The man Habakkuk is unknown except for this great little book he left behind. You will like it, because it consists of a dialogue between Habakkuk and God in which Habakkuk asks the hardest, bitterest questions of his soul--and God answers him.

From the content of the book, it's apparent that Habakkuk wrote it shortly before the Chaldeans under King Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Judah (also called the southern kingdom) and marched its inhabitants into captivity in Babylon (in what is now Iraq). This took place in stages over a period of years, culminating in the utter destruction of Jerusalem including the temple in 586 BC. The northern kingdom, Israel, had been destroyed by the Assyrians about a hundred and fifty years before, and all that time God's prophets had been warning Judah, "If you don't clean up your act, the same thing will happen to you." Jeremiah was prophesying to the people at the same time that Habakkuk was dialoguing with God, and both men lived to see judgment enacted.



Read Habakkuk 1:1-4

First off, Habakkuk titles his work a "burden" (or oracle, or revelation)--that is, he has not dreamed it up himself; it is from God. The proof of this is the fulfillment of the specific prophecies that are given to him in the oracle. This follows right in line with the test God gave Moses for determining whether someone was a true prophet of God: if what he predicted came true (Deut. 18:18-22).

In the spirit of a true prophet, Habakkuk starts right out blaming God. Here's honest, sensitive Habakkuk living in a country that had raised hypocrisy to an art form. The priests were perverted, the judges dishonest, the rich unrestrained, and the poor snuffed out. Habakkuk knew how the Law was supposed to work, but those responsible for teaching, practicing, and enforcing it were "slack," and it never had any effect. Seeing this, Habakkuk cried to God over and over to do something--but He never did. He just stood off up there in heaven somewhere and left Habakkuk to be tormented by the sight of all these atrocities which he was powerless to rectify. As one of the righteous hemmed in by the wicked, he undoubtedly suffered some injustice firsthand. But we know his personal trials are not the point, because he doesn't mention them specifically. It's the general principle of why God allows evil to run amok that bothers him so much. Incidentally, Habakkuk wasn't the first to wonder about this--see Psalm 10, written several hundred years earlier.



Read Habakkuk 1:5-11

To Habakkuk's great surprise, God replies! It is a tribute to Habakkuk's honesty and humility that in recording this oracle, he retained the petulant, accusatory tone of the opening question. Since God hadn't condescended to answer before, he certainly didn't expect Him to bother now.

But God's answer is two-edged, not entirely for Habakkuk alone. As a matter of fact, it's not really for Habakkuk at all--he's just the messenger. God answers his question by addressing the hypocrites Habakkuk has been complaining about.

God's opening salvo is such a fireball that Paul quotes it in Acts 13:41: "Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you." (NIV) That is exactly what happened: Habakkuk and Jeremiah told them exactly what was going to happen, and they didn't believe it. Here, God gets very specific, leaving no wiggle room: I am sending the Chaldeans to punish you. You think you're bad? Oh, but these guys are bad.

God goes on to elaborate how bad these guys are for our benefit, as it should have been unnecessary to explain it to the Judeans. A major world power, the Chaldeans (also called the Babylonians) were universally feared for their military prowess. They had the fastest horses, the sharpest weapons, the most cunning strategists--but more than that, they had a bloodlust that was unbelievable. They didn't just conquer, they sucked up everything in their path. And they were unstoppable.

We have a hard time imagining the brutality of ancient warfare, where the whole population of a conquered city would be forced to lie down in the road for the troops to march over them. Or everyone's hands were chopped off to tally up the conquered. The point is, any city that knew the Chaldeans were on the march would have been terrified. The Judeans should have been, too, but they weren't. Their reasoning was, "We're safe. God's temple is here. He will never allow it to be destroyed." Never mind that the prophets repeatedly told them God would not protect them from the heathen if they acted like heathen themselves.

Verse 11 is interesting, and illustrates the difficulty of translations. The NIV and RSV communicate that the Chaldeans attributed their whirlwind success in warfare to their heathen god, which they certainly did. But the King James says, "Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god." Dr. Clarke (author of Clarke's Commentaries) sees this as prophetic of King Nebuchadnezzar's stepping over the line and offending God by thinking himself godlike in his accomplishments; as a direct result, he lost his mind for a while, until he acknowledged God. (Dan. 4) I like this. It fits.



Read Habakkuk 1:12 - 2:1

Habakkuk's tone in addressing his second question to God is considerably more respectful and subdued. Isn't it interesting that God's first answer, unexpected and forceful as it was, didn't shut him up? Habakkuk still felt free to express his human misgivings to the Lord of heaven and earth. Now that's a healthy relationship.

