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66 lines
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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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<h2><a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,'all');">Hab 1</a> - The Prophet's Problem</h2>
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<p>A. The first problem: "How long, O Lord?"</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,1);">1</a>) Habakkuk and his burden.</p>
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<p class="c2">The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">The prophet Habakkuk</span></b>: We don't know much about the <b><span class="c3">prophet Habakkuk</span></b> from any other book in the Bible. Since he prophesied the coming Babylonian army and its destruction of Judah, he prophesied some time before that invasion. Many think that Habakkuk ministered sometime during the reign of King Johoiakim, perhaps around the year 607 <span class="c6">b.c.</span></p>
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<p class="c5">i. It's hard to say with certainty when Habakkuk prophesied. Since he speaks of God <i>raising up</i> the Babylonians (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,6);">Hab 1:6</a>), we can guess that he wrote in the 25-year period between the time when Babylon conquered Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire (612 <span class="c6">b.c.</span>) and the time when Babylon conquered Jerusalem (587 <span class="c6">b.c.</span>).</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. We don't know how old Habakkuk was when he gave this prophecy, but it is likely that he lived during the time of godly king Josiah (640 to 609 <span class="c6">b.c.</span>) and then gave this prophecy during the reign of one of Josiah's successors. Habakkuk knew what it was like to live during a time of revival, and then to see God's people and the nation slip into lethargy and sin. "Habakkuk had a problem. He had lived through a period of national revival followed by a period of spiritual decline." (Boice)</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw</span></b>: Habakkuk had a <b><span class="c3">burden</span></b> - not only in the sense of a message from God, but also in the sense of a heavy weight. It was heavy in its <i>content</i>, because Habakkuk announced coming judgment on Judah. It was also heavy in its <i>source</i>, because Habakkuk deals with tough questions he brings to God and God's answer to those questions.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. The name <b><span class="c3">Hab</span></b> is derived from the Hebrew verb "embrace." His name probably means, "He Who Embraces" or "He Who Clings." It is an appropriate name for both the prophet and the book, because Habakkuk comes to a firm faith through grappling with tough questions.</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. <b><span class="c3">The prophet</span></b>: "This title is rare in book headings (see <a onclick="return mV('Hag',1,1);">Hag 1:1</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Zec',1,1);">Zec 1:1</a>), and is taken by some to indicate that Habakkuk was a professional prophet, one who earned his living serving as a prophet at the Temple or court, unlike Amos (<i>cf.</i> <a onclick="return mV('Amo',7,14);">Amo 7:14</a>)." (Baker)</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,'2-4');">2-4</a>) Habakkuk asks God why He seems to delay judgment.</p>
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<p class="c2">O <span class="c6">Lord</span>, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, "Violence!" and You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, and cause <i>me </i>to see trouble? For plundering and violence <i>are </i>before me; there is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Even cry out to You, "Violence" and You will not save</span></b>: Habakkuk looked at the <b><span class="c3">violence</span></b> and injustice around him in the nation of Judah. He wondered where God was, and why God did not set things right.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble?</span></b> This is an excellent question. Why does God allow us to see iniquity and trouble, in our self or in others?</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Why God allows us to see iniquity in our self.</p><ul class="c6"><li>To keep us humble</li><li>To make us submissive in the hour of trouble</li><li>To make us value salvation all the more</li></ul>
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<p class="c5">ii. Why God allows us to see iniquity in others.</p><ul class="c6"><li>To show us what we might have been ourselves</li><li>To make us see the wickedness of sin, that we might pass by it and hate it, and not indulge in it ourselves</li><li>To make us admire the grace of God when He saves sinners</li><li>To set us more earnestly to work that God can use us to save others and extend God's kingdom. "<span>Ah, my brethren, we need to know more of the evil of men, to make us more earnest in seeking their salvation; for if there be anything in which the Church is lacking more than in any other matter, it is in the matter of earnestness." (Spurgeon)</span></li></ul>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">Iniquity...trouble...plundering and violence...strife...contention...the law is powerless...justice never goes forth...perverse judgment proceeds</span></b>: Habakkuk sees trouble and sin everywhere, from personal relationships to courts of law. This distresses him so much that he cries out to God and asks God why He doesn't set things straight.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Habakkuk deals with the questions that come up when someone really believes God, yet looks around them and the world doesn't seem to match up with how God wants it. Habakkuk sees it - especially remembering the prior times of revival under King Josiah - and asks, "Lord, why are you allowing this?"</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. "This prophecy deals with the problems created by faith; and with the Divine answers to the questions which express those problems." (Morgan)</p>
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<p>B. God's answer to the first problem.</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,'5-6');">5-6</a>) God's astounding work: bringing the Babylonians to judge Judah.</p>
