The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
Habakkuk's book opens with one line: it names the writer, calls him a prophet, and calls his message an oracle — the word older translations render "burden." Scripture tells us nothing else about him: no date, no father's name, no audience, only a man and the weight he carries.
Habakkuk is not the only book to open with this word.
This word has an everyday use. It also appears at the start of several prophecies, such as "The burden of Babylon" and "the burden of Moab" (Isaiah 13:1; Isaiah 15:1). Scholars do not agree on the force of massa in these places. Its natural meaning would be "a judgment that lies heavy on the people," but some take it to mean "an oracle or sentence pronounced against them."
The heaviness in the word points back to God Himself.
The word burden carries the thought of a weight heavy to bear, for God is bringing His displeasure to bear on mankind, and He intends people to feel it.
Habakkuk gives us his title and nothing else, and even that is unusual.
Habakkuk, Obadiah and Malachi are the only three of the Minor Prophets about whom we know nothing except their names. Along with Zechariah and Haggai, he is one of the only prophets in Scripture who call themselves "prophet" (Habakkuk 1:1).
Commentators read his name as a picture of what he does in the book.
His name means "to embrace." It carries a double sense: "to embrace" and "being embraced." He embraced his own people, and he embraced God in prayer. Then God embraced him in return and answered him. Martin Luther gave a striking definition of his name, and no one can improve on it: "Habakkuk means an embracer, or one who embraces another and takes him into his arms. He embraces his people and takes them into his arms. That is, he comforts them and holds them up. He is like a man who embraces a weeping child to quiet it, assuring the child that if God wills, things will soon be better."
Commentators differ over when Habakkuk wrote. One writer treats the gap in the record as deliberate.
Everything in Scripture is given for our learning, both in what it says and in what it leaves unsaid. It tells us nothing about Habakkuk himself, nor about the time of his prophecy. The critics have studied the date of his writing with great care, and they have reached conflicting conclusions… But when God does not speak, the work of scholars is of limited value to the Christian, however interesting it may be.
The missing detail widens the book's reach.
Scripture leaves out every historical detail. So we see at once that we are dealing with principles that govern us today just as they governed the people of Habakkuk's day.
What follows the heading sets Habakkuk apart from the other prophets.
Among the twelve shorter prophetic books, none is more distinctive than Habakkuk. Its main feature is no longer the enemy, though it does mention the enemy. Its prominent subject is the soul of the prophet himself, standing for the faithful among the Jews, brought into deep inward struggle. The book reads like a conversation between God Himself and the prophet. It sets out both what troubled his heart and the divine comfort and exulting hope into which the Spirit of God led him.
The burden he saw was not first the sin of foreign nations.
In the opening verses we learn the prophet's anguish of soul. He confesses to the LORD the low condition of the people of God. What troubles his spirit is not simply the wickedness of the nations, but the evil among the people of God. In the very circle that should have shown gentleness and righteousness, peace and harmony, he sees violence and corruption, strife and contention.
The book does not leave him under that weight; it moves him through it.
Habakkuk is the expression of faith in the LORD in spite of everything, and of God's ways in the history of the people. The prophet complains of the wickedness surrounding him in Israel. God shows him the Chaldeans, whom He is bringing to visit the land in judgment because of that wickedness. Then the prophet's affection for the people awakens, and he complains about the Chaldeans. God shows him that he must live by faith.
- Burden — commentators read the opening word as a heavy judgment or a sentence pronounced; either way, a weight God means people to feel.
- Borne — his name means "embracer": he holds his people and holds on to God.
- Blank — no date, no history, no biography; the silence lifts the book out of one century into every one.
- Between — what follows is not preaching at a nation but a conversation, the prophet's own soul laid open before God.
- Beyond — God does not lift the weight; He answers it. The man who cries out learns to live by faith.
Jehovah, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto thee, Violence! and thou dost not save.
Habakkuk opens his book with a complaint aimed straight at God: he has been crying out about violence, and nothing has changed. Why God stays silent while violence runs on is the question the rest of the book answers.
The violence he names is not the cruelty of other nations. It is wrongdoing among God's own people, and that is what made it unbearable.
Habakkuk was distressed by three things. Such a state of things existed among the people of God. God delayed His answer. And He could not rightly send out salvation as the outward deliverance I have just described. There was wrongdoing in the very place where you would expect righteousness. It was among the people of God. This troubled him all the more. That the other nations should be full of wrongdoing was no wonder; that the Jews should be so was a deep trouble to his soul.
Notice the direction of his words. He does not vent sideways to other people. He pours it out to God. That difference is the lesson for anyone burdened by what they see.
As he faces all these sorrows the prophet groans in spirit, for God's word allows a groan, but never a grumble (Rom. 8:22-27). What is more, the prophet speaks his groans to the Lord. Sadly, we believers too often discuss the failures of God's people among ourselves. We do it with such bitterness that the groaning becomes mere grumbling, or complaining about what God allows in His dealings with His people. So complaining to one another may reveal a hidden spirit of rebellion against God. Or it may be an effort to lift ourselves up by putting others down. It is good for us if we escape these traps by pouring out the anguish of our spirits, and the exercises of our souls, before the LORD.
The words sound like doubt. They are the opposite: only someone who expects an answer asks when it will come.
The expression "How long" is a cry of faith that we often meet in the psalms and prophets. It expresses faith in the certainty that God, when the time has come, will answer. In the meantime, it accepts the trouble as a necessary trial.
His faith was real but weak. God deals with weak faith differently from unbelief.
Habakkuk was a man of faith and his first word: "Lord, how long…" shows this. However, his faith needed strengthening and enlightening. It was mixed with weakness. And indeed, it found an answer full of mercy, for God reprimands unbelief, but not the weakness of our human nature.
When he says God does not save, he is not talking about the salvation of the soul. He wants a visible rescue now.
The issue here is not a spiritual salvation, but a temporal deliverance. The anxious soul would like to see peace restored, and the violent ones judged and taken away. The violence is there, it happens under our eyes, and — God does not answer! We repeat: this is not a lack of faith. It is the cry of alarm from a heart not yet firmly settled in trusting faith. It faces a problem that so far has no solution in his eyes.
The delay was not neglect. God had a purpose in it, and the testing itself shows that faith is there.
Jehovah had other purposes. If He appears not to hear, and if He does not put out His arm to save, it is always to accomplish better things. Salvation here means salvation by external power, or deliverances shown on the earth… But without exception, wherever there is real faith, it must be tried. So the trial comes even before the faith is clearly in evidence. Yet without real faith underneath, we may be sure there would have been no such test.
What God said to Habakkuk later answers the assumption behind this opening cry.
How could he ever have said such words: "You will not hear"? In all the instruction the Lord gave him afterwards, He showed him that He had heard and always hears. With almost fatherly feeling He made it clear that these judgments were righteous. He had to allow them over His people and over the enemies of His people. But God also showed him that the righteous person still has help while going through the judgments, for he shall live by his faith.
The book's own shape is the proof:
He began by wailing and finished by rejoicing.
- Cry. "How long" is not doubt but faith — it asks when, because it is sure an answer is coming.
- Grief. Evil crushed him most in the one place he expected righteousness: among God's own people.
