Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Habakkuk 2:2-20
It's one of the oldest questions there is. Why do bad things happen to good people?
Philosophers have wrestled with it. Shakespeare wrestled with it. C.S. Lewis wrestled with it acutely when his wife Joy died. In a book he wrote about his grief, he put it this way: if God's goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God. He argued himself out of that position by the end of the book, but it captures the raw realness of the question.
Here's what's interesting, though. I read an article recently that stopped me. The headline was: Gen Z isn't asking why bad things happen to good people. The author, a Bible and theology teacher at a university, made the point that his students have near-constant exposure to images of death, starvation, and violence on their phones, from Ukraine, Gaza, and elsewhere. They take it for granted that bad things happen to good people. What they want to know is when bad people will get what they deserve.
They're not asking why do bad things happen to good people. They're asking why don't bad things happen to bad people?
That's Habakkuk's question too.
Habakkuk Cries Out
Habakkuk has been crying out to God about the violence and injustice inside Judah — corrupt kings, paralysed law, perverted justice. God answered: I'm raising up the Babylonians. And Habakkuk pushed back hard. How can a holy God use a nation even more wicked to bring judgement? How does that make sense?
By the end of chapter one, Habakkuk has said his piece. He doesn't understand. He can't square the circle. But he's not walking away. He says: I'll stand at my watch, station myself on the ramparts, and wait to see what God says. He's complained. Now he's going to listen.
And God answers.
Write It Down
The first thing God says is: write this down. Make it plain on tablets so a herald can run with it. Get it accurate, get it clear, get it transportable, because you're going to need it for the long haul and other people are going to need it too.
The revelation awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it. It will certainly come.
Then God gives Habakkuk five woes against Babylon. Five declarations of coming judgment. And the through-line of all five is the same: justice is coming, and the punishment will fit the crime.
You've plundered many nations? Those who are left will plunder you. You've built your house by unjust gain and set your nest on high to escape ruin? The stones of the wall will cry out against you. You've built a city with bloodshed? That same level of violence is coming back. You've exploited the vulnerable and shamed them? You too will be exposed and shamed. You've put your trust in carved idols? They have no breath. They cannot guide you. They will not protect you.
Each woe is an inversion, what Babylon did to others will come back on Babylon. God sees it all. He knows it all. And he will not let it stand.
Then in verse 14, sitting in the middle of all this judgment, is one of the most extraordinary lines in the book:
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
That's where all of this is headed. Not just judgement, but glory. Not just the end of evil, but the filling of the earth with the knowledge of who God is.
Faith While You're Waiting
Here's the question I find myself sitting with. God's answer to Habakkuk is real and true. Justice is coming. But it hasn't come yet. Babylon still stands. The injustice still exists. Habakkuk, and the people of Judah with him, are going to live through exile before any of this is resolved. So what does faith look like in the meantime?
Habakkuk answers that himself in chapter three: “though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vine, 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 Saviour.”
Notice he doesn't pretend things are fine. He's honest about the situation. No rose-tinted glasses. The circumstances are genuinely grim. But he rejoices in the Lord anyway. Why? Because his trust isn't in the circumstances. It's in who God is.
Centuries Later God Says the Same Thing
Centuries later, John is given another revelation, and God says the same thing. Write down what you've seen, because these words are trustworthy and true. And what does John see? Much of the same thing. The four horsemen: political conquest, war, famine, plague. The world as we know it. Suffering on a global scale.
And under the altar, John sees the souls of those who've been slain, and they're crying out the same words Habakkuk cried. How long, sovereign Lord? How long until you judge? Until the bad things start happening to the bad people?
And they're told: wait a little longer.
But here's what those saints do while they wait. Whether they've died from war or famine or plague or whether they're still enduring: they sing. A great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language, across all of history. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.
Is that naivety? Is that disconnection from the world's pain? No. It's because of where their eyes are fixed. One of the elders says: do not weep, see the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed. And then John turns and sees — a lamb, looking as if it had been slain.
The one who controls history. The one who is in command even when evil appears to be on the rise. Jesus, the lamb who was slain, who rose again, who forgives the sins of those who trust him, who will bring all who are truly his safely through death and out the other side into resurrected eternal life. Into a world where the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
That's the hope. That's what faith looks like. Not pretending the pain isn't real. But trusting the one who holds history, the lamb who was slain and who lives.
So What?
We live in a world that offers near-constant exposure to suffering and violence. You can put your phone away for a bit, but it doesn't stop the violence. It's still there.
So when the questions bounce around your head. Where is God's judgment against oppressors? Why don't bad things happen to bad people? Where is God in all of this? The answer Habakkuk gives us, and the saints in Revelation echo.
We sing. Not because we're naive or thick or disengaged. But because we know who the lamb is. Because we know what he did on the cross and what he did on the third day. Because we know that he has purchased people from every tribe and language and nation, and that he will reign, and that his justice will come, and that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of his glory.
God has not forgotten. He is in control. And he is bringing an end to all of it.
Write that down. Make it plain. Pass it around. You're going to need it for the long haul.
Soul Revival Church gathers across the Sutherland Shire [Kirrawee, Yarrawarrah, Miranda, Cronulla] and Ryde.