Book of Habakkuk - Bible Survey

HABAKKUK is the expression of faith in Jehovah, in spite of everything, and of God's ways in the history of the people. The prophet complains of the iniquity that surrounds him in Israel: God shews to him the Chaldeans, whom He is bringing to visit the land in judgment because of this iniquity; then the prophet's affection for the people is awakened, and he complains of the Chaldeans; and God shews him that he must live by faith: He will punish these violent enemies, whose passions He had used as a rod to chasten Israel; but the man of faith must wait. The day of Jehovah shall come, and the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. The prophet recalls the former deliverance of Israel, and rejoices in Jehovah, although no blessing from Him be apparent.

Habakkuk complains of the iniquity of the people of God, and asks for judgment; then God shews him the chastisement of His people through means of their enemies; why his love for the people of God returns; and then he cries against the oppressors. God shews that He well knows the oppressor, and He shews that it is necessary to wait, and that the just shall live by faith, because deliverance will come later; then he reveals, on God's part, the judgment which falls at the last on the oppressor, and in a song, calling to mind the deliverance of the people of God at the beginning, he declares his confidence in God, even when the people of God are not in the enjoyment of outward blessings.

HABAKKUK furnishes the exercises of one troubled by the iniquity of the Jews crying for judgment, and then because it is executed by those more wicked than they; who is told to wait for the judgment, but meanwhile to live by faith. He then details the wickednesses of the wicked which ensure his destruction; and, finally, to Jehovah in His holy temple, and all the earth enjoined to keep silence, he pours forth his prayer with a full vision of divine judgment, which at length falls unsparingly, and expresses his joyful trust in God, come or come not what will of His outward blessings meanwhile.

Is the soul exercised by the iniquity of God's people - first, with indignation thereat, and then with distress at their being destroyed by those who are God's rod to chasten them. He then gets the answer of God, shewing that He knows the pride of the wicked, and will judge it, and that the righteous man must live by trusting in Him. Lastly, he rises above all to the glorious power of God, exercised in the salvation of His people, so that he trusts in Him, come what will.

Verses 1-4. The prophet begins his message with a prayer-cry to Jehovah. He whose name is "the embracer" embraces the Lord and cries to Him on account of the conditions prevailing in Judah. The Spirit of God stirred up the heart of Habakkuk on account of the moral conditions in Judah. He is jealous for Jehovah's glory, which manifested itself in hating the evil. "There is no prophetic delivery among the twelve lesser books more peculiar and characteristic than that of Habakkuk. It has no longer the occupation with the enemy as its main feature, although the enemy is referred to; but for its prominent topic we find the soul of the prophet, as representing the faithful among Judah, brought into deep exercise, and indeed a kind of colloquy between God Himself and the prophet, so as to set out not only that which gave him trouble of heart, but also divine comfort, as well as into exulting hope into which he was led by the communications of the Spirit of God."

Like Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, Habakkuk is deeply stirred on account of the declension among the people of God, and that led him to cry to Jehovah, to tell Him all about it. He begins with "How long, O LORD." It is the cry of the saints of God in all generations. We, too, in the midst of the increasing apostasy, the perilous times, cry to Him, "How long, O Lord." He had cried and there seemed to be no answer. Heaven was silent. And with him the righteous among the Jews had cried for help and for a change of conditions, under which they were suffering affliction. Wickedness and violence were evident on all sides. Strife and contention were the continued order of things. They injured each other wherever they could. The law of God was completely flouted; there was no more justice, and the wicked compassed about the righteous.

We have neither note of time nor exact historical data as to when or where this prophecy was uttered and written. We should judge, however, from Habakkuk 1:5-6, which intimate the Chaldean invasion of Judea, that the vision of Habakkuk (Hab. 1 and 2) and his sublime and fervent prayer (Hab. 3) considerably preceded the rise of the Chaldeans, and that the southern kingdom of Palestine, probably Jerusalem, was the scene of the "vision" and "prayer." If Nahum announces the judgment of the proud Assyrian who destroyed the kingdom of Israel, Habakkuk on the other hand predicts the utter ruin of the Chaldeans, who in their day of power destroyed the kingdom of Judah. The distinctly moral character of the book, and the prophet's identification with the people in their confession of sin, and then in their turning to Jehovah and hoping in His mercy, are truths of priceless value to every true servant of God whose desire is to serve Him, His saints, and church.

Habakkuk ("Ardently embraced") is a prophecy that particularly deals with the deep exercises and sorrows of a godly Israelite in considering the shame and degradation of his own nation, their being taken captive by "the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation." This contemptuous enemy ‑ the Babylonian Empire ‑ is the very picture of the world in its religious corruption and confusion, that is, in its gross misuse of the blessings of God. Little wonder that a godly soul is deeply distressed by Israel's captivity to such a type of evil. Has not the same dreadful enemy today enslaved the professing Church'?

