"If God exists, why do the wicked so often prosper?"
This is a question commonly asked by those who are sensitive to social justice. The prophet Habakkuk (Ha-buk-kuk), was quite sympathetic to such concerns, while preaching during the last days of Judah, before its fall to Babylon in 586 B.C. He foresaw the impending doom and was troubled by two things: why God allowed the people of Judah to sin and how God could use a sinful nation like Babylon to punish Judah.
Desperate for answers, Habakkuk boldly and confidently took his complaints directly to God. God answers Habakkuk's question's (one dealt with here in this post), asserting that He will judge all people but that righteousness will ultimately prevail. It may not happen immediately on our preferable timetable, but it will happen. This assurance, along with his glimpse of God's sovereign rule, gave Habakkuk the courage and hope to trust in God's plans regarding the dark days ahead; perhaps we too can learn something from this!
This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.
Habakkuk’s Complaint (Habakkuk 1:2-4)
How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.
The LORD’s Reply (Habakkuk 1:5-11)
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. I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. 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. “On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”
Since the beginning of time, God has been warning His creation about what is right and what is wrong; what is good and what is evil! So, if we bring this up to date as we should, and 'Babylonians' is replaced with 'CABAL' - considering the stronghold it has on the world under lockdown, are they too not guilty - is their strength not also their god?
Could the delay for the removal of this very real demonic 'CABAL' be the result of 'We the People,' refusing to trust the living God, and instead, trusting in our own strength, or worse still - mixing our trust and confidence in the idolatry of gaia the Greek goddess, extra-terrestrial beings, draco-reptilians, paladians, alien overlords, or rescue by some foreign galaxy civilization, or the multitude of other New Age figments of wild imaginations?
Also while speaking to Habakkuk, God says in Habakkuk 2:18-20 “What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you? How foolish to trust in your own creation — a god that can’t even talk! What sorrow awaits you who say to wooden idols, ‘Wake up and save us!’ To speechless stone images you say, ‘Rise up and teach us!’ Can an idol tell you what to do? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside. But the LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”
We can understand the date and intended applicability of said writings, and yet, IDOLATRY and the ignorance of man to refuse to trust the living God and His living word that cannot be discredited has no time-frame. In Romans 1:20, God shares through the Apostle Paul, "For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God."
In closing, this is a timely analogy - the Rock of Life - and if we want freedom, peace and love across the globe, in our homes, our lives, then our first love must not be to trust in man, but in God - Jesus Christ Living God, who spoke man and the universe into being - who would not and cannot deceive or lie to us. If this were not true, He would not have told us so, nor would His living word be absolute, irrefutable, inerrant and infallible as it is and proven to be as such; no other can make this claim - man, or man's religion, while playing god.