Theodicy 3

Habakkuk 1:3-4, Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

His country was awash in sin, theft, violence, division, and inept courts (sounds very familiar!).

And God seems distant or uncaring: 1:2, O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” and You will not save.

God responds:  1:5-7, “Look among the nations and watch— Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.  They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.”

God recognizes the Chaldeans as terrible – dreadful – land grabbers – bitter – arrogant!

Habakkuk is troubled.  How can God be all-wise (everlasting), personal (LORD, my), all powerful (God who created it all), holy (sinless) and unchanging (Rock), yet use such an evil empire?

Habakkuk gets it that his people will not be destroyed but must be punished, but how can God even begin to tolerate such evil and wicked people who destroy righteous people?

Listen in:

1:12-13, Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?

Habakkuk goes on to describe the doings of the coming nation like fishing whereby God lets people be treated like fish who are caught and eaten in festival then more are hooked and eaten.

Habakkuk knows he has likely overstepped the line and now waits for God’s response.  2:1, I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.

God does answer telling Habakkuk that justice will come but not immediately and that the right response to life’s evils and delays is:  2:4, The just shall live by faith!

This story features the doctrine of Theodicy – How to reconcile a good God with evil.

What is the Biblical Solution to the Problem of Evil? – gotquestions.com

The existence of evil is often presented as an enormous problem for those who believe in God, mostly because of various false dichotomies. 1) God must, it is assumed, disallow all evil or He is evil Himself.  2) God must immediately punish all evildoers and 3) never trouble those who are innocent, or He is assumed not to be omnipotent. In reality, these assumptions miss the actual means by which Scripture resolves the problem of evil.

As we’ve seen, the Bible acknowledges evil, correctly frames it, and shows how God opposes it. Most importantly, though, Scripture explains how the existence of the Christian God defeats the problem of evil.

Matthew 16:21, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

… Rather than creating us as amoral robots or dooming mankind for our sin or condoning our sin by leaving it unresolved, God chose the one and only way to settle the problem. He created us with the freedom to choose our actions, and then extended forgiveness to us. Forgiveness is the Christian answer to the problem of evil.