The Prophecy of Habakkuk

We know very little about the prophet Habakkuk, but he was probably a contemporary of Jeremiah. A prophet’s message is much more important than the man himself.

His prophecy predicts an imminent Babylonian invasion, suggesting that he lived in Judah around the end of Josiah’s reign. At the Battle of Carchemish, 605 BC, Egyptian forces were routed by the Babylonians. Jerusalem was next in line and was attacked in 597 BC.

The book is unusual in that it records a frank dialogue between the prophet and God, rather than messages specifically addressed to the people. The ways of God puzzle the prophet. How can a just and holy God, 1. 13, use the ruthless and despicable Babylonians as the instruments of His judgement? It raises the question of theodicy, the righteousness of the ways of God as regards evil -specifically His use of evildoers to accomplish His sovereign purposes. The answers that he obtained hold good for the whole household of faith, happily resulting in a psalm, ch. 3.

It becomes clear that, in the end, God will destroy the cruel and arrogant Babylonians, even though He uses them to achieve His disciplinary purposes, cp. Isa. 10. 5-19.

Habakkuk’s message is timely for today, in which the problems of human existence, pandemics, unjust wars, and apostasy in Christendom press heavily upon thoughtful minds. Perplexed people ask, ‘If there is a righteous God why doesn’t He intervene?’ For very many of God’s people, faith is on trial as never before.¹

Faith and patience in response to God’s sovereignty is the essence of Habakkuk’s message.

‘Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust Him for His grace.
Behind a frowning Providence
He hides His smiling face’.

Cowper.

1. Problems of faith

(a) Habakkuk’s first problem, 1. 2-4

He laments that Judean society is full of violence and evil, the oppression of the weak and all kinds of abuses. He cries, and no one seems to hear, not even God! His problem is created by God’s silence!

Are we sufficiently concerned about spiritual conditions amongst us, cp. Rev. 2, 3, or have we become indifferent?

Divine answer, 1. 5-11

God answers that He will raise up the Babylonians to sweep down upon the land and subdue Judah as punishment for her sins. Having despised the Lord’s rule, they will have to submit to Babylonian rule.

Faith in God is never mere blind acceptance. To have questions about the ways of God and to experience doubt and difficulty is quite different from unbelief. As we follow Habakkuk’s dialogue, we are emboldened to bring our own difficulties to God, with a view to understanding and accepting His ways. Mindful that our Bible is much larger than Habakkuk’s, our attitude should be, ‘What saith my lord unto his servant?’ Josh. 5. 14.

(b) Habakkuk’s second problem, 1. 12-17

The prophet recognizes God’s justice. His conviction that salvation will follow judgement assures him that Judah will not die nationally, Hab. 1. 12. The nation would not be obliterated. But now another problem is created, this time by God’s action. How can a holy God use the cruel Babylonians as His chosen instrument? Will those merciless predators never be brought to account, v. 17?

Divine answer, 2. 1-4

To seek an answer, Habakkuk stations himself on his watchtower, 2. 1, symbolizing his openness to God. Watching and praying belong together. We should be on the alert before we pray, and having prayed we should look for answers.

God answers him, v. 2. As a result, he is to communicate the vision on tablets, so that ‘those who read might run’, i. e., people would be able to respond immediately by obeying its clear directions and spread the message. Divine illumination is not for personal one-upmanship, but to be humbly shared with others.

The prophet is reassured that the vision concerning God’s righteous rule ‘will surely come’, v. 3. God will be faithful to His promises. In fact, God’s purpose hastens to its goal, albeit it may seem delayed. It will surely come to pass in God’s good time.²

2. Principle of faith

Until then, the righteous are called to live in obedience and faithfulness to God, drawing strength from His promises even in dark times.

‘The just shall live by his faith’, v. 4 (RV margin, ‘in his faithfulness’). Faithfulness assures permanence. Faithfulness is, for the prophet, a practical matter; it means integrity, fidelity, steadfastness under all trials and provocations. When Moses was supported by Aaron and Hur, ‘his hands were steady [same word] until the going down of the sun’, Exod. 17. 12. Underpinning faithfulness is the reality of faith in God.

A living faith in God determines our conduct; doctrine and ethics, belief and practice must therefore go hand in hand. Those living in faith experience fullness of life, Hab. 2. 4. They survive the ordeal of judgement and emerge chastened and victorious.

Woe oracles against the Babylonians, 2. 5-20

In marked contrast to the faithful, those who are inflated with overweening pride (such as the Babylonians), and who rely on themselves, will be brought to destruction.

