Original Meaning

The Oracle (1:1)

“THE ORACLE THAT Habakkuk the prophet received” was given to him as a conversation with Yahweh. The inspired oracle (or “burden,” see comments on Nah. 1:1) includes both sides of the conversation (his questions, Yahweh’s response, and his concluding song). Habakkuk receives the oracle in the temple in Jerusalem, where he is a prophet-musician during a time of violent national and international upheaval (see the introduction).

Bridging Contexts

QUESTIONS AND LAMENT. Habakkuk’s pressing questions and lament (1:2–4) are given to him by Yahweh in an “oracle” (1:1). This setting implies that even this questioning is inspired by the Spirit of Yahweh. Through the ages believers have asked similar questions of the Lord in prayer. In Habakkuk’s case, asking such difficult questions is part of what “the prophet received” (1:1). Questions and lament are part of a believer’s burden, and honest dialogue with God is a necessary form of relationship with him. The persistence of the questioner, the “woes” (ch. 2), and the song of remembrance (ch. 3) are each a necessary part of this rich book.

The powerful and corrupt leadership that Habakkuk faces, causing him to cry out, is an evil that persists in every age. King Jehoiakim’s corrupt vassal relationship with Egypt (and later with Nebuchadnezzar) affected every area of life in Jerusalem. Habakkuk’s contemporary Jeremiah documents the violence that the king perpetrated on the people.5 He killed the innocent who opposed him and refused to pay poor laborers (Jer. 22:13–19). Under his administration the prophets and priesthood were corrupted in adultery and abuse of authority (23:1–2, 9–11). The king sent assassins who killed the prophet Uriah for prophesying (as Habakkuk and Jeremiah also did) that Jerusalem would fall (26:20–23). He burned Jeremiah’s handwritten prophecy in his fireplace as a threat against him (Jer. 36). Like Habakkuk, Jeremiah said that Babylon was God’s agent of discipline against his chosen people.

In the face of this situation Yahweh gave his prophet words of lament (Hab. 1:2a, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”). Lamentation and questioning are God’s gift to the believer. They provide a pathway of honest faith and faithful conversation with him in horrible times.6 One third of the Psalms are prayers/songs of lament.7 Habakkuk’s words echo throughout the Psalter (“How long?” Ps. 6:3; 13:1–2; 79:5; 89:46; “Why do you…?” Ps. 10:1; 44:23–24; 74:11). The entire books of Job and Lamentations are dedicated to expressing the confusion and pain of unbearable suffering by the faithful.

Jesus himself lamented faithfully to the Father from the cross, using the words of Psalm 22:1 (see Matt. 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Like Habakkuk, Jesus models for us the possibility of being honest with God about our situations through lament without guilt. Habakkuk, the psalmists, and Jesus did not hesitate to bring their complaints to the Lord or to ask their questions directly. In their laments they were resolute in faithfulness, even when the Lord’s response was not what they wanted to hear (see comments on Hab. 3:17–19).

Protest and lament can be faithful or unfaithful.8 Railing against God can be unfaithful, particularly when the protest is accompanied by life-denying or death-promoting behaviors. Some will protest against God through self-destructive and abusive behaviors toward others, often those who love them. This unfaithful path of protest usually begins with a significant but subtle distinction. The faithful protest begins with an attitude that continues to address God (“God, how could you allow?…”). The unfaithful protest begins with the impersonal (and judging) abstraction (“How could God allow?…”).

Habakkuk’s questioning is similar to the faithful protest found in the book of Job. Job’s faithfulness is found in his insistence that theological discussion with his so-called friends does not satisfy him. He wants to converse directly with God (Job 30:2–23; 31:6; 35). Yahweh accepts Job’s protest as faithful and rejected his friends’ defense of the deity (42:7–8). Habakkuk’s protest is faithful and inspired because it is done out of the conviction that God is good all the time, even in death and dying. This conviction does not silence the questions and pain of the faithful in Scripture. Rather, it focuses the questions in the form of personal dialogue with a loving Creator and Redeemer, who accompanies the sufferer and will, in perfect time, bring victory, healing, and restoration. Those who long for the kingdom of God with its peace, love, and goodness may find hope on the pathway of lament and faithful protest.

The struggle of faith. The timeless struggle of faith in a violent world is expressed in Habakkuk’s declaration, “We will not die!” (Hab. 1:12–17). After Yahweh finished telling Habakkuk in detail about the coming attack of the Babylonians on Jerusalem (1:5–11), the prophet’s reaction to this horrible news is twofold, expressing protest and faith simultaneously. He cannot believe what he has heard, yet he believes it. It disturbs him terribly, yet he has faith that the people will endure through and beyond their defeat. Many people did die in the siege and fall of Jerusalem (see Lamentations). The tone of faithful protest is like that of a terminally ill patient insisting, “I will not die!” Habakkuk surrounds this protest with punctuations of God’s attributes. Naming them can bring comfort in the midst of distress (“everlasting,” “Holy One,” “Rock”).

The second part of Habakkuk’s reaction resonates as hope a tone below his protest. God’s people will not die but endure, because their God is the Rock. They (i.e., their children) later return to rebuild the temple and resettle the land (538 B.C.). They do not die (as a people) but survive the fire of Yahweh’s purification.

Habakkuk has hope. He accepts Yahweh’s word about the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem. “You have appointed them to execute judgment.… You have ordained them to punish” (1:12). He is a prophet of hope precisely because he is willing to face the truth of the consequences of judgment on Judah’s rebellion against God. True biblical prophets “refused the easy and almost universal practice of identifying God’s rule exclusively with the policies of their own country.”9 Habakkuk stands with his contemporaries Jeremiah and Isaiah, who declare quite unpatriotically that the national enemy will discipline God’s people. They do not declare the Babylonians “good.” To the contrary, God’s judgment will later fall harder on the enemy (Hab. 2:6–20). In the meantime, Habakkuk accepts the coming discipline in hope, because he knows it is a sign of Yahweh’s activity and justice for his chosen people.

Habakkuk has hope in the face of judgment because he has a history and relationship of trust with Yahweh. He knows that it is Yahweh, “my God,” who is “everlasting,” who speaks (1:12). His relationship with the author of eternity is personal. He has the benefit of an eternal perspective, even in face of suffering punishment for the sins of those around him. Although he cannot understand why the whole city must suffer, he knows from personal experience that Yahweh is good, addressing him as “my Holy One” (1:12). Finally, he speaks to God with the name that reaches deep into Israel’s redemptive history and forward into the revelation of Christ, “O Rock.”10 This name expresses a whole history of experiencing God’s faithfulness and deliverance in the worst of times. It also reveals an expansive tradition of worship from which Habakkuk, a temple musician, can draw (cf. Hab. 3:19b).

Habakkuk’s protest. Habakkuk argues against the success of the worse Babylonians. His expression of hope in the Rock is followed by protests common to all on whom judgment falls: “We are not as bad as they are!” (cf. 1:13b, “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”). This kind of comparison is a universal argument against any judgment. Adam compared himself to Eve to claim more righteous ground (Gen. 3:12, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”). Eve blamed the serpent. The relative scale of righteousness is used daily as an excuse for misdeeds. One apparently repentant cocaine dealer said, “I’m not as bad as most dealers. I only sold to people who really could afford it as a luxury.” He thought of himself, like the corrupt rulers of Jerusalem, as more righteous or “less bad” than others.

Why must God use the “less righteous” to chastise the “less wicked”? It is because Yahweh has no righteous people remaining to do the work. His so-called righteous people were warned by the prophets about their corruption for over 150 years. An obvious example of what God would do had been provided to them by the exile of the northern ten tribes. If chastisement from a righteous source were possible, it would have come from among God’s chosen people! It is exactly these people about whom Habakkuk begins his complaint (Hab. 1:2–4). In the course of world events, upon whom may God rely to execute judgment justly?

Habakkuk’s objection goes even deeper. He realizes that he doesn’t like the world he sees or the world as God describes it. He asks enduring and universal questions. “Why doesn’t God destroy the wicked?” “Why do they exist at all?” Habakkuk complains about the creation, as Adam complained about Eve: God “made men like fish in the sea … that have no ruler” (1:14a). This is an emotional and dramatic conversation. “The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:15a). God accepts Habakkuk’s protests without answering his questions. Habakkuk understands more than it seems.

Habakkuk implies that he knows God has made the world and people “like fish in the sea.” The real problem is that he doesn’t like it, not that he doesn’t understand it. God’s world gives the wicked and the violent too much freedom. This objection is common to all people of faith. Sometimes it is avoided, or censored, or dismissed. Its validity as a question is necessary, however, to all healthy conversation with God. It is the means by which all great people of faith have entered into partnership with God for justice, mercy, and redemption in the world. Abraham was used by God to help judge Sodom (Gen. 18:17–33). God engaged Moses to confront the murderous Pharaoh (Ex. 3). He anointed David to protect his people from the violence of the Philistines. He chose Job to suffer righteously in protest as an example to all who would protest faithfully.

