The book of Habakkuk, written during Judah’s decline in the seventh century BC, is instructive. Times are really bad in Judah. Judah was a high crime and sin place. Habakkuk cries out to the Lord.

“Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will
not hear? …” Hab 1:2a

“2 … I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? 3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.”
Hab 1:2b-4

Indeed, why? Then God says He will do something astonishing! God says He will raise up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, to punish sinful Judah. What are they like? God says they are a bitter and hasty nation. “They are feared and dreaded.” They have horses swifter than leopards. They gather prisoners like sand, and they laugh at kings and fortified cities. Strength is their god. Hab 1:6-11.

But now Habakkuk has a bigger problem!

Yes, Habakkuk recognizes that God’s decision, Hab 1:12; but he asks,

“You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you … keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,”
Hab 1:13 WEB

So he essentially says, but Lord, the Babylonians are worse than we are! Are you really going to let the Babylonians swallow up everything? Will you really let them “kill the nations without mercy?” Hab 1:17.

Habakkuk decides to wait for God’s answer.

“I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”
Hab 2:1

Then God says, write all of this down, in big letters so that even a running man can read it. This is true, and it will NOT prove to be false. “Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come.” Hab 2:2-3.

Yes, Babylon is puffed up, and is not upright,
“but the righteous will live by his faith.”
Hab 2:4

In essence God says in chapter two, Judah will be punished severely, and God will also get around to Babylon, but the righteous man will survive by his faith in God. God will care for him.

This the grand theme of the book of Romans, Rom 1:17.

Things are out of OUR control, but they are
NOT out of control.

“6 Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city,
Without the people being afraid?
Does evil happen to a city,
And Yahweh hasn’t done it?
7 Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing,
Unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.”
Amos 3:6-7

The grand scheme of history is laid out in prophecy, from Genesis to Revelation. This is part of the grand scheme, and is also reflected in Revelation.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901