24
‘Ah! OK, now I see… yes, I never thought of
that, never saw it that way’. But there is
nothing. The silence is deafening. In Habakkuk
2 we have veiled references to the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus, and the final establishment of
His Kingdom on earth. But no specific answers
to the questions which grabbed our attention
as we first began reading the book in chapter
1. Habakkuk concludes his prophecy with a
Psalm of praise, eagerly awaiting the coming
of God’s Kingdom on earth and the realization
of the Hope of Israel. The Bible teaches the
good news of the Kingdom of God as the
ultimate answer to all our strug-
gles of understanding and expe-
rience- the coming of the
Kingdom of God on earth after
the resurrection of the body at
Christ’s return. Then, “they
that sow in tears shall reap in
joy” (Ps. 126:5); then shall
come true Mt. 5:4: “Blessed are
the mourners, for they shall be comforted”.
Under the old covenant, God had promised
that the flocks, fig trees and vines of His
faithful people would be blessed (Lev. 26; Dt.
28). But Habakkuk concludes: “For though the
fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the
vines; the labour of the olive fails, the fields
yield no food; the flocks are cut off from the
fold, and there is no herd in the stalls: yet I
will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the
God of my salvation! Yahweh, the Lord, is my
strength. He makes my feet like deer’s feet,
and enables me to go in high places” (Hab.
3:17-19). He knows that he shall be saved,
finally, even though he received no answers to
his questions, and despite the lack of present
blessing as he thought it ought to be. That’s
the point- we have our ideas and expectations
of what life ought to be, of what blessing
should look like in my life. And we don’t get
it. As with any dashed expectation, we tend
to get angry and resentful when things don’t
work out. But this is where faith and hope
come in, and the perspective of God’s
Kingdom. And at this point, let’s just define
faith and hope. The Bible was written mostly
in Hebrew and Greek. The original words
translated “faith” mean effectively ‘trust’.
Trust means we do not have all the answers,
nor do we have a clear picture of our imme-
diate path in this world. “Hope” doesn’t mean
‘a hope for the best’, an unfounded positive
feeling that things will work out nicely. The
Greek “elpis” refers to a solid, firm expecta-
tion. The “blessed hope” which the Bible
speaks of is not something which might be,
hopefully, for me, or at least for someone (Tit.
2:13). It refers to a concrete knowledge and
expectation of a future event.
Job was another Bible character who had our
questions about suffering, fairness, ‘where is
God in all this?’ and so forth (Job 9 is full of
these questions). And, like
Habakkuk, he received no
specific answers. God simply
affirmed His greatness, and Job
is convicted of his sinfulness and
repents. And is saved, and the
curtain goes down on his life
with Job a happy man with his
God.
Answers We Don’t Want to Hear
All this isn’t what we really would like to hear.
We want to have the answers. We don’t want
our questions about suffering ignored and left
without specific answers. Rom. 9:18-20 raise
the issues of God’s fairness, with the inspired
author correctly second guessing our ques-
tions. And the answer is not what we quite
want to hear: “So then He has mercy on whom
He wishes to, and hardens who He wishes.
Then you will say to me: Why does He still
find fault? For who withstands His will? No, O
man; who are you to answer back to God?
Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed
it: Why did you make me thus?”. The answer
is that it is not for us to so reason with God,
but to accept His work; for we are the clay
and He is the potter. Job learned the same,
finally. He had a mass of questions for God,
and God replied by asking him questions. And
Job feels his case against God has totally
collapsed, and begs for forgiveness. But my
point is, that no answers are given by God to
Job’s mass of questions about suffering, Divine
justice, fairness etc.: “Then Job answered
Yahweh, I know that You can do all things, and
that no purpose of Yours can be restrained. You
asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without
knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered that
“Where were you
when I laid the
foundations of the
earth? Declare, if you
have understanding.
Job 38:4