World-weariness
How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and yet You do not listen? I scream “outrage” to You, and You do not rescue! Habakkuk 1:2 Robert Alter
Outrage – Taken directly from the Psalms, the prophet Habakkuk applies David’s words to his circumstances. We might do exactly the same.
“How long?” That’s the real question, isn’t it? All the supposed monotheistic religions offer the hope of divine intervention and ultimate reconciliation. But thousand of years have passed. Millions of people have suffered. Nightmare after nightmare has become reality. There seems to be no end to the surge of evil. In fact, if anything it gets bolder. If David felt it, if Habakkuk recognized it, how much more do we? When we realize that the Hebrew word Alter translates as “outrage” is ḥāmās, we are confronted with the inescapable conclusion that evil wears a public face without shame.
This noun and verb are together used sixty-seven times and mostly translators seem satisfied with the word “violence” in some form (KJV, RSV, NIV). It may be noted, however, that the word ḥāmās in the ot is used almost always in connection with sinful violence. It does not refer to the violence of natural catastrophes or to violence as pictured in a police chase on modern television. It is often a name for extreme wickedness.[1]
By now we know this is our reality. On every side we are confronted with extreme wickedness—deliberate sin without a scrap of moral hesitation. ḥāmās is the summary of our age. So, how long? How long can we go on pretending that God will show up and fix this corrupted order? How long will we hope against hope that divine power will overcome the immoral tsunami? Is Heschel right: “It is easier to detest than to revere.”[2] Is that where we are—ready to give up this unfilled faith in an unknown future?
It seems to me that most believers hang on to hope regardless of the barrage of contrary evidence. Listen, the world is not getting better. That’s the truth. Even our puny moral evaluation seems to suggest that God should have intervened in many despicable situations. I simply cannot explain why a divine sovereign who proclaims His mercy and love would stand by and let so much wickedness prevail. It does little good to justify His absence by projecting judgment into some future. The evil happens now. Now is the needed day of salvation!
Perhaps that’s why we need prophets like Habakkuk. We need someone, some righteous one, to voice our complaint, to shout, to scream to God, “How long?” We need to be honest about our circumstances. We need someone who’s not intimidated to say, “What’s the matter with You, God? Why don’t You hear us?” Hope does not make ḥāmās acceptable. It doesn’t make ḥāmās tolerable, as if we must grin and bear it and wait for Judgment Day. No, hope isn’t hope unless it can shout, “How long?” Hope isn’t hope unless God answers. We don’t need everything fixed today. We just need reassurance that He’s still involved. We need Habakkuk to show up once more.
Topical Index: ḥāmās, violence, outrage, evil, hope, Habakkuk 1:2
[1] Harris, R. L. (1999). 678 חָמַס. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 297). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. 24.
How long? And for what do we long? We long for that Kingdom wherein the Sovereign rule of God prevails, in which “well-being” or shalom characterizes our foundational existence.
We know from that portrayed in John’s apocalyptic vision that the Lamb and King and Priest is blended in the figure of “one like a son of man.” And this figure is further blended with that which is called the “Ancient of Days”… being from Everlasting to Everlasting… JHVH.
This is the God to whom we cry, “How long?”. Yet as Heavenly Priest and King, the Sovereign, “One like a Son of Man” has already begun his Sovereign rule, a rule to be carried out and conducted by “his body” on earth—in those redeemed and who are to walk in their vocation even until the desolation, the ḥāmās (the “outrage”; the abomination that desolates) is poured out upon the desolator—that is, “until the decreed end.”
Is this the end for which we long? We who are His subjects, His doulos (bondslaves) bear the only light in this world by which the darkness is not able to overcome. Do we really yearn for the righteous justice of that desolation, the ḥāmās, simply out of a self-reflected concern and consideration? No, I think, not altogether—if we are genuinely His. Yet we do long for that hope of His promise made long, long ago. And we so desire that the pain and misery of injustice and wickedness would come to its promised end.
How then, shall we live “unto that end?”—“unto” our end? We must live as those whose light shines forth, even as it is supplied by One who “walks among the lamp stands,” in faithful loyalty to that Sovereign who even now rules from heaven, yet also serves as our Heavenly High Priest, mediator of God’s covenantal requisite requirements and imperatives. We must live as bondservants of the Most High, serving at the pleasure of Him in whom we will finally and fully rest in the finality of well-being—shalom.