Habakkuk, the 8 th of the Minor Prophets, occupies a special place. For he does not speak to men under God’s commission as do the other prophets but he speaks about his people and their enemies the Chaldeans to God. Together Habakkuk’s questions and comments as well as God’s answers build the prophetical utterance that should hit heart and conscience of the people of God.

Habakkuk’s heart is very heavy over the injustice among the people of God (Hab. 1:2-4). In His answer, which is directed to the people, God announces the Chaldeans’ attack as judgment (chap. 1:5-11). Now Habakkuk is even more terrified that God uses a nation even more unjust than the Jews as a rod to punish the people of Israel (chap. 1:12-17).

In chapter 2 Habakkuk receives a second answer from God to show him that Jehovah knows the pride of this evil nation of Babylon and that He will punish it but that the just will live by his faith. From chap. 2:3 we see that this revelation with its five woes (Hab. 2:6-20) not only refers to the imminent invasion of the Chaldeans but that it applies also to a future day.

There is no prophetic delivery among the twelve lesser books more peculiar and characteristic than that of Habakkuk. It has no longer the occupation with the enemy as its main feature, although the enemy is referred to; but for its prominent topic we find the soul of the prophet himself, as representing the faithful among the Jews, brought into deep exercises, and indeed a kind of colloquy between God Himself and the prophet, so as to set out not only that which gave him trouble of heart, but also divine comfort, as well as exulting hope into which he was led by the communications of the Spirit of God. We shall see too that the hope proves its divine quality; for there is all that which is calculated to sustain in patient waiting, though there be nothing shown outwardly, save indeed the extreme of earthly trial. Still the prophet rejoices in Jehovah, and counts on as undisturbed possession of all that is promised above every foe, as gazelles enjoy on the heights where no other foot can tread in safety.

"The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and thou dost not hear! even cry out to thee of violence, and thou dost not save! Why dost thou show me iniquity, and beholdest grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth; for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceeds." Hence there is a goodly measure of spiritual resemblance between the short prophecy of Habakkuk and the longer one of Jeremiah. At the same time Habakkuk is no mere imitator. He alludes to the previous prophets as he does to facts in the early history of Israel: so all the prophets did. There was no avoidance sometimes of direct quotation; nay, we have seen that the Spirit led them to adopt and reiterate that which other prophets had said before them. If the consciousness of originality and affluence of thought sometimes enable men to rise superior to the charge of borrowing from a compeer, much more did divine guidance make prophets less careful and sensitive on this head. Vain souls who yearn after and affect original power are too feeble to act candidly and with freedom, and are apt to show extreme jealousy lest they might be thought to make use of another; if they do not, it is to their own loss and that of their readers; for "non omnia possumus omnes" ["we cannot all do everything" Virgil.].

In the sixth verse of the opening chapter we read, "For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs." He therefore prophesied at the time when the Chaldeans, or as they are also called the Babylonians, were coming into power, and soon to be used against the house of Judah, as the Assyrian was used in judgment with the house of Israel. He prophesied during the reign of Josiah, that is at the very close of his reign, and a few years before Nineveh was destroyed, which elevated the Babylonians to the place of prominence. Some have put the date into the reign of Manasseh, the father of Josiah, but this is too early. Josiah died on the battlefield, and after his son Jehoahaz had reigned three months, Pharaoh-necho, who had slain Josiah, made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king over Judah, and gave him the name of Jehoiakim. (See 2 Kings 23:28-37.)

The Message of Habakkuk

The language which Habakkuk used is extremely beautiful. Professor Delitzsch speaks of it as follows: "His language is classical throughout, full of rare and select turns and words, which are to some extent exclusively his own, whilst his view and mode of presentation bear the seal of independent force and finished beauty. Notwithstanding the violent rush and lofty soaring of the thoughts, his prophecy forms a finely organized and artistically rounded whole. Like Isaiah, he is, comparatively speaking, much more independent of his predecessors, both in contents and form, than any of the other prophets." "Everything reflects the time when prophecy was in its greatest glory, when the place of the sacred lyrics, in which the religious life had expressed itself, was occupied, through a still mightier inter-position on the part of God, by prophetic poetry with its trumpet voice." Much in his message is in the form of communion with the Lord. He begins with the familiar heart-cry, "O LORD, how long shall I cry?" He receives an answer, which announces the coming of the Chaldeans, to which again the prophet replies. Then he said, "I will stand upon my watch, and will set me upon the tower, and will watch and see what He will say unto me" (chapter 2). Then he receives another answer. The judgment of Judah by the Chaldeans as well as the overthrow of the Chaldeans, on account of the deification of their power, is the prophetic message with which he starts.