Chapter 16 HABAKKUK
Habakkuk launches his book with a complaint or two of his own. His first complaint:
Lord, I continue to ask for help. When will you listen to me? I cried to you about the violence, but you did nothing! People are stealing things and hurting others. They are arguing and fighting. Why do you make me look at these terrible things? The law is weak and not fair to people. Evil people win their fights against good people. So the law is no longer fair, and justice does not win any more.186
To which the Lord answered. “Watch the nations, I will make the Babylonians strong and great then I will grind the Assyrians into the ground”
Habakkuk’s second Complaint:
God, Your eyes are too good to look at evil. You cannot stand to see people doing wrong. So why do you permit such evil? How can you watch while the wicked destroy people who are so much better?187
To his question “God why won’t you do anything about the evil in our nation”? God answered, “Actually, I am about to deal with you, and I am going to use the Babylonians discipline you”. That was not what he was expecting to hear. He expected a revival, but revival would not deal with the evil they had already committed. Revival just sweeps sin under the carpet and produces the mentality we see so often today—God is all loving and even if we continue in our sin he will make it sweet for us. Punish them because they are worse than us. That is a narrow doctrine and a half-truth. Reasoning like that doesn’t get us very far. You remember the three levels in Jewish thinking of sin we looked at in Leviticus? This is the people in the common or clean section complaining about the unclean section in the nation. “Get rid of them Lord, and we can be comfortable in our middle class position”. This complaining does not allow for two things. It does not accept that the common people often cause the downfall of others into the unclean section by selfishness and lack of compassion. And it certainly does not take into account that no one can get into the ‘Holy’ category without the Holy reaching down to lift a person up. Moving up into the Holy requires a process of consuming impurities. This process we recognise as God disciplining his people.
The Lord answered me, "Write this Large for a future time. Just be patient, the just shall live by faith. This message won’t help those who refuse to listen, only those who that hear and believe. A strong man’s pride can fool him just like wine can trick a person. But he will not find peace. Like death, he will never be satisfied. He will continue to judge other nations and to think he is free.188
God’s answer is three-fold:
First, God will judge evil eventually. He is slow to anger but will not let the wicked live forever.189 Second, the future will be glorious only when all people everywhere know about the Glory of the Lord. This news will spread just as water spreads out into the sea.190 Third, in the meantime the just shall live by faith.
Figs might not grow on the fig trees, and grapes might not grow on the vines. Olives might not grow on the olive trees, and food might not grow in the fields. There might not be any sheep in the pens or cattle in the barns. But I will still trust in the Lord and rejoice in God my saviour. The Lord GOD gives me my strength. He helps me run fast like a deer. He leads me safely on the mountains.191
We are often taught about types of prayer; Intercessory, Praise, Confession, etc. Habakkuk teaches one sort of prayer that we don’t hear much about. Yet it is probably the most important sort to learn if our prayers are to be effective. It is called “Interrogative prayer”. Interrogation in prayer asks questions of God like: “Why are you allowing this”? “How will you resolve this”? “What is going on here”? Without this type of prayer we will often find ourselves praying at odds with God. With it, we gain a deeper understanding of God’s personality, character and purposes. If we ignore interrogative prayer and try to resolve the question by intellect, we disguise it as doctrine. Doctrine can so often be described as answers God hasn’t given.
God gave Habakkuk five pointers to understanding what He was doing in society:
You are not looking wide enough, open your eyes a bit wider (v 5);
You are in for a big surprise (v 5);
I have planned something that will happen in your life-time (v 5);
I haven’t told you because you would not believe it (v 5);
I have already begun it (v 6).
Just watching world events without referring to scripture can also lead to misunderstanding.
When God said to Habakkuk “I am raising up Babylon”, Habakkuk might have said “so what”? It was his understanding of scripture that gave the answer. He remembered straight away the incident between Isaiah and Hezekiah192, The days are coming when you, your sons, and all in your palace will be carried off. Knowing scripture immediate confirmed to Habakkuk that this was the time of that prophecy’s fulfilment. Knowing scripture reminded him of the long-suffering but determined character and personality of God. Both these matters fitted the plan precisely.
Habakkuk knew the Babylonians had a scorched earth policy. So Assyria would become a heap of rubble if they invaded, (which they did and it was). This raised a second question in Habakkuk’s prayers. If Babylon was the instrument of judgement, what would become of Jerusalem? What about the Temple? That was a question about God’s morality and personality. Would He destroy the very place where he met his people? Yes he would. But that would depend upon the people. If they repent, even at this late stage, then Jerusalem would not be raised to the ground. The Interrogation prayer goes on. Remembering Abraham when he prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah, Habakkuk asks, “Will You use people more wicked than us to punish us”? Once again God answered, “Yes I will, but they will then also be judged on how they go about it”.
And so he did. Babylon was not judged for conquering Judah, in fact she was blessed and changed in nature by those she carried off into Babylon. Daniel, Nehemiah and others served the king well and blessed Babylon by their presence. They did it by keeping their faith in God and recognising how their faith benefited the land. But Babylon was to be judged for a list of other offences: Injustice, stealing, plundering, imperialism, inhumanity, slave labour, drunkenness and idolatry. Habakkuk saw all this and told them so in chapter-two. Having seen all this, there is a marked change in his attitude in chapter-three. Chapters-one-and-two, show his wrestling with God through interrogating prayer. Chapter-three demonstrates his resting in God and enjoying life having found the right answers. Chapters-one-and-two demonstrate a depressed prophet but by chapter-three he is on a high. The turning point is the key verse of the book.
But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.’ 193
186 Habakkuk 1: 2
187 Habakkuk 1: 13
188 Habakkuk 2: 2
189 Habakkuk 2: 16-20
190 Habakkuk 2: 14
191 Habakkuk 3: 17
192 2 kings 20: 12-20
193 Habakkuk 2: 20