God’s Unexpected Answer

I am doing something in your days . . . I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter, impetuous nation. —Habakkuk 1:5–6

The path we mark for God to work is not always the path He takes. Our strategy would probably have taken Joseph directly to the palace. God took him there eventually but by way of a pit and a prison. Moses had to survive the desert. Both Sarah and Hannah endured barrenness en route to motherhood. Even Christ “during his earthly life . . . learned obedience from what he suffered” (Heb. 5:7–8).

Hard ways to good ends, this is the path God often chooses for us. Why? Because the good at the end is far better than the good that comes by the shorter and easier path. (Not to mention the stopovers in green pastures and beside still waters.)

God’s intent is for our enduring holiness, not quick relief. For Habakkuk and his countrymen, that meant encountering the Chaldeans—which God would use not to destroy them but to discipline, refine, and eventually restore them. A long and hard way to a good and secure outcome.