Habakkuk 1:5-6 NLT
[5] “The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. [6] I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands.”

Well now, God, how is that for a solution!

“If you think things are bad now,” God said, “they are going to get a whole lot worse!” God’s answer to Habakkuk’s accusation was as startling as it was terrifying. An army well trained, relentless, and ruthless, was on its way to decimate the nations including Judah, the little, non-descript remainder of what was once David’s mighty Israel.

Habakkuk 1:7-11 NLT
[7] They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. [8] Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey. [9] On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. [10] They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! [11] They sweep past like the wind and are gone”…

God takes pains to describe to Habakkuk the nature of this tool He is about to use to refashion His people. So powerful a military force was coming that nothing and no one would be able to resist them. They would sweep over the surrounding nations like locusts, devouring everything in their path.

Imagine Habakkuk’s horror at this disclosure. Was this God talking or some sadistic impersonation of the God he knew and served? Why would God resort to this means of confronting His people?

Let’s stop and examine the background to this extreme situation. Although God had claimed them as His own, from its inception as a nation Israel was bent on rebellion. They rejected God’s rule over them. They opted for idol worship to be like the surrounding nations. They chose human kings to rule over them in place of God despite the evil influence many of these kings had on them.

God had warned them of the consequences. Their own history bore witness to God’s anger at idolatry. Their ancestors were God’s tool to destroy the Canaanite idolators under Joshua so that they could possess the land, a bit of land they now precariously clung to after the Assyrians had conquered and overrun the northern kingdom of Israel.

Their stubborn rebellion against God was lodged deep in their hearts. God sent prophet after prophet to warn them but no amount of preaching, teaching, or warning shifted them from their chosen path.

A few of their God-fearing kings led the people of God back to a temporary semblance of obedience but, come another rebel king on the throne, they were soon back to their idolatrous ways.

God knew that it would take very drastic action to shift them from rebellion to obedience. The consequences He warned them about didn’t scare them until He did what He said He would do if they refused to repent and change their ways. He had to dispossess them of their beloved land, and send them into exile to live among the idolators they do loved to follow. This was the only way to change their minds about the God they had chosen to abandon.

You see, God never treats anyone as a puppet. He gave the whole human race the gift of self-determination and did not remove it when Adam fell. Adam chose to go it alone and God let him go, despite the consequences because he had made the choice.

Jesus honoured people’s right to choose in His dealings with them. If anyone chose against Him, He did not force His will on that person. He let the rich young ruler go when he chose his wealth over following Jesus.

God’s way of leading people to the right way is by allowing them to feel the pain of their disobedience so that they will repent and choose His way. They must change on the inside by their own choice.

God never forces His will on anyone. He wants people to love and serve Him by their own free will. He uses and guides through circumstances so that people will recognise and be convinced that His way is the right way.

He knew that the only solution was to apply pressure on His people so drastic that they would begin to loathe the rebellion that got them into the situation.

Within the disclosure of His plan to Habakkuk, God inserted an ominous warning concerning the perpetrators of Judah’s punishment,

“But they (the Babylonians) are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”

The destructive power of the Babylonian army would be temporary because God would not tolerate their idolatry either. He would use them to achieve His purpose with the people of Judah and then discard them as worthless because they failed to honour Him.

God’s disclosure of His plan made Habakkuk’s head spin. God’s response was so puzzling that it aroused a new dilemma.

To be continued…