- Groan. God's word allows a groan but never a grumble; the test is whether you take the burden to Him or to each other.
- Silence. His seeming inaction serves better purposes, and real faith is always put to the proof.
- Song. God heard him all along; the prophet who opens in tears closes in joy.
Why dost thou cause me to see iniquity, and lookest thou upon grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention riseth up.
The prophet watches wrongdoing run loose among God's own people. He asks God why He keeps this sight in front of his eyes. Two questions sit under the words: why does God let evil continue, and why does He make a faithful man look at it?
He does not just mutter about his times. He takes the whole scene to God.
Here then the prophet groans, but he does what the Jews did not do in Hosea — he groans to God. The LORD had other purposes. If He appears not to hear, and if He does not stretch out His arm to save, it is always to accomplish better things. But wherever there is real faith, it must always be tried.
These are not the questions of a man who has stopped believing.
Habakkuk was a man of faith, and his first word — "Lord, how long…" — shows this. However, his faith needed strengthening and enlightenment. It was mixed with weakness. And indeed, it found an answer full of mercy. God reprimands unbelief, but not the weakness of our human nature.
What crushed the prophet was not simply that evil existed. It was where he was seeing it.
But this was Habakkuk's distress: such a state of things among the people of God, and God delaying His answer... "Why do you make me see iniquity," if it is so deeply distressing? — iniquity in the very place where you would expect righteousness. It was among the people of God. This harassed him all the more. That the Gentiles should be full of iniquity was no wonder; that the Jews should be so was a deep trouble to his soul.
The verse lists destruction, violence, strife and contention. One writer traces this whole cluster back to Genesis.
The prophet was a witness who stood apart from the people. He himself did not suffer under the violence, as the remnant will. He was a spectator and watched the suffering. The problem here was not Israel's idolatry. It was what has marked man corrupted by sin ever since the beginning of his history (Gen. 6:11): violence, and with it injustice, oppression, destruction, discord, and disunity among the people (vv. 2-3).
The verse ends with strife and contention. One writer finds the same fault among God's people.
Consider the unhappy contentions and divisions found among the people of God. Contentions always signal trouble. Christ sets up the light of His gospel to walk and work by, not to fight and quarrel by. So it would be no wonder at all if He put it out and ended the dispute.
The verse asks why God looks at wrong without acting. One writer warns that when we cry like this, our motives are mixed.
This cry does express our love for the believers who live through these disastrous times. Even so, our weakness shows a touch of self-interest!
Why does God allow the evil? How can He seem to forget His own, who are defenceless among the wicked systems of man? The prophet would soon receive the answer, but a different one than he expected. First he had to go through a sorrowful time of training. That training would become a rich blessing for his soul. Only then did he understand what God would bring about in the hearts of His own in days of trial.
God does answer the complaint of verse 3 — by naming an invading army as His instrument.
He then lets the prophet know that this iniquity would not go unpunished. It had been troubling his soul, and he had been crying to God about it. The Chaldean sword would soon enter the land, sent to avenge His holiness.
The complaint was not where Habakkuk stopped.
Habakkuk's confusion led him to cry to the LORD. He came into His presence and asked Him about the things he mourned over. As a result, he got a wonderful view of the day of Christ. He learned what God's path was for His people until that day came. So he was let into the secret of how to be an overcomer in an age that looked dark indeed. To faith that same age was bright with the golden light of promises, and those promises fixed heart and hope on One who was yet to come.
- Sight — the prophet watches as a spectator, not a victim. He sees violence, and with it injustice, oppression, destruction and division.
- Sting — the pain is where the evil sits. It is among God's own people, in the place where righteousness belonged.
- Cry — he takes the sight to God instead of complaining about God. Real faith is always tried, and the trial proves it is real.
- Mercy — his faith was weak and mixed. God rebukes unbelief, not weakness, so He answers him with mercy.
- Answer — God replies, but not as expected. He sends judgment through the Chaldeans, and a training that turns a troubled man into an overcomer whose hope is fixed on Christ.
Therefore the law is powerless, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked encompasseth the righteous; therefore judgment goeth forth perverted.
Habakkuk looks at his own nation and sees justice jammed. The law has no grip, and verdicts come out backwards. His complaint raises a question many believers ask: why does God let evil run wild among the people who bear His name?
The prophet's pain is not that the world is wicked. It is that the wickedness is at home.
In the opening verses we learn the prophet's anguish of soul as he confesses to the LORD the low condition of the people of God. His spirit is troubled, not simply by the wickedness of the nations, but because of the evil among the people of God. That circle should have shown gentleness and righteousness, peace and harmony. Instead he sees violence and corruption, strife and contention.
The place of the sin, not the sin itself, was the sting.
There was iniquity in the very place where righteousness might have been looked for. It was among the people of God, and this weighed on him all the more. That the Gentiles should be wicked was no wonder; that the Jews should be so was a deep trouble to his soul.
The law is "paralyzed" — older translations read "powerless." God gave it for a purpose, and that purpose is now blocked.
"Therefore the law is powerless." The purpose of the law, earlier given by the Lord Himself, was to break the will of man. Man should have learned to apply "justice" under the protection of the law. But it "never goes forth." On the contrary, "the wicked surround the righteous." Take special note of that phrase, "the righteous." We meet it again in chapter 2.
The failure is not in the standard but in those who hold it. They still have God's word. They will not use it.
He also sees that there is no power among the people of God to deal with the evil. They fail to use the word of God. He has to admit that "the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth." The wicked have the upper hand, so any judgments they reach are wrong or perverted.
The verse ends worse than it began. Justice is not just delayed. When it speaks at last, it says the opposite of what it should.
How can it be that "justice never goes forth"? And when judgment does come, why is it "perverted" — the opposite of what a God-fearing, righteous soul would expect? No matter where the faithful believer turns, everywhere he meets injustice and ungodliness.
Rossier follows that crooked verdict to its worst point: the nation's trial of its own Messiah.
The nation had neither known the Lord Jesus nor understood the voice of the prophets who had announced Him. Worse: it had condemned its Messiah and in doing so had fulfilled what Habakkuk had said of them: "justice goes forth perverted" (1:4).
The verse names the group being hemmed in: "the righteous." So who counts?
The Lord would soon answer. Meanwhile, the righteous one can only conclude what God has seen ever since sin entered the world. Apart from those who have been justified through faith, there is not one righteous person in this world.
The New Testament reaches back to this same prophet to prove that no one is put right with God by keeping the law.
"Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" This quotation is taken from a prophet who was no lawgiver like Moses. In his day he mourned to see the law utterly disgraced, as all his fellow prophets did in theirs. He turned for salvation to his holy One, whose word of gracious promise would not always delay (Hab. 1:3-4; 2:1-4).
Habakkuk does not swallow his confusion or broadcast it. He carries it to God, and that is what changes everything.
Habakkuk's confusion led him to cry to the LORD. He came into His presence to ask Him about the things he mourned over. As a result, he got a wonderful view of the day of Christ. He learned what God's path was for His people until that day should come. In this way he learned the secret of how to overcome. To sight and sense his age was dark indeed. But to faith it was bright with the golden light of promises that fixed heart and hope on One who was yet to come.
- Where — the grief is not the world's wickedness. It is violence and strife inside the circle that should have shown peace and righteousness.
