Yesterday I sat with a dear friend who is in the same boat we are right now – waiting for a corrupt foreign government official to put his signature on a piece of paper releasing a child from life in an institution to life with a family. For months, in two different countries, separated by oceans and continents, two men have taken a child’s life into their own hands by refusing to offer freedom by the stroke of a pen. Pride? Indifference? Who knows what keeps them from doing this simple task that would secure life, peace and protection for an orphaned child. As we sat and talked, we visited an age old question. Where is justice for the children?
I was lead to Habakkuk this morning, and to my amazement, I found a man who, 2600 years ago, was asking the same question of God! Habakkuk’s name means “Embraced by God”. Interestingly, he was the only prophet that asked questions of God, rather than just reporting what God said to others. And the questions he asked were the same questions my friend and I found ourselves asking once again yesterday, “God, where is your justice for your children?” And God embraced him.
His people were being oppressed and held captive by an ungodly government. Take time to read the book of Habakkuk – it’s only 3 chapters long! But here is a summary: “God, where are you? Don’t you see this? I’m crying out to you for justice, and you are not doing anything!! Why do you show me this injustice if you aren’t going to do anything about it (Hab 1:3)??? These ungodly people prosper while your innocent children suffer!”
God answers with an acknowledgement of how bad things are and then tells Habakkuk that it is going to get worse. Habakkuk cries out to God again: “But aren’t you GOD??? How can you watch this – you are holy! Aren’t you going to DO something??? I know you could stop this, God!” I can so relate to Habakkuk in this, can’t you? It’s so easy to be completely overwhelmed by the injustice in this world – to get intimately involved with only one small child whose life is being sucked out of them by crushing injustice is more than we can handle. And then, how do we go beyond that? When we hear that there are 140 million orphans, or 2 million children being trafficked every year in the sex trade…it overwhelms our hearts and our concept of God to think of one child being subjected to this kind of torment, much less millions of children. It overwhelms us with sadness, but even more, I believe, it threatens our concept of God as loving and just. So we push those threatening thoughts aside, and as we struggle to forget those emerging questions, we struggle too, to forget the children that brought those questions to the surface. And the children pay the price for our fear and our indifference.
But Habakkuk was a man who wasn’t afraid to ask God those questions. And God embraced Habakkuk because justice is so much a part of who He is. In fact, He is the one that wired justice into us. He wants us to ask the hard questions. We need not be afraid to go deeper into the hard stuff – the realities of injustice on this earth and to look for God in those places. He will answer us there, just as He answered Habakkuk.
After Habakkuk’s second desperate plea for justice for the children of God, God responds with a revelation of what is to come. God tells Habakkuk to write the vision and make it plain – though it tarries, to wait for it….and He goes on to describe the justice He will bring to his people in the end in detail. He shares with Habakkuk that there is an appointed time for justice to come.
The end of the book is Habakkuk’s prayer – basically “Ok, I knew it! You are holy! You are sovereign! You DO care and you WILL bring justice! Even though things are terrible and I don’t know when and can’t see it now, I will rejoice in you, my strength.” He ends knowing that God is indeed just and that God will provide strength to wait until that time when He finally does bring justice to his people.
God sees, He knows, He cares, He is sovereign, and He is just. He will bring justice to this earth: “My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations.” (Isa 51:5) Are we willing to stand for that day? Are we willing to get our hands dirty and have our concept of God redefined in order to do all that He is calling us to do to plant seeds of justice, though we may not see the fruit in this lifetime?
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights.” (Hab. 3:17-19)
God embraced Habakkuk in his desperate plea to bring justice to his people, and He is embracing us in our desperate pleas to bring justice to this earth.
“Then the Lord replied, ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (Hab. 2:2-3)
Justice waits……