Habakkuk backs up to acknowledge God's holiness and justice, accepting the implied assurance that He will use the Chaldeans to punish Judah, not wipe it out entirely. Then Habakkuk wonders, since You are too pure to even look at evil, how can You use such a wicked people to punish a nation that is not as bad as they are? Habakkuk compares the Chaldeans to a fisherman who gets rich off the bounty of the sea, bringing up load after load of helpless fish. Worse, the fisherman worships his equipment for making him rich! Habakkuk complains that it almost looks as if God is rewarding the Chaldeans for their extreme cruelty with further opportunities to plunder.

Having presented his second question, Habakkuk states his intention to wait quietly and watchfully for God's answer. He is not to be disappointed.



Read Habakkuk 2:2-4

In response to Habakkuk's reverence and patience (how long did he have to wait for an answer? We don't know) God instructs him, first of all, to write down what he's about to hear. Habakkuk is supposed to write it clearly so that "he may run who reads it" (RSV)--not that someone running may read it, but that someone may read it and then run to spread the word! The vision Habakkuk is about to receive is for an "appointed time"--it won't be fulfilled immediately. Wait for it; first things first. But waiting in faith for the word of God to come to fruition will bring salvation.

Habakkuk 2:4 is virtually the crux of the whole Bible. It is quoted three times in the New Testament: Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38-39. A person is justified--made right with God--by faith. Faith is believing God enough to do what He says.

God tells Habakkuk that the Chaldeans will be punished not only for their excessive cruelty in taking Judah but for their crimes against humanity during their entire history of conquest. In a series of chilling indictments, God demonstrates that He is not only aware of their evil actions, but keeping a careful tally to pay them back point by point. In a larger sense, He also answers Habakkuk's first question, because He does not limit the punishment to the Chaldeans--they are not even mentioned by name in this chapter. Anyone who operates as they did can expect a similar payback. So what behaviors will God punish?



Read Habakkuk 2:4-8

Arrogance and greed, to begin with. Here is another way of looking at verse 4: The one who is so full of himself that God can't squeeze a thought in edgewise will not survive, while the one who believes the prophecy regarding the Chaldeans and follows God's instructions (see Jer. 21:9) will save his own skin. Getting drunk will not make the problem go away, either. But as the grave is never satisfied (Sheol being the place of the dead), neither is the lust of these men. So what is their punishment for robbery, extortion, and murder? The same will be practiced on them by the very people they victimized, who also enliven the proceedings with ironic abuse. (For some people, humiliation is a fate worse than death.) It is poetic justice. Dr. Clarke sees the sudden overthrow of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar's successor by Darius the Mede (Dan. 5) as immediate fulfillment of this prophecy.



Read Habakkuk 2:9-11

This is Part B of the above indictment, a warning to those who believed the houses they built with the proceeds of plunder and murder were safe from harm ("house" meaning both structure and family). Here's the bad news: what goes around comes around. You think your crimes are safely buried? Listen: the very stones and beams you used in constructing your house will cry out in witness against you. Jesus put a very different spin on verse 11 when He quoted it in Luke 19:40, but the underlying thought is the same: the truth will come out one way or another.



Read Habakkuk 2:12-14 Part C of the indictment. Don't be lulled into thinking he's repeating himself; if you read it carefully, you'll see the twist. Previously, Habakkuk had been totally dismayed by the senselessness of the violence and destruction; now, he sees God's hand in it all. The senselessness is exactly the point: God allows men to play out the full extent of their lust and their savagery up till the day they awaken to the futility of it. It's a risky plan on God's part, requiring supreme patience and surgical intervention here and there. But Habakkuk, having glimpsed the final outcome, knows that it will work--"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (RSV)



Read Habakkuk 2:15-17

Taken literally, these verses seem just as applicable to the hypocritical Judeans as to the Chaldeans. In frat-house style, they got their friends drunk in order to take advantage of them. (Interestingly, the NIV is more direct in its wording than the RSV, but nothing beats the KJV for obscene clarity.) Verse 17 is a little hard to untangle. Lebanon is where the best cedars for building were harvested, so whether the prophecy is directed to the Judeans who built all these fancy houses or the Chaldeans who burned the forests down, the sense is the same: the violence will escalate until it engulfs everything and everyone in a maelstrom of terror.



Read Habakkuk 2:18-20

God now glances into private rooms to see the response of these hypocrites to His warning of onrushing destruction: they pray to their idols. It is a pathetic scene, described with frustration in trying to make them see the illogic of it all--"It's wood and metal, something that you made, and you're pleading with it to come to life and save you?"