- Why — the law has not failed. God's people refuse to use His word, so they have no power to deal with the evil.
- How far — justice does not just stall. It reverses. That same perverted judgment reached its peak when the nation condemned its own Messiah.
- Who — "the righteous" surrounded here are those justified through faith. Apart from them, no one on earth is righteous.
- What next — the confusion is not the end. Habakkuk carried it into God's presence, and it opened a view of the day of Christ and taught him how to overcome in a dark age.
See ye among the nations, and behold, and wonder marvellously; for [I] work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared [to you].
The prophet has just cried out over violence and twisted justice. God answers — but not with rescue. He points to a work of His own, so staggering that His people will not believe it when they hear of it.
The prophet had been staring at the wreckage around him. God's reply redirects his eyes.
In Habakkuk's day the people of God had fallen, and the nations were marked by violence and corruption. In the middle of these evils God calls the prophet to look at His solemn work of judgment. Behind all that was taking place among men, God was working. The man of God is to look beyond the works of men to see the work of God.
God's answer also replies to the prophet's earlier cry that God does not save.
Here we find the answer to the prophet's question. It is not aimed at him, but at the wicked ones he had complained about. They had better "see among the nations" and observe with amazement how the Lord would repay their deeds. … At the same time, the prophet received an answer to his cry: "I cry to You, 'Violence!' and You will not save." By this the Lord showed His servant that if He did not deliver the righteous from the violence of the wicked, it is because they will soon be chastised by Him.
The command to look outward has a point. The blow forming among the nations will land on Judah.
The Lord speaks and answers the complaint of His servant. He is going to raise up the Chaldeans to chastise His wayward people. The meaning is that they — the faithless ones among the Jews — should look around among the nations. They would see how the storm would gather and finally break over the head of the house of Judah. He would work a judgment work, which they would not believe. It would be an event without parallel, amazing and terrible.
The order to look "among the nations" carries a sting. God ranks His own people with the pagans. Their unbelief will prove that is where they belong.
He challenges His people as "heathen." That is what they would prove themselves to be, by refusing to believe the work He Himself planned to do among them. He counts their circumcision as uncircumcision. The apostle, quoting this word from our prophet, calls them "despisers" (Acts 13:41). So the Lord first follows the story of Israel's sins, which the prophet had been listing. Then He looks ahead to their great crowning, closing sin — the rejection of His word and work through unbelief.
The verse is not an isolated warning. It sets the theme of everything that follows.
So much the worse for the Jew if he did not believe what God made known to him beyond all the world. … We see that every chapter throughout the prophecy has for its kernel the folly of unbelief and the value of faith. The apostle Paul quoted this among the Jews, when they were in danger of letting the blessing slip because of its very greatness.
Paul draws a parallel between two works of God, both refused.
God's people were in such a low state that they would not believe God's testimony to His own work. They refused to see God's hand behind the enemies He was using to chastise them. We know that the apostle quotes this passage when preaching the gospel at Antioch. There he announced the grace of God that proclaims forgiveness through Christ, and that all who believe are justified from all things. Then at once he quotes Habakkuk. He warns them not to despise this work of grace through unbelief, as their forefathers had despised God's work of judgment through unbelief.
What God did in Paul's day was a different kind of work.
God did the work, and it was not judgment. The apostle announced the great salvation first to the Jews. If they despised it, and so proved to be despisers, he would turn to the Gentiles.
The verse reaches beyond the invasion it announced.
Paul's use of it shows that God had more in mind when He spoke these words than His dealings in judgment through the Chaldean. It is in Christ that these words find their real fulfilment. He is the One that God always has in view, whatever the work to which He puts His hand may be.
- Look up. God answers the prophet's complaint about violence with a command: look past men's works to His.
- Look out. The nations are the stage: the Chaldeans are the instrument God is raising to chastise His own people.
- Look at yourselves. God calls His own people "heathen." Unbelief erases the line between them and the pagans.
- Look forward. Paul quotes the verse in Acts 13. There the work is no longer judgment but forgiveness through Christ.
- Look to Christ. Whether the work is judgment or grace, God has Christ in view.
For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marcheth through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs.
Habakkuk had just complained to God about the wrongdoing among His own people. God's answer names the instrument He is about to use: the Chaldeans, the rising power of Babylon. The shock is not that judgment is coming. It is who will carry it — a foreign power more brutal than the people it will punish.
God claims the action as His. The Chaldeans do not rise on their own; He raises them. One writer traces what God was breaking down, and how far He would let the invaders go:
The prophet hears from the LORD that He was going to raise up the Chaldeans. Everyone knew this was the judgment then close at hand. But it is far from all that awaits the Jew in this way… They were plunderers whom God used in His providence to break down Judah's turning away from Him, and also to chastise the pride of other nations… God allowed the Chaldean scourge to prevail for a certain time. But they forgot that He was using them to deal with those who had offended His name and glory. They credited their power to their own god instead of to God's sovereign will. Then the true God would take them in hand.
God can use a nation without approving it. Nothing good in these people drew Him to them:
The Lord took care that the prophet would learn another lesson. When He raised up the Chaldeans it was not because He had discovered any spiritual or moral good in them. Rather the contrary; they were a cruel nation. How could God ever appreciate this? They were hasty, striking first in attack. They advanced over the breadth of the earth and conquered the countries of the world. They took possession of inhabited regions that were not theirs.
Seizing homes that belong to others marks a people who accept no rule but their own appetite:
This nation of the Chaldeans is described as a bitter and hasty nation, marked by cruelty and violence. With aggressive energy they marched through the earth to seize dwellings not their own. Their acts of terror spread fear and dread. In them they were a law to themselves, with no respect for the customs of the nations. They had sunk below the level of natural men. So wild and fierce animals picture the inhuman cruelty with which they would prey upon the nations.
If God will not tolerate sin in His own people, how can He hand them over to a nation whose sin is worse? One writer sums up the book's answer:
Habakkuk complains of the sin of God's people. He then develops the chastening that will fall on them. Those still more wicked than they will carry it out — the Chaldeans. Because they give free rein to their violence, they become in their turn objects of the judgment of the LORD. But God will show His glory and His righteousness in both the one and the other, pictures of the Jewish people and of the world.
With this announcement, rule itself passes out of Jewish hands into Gentile ones:
At that moment the Assyrian power had not yet fallen. The Lord would, however, raise up the Chaldean. He would put the other nations under this power, and His own people first of all… There was a still more terrible judgment. The Lord would take the kingdom from Israel and give it to Babylon, to "the golden head" of the Gentile empire.
The Chaldean invasion was not the last word. Commentators read it as a preview:
Here, as in the explanation of every prophecy, it is important to see that the near judgment by the Chaldeans foreshadowed a future judgment.
- Raised, not risen. God says, "I am raising up" — the invading army is His act, not an accident of history that caught Him off guard.
- Raised without merit. The nation He raises is cruel and grasping. Usefulness to God is never a certificate of goodness.
- Raised against His own. The rod falls first on His people for their turning away, and then on the pride of the surrounding nations.
- Raised, then judged. The Chaldeans give free rein to their violence, so they too fall under judgment. God shows His righteousness in both.
