God responds to our complaint about His response to our question

God responds to our complaint about His response to our question. The answer does matter to us. At least, it should. It may tell us something about what happens to us when, not if, we do the same thing.

I need to put a side note in here. The AI check of my grammar, spelling, and such flagged the use of the word "may". It's apparently a weasel word, indicating a lack of confidence. But here's the thing about my choice of "may". "May" is the correct word! We can't always judge an event from what happened in the past.

To us, God's not predictable. Not because God is capricious and inconsistent. Not at all. However, God is beyond our understanding. Therefore, it's not that God isn't sure how He would react. Rather, it's our lack of full knowledge on any situation that prevents us from always knowing how God will respond to something.

So, three lessons come from this. 1) God is consistent. 2) We don't know everything. 3) AI isn't always right.
BTW - if you notice the airplane in the sky in the image, it's proof AI isn't always right!

I need to put a note in here about the Divine Justice explanation above. The summary was AI generated. The idea that "evil is ultimately addressed through faith" requires an explanation. It's not technically wrong, but it's only truly correct if we understand the point of view from which it is derived.

I asked the AI engine how it came to that conclusion. Since it generally comes up with responses based on how people think, I didn't just dismiss the statement without knowing where it came from. Here's why it came to that conclusion:

The concept of evil being ultimately addressed through faith comes from the central theological theme in the article: God's sovereignty and justice.

In Habakkuk’s dialogue with God, he wrestles with the reality of evil, questioning why injustice seems to prevail. God responds by assuring Habakkuk that judgment will come at the appointed time, even if it seems delayed from a human perspective. This aligns with the broader biblical message that evil is not ignored but dealt with according to God's perfect timing—sometimes through historical events, sometimes through spiritual conviction, and ultimately in divine judgment.

A key verse from Habakkuk, Habakkuk 2:4 says, “but the righteous will live by his faith.” This verse underscores that faith is the way believers navigate the tension between seeing evil in the world and trusting that God's justice will prevail. It suggests that rather than being overcome by doubt, believers are called to trust in God’s plan, knowing that He will address and rectify wrongdoing in His own way.

This theme carries over into the New Testament, where faith is repeatedly highlighted as the means by which believers endure trials and remain steadfast, even in the face of evil.

So, it's not that our faith that addresses evil. God addresses evil. But it's our faith in God's ability and promise to deal with evil that allows us to know that evil will ultimately be addressed - by God.

Watch and wait

When we left Habakkuk in part 3 of the series, He just responded to God's answer from his initial question about how long God was going to allow evil to exist on the earth. In other words, Habakkuk's complaint about God's response to Habakkuk's earlier complaint.

At the end of Habakkuk's response to God, he closed with this:

Hab 2:1 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

The LORD'S Answer - to Habakkuk's second complaint

And so, let's see how God responded.

If anything, the first two verses of God's response appear to be contradictory, multi-layered, and at best, confusing.

Check it out:

Hab 2:2 Then the LORD replied:
“Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.