God’s ultimate demonstration of the depth of his compassion in the world was to come in the flesh as one of the “fish in the sea.” He does not answer the question, “Why do the violent have so much freedom?” Rather, he demonstrates that their freedom extends even to killing the Son of God. For Habakkuk as well as for followers of Christ, the enduring reality and answer are that the chosen of God are called to live righteously in a violent world without giving in to violence. They are called to stand in partnership with God for a world of peace. When they fail in the calling of peace (as in Habakkuk’s Jerusalem), all they can do is wait for the day of the Lord. Habakkuk begins his waiting on the ramparts of the city wall (Hab. 2:1). Faith waits to see what word of hope Yahweh will sent to a failed and judged society.

We are left with the timeless question of the first chapter, “How long, O LORD?” It is the enduring cry of the one who suffers and hopes in protesting prayer. Are the violent Babylonians going “to keep on … destroying nations without mercy” (1:17; see Rev. 6:10)? Yahweh’s response and promise are “No.” His direct response to this question describes the five “woes” that will befall the violent (ch. 2).

Contemporary Significance

HABAKKUK IS A difficult book, especially in the modern context. Why does God give us a book with the death of Habakkuk’s community as the basic plot? We are increasingly aware that such horrors are a current reality for many in the world. For anyone who has experienced or may experience the loss of a good way of life, cultural displacement, or abrupt change in cultural security, the message of Habakkuk is both relevant and timely. It does not sugarcoat reality. Within just a few years of the conversation, Jerusalem was completely destroyed.

God’s message is fundamentally that soon the internal corruption that Habakkuk dislikes will give way to a much worse external enemy. Habakkuk’s response gives us an opportunity to see how a believer may deal faithfully with news of impending death and destruction. Habakkuk responds like a person who has just heard that someone he loves has a cancer that will certainly kill him or her. The prophet’s way of life and his life itself will soon come to an abrupt and painful end. We do not know whether Habakkuk survived the exile (as Jeremiah did).

Five stages of grief. Writing about death and dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross outlines five normal stages of healthy grieving.11 Life magazine described it as “a profound lesson for the living.” These stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Habakkuk, whose hope is in Yahweh, has led believers through these “stages” for more than 2,500 years.

• Isolation is heard in his opening words: “You do not listen.… You do not save” (Hab. 1:2).

• Anger bubbles up in the repeated exclamations, “Why?… Why?… Justice never prevails … justice is perverted” (1:3–4).

• Upon hearing the bad news, Habakkuk immediately denies what he has heard, “My Holy One, we will not die!” (1:12).

• He begins bargaining by repeating what he has heard, “You have ordained them” (1:12) and then arguing a case with “Your eyes are too pure … you cannot tolerate wrong” (1:13).

• Unable to understand what is happening to his community he moves toward depression, asking again, “Why?… Why?” (1:13). He dwells on the hopelessness of their situation before Yahweh: “You have made men like fish in the sea.… The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:14–17).

• Finally, Habakkuk will come to acceptance in a song he writes (ch. 3), but not until Yahweh speaks again (ch. 2).

Death is a certainty for God’s faithful as well as for the wicked. Habakkuk gives believers a resource for dealing with that certainty in healthy and faithful ways. God tells Habakkuk about the catastrophe he will bring on Jerusalem so that he and any faithful remnant can prepare for the persecution and death that are certainly coming. As a result, some are able to accept what they cannot fully understand. They can live in hope of Yahweh’s future, even in death.

God’s first interest. The ruthless Babylonians are only an intermediate solution to the problem of injustice, even though they are God’s agent against a corrupt Jerusalem, for the Babylonians will also be destroyed (Hab. 2:6–20). The purpose of such political cataclysms in Scripture is to turn God’s people back to his ultimate purpose for his creation, namely, human faithfulness in relationships, living by the instruction of his Word, and true worship.

God’s first interest is not in our prosperity or political power. He prefers to destroy us (in hope of eventually accomplishing his greater purpose) rather than to see us prosper in political security while chasing after our own whims. The lesson of the history of God’s people is that God is not primarily committed to the peace, security, and prosperity of his people. Consider his first response in the Garden of Eden. Yahweh removed Adam and Eve from their security when they turned away from a trusting relationship with him. God’s first concern for us is faithfulness, living by his Word, and true worship. These daily human expressions of trust in Yahweh are manifestly more important to God than fiscal prosperity. He has a much more lasting plan.

You wouldn’t believe it, even if you were told. The time between Habakkuk’s announcement and the fall of Jerusalem was about eight years. In the original language the “you” in Hab. 1:5 is plural and can be translated “you all” (the plural occurs six times in 1:5). God is giving Habakkuk a message to repeat to a wider audience. It is not just for him; it is for the whole society to hear. When Paul and Barnabas are in the synagogue at Antioch, the apostle quotes this passage. He applies the “you wouldn’t believe it” and “be amazed” to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the forgiveness of sins through him, and justification through faith:

But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:

“Look, you scoffers,

wonder and perish,

for I am going to do something in your days

that you would never believe,

even if someone told you.” (Acts 13:37–41)12

If God has died and been raised from the dead, then anyone who does not give up the ways of self-sufficiency, self-worship, or prosperity-worship to follow God’s Word is lost. Even the murderous convict (“Misfit”) of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” knows this truth. As a grandmother confronts him with the name “Jesus” just before her own murder at his hands, he confesses the necessary radical response to Jesus’ resurrection:

Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead … and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him.13

If Christ has indeed been raised and our sins are forgiven by faith in him, amazement, wonder, and the transformation of faith are possible. We would not have believed it if we had been told in advance. But God has already accomplished the defeat of sin and death. He has sent his Spirit to call, gather, and enlighten us through his Word. This is the persistent power of the gospel to transform lives now through a salvation that has already been accomplished.

The message of Habakkuk’s proclamation is that God is interested first in restoring us to a right relationship with himself as created and redeemed people. Without that reconciled relationship, earthly peace and security are a façade. God draws us into lives of faithfulness in relationships through the instruction of his Word. His Holy Spirit tutors us in true worship. The suffering of the Babylonian occupation is a dire example of God’s radical commitment to these goals. Jesus’ suffering on the cross is his ultimate appeal to a world bent on violence. God will stop at nothing in order to draw us near to himself and the way of peace he offers.

The source of false worship. The deeper causes of injustice in every culture are uncovered in Habakkuk’s response to Yahweh in Hab. 1:12–17 (“He sacrifices to his net”). In every time and every place, cultures center their life on the most obvious source of their strength and prosperity. Seagoing cultures have sea and storm gods. Agricultural cultures have grain gods. Hunting cultures center on totems and spirits that control the animals. Technological societies such as our own do not identify “gods” but elevate (worship) values that lead to greater control over life: wealth, information, and military technology. A fisherman reveres his fishing net.

For the Babylonians the fisherman’s net was a symbol of military power.14 They worshiped the tool that was the means of their wealth, taken from other cities and towns. The Greek historian Herodotus records that the Scythians even made sacrifices to a sword.15 They made a god of the source of their standard of living. To criticize that source was at once unpatriotic and blasphemy of the civil religion.

Christians may find that an examination of their allegiances creates internal conflict when they are part of an affluent society. Habakkuk reveals the deeper causes of violence when he points to the worship of “the net” and calls for a rigorous evaluation of any devotion to prosperity in light of our ultimate devotion to God. He shows us the problem from the side of a small country dominated by a great economic and military power.16 His exposure of the worship of the source of prosperity is echoed by Isaiah’s ridicule of the deluded man who worships what he himself makes (Isa. 44:9–20).

Original Meaning

Yahweh, Why Do You Tolerate Wrong? (1:2–4)

HABAKKUK’S FIRST SET of questions comes in like crashing waves. In verse 2 he wonders how long he must wait for God’s help against violence. In verse 3 he wants to know why he and Yahweh must continue tolerating six problems: injustice, wrongful suffering, destruction, violence, strife, and conflict. In verse 4, these problems lead to four more: The law is paralyzed, justice never prevails, the wicked hem in the righteous; and because of these three, justice is perverted. The corruption of national politics is the historical context of his complaint.

Habakkuk asked his questions at a time when hopes for justice and righteousness had been raised and dashed again and again in Judah. King Josiah had returned the country to God’s instruction for righteous living after the rediscovery of the book of Deuteronomy (622 B.C.; read 2 Kings 22–23). Josiah was killed, however, in battle with Pharaoh Neco in 609 B.C. (see the introduction). King Jehoiakim (Josiah’s son) ruled corruptly (as Neco’s vassal) during the time of Habakkuk’s prophecy (see 2 Kings 23:35–37; Jer. 22:13–19). The corruption of Jerusalem’s government under Jehoiakim is the main historical context for Habakkuk’s complaint here.

In 1:2, Habakkuk wants to know how long he must call for help before Yahweh will listen and save. His cry against violence is a legal plea for justice in the Old Testament, which God promises to hear (Gen. 18:21; Ex. 2:23; 22:23). This ordinary complaint of local corruption in Judah begins like a lament common to the Psalms and in Job (see Bridging Contexts section).

The prophet addresses six problems of corruption in Judah in matched pairs in Hab. 1:3. “Injustice” (ʾawen) and “wrong” (ʿamal, “wrongful suffering”) are two sides of the same coin. The injustice of the perpetrator and the wrong suffered are two parts of the same human problem. Why doesn’t Yahweh intervene in this life-denying dynamic? He “tolerates” it (nabaṭ has the sense of “stand by and watch,” 1:3, 5, 13; 2:15).