- Raised, and rule changes hands. God takes the kingdom from Israel and gives it to Babylon, the golden head. That near judgment pictures a greater one still ahead.
They are terrible and dreadful their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
Habakkuk cried out to God about the injustice in Judah. God answers by naming the nation He will use: a people who accept no standard but their own will. Two hard questions follow. Why would God hand His people over to such a power? And what happens to a nation that makes itself the source of its own rights?
The Chaldeans, also called the Babylonians, never guessed what their rise was for. One writer explains who was really at work:
So, in his day, God tells the prophet that He has raised up the Babylonians to carry out His work of government. The Babylonians never imagined that God had lifted them to the height of power only to be a tool in His hand — a tool to discipline His people and to hold back the evils of the nations. Yet that is how it was in the prophet's day. And so it has been again and again in world history, when cruel tyrants have been allowed for a time to attack the nations around them.
This is the heart of the verse. The Chaldean made his own rules and set his own worth. The quote below uses an older translation of the verse, where the ESV reads "their justice and dignity go forth from themselves":
"Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves." His own will decided what the Chaldean called his right. It was the same with his dignity. He paid no attention to anyone else's dignity. He felt that his own dignity raised him above everyone else. High-handedness and endless pride drove him. Don't we know cases like this in our own day? The believer might want God to put this pride down. But God says to him: Don't you see that these judgments come from Me? They begin with the nations around you, but they are meant for you.
What did that dread look like in practice? One writer describes their way of war:
The Chaldeans are described as a bitter and hasty nation, marked by cruelty and violence. They marched across the earth with fierce energy to take homes that were not theirs. They spread terror and dread by their acts of horror. In these acts they were a law to themselves, with no respect for the customs of other nations. They had sunk below the level of natural men. So wild, savage animals become the picture of the inhuman cruelty with which they would prey on the nations.
Habakkuk protested that the tool was worse than the people it would punish. One writer answers by pointing to the limits God set:
God had taken the Assyrians up as the rod of His anger, to discipline many a nation that was far from Him — and Israel among them. Later God used the Chaldeans in the same way. This is what troubled Habakkuk. He protested that, bad as Israel might be, the Chaldeans, whom God was about to use to discipline them, were worse. We see here what we also see in Habakkuk: God may use an evil nation to discipline His faithless people, but only under His strict supervision and control.
Another writer adds that God did not choose them for any good He saw in them. The opposite was true: they were a cruel nation (H. L. Rossier).
A people who take their glory from themselves end up with a god of their own making:
He would raise up the Chaldeans against His people. They were the very picture of pride and energy. They succeeded in everything they undertook, and they sought glory only in the opinion they had of themselves. Their leader would turn away from the true God who had given them their strength, and would worship a god of his own.
The story does not end there. The God who lifts up one offender to punish others also brings him down when he claims honours that belong to God. Babylon's fall proved it (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
- Raised — The Chaldeans rose because God raised them. They were a tool in His hand, and they never guessed it.
- Self-ruled — Their own will decided what was right. Their own pride set them above everyone else.
- Feared — Being a law to themselves, they respected no custom of the nations and ruled by terror.
- Limited — God may use an evil nation to discipline His failing people, but only under His strict control.
- Judged — Glory taken from self ends in worshipping self. God puts down the very power He raised up to punish others.
And their horses are swifter than the leopards, and are more agile than the evening wolves; and their horsemen prance proudly, and their horsemen come from afar they fly as an eagle that hasteth to devour.
Habakkuk had complained to God about the violence in Judah, and God answered by raising up an invading army. Verse 8 zooms in on that army and forces a hard question: why send a nation worse than the one He was correcting?
Three animals carry the whole picture. The leopard gives speed, the wolf gives hunger, the eagle gives the strike from above. One writer sets them beside the Assyrians and pictures how they closed in on their prey.
The Assyrian and the Chaldean had traits in common. But the Assyrian did not conquer and kill in such an organised way. The Chaldeans were as fast and as nimble as a pack of hungry wolves rushing on without a sound. With gleaming eyes glowing in the dark, they were sure to reach their prey. Just at the right moment the horsemen came storming on, swift as eagles.
The verse never describes this army in military terms. Every comparison comes from the animal world instead. One writer reads that choice as a verdict on the men themselves.
They spread terror and dread by their acts of horror. In these they were a law to themselves, and they had no respect for the customs of the nations. They had sunk below the level of natural men. So wild and fierce animals picture the inhuman cruelty with which they would prey on the nations.
The horses and the riders are theirs. The campaign is God's. The conquerors themselves never saw it.
The Babylonians never thought that God had raised them to the height of power simply to be a tool in His hand. He used them to discipline His people and hold back the evils of the nations. Yet that is how it was in the prophet's day. And so it has been again and again in world history, when ruthless tyrants have been allowed for a time to attack the nations around them.
Habakkuk's complaint had been about violence among God's own people. God's answer takes the shape of that same sin.
The prophet was terrified about the state of the people, and he cried out to the Lord: "Violence!" God showed him that this violence would meet its just repayment in the violent behaviour of Babel. History repeats itself, people say with resignation. True — but only because the traits of sinful man repeat themselves, challenging God's holiness and daring Him.
If the story stopped here, cruelty would look like the winner. It does not stop here. One writer points to Assyria as the pattern.
God uses the pride and sin of the wicked to discipline His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian was God's rod to strike Israel. But he boasted against God, and God broke the rod.
The tool breaks when it starts taking the credit for the work.
They completely failed to see that they were only tools in God's hand. Puffed up by their own successes, they would reject the true God. They would set up a god of their own making, and worship their own power.
Scripture uses the wolf beyond this verse. The last use turns the picture around.
Scripture describes this well-known animal as "ravening," and it seeks its prey in the evening. Wolves do great damage among sheep, harrying them and killing more than they can eat. That makes the wolf a fitting picture of the wicked, who attack the sheep and lambs of God's flock, and even creep in among them. One sign of how great the change will be in the millennium is that the wolf and the lamb will live together.
- Raised — the fastest army of the age moved at God's word, not its own. He raised the Chaldeans up to discipline His people and hold back the evils of the nations.
- Ravenous — leopard, evening wolf and eagle picture men who had sunk below the level of natural men.
- Returned — the violence Habakkuk complained about came back on his people through the violence of Babylon.
- Rod — God uses the pride and sin of the wicked to discipline His people, then destroys the instrument.
- Reversed — the wolf that destroys more than it can eat ends its story lying down with the lamb.
They come all of them for violence the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.
Habakkuk had cried out to God about the violence filling Judah. God's reply describes an army built for violence, with every face set one way and prisoners scooped up like grains of sand. Why would God answer a complaint about cruelty by naming a crueller nation?
Habakkuk's complaint centred on one word. God's reply picks up the same word and makes it the punishment.
It was an attack filled with rage... "They come all of them for violence." The prophet is terrified about the state of the people. He calls to the Lord: "Violence!" God showed him that this violence would find its just punishment in the violent behaviour of Babylon.
So the answer to the prayer is not rescue but reckoning.
The Chaldeans — that is, the Babylonians — marched for their own plunder. Yet God was the one who put them to work. They were a tool in His hand.
