“How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted” (Hab. 1:2-4).
The Hebrew for “tolerate” carries the idea of looking upon or watching something. So, Habakkuk’s complaint is wondering how the Lord can continue to watch the evil that’s going on and not do something about it. Most of us have felt this way. We look around at the world and wonder why God allows evil to continue and ask why the righteous suffer and while the wicked look like they’re living carefree lives. Habakkuk is referring to his fellow Jews-God’s chosen ones. Habakkuk is frustrated at the injustices that are happening among his fellow Jews.
At the time, Judah was ruled by King Jehoiakim who was cruel and corrupt. Therefore, the Mosaic law was not. Those who ruled had themselves been overtaken by wickedness were causing problems for the righteous ones. To put it in perspective, it would be like us looking around at all the evil that Christians are doing and wondering why God would allow it.
But then need to ask, what about me? Have I distorted the image of Jesus? It’s easy to accept God’s tolerance of us yet feel differently when he’s tolerant of others. We should have righteous anger over evil in the world but be thankful that God is tolerant of us.
The truth is we should love others. Now just because I need to tolerate you, that doesn’t mean I need to support the evil that is in your life. But some people don’t make that distinction. In their minds if I don’t subscribe to your beliefs or practices I’m a hater. If I don’t accept all lifestyles then I’m some type of —phobia. In other words, if I show that your lifestyle is violates God’s morality, then I’m narrow-minded or closedminded.
Believing Jesus is the only way to be saved could does get us labeled narrow-minded. But we don’t have to feel bad about that because Jesus is the only way. We cannot tolerate falsehood when it comes to our own personal choices, but we ...
