Unanswerable Questions - Habakkuk

O LORD, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?

Habakkuk 1:12-13

Men throughout history have struggled with seemingly unanswerable questions. Believers and nonbelievers alike have asked,

• If God is so holy, why does he allow evil to continue?
• If God is so loving, why does he allow horrible suffering to persist?
• Why does God allow unrighteous people to harass and persecute the righteous?

Tell the truth. Haven’t you, at some difficult point in your life, wanted to protest that God is just not fair? If God really loved us, we reason, our marriages would run smoothly, our children would behave perfectly, and our jobs would be enjoyable every day.

An Old Testament prophet named Habakkuk struggled with some tricky theological questions of his own, including this one: Why would a righteous God use such desperately unrighteous people as the Babylonians to bring correction and punishment to those he loves?

Habakkuk readily acknowledged God’s right to discipline his wandering people, but he recoiled at the idea that a wicked nation would be the instrument of divine correction. How could a holy God do such a thing?

Habakkuk’s questions mostly remained unanswered, but God sustained the troubled prophet’s faith by reminding him that he remained in control, that he knew what he was doing, and that Habakkuk could trust him. In the end, Habakkuk could only trust God and sing praises to his wonderful, mysterious name.

In your life, you will often face questions that seem to have no answers. Though God may give you some direct insight, more often he seems to leave your questions unanswered for the moment. He wants you to learn to say from the heart, “I trust you, God, for you are my Lord!”

What questions about God most trouble you? In a world wracked by pain and injustice, do you, like Habakkuk, recognize that God’s eternal love remains in place?