Habakkuk 1 Devotional

Taking Hard Questions to God

“Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”Habakkuk 1:13 (BSB)

Habakkuk begins with a complaint, not a hymn. How long must he cry for help while violence fills his sight and God seems not to listen or save (1:2-3)? The law is powerless, justice is twisted, and the wicked surround the righteous (1:4). God's answer is more startling than his silence. He is raising up the Chaldeans, a fierce, fast nation whose own strength is their god (1:5-11).

So Habakkuk asks again, and more sharply. He appeals to who God is: everlasting, holy, his Rock, a God whose eyes cannot bear to look at evil. How then can he stay silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than themselves (1:12-13)? What stands out is that God does not scold the prophet for asking, and the book keeps his complaint as part of Scripture. Faith here is not pretending that everything makes sense. It is carrying the hardest questions to the very God they are about, because he alone can answer them. Your honest confusion belongs there too.

To think about: What hard question about God's ways have you been keeping to yourself instead of bringing it to him in prayer?