Habakkuk 1

The Call for Justice 

Habakkuk’s Prayer: “God, You Don’t Seem to Care” (1-4) 

Habakkuk was a devout man, and his book is an account of what he prophetically saw in his spirit (1-2). He shuddered to imagine how God could allow wickedness to persist apart from His intervention, and even worse, how Yahweh could allow prayers offered concerning the injustices in Judah to go unanswered. Good people were suffering violence, and Habakkuk was accusing Yahweh of being silent.

Habakkuk was trying to convince God that He was watching idly as perverse hearts corrupted the world with conflict and destruction (3).  

Habakkuk reminded God of a government so corrupt that law had become debilitated, justice frozen and deviant, and good overrun by evil, all while God was silent (4). 

Yahweh Speaks: “You Won't Believe What I Am Doing” (5-11)

Yahweh spoke, giving no reason why the response was delayed, but instead implying His response was self-evident, just unbelievable. He called upon Habakkuk to look and judge for himself whether or not He (Yahweh) had been inactive. Habakkuk was called to turn his eyes to the nations and take note that Yahweh was answering, but it was Habakkuk who didn't like the answer (5). Then Yahweh threw cold water in the face of Habakkuk’s worldview. He (Yahweh) was raising up the Chaldeans (Babylonians)—a foreboding, terrifying, and evil nation on so many levels—to judge Judah. The Chaldean nation at the time of Habakkuk’s prophecy was not a developed world power and was not, apart from Habakkuk, imagined to become one. The Chaldeans were a small nation in southern Mesopotamia who, under the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, eventually triumphed in some key battles and emerged as one of the first true empires of the civilized world. 

Yahweh told Habakkuk He would deal with the corruption of Judah, and He would raise up the unlikely Chaldeans to do it, proving His hand was involved. The army Yahweh would raise up would be massive; they would attack in all directions and seize the world as their prize (6).  

The triumphs of Nebuchadnezzar included:

• Defeated Nineveh in 612 B.C.

• Destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

• Seized Egypt in 568 B.C.

The Chaldeans were to be so massively strong and unrivaled that they would define their own sense of justice and honor, making the world bow to them (7).  

Their cavalry would be:

• Swift as leopards

• Ferocious as wolves

• Pouncing on their victims as vultures (8)

They would be ruthless, never retreating, and enslaving multitudes of their conquered victims (9).  

All city walls were a mere joke before the Chaldeans; kings in fortresses were mere sand castles, as they would efficiently pile up earth to lay siege to any city that resisted them (10).  

Further, the Chaldeans would be addicted to more and would worship their own power to defeat and take the spoils of war (11).  

Yahweh was, without apology, describing in detail a nation and army more violent, wicked, and menacing than the people of Judah. 

Habakkuk’s Second Prayer and Yahweh’s Response (1:12-2:20)

Habakkuk’s Prayer: “God, Your Plan Won’t Work” (1:12-2:1) 

After hearing how Yahweh was going to remedy the wicked violence in Judah by raising up a more violent nation, Habakkuk began praying again. 

In Habakkuk’s first prayer, he couldn't believe God was doing nothing, and in the second prayer, Habakkuk couldn’t believe or accept the thing Yahweh had decided to do.

Habakkuk reminded Yahweh that He was eternal and holy and should do things differently. 

Habakkuk then rehearsed to Yahweh some essential truths:

• Judah couldn’t die; they belonged to Yahweh.

• Yahweh couldn’t ordain the Chaldeans to be the judgment rod of Judah; they were more wicked.

• Yahweh was the Rock of Judah and could not establish the Chaldeans as reproof; it just wasn’t right (12).

• Yahweh, under no circumstances, could ultimately allow the comparatively far more wicked to mercilessly devour a nation more righteous than they (13). 

Habakkuk moved on in his logical prayer with Yahweh, explaining to Him why what He had said He would do would be absolutely impossible for Him to ultimately carry out.