They were plunderers whom God used in His providence. Their work was to break down Judah's turning away from Him, and also to punish the pride of other nations.
So the invasion is not random politics. God Himself has a case to settle.
He lets the prophet know that this evil would not go unpunished. It had been troubling his soul, and he had been crying to God about it. The Chaldean sword would soon enter the land to avenge the quarrel of His holiness.
Older English Bibles rendered the line about their faces as "their faces shall sup up as the east wind." Scholars read the key word two ways.
"Their faces shall sup up as the east wind." The word is met with only here. According to Lee it means "desire"; Fuerst reads it as "direction." So the desire, or the direction, of their faces is eastward. As they come on the land of Canaan, their aim is to move eastward with their spoil.
Either way, desire or direction, the picture is an army with one fixed aim. The ESV reads "all their faces forward." Commentators differ: the word may mean the army's craving, or the eastward line of its march with the plunder.
People usually picture sand at the seashore. This verse names neither sea nor shore, and the image loses nothing.
In Psalm 139 and Habakkuk 1:9 the sea or shore is not added. Here it was the less necessary, as the sand of the desert is no less countless.
Prisoners beyond counting, handled like loose grains — that is the sweep of this invasion.
God using a nation does not mean God approves of it. The day came when the same hand that used the Chaldeans brought them down.
But as he wins, the Chaldean becomes proud. He forgets that God only used him as an instrument to deal with those who had done evil. So they credited their power to their own god, and did not give God the honour and the glory. His own might is his god. Then comes the day when the Lord takes the Chaldean in hand for judgment. He deals with him as He dealt with other nations.
Rossier notes the same reversal. When Babylon's power began to fall, its kings and rulers became the laughingstock of others, just as the kings of the nations had been before.
- Cry. Habakkuk shouted "Violence!" about his own nation. God answered by naming a people who "all come for violence." The sin he complained about became the shape of the punishment.
- Rod. The Chaldeans were "plunderers whom God used in His providence." He sent them to break down Judah's turning away and to punish the pride of other nations.
- Holiness. The invasion was no political accident. God acted "to avenge the quarrel of His holiness," so the evil troubling the prophet would not go unpunished.
- Reach. Faces fixed forward, captives gathered "like sand." Desert sand is no less countless than the sand of the sea.
- Reversal. The instrument grew proud and credited its power to its own god. Then "the Lord takes the Chaldean in hand for judgment," and Babylon's kings became the laughingstock other kings had been to them.
Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a scorn unto him; he derideth every stronghold for he heapeth up dust, and taketh it.
Habakkuk had asked God how long violence and injustice would go unanswered. The answer came back as a war report. A nation is coming that treats kings as a joke and fortress walls as a game. Two hard questions follow. Why would God raise up such a force? And what becomes of a conqueror who thinks nothing can stop him?
The invader described here is not acting alone. Commentators read the scoffing at kings as the behaviour of a nation God has put to work. The task is His, and so is the limit on it.
They were destroyers whom God used in His providence to break down Judah's turning away from Him, and also to punish the pride of other nations. … So God allowed the Chaldean scourge to prevail for a set time.
So the terror moving toward Jerusalem was not random. God set it going, and God set its limit.
The verse strips away what people rely on for safety. First the rulers. Then the walls.
With aggressive energy they marched through the earth to take homes that were not theirs. They spread terror and dread by their acts of horror. In these they were a law to themselves, and they had no respect for the customs of other nations. … For a time they would carry all before them. They would set kings and princes aside and overturn "every fortress."
"A law to themselves" explains the laughter. They recognised no authority above their own.
Why could they laugh at a fortress? One writer pictures the army closing in on its target.
The Chaldeans were as fast and nimble as a pack of hungry wolves rushing on in silence. With gleaming eyes glowing in the dark, they were sure to reach their prey. Just at the right moment the horsemen came storming on, swift as eagles.
Where does this mockery come from? The man who laughs at every fortress has already made his own success the measure of everything.
He would raise up the Chaldeans against them. They were the very picture of pride and energy. They succeeded in everything they attempted, and they looked for glory only in their own opinion of themselves. Their leader would turn away from the true God who had given them their strength, and would worship a god of his own.
The very energy that made the Chaldean useful to God became the sin God would judge.
The scorn does not run one way forever. One writer looks ahead to the day Babylon's own power fails.
History repeats itself, people say with resignation. True, but only because the traits of sinful man repeat themselves — challenging God's holiness, daring Him. Yet when Babylon's own power begins to fall, its kings and rulers will be the laughingstock of others, just as the kings of the nations were before them.
How could a threat like this settle the prophet? The answer lies in whose hand the scourge was in.
They are presented fully as a scourge, and that is stated plainly, but God must still take them in hand in the end. All was measured. His mercy always measured the trial when His people had to come under chastening. How blessed that even those self-assertive Chaldeans, with an energy no other man has matched, were still only used by God to correct His own badly failing people!
- Raised — God raised this destroyer up. He used him to break down Judah's turning away and to punish the pride of other nations.
- Unstoppable — For a time nothing holds him. He sets kings aside, overturns every fortress, and respects no one's customs.
- Proud — He is pride and energy in person. He looks for glory only in his own opinion of himself, and ends by worshipping a god of his own.
- Repaid — When Babylon's power falls, its kings become the laughingstock that other kings once were to them.
- Measured — God measured it all. His mercy sets the limit on the trial, and in the end He takes the scourge in hand.
Then will his mind change, and he will pass on, and become guilty this his power is become his +god.
Habakkuk had asked God why violence in Judah went unanswered. God answered that He was raising up the Chaldeans — the army of Babylon — as the tool in His hand. Verse 11 marks the turn in that answer. The tool stops seeing itself as a tool. The conqueror becomes a guilty man whose god is his own strength.
The armies described in the verses before this one are not simply history running its course. They are a chosen tool, given a limited season.
They were destroyers whom God used in His providence to break down Judah's turning away from Him, and also to punish the pride of other nations… So the Chaldeans would be allowed to prevail as God's whip for a set time.
The verse turns on something that happens inside the conqueror. Older translations read the opening line, "Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend" — and that is the wording these writers work from. One writer gives the sense of the words: the man's spirit swells up, overflows, and ends in guilt.
"Then his mind" (his spirit) "sprang up" (broke out, or took the lead) "and overflowed, and he was guilty" (he transgressed)… "this his power is his god" — he transgresses, calling his power his god. His power stands as a god to him. It is the character of the proud man.
The man had already been cruel and proud for years. What is new here is the object of his worship.
A moment came when the head of the Chaldean nation changed his mind. The Lord held him responsible for the task God had entrusted to him. Instead of seeing himself as an instrument, he went beyond what he was charged with, and sinned by doing so. He had already sinned a thousand times over by his cruelties, pride, and idolatry. But the time came when his own strength took the place of God. The power that God had laid into his hands became his god. He worshipped that power: his power. He trusted in it, he honoured it.
One writer gives the sin its name: impiety. It does more than ignore the conscience. It denies God His rights.
Impiety not only refuses to respect the conscience, but, what is worse, it denies the rights of God… His thought is of the power he holds. May we remember that God is the one who gave it, and who overrules it! (Compare Hab. 1:11, 15-17.) Impiety forgets the source of power, and claims every right for itself, even against God Himself.