The third and fourth problems are also a pair. “Destruction” (šod) and “violence” (ḥamas) wreak havoc on communities’ life-supporting infrastructures and relationships. The last pair of problems, “strife” (rib) and “conflict” (madon), are legal terms in Hebrew. Habakkuk says they “abound,” indicating that there are many lawsuits and legal quarrels in Judah’s courts.

In 1:4 Habakkuk goes on to say that these six problems have led to four situations that are even more terrible, again in pairs: “The law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails,” and “the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” In other words, the courts do not work any longer. Thus, in a few brief words, Habakkuk describes a society full of crime, violence, corruption, mock legal battles, and the defeat of the righteous. It is a ruined society, and the prophet wants to know why Yahweh tolerates the flourishing of such wickedness.

Bridging Contexts

QUESTIONS AND LAMENT. Habakkuk’s pressing questions and lament (1:2–4) are given to him by Yahweh in an “oracle” (1:1). This setting implies that even this questioning is inspired by the Spirit of Yahweh. Through the ages believers have asked similar questions of the Lord in prayer. In Habakkuk’s case, asking such difficult questions is part of what “the prophet received” (1:1). Questions and lament are part of a believer’s burden, and honest dialogue with God is a necessary form of relationship with him. The persistence of the questioner, the “woes” (ch. 2), and the song of remembrance (ch. 3) are each a necessary part of this rich book.

The powerful and corrupt leadership that Habakkuk faces, causing him to cry out, is an evil that persists in every age. King Jehoiakim’s corrupt vassal relationship with Egypt (and later with Nebuchadnezzar) affected every area of life in Jerusalem. Habakkuk’s contemporary Jeremiah documents the violence that the king perpetrated on the people.5 He killed the innocent who opposed him and refused to pay poor laborers (Jer. 22:13–19). Under his administration the prophets and priesthood were corrupted in adultery and abuse of authority (23:1–2, 9–11). The king sent assassins who killed the prophet Uriah for prophesying (as Habakkuk and Jeremiah also did) that Jerusalem would fall (26:20–23). He burned Jeremiah’s handwritten prophecy in his fireplace as a threat against him (Jer. 36). Like Habakkuk, Jeremiah said that Babylon was God’s agent of discipline against his chosen people.

In the face of this situation Yahweh gave his prophet words of lament (Hab. 1:2a, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”). Lamentation and questioning are God’s gift to the believer. They provide a pathway of honest faith and faithful conversation with him in horrible times.6 One third of the Psalms are prayers/songs of lament.7 Habakkuk’s words echo throughout the Psalter (“How long?” Ps. 6:3; 13:1–2; 79:5; 89:46; “Why do you…?” Ps. 10:1; 44:23–24; 74:11). The entire books of Job and Lamentations are dedicated to expressing the confusion and pain of unbearable suffering by the faithful.

Jesus himself lamented faithfully to the Father from the cross, using the words of Psalm 22:1 (see Matt. 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Like Habakkuk, Jesus models for us the possibility of being honest with God about our situations through lament without guilt. Habakkuk, the psalmists, and Jesus did not hesitate to bring their complaints to the Lord or to ask their questions directly. In their laments they were resolute in faithfulness, even when the Lord’s response was not what they wanted to hear (see comments on Hab. 3:17–19).

Protest and lament can be faithful or unfaithful.8 Railing against God can be unfaithful, particularly when the protest is accompanied by life-denying or death-promoting behaviors. Some will protest against God through self-destructive and abusive behaviors toward others, often those who love them. This unfaithful path of protest usually begins with a significant but subtle distinction. The faithful protest begins with an attitude that continues to address God (“God, how could you allow?…”). The unfaithful protest begins with the impersonal (and judging) abstraction (“How could God allow?…”).

Habakkuk’s questioning is similar to the faithful protest found in the book of Job. Job’s faithfulness is found in his insistence that theological discussion with his so-called friends does not satisfy him. He wants to converse directly with God (Job 30:2–23; 31:6; 35). Yahweh accepts Job’s protest as faithful and rejected his friends’ defense of the deity (42:7–8). Habakkuk’s protest is faithful and inspired because it is done out of the conviction that God is good all the time, even in death and dying. This conviction does not silence the questions and pain of the faithful in Scripture. Rather, it focuses the questions in the form of personal dialogue with a loving Creator and Redeemer, who accompanies the sufferer and will, in perfect time, bring victory, healing, and restoration. Those who long for the kingdom of God with its peace, love, and goodness may find hope on the pathway of lament and faithful protest.

The struggle of faith. The timeless struggle of faith in a violent world is expressed in Habakkuk’s declaration, “We will not die!” (Hab. 1:12–17). After Yahweh finished telling Habakkuk in detail about the coming attack of the Babylonians on Jerusalem (1:5–11), the prophet’s reaction to this horrible news is twofold, expressing protest and faith simultaneously. He cannot believe what he has heard, yet he believes it. It disturbs him terribly, yet he has faith that the people will endure through and beyond their defeat. Many people did die in the siege and fall of Jerusalem (see Lamentations). The tone of faithful protest is like that of a terminally ill patient insisting, “I will not die!” Habakkuk surrounds this protest with punctuations of God’s attributes. Naming them can bring comfort in the midst of distress (“everlasting,” “Holy One,” “Rock”).

The second part of Habakkuk’s reaction resonates as hope a tone below his protest. God’s people will not die but endure, because their God is the Rock. They (i.e., their children) later return to rebuild the temple and resettle the land (538 B.C.). They do not die (as a people) but survive the fire of Yahweh’s purification.

Habakkuk has hope. He accepts Yahweh’s word about the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem. “You have appointed them to execute judgment.… You have ordained them to punish” (1:12). He is a prophet of hope precisely because he is willing to face the truth of the consequences of judgment on Judah’s rebellion against God. True biblical prophets “refused the easy and almost universal practice of identifying God’s rule exclusively with the policies of their own country.”9 Habakkuk stands with his contemporaries Jeremiah and Isaiah, who declare quite unpatriotically that the national enemy will discipline God’s people. They do not declare the Babylonians “good.” To the contrary, God’s judgment will later fall harder on the enemy (Hab. 2:6–20). In the meantime, Habakkuk accepts the coming discipline in hope, because he knows it is a sign of Yahweh’s activity and justice for his chosen people.

Habakkuk has hope in the face of judgment because he has a history and relationship of trust with Yahweh. He knows that it is Yahweh, “my God,” who is “everlasting,” who speaks (1:12). His relationship with the author of eternity is personal. He has the benefit of an eternal perspective, even in face of suffering punishment for the sins of those around him. Although he cannot understand why the whole city must suffer, he knows from personal experience that Yahweh is good, addressing him as “my Holy One” (1:12). Finally, he speaks to God with the name that reaches deep into Israel’s redemptive history and forward into the revelation of Christ, “O Rock.”10 This name expresses a whole history of experiencing God’s faithfulness and deliverance in the worst of times. It also reveals an expansive tradition of worship from which Habakkuk, a temple musician, can draw (cf. Hab. 3:19b).

Habakkuk’s protest. Habakkuk argues against the success of the worse Babylonians. His expression of hope in the Rock is followed by protests common to all on whom judgment falls: “We are not as bad as they are!” (cf. 1:13b, “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”). This kind of comparison is a universal argument against any judgment. Adam compared himself to Eve to claim more righteous ground (Gen. 3:12, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”). Eve blamed the serpent. The relative scale of righteousness is used daily as an excuse for misdeeds. One apparently repentant cocaine dealer said, “I’m not as bad as most dealers. I only sold to people who really could afford it as a luxury.” He thought of himself, like the corrupt rulers of Jerusalem, as more righteous or “less bad” than others.

Why must God use the “less righteous” to chastise the “less wicked”? It is because Yahweh has no righteous people remaining to do the work. His so-called righteous people were warned by the prophets about their corruption for over 150 years. An obvious example of what God would do had been provided to them by the exile of the northern ten tribes. If chastisement from a righteous source were possible, it would have come from among God’s chosen people! It is exactly these people about whom Habakkuk begins his complaint (Hab. 1:2–4). In the course of world events, upon whom may God rely to execute judgment justly?

Habakkuk’s objection goes even deeper. He realizes that he doesn’t like the world he sees or the world as God describes it. He asks enduring and universal questions. “Why doesn’t God destroy the wicked?” “Why do they exist at all?” Habakkuk complains about the creation, as Adam complained about Eve: God “made men like fish in the sea … that have no ruler” (1:14a). This is an emotional and dramatic conversation. “The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:15a). God accepts Habakkuk’s protests without answering his questions. Habakkuk understands more than it seems.

Habakkuk implies that he knows God has made the world and people “like fish in the sea.” The real problem is that he doesn’t like it, not that he doesn’t understand it. God’s world gives the wicked and the violent too much freedom. This objection is common to all people of faith. Sometimes it is avoided, or censored, or dismissed. Its validity as a question is necessary, however, to all healthy conversation with God. It is the means by which all great people of faith have entered into partnership with God for justice, mercy, and redemption in the world. Abraham was used by God to help judge Sodom (Gen. 18:17–33). God engaged Moses to confront the murderous Pharaoh (Ex. 3). He anointed David to protect his people from the violence of the Philistines. He chose Job to suffer righteously in protest as an example to all who would protest faithfully.

