Habakkuk’s 2nd Lament: Why Use Wickedness to Punish Wickedness?

GracePointe Church of Christ in Elizabethtown, PA

Habakkuk has a problem with God’s answer and offers up his second complaint because Babylon, the prophet claims, is even worse than Israel. They are even more violent and corrupt; and so Habakkuk asks, “How can such a holy, good, and just God possibly use such corrupt people as his instruments in history?” God responds that He will one day bring Babylon down using the never-ending cycle of revenge and violence created by nations like Babylon. The fact that God may, for a time, use a corrupt nation like Babylon doesn’t mean that he endorses everything they do. He holds all nations accountable to his justice, and Babylon will fall along with any nation that acts like them.