Introduction to these Lecture Notes
Dedicated to the students who attended
the Conference in West Bengal,
These notes have been written
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Notes on Habakkuk 1
© David H. Linden Action International Ministries
1:1
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. ..
The prophet saw (or received) this
oracle. It is a revelation from God. Habakkuk did not receive this message from
himself. It would be very easy for someone to consider it as something he
initiated. Though he expresses his feelings to the Lord, the Lord controlled
the experience of the prophet. His questions and perplexity were sincere; they
did happen. The Lord’s hand was in it all, generating in Habakkuk his painful
pleas, with the Lord then supplying the replies. This “burden” (the odd Hebrew
word for oracle) weighed on him,
because God had put it on his heart.
In the doctrine of inspiration, we may say that the
prophets received, saw, were told, heard, or had a message from the Lord. In
any case the Lord initiates. Prophets did not write their own opinions and pass
them on to others. God gave and they received what He gave in a way that only
God can do. Habakkuk’s brief prophecy did not have its origin in his will or
emotions. He was carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 2:21) to write as he
did. True prophets were officially authorized; they did not call themselves to
this ministry (see Hebrews 5:4). Since their message was from God, it was
relevant, accurate, and authoritative.
Contrary to our wishes, Habakkuk does not say to whom
he wrote, where he lived or when. We are left with one clue in 1:6 as to his
time in history. From this we conclude his specific audience. Undoubtedly, he
was a prophet to
The First Complaint (1:2-4)
1:2-4 How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not
save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in
the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
1:2-4 The oracle
begins with a painful cry to the Lord; it begins and ends with a lament. Twice
in the first complaint he asks why.
The prayer in 1:2-4 assumed that God hears and controls the things that vexed
the prophet. He knew it was God Who had made him look at all he saw. He truly
viewed God as God, the One to pray to, as the One Who can save. That the
situation abounded with strife was something God could rectify, yet one God had
ordained. The power of God was not being questioned, nor was God’s right to
demand righteousness. There is also the sense that the judgment of God against
evil is right and expected, and that a failure to judge sin would contradict
God’s holy character.
What was being questioned? The words
“How long” assumed that the distress was not permanent. Surely God would in
some way intervene at some time. Habakkuk’s sense of timing is at the heart of
his complaint. In Habakkuk’s opinion, God was overdue to act. He had not done
so yet, so Habakkuk responded with a terrible appraisal. He implied that God
tolerates wrong, though he knows the opposite is true. The tentative judgment
being made about God was that He was inconsistent. God had been prayed to, so
the issue had been brought before Him, and Habakkuk stumbled into thinking that
God had failed to be wise. Before it is over, Habakkuk will accept by faith the
wisdom of God. God does not buckle to pressure, or live by the expectations of
His creatures, but He does allow frank prayers and complaints. Habakkuk was
confused.
What was the evil? The
chief evil Habakkuk mentioned was violence among his people. “Violence”
appears six times in Habakkuk. Of course, in a fallen world sin will break out,
but there is human restraint in the institutions of governments. Law
enforcement and fair courts are a wonderful blessing. Furthermore, within
A typical prophetic criticism Habakkuk’s
description of the sins of his people was very brief; in the whole oracle it is
less than three verses. It was not even a prophetic denunciation spoken to the people.[1] (1:5 speaking to a plural audience is a small
exception to this observation.) In vv. 2-4 Habakkuk reviewed their sin as
background to his chief issue, the appearance that God did not act to correct
sin. Therefore there was no need to make a complete listing the sins which
needed repentance.
The Prophets’ usual criticism of
1. Their idolatry as defection from the
Lord. To worship an idol is to forsake the Lord even while claiming loyalty or
performing rituals (Isaiah 1:13). Idolatry is covenantal adultery (Hosea 4:12).
Any trust in a foreign power was unbelief in Yahweh as the covenant-keeping God
to preserve them as a nation with the Son of David as their ruler (Isaiah
7:1-17; 31:1).
