Habakkuk on Unrest in the Nation

I had an insightful conversation with my son Michael on ZOOM.  During the conversation we talked about the unrest in the USA and the violence perpetrated on citizens.  It reminded me of the prophet Habakkuk’s cry.  So I offer you something I wrote some years ago for your consideration.  Note especially the citation from Rollo May.  I think it speaks directly to what we are experiencing now.

Habakkuk 1:2 

How long, O Lord, will I call for help, and You will not hear?  I cry out to You, “Violence!”  Yet You do not save.

Violence! – You know the aphorism.  “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”  It seems that two thousand seven hundred years haven’t made much difference to the cry of the righteous.  “How long, O Lord,” was the cry of Habakkuk and it is our cry today.  “How long, O Lord, will we call for help against the ungodly, the wicked, the violent, and You do not answer?”  If there is one single question that challenges faith in an omnipotent compassionate God, this seems to be it.

Violence!  The Hebrew is ḥāmās.  It has become so prevalent that we even have a political party with the name, “Violence!”  Imagine that!  Unthinkable!  In the Bible, ḥāmās is always about sinful violence, not natural disasters.  It is a man-made entity.  Unfortunately, its human construction often results in non-human disasters.  In the Bible, more than brutality is included in ḥāmās.  Living without Torah (lawlessness) is also a form of ḥāmās (violence).  It isn’t necessary to use a gun.  You can also simply ignore the Sabbath.  How’s that for impact!

Perhaps, as Rollo May suggests, we just don’t understand the true nature of violence.  “Violence is the expression of impotence.”[1]  “Violence, or acts close to it, gives one a sense of counting, or mattering, or power . . . This in turn gives the individual a sense of significance.  No human being can exist for long without some sense of his own significance.”[2]  This explains the psychology of a terrorist.  Without violence, he doesn’t matter!  His act of violence gives him meaning in life.  In fact, in a world where men do not find meaning for their lives in the God of life, where men have desacralized the world, where they must rise up against the machine, violence is an expression of hope for worthiness.  That is why violence has always been, and will always be, a part of the world empty of God.

But the problem isn’t understanding .  The problem is that God doesn’t seem to care.  When we look at the ubiquity of violence, especially when we see that rejection of Torah is an act of violence, we are struck by the fact that God does not pour out His wrath!  Violence is an ever-present reality in this broken world, yet God does not act to erase it.  Why?  Why doesn’t He answer our prayers for peace, our pleas to end the rebellion?  The problem with violence is compassion!  We could understand wrath.  We can imagine justice.  We would laud restitution.  But where is it?  When will it arrive?

Today, for that is the only day we have, we must be the answer to our call for help.  Today we must stand for law and order, for righteousness, for justice.  Today we must overcome ḥāmās with raḥûm (“compassion” – Exodus 34:6).

[1] Rollo May, Power and Innocence, citing Hannah Arendt, p. 23.

[2] Ibid., pp. 36-37.