Faith Beyond Blindness

It was a day like any other on March 22, 2021 in Boulder, Colorado. Officer Eric Talley got a call about a potential shootout in a local King Sooper. He rushed over there as soon as possible and was the first one on the scene. This officer of 51 years of age and had a loving family of seven with his wife - died. Ten people died that day in the King Sooper. To this day, the shooter has not had his sentence yet.

Are we allowed to question God about the injustices of life? Life unfair and it often seems like God is not even looking in our direction. This leads me to a conversation I had with a friend of mine. We were discussing if it was okay to question God and if God gives out justice.

However, what does it truly mean to question God and is it okay to question Him? In church we are often told to "have faith and believe in God" and does that lead us to just blind faith? Our goal is develop our relationship with God with education rather than to just blindly believe what we hear. This is why we have Bible verses so that we can fact check each other and make sure we are preaching and listening to knowledge that truly relates to what the message of God is. If we are led by blind faith, it becomes too easy to just simply say "he seems credible, so I believe him." What will this achieve in our journey of faith? Our journey in faith is supposed to be grounded in Scripture and it is through Scripture that we grow in our relationship with God.

Let us explore the story of Habakkuk. Who is Habakkuk? He was a prophet who existed in the last quarter of the seventh century roughly 640 - 615 BC. There is no knowledge about his hometown or his lineage. He is also known as the “suffering prophet” because of the message he was given. He was given a burden upon his shoulders and was told to tell everyone across the world. His name means “embracing.”

Habakkuk Chapter 1

“He embraces his people (in his prophecy), and takes them to his arms; i.e. he comforts them, and lifts them up as one embraces a poor weeping child or man, to quiet it with the assurance that, if God will, it shall be better soon;”

Habakkuk starts an oracle.

Habakkuk 1:1 ESV

The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

The second word of verse 1 is “oracle”. The original hebrew word is מַשָּׂא or maśśāʾ which means “burden.” This means this verse can be read as Habakkuk is receiving a burden from God. God is giving him a message that is not of hope, but rather of justice. This justice is for all the sins that Israel and Judah has commited against Him.

Habakkuk begins his burden with a complaint against God.

Habakkuk 1:1–4 ESV

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.

In verse 2 there is the word שָׁוַע (she-va). This word means "to cry out for help"? We cry out to God to question Him as to why He is not doing anything. Habakkuk was writing his conversation with God. He was speaking to God out of frustration of not being able hear or see any results from God for Judah's disobedience. Tell me, how many of us have also had those same thoughts and feelings toward God, or even to our brothers and sisters? To be frustrated when we see injustice and we want to see God act and He seemly does not.

In World War 2 there was a research unit founded by the Imperial Japanese Army. They were an evil research team that had no qualms about human experimentation. They would use their prisoners of war made primarily of Chinese and Soviet citizens to test out many different ideas or theories.

In Unit 731's biological warfare experiments, prisoners were deliberately infected with deadly diseases like syphilis, cholera, and plague, and women were forced into pregnancy to study fetuses. There was chemical experiments that exposed prisoners to toxic substances such as mustard gas and nerve agents. Other experiments included freezing prisoners' limbs in ice water, inflicting gunshot wounds, and causing shrapnel wounds to study their effects. There would also be live surgeries without anesthesia, including amputations and organ harvesting. There was no care at all for human life in these experiments.

​ Habakkuk is complaining to God about the social injustices that Israel is committing. He cries out to God about how the wicked people rule over the righteous and that the law never commits justice for the people. The reason why this is so bad is because Israel was supposed to be God’s chosen people. The people of Judah acted this way and yet they knew what they were doing was wrong. God wants us to help each other and to protect the weak, and yet that is the exact opposite of what was happening. The book of Micah further elaborates on this. Micah 6:9-16

Micah 6:9–16 ESV

The voice of the Lord cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it! Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

The Children of Israel were guilty of cheating each other, committing idolatry, and lying each other. As the chosen people of God they were acting completely opposite to who God is and represents.

God answers Habakkuk’s complaint by saying to look at the nations that He has raised up. He is sending a nation is being sent to punish the Israelites. The defenses that the Israelites are so proud of are going to nothing compared to the Babylonians. Israel will be wiped out, completely and utterly conquered.

Habakkuk 1:5–11 ESV

“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!”

God responds by saying that He will send another nation that will come and will easily conquer Judah. The horses that are used by Babylonians will easily cover the hills that surround Judah and protect them. The famous walls that Judah is also proud of will be easily overcome by the Babylonians. They will by creating a ramp made of dirt that will help scale the walls. God says that Babylonians care about nothing but themselves and their might that can topple other nations.

Micah 6:8 ESV

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

God holds us accountable for what we know and Judah knew what they were doing was completely against what God wanted, and they did not care. Israel only cared about serving itself and trampling on the weak.

Habakkuk is shocked and responds immediately by saying "Hold up, wait a minute! God doesn't seem a tad excessive?

Habakkuk 1:13–17 ESV

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? You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. 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. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?

The Babylonians are compared to as fishermen, and Judah as fish. People are merely a resource that allows them to gain more wealth and power. A dragnet that Habakkuk uses as a metaphor in verse 15 is fishing tool that is a huge weighted net surrounded by people to help catch fish out of the water. Habakkuk compares the nations as fish that are pulled up.

Habakkuk 2:1 ESV

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.

Doesn't this sound familiar? Isn't this how we often choose to respond when God does send us an answer we do not expect? Has this ever happened to you? The answer you hear is often too overwhelming to hear that we need an explanation from God?

God then responds to Habakkuk by saying "Write what you see down. Even though Israel will be punished, the Babylonians will also be punished in their due time. For God is Almighty."