2. The other prevalent law-breaking was
their abuse of the weak: the widow, the alien, and the fatherless (Zechariah
7:8-10). The perversion of the justice system (as here in 1:4) was seen in
bribing judges (Micah 3:11), withholding wages (Malachi 3:5), accumulating land
not returned in the year of release (Isaiah 5:8), etc. Social injustice is the
aspect of law Habakkuk refers to in vv.2-4.
Lest reading the prophets discourage us, remember that
it was in this setting of national moral decline that the prophets often held
out the prediction and promise of God’s saving intervention. Thus the Holy
Spirit in these later OT books gave more about Christ and His coming than we
find in the previous Scriptures.
1:5 Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
1:5 Habakkuk
looked on the sin of his people. It was all he saw and so he fretted whether
God would be true to Himself. The Lord replied by saying that Habakkuk should
look at what He the Lord was going to do. God is a God of patience, but not
inaction. His patience is often misunderstood (2 Peter 2:8,9). Never presume
that judgment restrained is God’s permanent policy. Justice delayed is not
justice abandoned.
The reaction of the Lord concerning what was going on in
The Surprises of
God and the Unbelief of Man “Be amazed; I am going to do something…” Creation from nothing, the rebellion among
the angels, the fall of man in Eden, the promise of His Son as Savior (to die
for sin He did not commit), the flood, the exodus, the return from the Babylonian
Captivity, the preservation of Israel, and Gentile nations streaming to Christ
– all of these were amazing and unbelievable in themselves. However, that God
has said what will happen does not mean that His word will be accepted. Human
sin resists both the will of God and the word
of God. The prediction about the Babylonians (1:6) was something Habakkuk
personally believed (1:12). Though a number of prophets gave the same warning,
the people of
Luke 24 shows resistance to believing the word of the Lord even among the disciples: they did not believe the women (v.11), the Scriptures (v.25), or that they were seeing the risen Christ (v.40,41). Unbelief was mixed with their joy and amazement. They had been told repeatedly of the crucifixion and resurrection (Matthew 16:21; 20:17-19; Mark 9:30-32; 10:45). Faith comes by hearing, but hearing that generates faith is itself the gift of God. (Note the contrast in hearing in Mathew 13:9-17.) Believing God is not a general feature of mankind (John 8:43). The disciples were an example of resistance even in believers. That contradiction is in us (Mark 9:24). Every Christian should say, “I do not naturally believe.”
Paul quoted this text to his countrymen: “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.” (Acts 13:41). The Jews did not believe the OT prophets
about the destruction of
The verse still
applies, because Christ is coming again. Our newspapers never speak of this,
and yet we know that “… the Lord himself
will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first,” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The majestic appearance of Christ in power, glory,
and judgment is not on the minds of the world. Believers are in constant need
of reminders of this truth. By faith we watch for the coming of the Lord (2
Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2 Peter 3:11-13). It may be in our lifetime that God will
again do this unbelievable “something”. The world is being true to its
unbelief. By faith (2:4) in all God has said we too should be amazed. God still
says, I am going to do
something!
1:6-11 “
… I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who
sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. 7 They are a feared and dreaded
people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 8 Their horses are swifter than
leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their
horsemen come from afar. They fly like a vulture swooping to devour; 9 they all come bent on
violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like
sand. 10 They deride kings
and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; they build earthen
ramps and capture them. 11
Then they sweep past like the wind and go on – guilty men, whose own strength
is their god.”
1:6 Since God was raising up the
Babylonians, it seems safe to understand that they had not emerged at this
point as the dominant power of the region. This might place Habakkuk in a time
a little earlier than Jeremiah. Of more importance is the emphatic teaching in
this verse that God was raising up a wicked Gentile power to do His will. The
Babylonians did not act in obedience to God’s revealed commandments, yet as
God’s instrument of punishment (1:12) they would do what He had ordained. See:
Appendix B: God Using the Wicked for His Righteous Purpose.
1:6-11 Retribution The
violence within the covenant community was punished by foreign violence. The
Lord “rewarded” destruction (v.3) with destruction. Undoubtedly some helpless
souls in
Military might The Lord’s
answer predicted the speed of the Babylonian attack. Note: sweep, swift
horses, galloping cavalry, swooping vultures. Then to close this section with
an inclusio it mentions sweep again. (See the notes on chapter 3 re inclusios.) The Babylonians had such
speed there was no escape from them, and no opportunity for one besieged city
to help another. The enemy would simply overwhelm them. The Jews could not run,
and wherever they remained, their city walls could not save them (v.10). (See
also Jeremiah 1:15; Isaiah 22:5).
