Habakkuk 1:12–2:1 (ESV): Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

 12  Are you not from everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

  O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

 13  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 up

the man more righteous than he?

 14  You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

 15  He brings all of them up with a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

  he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

 16  Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

  for by them he lives in luxury,

and his food is rich.

 17  Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2 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.

Abba,

It is not hard to relate to Habukkuk’s incredulity over your response.  When we only see with the eyes of the flesh, these words make sense…

13  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 up

the man more righteous than he?

A plan intent on using a nation MORE wicked than the wickedness that prompted the original complaint is a difficult pill to swallow. 

It is so much so for Habakkuk that he takes his “stand at my watch post” and waits with righteous indignation for you to explain yourself. 

Abba, what we so often fail to understand is that to you, a sovereign God, EVERYTHING is an instrument in your hand set to work your will and accomplish your plan.  Even wicked nations, wicked people.  Nothing is outside your power or might to control and to use for your ends. 

And yet, even when you use wicked men to accomplish your purpose, that does not make you wicked.  Your are now, have always been, and always will be good, just, righteous, true, and holy!  In your divine wisdom and ingenuity, you can use wickedness to accomplish just purposes.  It seems contrary to our fleshly sensibilities.  But then, that is why your ways are not our ways, your wisdom not our wisdom.  And it is why we must trust even when it does not make sense. 

The wickedness of men and their role in your unfolding narrative of history never in any way negates your righteousness.  Every move is calculated. Every step of your plan is purposeful.  Every action, intentional.  Even where men are permitted the freedom of their choice, none of them alter, override, or thwart your plan.  There is a deep complexity here that is beyond our finite minds to grasp and we are left, mouth agape, at the sheer audacity and enormity of it all.

In truth, when we see it for what it is, it invokes worship; awe; wonder.  What beauty is encapsulated in one so wise, so powerful, so just, so loving that even the wickedness of man is an instrument of righteousness for your glory!

We bow and submit in the presence of such majesty and splendor!