Prophetic Agony
Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. Habakkuk 1:3-4 NIV
Make me look – “A startled, tormented man is Habakkuk. He is distressed at the fact that violence prevails and agonized by the thought that God tolerates evil. He prays, ‘How long?’ He cries, ‘Why?’”[1]
Now read Heschel’s comment again, but this time like this: “A startled, tormented man is __(your name)___________. He is distressed at the fact that violence prevails and agonized by the thought that God tolerates evil. He prays, ‘How long?’ He cries, ‘Why?’”
Do you find this true? Are you and I not in the same place as the prophet? Heschel captures what Habakkuk feels—and what we feel. “While God’s design is veiled in enigma, it is the prophet who volunteers an explanation. The nations are guilty: punishment must follow guilt.”[2]
But it doesn’t!!
“Justice is meaningless to the great powers of the world. Merciless are they, and absolutely worthless is man in their eyes. God, who so loves man that He does not tire of uttering through the prophets His outrage at the wrongs done unto man . . .”[3] seems to have turned His back on the innocent. Andralamousia. Judgment sweeps away everyone.
How is this justice? How can the God of righteousness allow such atrocity? Habakkuk offers an answer—perhaps the only answer: “the righteous shall live by his faith.”
“God’s answer will happen, but it cannot be spelled out in words. The answer will surely come; ‘if it seems slow, wait for it.’ True, the interim is hard to bear; the righteous one is horrified by what he sees . . . Prophetic faith is trust in Him, in Whose presence stillness is a form of understanding.”[4]
Habakkuk begins his lament with the agony of vision. “Why do you let me see all this?” Wouldn’t it be better for the righteous to be sheltered from the spectacle of evil? Wouldn’t our faith be stronger if we didn’t have to confront these questions? Why don’t you shelter us, Lord, from the horrors of our world? You deal with them and leave us out of it, please. Habakkuk voices the desire of the lonely man of faith to escape this very broken world. Let me find a nice deserted island far from evil men’s ravages and worship You in peace. Perhaps heaven can wait—but not very long. My eyes are forced to look upon travesty, turmoil, and trauma—constantly. And You, Lord, You make me see this. Why?
rāʾâ, “to see, to look at,” here in the Hif’il imperfect. Causative. Continuous. Unfinished. God makes him see. He isn’t able to turn away. The hands of the divine force his view. Imagine what that is like. You are about to witness human evil firsthand. Before you a person is abused, raped, ravaged, decapitated—and you are forced to see it all. You can’t even close your eyes. Now you know why Habakkuk is so distraught—and why so few of us can deal with a true prophet’s experience. We want a desert island shelter. God makes us to look. That can only result in one thing: agonizing contradiction. “Why?” must become “How?” “How is this possible, Lord?”
We’re not done with Habakkuk yet, are we?
Topical Index: rāʾâ, injustice, violence, evil, see, Habakkuk 1:3-4
[1] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, Vol. 1 (Hendrickson, 1962), p. 140.
[2] Ibid., p. 141.
[3] Ibid., p. 142.
[4] Ibid., p. 143.
