Category: Habakkuk

Habakkuk: Living By Faith (III)

Do you have a “no matter what” faith? How does one develop such a faith, one that grows and develops even when life is hard? Habakkuk knows.

FAITH TRIUMPHANT (3:1-19)

Neal Pollard

Nothing has changed in the circumstances Habakkuk is wrestling with. Babylon is still coming to execute God’s wrath for Judah’s sin. Babylon is still more wicked than Judah, the catalog of sins just reviewed in the previous chapter. But we notice the change in tone in the last verse of Habakkuk 2. The prophet has gladly resigned himself to the fact that God is on the throne, still in charge and perfectly knowing what He is doing.

This transformation leads directly to the prayer with which he ends this short book. The odd notation, “according to Shigionoth,” identifies it as a highly emotional poem. BDB Lexicon speaks of it as a “wild, passionate song, with rapid changes of rhythm” (993). So dramatic was this form of poetry that it “would be a song which provoked great excitement by its performance” (Koehler, HALOT, 1414). Habakkuk has come through the thick and dangerous fog of the trial of his faith, and he emerges into the clear blue sky of confidence in God’s character and work. What does his triumphant faith look like?

Appeal (2). He petitions God out of a deep fear and reverence that is apparent throughout this prayer. Yet, he is bold enough to ask God to revive His work and make it known. He asks for mercy amid His just wrath. It’s the only two things he asks for in the whole prayer. Habakkuk will describe the wrath in the latter part of the chapter (8,12). He wants God to swiftly answer (“in the midst of the years”). 

Admiration (3-4). As he copes with God’s pending judgment, Habakkuk still has a heart to praise. He writes of God’s splendor, radiance, and unmistakable power. He is pictured as a king coming in procession, only His harbingers are the radiance and rays of His glory. 

Awe (5-12). Habakkuk’s response to the greatness of God’s power is to describe His coming in judgment. He envisions the carnage in the aftermath of God’s wrath on the disobedient. He comes with pestilence and plague (5), standing, surveying, then shattering (6), rage, anger, and wrath (8), chastisement (9), and indignation and anger (12). All creation trembled at His coming (10-11). This God with whom Habakkuk had debated is transcendent, doing what is right in the proper measure at the proper time. Habakkuk can only watch in jaw-dropping wonder. 

Acknowledgement (13-16). Habakkuk proclaims the acts of God with four “you” statements–You went forth, You struck, You pierced, and You trampled. He acted in salvation for His people and in retribution against the wicked. Habakkuk’s acknowledgement of such perfect justice is telling: “I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.” Not only does he acknowledge the greatness of God, but the justice of His decision to bring about the Babylonian Captivity against his sinful brethren. 

Acceptance (17-18). Out of this comes the resignation of trusting faith. It’s a “no matter what” faith on Habakkuk’s part. These verses have become some of the best known and most quoted of the entire book (along with 1:13, 2:4, and 2:20). How can we illustrate triumphant faith? How about these words? “Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” If every earthly blessing is withheld from me, I know that God is worthy of my trust and deserving of my worship and praise. This is the faith that will cause us to live (2:4)!

Acclamation (19). Habakkuk’s final declaration is of his strength through the Lord (cf. Phil. 4:13). Though the Chaldeans are knocking on the door, ready to break it in and take them away, the prophet pictures himself (and the faithful) as those who are still standing through God’s help. Like Job, praising God despite his pain (Job 42:2), Habakkuk rises from the ashes of his perplexity and the trial of his faith. He stands on the rock solid foundation of God’s trustworthiness. After the trial, with God’s help and by God’s mercy, he will stand. 

Where am I in my faith? Is it being tested? Am I listening to God’s truth as He teaches it? If so, then, no matter what, I will triumph through Him! 

Habakkuk: Living By Faith (II)

Faith often requires waiting patiently. What is now may seem like what will be, but trust in God’s character and power calls on us to “wait upon the Lord” (Isa. 40:31). What does Habakkuk have to say for the one struggling to keep faith in faithless times?

Faith Taught (2:1-20)

Neal Pollard

Habakkuk is struggling, but he desires to know God’s answer in the situation. There is a tremendous difference between railing out at God like a spoiled, uncontrolled toddler and reaching up to God begging for clarity and understanding while trusting that He can help. So, Habakkuk dutifully reports himself like a guard looking out from the walkway of a defensive wall, watching and waiting for an answer from God (1).

Starting in verse two, the Lord answers him. God wants him to write His answer down, a permanent and practical record for others to read. Habakkuk is told that these words are for the not-too-distant future (3). 

From verse four to the end of the chapter, God gives Habakkuk a lesson on faith.

LIVING BY FAITH (4). God starts the lesson with the contrast between the proud and the righteous. What He says about the proud sets the stage for what follows in the bulk of the chapter. His heart is not right within him. As the result, we will see what he is capable of. Yet, the righteous will live by his faith. This had to be comfort for Habakkuk as he struggles, by faith, to understand why God is using the wicked Chaldeans to punish the sin of the prophet’s country of Judah. The righteous would need to cling to their faith as they endured the events prophesied in chapter one. Think about how that has not changed today, even if the specifics are different. The world seems to be winning, and at times God may even use people and events to try and refine our faith. The proud has an impure heart, but the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). 

LOSING BY FAITHLESSNESS (5-19). It appears that God is describing the character and behavior of the Babylonians. Though they are stronger and winning for the present, their immorality and ungodliness would undo them. Their voracious appetite for sin and destruction (5) would bring about their downfall (cf. Gal. 6:7-8; Prov. 22:8; Hos. 8:7). 

