O Lord, How Long?

[Read Habakkuk 1:1-4]

I’ve mentioned this multiple times lately, but we’re living in a time when our cultural landscape is changing drastically. Things are not like they were ten, twenty, or fifty years ago. One of the statistics that keeps getting a lot of attention is the rising number of “nones” in the United States—those who have no religious affiliation. So about ten years ago, seventeen or eighteen percent of the US population had no religious affiliation. Now, that number is at thirty percent—or about one-third of the population has no religious affiliation. That’s a dramatic shift. And, of course, along with this rise of the religiously unaffiliated, is the dramatic decrease in the number of Christians. Churches are shrinking all across the United States. 

There are many things that go along with shifts like these. When people no longer acknowledge any religious affiliation—or more importantly, no longer grab hold of Christianity—they lose any standard for measuring right and wrong. The standard becomes either their heart or the culture around them. And when that happens, we see societies begin to fall apart and crumble—especially democracies, countries ruled of the people, by the people, for the people. 

The founders of the United States said that we needed two things in order for democracy to work. We needed an educated people and we needed a religious people. People needed to know what was going on so they could make educated decisions and those decisions needed to be guided by some moral code. If we lose either of those things—or both of those things—the country falls apart. Because the people have become wicked, they vote for wicked leaders and vote for wicked laws and things begin to fall apart. And we’ve been watching this happen in our country for a while. 

That’s why we can relate when we read Habakkuk’s cry to God. He says, “Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:3–4, ESV). He says that he looks around and he sees that the wicked surround the righteous—they outnumber them. And as a result there’s destruction and violence, there’s strife and contention, the law is paralyzed, and injustice is everywhere.

And, like I said, we can relate, can’t we? Do you see destruction and violence around you? We can’t forget all of the rioting that happened in 2020 and 2021. Those years were filled with violence and destruction. Do you see strife and contention on the rise? Of course we do. We are surrounded by strife and contention. Our country is full of it. Not only our country, but our churches are full of it as well. I just spoke with a group of pastors from the United States and Canada and listened as they described the unbelievable amounts of strife and contention in their churches right now. That’s why so many pastors are leaving the ministry. They’re being eaten up by the strife and contention. 

Habakkuk mentions something else that is extremely relevant. He says that the law is paralyzed and that justice never goes forth and that when justice does go forth it’s perverted. As I talk with people from around our country, they are feeling this same way. The law seems like it’s paralyzed because we’re so divided. We just can’t get anything done, can’t come to any consensus. There seems to be so much injustice going on right now as we watch people being tried by public opinion or, even worse, people are afraid to make certain verdicts because they’re afraid of the possible rioting that may take place. And so, when “justice” finally goes forth it isn’t true justice, it’s perverted and corrupted.

I realize it’s kind of a “downer” way to start a sermon, but like I always say, it’s better to acknowledge reality than to pretend things are different. And, I’m not starting my sermon this way to simply complain about the way things are—that’s never actually helpful. I’m starting this way for a few reasons. First, we need to recognize that our situation isn’t new. This has happened over and over and over again throughout history. Second, we need to recognize how closely our current situation fits the context of Habakkuk. Then, Third, we need to learn how to live in this particular world, in this particular context, with these particular problems. And, I think Habakkuk will be very helpful for us. 

He begins by saying, “The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.” (Habakkuk 1:1, ESV). One of the important things I want to point out in this introductory verse, is that the word “oracle” can also be translated “burden.” This isn’t the type of burden you tie on the back of a donkey, but a prophetic burden. So, this could be translated to say, “The burden that Habakkuk saw.”

Some people think this is describing a vision that Habakkuk saw, and that it was a burdensome vision. However, I don’t think that’s the case. It doesn’t seem to line up with the rest of the book. Habakkuk isn’t seeing a vision. He is seeing the world around him. And as he looks at the world around him—seeing the destruction, the violence, the strife, the contention, the wickedness, and injustice—he is burdened with a prophetic burden. He needs to say something or do something. 

And I think that’s a good place to start for each of us. As we look at the mess around us—the violence, the destruction, the contention, the strife, the wickedness, and injustice—are we burdened by it? Or have we become so desensitized that we aren’t really bothered by it any more. Calvin says, “There is indeed nothing which ought to cause us more grief than to see men raging with profane contempt for God, and no regard for his law and for divine truth, and all trodden under foot” (18). Nothing should grieve us more. Nothing should burden us more than seeing the mess that’s around us. And, if we’re not feeling that burden, we need to repent and ask for forgiveness. If we’re going to effectively live in our current situation we need to feel the weight of sin and death. 

We also need to feel some Godly indignation. I can’t show you exactly where Habakkuk says he has Godly indignation, but it’s there in his words. He’s not just burdened by the sin he’s surrounded by, but he’s indignant about it. He’s frustrated that the law is paralyzed. He’s angry that justice is being perverted and injustice is everywhere. He’s not happy that he’s surrounded by wickedness and violence and contention. 

