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Habakkuk pt. 2: the Habakkuking
Not long ago my six year old hatched a plan. It was a simple plan (remember that band?!). It revolved around the extradition of a friend from that friend’s house and the transport of said friend to our house. Limited moving pieces, neigh on zero correspondence save for the requisite text--elegant in its efficiency. Serving as an accomplice my only role was to coordinate the transfer. Unfortunately circumstances, as they do, had the crap extenuated out of them. The friend couldn’t come. Tyrannical schedules had been long put in place to govern the weekend in question. The plan imploded. Judah, the six year old, is a sensitive kid. This failed rendezvous collapsed his soul.
Through tears: “But it isn’t right!”
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Habakkuk, as we noted in part one, was a prophet. Therefore he was either a performance artist, a mystic, a government employee or a combination of the three. One might imagine prophets (as we have characterized them) peering into the future for insights that might aid twenty-first century members of a religion they can’t imagine in a land they would not have believed existed in choosing a leader in a government model they couldn’t fathom. However prophets in Habakkuk’s cultural neighborhood didn’t look into crystal balls as much as they simply looked out their windows.
The manner of their report having done so determined their identity: either propagandist or prophet.
As best we can tell Habakkuk wrote somewhere around 600 BCE (Before Christian Era) in the nation state of Judah. Judah was an entity careening towards its nadir. For the previous 150 years the royal authorities in Judah had used any and all measures to stay the seemingly inevitable--defeat, occupation and deportation. When Judah was united to her northern neighbor Israel/Samaria under the leadership of famous kings David and Solomon (think, roughly 1000-900ish BCE) her borders were largely secure, her economy was robust and her military was feared. The zenith of Judean power followed a relative power-vacuum in the region. Between 1400 and 100 BCE few “superpowers” or aggressive empires presented themselves in the area. Therefore the Israel/Samaria & Judah state(s) had time to develop as a force to be reckoned with. However after the reign of Solomon the states became formally divided. In the following years the old enemies some of you may remember from felt-boards (the Hittites, Jebusites, Canaanites, Stalactites, Stalagmites, Stick-tites, Overbites, Excitebikes etc) had given way to legitimate empires such as Assyria. In 701 BCE Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem, the capitol city of Judah and a place famous for how relaxed and totally chill everything has been... Nearly a decade earlier an Assyrian force had conquered Israel/Samaria and Judah seemed to be the next colonial domino to fall. Except it, well, didn’t. The Assyrian army had been ballin’ out for years but Jerusalem stymied them. (EVERYTHING IN ME WANTS TO NERD SO HARD ABOUT MILITARY ADVANCES HALTING AT SEEMINGLY RANDOM MOMENTS>>>>MUST>>>>NOT>>>>GO>>>>THERE)
Theories abound as to why the Assyrian army left Jerusalem unassailed. Armies had an unfortunate (if you’re in the army) tendency to spread diseases. Holler at me typhus! Perhaps such an epidemic crippled the Assyrian army. Historians also suggest that there was political unrest in Nineveh, the Assyrian capital which forced the invading army homeward. Whatever the reason for abandoning Jerusalem the reality was astonishing: one day the people Judah were faced with the prospect of starvation and subjugation and the next they simply were not.
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People of faith experience an occupational hazard when interpreting reality. Their belief in something beyond what they observe forces them to view reality through the lens of that belief. Therefore we end up with “I know this is hard, but everything happens for a reason. #trustgod” facebook posts. The Assyrians bail and people of a particular worldview in which nothing is attributed to chance are offered the opportunity to ascribe the sudden change to the will and work of God. Jerusalem is preferred and protected by God the royal prophets say. God will never let Jerusalem fall the royal prophets say. Jerusalem is the chosen city of chosen people the royal prophets say. God loves us more than he loves everyone else the royal prophets say.
Typically the following truth should be revealed like a slamming door at the end of an essay, but I simply can’t wait: If you ever hear anyone say that any deity loves their group/tribe/party/family/person more than any other you are not listening to a prophet but a propagandist
The stillborn siege of 701 BCE permitted a certain ecstatic arrogance within the Judean government. All reports of danger were met with the same very practical prophetic response: “peace!” Consider that cultural climate when you hear Habakkuk’s prayer.