The king who carried out this prophecy said it out loud. Then he had to learn who had raised him up.
They failed completely to see that they were only instruments in the hand of God. Puffed up by their own successes, they would reject the true God, set up a god of their own making, and worship their own power. So we know it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" He had to learn what every other tyrant in history has had to learn. The God who had raised him up to deal with offenders will also put him down when he offends against the true God by claiming divine honours for himself.
(Nebuchadnezzar says these words in Daniel 4:30.)
The verse calls these men guilty. So the tool in God's hand does not escape.
As he wins, the Chaldean becomes proud. He forgets that God used him only as an instrument to deal with those who had done evil… His own might is his god. Then comes the day when the Lord takes the Chaldean in hand for judgment, and deals with him as He dealt with other nations.
One writer traces this worship of power forward, to what the world will worship at the end.
The head of the Chaldean empire was not alone in this… In the last days of mankind there will be far less talk of open idolatry than of the worship of man, whom the world will make its idol. The idolaters of long ago worshipped an unknown god for his power, goodness, and righteousness… The one worshipped in the future will be man.
- Loaned. The Chaldean's strength was not his own. God used him to break down Judah's turning away and to punish the pride of other nations.
- Forgotten. He stops seeing himself as an instrument. Impiety is forgetting the source of power.
- Deified. What God had laid in his hands took God's place: he worshipped, trusted, and honoured his own power.
- Boasted. Nebuchadnezzar said it out loud: "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built…"
- Judged. The God who raises a man up to deal with offenders also puts him down when he claims divine honours for himself.
-- Art thou not from everlasting, Jehovah my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast appointed him for correction.
God has just told the prophet that He is raising up the Chaldeans against His own people. His reply is not a protest but an appeal, and it reaches past the crisis to what God has always been.
Something changes in the prophet at this question.
Here is the prophet's answer to the LORD's word: "Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God?" It brings a measure of rest to his spirit. Now, instead of giving way to the sad tone in which he began, he is emboldened to speak plainly of the Chaldeans. He bows in some measure to the wisdom and righteousness of the discipline. If it is not complete yet, we shall find it has its perfect work before he closes. It is of deep interest to see such progress in the soul, and it is always like this where there is reality. Nothing is more painful than when believers settle down in a merely doctrinal statement of truth, or in the same experience day after day. They gather no fresh strength from the Lord. They should rather seek to turn everything, whether sorrow or joy, into a means of knowing Him better.
The verse follows straight on from the Chaldean who credits his power to himself. Against that boast, the prophet sets the God who has no beginning.
The prophet at once seizes on this blasphemy to appeal to God for the judgment of this wicked nation. They may deny the true God, but the prophet asks, "Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One?" Can God be indifferent to the wickedness of those who defy Him by claiming divine powers for themselves? Not while staying true to His own glory and holiness. Impossible!
Notice the small word "my", said twice. The prophet claims the eternal God as his own, and belongs to Him in turn.
Although God's Word announced only judgments (vv. 5-10), the prophet's heart overflowed with thankfulness to the Lord. Fellowship with God gave him the assurance that God, his God, was his Holy One. Here was a God who kept up a connection with him. And he was a weak, failing and ignorant man who, though a prophet, hardly knew His thoughts. That God is "from everlasting" and is therefore the God of the promises given to Israel. He took Habakkuk, the representative of His people, under His protection. He had given Himself to His prophet, and the prophet belonged to Him. What a privilege when the soul may speak so intimately with God!
The prophet accepts the coming blow and still says the people will live. That confidence rests on a difference: God treats His own people one way and His enemies another.
The prophet bows to what the LORD has said. He admits that the people of God have come under the LORD's chastening for their correction. But he can add, "We shall not die." If God deals with His people in chastening, it is so that they may live in a way that fits Himself. If He deals with His enemies in judgment, it is their everlasting destruction, just as they deserve.
Another writer looks at ordinary family life. He reads the word "Rock" in the verse as proof that God has not walked away.
This proved that the Rock of ages, "the Rock of Israel," had not abandoned His people for good. When a father chastises his child, it is not to kill him, but to shape him according to his own character. This is how God deals with us too, "that we may share His holiness" (Heb. 12:10). This is a comforting thought. God acknowledges us as His children when He chastens us. He chastens us precisely because we are His children.
The words "ordained" and "established" put the Chaldean under orders. He is a tool with a set limit.
There is little said about their history. They were brought forward fully as a scourge, and this is clearly stated. Yet it cannot be without God taking them in hand in the end. Everything was measured. His mercy always measured the trial when His people had to come under chastening. Those self-assertive Chaldeans had human energy without equal. How blessed that God still only used them to correct His own badly failing people!
Why can the prophet be so sure? Because of the God he knows.
He knows the LORD as the faithful God, the covenant-keeping God. Such a God will not allow the nation to whom He has pledged His Word to be wiped out. His faith lays hold of that.
- Everlasting. The prophet's rest begins with his question. God is from everlasting, unchanged by the crisis in front of him.
- Mine. He claims that eternal God as "my God, my Holy One". God kept up the bond with a weak man who hardly knew His thoughts.
- Measured. God ordained and established the invader, so the Chaldean was never free. God's mercy always measures the trial His people must pass through.
- Not death. Chastening aims at life and likeness to God. Judgment on His enemies is a different thing.
- Growth. Habakkuk does not stay where he started. Real faith turns sorrow and joy alike into a better knowledge of God.
[Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on mischief wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [and] keepest silence when the wicked swalloweth up a [man] more righteous than he?
God has just told Habakkuk that He will raise up the Chaldeans, a violent empire, to discipline His own people. The prophet's reply is not doubt but an argument from God's own character: how can eyes too pure for evil stay silent?
The prophet does not build his case on how bad the enemy is. He builds it on who God is, and then presses the contradiction he feels.
The prophet bases his conclusions, not simply on the wickedness of the enemy, but on the holiness of God. God is "of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong." Will God look on and stay silent? The enemy blasphemes Him, deals treacherously with the nations, and acts more unrighteously than the people God is using them to discipline.
The words do not mean God fails to notice evil. They mean He cannot leave it alone, and that His eyes find their rest somewhere else entirely.
But He cannot see evil without dealing with it. He must reject it. His eyes are too pure to look at it. In verse 3 the prophet had asked: "Why do You cause me to see iniquity, and do You look upon grievance?" Now he had learned the answer. God had caused him to see unrighteousness, and how else would he learn to judge it? Yet God cannot tolerate it in His presence. His eyes can only satisfy themselves with what is perfect and pure and rest on what is purely good. Even in the middle of the darkest circumstances, sin, and uncleanness, He sees one Man, Christ. Deeply humbled as He was, He was the perfect Man. And in Him His love has found all its pleasure.
Most of us try it the other way round. We stare at the evil and hope to work out what God is like.
Looking at evil never leads us to the true knowledge of God. But knowing God teaches us the true character of evil.
Habakkuk is not claiming his nation is innocent. He is measuring it against the invader, and by that comparison the sums do not add up.
True enough, there were in Israel not only many wicked things but also some "good things" that the surrounding nations lacked. In fact, Israel was more righteous than its adversaries. The prophet wanted to know the answer to this problem as well. If God observed something good with those who were oppressed by the wicked one, why did He then favour them in what they did?
