Habakkuk (1:2–3, 5–6, 13; 2:2–4; 3:16–19)

Assistant Professor, School of Christian Studies, University of Mobile

Await God’s Timing
Habakkuk (1:2–3, 5–6, 13; 2:2–4; 3:16–19)
While we know little about Habakkuk, this short prophecy helps us learn to express questions about God’s ways and timing and resolve to wait patiently and confidently for God’s answers to our prayers.

Will God Ever Act? (1:2–3, 5–6)
The Book of Habakkuk begins with a complaint. The prophet was weary with the world the way it is. The prophet was perplexed that God would tolerate so much injustice among His own people. Habakkuk had taken a few correct facts and drawn some faulty conclusions from those facts. We often do the same.

God answered Habakkuk by telling him that He does not, in fact, tolerate injustice. He would execute judgment against the wrongdoing in the nation of Judah. Yet a surprise came attached with God’s reply: God would punish Judah through the Chaldeans (Babylonians). The Lord knew His words would be shocking to Habakkuk, and indeed he was amazed by them. He probably prophesied in the late seventh century B.C., perhaps between 620 and 610, right around the time Babylon was eclipsing Assyria as the world’s superpower. And the Babylonians were hardly models of moral virtue and justice. Yet God would use them as His ministers of justice, however utterly astounding that may sound. God would use Babylon to punish the injustices of His own people. Habakkuk did not need to be baffled any longer about why God had left the injustices of His own people unpunished. Punishment would come according to God’s timing and in the manner He prescribed.

The fact that Habakkuk took his complaints to God can help believers to be honest in prayer. We must take all our burdens to the Lord. Habakkuk’s experience shows that God is willing to hear our needs and to help us deal with our problems, even when He does not answer in the way that we expect or ask.

Does God Always Do Right? (1:13; 2:2–4)
The methods God said He would use to answer Judah’s sin were so unexpected and difficult to conceive of that God’s answer left the prophet almost more troubled than when he began the prayer. Habakkuk struggled to make sense of God’s answer. God said He would sort out injustice, but then He chose the most unjust people, the Babylonians, to do it. How does this make sense?

Habakkuk’s reply to God’s words can be summarized: the Babylonians? As the prophet responded to God’s revelation, he made his now famous assertion about God’s holiness: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” Why would God, who is holy, use such cruel instruments as the Babylonians if He can scarcely look at them? God responded by stating that He knew what the Babylonians were like and that after He used them to judge His people, He would judge them, too.

God told Habakkuk that His judgment would come on His timetable, not on anyone else’s. It was “for the appointed time.” The “righteous one will live by his faith” through these turbulent times. God’s people would hear God’s promises and believe them and live their lives on the foundation of those promises. While we will not always understand God’s ways, we must trust Him always to do what is right.

How Will I Respond? (3:16–19)
Chapter 3 is Habakkuk’s prayer to God. The prophet’s prayer can be broken into three parts. Verses 1–2 are his prayer for mercy. Verses 3–15 describe Habakkuk’s vision of God. Verses 16–19 present Habakkuk’s proclamation of his joy in God. He would “quietly wait” and rest in the sovereign Lord.

Habakkuk expressed his great contentment in God at the end of Chapter 3, after he prayed to God, meditated on God and observed the vision of God’s coming. We should also learn more about God if we will ever have the contentment Habakkuk experienced in the midst of turbulent times. Our God is honest, just and faithful.

Habakkuk learned by means of honest questioning that what he most wanted was this God.