God’s ultimate demonstration of the depth of his compassion in the world was to come in the flesh as one of the “fish in the sea.” He does not answer the question, “Why do the violent have so much freedom?” Rather, he demonstrates that their freedom extends even to killing the Son of God. For Habakkuk as well as for followers of Christ, the enduring reality and answer are that the chosen of God are called to live righteously in a violent world without giving in to violence. They are called to stand in partnership with God for a world of peace. When they fail in the calling of peace (as in Habakkuk’s Jerusalem), all they can do is wait for the day of the Lord. Habakkuk begins his waiting on the ramparts of the city wall (Hab. 2:1). Faith waits to see what word of hope Yahweh will sent to a failed and judged society.

We are left with the timeless question of the first chapter, “How long, O LORD?” It is the enduring cry of the one who suffers and hopes in protesting prayer. Are the violent Babylonians going “to keep on … destroying nations without mercy” (1:17; see Rev. 6:10)? Yahweh’s response and promise are “No.” His direct response to this question describes the five “woes” that will befall the violent (ch. 2).

Contemporary Significance

HABAKKUK IS A difficult book, especially in the modern context. Why does God give us a book with the death of Habakkuk’s community as the basic plot? We are increasingly aware that such horrors are a current reality for many in the world. For anyone who has experienced or may experience the loss of a good way of life, cultural displacement, or abrupt change in cultural security, the message of Habakkuk is both relevant and timely. It does not sugarcoat reality. Within just a few years of the conversation, Jerusalem was completely destroyed.

God’s message is fundamentally that soon the internal corruption that Habakkuk dislikes will give way to a much worse external enemy. Habakkuk’s response gives us an opportunity to see how a believer may deal faithfully with news of impending death and destruction. Habakkuk responds like a person who has just heard that someone he loves has a cancer that will certainly kill him or her. The prophet’s way of life and his life itself will soon come to an abrupt and painful end. We do not know whether Habakkuk survived the exile (as Jeremiah did).

Five stages of grief. Writing about death and dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross outlines five normal stages of healthy grieving.11 Life magazine described it as “a profound lesson for the living.” These stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Habakkuk, whose hope is in Yahweh, has led believers through these “stages” for more than 2,500 years.

• Isolation is heard in his opening words: “You do not listen.… You do not save” (Hab. 1:2).

• Anger bubbles up in the repeated exclamations, “Why?… Why?… Justice never prevails … justice is perverted” (1:3–4).

• Upon hearing the bad news, Habakkuk immediately denies what he has heard, “My Holy One, we will not die!” (1:12).

• He begins bargaining by repeating what he has heard, “You have ordained them” (1:12) and then arguing a case with “Your eyes are too pure … you cannot tolerate wrong” (1:13).

• Unable to understand what is happening to his community he moves toward depression, asking again, “Why?… Why?” (1:13). He dwells on the hopelessness of their situation before Yahweh: “You have made men like fish in the sea.… The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:14–17).

• Finally, Habakkuk will come to acceptance in a song he writes (ch. 3), but not until Yahweh speaks again (ch. 2).

Death is a certainty for God’s faithful as well as for the wicked. Habakkuk gives believers a resource for dealing with that certainty in healthy and faithful ways. God tells Habakkuk about the catastrophe he will bring on Jerusalem so that he and any faithful remnant can prepare for the persecution and death that are certainly coming. As a result, some are able to accept what they cannot fully understand. They can live in hope of Yahweh’s future, even in death.

God’s first interest. The ruthless Babylonians are only an intermediate solution to the problem of injustice, even though they are God’s agent against a corrupt Jerusalem, for the Babylonians will also be destroyed (Hab. 2:6–20). The purpose of such political cataclysms in Scripture is to turn God’s people back to his ultimate purpose for his creation, namely, human faithfulness in relationships, living by the instruction of his Word, and true worship.

God’s first interest is not in our prosperity or political power. He prefers to destroy us (in hope of eventually accomplishing his greater purpose) rather than to see us prosper in political security while chasing after our own whims. The lesson of the history of God’s people is that God is not primarily committed to the peace, security, and prosperity of his people. Consider his first response in the Garden of Eden. Yahweh removed Adam and Eve from their security when they turned away from a trusting relationship with him. God’s first concern for us is faithfulness, living by his Word, and true worship. These daily human expressions of trust in Yahweh are manifestly more important to God than fiscal prosperity. He has a much more lasting plan.

You wouldn’t believe it, even if you were told. The time between Habakkuk’s announcement and the fall of Jerusalem was about eight years. In the original language the “you” in Hab. 1:5 is plural and can be translated “you all” (the plural occurs six times in 1:5). God is giving Habakkuk a message to repeat to a wider audience. It is not just for him; it is for the whole society to hear. When Paul and Barnabas are in the synagogue at Antioch, the apostle quotes this passage. He applies the “you wouldn’t believe it” and “be amazed” to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the forgiveness of sins through him, and justification through faith:

But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:

“Look, you scoffers,

wonder and perish,

for I am going to do something in your days

that you would never believe,

even if someone told you.” (Acts 13:37–41)12

If God has died and been raised from the dead, then anyone who does not give up the ways of self-sufficiency, self-worship, or prosperity-worship to follow God’s Word is lost. Even the murderous convict (“Misfit”) of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” knows this truth. As a grandmother confronts him with the name “Jesus” just before her own murder at his hands, he confesses the necessary radical response to Jesus’ resurrection:

Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead … and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him.13

If Christ has indeed been raised and our sins are forgiven by faith in him, amazement, wonder, and the transformation of faith are possible. We would not have believed it if we had been told in advance. But God has already accomplished the defeat of sin and death. He has sent his Spirit to call, gather, and enlighten us through his Word. This is the persistent power of the gospel to transform lives now through a salvation that has already been accomplished.

The message of Habakkuk’s proclamation is that God is interested first in restoring us to a right relationship with himself as created and redeemed people. Without that reconciled relationship, earthly peace and security are a façade. God draws us into lives of faithfulness in relationships through the instruction of his Word. His Holy Spirit tutors us in true worship. The suffering of the Babylonian occupation is a dire example of God’s radical commitment to these goals. Jesus’ suffering on the cross is his ultimate appeal to a world bent on violence. God will stop at nothing in order to draw us near to himself and the way of peace he offers.

The source of false worship. The deeper causes of injustice in every culture are uncovered in Habakkuk’s response to Yahweh in Hab. 1:12–17 (“He sacrifices to his net”). In every time and every place, cultures center their life on the most obvious source of their strength and prosperity. Seagoing cultures have sea and storm gods. Agricultural cultures have grain gods. Hunting cultures center on totems and spirits that control the animals. Technological societies such as our own do not identify “gods” but elevate (worship) values that lead to greater control over life: wealth, information, and military technology. A fisherman reveres his fishing net.

For the Babylonians the fisherman’s net was a symbol of military power.14 They worshiped the tool that was the means of their wealth, taken from other cities and towns. The Greek historian Herodotus records that the Scythians even made sacrifices to a sword.15 They made a god of the source of their standard of living. To criticize that source was at once unpatriotic and blasphemy of the civil religion.

Christians may find that an examination of their allegiances creates internal conflict when they are part of an affluent society. Habakkuk reveals the deeper causes of violence when he points to the worship of “the net” and calls for a rigorous evaluation of any devotion to prosperity in light of our ultimate devotion to God. He shows us the problem from the side of a small country dominated by a great economic and military power.16 His exposure of the worship of the source of prosperity is echoed by Isaiah’s ridicule of the deluded man who worships what he himself makes (Isa. 44:9–20).

Original Meaning

Look, I Am Raising Up the More Wicked Babylonians (1:5–11)

YAHWEH RESPONDS BY redirecting Habakkuk’s attention from local issues to international issues of violence. His first response has no introduction. God simply begins speaking, but the content of his response is surprising. Is God ignoring the question? Habakkuk’s question and Yahweh’s answer seem unrelated. Habakkuk begins with a domestic problem, and Yahweh answers with an international issue. Habakkuk says, “Look at this!” and Yahweh replies, “Look at that!” Yet Yahweh uses the same verbs as Habakkuk used in his questions.

Yahweh responds to the question by providing a bigger version of the question. Judah is corrupt, but Babylon is worse. Just look and see.

Verse 5 prepares the prophet for this abrupt response. “You would not believe, even if you were told.” The situation is going to get worse. Yahweh’s response represents a kind of teaching that intensifies the conversation and shakes the student into thinking in a larger and more complex matrix of relationships. Yahweh’s challenge is for Habakkuk to believe the unbelievable. He is, of course, being told, and he does have difficulty believing it (1:12–13). God will raise up a cruel and impetuous people, the “Babylonians.”1

The Babylonians’ reputation was terrifying (1:6). They were “ruthless” (mar), meaning embittering, galling, and fierce. They were also “impetuous” (mahar), meaning swift, quick, and hasty. These rhyming Hebrew words described an army that would rapidly change the face of political structures. They would “sweep across the whole earth to seize” Jerusalem. Yahweh judges their violent taking of “dwelling places not their own” even as he raises them to end the violence of Habakkuk’s complaint.

