A Prayer Tinged with Question

Scripture passage: Habakkuk 3:2-15

This passage is a prayer, offered by the prophet Habbakuk, recounting during a time of national suffering God’s work in delivering the people Israel from slavery and into the Promised Land. And though the first few verses of the passage reveal a sense of awe and praise, the overall tone of the prayer is bit more muted. God’s power to destroy is described in great and disturbing detail – earth shaking, land trembling, mountains writhing; anger, wrath, fury. Though all this divine power is framed as serving God’s people over generations – vs. 13, “You came forth to save your people, to save your anointed” – the raw descriptions of God’s power makes me wonder if some of this sense of devastation didn’t hit close to home for the prophet and the people to whom he preached. That is, I wonder if this prayer is tinged with a question: could what God doled out to our enemies in years past be what we’re suffering now? Even if we continue reading the last few verses of this book, we see that the prophet is afflicted with doubt. “I tremble within; my lips quiver at the sound” (vs. 3:16).

I think of the doubt that Jesus felt in the garden, asking that his Father take this suffering away from him. Or on the cross, when Jesus prays the psalm, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” Surely Jesus knew of all the great things that God had done for his people over the generations … yet, yet in this hour, he suffered. How could any of this make sense?

One of the easiest, yet most irresponsible things we can do in response to suffering is to say, “God has a plan.” As if God inflicts suffering as part of his work in the world, and as if we could interpret such things! All we can do is cry out, with Jesus, with Habakkuk, with all the suffering of the world, recalling the great things that God has done in history, and living in hope that God continues to do great things … such as delivering his people from slavery to freedom, releasing them from captivity, and bringing them from death to life.

Rottenness enters into my bones, and my steps tremble beneath me. I wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon the people who attack us. Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.
- Habakkuk 3:16-18

Prayer:
Gracious heavenly Father, enter into the world’s suffering and bring about new life. Grant to all who struggle strength and patience. By your Spirit give them your hope; renew them by the inspiration of your past deeds; and come to their aid, making the mountains of sin writhe and the firmament of oppression tremble. Through your Son Jesus Christ, whose promised coming will fulfill your vision for a just creation, we pray. Amen.

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