When I was reading the book of the prophet Isaiah, my attention was drawn to a long section that I had never quite understood the meaning – Isaiah 63:7 – 65:16. It didn’t seem to quite fit with the context, the chapters preceding and following. Then I saw it. This is a conversation between the people of Judah (the southern kingdom after Israel split) and God. More recently I read Habakkuk, which is also a conversation the prophet had with God. They are quite similar yet very different. Read on as I compare and contrast these two hard conversations with God.
The background of both was the conquering of Israel and Judah by a foreign power – Assyria followed by Babylon. This military conquest brought defeat, death, captivity, and great suffering. God was using this foreign, idolatrous nation as his means of bringing judgment on his chosen nation.
The conversation in Isaiah
Isaiah 63:7-10 – the prophet introduces the conversation with a brief description of the situation. He starts with “I will tell of the kindness of the LORD…” God has been very good to Israel. His view was “Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me.” God was loving, compassionate, and merciful. He was their Savior who redeemed and “carried them.”
Then Isaiah tells how Judah responded to God’s goodness: “Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.” Because of that rebellion, God “turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.” That’s the reason for judgment. Here the conversation begins.
Judah speaks first. This is Isaiah 63:11 – 64:12. (From here on, I will use the term “the people” for the nation.) The people express how they understand what is happening and how they feel about it. They acknowledge that the LORD has been so good to them from all the way back to Moses. They wonder why he is not still being good them. They ask, “Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.”
The people know that they have been acting in rebellion, but they don’t take responsibility for it. In fact, they blame God. “Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?” Is that not amazing? It’s really shocking. But it’s their explanation for their disobedience. They pick it up a little later on and say, “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Do you hear what they are saying? God, we are rebels, unclean and filthy, because you made us this way!
At the end of chapter 63 and moving into chapter 64, the people declare that they are the LORD’s people but he hasn’t taken charge over their enemies and stopped them from trampling their holy land. It’s time he did: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!” They’re saying it’s time for God to show up for them like he did for their ancestors.
The people admit, “You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.” Then they allow that they themselves have “continued to sin” and God was angry with them. They conclude with an accusing question: “How then can we be saved?” They are saying that, yes, they have done wrong but God’s anger means they don’t have a chance to get out of their wrongdoing and its consequences. God’s anger is the problem! In fact, they say, things are so bad for them because God is overly angry. Their country and cities are in desolation and even the great Temple has been burned because he is “angry beyond measure.” If the LORD would just be more levelheaded about all this, they wouldn’t suffer so much.
The people close their side of this conversation with another question: “After all this, O LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?” (Isaiah 64:12) Now that they have explained things clearly, does God have anything to say or is he going to stubbornly keep on punishing them unreasonably?
Yes, God has something to say. In chapter 65, he responds. He starts with “Let’s get real.” They say that he hasn’t shown up for them. God points out: “To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations…” He has been reaching to them but they continue to slap him in the face with their idolatry, lawbreaking, and arrogance. So they get what they deserve: full pay back for their sin. He is not being overly angry nor unreasonable. The people have brought this on themselves.
Then the LORD goes on with the promise and the offer of forgiveness and restoration and blessing. “I will not destroy them all.” He emphasizes that if the people continue to forsake him and refuse to listen to him and answer his call, there will come destruction. His “servants” – those who are his real people – will thrive but rebellious Israel will suffer. He assures them that for those who live by “the God of truth” things will be different, “for the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.” All this, of course, is what happened with the coming of Jesus the Messiah.
The conversation in Habakkuk
Now let’s look at the other conversation: Habakkuk 1 – 3 (the entire book).
The prophet Habakkuk has a similar complaint as the people in Isaiah. The Assyrian kingdom had conquered Judah. The Assyrians were extremely violent and cruel to the peoples they ruled (see Nahum 3:1-4). Habakkuk went to the LORD and asked, “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?” Like the other conversation, he wants to know why God is not doing something about the people’s suffering under a ruthless tyrannical nation.
God responds with a statement that he is going to do something. But it’s not what Habakkuk wants to hear. “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law unto themselves and promote their own honor.” God’s answer to the prophet’s complaint is it’s going to get worse.
The Babylonians (aka Chaldeans) conquered Assyria then moved through the middle east. They besieged Jerusalem, burned many buildings including the Temple, and took over rule of Judah. They carried away many Jews, like Daniel, and held them in captivity in Babylon.
When Habakkuk heard what God was going to do, he continued the conversation. He acknowledged that the LORD could use Babylon to execute judgment on Judah, but he wanted to know why he would do that. Why would God use a pagan, idolatrous nation to punish his chosen people? Why would God use a more wicked people to “swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”
God responds again. He tells Habakkuk to write down what he says he will do then wait for to happen. God assures the prophet that at the right time he will deal with Babylon. But he also reveals that he has a greater purpose in mind: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” God’s plan includes Judah but it is not just about Judah’s material well-being. It’s about God’s intentions for the entire creation.
Then Habakkuk responds to God with a song, a psalm, in chapter 3. He sings that he stands in awe of God. He recalls how God delivered the Israelites from Egypt and other nations during the exodus to the promised land. Then he closes his song: “Yet will I wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”
In contrast to the people in Isaiah, Habakkuk accepts God’s will. He does not make excuses or shift blame. He does not continue to complain about God’s plans and actions. He listens, believes, and sets his hope on God’s promises even though life is hard and it doesn’t look like God is at work. He rejoices and finds strength in God working out his plan.
So, what can we learn from these two conversations between people and God? Maybe the Spirit will reveal something to you, but here are three applications that I see.
1. God chose Israel to be the people through whom the world’s Messiah would come. He succeeded with that plan but it did not come about smoothly. The conversation in Isaiah 63-65 occurred after the prophecies of the Messiah’s suffering and victory that provide salvation (chapters 40-62). It occurred before the prophecy of ultimate victory – the new heavens and new earth. It seems that the message of Isaiah 63-65 is a declaration of judgment on Israel even though she was chosen by God and God did work through her to send the Messiah. Most of the Jews, especially the leaders, rejected the Messiah when he came, so there was judgment even though there is the offer of salvation for all. See Matthew 21:33-46 and Matthew 24:1-25 – the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Even with Israel’s repeated disobedience of God’s commands and directions, the Lord accomplished his plan. He was faithful to his covenant promises. He did what he set out to do even though his people failed him. He sent the Messiah for the salvation and blessing of the world.
2. Rebellion against God will not win. Continuing sin cannot be allowed. Without a Savior, that means judgment and punishment. Instead of trying to shift blame or excuse or minimize or explain away our sin, we must confess and take responsibility and trust the Savior.
3. We can converse with God about the conditions of our lives. We can complain. God will hear and not reject us. But we must move beyond complaining. We must listen (Isaiah 65:12; Habakkuk 2:20) to God’s response and accept what he has to say. We must hear his revelations to us and adjust our own views about ourselves and our experiences. We need to learn to look at life from God’s perspective and with God’s purposes in mind (Isaiah 65:2; Habakkuk 2:14). This is what it means that “The righteous will live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4) and this is how we live as his images. We must trust in God more than we insist on our own desires and comfort. We must set our hope on God’s promises of abundant life when it doesn’t look like it’s happening (Habakkuk 3:17-19).