Godlessness In Judah God’s law was ignored at the highest levels.
They were godless. No one has any regard for God if his policy is to disregard
whatever God has said. The Babylonians had no respect for the law of the real
God either. The proper role of God over all was being replaced. Whenever God is
rejected a horrible substitute takes His place. The only thing that can replace
justice is injustice. This is what
The Babylonians mocked other human authorities. The
denial of God’s authority led to the denial of authorities He has erected.
Godlessness tends to chaos. No social structure is possible without law, but
the Babylonians were a law to themselves. Such denial of God meant that the
honor that should have been His was directed back to themselves. The depravity
of self-love (2 Timothy 3:1-5) abounded in Babylonian arrogance.
The Lord ended His reply to Habakkuk’s complaint by a
statement of Babylonian guilt and self-worship. The God Who opposes false gods
ended with an assessment of them that demanded His reaction to them. This was
the next issue that would arise in Habakkuk’s perplexity about the justice of
God.
MY CHALLENGE: In
The Second Complaint (1:12 – 2:1)
1:12 O LORD,
are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die. O LORD, you
have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to
punish.
Habakkuk received an answer from God. He knew that the Lord had heard him and would
deal with the sin of his people. That would be a relief, yet a new and perhaps
more difficult question rose in his mind. He continued to pray to the only One
Who could answer and act, and he stood on certainties about God that he knew.
Many things may puzzle and unsettle us. In such times we need to have our feet
on the firm foundation of what we know from Scripture about God. Habakkuk had
learned from the Lord that He would use
The Decline
of Interest in Doctrine The truths of the
Bible are doctrine, for doctrine is simply a compilation of teaching about God
and whatever He has spoken in His Word. In our time (especially in so-called
Western civilization) theology is frequently depreciated as unimportant. It is
treated as a distraction. The new emphasis is on the self, stated in a vague
and undefined “relationship with God”. We are being drawn into non-cognitive spirituality. In this way Christians are copying non-Christian
religions. Theology may be affirmed and even believed, but when it is no longer
central, it has less and less impact on the evangelical church. Not so with
Habakkuk! He spoke to God as the One Who had made Himself known in objective
verbal revelation. This is the way to think of the Lord. Any other approach
will lead to inventing “our own truth”, which is the same as inventing our own
error. When we neglect what God has revealed of Himself, only idolatry is left.
Propositional truth was the core of Habakkuk’s prayer, one that may serve as a
model for us. The Bible is full of doctrinal assertions. Anyone who would
depreciate them should realize that he is contradicting God. What God has
revealed cannot be unimportant, irrelevant, or in need of any revision by us.
Seeking to revise God’s truth is the height of arrogance.[3] On the other hand, forming our view of God
entirely from what He has revealed is reverent Christian submission to the true
and living God. It is the starting point
of all obedience.
God is eternal and
unchanging, holy, almighty, just, sovereign and self-existent. The personal
language My God, My Holy One indicates a covenant bond. In the opening of this
prayer, Habakkuk has packed much truth into a few words. For an elaboration of
1:12, see Appendix C Habakkuk’s Doctrine of God in 1:12
1:13-17 13 Your
eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you
tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those
more righteous than themselves? 14 You have made men like fish in
the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler. 15 The wicked foe
pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up
in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he
sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives
in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. 17 Is he to keep on emptying
his net, destroying nations without mercy?
1:13 The need for God to deal in judgment with
his own people was clear. Habakkuk had actually been asking for something like
that from God! Then it seemed as if God would deal with one wickedness and
overlook another one. God cannot look favorably on anyone’s sin. (Christians
should realize that though we are forgiven in Christ, our sin is just as
repulsive to God as ever.) Habakkuk
sensed an irreconcilable tension between God’s holiness and His sovereign
decision to allow the wicked to indulge their sin, sin of a very vicious kind.
This is Habakkuk’s Why do you tolerate …?
