Does God sometimes use evil to accomplish His plans (Habakkuk 1:5-11)?

Verses 5-11. Jehovah speaks and answers the complaint of His servant. He is going to raise up the Chaldeans to chastise His wayward people. The Lord is calling on His people, that they should see now what He was going to do. "Behold ye among the nations, and regard, and wonder marvellously; for I work a work in your days, which ye will not believe though it were told you." The meaning is that they should look around among the nations, the faithless ones among the Jews, and see how the storm would gather and ultimately break over the head of the house of Judah. He would work a judgment work, which they would not believe, it would be an unparalleled occurrence, amazing and terrible. This passage is quoted by the Apostle Paul in Acts 13:41 and applied to the unbelievers and despisers of the gospel. In the quotation the Spirit of God led the Apostle to omit the address to the nations, and substituted for it "Ye despisers." While in Habakkuk's day God was about to work a work of judgment, which the unbelievers would not believe when they heard of it, we note that Paul preached the gospel; he has reference to speaking to the Jews in the synagogue; preached the gospel unto them, and they did not believe. Then He worked a work which they would not believe, in sending that gospel far hence to the Gentiles (Acts 28) while the unbelieving Jews would be dispersed among the nations.

Here we find the answer to the prophet's question. It is not directed at him, but at the wicked ones about whom he had complained. They better “see among the nations” and observe with amazement how the Lord would recompense their deeds. At that particular moment, the Assyrian had not yet been annihilated; the Lord would, however, raise up the Chaldean. He would subject the other nations to this power but first of all cause His people to become subservient to them. Perhaps Israel expected to be delivered for good from oppression after it was set free from the yoke of the Assyrian. To the contrary, it would fall under an entirely different heavy and cruel yoke. And, what was even a more terrible judgment, the Lord would take the kingdom from Israel and commit it to Babel, to “the golden head” of the Gentile empire. That fate awaited the wicked nation. Simultaneously, the prophet received an answer upon his cry: “I cry out unto Thee, Violence! and Thou dost not save.” Thereby the Lord showed His servant that if He did not deliver the righteous from the violence of the wicked ones, it is because they will soon be chastised by Him. Israel would with its land fall under the stroke of Babylonia and be brought into slavery.

In Habakkuk's day God had raised up the Chaldeans for this work of governmental judgment. Nevertheless, we are told that such was the low condition of God's people that they would not believe the testimony of God to His own work. They refused to see the hand of God behind their enemies who were being used for their chastisement. 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 that believe are justified from all things. Then immediately he quotes the prophet Habakkuk to warn them against despising the work of grace through unbelief, as their forefathers had despised the work of government through unbelief (Acts 13:41).

In spite, however, of the unbelief of man, the work of God, whether in grace or government, goes on. So, in his day, the prophet is told that God had raised up the Babylonians to carry out His work of government. Little did the Babylonians think that they were raised to the pinnacle of power simply to be an instrument in the hand of God to chastise His people and restrain the evils of the nations. Yet so it was in the prophet's day, and so it has been again and again, in the history of the world, when ruthless tyrants have been allowed for a time to pursue their career of aggression over surrounding nations.

However, the prophet hears from Jehovah that He was going to raise up the Chaldeans; and this all know was the proximate judgment then impending, though far from being all that awaits the Jew in this way. "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." They were spoilers whom God employed in His providence for the purpose of breaking down the apostacy of Judah, and also for chastising the pride of other nations. "They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; and they shall fly as the eagle that hastes to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn to them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power to his god." Thus there would be a permitted prevalence of the Chaldean scourge for a certain time; but when they forgot that God was employing them for the purpose of dealing with those who had offended His name and glory, directly they imputed their power not to the sovereign will of God but to the positive influence and agency of their own god, then the true God would take them in hand. Their self-proceeding energy would come to nought just as much as the haughtiness of other nations. This action of the Chaldeans is to be assigned to the moment of their coming up under Nebuchadnezzar down to the overthrow of the Babylonish monarchy. It was then that all should be changed. The culminating point of this outrageous iniquity was the insult that was done to Jehovah by Belshazzar, when they praised their gods in presence of the dishonoured vessels of the temple at Jerusalem, as if Jehovah could not preserve His own people before the superior power of their idols, or of Chaldean hands.

This nation of the Chaldeans is described as a bitter and impetuous nation, marked by cruelty and violence. With aggressive energy they marched through the earth to possess dwelling-places that were not theirs. They inspired terror and dread by their acts of frightfulness, in which they were a law to themselves, having no respect for the customs of the nations. Having sunk below the level of natural men, wild and ferocious animals are used as figures to set forth the inhuman ferocity with which they would prey upon the nations. For a time they would carry all before them; kings and princes would be set aside, and "every stronghold" overturned.

(V. 11). Then, at the height of their conquering career, their mind would change, and, not content with the ruthless destruction of men they would pass on to offend against God. Entirely failing to see that they were only instruments in the hand of God, and puffed up by their own successes, they would reject the true God and set up a god of their own devising, and worship their own power. So we know it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the glory of my majesty?" He had to learn, as every other tyrant in the course of history has had to learn, that 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.

“For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation, which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves” (Hab. 1:6-7).

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 impetuous, taking the initiative in attack, advancing over the breadth of the earth, conquering the countries of the world, and taking possession of inhabited regions not belonging to them.

Habakkuk 1:5-11. In His answer to this cry of His servant, the Lord seems, at the first, to vindicate and to join with it. He enters into the resentment of the moral state of Israel, which Habakkuk was so deeply feeling. He challenges His people as "heathen" — for such they would prove themselves to be, by not believing the work that He himself was purposing to work among them. He counts their circumcision as uncircumcision. The apostle, quoting this word from our prophet, calls them "despisers." (Acts 13:41) The Lord, therefore, thus, at the first, follows the story of Israel's iniquities, which the prophet had been rehearsing; and anticipates their great crowning, closing iniquity — the rejection of His word and work through unbelief.

But having done this, He lets the prophet know, that this iniquity which had been vexing his soul, and against which he had been crying to Him, should not go unpunished, for that the Chaldean sword should soon enter the land to avenge the quarrel of His holiness.

“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.” Now in the reign of the good King Hezekiah, another king, the King of Assyria, led a very great army into the land of Judah; and he threatened to destroy Jerusalem. Then “Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.” And the Lord in answer to their prayers sent an angel, which slew in one night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand men of the king of Assyria’s army. “Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the hand of the King of Assyria, But Jehoiakim was a wicked king, and his people were very wicked; and we are told that it was the Lord who raised up the Chaldeans, “that bitter and hasty nation,” that by them he might punish the king and people for their sins. And so these “terrible and dreadful men”, who “had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age” (2 Chr. 36:17), came up against Jerusalem; having horses “swifter than the leopards,” and “more fierce than the evening wolves.”

Hab. 1. The prophet exhibits the exercise of a heart full of sympathy towards the people of God. The evil among them greatly distressed him, and he cried mightily unto God. In Hab. 1:5-11 is God's answer. He will raise up the Chaldeans, a "bitter and hasty nation," to punish them. The character and violence of the Chaldeans are described.

The prophet exhibits the exercise of a heart full of sympathy towards the people of God. The evil among them greatly distressed him, and he cried mightily unto God. In Hab. 1: 5-11 is God's answer. He will raise up the Chaldeans, a "bitter and hasty nation," to punish them. The character and violence of the Chaldeans are described.