Can I Trust God: When Evil Seems to Win | Habakkuk 1:12-2:5

Habakkuk stands in that hard place where evil looks like it is winning. Judah is wicked, God’s prophet has cried out, and God’s answer seems to make the problem worse. God says he is raising up the Babylonians, a violent and arrogant people, to judge Judah. Habakkuk does not pretend that makes sense. Habakkuk brings honest questions back to God, but he starts in the right place: he remembers who God is.

God is “from everlasting.” God is Yahweh, the God of the burning bush, the God who heard Israel cry out in Egypt, the God who saves. God is “my God,” not distant or removed, but personal. God is holy, pure, and unable to look on evil with approval. God is the Rock, the firm place, the fortress, the one who does not shift when life feels like chaos.

The situation around Habakkuk looks like the back side of a cross stitch: lines everywhere, colors crossing, no clear picture. God’s character is the front side. The answer is not to redefine God by the current circumstances. The answer is to redefine the circumstances by the everlasting, unchanging God. Evil, cancer, family pain, unbelieving loved ones, and suffering do not get to tell the truth about God. God has already revealed himself in his word, in his works, and most clearly in the sending of his Son.

Habakkuk also refuses to stare only at the Babylonians. The Babylonians are pictured like fishermen with hooks, nets, and dragnets, sweeping up nations like fish. Their power is real. Their cruelty is real. But Habakkuk takes his stand on the watchtower and looks for what God will say. Waiting is not passive. Waiting means opening God’s word, seeking him in prayer, practicing silence, and being humble enough to let God change the way the complaint is answered.

God answers with a promise: the vision has an appointed time. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. The proud are puffed up, restless, greedy, and never satisfied, but “the righteous shall live by his faith.” The righteous live by personal trust in the Lord, not borrowed faith, not national power, not military strength. Christ has already defeated sin, death, and the grave, even though that victory is not yet fully seen. John Bunyan’s prison looked like evil winning, but God used those twelve years to bring forth The Pilgrim’s Progress. Evil does not win. God keeps his promises.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Remember who God is God’s character has to be the starting place when life does not make sense. Habakkuk does not begin by explaining the Babylonians, he begins by naming God as everlasting, holy, personal, and rock solid. Circumstances may be loud, but they do not get the final word on who God is. [07:13]
• 2. Circumstances do not define God Suffering can tempt the heart to say, “God must not be good,” because the moment feels like the whole picture. Habakkuk’s burden shows that the present situation is only one side of the cross stitch, tangled and confusing from underneath. God’s revealed character must reinterpret the moment, not the other way around. [15:40]
• 3. Waiting means watching for God Habakkuk does not ask his question and then drift back into anxiety. The watchtower image shows an active, alert, serious kind of waiting that looks to God for an answer. Scripture, prayer, silence, and humility become the place where God reshapes the complaint. [21:22]
• 4. Faith is personal trust “The righteous shall live by his faith” is not generic religion or inherited belief. The Babylonians trusted their own strength, their own army, and their own power, but the righteous live by personal dependence on God. Borrowed faith cannot carry a soul through the day when evil looks strong. [33:30]
• 5. God uses prison seasons John Bunyan’s twelve years in prison looked like wasted years and unanswered prayers. God used that hidden suffering to produce a book that has never gone out of print and has strengthened believers for centuries. The believer may not see the full picture in this life, but God is not wasting what he has appointed. [43:36]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [01:30] - When Evil Seems To Win
• [03:15] - Habakkuk’s Complaint Continues
• [06:48] - Remember God’s Character
• [10:41] - Trust The God Who Loved First
• [15:40] - Redefine Circumstances By God
• [16:29] - Look To God, Not Circumstances
• [20:57] - Stand Watch For God’s Answer
• [23:10] - Seek God In Word And Silence
• [28:31] - Rely On God’s Promises
• [32:02] - The Righteous Live By Faith
• [38:51] - Promises For Hard Days
• [41:26] - John Bunyan’s Prison Witness
• [46:10] - Three Responses To Evil

Bible Reading

Habakkuk 1:12-2:5
“Are you not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever? I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the LORD answered me: ‘Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.’” [03:27]

Hebrews 10:38
“but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” [34:52]

Romans 1:17
“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” [33:30]

Galatians 3:11
“Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” [34:06]

Observation questions

1. In Habakkuk’s complaint, what names and descriptions does he use for God in verses 12-13, and what do those words show about who God is? [07:13]
2. What images are used to describe the Babylonians in Habakkuk 1:14-17, and what do those images show about their power and cruelty? [17:46]
3. In Habakkuk 2:1, what does Habakkuk say he will do at his watchpost, and what does that reveal about how he waits for God’s answer? [21:22]
4. In Habakkuk 2:4-5, what contrast is made between the proud person and the righteous person? [32:02]

Interpretation questions

1. Habakkuk asks hard questions, but he begins by remembering that God is everlasting, holy, personal, and his Rock. Why does starting with God’s character matter so much when life feels confusing or painful? [10:41]
2. The picture of the cross stitch shows that present circumstances can look tangled and chaotic from underneath. How does that picture help explain why suffering should not be allowed to redefine who God is? [15:40]
3. Habakkuk’s watchtower waiting is active, not passive. What is the difference between simply feeling stuck and truly waiting on God in Scripture, prayer, silence, and humility? [23:10]
4. “The righteous shall live by his faith” speaks of personal trust. Why is borrowed faith not enough when evil seems strong, and what does personal trust in God look like in real life? [33:30]

Application questions

1. When life feels loud or painful, what circumstance is most tempting right now to define God for you? What would it look like this week to start instead with what is already true about God? [15:40]
2. Habakkuk called God “my God” and “my Holy One.” In this season, does God feel personal and near, or distant and hard to trust? What has been shaping that sense in your heart? [09:21]
3. Waiting on God includes opening his word, praying, and practicing silence. Which of those is weakest in your life right now, and what small change could help you actually seek God instead of circling around the problem? [24:28]
4. Humble waiting means being willing for God to answer in a way that changes the complaint. Is there an area where you sense resistance to letting God correct your thinking or soften your heart? [27:00]
5. The proud trust in their own strength, but the righteous live by faith. When pressure rises, what do you naturally trust most—control, preparation, money, health, relationships, or something else? How does that show up in daily life? [32:25]
6. God says, “If it seems slow, wait for it.” Where does God’s timing feel painfully slow to you right now? What would faithful waiting look like there over the next few days? [29:46]
7. Some seasons look wasted, but God is not wasting what he appoints. Is there a prison-like season in your life—grief, sickness, disappointment, family pain, unanswered prayer—that needs to be placed again in God’s hands? What makes that hard? [43:36]