When God Is Silent Day 3: Habakkuk 1:12–2:1

Read & Journal

Read Habakkuk 1:12–2:1. Ponder what you’ve read with these questions:

• Take note of all the words Habakkuk used to describe God. What do these descriptors reveal about who Habakkuk understood God to be?

• Thinking about how God has worked in your life, what words or phrases would you use to describe God’s character? Why?

• Habakkuk describes a society in which evil seems to win. When have you felt like that?

• Even when evil seems to prevail, God is still sovereign and still at work. How have you seen that to be true?

• In Hab. 2:1, Habakkuk says that he will wait to see what the Lord says. When have you had to wait on the Lord? What did you learn about him through that experience? About yourself?

• Are you waiting on an answer from God? Are there things you have been praying about and God seems silent? Journal your prayer to him today, faithfully choosing to lay those needs, circumstances or request before him again today. List the truths you know about his character and ask him to help you trust who he is, even if you can’t see him at work.

Ponder

Habakkuk was horrified by the injustice and unrighteousness he saw all around him, and he wanted God to do something about it. But when God explained what he was going to do, Habakkuk was aghast. “The Babylonians, God? Really?” he questions. “You are holy and righteous, and you’re going to use this wicked nation? They’re even worse than we are!”

Habakkuk wanted justice. He wanted the world to be set right, but he didn’t like God’s plan for making it happen. Habakkuk’s list of God’s characteristics aren’t just Habakkuk trying to butter God up or change God’s mind. They’re Habbakkuk sharing who he knows God to be and explaining why God’s willingness to use the Babylonians as part of his plan seemed outside the bounds of God’s character.

It’s a question we still ask today, in a lot of different ways. If God is so good, why does he allow evil to prevail? If God is holy and pure, how can he allow this to happen? Or, in those moments when our hearts are broken and God seems silent, If you love me, why? Habakkuk thought he understood exactly who God was and the circumstances had him questioning God’s character. God had his big picture plan of redemption in view, but Habakkuk could only see the short-term circumstances—and it left him reeling.

When God is silent, when he uses hardship or failure to teach us, when what seems unjust to us is the tool he uses to bring repentance or deeper faith, we can often question God’s character and doubt his goodness. When the circumstances we currently face make no sense to us and seem to fly in the face of God’s goodness, righteousness and love, we can cry out in confusion and exasperation like Habakkuk. Who are you, God?

Maybe Habakkuk’s questions to God seem impertinent or disrespectful to you, but Habakkuk was genuine and honest in his approach. He couldn’t make sense of what God was doing, and rather than trying to figure it out on his own or talk it over with his friends, Habakkuk went straight to God. When we don’t understand, when we can’t figure out why, when evil seems to win, the example we are given is Habakkuk, coming to God with his questions.

Come to God with your questions today. If he seems silent, if he seems far away, if you don’t understand how he could possibly use the current circumstances of your life for his greater glory, go to him with all of your emotions, your questions, your doubts and fears.