1. We Are Created

   Habakkuk portrayed Judah as the creation of God, much like fish and bugs without rulers to protect them, save God alone. He could not let something like that happen to an arguably defenseless people (14).  

2. We Are Defenseless

   Habakkuk then portrayed Judah as easy prey for the Chaldeans. Judah would easily be captured by the brutal Chaldeans, who would rejoice as they watched Judah squirm like fish in their nets or fight like a fish at the end of a hook. Again, Habakkuk could not imagine Yahweh allowing such an action (15).

3. They Are Decadent 

   Habakkuk pictured the Chaldeans as a decadent horde who would worship their ability to prosper at the expense of oppressing others. They would be so absent of Yahweh that they would worship even the very machine and ingenuity that gave them their wealth. Habakkuk, yet in disbelief, was asserting Yahweh would never allow such a vile people to triumph over a less vile people (16).  

4. They Are Heartless

   Finally, Habakkuk portrayed the nation Yahweh would raise up to judge Judah to be heartless, having no human sensitivity, and empty of compassion. He could not imagine Yahweh allowing them to get away with devouring one nation after another, only to allow Judah to be included in their quest (17).  

Habakkuk 2

The Vision and the Woes

Habakkuk’s Second Prayer and Yahweh’s Response (1:12-2:20)

Habakkuk’s Prayer: “God, Your Plan Won’t Work” (1:12-2:1)

Habakkuk then arose from prayer and ascended into heightened spiritual alertness to Yahweh for anything He would communicate. After Yahweh told Habakkuk what He was going to do—judge Judah with a nation more vile than Judah—Habakkuk wrestled in prayer, explaining to Yahweh why He could not do what He was planning to do. As soon as Habakkuk finished praying, he waited intensely for Yahweh to respond to his complaint (1). Yahweh then responded.

Yahweh’s Response: “I Do Not Change” (2:1-20)

Habakkuk simply wrote that Yahweh answered him.

The Mission and Nature of Vision (2-3)

Habakkuk learned about God’s coming vision and what judgment would lead to. Regarding the vision, Habakkuk was to do six things:

• He was to write the vision so it could be preserved for later times and other generations.

• He was to make it plain so it could be easily understood and so there could be no misunderstanding as to what Yahweh was proposing to do.

• He was to write the vision so it could be broadcast to a broad group of people (2).

• He was to make clear that no matter what difficulty or trial Judah was going through, they were to wait; there was an appointed moment in which the vision would be fulfilled, realized, and experienced.

The vision, while it might not seem like it was coming quickly, was actually moving through history at a rapid speed. Yahweh wanted all to know if at any time the vision seemed like it was delaying; those listening to the vision were to know for certain it was surely coming and what seemed to them like a delay was no delay at all.

The day the vision was pointing toward was the time when the (Old Testament) day would come to an end and a new day of Jesus would be born (3).

The Vision (4-5)

Habakkuk then introduced the vision he was to write down. We can know the vision is being introduced by the word “behold.”

1. The Proud

   Habakkuk’s vision declared pride at any level would never allow a person to be upright or to develop into a righteous person. Pride makes one conceited and robs the heart of godly virtue.

2. The Righteous

   On the other hand, those who have character, those who are made righteous, live by steadfast trust and reliance upon God, not their own strength and wisdom or even virtue. Habakkuk’s vision was of a day when Yahweh would do something that would enable the people of God to live, not by the law nor their own earned virtue, but by steadfast and immovable trust and reliance on Yahweh. All of history was moving toward that day and that event where men are made righteous by trust, not by human effort (4).

3. The Description of Arrogance

   First, the Chaldeans, and everyone like them drunk with pride, would never find any kind of real virtue, for their lack of trust in Yahweh made them ever-greedy, seeking to have more and more wealth and power. The proud swallow up people for their own ambitious ends (5).

The Five Woes (6-19)

Eventually, the nations Babylon conquered and abused would arise and mock the Chaldeans with riddles and jokes and scoffing. In essence, those once conquered would become the conquerors, who would mock the Chaldeans in ways Habakkuk listed under five woes or curses.

