The Righteous Shall Live By Faith

Introduction

The human spirit is a wonderful thing. We have all heard stories of individuals who have overcome huge odds to succeed in a given venture. Tony Melendez is a name which means little to us except for what happened in the summer of 1987. The human spirit is a wonderful thing.

But life is not always fair. In fact, one of the things you can count on is that life will not always be fair. What do you do when an injustice occurs? In the short prophetic book, Habakkuk, we find Habakkuk concerned about the injustices and evil he sees in life. The first two chapters of this writing are questions to God and God’s answers. Chapter three is a prayer written in psalm form extolling the power and majesty of God and resolving to follow God because he is sovereign.

The First Complaint

Habakkuk has two complaints against God. The first is “how long will God continue to put up with the sin and evil in Judah?” In other words, “why haven’t you done something about the sin among your people? Why haven’t you gotten rid of the evil so that we righteous can live in peace?” Why doesn’t God remove evil? This question has perplexed the great minds throughout the centuries. Eventually a child will ask, why didn’t God destroy Satan in the garden?

Don’t you just get weary hearing about all the evil in our world? Murders, rapes, thefts, children abandoned or worse abused, enough is enough. Decent people look for a place where they can live free from crime, indecency, and corruption. We want a place where the righteous win all the time. When you read Habakkuk’s initial question the words are no different from what we may express today. The world isn’t worse today than it has ever been. The truth is that the world has always had violence, injustice, perversion, destruction, and strife. And as long as the world stands these things will abound.

We get tired of evil. We long for a time when evil will not have the upper hand. Why do we have to live with all this evil? While the question may be framed in terms of seeing evil and wanting to get rid of it, the question ultimately questions God’s power and his determination to see good win over evil. Habakkuk is questioning God’s love and compassion. He is questioning if God really cares. All this evil and no justice. Where are you?

There are no easy answers. But one thing is truth: God cares. Evil is not his idea. Justice, mercy, and goodness are his desire. God wants good to win over evil. Jesus is testimony to that truth. Evil is in this world because Satan’s work is not done. While the ultimate victory is assured, he is trying desperately to get as many followers as possible. Evil abounds in our world because Satan is actively pursuing a path of destruction for all. But this is not what God wants. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15:24-27, all the enemies of God will be utterly defeated at the resurrection. This is what God wants.

So when the news of evil finds its way into our homes, remember that God still cares. He hasn’t forgotten about us nor about the ultimate victory which we will all share in at the resurrection.

The Second Complaint

The second complaint poses more problems than the first. God answers the first complaint with assurance that not only does he care, but he is in the process of punishing the evil in Judah. He is going to use the Babylonians to punish Israel for their wickedness. Even as Habakkuk complains about the lack of action on God’s part, God is busy preparing the Babylonians to punish Israel. Interestingly enough, at the time of the writing Babylon was not yet a world power. This demonstrates God’s omniscience or foreknowledge or ability to see into the future. God is actively preparing the Babylonians to become a world power. In time the Babylonians will punish Israel for their sin.

Now comes Habakkuk’s second complaint. How can God use more evil people to punish evil people? Shouldn’t righteous people punish evil people? If you are a God who delights in good, then why use evil people to punish evil? Habakkuk’s complaint questions God’s judgment. Are you sure you know what you are doing? This doesn’t make sense to me. Let’s cut to the chase. There isn’t much about this world that makes a lot of sense. Once evil came into the world with Adam and Eve this world lost a sense of order and decency. Pain and fatigue entered. And within a generation murder, lying, and escaping responsibility became a part of our world. God are you sure you know what you are doing?

God answers the complaint with a simple statement. He tells Habakkuk to write down this response on a tablet so that it can be read at a quick glance. While Babylon is after its own gain, the righteous will continue to be faithful. We want evil to be taken away. We want injustices righted. God has a profound answer: righteous people will continue to do the right things even when evil abounds. When you don’t understand, when you question if I care, when you wonder if God ate his Wheaties this morning, then God says you go out and do the right things anyway. Why? Because right actions demonstrate that your faith is in God rather than this world. You see we have only two choices. We can trust God or we can trust an evil world. Either we can believe that God knows what he is doing or we can act like we know what is best.

God’s answer to Habakkuk is that the Babylonians will be judged according to how they treat Israel. The Babylonians plundered Israel unmercifully—the same happened to the Babylonians when the Persians became a world power. The Babylonians received their just reward in about two generations. God not only sees and cares, he not only is active, but he is continually bringing about his will from generation to generation. What God expects from us is that as righteous people we will continue to live for him.

This is what Habakkuk says in chapter three. God allows Habakkuk to know the future. The Babylonians, a struggling nation, will be used to punish Israel. The Babylonians seventy years later will be destroyed because they will have acted arrogantly and without kindness. Habakkuk writes this down and we are privileged to see how God works. Do we fully understand? No! But God says our response is to live as if our faith is intact. Look at 3:2: “I stand in awe of your deeds.” Habakkuk has been given a look into the future. As if a cosmic puzzle has been put together, God has carefully crafted an answer to Habakkuk’s complaints. God is the answer. Look at 3:19. God is our strength. He makes us swift and enables us to go on to new heights.

The human spirit is wonderful. But when the Spirit of God is in our lives then great heights are conquered. In the face of evil, we do right. When it appears that God is absent, we act according to his presence which we know never ever leaves us. Injustices are painful, but our God cares and hasn’t forgotten us. He is even now actively and purposefully putting together a response to it all. Let us continue as God’s righteous people to live by faith.

Jesus is the ultimate example of God’s careful planning to answer the evil in this world. In Galatians 4, Paul writes that “at just the right time, Jesus came into this world.” This statement demonstrates God’s plan had a timetable. God while not limited by time, still operates with a clear definite view of a timetable. But in an obscure passage in Acts 4, in a prayer, we are allowed a valuable insight. Peter and John have been severely warned to quit preaching about Jesus. They return to the believers and have a prayer together. Don’t miss the beginning. No “dear God” instead there is the proclamation about what they believe about God—“Sovereign,” Ruler, the one who knows what is going on. Now read the rest of the prayer. Herod and Pilate thought they were working on their own. They were doing what God had planned would happen. Jesus was going to die on a cross. Evil men like Pilate and Herod helped God accomplish his task.

Our God is sovereign. He knows and cares and carefully plans for the future. Act in faith.

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