The Book of Habakkuk gives the account of a spiritual journey, telling of one man’s pilgrimage from doubt to worship. The difference between the beginning of the book (1:1–4) and the end of the book (3:17–19) is striking.
The name “Habakkuk” means “Embrace,” either signifying that he was “embraced by God” and thus strengthened by Him for his difficult task, or “embracing others” and so encouraging them in time of national crisis. The musical notation in 3:19 may indicate that Habakkuk was qualified to lead in temple worship as a member of the Levitical family. The prophet is imbued with a sense of justice, which will not let him ignore the rampant unrighteousness around him. He has also learned the necessity of bringing the major questions of life to the One who created and redeems life.
Habakkuk lived during one of Judah’s most critical periods. His country had fallen from the heights of Josiah’s reforms to the depths of violent treatment of its citizens, oppressive measures against the poor, and collapse of the legal system. The world around Judah was at war, with Babylonia rising to ascendancy over Assyria and Egypt. The threat of invasion from the north added to Judah’s internal turmoil. Habakkuk probably wrote during the interval between the fall of Nineveh in 612 b.c. and the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c.
In the first four verses Habakkuk is overwhelmed by the circumstances all about him. He can think of nothing except the iniquity and violence he sees among his people. Although Habakkuk addresses God (1:2), he believes God has removed Himself from the earthly scene: His words are forgotten; His hand is not manifest; God is nowhere to be found.
Men are in control, and evil men at that. And they act just as one would expect men to act without God’s restraint. These words and phrases describe the scene: “iniquity... trouble...plundering...violence... strife... contention...law is powerless... justice never goes forth. . .wicked surround the righteous. . .perverse judgment proceeds.”
HABAKKUK 2:1-20
2:1 What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst. I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I’ll wait to see what God says, how he’ll answer my complaint. Having completed his questioning, Habakkuk stands like a sentinel to await his answer from God.
Full of Self, but Soul-Empty
2:2-3 And then God answered: “Write this, Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.
2:4 “Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive.
Paul the apostle takes the statement of Habakkuk 2:4 and makes it the heart of the gospel. The righteousness of God is attained only through faith, so that the right way to live is to trust. Habakkuk calls all believers in all times to trust God, to be faithful to Him, and so to find life as God means it to be lived.
If the heart of the gospel is change and transformation, the Book of Habakkuk demonstrates evangelical renewal. At the center of the change and at the center of the book stands this clear credo of faith: “The just shall live by his faith” (2:4).
For the prophet, the promise is for physical protection in time of great upheaval and war. When the predicted invasion by foreign armies becomes a reality, that righteous remnant whose God is the Lord, whose trust and dependence is in Him, will be delivered and they will live.
For New Testament writers, such as Paul and the author of Hebrews, this statement of confident faith becomes demonstration of the power of the gospel to give assurance of eternal salvation. For Martin Luther, Habakkuk’s theme becomes the watchword of the Reformation.
2:5-6 “Note well: Money deceives. The arrogant rich don’t last. They are more hungry for wealth than the grave is for cadavers. Like death, they always want more, but the ‘more’ they get is dead bodies. They are cemeteries filled with dead nations, graveyards filled with corpses. Don’t give people like this a second thought. Soon the whole world will be taunting them:
2:6-8 “‘Who do you think you are—getting rich by stealing and extortion? How long do you think you can get away with this?’ Indeed, how long before your victims wake up, stand up and make you the victim? You’ve plundered nation after nation. Now you’ll get a taste of your own medicine. All the survivors are out to plunder you, a payback for all your murders and massacres.
2:9-11 “Who do you think you are—recklessly grabbing and looting, Living it up, acting like king of the mountain, acting above it all, above trials and troubles?You’ve engineered the ruin of your own house. In ruining others you’ve ruined yourself.
You’ve undermined your foundations, rotted out your own soul. The bricks of your house will speak up and accuse you. The woodwork will step forward with evidence. 2:11 Stone will cry out: As often occurs in Scripture, inanimate objects take the role of witness against cruelty.
2:12-14 “Who do you think you are—building a town by murder, a city with crime?Don’t you know that God-of-the-Angel-Armies makes sure nothing comes of that but ashes, Makes sure the harder you work at that kind of thing, the less you are?It is of the Lord that gain through unrighteous means will prove unprofitable. Meanwhile the earth fills up with awareness of God’s glory as the waters cover the sea. God’s actions in bringing down the wicked demonstrate His sovereignty in all the Earth.
