Habakkuk 1:5

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.