Today’s readings seem to be focused on a question that bothers all of us at one time or another: Why does God allow evil to happen? Our first reading, from the Prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:12-2:4) consists of a dialogue between God and the prophet and may be the only place in the Bible where someone directly questions the way that God manages events.
The book dates from the years 605-597 BC, between the great Babylonian victory at Carchemish and Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of the southern kingdom of Judah which resulted in the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. Remember that during this period, Jerusalem was a hotbed of political intrigue and widespread idolatry. Even so, Habakkuk cannot see the justice in Judah being punished by an even more wicked nation and thinks that God would surely not allow the Babylonians to conquer Judah completely. “If it is true that the Chaldean triumph is ultimately due to Yahweh, how is it that a just and holy God, the custodian of justice, can treat nations thus, and the chosen people in particular? Will he allow the wicked to engulf the virtuous?”
The prophet sees a contradiction: He says to God:
Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
And you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
Habakkuk goes on to say that God, treats people: “…like the fish of the sea…”
The victims of the Babylonians are as helpless as fish swimming into a net. In fact, Mesopotamian reliefs show conquering rulers symbolically catching their victims in fishnets. It seems that the Babylonians are allowed to do anything they like and, in the end, they offer celebratory sacrifices over their ‘catch’ and burn incense to the booty which rewards them with wealth and luxury.
The prophet wants to know if there is to be no end to all of this: “Is he [Babylon] then to keep on emptying his net and destroying nations without mercy?”
The prophet then goes on a long watch on Jerusalem’s walls to see if the Lord has any answer at all to his complaints. Yahweh’s response comes in the second part of today’s reading:
“Then the Lord answered me and said…
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.”
The message is “for the appointed time” only, without any specification of when that will be. We will see later that it will deal with the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, 66 years after Habakkuk made his prophecy:
If it seems to tarry, wait for it…
It has an energy of its own, because it is the expression of Yahweh’s word moving to inevitable fulfilment. Our Advent liturgy uses this verse to express expectation of the coming Messiah.
The message, then, is to be patient. It may be slow in coming, but:
…it will surely come; it will not delay.
In conclusion, a contrast is made between two kinds of people. On the one hand there are “the proud” whose “spirit is not right in them”, and on the other, there are “the righteous”, those who “live by their faithfulness”. The king of Babylonia and his followers can be numbered among the first kind, as well as those people of Judah who have lost confidence in God. Others remain utterly faithful to God no matter what happens and how long he has to wait.
‘Faithfulness’ to God, i.e. to his word and to his will, is characteristic of the “righteous”, and assures them security and life here on earth. The wicked, who do not have this ‘righteousness’, run headlong to ruin.
In light of God’s revelation about how (and when) he is working, his people are to wait patiently and live by faith, trusting in their sovereign God. The last clause of the reading is quoted frequently in the New Testament to support the teaching that people are saved by grace through faith and should live by faith (see Hebrews 10:38-39). It also became the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
There is a distinction to be made between ‘faith’ and ‘faithfulness’. ‘Faith’ implies a deep and unconditional trust in God’s love and care for us, even in our sinfulness. ‘Faithfulness’ or ‘fidelity’ suggests maintaining, through thick and thin and perhaps over a long period of time, the integrity of our relationship with God (as in marriage). Obviously both apply in this passage.
We all need to live both by faith and by faithfulness. This is one of the secrets of peace and happiness in our lives.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!