2:15-17 The Babylonians’ subjugation and humiliation of other nations is compared to a person who makes his neighbor drunk and then takes advantage of his weakness.
“Who do you think you are—inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties, Giving them too much to drink, roping them into your sexual orgies? You thought you were having the time of your life. Wrong!
You’ll wake up holding your throbbing head, hung over—hung over from Lebanon violence, Hung over from animal massacres, hung over from murder and mayhem, From multiple violations of place and people.
It’s a time of disgrace. What they have done to others (v. 15) will happen to them; they will drink and be exposed. Uncircumcised is the equivalent of being totally out of relationship with God. Babylon ravaged the forests, animals, and people of Lebanon. All the time you were drinking, you were drinking from the cup of God’s wrath.
2:18-19 “What’s the use of a carved god so skillfully carved by its sculptor? What good is a fancy cast god when all it tells is lies? What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker who makes gods that can’t even talk? Who do you think you are—saying to a stick of wood, ‘Wake up,’ Or to a dumb stone, ‘Get up’? Can they teach you anything about anything? There’s nothing to them but surface. There’s nothing on the inside.
2:20 “But oh! God is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!” In contrast to lifeless, powerless idols (vv. 18, 19), the Lord is present and about to act in strength.
How different is the scene in the last three verses of the book (3:17–19)! All has changed. The prophet is no longer controlled by or even anxious over his circumstances, for his sights have been raised. Temporal affairs no longer fill his thoughts, but his thoughts are on things above. Instead of being ruled by worldly considerations, Habakkuk has fixed his hopes on God, for he realizes that God does take an interest in His creatures. He is the Source of the prophet’s strength and joy. Habakkuk has discovered that he is made for higher ground: “He will make me walk on my high hills” (3:19).
The words in the last paragraph contrast sharply with those in the first: “rejoice in the Lord. . .joy in the God of my salvation. . .God is my strength. . .feet like deer’s feet. . .walk on my high hills” (3:18, 19). So Habakkuk has gone from complaining to confidence, from doubt to trust, from man to God, from the valley to the high hills.
Habakkuk reminds us that the question “Why?” can and should, be asked. His circumstances demanded that he ask God about the apparent reign of unrighteousness around him. Because he believed in God, he believed that God had an answer to his problem. His questions demonstrated the presence of faith, not the lack of it. For an atheist the question “Why?” has no meaning; for a believer the question “Why?” finds its ultimate answer in God.
The terms used by Habakkuk in 3:13 join the idea of salvation with the Lord’s Anointed. The Hebrew roots of these words reflect the two names of our Lord: Jesus, meaning “Salvation,” and Christ, meaning “the Anointed One.” The context here is God’s great power manifested in behalf of His people through a Davidic King to bring them deliverance from their enemies. The Messiah came in the fullness of time (2:3; Gal. 4:4), was given the name “Jesus” as a prenatal prophecy of His ministry (Matt. 1:21), and was born “in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
Also, in Galatians, Paul links the most famous verse from Habakkuk with the reception of the promised Holy Spirit through faith (2:4; Gal. 3:11–14). The righteous person lives by his faith in all aspects of his life, including entering into the life of the Spirit.
Though no direct references to the Holy Spirit are found in Habakkuk, there are intimations of His life working in the prophet. As Habakkuk surveys the ruin brought about by the invading armies, he nevertheless expresses an abiding joy that even disaster on so large a scale cannot steal from him, reminding us that “the fruit of the Spirit is. . .joy” (Gal. 5:22).
The final verses of this prophecy teach that it is possible to rise above circumstances, and even to rejoice in them, by focusing on God who stands above all. Habakkuk does not deny his problems, nor does he treat them lightly; instead, he finds God sufficient in the midst of his troubles. As Habakkuk waits for the answer to his questions, God grants him the gift of a truth that satisfies his unspoken longings as well as provides the solution to his present situation: “The just shall live by his faith” (2:4). The apostle Paul sees this statement of Habakkuk as the foundation stone of the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16, 17). Christ is the answer to human needs, including cleansing from sin, relationship with God, and hope for the future. ~NSFL BIBLE
