“….Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralysed. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”
I can remember when I was a kid asking 20 questions to my older friends. Why is the sky blue? Why is the dirt brown? And on and on. As a dad, I was at the other end of the 20 questions, and I did my best to answer all I could. I hear a bunch of “why?” today concerning our country and government. Most of these whys I cannot answer, but Habakkuk drops a cause-and-effect truth in the first chapter of his conversation with the Lord that we can use today.
If you look at things today and shake your head, you are not alone. Last night, I heard about a man who was defending himself from a robber. The man ended up stabbing the would-be robber in self-defense, and the robber sadly passed away. The crazy thing is that the store owner, who was being robbed, was charged with murder. Crazy, this leaves us in a state of “what happened to justice?”
I am not a lawyer, but I do believe the word of God holds answers to everything because it is the inspired word of God. In chapter one, Habakkuk is asking the Lord if He is ever going to show up and clean house on the evildoers. He says that destruction and violence are everywhere, and strife and conflict abound.
This destruction, violence, strife, and conflict we see in today’s world. Praise the Lord, it is not worse. The next verse is for us during this time. It states that because of all this, the law is paralyzed. The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted. This sounds very familiar to our story about the store owner. Perverted justice and law that is paralyzed. Sad to say, but this can be said of our country right now in many respects.
I don’t have a law degree, but Habakkuk lays it out in very simple cause-and-effect language. Devotionals are supposed to be uplifting, so why the deep dive into the law and justice? While I was in school, the teacher made us do current events. We had to pick a current event and present it to the class. Well, I am not in a classroom, but the current events need to be presented, and moreover, the reason behind them needs to be out there also.
If you are one of the ones asking the “why?” question, look no further. When destruction and violence rise up, and strife and conflict seem to be all around us, you can expect the law to be paralyzed and justice to be perverted. Today, pray that the destruction, violence, strife, and conflict in our society stop and that the Lord will rise up and remove the evildoers who cause all of this. Pray that those things that cause the law to be paralyzed and justice to be perverted will be removed from our homes and places of work. Jesus came to set us free from the law of sin and death and to lead us into perfect peace. Are you leading others into peace or strife? Are you the one causing conflict and violence? It starts with you.
Prayer: Father, help me to be the peacemaker and the one removing strife. Help me to lift Your name up and not glorify the evildoers by always talking about them. Help me to give it all to You and realize Your love for us covers a multitude of sin. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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