What, then, about the individual? Here's Habakkuk's question:
Why dost thou look on faithless men, and art silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
( Hab. 1: 13)
Habakkuk is told, in effect, to wait. In God's good time righteousness will be vindicated. It seems now as though this were not true, but his vision is limited and he must have faith that, in the end, God's purposes and his righteousness will win.
And the Lord answered me: "Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end -- it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.
Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith."
( Hab. 2: 2-4)
Let us also remind ourselves of the experience of Hosea (which we examined in some detail in0 Chapter 5). Hosea came to realize that suffering can have a healing and redemptive quality about it. Although there must be punishment for wrongdoing, it is punishment with a purpose. For the other side of punishment is restoration. God punishes for the purpose of winning his people back to him. And this is as true for the individual as for the nation. Hosea knew very well from his personal experience that suffering is not just God's vengeance; it has a real redeeming purpose.
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