The Book of Habakkuk

Lecture Notes for Minor Prophets of the Old Testament

Introduction

I. Who Was Habakkuk?

--His name may be foreign, perhaps Akkadian. This would testify to the importance of foreign policy & the influence of the Assyrians & Babylonians during this period.

--Nothing is known about him. He’s only mentioned in Habakkuk.

II. When did he preach?

--Only the text of Habakkuk can help us decide the date of Habakkuk’s ministry.

--“The Rise of the Chaldeans” (1:6) points to the Babylonians, better the neo-Babylonian Empire.

--612—Fall of Nineveh—Habakkuk prophesied after this date, when the Chaldeans had begun their rise to power.

--605—Battle of Carchemish—The final demise of Assyria & Egypt before the Babylonians. Some of Habakkuk points to a time when the Babylonians had risen & begun running over smaller nations.

--587—Fall of Judah—Habakkuk obviously prophesied before this date.

--Habakkuk’s prophecy dates between 612-587, probably over a period of time.

III. Where did he preach?

--Judah, most certainly.

IV. What is the Message?

--Theodicy—In short, the problem of evil.

--Why does sin go unpunished?

--Why does God allow the evil to mistreat the righteous?

--Theology:

--Presupposition of God’s control of the universe.

--The righteous will live in faithfulness to God.

V. The Book of Habakkuk

Nature

--The book is unique in that it contains dialogues between the prophet & Yahweh.

--It appears to be the work of the prophet himself, unlike most prophets whose books are a collection of oracles.

Outline

--1:1—Superscription

--1:2-11—The first dialogue between Habakkuk & Yahweh

--1:12-2:5—The second dialogue between Habakkuk & Yahweh

--2:6-20—Five Woes

--3:1-19—Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 1-3

Habakkuk 1:2-11—First Dialogue

--1:2-4—The Prophet’s First Lament

--The prophet asks

“How long, O Lord, must I call for help?”

--Habakkuk laments that he has cried out to God, but the Lord has not listened.

--Why is he crying out?

--“Violence!”—This was a cry of desperation. The prophet sees violence & evil around him. It overwhelms his & he cries out for help.

--Injustice

--Destruction

--Strife

--Conflict

--These complaints describe a time when evil is prevailing in the land. This reflects a time of corruption in the highest places. It echoes Jeremiah (i.e. Jer. 12:1-4). This probably comes from the period following Josiah’s death in 609 when Jehoiakim led the nation away from the reforms of his father. Jeremiah & Zephaniah decry this time as a time of rampant evil & corruption.

--Habakkuk may also have experienced some of the persecution that Jeremiah felt, if indeed he followed the reforming teachings of Jeremiah.

--Note in v. 4, there is no justice & righteousness. Justice is perverted & the righteous are oppressed by the wicked.

--1:5-11—The Lord’s First Response

--God offers an unexpected remedy to Habakkuk’s problem.

--The Babylonians will remove the problem. God will use the Babylonians as his instrument of judgment against Judah.

--“Chaldeans” is the term used here. It describes the people of far southern Mesopotamia, just above the Persian Gulf in the regions of the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers. Nabopolassar, who led the defeat of Nineveh in 612, was a Chaldean king of Babylonia. Thus, Yahweh tells Habakkuk that He will use the neo-Babylonian empire to remove the wicked from Judah.

--Note the vivid description of the power of the Babylonians. They race across the whole land, taking what they want, destroying what they desire, and defeating every enemy.

--Note 1:11—Their god is their own strength. Yahweh never says that they are righteous or good, only that He is using them. He can use whoever He desires to use!

--Note the parallel in Jeremiah (Jer. 12:7-13).

Habakkuk 1:12-2:5—Second Dialogue

1:12-2:1—Habakkuk’s Second Lament

--This solution to his problem was completely unexpected, and it is unacceptable to him!

--v. 12—This seems to a cry of desperation: O LORD, My God, my Holy One, O Rock!

--He acknowledges God’s sovereignty & holiness. But he also expresses distress that God’s own people will die.

--v. 13—The issue is that an evil nation is used by a righteous God to “swallow up” His own nation, which although they have been evil in many ways are still more righteous than the Babylonians.

--vv. 14-17—The analogy of fisherman is used to describe the Babylonians.