How long, 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 wrongdoing? 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.
Before we dive into the content of this prayer let’s note a couple things. 1. There is a rhythm to this thing. Remember we said that Habakkuk drops a mixtape so it should be no surprise that he has bars on bars. He’s thought about this. He’s prepared it. This isn’t a response to a bad day or a foul mood. Habakkuk is carefully taking note of his world and is responding in this manner because he is so certain of his conclusions. 2. Habakkuk sees no inconsistency with believing in a very powerful deity and simultaneously calling that deity out. Faith occasionally renders its adherents cowardly. Habakkuk is no coward. He is also not wavering in his faith.
Habakkuk is not somewhere “out there”. He isn’t in Assyria or Babylon or ISIS or the trailer park or an inner-city school or the Democratic national convention or a Trump rally. He is “in”. Particularly he is in Jerusalem. His critique comes from within his tribe; from within the “chosen” place of chosen people. He’s not suggesting that things are so bad “out there” but thank goodness we’re the good guys! Everyone around him is yelling “Peace!” and he shouts “Violence”. Read his song again.
Violence//Injustice//Wrongdoing//Strife//Conflict//Perverted
Peace?
Nope.
Not if people are cheated. Not if someone’s humanity is reduced. Not if systems enable oppression and abuse.
Michael Render is a very successful artist. His art is hip-hop music which he performs under the moniker Killer Mike (which is cool, try it, be Killer Mark or something for a day. You’ll feel so much more legit). Render’s eloquence doesn’t falter off the track either. He is a profoundly apt and engaging voice on social and political issues. After the grand jury refused to prosecute any officer involved in the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO Mr. Render suspended his live show to comment (NSFW). Regardless of your opinion on the matter you can probably identify with Killer Mike’s exasperation and pain...
...this is not right.
If there is a God and that God is good and not capricious or disengaged shouldn’t God make things as they should be? The Hebrew word for things as they should be is shalom. Shalom is translated often as peace but it’s a bigger word than that. It’s goodness made manifest. Habakkuk sees poverty and oppression and people being taken advantage of and evil leadership turning a profit and wonders if the one who taught them the word shalom has lost his voice.
Habakkuk doesn’t begin with a disclaimer or apologize for his outrage. What the hell God? Shalom?
And then he waits.
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If you speak American (no, I don’t mean English, I mean cultural American) or Christian Radio you know that we have certain things bubbling up rapturously inside us. Either praise or hormones (though the two are barely distinguishable in their given formats). We HAVE to sing praise. We HAVE to dance with her/him.
Very rarely do we have “What the hell God?” ready to volcano out of our hearts according to American culture or Christian radio. But you have, haven’t you? You are a living breathing human being and shit has happened to you or because of you and you have wanted answers or changes. You have walked out of hospitals or office buildings or your front door and wondered just wear the shalom might be because it sure isn’t with you. Everyone else is #blessed and you are drowning.
If that is where you are have the courage to ask why and when and how long. Believe that God is only God if you can ask the hard questions. Don’t buy into the idea that you need to be sure “everything is okay” or that you “shouldn’t complain” in order to be a person of faith. Prophets write challenging songs to God. Propagandists write anemic songs about a filtered version of God.
Have you ever wondered “What the hell God?”
Yeah?
You’re a prophet.
And you stand in a long line of prophets. And you share the soul DNA of countless prophets who have come before and have come alongside you. You don’t feast on your hurt alone but with brothers and sisters and the occasional odd uncle who listens to your hurt and does not say “don’t worry, everything happens for a reason” but something infinitely more worthwhile--“I know how you feel.” There is a Jewish means of interpreting reality which suggests that if God is creator and sustainer of all life it naturally follows that God is to be found in all life. So perhaps the struggle and hurt and pain and full-throated anger directed toward the face of God is actually a means by which we draw closer to the divine.
Things are not right.
It’s okay to say it.