The source of the Babylonians’ ruthlessness is described in 1:7. They are “feared” and “dreaded” (terrible, shocking, and awful) because they were “a law to themselves.” They are the originators of their own justice, “promoting their own honor” (majesty, dignity, and splendor). Although they are God’s agent, they cannot be the permanent solution to Habakkuk’s complaint. Like the Assyrians before them, they are not the source of justice for God’s people.2 They are simply God’s agent in bringing the fruit of unrighteousness to Jerusalem’s doorstep. Judah’s rulers also had been “promoting their own honor.”

Babylon’s impetuous speed and swift advance to Jerusalem are described in 1:8–9 by using comparisons to wild animals: Their “horses are swifter than leopards”; they are “fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong … from afar”; and they fly “like a vulture swooping to devour” (1:8). Nebuchadnezzar demonstrated his daring military speed following the Battle of Carchemish (605 B.C.), where he secured his domination of the ancient Near East by defeating the Egyptian imperial forces. Following the battle he immediately pursued the defeated army more than 150 miles to crush them completely.3 Hearing of his father’s death (Nabopolassar), he raced home, hundreds of miles, to secure his throne. With the same daring speed his “hordes,” advancing “like a desert wind,” would fall on Jerusalem. Its numerous inhabitants, like those of the surrounding towns, would be gathered “as prisoners like sand” and marched in long lines to Babylon.

The Babylonians’ god was her self-satisfied pleasure in military strength (1:10–11). Once the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians at Nineveh (612 B.C.) and the Egyptians at Carchemish (605 B.C.), no one could stop their might. They could “deride kings and scoff at rulers” (1:10). Once they controlled the open fields and the trade routes, they could “laugh at all fortified cities,” building earthen ramps to the tops of walls to enter them.

Again, Yahweh’s description of what will come does not hide the fact of Babylonian guilt. “Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—guilty men, whose own strength is their god” (Hab. 1:11). This verse concludes Yahweh’s first response. The indictment of guilt means that they have committed some offense, namely, their worship of their own strength. Here “strength” (koḥ) means muscle-strength or brawn. Elsewhere the word refers to Samson’s might (Judg. 16:5, 9, 19), a wild ox (Job 39:11), a blacksmith (Isa. 44:12), a lone warrior (Isa. 63:1), a goat (Dan. 8:6), or a man of brute strength (Amos 2:14). Babylon has a brute force that enables them to laugh at kings and fortified cities. Not only do they have this power, they worship it. This strength is their god. Habakkuk expands on this “secular” idolatry (the strongest people win) and asks Yahweh to say more about it in his second question (Hab. 1:14–17).

Bridging Contexts

QUESTIONS AND LAMENT. Habakkuk’s pressing questions and lament (1:2–4) are given to him by Yahweh in an “oracle” (1:1). This setting implies that even this questioning is inspired by the Spirit of Yahweh. Through the ages believers have asked similar questions of the Lord in prayer. In Habakkuk’s case, asking such difficult questions is part of what “the prophet received” (1:1). Questions and lament are part of a believer’s burden, and honest dialogue with God is a necessary form of relationship with him. The persistence of the questioner, the “woes” (ch. 2), and the song of remembrance (ch. 3) are each a necessary part of this rich book.

The powerful and corrupt leadership that Habakkuk faces, causing him to cry out, is an evil that persists in every age. King Jehoiakim’s corrupt vassal relationship with Egypt (and later with Nebuchadnezzar) affected every area of life in Jerusalem. Habakkuk’s contemporary Jeremiah documents the violence that the king perpetrated on the people.5 He killed the innocent who opposed him and refused to pay poor laborers (Jer. 22:13–19). Under his administration the prophets and priesthood were corrupted in adultery and abuse of authority (23:1–2, 9–11). The king sent assassins who killed the prophet Uriah for prophesying (as Habakkuk and Jeremiah also did) that Jerusalem would fall (26:20–23). He burned Jeremiah’s handwritten prophecy in his fireplace as a threat against him (Jer. 36). Like Habakkuk, Jeremiah said that Babylon was God’s agent of discipline against his chosen people.

In the face of this situation Yahweh gave his prophet words of lament (Hab. 1:2a, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”). Lamentation and questioning are God’s gift to the believer. They provide a pathway of honest faith and faithful conversation with him in horrible times.6 One third of the Psalms are prayers/songs of lament.7 Habakkuk’s words echo throughout the Psalter (“How long?” Ps. 6:3; 13:1–2; 79:5; 89:46; “Why do you…?” Ps. 10:1; 44:23–24; 74:11). The entire books of Job and Lamentations are dedicated to expressing the confusion and pain of unbearable suffering by the faithful.

Jesus himself lamented faithfully to the Father from the cross, using the words of Psalm 22:1 (see Matt. 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Like Habakkuk, Jesus models for us the possibility of being honest with God about our situations through lament without guilt. Habakkuk, the psalmists, and Jesus did not hesitate to bring their complaints to the Lord or to ask their questions directly. In their laments they were resolute in faithfulness, even when the Lord’s response was not what they wanted to hear (see comments on Hab. 3:17–19).

Protest and lament can be faithful or unfaithful.8 Railing against God can be unfaithful, particularly when the protest is accompanied by life-denying or death-promoting behaviors. Some will protest against God through self-destructive and abusive behaviors toward others, often those who love them. This unfaithful path of protest usually begins with a significant but subtle distinction. The faithful protest begins with an attitude that continues to address God (“God, how could you allow?…”). The unfaithful protest begins with the impersonal (and judging) abstraction (“How could God allow?…”).

Habakkuk’s questioning is similar to the faithful protest found in the book of Job. Job’s faithfulness is found in his insistence that theological discussion with his so-called friends does not satisfy him. He wants to converse directly with God (Job 30:2–23; 31:6; 35). Yahweh accepts Job’s protest as faithful and rejected his friends’ defense of the deity (42:7–8). Habakkuk’s protest is faithful and inspired because it is done out of the conviction that God is good all the time, even in death and dying. This conviction does not silence the questions and pain of the faithful in Scripture. Rather, it focuses the questions in the form of personal dialogue with a loving Creator and Redeemer, who accompanies the sufferer and will, in perfect time, bring victory, healing, and restoration. Those who long for the kingdom of God with its peace, love, and goodness may find hope on the pathway of lament and faithful protest.

The struggle of faith. The timeless struggle of faith in a violent world is expressed in Habakkuk’s declaration, “We will not die!” (Hab. 1:12–17). After Yahweh finished telling Habakkuk in detail about the coming attack of the Babylonians on Jerusalem (1:5–11), the prophet’s reaction to this horrible news is twofold, expressing protest and faith simultaneously. He cannot believe what he has heard, yet he believes it. It disturbs him terribly, yet he has faith that the people will endure through and beyond their defeat. Many people did die in the siege and fall of Jerusalem (see Lamentations). The tone of faithful protest is like that of a terminally ill patient insisting, “I will not die!” Habakkuk surrounds this protest with punctuations of God’s attributes. Naming them can bring comfort in the midst of distress (“everlasting,” “Holy One,” “Rock”).

The second part of Habakkuk’s reaction resonates as hope a tone below his protest. God’s people will not die but endure, because their God is the Rock. They (i.e., their children) later return to rebuild the temple and resettle the land (538 B.C.). They do not die (as a people) but survive the fire of Yahweh’s purification.

Habakkuk has hope. He accepts Yahweh’s word about the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem. “You have appointed them to execute judgment.… You have ordained them to punish” (1:12). He is a prophet of hope precisely because he is willing to face the truth of the consequences of judgment on Judah’s rebellion against God. True biblical prophets “refused the easy and almost universal practice of identifying God’s rule exclusively with the policies of their own country.”9 Habakkuk stands with his contemporaries Jeremiah and Isaiah, who declare quite unpatriotically that the national enemy will discipline God’s people. They do not declare the Babylonians “good.” To the contrary, God’s judgment will later fall harder on the enemy (Hab. 2:6–20). In the meantime, Habakkuk accepts the coming discipline in hope, because he knows it is a sign of Yahweh’s activity and justice for his chosen people.

Habakkuk has hope in the face of judgment because he has a history and relationship of trust with Yahweh. He knows that it is Yahweh, “my God,” who is “everlasting,” who speaks (1:12). His relationship with the author of eternity is personal. He has the benefit of an eternal perspective, even in face of suffering punishment for the sins of those around him. Although he cannot understand why the whole city must suffer, he knows from personal experience that Yahweh is good, addressing him as “my Holy One” (1:12). Finally, he speaks to God with the name that reaches deep into Israel’s redemptive history and forward into the revelation of Christ, “O Rock.”10 This name expresses a whole history of experiencing God’s faithfulness and deliverance in the worst of times. It also reveals an expansive tradition of worship from which Habakkuk, a temple musician, can draw (cf. Hab. 3:19b).