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<p class="c2">"Look among the nations and watch; be utterly astounded! For <i>I will </i>work a work in your days <i>which </i>you would not believe, though it were told <i>you.</i> For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places <i>that are </i>not theirs."</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Be utterly astounded</span></b>: God tells the troubled prophet, "Don't worry about it. Look at the surrounding nations and from them will come a nation that will be My instrument of judgment on sinful Judah."</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">I will work a work in your days which you would not believe</span></b>: We understand the idea of something "too good to be true," but that isn't what God is talking about here. This is something "too bad to be true," a work of judgment so astounding that Habakkuk would have a hard time believing it.</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">I am raising up the Chaldeans</span></b>: When the Babylonians (<b><span class="c3">the Chaldeans</span></b>) eventually came against Judah, they came as sent by the <span class="c6">Lord</span>. It wasn't that they themselves did not want to come, but God allowed their sinful desire to conquer Judah to come to fruition. If God had not allowed them to do it, they never could have conquered Judah and exiled God's people out of the Promised Land.</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,'7-11');">7-11</a>) The strength and speed of the Babylonian army.</p>
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<p class="c2">"They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; their cavalry comes from afar; they fly as the eagle <i>that </i>hastens to eat. They all come for violence; their faces are set <i>like </i>the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings, and princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen <i>mounds </i>and seize it. Then <i>his </i>mind changes, and he transgresses; he commits offense, <i>ascribing </i>this power to his god."</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">They are terrible and dreadful</span></b>: Habakkuk wondered where God's judgment was against sinful Judah. The <span class="c6">Lord</span> lets him know that the judgment will indeed come, and when it comes through the Babylonians it will be <b><span class="c3">terrible and dreadful</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">He commits offense, ascribing this power to his god</span></b>: When the Babylonians overwhelm the land of Judah, they will wrongly give the credit to their false gods. The <span class="c6">Lord</span> they would do this before it ever happened.</p>
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<p>C. The second problem: "Why do it this way, O <span class="c6">Lord</span>?"</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,'12-17');">12-17</a>) Habakkuk wonders why God would use a nation more wicked than Judah to bring judgment on Judah.</p>
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<p class="c2">Are You not from everlasting, O <span class="c6">Lord</span> my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O <span class="c6">Lord</span>, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. <i>You are </i>of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, <i>and </i>hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a <i>person </i>more righteous than he? <i>Why </i>do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things <i>that have </i>no ruler over them? They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet; because by them their share <i>is </i>sumptuous and their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Why do You look on those who deal treacherously</span></b>: Habakkuk was first troubled that there was no judgment against Judah; God answered by telling him judgment was on the way. Now Habakkuk is troubled by the agent of judgment, the Babylonians - who were an even more wicked people than the people of Judah.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. It would be like crying out to God about the state of the church in America, and hearing God respond by saying, "I'll fix the problem by a Communist invasion of America." We would say, "Wait a minute <span class="c6">Lord</span> - the problem is bad, but your cure is worse than the disease!"</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. Some people face crisis times like this all the wrong way. They withdraw from the church and from fellowship and they pull back into a little spiritual corner. Others give up on God altogether. Lloyd-Jones guides us to a better response:</p><ul class="c6"><li><i>Stop to think</i> - before talking about it, think about it</li><li><i>Restate basic principles</i> - As you think about the problem, don't begin with the problem. Go back further to basic principles about God and His dealing with man</li><li><i>Apply the principles to the problem</i> - now, think about your problem in light of these basic principles</li><li><i>Commit the matter to God in faith</i> - whether you know what to do or not</li></ul>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness</span></b>: This is even more problematic to Habakkuk because he knows the character of God. Since he understands the holy character of God, he is more troubled than ever as to why God would judge wicked Judah by exalting even more wicked Babylon.</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?</span></b> Habakkuk wonders how long God will allow the Babylonians to continue their cruel conquest of nations. It is as if God's people are conquered as easily as fish in a net.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. "Easily we are taken and destroyed. We have no <i>leader</i> to guide us, and no <i>power</i> to defend ourselves. Nebuchadnezzar is here represented as a fisherman, who is constantly casting nets into the sea, and enclosing multitudes of fishes; and being always successful, he sacrifices to his own net." (Clarke)</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,2);">2:1</a>) Habakkuk resolutely waits for God's reply.</p>
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<p class="c2">I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">And watch to see what He will say to me</span></b>: Habakkuk has raised two important questions to God, yet he asks both with a great attitude. He anticipates an answer from God and is willing to <b><span class="c3">watch</span></b> - that is, <i>wait</i> for it. Often when we question God we don't expect Him to answer, but Habakkuk does. Other times we not only <i>expect</i> God will answer, but we <i>demand</i> that He answer, and answer according to our schedule. Habakkuk approaches this with the right attitude.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. "How often God's answers come, and find us gone! We have waited for a while, and, thinking there was no answer, we have gone our way but as we have turned the first corner the post as come in. God's ships touch at our wharves; but there is no one to unload them...It is not enough to direct your prayer unto God; look up, and look out, until the blessing alights on your head." (Meyer)</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">And what I will answer when I am corrected</span></b>: Habakkuk's attitude is also right because he <i>expects</i> God to correct him. From this we see that Habakkuk didn't ask God this question because he thought God was wrong and had to explain Himself. He asked it because he knew that he was wrong and needed to be corrected. His questions were his invitation to God saying, "God, I don't understand what you are doing, but I know that you are right in all things. Please speak to me and correct me."</p>
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