He also asked Why
are you silent? God does not explain
all His decisions to us, especially in advance. He does not seek our counsel
(Romans 11:33-36). He does not “clear” things with us. He is not accountable to
us. The Lord is God and we are not. As Habakkuk said in his prayer, the
Babylonians would surely swallow up entire nations and then thank their false
god for their victories. It appeared to Habakkuk that the Lord God of
The fact that Habakkuk wrote this oracle shows that
God was not silent for long. This prophecy is part of the Word of God. To be
without divine explanation is terrible confusion. If we have no word of
direction or explanation from God, we will suffer (Proverbs 29:18).
1:14–17 At this
point the prayer switches from you to he, as the prophet speaks about the
Babylonian (singular). God had described them (plural) in 1:6-11. When Habakkuk
speaks of them, he adds no new factor to make their sin more heinous. His
appraisal agrees with what God had said. Habakkuk thinks the Babylonians are
more wicked than his own people. From the standpoint of military aggression
against other nations he was right (Ezekiel 7:23-27), but from the standpoint
of covenant-breaking,
The ease of
The gods of
2:1 I will stand at my watch and station myself on the
ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to
give to this complaint.
The watchman stood in a high location to see if an enemy might be approaching. He would discern the danger and sound a warning. The prophet was to warn in a different way. He did not give his view of the danger. His duty was to wait for a revelation from the Lord (Ezekiel 3:17). True prophecy is never the prophet’s wisdom or interpretation of anything (2 Peter 1:21). He is an example of a godly approach to whatever problems afflict us and confuse us. He looked to God; He waited on God, and whatever response God would give would be what he would accept and repeat to others.
He knew that with God as the source, any answer from
Him would be truth, and it would be the only thing he could proclaim to others
with assurance and authority. Possibly the words “and what answer I am to
give” refer to what he would say to others after receiving the Lord’s
answer. The wisdom of the wise will perish (Isaiah 29:14). The Lord Almighty is
wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom (Isaiah 28:29). “He will be the
sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and
knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure,” (Isaiah 33:6). It
is crucial to Christian ministry that we not view our thinking as a store of
wisdom when we have the Word of God instead.
A Little
Review of This Prophecy The beginning of
Habakkuk deals with the prophet’s painful perplexity. Reviewing how God rules
in this world is a very humbling thing. God knows what He is doing, and all He
does is right, including using the wickedness of man to accomplish a righteous
purpose. We are tempted to sin by sitting in judgment of God. In this prophecy
we are encouraged by Habakkuk’s example to bring our frank questions before
God. We may tell Him what puzzles us. We must cling tenaciously to truth, such
as the holiness of God and His sovereign right to rule in the decisions of men.
Habakkuk is a revelation from God. The Great God of Heaven has condescended to
speak to us, allowing prayers, often stated in ignorance. To us He imparts His
counsel and explanation. It is a high honor to man that God would speak to us
at all, and He has done so very patiently! Before this short prophecy is
finished, Habakkuk will pray yet again (3:2). His review of God’s powerful
redemption of His people brought him comfort and joy. The prophecy ends with a
prayer of faith that has astounded all who have read it.
Appendix A: Prayers of Complaint in Scripture
Rise up, O Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud
what they deserve. How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked
be jubilant? (Psalm 94:2,3)
Puny dictators do not allow complaints, while the
great and majestic Lord God over all authorities welcomes the prayers of His
children. His view is that He is being looked upon as God when we cry out to
Him; He likes it, because our real God is whomever we call on for help. (This
makes all prayers to Mary or saints idolatrous.) What surprises us is that God
has allowed and placed in Scripture prayers we call laments. Our encouragement
includes that in speaking to God we are not limited to gentle requests and
positive praises. Painful groans and frank questions are also welcomed. The man
who saw his beloved wife and two children in coffins, then turned his face to
the wall saying in anguish, “O God, O God …” was praying as a Christian. There
is no teaching in the Bible that we must not pray in agony about our burdens. Anguish
stimulates prayer.