Despite all the violence and idolatry, "the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him." (v. 20, RSV) God reigns, and nothing will change that. The temple He inhabits is obviously not the one in Jerusalem, as Ezekiel later describes seeing the glory of the Lord leave the city (Ezek. 11:23). In Ezek. 8 God shows the prophet all the disgusting activities secretly taking place in the temple; ch. 10 describes the Spirit of God leaving it. Since Ezekiel had the vision after the destruction of the temple, it must have been given as an explanation to the heartbroken exiles as to why God had allowed the unthinkable to happen.) So where do you suppose God's temple is? You're right: heaven.

Of course, we should tell God everything on our hearts, but sometimes the best thing, the only thing to do is be silent before Him. No matter what our state of mind, silence before God is healthy. In some supernatural way, it is healing. It has something to do with the respect and trust shown by focusing your attention on what He has done rather than what you want Him to do.



Read Habakkuk 3:1-2

Habakkuk is so awed by the insight he has just received that he spontaneously composes a song of praise. Shigionoth is a musical term used in some of the Psalms; it apparently derived from "wandering ode," and may mean something like an improvisation. He opens by acknowledging the appropriateness of the coming judgment, only asking God "in wrath remember mercy."



Read Habakkuk 3:3-15

This is a poem or song recounting in fantastic imagery the Lord's deliverance of Israel from Egypt and conquest of the promised land. The total experience was a demonstration of supernatural power and national unity that the Israelites had not seen since, not even under King David. Here, Habakkuk embellishes the bare facts, which he hardly mentions because they are so well known. Did he really see God's brightness like the light? Did he actually watch Him mount the earth in fury? Probably only in his imagination. But the fact that this song has survived for over 2500 years attests to its validity. Habakkuk wasn't far wrong in using his imagination to praise God. Even if the resulting images aren't to be taken literally, they are just as valid.

Teman and Mount Paran (v. 3) are places in Edom, south of Judah. I am not sure why they are significant here, except Mount Paran is mentioned in the blessing of Moses as one of the places where it all began (Deut. 33:2). Dr. Clarke is sure that the picture here of God with rays flashing from his hand (v. 4) is the original from which the images of Jupiter and/or Zeus derived--you know, throwing the lightning bolts? More recently, how many superheroes (or villains) are depicted with energy issuing from their fingertips? That's exactly the imagery here. But even then God veiled His power--that wasn't the extent of what He could do. (Selah is a musical designation found often in the Psalms--an instruction on how to sing the piece.)

The pestilence and plague, of course, were the means of His deliverance of the people from Egypt. His mere glance is so formidable as to shake the most unshakable features of the natural world. Cushan and Midian were enemies along the way of conquest whom Joshua defeated.

Habakkuk then describes the upheaval suffered by the natural order when God really gets His dander up. Dr. Clarke sees the deep lifting its hands on high (v. 10) as the parting of the Red Sea. The word pictures become furious and apocalyptic, the point being, if the mighty rivers and mountains are reduced in this manner, what's to become of puny humans? Habakkuk notes in verse 11 how even the sun and moon stood still for Joshua to hunt down God's enemies (Josh. 10:12-14). In the RSV, verses 13 and 14 are extremely graphic in their description of what God will do to the enemy soldiers who come to destroy the poor hiding in secret: me. Go ahead; take it personally: all this tumultuous power is unleashed for ME. The message is clear: when God's deliverance finally comes, it comes with a vengeance.



Read Habakkuk 3:16

When he hears what? The news of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion! The worst had finally happened. Habakkuk and all remaining survivors were about to be marched into captivity in Babylon. The only hope he had was the fresh revelation of God's punishment coming on the Chaldeans. Do you see how he could so graphically describe their evisceration? Because the sight of that atrocity is fresh in his memory. The knowledge of God's future action will have to sustain him in the considerable trouble meanwhile.



Read Habakkuk 3:17-19

As Habakkuk is being marched out of Jerusalem, what does he see? Devastation, barrenness, poverty. There are no figs, no olive oil, no grain, no livestock. Despite the worst possible circumstances imaginable, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. By showing Habakkuk the big picture, God has brought him to the point that his state of mind is not dependent on his physical state at all. It no longer matters that the innocent like Habakkuk suffer in the punishment of the guilty, because he has seen the justice of God and knows that it is adequate. It's going to be all right. In response, God lifts Habakkuk's spirit on the wings of rejoicing out of the pit and sets him on a mountaintop of joy. That's really rising above it all.

As mentioned earlier, the Medes and Persians took Babylon in 539 BC. Alexander the Great levelled it for good in 331 BC. An Iraqi city named Al Hillah now sits on the site. Babylon no longer exists, and the Chaldeans are ancient history. But Jerusalem remains.



© 2003 Robin Hardy


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