“And then the Holy One answered me saying, “Write down this vision and articulate it clearly on the page so that messengers can run with it. For this vision is for this time and it will be revealed at the end to be true. Wait. All will be revealed soon. Yes, it will. ” (Habakkuk 2.2-3).
What does God sound like? Tucked away inside the book of Habakkuk is this very question.
The book begins with a very common lament of the prophets: injustice fills the land, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Why, he asks, does God remain silent?
The response is that the Babylonians will soon come and destroy Jerusalem. They will be an instrument of the Divine, punishing the people for their greed, their inaction, their hard hearts.
That, Habakkuk replies, doesn’t sound like you, God.
This is, as far as I can tell, the only place in Scripture this ever happens. It’s pretty rare for anyone to question the voice they hear. Makes you wonder if Habakkuk is in the wrong here. Who is he, after all, to question the Word that made all things? Doesn’t he realize who he’s speaking to?
Truth is, no, he doesn’t. And that’s what he’s trying to understand. Is this the voice of God or someone else, a false god perhaps or just a broken human being? Is God truly against people getting vaccinated or taking care of the environment or are those voices less than divine?
God responds to Habakkuk in the verses that follow. It’s interesting that this is the first time any words are attributed to the Holy One. If we go back to verse five in the first chapter, the speaker changes, but we’re not told who they are. Unlike the second response there is no statement that these words are, in fact, from God. It’s almost as though Habakkuk knows something, something he’s just now telling us.
But what do the words coming from God say? To be honest, we’re not sure. Perhaps the text we’ve received has been corrupted over the centuries of scribal hands, or maybe the phrasing and colloquialisms are lost to time, leaving this language strange, alien. Or, that might be the point.
If there was silence, Jesus says, the stones would cry out. In the dark before dawn, when silence had fallen, those stones did speak as the earth shook beneath two women’s feet. Though, at that moment, they didn’t understand their words.
God’s response to Habakkuk is clear about one thing: wait. We can be tempted to read these words to mean the upcoming events of the Babylonian invasion. Wait until that happens, see how it turns out and you’ll understand. But it’s possible that is not at all what we’re supposed to wait upon. Maybe we are, like Habakkuk, to wait, to listen and consider what we have heard.
Waiting implies that the answers aren’t simple, easy. It means we might be left wondering about the events of the world around us, the claims of those who claim to speak for God. We might even be confused by words that seem strange, different.
But, perhaps, in the waiting we encounter the silence like that before the sunrise. And, in that hour, hear something that sounds like singing stones.
Help me to listen amongst the cacophony of voices for yours.