It’s not hard to relate to Habakkuk’s lament, is it? Our world is still filled with injustice, with destruction and violence. We still long for God to keep His promises to make all things right.

But this book teaches us the sobering lesson that God’s solutions are seldom easy. When Habakkuk complained about the godlessness in the Hebrew culture, God said He would solve that problem by sending the Babylonians to conquer Judah! Looking back through history, that long period of exile in Babylon did in fact break God’s people of their temptation to worship pagan gods. But that didn’t make it any easier for righteous people like Habakkuk who had to share in the suffering brought on by other people’s sins.

But what did God promise Habakkuk in chapter 2? Yes, the Babylonian armies were certainly coming. Yes, all those who were puffed up with pride, all those who were looking to their wealth or their reputation would find those things meaningless when their country was invaded. And when they were besieged, none of those pagan gods they had been worshipping would be able to keep them from being conquered.

So, what about people like Habakkuk? God told him that, no matter what happened, the righteous would go on living by their faith. They would simply have to trust God to get them out of whatever situation their own sin and the sin of others had gotten them into.

And that’s still true for us today. When we find ourselves caught up in the consequences of other people’s sins, we need to do the same thing, to trust God to bring good even out of the greatest evil. For isn’t that what God did on the cross of Christ? The only perfect Person Who ever lived suffered the greatest injustice ever done so that all those who trust in Him might be saved.

So where it comes to our sins, and where it comes to the sins in the world around us, those who seek to be in a right relationship with God have only one option: the only way to go on living is by faith.

Habakkuk 1:2-4; 2:1-4

1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

2:1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
2 And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.
3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end– it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.