (Hab. 2:2-3).

Habakkuk’s main concern is how God can keep being God after this.

You are going to take away my mom…

What do you do with a God like this?

God doesn’t always play by our rules. And he is under no obligation to, even though we often try to insist that he does. Just like he did when speaking to Habakkuk, God acts in ways that are surprising, frightening, and painful.

My mom worked hard to maintain “life” for my three brothers and me. After dad left the scene, Mom carried the single-mother mantle, holding down the job, managing the bills and house, and showing up to support whatever extracurricular we were in. The stress weighed heavy, but she pressed forward.

When she remarried my senior year, the heaviness showed its first sign of lifting. I remember the summer before she married, she took her four boys away for the weekend, and as we spent the day together, I saw a care-free Mom, enjoying time with her sons. It seemed the worst was indeed behind us, and a brighter road stretched before us.

Five months before she was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer, she and my stepfather had my youngest brother. She struggled against her failing health to care for him with the same giving spirit she always possessed. Mom depended on others to provide the nurturing she was best equipped to give.

In the wake of her death, everything seemed to have lost. At nine months, my brother lost a mother he would have no memory of; my stepfather lost his new bride; all of us lost a secure future. My incessant prayers to God, begging for my mother’s restored health, had lost too for they went unanswered. The cracked window of hope shut with violent force.

How could God do this? 

The question is not even over God’s right to do as he wishes, but over who he has revealed himself to be. How can a God who is good, loving, and full of mercy, give the okay for my mom to die? Like Habakkuk, I wondered how such an act could not tarnish his character.

Whatever God does, even our hardest and most painful moments, reflect his perfect wisdom.

The God who is always right

Theologians have written all kinds of articles on the topic of why an all-loving, all-powerful God would allow evil. I have so loyally held (rightly so) to God’s unending love and enormous power, that I am quick to overlook his perfect wisdom, whose depths are just as unsearchable as his other attributes.

My friend, Rose Booth, endured a relentless ordeal that spanned three years. It began with the contraction of septic arthritis in her hip that required a hip replacement, which then revealed the need for knee replacement. The week before her surgery, she suffered a heart attack which delayed her knee replacement surgery. When she did finally get a new knee, she tore a tendon in the knee during therapy and the incision refused to heal. Because they could do nothing to heal the incision, her leg needed to be amputated. The amputation resulted in her coding on the table.

Rose is just now building endurance through therapy so she can utilize her prosthetic leg. It seems a violent path to get Rose to where she is now. Her experience invokes two questions: was this the best (wisest) course for God to use and how could God treat his child this way.

Both inquiries, at their heart, call God’s character into question. As I watched her journey unfold over Facebook, I noticed Rose always closed her updates in the same way. She would say, “God is faithful. God is good. And God is always right.”

The last line captured my attention most. I asked Rose why she always closed her post that way, and she told me it was something she learned a decade before. The phrase passed to her through a friend, who had heard it from a widow who had unexpectedly lost her husband. The phrase stuck with Rose, especially considering her current situation.

“God is always right.”

The simple phrase holds profound truth. If we believe that God is the source of wisdom, that in his being he himself is the standard for what it wise, then God must work in accordance with that wisdom. So whatever he does, even our hardest and most painful moments, reflect his perfect wisdom.

Rose’s words resonated with me as prayer, a prayer both of surrender and commitment. The words a war-beaten believer would say before he plants his flag in the ground, proclaiming that this truth is what they are holding fast to.

When God acts in these mysterious, unexpected ways that have every appearance of being senseless, this is where we must borrow beneath the truth of that phrase. God’s activity is always purposed and it is always wise. Just as we learned in “What to Do the Day God Is Not Good,” good theology guides us through hard times, and good theology starts with understanding who God is.

Ultimately, that is where Habakkuk ends up, trusting that God will hold fast to his people and stay true to his name. I have planted my flag here, concerning the death of my mother. Rose still clings to this truth.

Good theology guides us through hard times, and good theology starts with understanding who God is.

Can you believe that? Friend, I know how hard this truth is. But it offers you so much rest and freedom, knowing that God does everything right and that, as a believer, he is working everything for your good and his glory.

After Lucy questions the safety of the great Aslan, Mr. Beaver finishes his statements on the tameness of the lion. “‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.” You can trust him with the scary, because he is good, and he is always right.

I pray you can see that.

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