We are dealing with difficult matters. This prophet
questioned (what he thought was) the lax rule of God, God’s supposed lack of
intervention when greatly needed. These were trials the Lord made Habakkuk
“look at” (v.3), not matters of Habakkuk’s choice or pleasure. God’s sovereign
decisions were the assumption of all that Habakkuk said; otherwise he could not
complain to a Lord God Who had no control over the things that vexed him. The
Scriptures never defend God by arguing that anything is outside His control.
One aspect of prayer that emerges here is that we come
to the Lord as little children with whatever we face. Casting burdens on the
Lord is a way that we learn that He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). We are never in
the situation where we believe in His care without any examples of it being
needed. God has made no promise that we would never have any anguish. “… All
the days [with no exceptions] ordained for me were written in your [very
private] book [containing all the circumstances I will face] before one of them
[i.e., the ordained days] came to be” (Psalm 139:16). (Please be careful there,
because I added my interpretation into the text itself.)
Laments cry out, how long, as do the murdered saints in Revelation 6:10,11. In
that text they were told to wait a
little longer. The Lord told Habakkuk that He had a specific time for His
intervention (2:2,3). Thus the phrase “in God’s good time” is the language of
cognitive faith and a contented heart. These prayers also ask Why? Unbelief assumes “there is nothing He can do about
it”. Faith says, “It is in His hands”. The why recognizes that He has a reason.
Prayers may raise hard questions without a specific resolution in a person’s
lifetime. For example, Psalm 89 raises serious issues that were not clarified
until the first coming of Christ. The prophets and psalmists did not have the
information that it is now our privilege to have (1 Peter 1:10-12). We must not
misconstrue Biblical lamentations as assumptions that God would not address the
problems raised. It was simply that He had not done so when the prayer was
made. They prayed believing He would. God has chosen for problems to fester so
that we will eagerly wait for His response. Supreme patience waits for Christ
to return (James 4:8). The language of “come soon” is tempered by a love for
God that accepts His time.
Our eagerness to see the Lord intervene as and when we
think He should, assumes that He should submit to our wisdom. Overstepping this
boundary runs counter to God’s longsuffering. If God were quick to express
wrath (note Exodus 34:6; James 1:19) who of us would be saved? “Bear in mind
that our Lord's patience means salvation …” (2 Peter 3:15). God does not live
in fear of those who complain that He is late. He jealously guards His right as
God to decide both the “what’s” and “when’s” of His creatures. Because He
functions in His wisdom, He can only act according to His own timetable. That
is just God being God!
Another example is Moses’ lament in Exodus 5:22,23,
but see also God’s reply in Exodus 6. For psalms of lament, see Psalms 10, 13,
73 & 74, though there are many more. We distinguish these from imprecatory
psalms, which cry out for the wrath of God so that the wicked will have their
due. Those too are in the Bible.
How we view history is important. In Habakkuk 1:6 the Lord
said, “I
am raising up the Babylonians”. This is a
clear statement of God’s action. It is much more than prediction. The Lord does
not speak of Himself as only an observer of the future. Of course He knows all
that will ever happen, but this text is telling us that God decided to use the
Babylonians for His specific purpose. God does not read history to learn from
it in order to make comments on it; He manages it, ruling over the lives of
mankind, including those who have come into bondage to Satan. God is sovereign
in all matters of human action and decision. “He does as He pleases with …the
peoples of the earth” (Daniel 4:35). This truth is contrary to popular notions
of man’s supposedly free will. (My brief reply is that as a result of the fall,
man is not free. He is in bondage to sin and Satan. His heart is dead to God,
and so he lacks any spiritual interest in repentance and faith. Notions of
man’s freedom and spiritual ability, apart from God changing our hearts, do not
fit the Bible’s description of our sinful condition.) This appendix reviews
other Scriptures that show God using the willful actions of unbelievers; we cannot
avoid the fact that God has the right to move the hearts of men as He pleases
(Proverbs 21:1; Luke 22:22). God works through the righteous conduct of His
people (2 Timothy 2:20,21). The Scriptures below will also show that the
nations are tools by which God accomplishes His purpose. He does this
mysteriously; the humans involved act freely without coercion. There is no
wickedness in the Lord (Psalm 92:15) when He uses the willful sinful acts of
sinners for His holy purpose. Examples of God using Gentile powers as His instruments follow.