Before the woes or curses are discussed, it would seem important to encapsulate the vision Habakkuk was to write down:

• The proud were all coming down, in keeping with God’s plan to bring that old day to an end and rebirth the world again.

• The rebirth of the world would create a new creation of people, whose faith would be the basis of their life, not pride in what they could do.

• Those who were proud and who conquered and oppressed others were going to be conquered and oppressed and ultimately destroyed.

• Woe or Cursed Be the Plunderers

• The first woe was directed at those who, in wide-eyed greed, heaped up what others had worked for and what didn't belong to them. The pride of making oneself rich by intimidating another into pledged subservience was considered by Yahweh a damnable practice (6).

• Yahweh would make sure the tables were turned and the abused would become strong, and Yahweh would allow them to take back what had been plundered by the oppressor. Yahweh would, at some point, allow the Chaldeans, or any other empire that had ravaged and oppressed nations, to be ravaged and plundered themselves, as they would be rendered helpless (7-8).

• Woe or Cursed Be the Extravagant

• Not only would plunderers be plundered, but also those who greedily took from others and used their corrupted gain to build great and luxurious homes behind security fences, to protect themselves while not caring for the neighborhoods, which remained vulnerable (9). Habakkuk went on to make the point that cutting the poor out of their lives through price-gouging, inconsiderate treatment, and indifference was a shame and a complete forfeiting of life (10).

• Habakkuk envisioned their secure homes crying out against them. The stones in the walls would cry out to the woodwork, expressing their hatred for being forced into a wretched building used as security for such despicable people. This was a metaphoric way of saying their secure homes would be destroyed (11).

• Woe or Cursed Be the Enslavers

• Habakkuk then looked to those who would build communities with the blood of those they enslaved to build their ambitions. All that would be built in the end was destined for fire—the labor would be for nothing. Human cities built for the glory of man would someday come to an everlasting end, for opulent cities built on the back of oppression, enslavement, and low wages were an iniquity (12-13).

• The New Heavens and New Earth were going to be a different place, a place where the whole world would be full of an awareness of the loving, just, compassionate Yahweh. His care for people and desire to see all prosper would deeply cover the earth as the waters cover the seas (14).

• Woe or Cursed Be the Immoral

• Habakkuk then looked metaphorically at those who would get people drunk to dull their senses and seduce them into sexual depravity (15). Yahweh then declared the ultimate doom of sexually promiscuous societies. While glorying in their sexual liberty, they were actually filling their lives with shame. They were demonstrating that they had no hint of sexual control and no ability to submit to God’s sexual standards (“show your uncircumcision”). When people fill up with shame, they do not realize they are filling a cup of wrath. Shame or embarrassment always weakens a society inwardly, causing the shamed to self-doubt, leading to insecurity and then more debasement of the soul. In the end, this makes them easy prey for attack. Perverted sex always creates secret shame in the soul (16).

• This cup was filling for two other reasons than sexual indulgence. 

• First, the Chaldeans (and others like them) showed no consideration for ecology and the natural world, stripping the forest bare and leaving no place for God’s beasts to flourish. 

• Second, the Chaldeans (and others like them) were indifferent to destroying the lives of others, so they could become rich and create lavish cities to dwell in (17).

• Woe or Cursed Be the Idolater

• Lastly, Habakkuk weighed in on the idolater who created images to worship, shaping things into defiled celebrities for the purpose of worship. Those who crafted such images and celebrities did so to trust in the wealth that the images they created would bring to them. The images they created were speechless; only the voices of those who created the images could be heard, but nevertheless, they sold them (18).

• So the one who awakened life in the image, the one who caused the dead-as-stone image to arise and have life was cursed. The one who decked the image with celebrity and gold and silver, but could not give it the breath of God, was cursed (19).  

Yahweh Transcends It All (20)

With all the violence, sexual perversion, and idolatry, Yahweh remained unchanged in His holy temple, and He was making the world silent before Him little by little (20).