This complaint did not die with Habakkuk. It is the cry of everyone who suffers while wrong goes unchecked.
Would He, the righteous God, look on unconcerned at the wicked deeds of the Chaldeans? Can He remain silent to all their deeds of violence? If that is so, the prophet asks next: "Why do You idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?" This is the voice of the faithful few, suffering along with the nation. It raises for us the same question about the suffering of the righteous.
Habakkuk pleads for his suffering people out of what he knows about God's love — and then leaves the timing with God.
Nothing can be more beautiful than this. A single eye knows the love God has for His own people, and above all for Christ Himself. Such an eye takes hold of the truth that fits, and uses it for the needy who hold fast to His name. "Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?" Will Jehovah allow them then to go on in this unsparing way? It cannot be. But the outcome must be waited for.
The same purity that troubled the prophet explains the cross. There God forsook the One who always did His will.
God had truly forsaken the One who always did His will. He did so because our sins were laid on Him, and God is "of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong." Such was the cross! Such was the price He paid for you and for me!
- Holiness first. The prophet argues from God's purity, not from the enemy's cruelty. That purity is what makes God's silence so hard to bear.
- Purity means engagement. "Cannot look at wrong" does not mean God ignores evil. He cannot see it without dealing with it. His eyes rest only on what is good — above all on Christ.
- Knowledge runs one way. Studying evil will never teach you who God is. Knowing God teaches you what evil really is.
- Relative, not absolute. Israel was more righteous than the Chaldeans — but not righteous. That is why the question hurts so much.
- Wait for the outcome. Faith may press God with His own words and be sure the wicked cannot go on forever. It still leaves the timing to Him. And the cross shows how far God's holiness went to save us.
And thou makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them.
God has just told Habakkuk that He Himself will raise up the Chaldeans against His own people. The answer troubles the prophet more than his question did, and in reply he pictures people caught like fish, with no one over them to guard them.
The complaint is not that Israel was innocent. Israel, for all its faults, was still better than the nation sent to crush it. The prophet cannot fit that with what he knows of God.
It is true that Israel had many wicked things in it. But it also had some "good things" that the nations around it lacked. These good things were there during the reign of Josiah. Israel really was more righteous than its enemies. The prophet wanted an answer to this problem too. If God saw something good in those who were oppressed by the wicked one, why did He then give them success in what they set out to do?
The force of the image lies in what fish and crawling things lack. No one guides them and no one defends them. They are simply there for the taking, and that is how the invader treated people.
This wicked nation was treating men as if they were only fish of the sea, or crawling things, with no ruler to guide or protect them. They seized the weak and the helpless, and used them to provide a rich portion, and plenty, for themselves.
The verse does not say the Chaldeans made men like fish. It says God did. God hands out the right to govern, and He can take it back. That is what left the nations, and Israel too, with no one to stand between them and the conqueror.
When God has trusted a government to men, He has the right to take it away from them completely. He can hand them over as prey to those He gives the power to. So it would soon go with the nations that Babylon conquered. The same fate would fall on Israel, which once stood as one whole under God's government. It had deserted the Lord, and it would be left without king, without prince, and without help against the enemy.
Habakkuk does not argue from his own feelings. He takes the short word God had already given him and turns it into a plea for people who have no defender.
See with what skill he turns the little word the Lord had given him into a foundation. He now pleads reasons why God should not spare these merciless enemies of Himself and His people. Nothing can be more beautiful. A single eye — an eye that knows the love God has for His own people, and above all for Christ Himself — takes hold of the truth that fits and uses it for the needy who hold fast to His name.
The fishing picture runs on into the next verses, and it ends in idolatry. The gear that brought in the catch now gets the sacrifice and the incense. The Chaldean worships his own success.
The Chaldean took men as if they were fish. As a fisherman puts out the net and the dragnet, so they catch men by the net and the dragnet. He gathers in the people with their wealth, and he rejoices and is glad... He sacrifices to his net. He burns incense. He makes the thing that gives him success his idol, his god. Is this to go on and on? Shall he who empties his net, and throws it out to catch more, do this again with the nations forever?
Underneath the protest is confidence. Habakkuk pleads like a lawyer who is sure of the God he is addressing, and his fear does not stop him asking for mercy.
He speaks with the deepest fear and feeling, with the skill of an advocate whose love makes him eloquent. He pleads against the Chaldean, sure that the Lord would not hand His own people over to the reckless rage of men more wicked than themselves, however guilty His people might be. He also asks that in the Lord's grace this terrible scourge may be only for the correction of Israel, and not for its destruction.
- Problem. Israel was guilty, yet more righteous than the nation God was sending. That gap set the prophet asking.
- Picture. The invader treats men like fish and crawling things — weak, helpless, no one to guide or protect them, caught to fill his own table.
- Cause. God gives government, and God can take it back. A people left without king, prince or help becomes prey.
- Plea. Habakkuk takes the one word God gave him and turns it into prayer. An eye that knows God's love for His people finds the truth that fits and uses it for the needy.
- End. The fisherman who worships his own net cannot go on forever. The prophet asks that the blow correct Israel, not destroy it.
He taketh up all of them with the hook, he catcheth them in his net, and gathereth them into his drag; therefore he rejoiceth and is glad
God has just told Habakkuk that He will raise up the Chaldeans — the power of Babylon — to punish His own people. Now the prophet watches them haul whole nations in like fish, and asks how a holy God can let the fisherman enjoy his catch.
Hook, net and dragnet were the working tools of a real trade. Here the prophet turns them on people.
Fishing was very common in Egypt. People used the net, and also the line and hook (Isaiah 19:8). The Israelites used the same tools. Nets are often mentioned, and the fish with the coin in its mouth was caught with a hook (Matthew 17:27). In Habakkuk 1:15 these same things stand as a picture of catching men for captivity. The Lord made His apostles fishers of men.
So the same picture runs both ways: men dragged off into captivity here, and men caught by the Lord's apostles.
A fish is caught to be eaten. The conqueror had the same use for people.
This wicked nation treated men as if they were only fish in the sea, or crawling creatures with no ruler to guide or protect them. They took hold of the weak and the helpless, and used them to give themselves a good portion and plenty.
Fish have no ruler. Neither did these nations, and one writer traces that back to God's right over the governments He gives out.
God entrusts a government to men. He also has the right to take it all back, and to hand them over as prey to the men He gives the power to. This is what would soon happen to the nations Babylon conquered. The same fate would fall on Israel, which once stood as one whole under God's government. It had deserted the Lord, and it would end up with no king, no prince and no help against the enemy.
The verse does not end with the catch. It ends with the fisherman's mood as he looks at his haul.
The Chaldean took men as if they were fish. A fisherman puts out his net and his dragnet; in the same way they catch men with net and dragnet. He gathers in the people with their wealth, and he rejoices and is glad.
God had already warned the prophet about this conqueror. He would go too far and credit his power to his own god. Habakkuk picks that warning up and hands it back to God as an argument.