1. The
Pharaoh of
2. The
Babylonians in the Prophecies of Jeremiah No one can read the
prophets and miss the proliferation of statements that God would employ
3. The
King of
4.
Cyrus in the Prophecy of Isaiah Six texts in Isaiah reveal that God would
use the wicked king of
The six Isaiah texts are: a) 41:25; b) 44:24-28; c) 45:1-7; d) 45:13; e) 46:11; f) 48:14,15. God stirred up this king
(a). Though God said
5. The
Romans and Unbelieving
This
prayer begins with wonderful truths about God. There was no vagueness in
Habakkuk’s mind about the Lord he was praying to. A clear conception of who God
is enables us to pray in His will and not to some false deity of our own
imagination.
1. Eternal & Unchanging God has not merely lived forever. He is the same God
from age to age, so what He promised in Abraham and Moses’ day is binding
forever. If He learned something or changed in any way, He would be a different
God from what He was before (Malachi 3:6). Only God is eternal and unchanging,
so His promises are eternal, and thus Habakkuk was confident in saying We will not die.
2. Holy We are
right to think of God as holy when we consider His sinlessness. He cannot be
tempted to sin; He does not contemplate sinning. He has never had any experience
in sinning. He is thorough and consistent in His purity. Sin is recent; God is
eternal. By the word holy we mean that God is different in many ways.
Our life is contingent; His is inherent. We may learn, but God knows. We act;
God judges us. We make uncertain plans; God decrees with certainty (Proverbs
19:21). God’s holiness sets Him apart from all His creatures, not just from the
standpoint of infinity and superiority. He is set apart as transcendent. God’s holiness includes His moral perfection,
but it goes beyond to include all that sets Him apart from us and makes Him
unique. So He is holy in all His
attributes. You can never be wrong if you say, “God is holy in His justice, in
His judgments, in His creation, in His commandments, in His power, in His
decisions, in His very existence, (etc.)”
3. Almighty
God is not a God who can only promise; He is able to fulfill His word.
He is a Rock, a wonderful image for being steady, unmovable, and
powerful.
4. Just Since
God appointed the Babylonians for judgment and punishment, this
was evidence to Habakkuk that God does not tolerate wrong, as he once worried
in vv.2-4.
5. Sovereign When God appointed and ordained Babylonian action,
He did not check with them first to see if it was all right with them. He is
God and acts as God with unlimited rights. What He never violates is His holy
character.
God
rules over His enemies, even their actions and motivations. God’s enemies
receive their life from Him and He sustains their existence. His absolute right
to rule them extends into their hearts, so that He can use the devil or the
Babylonians at will, whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not.
If you are going to pray, God is the One to turn to. God speaks as God in a way we must not without
assuming the unique rights of God: “There is no god besides me. I put to death
and I bring to life.” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
6. Self Existent This feature of God’s transcendence is implied in
His Name LORD. It is an
expression of “I Am that I Am” (Exodus 3:14,15). God’s Name is a statement. It
is not just a label to identify Him. When God says “I am”, He claims an
existence beyond our reach. When a human says, “I am,” he makes a temporary and
contingent statement. It is not an eternal reality. It is dependent on all the
things he needs to support his existence. Deny a man food, water, or air and he
will be described as “he was”. God’s life is from Himself!
Because
God is unchangeable, His I Am Name
implies that His word is as faithful a million years later as the moment He
spoke. This solid reputation of God appears in the prayer of Habakkuk 3. Here
in 1:12 God’s faithfulness is the reason for Habakkuk’s confident we will
not die. He again includes why
twice in this prayer, but in his perplexity he knows that the LORD cannot break
His covenant with Abraham. The people of
7. The Covenantal Feature All of the wonderful features of God
stated above could be true without God allowing us to be close to Him. None of
the attributes of God mentioned so far indicate that He has taken in anyone as
His sons and daughters. Habakkuk calls God, “My God, My Holy One”. Covenant language confesses that He is our
God (Exodus 15:2), and we are encouraged to say that we are His people
(Leviticus 26:12). God speaks that way of believers. The term “sons and
daughters” is commonly used to speak of the children of mankind. God uses it of
His family too (Deuteronomy 32:19; Ezekiel 16:20; 2 Corinthians 6:18). David
used my many times in 2 Samuel 22:1-7. The language of intimacy is
expanded in the NT with prayer being offered to Our Father (Matthew
6:9), with more reference to God’s children (John 1:12; Romans 8:16,17; 1 John
3:1,2; Revelation 21:7).