--The fisherman (Babylonians) use hooks and nets to catch the helpless fish.

--The fisherman rejoices over his catch.

--The fisherman worships his slaughter of the fish, i.e. his own power is his object of worship (see 1:11 above).

--The fisherman becomes rich at the expense of the dead fish.

--The fisherman destroys nations w/o mercy.

--How can a merciful God allow a wicked, idolatrous, & merciless nation to destroy His own people? This is unfathomable to Habakkuk. He longed for justice to be served upon the wicked among his people, in fact recognizing that judgment was necessary, but a destruction at the hands of the wicked Babylonians was unthinkable to him.

--2:1—Habakkuk stands on his watchtower to wait for God’s answer. This is similar to Job’s challenge of God. Job, too, challenged God’s choices. Like Job, Habakkuk feels that God has gone too far!

--2:2-5—God’s Second Response

--vv. 2-3—Yahweh tells Habakkuk to record the vision he is about to receive.

--He also reminds Habakkuk that His timing is not always that of man. The vision will be fulfilled, but Habakkuk must wait for its fulfillment.

--What is the vision? The answer is not completely clear.

--vv. 4-5 should probably be taken as the vision. Two meanings:

--The oppressor (i.e. Babylon) will be held accountable.

--“The righteous will live by faith,” i.e. trusting in Yahweh to bring about justice & righteousness in His own time.

--How does Paul use this to refer to salvation by faith in Christ? He transfers living our lives by trusting in God to receiving God’s salvation & forgiveness by trusting in God through Jesus Christ. It’s rabbinical methodology. He basically reapplies the original use of scripture for his own purposes.

Habakkuk 2:6-20—Five Woes

2:6a—Who is taunting Babylon? Grammatically it is “the nations” & “the peoples” from 2:5. But the reality is that this may be inclusive language, & the prophet & God’s people may be the intended subject. In reality, all of these would have been included in “the nations” who were defeated by Babylon & would now relish the opportunity to taunt the Babylonians.

2:6b-8—Woe to the Greedy Plunderer

--The plundering will not go on forever. There is a limit.

--Eventually those who have been plundered will plunder their plunderers. Those they have oppressed will eventually overthrow the Babylonians.

2:9-11—Woe to the Unjust Conqueror

--The lack of justice in conquering others has brought shame to Babylon.

--Eventually the very stones will cry out for justice. This echoes the biblical thought that the stones would cry out in praise of Yahweh.

2:12-14—Woe to the Exploiter

--The exploitation of the conquered will fuel the fire of judgment against Babylon.

--Eventually, the earth will be filled with God’s glory. The kingdom that will one day rule the world will be God’s kingdom.

2:15-17—Woe to the One bringing Disgrace

--The Babylonians used wine & drunkenness to disgrace those they conquered.

--Eventually they will drink of God’s judgment.

2:18-19—Woe to the Idolater

--An idol is dead & lifeless. It is only wood, stone, silver, & gold. It cannot offer counsel.

--But Yahweh is alive in His temple. Thus, He will hold Babylon accountable.

Habakkuk 3:1-19—Habakkuk’s Prayer

--This is a prayer of Habakkuk. Originally this must have been a psalm set to music, which is suggested by shigionoth, selah, and “stringed instruments.” These are all terms that are found in Psalms, apparently connected with music in some way, although we are not sure of their precise meanings and/or usages.

--3:2—A word of commitment to Yahweh

--3:3-15—Yahweh’s victory

--Yahweh comes in power, i.e. theophany. The coming of Yahweh is associated with incredible natural, really supernatural, phenomena, esp. in poetic texts.

--Yahweh defeats the forces of evil & chaos, often described in ancient poetic texts (biblical & extra-biblical) in terms of the calming of the storm or the taming of the seas & rivers, i.e. the “primeval sea” or waters of chaos from which creation came.

--3:16-19—The prophet expresses his apprehension & fear. He quivered & trembled in fear.

--But he also expresses his trust in Yahweh (vv. 17-18). No matter what happens, he will trust in Yahweh & rejoice in Him. This is certainly a summation of the meaning of “the righteous will live by faith.”

--Trust in Yahweh makes us like the deer on the heights of the mountains. We can cling to precarious & dangerous places because Yahweh himself will hold us there when we trust in Him.