And, I think this is also an important aspect of living in a time like ours. Yes, we must be grieved by the sin and wickedness in our world, but we must also be angry about it. We are called to hate sin and it’s destruction. We need to have a Godly indignation inside us when we see sin all around us. Yet, we must also not forget Paul’s warning, “Be angry and do not sin…” (Ephesians 4:26, ESV). So, how do we do that?

There are many people who are handling their grief and their anger improperly right now. There are some who look at the brokenness of the United States and they are overwhelmed with grief—almost paralyzed by it. On the other hand, there are some who look at the brokenness of the United States and they are enraged—they are so angry they are willing to do very foolish things and cause a lot of damage. Neither of those are helpful ways to handle our griefs and our righteous anger. 

Habakkuk shows us a better way. He takes BOTH his anger and his grief to God in prayer and he does it over and over and over and over again. When he says, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help?” (Habakkuk 1:2, ESV). He’s saying that this isn’t the first time he’s prayed about it. He has been bringing his grief and his anger to God over and over and over again. He’s brought his prayers to God so many times that he wants to know how much longer he needs to keep on doing it. It feels like he’s been praying about these things for sooooo long. 

This is one of the ways we need to handle our grief and our anger in a broken world. We cannot try to carry them ourselves. We must keep laying them at the feet of our God over and over and over again. When we are heavily burdened by the brokenness that is all around us, we need to lay those burdens at the feet of our God in prayer. When we are angered by sinfulness and wickedness around us, we need to take our anger to God and lay that at his feet too. 

And those prayers aren’t always pretty. Look at Habakkuk’s prayer: “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?” (Habakkuk 1:2–3, ESV). I think we’ve all been there a time or two in our own lives. We’ve all had those moments when we’ve been praying and praying and praying and praying and it doesn’t seem like God is listening. And we cry out, “How long?!?” Or we see violence and injustice and wickedness all around us and we cry out, “How long, O Lord before you do something about this?!?” 

I’m not sure how many of you know this, but today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It’s a Sunday when we often remind ourselves about the goodness and beauty of human life and mourn the ways in which human life is destroyed. In particular, we grieve and we mourn and we’re angered over the evil of abortion. When we talk about destruction and violence and strife and contention and injustice and the law being paralyzed in our country, abortion is at the center of that. And we have a right to be grieved over it and we have a right to be angered by it, but we need to take those to God in prayer. And I think we can pray right along with Habakkuk, “O Lord, how long will we cry out for You to remove this wickedness from our country and you will not hear? How long will we point out this violence to the unborn and you will not save?” Like I said, these aren’t pretty prayers. It’s okay for us to be confused and perplexed why God has allowed this evil to continue—and even be celebrated by some—in our country. 

But, as we pray these un-pretty prayers, we need to remember a couple things. First, we’re not the first ones to cry out, “How long?” When God poured out manna on his people in the desert, and they didn’t trust him and tried to hoard a bunch of it, the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?” (Exodus 16:28, ESV). When the Israelites refused to enter the Promised Land, trusting skeptical report of some spies, the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” (Numbers 14:11, ESV). We hear these words on Jesus’ lips as well, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” (Matthew 17:17, ESV). So, when we pray these un-pretty prayers, asking God, “How long?” we need to remember that our God is looking right back at us, asking us the same question. How long will we continue to despise his laws and commandments? How long before we stop trusting in ourselves and turn back to God? How long will we be a faithless generation? 

And that leads to the second thing we need to remember. When we ask God, “How long?” we need to remember that we’re talking to a faithful God, who has had every reason to leave us and forsake us, but hasn’t. He would have had every right to leave us to die in our sins, and he didn’t. So, when we ask, “How long?” we must never ask it in a way that questions his goodness. We know he’s good. He’s proven that over and over again. We can only properly ask that question of God as we trust in Him. We can only properly ask that question by faith. 

Then, the whole tone of the question changes. It’s no longer an accusatory questioning of God and his goodness—accusing him of sleeping on the job or accusing him of injustice. That’s not asking in faith. When we ask in faith, we trust God’s goodness, but we’re perplexed and confused. We know these things don’t honor God and we don’t understand why he hasn’t acted yet. We’re coming to God saying, “God, this doesn’t make sense, but I trust you. God how much longer before you act, how much longer before you answer. I know you will eventually act and you will eventually answer, but how much longer?”

So, as we live in a time when we could easily be overcome with anger or grief, we must trust in our God. We must repeatedly take our grief and our anger to him in prayer, continually pleading before his throne, asking him to act and to move and to bring his Kingdom. But we must always pray in faith, trusting that our God is good, that His ways are higher than our ways—that he often works in mysterious ways—and that He will eventually answer and He will eventually act in his perfect timing.