Weekly Newsletter

 Those who try to acquit God from ever sovereignly causing or allowing any calamity, suffering or pain – on a personal or national level – must modify, if not outright ignore, passages such as Habakkuk chapter one.  For in it, the prophet Habakkuk clearly implicates God as tolerating wickedness and ignoring the suffering of God’s people.  Then, in response to his cries, God answers Habakkuk not by reassuring him but by giving him a further glimpse into the greater suffering that God was about to bring as judgment against Judah: “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own.  They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor” (1:6-7).  While Habakkuk did not understand how a just and loving God could allow such suffering, God Himself unapologetically acknowledges His sovereign hand in it.