Notes on Habakkuk 2
© David H. Linden Action International Ministries
[Habakkuk 2:1 is the end of his first complaint, so I have placed it in the Notes on Habakkuk 1.]
2:2,3 Then the LORD replied: "Write down the revelation and make it
plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an
appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it
linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”
2:2,3 This verse supports the idea in v.1 that the Lord’s
answer is to be given to others. It was not for Habakkuk alone. It was to be in
writing as a permanent word to all who follow. Perhaps make it plain meant to write it in large letters, easy to read.
God’s answer (and all of His Word) was to be spread. The one reading was to run with it to others. Note these issues
in Christian ministry: The word awaited was God’s; it must be understood, and
then disseminated. Note too the confidence of God; this is not a revelation
where God is trying to guess what is coming. It rings with authority and divine
confidence. (God is absolutely self-confident.)
the end is probably the end of
The oracle begins with a “how long?” Again in the
second complaint, Habakkuk waits. (Faith has the virtue of patience.) To His
waiting servant, God speaks of an appointed time, a time that is certain, a
time that He has chosen. From our standpoint God’s time may linger and delay.
We may treat God’s promised events as “someday, sometime”. For God it is an
appointed time. We are encouraged when we speak of God’s good time. Vv.2 &
3 are God’s introduction to His reply, which now follows.
2:4-6 “See, he is puffed up; his desires are
not upright – but the righteous will live by his faith – 5 indeed, wine betrays him; he is
arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death
is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all
the peoples. 6 "Will not
all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,’Woe…’”
2:4-6 Here is a description of the Babylonian, spoken of in
the singular. Chapter 2 ends with a reference to God in the singular. There
were many Babylonians and many gods, but there is one LORD God of
The Babylonian is depraved.
His appetite is like hell (grave is
“Sheol” in Hebrew); hell never has enough. The section is all about the
Babylonian except for one line inserted in a place where it does not seem to
fit! This is a benefit to us, because it
sets up an important contrast. There are other contrasts: idols vs. the Lord
(2:18-20); and the frustrated efforts of exhausted nations (2:13,14) vs. the
certainty of God’s purpose being fulfilled. This contrast in v.4 is of the
Babylonian as a model of the proud man, whereas the righteous person out of his
faith lives. My longest appendix is Appendix D: The Role of Faith in
Justification. These verses contrast the self-confident individual and the
righteous man whose trust is in the Lord. I leave further discussion of this
vital theme to the appendix.
The way of the wicked is hard
(Proverbs 4:19). The Lord’s answer involves five woes upon him. (See the
similarity to Isaiah 5.) These woes are pronounced by the victims, but it is
really God stating the charges. It shows that God does not tolerate the treacherous (1:13). He judges them. The greedy
destroyers of man and everything else will be brought down. Notice though that
God’s judgment is not limited to
punishment. God spells out the offenses. He is judging when He appraises. We
should listen carefully when God tells us what He thinks of sin. His action in
judgments logically follows His judicial review.
2:6b – 8 " `Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself
wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?' 7Will not your debtors suddenly
arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their
victim. 8 Because you have
plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed man's blood; you have
destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
2:6b –
8 In v.5 the greedy person gathered people; here he gathers property. He
steals and extorts. God gives possessions, but His way is that we are not to
covet anything that belongs to our neighbour. If we obey this, we will not
steal from him. (See the tenth and eighth commandment.) The surviving victims have memories.
2:9-11 "Woe to him who
builds his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high, to escape the clutches
of ruin! 10 You have plotted
the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. 11 The stones of the wall will cry
out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.
