Habakkuk 1:13, commentary and pictures

God is perfectly pure and holy, too pure to regard evil with approval, favor, or allowance. His purity means He hates sin, cannot endure it in His presence, and can have no fellowship, union, or companionship with iniquity or unholy ways. Yet His pure eyes still see every sin, open and secret, including hidden thoughts and deeds that remain charged against the sinner until confessed, repented of, and revealed in judgment. Sin separates people from Him and is equally grievous in all, but through Christ's atoning sacrifice and blood those who repent, believe, and come to Him are borne up, redeemed, purified, counted innocent, and made fit to walk in obedience. Keeping a living sense of His pure eyes and presence guards the soul from temptation and calls every person to abhor evil, put away unchristlike practices, repent, seek cleansing, and live in holiness and strict integrity under His inspection.

God's Purity Confronts Evil

God is perfectly pure and holy, of purer eyes than to behold evil, and He cannot look upon iniquity with approval, favor, or allowance. He cannot approve evil or wrongdoing, participate in evil or iniquity, or encourage human pride that follows its own inventions instead of obeying His Word. Those who serve in His work must follow Him fully with humble, contrite hearts, and then He leads and works with them. Religious rites and ceremonies cannot please Him when the worshipers' hearts are polluted by sin, for acceptable worship requires holiness rather than outward splendor. Who can stand before Him when He appears on the day of the Lord is the searching question His purity raises.

His purity means He cannot take part in evil or injustice, unite with iniquity, or have fellowship and companionship with unholy people. He is utterly holy, hates sin, cannot endure its presence, and sin is hateful to Him as the opposite of the holiness that is the foundation of His throne. His people therefore cannot serve Him while persisting in sin, but must repent and reform their lives to receive His favor and support. Those who remain loyal to Him cannot be parties to fraud, cruelty, violence, deceit, or protection of the guilty, and conscience bears witness against such wrongdoing.

His pure eyes nevertheless see every sin, open and secret, including secret faults, thoughts, and actions, and nothing can be hidden from Him. He does not excuse sin or overlook it, but sees every action, including partiality, fraud, and deceit. His sight is a witness against wrongdoing, and unconfessed and unrepented sins remain charged in the record until judgment, when hidden thoughts and actions will be revealed. His full knowledge of wrongdoing calls for repentance and putting sin away. Departing from truth, justice, and integrity is forsaking God and harming one's own soul, and neither human praise nor agreement can change His judgment of wrongdoing.

Sin separates people from God and is equally grievous to Him in every person, with no exceptions. His turning from the transgressor is not unwillingness to forgive, but the sinner's refusal of the abundant provision of grace that leaves God unable to deliver from sin. Those who cherish sins He has exposed are separated from Him, and unless they earnestly put them away they remain in darkness, cannot advance in the divine life, and may lose Heaven's light entirely.

Reconciliation is made possible through Christ's atoning sacrifice and blood. He bears the iniquity and sins of those who repent, believe, and come to Him, redeems them from sin, and purifies them as His people. Through His merits the guilty are counted innocent, and sinners who come to Him and plead His blood find acceptance with God and access for their petitions to His throne. He calls sinners to repentance so that, redeemed and purified, they may follow His example, be made fit to walk in obedience to God, and live in a way worthy of the Lord.

The question about looking on the treacherous and holding silence while the wicked devours the one more righteous than he points to the apparent delay of judgment. Those who claim to know God yet break His covenant, follow other gods, hide iniquity, love unrighteousness, and persist in unrighteousness will face the day of the Lord as judgment rather than deliverance. Too pure to approve evil or tolerate iniquity, He will come when the wicked cannot stand before Him when He appears.

Living Before Pure Eyes

Living before eyes too pure to look upon wrongdoing gives faith as a shield from temptation and an inspiration to purity and truth in the smaller no less than the greater affairs of daily life. This thought protected Joseph amid the corruptions of Egypt and moved him to refuse to sin against God. The same faith cherished will bring the same protection to every soul.

The purity that cannot approve evil calls people to approach God as sinners, abhor what opposes Him, put away unchristlike practices, and ask to be cleansed from unrighteousness and helped to grow in holiness. His people cannot serve Him while persisting in sin, but must repent and reform life to receive His favor and support. Because He sees every sin, including secret thoughts and actions, no wrongdoing can be hidden from Him, and His hatred of sin calls for repentance and putting it away. Religious rites and ceremonies cannot please Him when worshipers' hearts are polluted by sin, for acceptable worship requires holiness rather than outward splendor.

His standard reaches beyond how people appear in others' eyes, and every act must withstand His inspection. He has marked every instance of favoritism and unjust treatment in business, and those entrusted with responsibility must deal strictly, impartially, and justly with everyone. He is too pure to view injustice with allowance and cannot endure sin, rejecting dishonesty, selfishness, covetousness, fraud, and unfair dealing by anyone entrusted with His goods, with every action required to meet right, equity, and justice. He does not excuse sin but sees every action, including partiality, fraud, and deceit, and those who profess righteousness while acting dishonestly misuse God-given abilities and deny Him. Departing from truth, justice, and integrity means forsaking God and harming one's own soul, and neither human praise nor agreement can change His judgment of wrongdoing.

Those loyal to Him cannot be parties to fraud, cruelty, violence, deceit, or protection of the guilty, whether practiced in secret societies or in respectable associations, and conscience bears witness against such wrongdoing. Those who serve in His work must not follow pride, their own inventions, or natural impulses, but must obey His Word with humble, contrite hearts, and then He leads and works with them. Awareness that holy angels, whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, are present restrains thoughts, words, and actions, strengthens morally, and calls workers to reverence in their work.

He registers evil as fruit from an unsanctified heart, and things offensive to Him may be mistaken for virtues when people follow natural impulses. People need reformation by yielding to the Holy Spirit rather than following natural impulses, and when the heart is fully surrendered and the will agrees with His, it bears good fruit and by grace through Christ can become pure, uncorrupted, and holy. His purity, which cannot endure sin in His dominion or regard iniquity with favor, requires the church to use every possible means to bring willful sinners to repentance rather than leave sin unaddressed, for leaving it unaddressed dishonors His name. This applies to dishonest and selfish leaders who take money from His treasury for themselves while harder-working laborers receive far less, which He calls selfishness and idolatry, and He will withdraw His Spirit from those who cherish dishonesty, selfishness, and covetousness until they become spiritually blind and insensitive in conscience. Continued refusal of light and failure to recognize sin and deception leaves a person unable to see himself as he is and unable to recognize God's character and his own condition.