Habakkuk 1:1–4

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 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, 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).

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He began by wailing and finished by rejoicing.

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.

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.

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 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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 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.

"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'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.