Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith
Most of us like a good mystery. We’re entertained and intrigued by a good mystery, whether it is in a novel or in some news story we’re following. But I don’t think anyone alive is entertained by the mysteries of his or her own life. No, we are frustrated by such mysteries. All of us can see disparities in life. We see what is and what we believe should be, and we can’t help but question. It’s a mystery to us how such things could be.
Habakkuk was a man keenly aware of such mysteries. He was surrounded by wicked people who literally seemed to be getting away with murder. He asked God, “How long am I going to watch this wickedness and nothing happen?” When God gave His answer to Habakkuk, it seemed to make things worse because Habakkuk realized he’d been asking the wrong questions. Basically, God said, “I am working. I will work, and I’m going to judge the wicked people among your own with the even more godless Babylonians who are going to overtake them.”
Now Habakkuk asked new questions, “Well, God, how can you judge wicked people among your own with even more wicked people that are pagan?” This illustrates a couple of the fundamental questions in life: “How do we negotiate the mysteries of life when we don’t understand life? How do we have peace when there are such disparities between what is and what should be?”
Well, it’s interesting to note Habakkuk’s own concession about Who God is, because therein lies our clue about how to solve mysteries of life. In Habakkuk 1:12 he acknowledges that God is everlasting, self-existent, the Holy One, and mighty. So based on Who God is and not what Habakkuk understood Habakkuk came to a place where he was just going to wait to see what God would say to him.
The real answer to all this is found in Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him [a reference to the Babylonians’ arrogant armies]: but the just shall life by his faith.” The way to negotiate the mysteries of life is to put our faith in what God knows and not what we see. Sight just isn’t as reliable as we would like it to be, but what God knows is infinite.
The key to life is not understanding things; it is knowing God. It is putting faith in the character of a God Who is everlasting, all-powerful, and good. It is putting our faith in what God knows and not merely what we see.