God tells Habakkuk that He is going to send the Babylonians to swallow up the nations. Habakkuk is telling God that He’s bigger than the wicked and can stop them, but He’s allowing them to swallow up the righteous.

Habakkuk understands that the wicked are used for discipline, reproof, judgement. But He still expects the God of justice to see the righteous caught up in it all and act on their behalf.

God promises that the end of the wicked will come. There is no reassurance from God in the promise about what will happen to the righteous. The focus is what will come back around to those who are doing evil against Israel and the nations.

The Lord does give Habakkuk one promise directed at the righteous, “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”

God will carry out His word. He will carry out His justice. It may seem long coming, but the promise isn’t only that it will come eventually. The promise is that it will not delay.

I found that very interesting. It seems slow in coming, but it is not delayed.

God has a perfect timing for everything, and it is being carried out.

That is a great thing to remind yourself of, both when waiting on God’s salvation in a situation or when you want to beat yourself up for not realizing something sooner or for messing things up and seeming to make deliverance take longer. God’s perfect timing is being worked out.

He could have given you the faith for the instant miracle, but He didn’t. It wasn’t time. He could have brought the healing. It’s easy for Him, but it wasn’t time.

God is good and perfect in all His ways, and we would do well to acknowledge it and thank and praise Him and hold our peace instead of complaining.

Habakkuk 2:20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.