Andy's 'tell me a story...' blog

A whistle-stop tour of Habakkuk

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 15:17:15 +0200

Habakkuk complains at the injustice he sees in Israel:
2O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you "Violence!"
and you will not save?
3Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong? (Hab1:2-3)

God replies that he is going to judge the nation by raising up the Babylonians (or Chaldeans) against them:
5"Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.
[...]
11Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!" (Hab 1:5-6,11)

Habakkuk:
12Are you not from everlasting,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
13You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and are silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he? (Hab 1:12-13)

God:
4"Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
[...]
12"Woe to him who builds a town with blood
and founds a city on iniquity!
13Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts
that peoples labor merely for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
[...]
18"What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
19Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
20But the LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him." (Hab 2:4, 12-14, 18-20)

Habakkuk:
2"O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
3God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
[...]
6He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
[...]
12You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
13You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck.
[...]
16I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
17Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places. (Hab 3:2-3, 6, 12-13, 16-19)

With an amazing response! God tells Habakkuk that there is huge suffering ahead in the form of the Babylonian exile and how does H. respond? With faith in his saviour, looking forward to future judgement and rescue.

All the other verses are worth reading as well (of course). I just picked some of my favourites. All quotations are from the ESV translation.

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