Wrestling with God’s Strange Ways

Have you ever looked around at all the wickedness and violence in the world and wondered, "If God is good and all powerful, why doesn't He put an end to all the evil?" Well, if you have, you're not alone. The prophet Habakkuk wondered the same thing in his day. And from this message we learn that even when God seems to be silent, He is working His plan. The way God deals with sin is so radical and so completely unexpected, we almost can't believe it when we hear it!

The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 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. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

- Habakkuk 1:1-11