Habakkuk 2:2–3 ESV

And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 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.

God let Habakkuk know that He does sees the sins of Babylon and has punishments for them. God will give us justice in His own time.

Now what was so bad about the Babylonians? They were a nation that was obsessed with expansion would do anything to win. When nations were adsorbed into the Babylonian empire, they would often be forced to give up everything they had and only follow Babylonian cultures, customs, and religions. They would also exile captives, by bringing them to their nation far away from home.

1. Wealth that is stolen -> Wealth will be taken away

Habakkuk 2:6–8 ESV

Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!” Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

Babylon had gotten rich off of other nations by exhorting tribute from them. All of these tributes only served to only make Babylon richer and the enemy poorer. The other method of gaining wealth was to pillage the nation that was conquered. God says that there will be a day when Babylon will receive what they treated as they have treated others. Their wealth will go to another nation.

2. Ruined other nations -> You will be ruined like all the others you have ruined

Habakkuk 2:9–11 (ESV)

“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

to set his nest on high,

to be safe from the reach of harm!

You have devised shame for your house

by cutting off many peoples;

you have forfeited your life.

For the stone will cry out from the wall,

and the beam from the woodwork respond.

I found the word “house” in verse 9 very interesting. The Hebrew word בַּיִת (bayit) means household. God is not talking about a literal house, but rather He is speaking about Babylon’s dynasty or legacy. The power that Babylon prided themselves in, God tears down by saying that instead of glory it brings shame. By choosing to destroy other nations, Babylon has created great shame for themselves instead of glory in the eyes of God.

3. The nation that has been built with bloodshed -> God has seen how you have done great injustice to those who have worked hard and you will be judged

Habakkuk 2:12–14 ESV

“Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Babylonians built their empire off the blood of their victims. The nations that fell to Babylon often had several hundreds of thousands of captives sent off to another land, far away from home. This was to make sure that country could not rebel and to steal away all the talents from their original country.

I read it best from a commentary by Spence-Jones:

“But the mutilations of prisoners, the weary imprisonments, the massacre of non-combatants, the refinement of cruelty shown in the execution of children before the eyes of their fathers,—these and similar atrocities, which are recorded of the Babylonians, are wholly without excuse, since they did not so much terrify as exasperate the conquered nations, and thus rather endangered than added strength of security to the empire.”

H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Habakkuk, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 26.

The world will know of the the knowledge and glory that God has. He has seen it all and will provide justice in His own due time.

4. You have used drink to manipulate others -> God will give you His cup of wrath

Habakkuk 2:15–17 ESV

“Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory! The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

Babylon would use wine as a weapon. By making their enemies drunk, they could expose the weaknesses that the enemies had. This dishonorable method of combat only brought shame to the Babylonians rather than glory in the eyes of the Lord.

Verse 17 means that Babylon was laying waste the trees and animals that inhabit the Lebanon mountain range in order to fuel their every growing empire. Not only was Babylon abusing the people, but they were also abusing their environment.

The same devastation they did the forests of Lebanon will happen to Babylon in its own due time.

5. Idolatry -> You have nothing

Habakkuk 2:18–20 ESV

“What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

What will save you if you believe in idols made of wood and stone? They are all nothing in the face of God. God is almighty and powerful. The idols that the Babylons are so proud of are nothing in the face of it. How can nothing defeat Almighty?

God reaffirms this by saying that He is Almighty.

Habakkuk 2:20 ESV

But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

God is all-powerful. Nothing can stand before God. God is not only the king of heaven, but of earth as well. We do not need to fear, because God has everything under control.

During World War II, the U.S. government sentenced about 120,000 Japanese Americans, most of whom were U.S. citizens, into internment camps across the country. This decision, made in 1942 under Executive Order 9066, was based on wartime fear and racial prejudice rather than any real evidence of disloyalty.

The internment caused great suffering for Japanese American families, who lost their homes, businesses, and freedoms. The living conditions in the camps were poor, and the internees faced significant emotional and financial hardships.

After the war, the injustice of the internment camps started to be recognized. Activists and organizations, including former internees, began working for justice and compensation for what they had suffered. This effort gained strength in the 1970s and 1980s, thanks to people like Fred Korematsu and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).

This led to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed by President Ronald Reagan. This law acknowledged the wrongs of internment, apologized on behalf of the U.S. government, and provided financial compensation to those still alive. Each eligible person received $20,000, and the law also aimed to educate the public about the internment and its impact.

In conclusion, I would say God allows us to question Him. We do not have to be led by blind faith, but rather we can choose to question God. He has given us the Bible to give answers to our questions. The book of Habakkuk is all about questioning God, and yet God does not get mad. God however, does give Habakkuk answers to his questions in due time. The answers were above Habakkuk’s expectations, and God showed him justice.

Habakkuk’s burden is that he wanted justice, and God showed him justice. Sin is the burden that humanity bears, every single one of us has sinned. We sin every day and yet justice has been served on our behalf. Sin requires death as it is the opposite of God who is life, and thus we are doomed to die.

But! Jesus has given us a great justice and mercy! He took our place when justice was required for our sin. Could God have said “no more sin”? No! Sin is something inherently opposite of God, sin is death and God is life Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” . Jesus died for our sins so that we may be able to choose to have eternal life in heaven. It is through Jesus that justice was served and salvation was delivered.

This gift of salvation is free and Jesus offers it to us every day of every minute.

Now I have a challenge to everyone in the audience today before we leave and that is to tell someone about Jesus. Everyone deserves to be given a choice, and it is up to us to spread the word of the gift of salvation from Jesus

To those in the audience who know that Jesus calls them and wishes to rededicate their lives to Jesus, please come forward! Jesus calls us all, each one of us and all of us. No one is the least, but rather everyone is important.