Habakkuk’s protest. Habakkuk argues against the success of the worse Babylonians. His expression of hope in the Rock is followed by protests common to all on whom judgment falls: “We are not as bad as they are!” (cf. 1:13b, “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”). This kind of comparison is a universal argument against any judgment. Adam compared himself to Eve to claim more righteous ground (Gen. 3:12, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”). Eve blamed the serpent. The relative scale of righteousness is used daily as an excuse for misdeeds. One apparently repentant cocaine dealer said, “I’m not as bad as most dealers. I only sold to people who really could afford it as a luxury.” He thought of himself, like the corrupt rulers of Jerusalem, as more righteous or “less bad” than others.

Why must God use the “less righteous” to chastise the “less wicked”? It is because Yahweh has no righteous people remaining to do the work. His so-called righteous people were warned by the prophets about their corruption for over 150 years. An obvious example of what God would do had been provided to them by the exile of the northern ten tribes. If chastisement from a righteous source were possible, it would have come from among God’s chosen people! It is exactly these people about whom Habakkuk begins his complaint (Hab. 1:2–4). In the course of world events, upon whom may God rely to execute judgment justly?

Habakkuk’s objection goes even deeper. He realizes that he doesn’t like the world he sees or the world as God describes it. He asks enduring and universal questions. “Why doesn’t God destroy the wicked?” “Why do they exist at all?” Habakkuk complains about the creation, as Adam complained about Eve: God “made men like fish in the sea … that have no ruler” (1:14a). This is an emotional and dramatic conversation. “The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:15a). God accepts Habakkuk’s protests without answering his questions. Habakkuk understands more than it seems.

Habakkuk implies that he knows God has made the world and people “like fish in the sea.” The real problem is that he doesn’t like it, not that he doesn’t understand it. God’s world gives the wicked and the violent too much freedom. This objection is common to all people of faith. Sometimes it is avoided, or censored, or dismissed. Its validity as a question is necessary, however, to all healthy conversation with God. It is the means by which all great people of faith have entered into partnership with God for justice, mercy, and redemption in the world. Abraham was used by God to help judge Sodom (Gen. 18:17–33). God engaged Moses to confront the murderous Pharaoh (Ex. 3). He anointed David to protect his people from the violence of the Philistines. He chose Job to suffer righteously in protest as an example to all who would protest faithfully.

God’s ultimate demonstration of the depth of his compassion in the world was to come in the flesh as one of the “fish in the sea.” He does not answer the question, “Why do the violent have so much freedom?” Rather, he demonstrates that their freedom extends even to killing the Son of God. For Habakkuk as well as for followers of Christ, the enduring reality and answer are that the chosen of God are called to live righteously in a violent world without giving in to violence. They are called to stand in partnership with God for a world of peace. When they fail in the calling of peace (as in Habakkuk’s Jerusalem), all they can do is wait for the day of the Lord. Habakkuk begins his waiting on the ramparts of the city wall (Hab. 2:1). Faith waits to see what word of hope Yahweh will sent to a failed and judged society.

We are left with the timeless question of the first chapter, “How long, O LORD?” It is the enduring cry of the one who suffers and hopes in protesting prayer. Are the violent Babylonians going “to keep on … destroying nations without mercy” (1:17; see Rev. 6:10)? Yahweh’s response and promise are “No.” His direct response to this question describes the five “woes” that will befall the violent (ch. 2).

Contemporary Significance

HABAKKUK IS A difficult book, especially in the modern context. Why does God give us a book with the death of Habakkuk’s community as the basic plot? We are increasingly aware that such horrors are a current reality for many in the world. For anyone who has experienced or may experience the loss of a good way of life, cultural displacement, or abrupt change in cultural security, the message of Habakkuk is both relevant and timely. It does not sugarcoat reality. Within just a few years of the conversation, Jerusalem was completely destroyed.

God’s message is fundamentally that soon the internal corruption that Habakkuk dislikes will give way to a much worse external enemy. Habakkuk’s response gives us an opportunity to see how a believer may deal faithfully with news of impending death and destruction. Habakkuk responds like a person who has just heard that someone he loves has a cancer that will certainly kill him or her. The prophet’s way of life and his life itself will soon come to an abrupt and painful end. We do not know whether Habakkuk survived the exile (as Jeremiah did).

Five stages of grief. Writing about death and dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross outlines five normal stages of healthy grieving.11 Life magazine described it as “a profound lesson for the living.” These stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Habakkuk, whose hope is in Yahweh, has led believers through these “stages” for more than 2,500 years.

• Isolation is heard in his opening words: “You do not listen.… You do not save” (Hab. 1:2).

• Anger bubbles up in the repeated exclamations, “Why?… Why?… Justice never prevails … justice is perverted” (1:3–4).

• Upon hearing the bad news, Habakkuk immediately denies what he has heard, “My Holy One, we will not die!” (1:12).

• He begins bargaining by repeating what he has heard, “You have ordained them” (1:12) and then arguing a case with “Your eyes are too pure … you cannot tolerate wrong” (1:13).

• Unable to understand what is happening to his community he moves toward depression, asking again, “Why?… Why?” (1:13). He dwells on the hopelessness of their situation before Yahweh: “You have made men like fish in the sea.… The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:14–17).

• Finally, Habakkuk will come to acceptance in a song he writes (ch. 3), but not until Yahweh speaks again (ch. 2).

Death is a certainty for God’s faithful as well as for the wicked. Habakkuk gives believers a resource for dealing with that certainty in healthy and faithful ways. God tells Habakkuk about the catastrophe he will bring on Jerusalem so that he and any faithful remnant can prepare for the persecution and death that are certainly coming. As a result, some are able to accept what they cannot fully understand. They can live in hope of Yahweh’s future, even in death.

God’s first interest. The ruthless Babylonians are only an intermediate solution to the problem of injustice, even though they are God’s agent against a corrupt Jerusalem, for the Babylonians will also be destroyed (Hab. 2:6–20). The purpose of such political cataclysms in Scripture is to turn God’s people back to his ultimate purpose for his creation, namely, human faithfulness in relationships, living by the instruction of his Word, and true worship.

God’s first interest is not in our prosperity or political power. He prefers to destroy us (in hope of eventually accomplishing his greater purpose) rather than to see us prosper in political security while chasing after our own whims. The lesson of the history of God’s people is that God is not primarily committed to the peace, security, and prosperity of his people. Consider his first response in the Garden of Eden. Yahweh removed Adam and Eve from their security when they turned away from a trusting relationship with him. God’s first concern for us is faithfulness, living by his Word, and true worship. These daily human expressions of trust in Yahweh are manifestly more important to God than fiscal prosperity. He has a much more lasting plan.

You wouldn’t believe it, even if you were told. The time between Habakkuk’s announcement and the fall of Jerusalem was about eight years. In the original language the “you” in Hab. 1:5 is plural and can be translated “you all” (the plural occurs six times in 1:5). God is giving Habakkuk a message to repeat to a wider audience. It is not just for him; it is for the whole society to hear. When Paul and Barnabas are in the synagogue at Antioch, the apostle quotes this passage. He applies the “you wouldn’t believe it” and “be amazed” to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the forgiveness of sins through him, and justification through faith:

But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:

“Look, you scoffers,

wonder and perish,

for I am going to do something in your days

that you would never believe,

even if someone told you.” (Acts 13:37–41)12

If God has died and been raised from the dead, then anyone who does not give up the ways of self-sufficiency, self-worship, or prosperity-worship to follow God’s Word is lost. Even the murderous convict (“Misfit”) of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” knows this truth. As a grandmother confronts him with the name “Jesus” just before her own murder at his hands, he confesses the necessary radical response to Jesus’ resurrection:

Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead … and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him.13

If Christ has indeed been raised and our sins are forgiven by faith in him, amazement, wonder, and the transformation of faith are possible. We would not have believed it if we had been told in advance. But God has already accomplished the defeat of sin and death. He has sent his Spirit to call, gather, and enlighten us through his Word. This is the persistent power of the gospel to transform lives now through a salvation that has already been accomplished.

The message of Habakkuk’s proclamation is that God is interested first in restoring us to a right relationship with himself as created and redeemed people. Without that reconciled relationship, earthly peace and security are a façade. God draws us into lives of faithfulness in relationships through the instruction of his Word. His Holy Spirit tutors us in true worship. The suffering of the Babylonian occupation is a dire example of God’s radical commitment to these goals. Jesus’ suffering on the cross is his ultimate appeal to a world bent on violence. God will stop at nothing in order to draw us near to himself and the way of peace he offers.

The source of false worship. The deeper causes of injustice in every culture are uncovered in Habakkuk’s response to Yahweh in Hab. 1:12–17 (“He sacrifices to his net”). In every time and every place, cultures center their life on the most obvious source of their strength and prosperity. Seagoing cultures have sea and storm gods. Agricultural cultures have grain gods. Hunting cultures center on totems and spirits that control the animals. Technological societies such as our own do not identify “gods” but elevate (worship) values that lead to greater control over life: wealth, information, and military technology. A fisherman reveres his fishing net.

For the Babylonians the fisherman’s net was a symbol of military power.14 They worshiped the tool that was the means of their wealth, taken from other cities and towns. The Greek historian Herodotus records that the Scythians even made sacrifices to a sword.15 They made a god of the source of their standard of living. To criticize that source was at once unpatriotic and blasphemy of the civil religion.