This is captured by the five “woe” statements in this chapter. “Woe” is an interjection of lamentation, found 50 times in the prophets. Ten percent of the occurrences are right here. It forms a list of charges that would indict the Babylonians. It would be a song sung by those who witnessed and endured their cruelty (6). The lamentation would be for those who:

  • …Take advantage of others financially (6-8). They would be overwhelmed by those who got the financial advantage over them. 
  • …Trust riches to get them what they think they want (9-11). They were impoverishing themselves, sinning against themselves. 
  • …Turn to violence and bloodshed to get what they want (12-14). God’s glory would eclipse not only whatever they temporarily achieve, but the name they briefly have for themselves (cf. Heb. 11:25). 
  • …Take advantage of others socially and sexually (15-17). What they sought to do to others would happen to them. The cup of judgment in God’s hand, which He was making others (like Judah) drink from as Babylon passed it to them, would come around to them and turn glory to disgrace. 
  • …Trust idols to save and lead them (18-19). They are proud of their invention, then turn and serve and worship it even though it cannot speak, guide, or save. 

We may feel more sophisticated than the Babylonians today, but we are wise to learn from their mistakes. The law of love will keep us from taking advantage of others in any way. Nor will we put our trust in money or anything that competes with the place only God is to occupy (Mat. 6:33). But if we do, God wants us to know how it will end. 

LOOKING UP BY FAITH (20). The end of the lesson is short and succinct. It will only be heeded by the faithful one of verse four. “The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.” This truth should produce hope, patience, confidence, but also reverence and fear. It will keep us from being hasty and impulsive, remembering that “God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few” (Ecc. 5:2b). 

Habakkuk: Living By Faith (I)

Faith Tested (1:1-17)

Neal Pollard

Your Bible probably either has “oracle” or “burden” in verse one. The Hebrew word (‘massa’–pronounced like our brother at church) literally means “a load, what is carried about, with a focus on the effort needed to transport them” (Swanson, DBL Hebrew, np). It’s the word describing what a donkey (beast of burden) carries (Ex. 23:5).  If the date of this short book is around the time of the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., if we conclude that the prophet’s words in Habakkuk 1:2-4 describe the reign of Jehoiakin, then the Babylonian invasion and the first wave of captivity is imminent.  There is a weighty burden to which Habakkuk is being exposed. The Babylonian threat is just emerging while his own nation, Judah, is blissfully ignorant and endlessly iniquitous. What Habakkuk sees truly tests his faith, especially as he considers what appears to him to be God’s inaction in response (2). What tests Habakkuk’s faith?

The silence of God (2).Have you ever intensely cried out to God in prayer about something very troubling, difficult, or painful, but could not perceive an answer? The longer and more faithfully you do, the more it can test your faith when things seem unchanged. You want help or rescue, but things remain as they have been. David often felt that way (Ps. 13; 22). We can lose sight of the faithfulness of God (cf. Jer. 14:9)! 

The sight of sin (3-4). What often compounds the trial of our faith is what is not silent or invisible all around us. Habakkuk has a front row seat to the iniquity, destruction, strife and contention, biblical ignorance, injustice, oppression, and perversion. The righteous seem to be losing, the wicked seem to be winning, and it’s a blowout! The prophet cannot believe it. It’s difficult to feel like a spiritual minority, even among a society that gives lip-service to faith but whose daily lives defy such conviction. Isaiah understood (Isa. 5:20). So did Jeremiah (Jer. 20:18). So do we (Eph. 5:12; 2 Tim. 3:1-5). 

The speech of God (5-11). In Habakkuk’s prophecy, God responds to him mid-crisis. Instead of commiserating with the man or acknowledging his lamentation, He gives him more and specific reasons to lament. He identifies a nation from among the nations whom He has chosen to punish the sin that Habakkuk sees (6). He warns that he would see it in his days (5). He would raise up the Chaldeans (Babylonians)(6). God describes the ferocious and fearful empire, unstoppable and unpitying (7-11). They invade like a predator (8) and cover like a sandstorm (9). They are godless and intimidating (10-11). They are much more experienced at iniquity than the sinful brethren of the prophet, and they are going to crush Judah! This is God’s answer to Habakkuk’s prayer?! Was this what he wanted to hear?

The sovereign choice of God (12-17). Habakkuk is trying to reconcile what he knows to be true about God and this message he has just received from God. There is a manifold dilemma. 

  • Why do you look favorably on those who act treacherously (13)?
  • Why are you silent when the wicked overwhelm those not as wicked (13)?
  • Why have you made men (everyone besides Babylon) like fish in their net (14-17)?

All Habakkuk can see is that Babylon is ruthless, bloodthirsty, and relentlessly wicked, yet also as godless and faithless as can be. Yet, he also knows some things about God. God is everlasting, holy, just, pure, and perfect (12-13). Because of this, why are things the way they are? Why is Babylon about to inflict punishment on Judah? Why isn’t God’s omnipotent wrath trained on the Chaldeans instead? 

If any chapter reflects the tenor of the lyrics, “Tempted and tried, we’re oft made to wonder why it should be thus all the day long. While there are others living about us, never molested though in the wrong,” it is Habakkuk one. The prophet is perplexed! It’s hard to imagine than anyone of faith, reading this chapter, can fail to relate. We live in a world where wickedness seems to wear the crown. Righteousness seems to be locked in the dungeon. God seems nowhere to be seen. We know better because we know God, but how can we reconcile everything? Like Habakkuk, we should prepare ourselves for His answer (2:1). Thankfully, He has something to say on the subject!