When We Disagree with God’s Methods - Habakkuk 1-3

 Habakkuk 3:16 (ESV)

I hear, and my body trembles;

my lips quiver at the sound;

rottenness enters into my bones;

my legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

to come upon people who invade us.

To put the above verse into a practical setting imagine you have just gone to your boos or supervisor with a complaint.   You had a number of questions about the operation and how you thought “it should be going.”    Your boss is a kind man, but you also know he can be rather intimidating.   To your surprise he listens to you and even debates you on the merits of your ideas.  He does not agree with you.  He sees that you are limited in your scope regarding how the organization is run.   When you leave his top floor, corner office to head back down to your cubicle in the basement you are both trembling, but encouraged that you not only survived and were not fired, but he heard you.  

This is the story of Habakkuk.  He was a prophet who dared to confront God with his claim of unfairness regarding what was going on in the mail room in the basement.   God heard him and replied.  Throughout the book God even interacted with him.   Habakkuk’s book is like someone arguing with God in prayer (see the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32).   Habakkuk was frustrated that God was using a wicked nation (Babylon) to punish his nation (Judah).   The Assyrians had already taken them captive but had treated them somewhat in a good way (at least the remnant).  Babylon was a very wicked group of people.   The prophet was confused as to why God, who controls all powers, would allow a more wicked nation to destroy a more righteous nation (speaking in relative terms).   God engages and tells him that God does what He wants to make His plan work.   He never really gives Habakkuk the answers he wants.  But, he does make sure that Habakkuk knows that He is IN CONTROL and He still has compassion on His people.  This leaves the prophet as we read above.  He is both “trembling” and content to “wait” God out to see the finish of God’s plan.   God had promised him that He would ALSO be punishing Babylon at some point.   So, Habakkuk is content to wait it out.   His final refrain is set up by this above resolve to wait for God’s salvation, even though he disagrees with God’s methods:

Habakkuk 3:17-19 (ESV)

Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

GOD, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the deer's;

he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Sometimes, when we are the most confused and the most in disagreement of His methods we need to sit and wait.  We can tremble and notice that everything is bad, but we also know that God is our strength and eventually puts us on our high places and makes our feet like the deers.