Christians may find that an examination of their allegiances creates internal conflict when they are part of an affluent society. Habakkuk reveals the deeper causes of violence when he points to the worship of “the net” and calls for a rigorous evaluation of any devotion to prosperity in light of our ultimate devotion to God. He shows us the problem from the side of a small country dominated by a great economic and military power.16 His exposure of the worship of the source of prosperity is echoed by Isaiah’s ridicule of the deluded man who worships what he himself makes (Isa. 44:9–20).

Original Meaning

Yahweh, Why Do You Tolerate the [More] Treacherous? (1:12–17)

IN HIS SECOND speech (1:12–17) Habakkuk rephrases his first question by asking, in essence, “Why do you tolerate a people more treacherous than Judah?” In 1:12 he struggles to accept what he has heard. In 1:13 he rephrases the question based on the new information. In 1:14–16 he expands the question with the metaphor of a commercial fisherman, and in 1:17 Habakkuk again pushes forward the question of Yahweh’s toleration of the wicked. The Lord’s answers will come in chapter 2.

The historical context of Habakkuk’s concern is the prospect of the “more wicked” Babylonian rule in Jerusalem. When Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish, he also took control of Jerusalem, retaining Jehoiakim as his vassal. When Jehoiakim rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar conquered the city and began deporting the people to Babylon (597 B.C.).

The second complaint begins abruptly (Hab. 1:12). We know Habakkuk has begun to speak again only because the address begins, “O LORD.” Habakkuk is making an argument against what Yahweh has just said. It sounds wrong to him, so he quotes to God what he knows about God: “Are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One …” and in the same breath adds, “We will not die.”4 Habakkuk means that since his God is eternal (unlike idols), God’s people must also endure and prosper. God’s eternal promises to Abraham and to David were at the heart of Israel’s faith (Gen. 12:1–3; 15:4–6; 17:5–8; 2 Sam. 7:13, 16; 1 Kings 2:45; 9:5).

The panic and crisis of processing the news about the coming of the Babylonians can be heard in the intensely personal, “my God, my Holy One” (Hab. 1:12a). He is processing the shock of the news. We hear it also in his statement of incredulity, “We will not die!” (Do they die? See the Bridging Contexts section.) He punctuates his speech with six of God’s names and attributes, which bring comfort in the midst of his distress: “LORD … everlasting … my God, my Holy One … LORD … Rock.”

Immediately, however, he says that he believes Yahweh concerning the Babylonians: “You have appointed … you have ordained” (1:12b). In one verse Habakkuk progresses from incredulity to acknowledgment of the facts through his trust and knowledge of Yahweh. Even though Jerusalem will be captured and God’s people exiled, they will survive as a people, for God is a Rock of refuge. “We will not die” becomes a cry of hope for the future.

In spite of his belief, what Habakkuk has heard about the Babylonians doesn’t fit with what he knows about God, for the Babylonians are wicked (1:15) and idolatrous (1:16). Nor does he think his question has been answered by Yahweh’s response. After all, the Babylonians are more treacherous than the wicked in Judah. Yahweh has only intensified the question. So, Habakkuk asks again, broadening the question beyond Judah to include the ancient world.

Habakkuk begins by appealing to the traditional reputation of Yahweh, repeating part of his original question in 1:3 (“Why do you tolerate wrong?”) as statements of fact: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, you cannot tolerate wrong” (1:13a). These two statements set up the two questions that follow: “Why then do you tolerate the treacherous [Babylonians]” and “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous?” (1:13b). The answers to these questions (the first about the perpetrators of evil and the other about the suffering of their victims) will have to wait for chapter 2. For now, Habakkuk wants to explain his questions and objections more fully with the use of a fishing metaphor.

The joy of the wicked fisherman bothers Habakkuk (1:14–17). The heart of his objection is the apparent enjoyment and success that the wicked find in their cruel actions. The center of his description of the fisherman (1:14–16) is “so he rejoices and is glad” (1:15b). Habakkuk offers nine objections to their treacherous metaphorical activities and God’s toleration of them. This wicked fisherman (the Babylonian empire) pulls the more righteous up with hooks, catches them in his net, gathers them up in his dragnet, rejoices, is glad, sacrifices to his net, burns incense to his dragnet, lives in luxury, and enjoys the choicest food. The first three objections concern the abuses of the fisherman. The fourth and fifth object to his happiness. The sixth and seventh object to his false worship (reiterating and amplifying Yahweh’s observation in 1:11b). The last two wonder about his high living, in that the wicked seem to “have it all.”

The objection goes even deeper. Habakkuk realizes that he doesn’t like the world he sees or the world as God describes it. His implied question is twofold: (1) “Why don’t you destroy the wicked?” (at least don’t sanction their success!); (2) “Why do they exist at all?” This second question is implied in 1:14a by the phrase, “You have made men [ʾadam] like fish in the sea, like sea creatures that have no ruler.” The Hebrew word translated “men” is the same word for the name Adam. It echoes the creation itself and the inherent freedom to choose who or what created thing will rule over them (see Bridging Contexts section).

After his nine-point list, Habakkuk ends the metaphor with another form of his original questions (1:3, 13), which can be paraphrased, “Are you going to keep on tolerating this? If so, how long?” (1:17). This is the prime question of the book. The answer in chapter 2 will be “Yes,” and “for a while.” Yahweh is aware of all these issues and will offer a lengthy perspective on justice and how it will be accomplished.

Bridging Contexts

QUESTIONS AND LAMENT. Habakkuk’s pressing questions and lament (1:2–4) are given to him by Yahweh in an “oracle” (1:1). This setting implies that even this questioning is inspired by the Spirit of Yahweh. Through the ages believers have asked similar questions of the Lord in prayer. In Habakkuk’s case, asking such difficult questions is part of what “the prophet received” (1:1). Questions and lament are part of a believer’s burden, and honest dialogue with God is a necessary form of relationship with him. The persistence of the questioner, the “woes” (ch. 2), and the song of remembrance (ch. 3) are each a necessary part of this rich book.

The powerful and corrupt leadership that Habakkuk faces, causing him to cry out, is an evil that persists in every age. King Jehoiakim’s corrupt vassal relationship with Egypt (and later with Nebuchadnezzar) affected every area of life in Jerusalem. Habakkuk’s contemporary Jeremiah documents the violence that the king perpetrated on the people.5 He killed the innocent who opposed him and refused to pay poor laborers (Jer. 22:13–19). Under his administration the prophets and priesthood were corrupted in adultery and abuse of authority (23:1–2, 9–11). The king sent assassins who killed the prophet Uriah for prophesying (as Habakkuk and Jeremiah also did) that Jerusalem would fall (26:20–23). He burned Jeremiah’s handwritten prophecy in his fireplace as a threat against him (Jer. 36). Like Habakkuk, Jeremiah said that Babylon was God’s agent of discipline against his chosen people.

In the face of this situation Yahweh gave his prophet words of lament (Hab. 1:2a, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”). Lamentation and questioning are God’s gift to the believer. They provide a pathway of honest faith and faithful conversation with him in horrible times.6 One third of the Psalms are prayers/songs of lament.7 Habakkuk’s words echo throughout the Psalter (“How long?” Ps. 6:3; 13:1–2; 79:5; 89:46; “Why do you…?” Ps. 10:1; 44:23–24; 74:11). The entire books of Job and Lamentations are dedicated to expressing the confusion and pain of unbearable suffering by the faithful.

Jesus himself lamented faithfully to the Father from the cross, using the words of Psalm 22:1 (see Matt. 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Like Habakkuk, Jesus models for us the possibility of being honest with God about our situations through lament without guilt. Habakkuk, the psalmists, and Jesus did not hesitate to bring their complaints to the Lord or to ask their questions directly. In their laments they were resolute in faithfulness, even when the Lord’s response was not what they wanted to hear (see comments on Hab. 3:17–19).

Protest and lament can be faithful or unfaithful.8 Railing against God can be unfaithful, particularly when the protest is accompanied by life-denying or death-promoting behaviors. Some will protest against God through self-destructive and abusive behaviors toward others, often those who love them. This unfaithful path of protest usually begins with a significant but subtle distinction. The faithful protest begins with an attitude that continues to address God (“God, how could you allow?…”). The unfaithful protest begins with the impersonal (and judging) abstraction (“How could God allow?…”).

Habakkuk’s questioning is similar to the faithful protest found in the book of Job. Job’s faithfulness is found in his insistence that theological discussion with his so-called friends does not satisfy him. He wants to converse directly with God (Job 30:2–23; 31:6; 35). Yahweh accepts Job’s protest as faithful and rejected his friends’ defense of the deity (42:7–8). Habakkuk’s protest is faithful and inspired because it is done out of the conviction that God is good all the time, even in death and dying. This conviction does not silence the questions and pain of the faithful in Scripture. Rather, it focuses the questions in the form of personal dialogue with a loving Creator and Redeemer, who accompanies the sufferer and will, in perfect time, bring victory, healing, and restoration. Those who long for the kingdom of God with its peace, love, and goodness may find hope on the pathway of lament and faithful protest.

