The Silence of God

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. (Habakkuk 1:1-5 ESV).

In our reading today, the prophet Habakkuk wrestled with “the problem of unanswered prayer” (vv. 1-4). God appeared to be silent. However, as we will see, the truth was simply that Habakkuk wasn’t satisfied with God’s answers to his prayer. I have often been asked what I do when God tells me to “wait.” My answer is usually very unsatisfactory. I tell folks that God never answers our prayer with “wait a while.” His answer is always a “yes” or a “no.” Sometimes we simply don’t like the answer we hear, so we try to soften it with some other explanation of the refusal of God to be our personal vending machine of blessing. This is at the heart of the meme I’ve chosen to accompany today’s devotional: Stop and listen to the silence… You might just hear a new song coming from the Father above. Sometimes “the problem of answered prayer” can be as hard as “the problem of unanswered prayer.” God told Habakkuk he would raise up the Babylonians to punish Judah for its injustice and wickedness. But Habakkuk wondered how that could be a solution to the problems he prayed about. The Babylonians were more wicked than the people of Judah! How could God use evil to accomplish something good? Would God just replace one kind of suffering for the oppressed with another kind that was worse for everyone? That may be a question we also ask sometimes. We see evidence of sin, and we wish God would take it away. But then the problems seem to go from bad to worse. Is there no end to the suffering in this world? Let me be very clear. God does not take pleasure in our pain, except that he knows it will ultimately bring about our great good. God has promised to use our suffering to work good in our lives (cf. Romans 8:28-39). We see the clearest example of this in the cross of Christ, where the greatest evil accomplished the greatest good. The Apostle Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). There can be no doubt that nothing about the death of Jesus seemed good; yet, the ultimate good was produced from it. Without this work of sacrifice, none of us would have any possibility of life. We would all be relegated to receive what we deserve, death! Celebrate life, even when God seems to be silent!