Why?

Albert Bogle October 06, 2022 0 7

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Habakuk 1: 1-4 (NRSVA)

1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not listen?
Or cry to you ‘Violence!’
    and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing
    and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
4 So the law becomes slack
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
    therefore judgement comes forth perverted.

Habakuk asks the same question as Job asks in his questioning of God. Why do bad things happen to good people? The truth is there are no easy answers to these questions. The first few verses of Habakuk could easily be written by a modern day Ukrainian. Or the mother of another child who has been the victim of a knife crime or gun shot wounds.

The answer from scripture is always the same. When all seems lost God has not forgotten. We are invited to trust in the justice of God. Isaiah the prophet says “Those who trust God will find their strength renewed” (Isaiah 40: 29).  The promise of God is that he will give us the grace and the strength to live through the hard times. He never promises to give us an answer to the question ‘why’.

PRAYER:

Lord,

I’m complaining to you

I wish I could understand

You see everything

Your all seeing eyes

They reach the ends of the earth

Nothing can be hidden from you

So why don’t you act

Protect the weak

Defend the righteous

Look after the vulnerable

Feed the hungry

Lord give me faith to believe

You have a plan to right wrongs

Lord

Forgive my complaining

You have given me insight

To understand the needs

Ears to hear the cries

Eyes to see the dangers

Feet to move towards the needy

Hands to serve the vulnerable

And a heart to keep complaining.

And mustard seed faith

To turn my complaining into action.