2:9-11
The moral issue of unjust gain is described as the
ruin of peoples. Their plunder enabled them to build a city of wealth and
wonder. However, the house (of
2:12-14
"Woe to him who
builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime! 13 Has not the LORD Almighty
determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations
exhaust themselves for nothing? 14
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as
the waters cover the sea.
2:12-14 The focus continues on how the city was established by
murder. Instead of adding what we already expect, namely that
2:15-17 “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it
from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked
bodies 16 You will be filled
with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup
from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover
your glory. 17 The violence
you have done to
2:15-17 Humiliating trouble forced on others may be pictured
as drunken staggering (Psalm 60:3; Jeremiah 25:16). There are multiple images
here. This loss of control is also tied to the shame of nakedness. This is the
kind of degradation
The Cup from
the Lord’s Hand The cup of wrath appears in a number of
Scriptures. It also conveys the imagery of God’s wrath upon the Son in His
death on the cross. I have adapted the material in the box below from my
lecture notes on Isaiah 51 [4].
What the cup of the Lord was like for Christ is clearer to us when we ponder
Habakkuk 2:16. The cross of Christ is properly understood not only in terms of
physical suffering, or judicial sentence, or separation from God, or the defeat
of Satan, or reconciliation with God, or penal wrath upon our gracious willing
Substitute, or a sacrifice that brings forgiveness (it is all of these), it was
also the scene of Christ literally experiencing the shame due to us for sin. At
the crucifixion, they removed His clothes and people watched (Matthew
27:35.36), or in the language of Habakkuk, they gazed. Shame is the
opposite of glory.
The Cup of God’s Wrath in Isaiah 51:17-23 In
Isaiah 12:1 salvation includes God’s comfort and His anger turned away; both
themes recur here in Isaiah 51. God tells a people without help, comfort or
hope that the cup of wrath has been removed from them. In Jeremiah 25:15-38,
2:18-20
"Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image
that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes
idols that cannot speak. 19 Woe to him who says to wood, `Come to life!' Or to
lifeless stone, `Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and
silver; there is no breath in it. 20
But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before
him."
2:18-20 The other woes pronounce or anticipate judgment. This
last one does more to teach than taunt. (Some are uncertain whether taunt is the best translation in 2:6.)
Like Isaiah 44 this woe shows the futility of idols by examining their
creation, their lifeless existence, and their inability to speak or answer. In
Habakkuk the real God gave answers. Surely faith in a physical object is
misplaced and will lead to disappointment. (See the notes for 1:14-17.)
The apologetic of the Bible
sometimes examines error, and sometimes contrasts truth and error. The contrast
here is a description of idols followed by a cryptic statement that the LORD is
in His holy
God has an image too. He will
not allow us to make any, for any we make will misrepresent Him grossly. How
can we show this unchangeable eternal Spirit by a thing recently created and
decaying? How can the infinite God fit on a shelf? How can the beauty of His
grace be shown in gold or silver? How can a metal mouth stand for His eternal
Word spoken through the law, the writings, the prophets, and the apostles?
There is good reason for the second commandment. It saves us from striving for
an unreachable objective. There is no image of God that anyone can make, that
can in any way even approximate the real Lord God. But God has an image of
Himself. The Lord Jesus in His incarnation is the visible image of the
invisible God. (See Colossians 1:15-21; Hebrews 1:1-4; 1 John 1:1 and 2
Corinthians 4:4-6.) To see Christ is to
see the Father (John 14:7-9).
Why does it say, “Let all the earth be silent before him”? Sometimes silence before God is a matter of
such guilt that there is no excuse that can be offered, (Romans 3:19,20.) The
way to be saved is to “shut up” (or be silent) and offer no reason for God’s
mercy, and to accept what He offers in Christ no matter how much that hurts our
pride! Naturally many see in this statement a sense of awe before God. I would
add to that that after Habakkuk’s complaints, he had to be silent and wait for
God’s answer. We would wait forever for an idol to speak, but the Lord our God
does give guidance (2:19). Our God has given His word and in what He said (no
matter when) He still speaks. We hear when we cease from our poor wisdom
cluttering our minds. If we are silent before the Lord Who is in His holy
heavenly temple, we will learn that Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). The Father has said
that we should listen to Him (Luke 9:34-36).