These woes expand the basic message of chapter 2 verse 4. The proud conquerors will overstep their remit, and God will judge them. We may analyse the passage as follows:

1. their conquests, vv. 6-8
2. their greed, vv. 9-11
3. their oppression of conquered peoples, vv. 12, 13
4. their humiliation of conquered peoples, vv. 15-17
5. their idolatry, vv. 18, 19.

Yet, there are some precious expressions of faith amidst the wicked abuses of chapter 2. Beyond the weary days of man’s inhumanity, faith envisages the day of Jehovah’s universal supremacy, ‘For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea’, v. 14. And in majestic contrast to worthless idols of wood and stone, ‘the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him’, v. 20.

Although Habakkuk appreciates God’s special providence over Israel, he is equally clear that Jehovah’s rule embraces the whole earth; the destinies of all nations are in His hand. For the time being, Babylonians may worship idols, they may ‘sacrifice unto their net’, 1. 16, i.e., glory in their military power, but the Lord will show His supremacy by utterly destroying the boastful conqueror, idols and all. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, 1 Pet. 5. 5.

3. Prayer of faith

Petition of faith, v. 2

The prophet recalls the awesome deeds of the Lord in the past and calls for His intervention. He acknowledges the reality of divine wrath yet pleads for mercy. Before the presence of God, Habakkuk both trembles and is reassured. Davidson notes, ‘The poet prays for the renewal of God’s past work in the future, though he cannot think of that work without alarm’.³

Power of Jehovah, vv. 3-15

Verses 3 to 15 celebrate the coming of God, a theophany. A good case can be made for rendering this passage vividly in the present tense.⁴The historical actions of God at the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan are powerfully and dramatically present to the mind of the prophet and point to the manner of His future intervention.

Teman, v. 3, locates the all-conquering God as coming up from the south as at the Exodus; plague and pestilence are divine punishments on evil doers, v. 5, whether Egyptian (cp. Exod. 7), or Israelite.

Rivers symbolize timeless continuity and their great flood waters oppose the progress of God’s people, v. 8. Yet the rivers Nile and Jordan felt the power of God’s judgements.⁵ Their waters can be parted when God so wills.

The sun and moon standing still, v. 11, recalls the victory at Gibeon, Josh. 10. 12, 13.⁶ The implication is that God will once again triumph over His enemies just as He did then. Arrows suggest thunderbolts from the heavenly Archer; the resultant thunderstorms deluge the landscape and divide the terrain by rivers, with ‘the deep’ recalling the unleashing of the underground waters of the flood catastrophe, Gen. 7. 11.

God ‘threshed’ the nations of Canaan in His wrath, coinciding with the deliverance of His people. ‘His anointed one’ denotes the chosen nation that He has made His own. Amidst His wrath against Egypt, He remembered mercy to Israel. In this connection, the leader of ‘the house of the wicked’, v. 13, would be Pharaoh.

Profession of faith, vv. 16-19

Contemplating the irresistible power and glory of God’s future intervention, vv. 3-15, Habakkuk is overwhelmed. Characteristically, however, his faith shines through, ‘Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us’, v. 16 ESV. According to Spurgeon, ‘faith is reason at rest in God’. From one standpoint, nothing has changed. Ungodly nations still devour the defenceless, and iniquity abounds much closer to home. Yet Habakkuk sees that, unerringly, God is at work, cp. 1. 5. His kingdom will surely come.

Verse 17 pictures the total devastation of Judah’s rural economy, the usual effect of invasion by foreign armies. But what a magnificent response from the prophet, v. 18! His circumstances are truly heart-breaking and bewildering, but he delights in the God of his salvation. God makes him surefooted like the hind - even in difficult and rocky places, cp. Ps. 18. 33. Not merely a survivor, but an overcomer, a conqueror, cp. Rom. 8. 37.

To summarize

1. Conundrums: Habakkuk teaches us that we may well be puzzled at the ways of God, even though enlightened by scripture. But we trust God and rest in Him that all will be made plain in His own time.
2. Agencies: God uses whoever or whatever He wills to humble us and work out His gracious purposes; His chosen instruments might well be unpleasant.
3. Circumstances: We may be required to go through experiences that perplex us and cause us distress. But that should drive us to watchfulness, Hab. 2. 1, petition, and faith, v. 4, and praise 3. 17-19.
4. Delays: Answers may not come immediately, but God’s delays are certainly not His denials, 2. 3; and in the meantime, the faithfulness and the fellowship of the godly will enable us to endure, v. 4, and ultimately to triumph, 3. 19.