The LORD had told the prophet that they would offend by crediting this very power to their god. So the prophet says back to the LORD that they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet, because through them their portion is rich and their food plentiful. Notice how he takes the little word the LORD had given him as a foundation, and uses it to plead reasons why He should not spare these merciless enemies of Himself and of His people. Nothing could be more beautiful. An eye fixed on one thing — an eye that knows the love God has for His own people, and above all for Christ Himself — takes hold of the truth that fits, and uses it for the good of the needy who cling to His name.
The net was only a tool, lent to a man for a purpose. Then he began to worship the tool, and one writer calls that the worst sin of all.
Their crowning sin is that they make a god of the power by which they have won their successes, and so set aside the true God.
The prophet saw this in his own day. Another writer turns it into a question for ours.
He saw that the enemy took the power entrusted to him and made an idol of his "net" and his "drag." We may well ask ourselves whether things are any different today, even if they now take another form.
- Hook — ordinary fishing gear becomes a picture of people hauled off into captivity.
- Catch — the conqueror treats his captives as creatures with no ruler to guide or protect them, and seizes them while they are weak.
- Cause — when God takes back the government He once entrusted to men, a people ends up with no king, no prince and no help against the enemy.
- Gladness — the conqueror gathers in both the people and their wealth, and his response to it is joy.
- Prayer — Habakkuk takes the very word God gave him and pleads with it for the needy who cling to God's name. Writers put the same question to us: has our own "net" become an idol?
therefore he sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense unto his drag; for by them his portion is become fat, and his meat dainty.
God has just named the Chaldeans as the rod He will use on His own people. Now the prophet watches that conqueror haul in whole nations like fish, then worship the net that caught them.
Start with how this conqueror saw the people he caught.
This wicked nation treated men as if they were fish in the sea, or crawling creatures with no ruler to guide or protect them. Once they had seized the weak and helpless, they used them to provide a rich portion and plenty for themselves.
So why were these nations left with no one to protect them?
When God has entrusted a government to men, He has the right to take it away from them completely. He can hand them over as prey to those in whose hands He puts the power. That is what would soon happen to the nations Babylon conquered.
The sacrifice and the incense are real worship, aimed at the wrong object.
Then the prophet takes up what the Lord had said: the Chaldean would offend, and fall by his pride and by the worship of his false gods. He sacrifices to his net. He burns incense. He makes the thing that prospers him his idol, his god.
Cruelty was not the Chaldean's worst offence. There came a point where he stopped seeing himself as a tool in a larger hand.
Instead of seeing himself as an instrument, he went beyond the task given to him, and in that he sinned. It isn't as if he had not sinned a thousand times by his cruelties, pride, and idolatry. But the time came when his own strength took the place of God. The power that God had laid into his hands became his god. He worshipped that power: his power. He trusted in it, he honoured it.
Hamilton Smith puts the charge in one line.
Their crowning sin is that they make a god of the power by which they have obtained their successes, and so set the true God aside.
Notice who is speaking. God gave the prophet this word first. Habakkuk now hands it back to God as a reason for judgment.
Jehovah had told the prophet that they would offend by crediting this very power to their god. So now the prophet tells Jehovah that they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag. See with what skill he takes the little word Jehovah had given him and makes it the ground of his plea. He asks God not to spare these ruthless enemies of Himself and His people.
The net was a Babylonian idol, but the instinct behind it outlives Babylon.
He saw that the enemy used the power entrusted to him to make an idol of his net and his drag. We may well ask whether things are any different today, even if the form has changed.
The same sin can take a spiritual form.
To boast of spiritual gifts and attainments as if acquired by our own skill is even more offensive to the Lord, Who alone gives as it pleases Him. It is to put God's blessings and favours in the place of God Himself.
- Net — He hauls in helpless people like fish and lives well off the catch.
- Incense — Then he worships the net itself. Whatever makes him rich becomes his god.
- Crossing the line — God lent him the power. He owned none of it, yet his own strength took the place of God.
- Plea — Habakkuk takes the word God gave him and hands it back as a reason not to spare such a man for ever.
- Today — The idol changes shape, not nature. Credit your gifts to your own skill, and you put God's blessings where God Himself belongs.
Shall he therefore empty his net, and not spare to slay the nations continually?
The prophet has just watched a cruel empire haul in whole peoples like a fisherman hauling fish. Now he puts his last question to God: will the killing go on forever, and will God ever call to account the nation He is using?
Habakkuk takes the words God had already spoken to him about the Chaldeans and turns them into an argument in prayer. One commentator describes the kind of eye that prays this way, and where the plea lands. The translation he used reads "they" and "their net," of the Chaldeans as a people:
Nothing can be more beautiful than the way a single eye lays hold of the suitable truth and uses it for the needy who cling to His name. Such an eye knows the love God has for His own people, and above all for Christ Himself… Will the Lord then allow them to go on in this unsparing way? It cannot be. But the issue must be waited for.
The verses just before this one describe how the Chaldeans treated the peoples they caught.
This wicked nation was treating men as if they were mere fish of the sea, or creeping things that have no ruler to guide or protect them. Having taken possession of the weak and helpless, they used them to provide a good portion, and plenty, for themselves. What is more, their crowning sin is that they make a god of the power by which they have gained their successes, and so set aside the true God.
The prophet's question leans on God's own verdict about this nation.
Then the prophet takes up the statement given by the Lord that the Chaldean would offend, and fall by his pride and the worship of his false gods… Is this then to go on continually? Shall he who empties his net, and throws it out to catch more, do this again with the nations forever?
One commentator turns the picture on the reader, and then points to where the answer is found.
He saw that the enemy used the power entrusted to him to make an idol of his "net" and his "drag." We may well ask ourselves whether things are really different today, even if the form has changed… The prophet's two great questions therefore concerned how God governs His people and how He governs the world. In the New Testament the First and Second Epistles of Peter give an answer to these questions.
Later in the book God turns on the oppressor, using the very nations the oppressor had plundered.
The oppression and injustice of this nation cries aloud to God for judgment. As the LORD had used the Chaldeans to chastise His people and the nations, so now He uses the nations to judge the Chaldeans.
One commentator adds what this reversal means for the people under God's hand.
God never loses sight of His people. The Chaldean was guilty of looting and murder against the nations, and God would righteously avenge it. How much more, then, when he poured out his violence on Israel. God had to set His people aside for a time. But He will renew His relationship with them as soon as the judgments have passed. He never forgets those who truly belong to Him. When it pleases Him to chasten them, then woe to those who, in doing so, pursue their own advantage.
One commentator reads the Chaldean as pointing beyond his own day.
But the Chaldean was not only a real person, but a representative one. He stands out in the prophets as telling us of coming and final judgments. His sword visited not only Judah and Jerusalem, but the surrounding nations. His was a day in which the God of all the earth was rising up, and the world had to keep silence.
- Net — The net never stays empty. He tips it out only to throw it over the nations again.
- Worship — The crowning sin is not the cruelty alone. He makes a god of the power that prospers him, and so sets the true God aside.
- Today — The same idolatry lives on in a different form. Peter's letters answer the prophet's two questions: how God deals with His people, and how He deals with the world.
- Reversal — The instrument does not escape. God judges the Chaldean by the very nations He had used to chastise.
- Waiting — Faith is certain: "It cannot be." Faith also waits: "the issue must be waited for." God never forgets those who belong to Him.