The struggle of faith. The timeless struggle of faith in a violent world is expressed in Habakkuk’s declaration, “We will not die!” (Hab. 1:12–17). After Yahweh finished telling Habakkuk in detail about the coming attack of the Babylonians on Jerusalem (1:5–11), the prophet’s reaction to this horrible news is twofold, expressing protest and faith simultaneously. He cannot believe what he has heard, yet he believes it. It disturbs him terribly, yet he has faith that the people will endure through and beyond their defeat. Many people did die in the siege and fall of Jerusalem (see Lamentations). The tone of faithful protest is like that of a terminally ill patient insisting, “I will not die!” Habakkuk surrounds this protest with punctuations of God’s attributes. Naming them can bring comfort in the midst of distress (“everlasting,” “Holy One,” “Rock”).

The second part of Habakkuk’s reaction resonates as hope a tone below his protest. God’s people will not die but endure, because their God is the Rock. They (i.e., their children) later return to rebuild the temple and resettle the land (538 B.C.). They do not die (as a people) but survive the fire of Yahweh’s purification.

Habakkuk has hope. He accepts Yahweh’s word about the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem. “You have appointed them to execute judgment.… You have ordained them to punish” (1:12). He is a prophet of hope precisely because he is willing to face the truth of the consequences of judgment on Judah’s rebellion against God. True biblical prophets “refused the easy and almost universal practice of identifying God’s rule exclusively with the policies of their own country.”9 Habakkuk stands with his contemporaries Jeremiah and Isaiah, who declare quite unpatriotically that the national enemy will discipline God’s people. They do not declare the Babylonians “good.” To the contrary, God’s judgment will later fall harder on the enemy (Hab. 2:6–20). In the meantime, Habakkuk accepts the coming discipline in hope, because he knows it is a sign of Yahweh’s activity and justice for his chosen people.

Habakkuk has hope in the face of judgment because he has a history and relationship of trust with Yahweh. He knows that it is Yahweh, “my God,” who is “everlasting,” who speaks (1:12). His relationship with the author of eternity is personal. He has the benefit of an eternal perspective, even in face of suffering punishment for the sins of those around him. Although he cannot understand why the whole city must suffer, he knows from personal experience that Yahweh is good, addressing him as “my Holy One” (1:12). Finally, he speaks to God with the name that reaches deep into Israel’s redemptive history and forward into the revelation of Christ, “O Rock.”10 This name expresses a whole history of experiencing God’s faithfulness and deliverance in the worst of times. It also reveals an expansive tradition of worship from which Habakkuk, a temple musician, can draw (cf. Hab. 3:19b).

Habakkuk’s protest. Habakkuk argues against the success of the worse Babylonians. His expression of hope in the Rock is followed by protests common to all on whom judgment falls: “We are not as bad as they are!” (cf. 1:13b, “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”). This kind of comparison is a universal argument against any judgment. Adam compared himself to Eve to claim more righteous ground (Gen. 3:12, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”). Eve blamed the serpent. The relative scale of righteousness is used daily as an excuse for misdeeds. One apparently repentant cocaine dealer said, “I’m not as bad as most dealers. I only sold to people who really could afford it as a luxury.” He thought of himself, like the corrupt rulers of Jerusalem, as more righteous or “less bad” than others.

Why must God use the “less righteous” to chastise the “less wicked”? It is because Yahweh has no righteous people remaining to do the work. His so-called righteous people were warned by the prophets about their corruption for over 150 years. An obvious example of what God would do had been provided to them by the exile of the northern ten tribes. If chastisement from a righteous source were possible, it would have come from among God’s chosen people! It is exactly these people about whom Habakkuk begins his complaint (Hab. 1:2–4). In the course of world events, upon whom may God rely to execute judgment justly?

Habakkuk’s objection goes even deeper. He realizes that he doesn’t like the world he sees or the world as God describes it. He asks enduring and universal questions. “Why doesn’t God destroy the wicked?” “Why do they exist at all?” Habakkuk complains about the creation, as Adam complained about Eve: God “made men like fish in the sea … that have no ruler” (1:14a). This is an emotional and dramatic conversation. “The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:15a). God accepts Habakkuk’s protests without answering his questions. Habakkuk understands more than it seems.

Habakkuk implies that he knows God has made the world and people “like fish in the sea.” The real problem is that he doesn’t like it, not that he doesn’t understand it. God’s world gives the wicked and the violent too much freedom. This objection is common to all people of faith. Sometimes it is avoided, or censored, or dismissed. Its validity as a question is necessary, however, to all healthy conversation with God. It is the means by which all great people of faith have entered into partnership with God for justice, mercy, and redemption in the world. Abraham was used by God to help judge Sodom (Gen. 18:17–33). God engaged Moses to confront the murderous Pharaoh (Ex. 3). He anointed David to protect his people from the violence of the Philistines. He chose Job to suffer righteously in protest as an example to all who would protest faithfully.

God’s ultimate demonstration of the depth of his compassion in the world was to come in the flesh as one of the “fish in the sea.” He does not answer the question, “Why do the violent have so much freedom?” Rather, he demonstrates that their freedom extends even to killing the Son of God. For Habakkuk as well as for followers of Christ, the enduring reality and answer are that the chosen of God are called to live righteously in a violent world without giving in to violence. They are called to stand in partnership with God for a world of peace. When they fail in the calling of peace (as in Habakkuk’s Jerusalem), all they can do is wait for the day of the Lord. Habakkuk begins his waiting on the ramparts of the city wall (Hab. 2:1). Faith waits to see what word of hope Yahweh will sent to a failed and judged society.

We are left with the timeless question of the first chapter, “How long, O LORD?” It is the enduring cry of the one who suffers and hopes in protesting prayer. Are the violent Babylonians going “to keep on … destroying nations without mercy” (1:17; see Rev. 6:10)? Yahweh’s response and promise are “No.” His direct response to this question describes the five “woes” that will befall the violent (ch. 2).

Contemporary Significance

HABAKKUK IS A difficult book, especially in the modern context. Why does God give us a book with the death of Habakkuk’s community as the basic plot? We are increasingly aware that such horrors are a current reality for many in the world. For anyone who has experienced or may experience the loss of a good way of life, cultural displacement, or abrupt change in cultural security, the message of Habakkuk is both relevant and timely. It does not sugarcoat reality. Within just a few years of the conversation, Jerusalem was completely destroyed.

God’s message is fundamentally that soon the internal corruption that Habakkuk dislikes will give way to a much worse external enemy. Habakkuk’s response gives us an opportunity to see how a believer may deal faithfully with news of impending death and destruction. Habakkuk responds like a person who has just heard that someone he loves has a cancer that will certainly kill him or her. The prophet’s way of life and his life itself will soon come to an abrupt and painful end. We do not know whether Habakkuk survived the exile (as Jeremiah did).

Five stages of grief. Writing about death and dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross outlines five normal stages of healthy grieving.11 Life magazine described it as “a profound lesson for the living.” These stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Habakkuk, whose hope is in Yahweh, has led believers through these “stages” for more than 2,500 years.

• Isolation is heard in his opening words: “You do not listen.… You do not save” (Hab. 1:2).

• Anger bubbles up in the repeated exclamations, “Why?… Why?… Justice never prevails … justice is perverted” (1:3–4).

• Upon hearing the bad news, Habakkuk immediately denies what he has heard, “My Holy One, we will not die!” (1:12).

• He begins bargaining by repeating what he has heard, “You have ordained them” (1:12) and then arguing a case with “Your eyes are too pure … you cannot tolerate wrong” (1:13).

• Unable to understand what is happening to his community he moves toward depression, asking again, “Why?… Why?” (1:13). He dwells on the hopelessness of their situation before Yahweh: “You have made men like fish in the sea.… The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks” (1:14–17).

• Finally, Habakkuk will come to acceptance in a song he writes (ch. 3), but not until Yahweh speaks again (ch. 2).

Death is a certainty for God’s faithful as well as for the wicked. Habakkuk gives believers a resource for dealing with that certainty in healthy and faithful ways. God tells Habakkuk about the catastrophe he will bring on Jerusalem so that he and any faithful remnant can prepare for the persecution and death that are certainly coming. As a result, some are able to accept what they cannot fully understand. They can live in hope of Yahweh’s future, even in death.

God’s first interest. The ruthless Babylonians are only an intermediate solution to the problem of injustice, even though they are God’s agent against a corrupt Jerusalem, for the Babylonians will also be destroyed (Hab. 2:6–20). The purpose of such political cataclysms in Scripture is to turn God’s people back to his ultimate purpose for his creation, namely, human faithfulness in relationships, living by the instruction of his Word, and true worship.

God’s first interest is not in our prosperity or political power. He prefers to destroy us (in hope of eventually accomplishing his greater purpose) rather than to see us prosper in political security while chasing after our own whims. The lesson of the history of God’s people is that God is not primarily committed to the peace, security, and prosperity of his people. Consider his first response in the Garden of Eden. Yahweh removed Adam and Eve from their security when they turned away from a trusting relationship with him. God’s first concern for us is faithfulness, living by his Word, and true worship. These daily human expressions of trust in Yahweh are manifestly more important to God than fiscal prosperity. He has a much more lasting plan.

You wouldn’t believe it, even if you were told. The time between Habakkuk’s announcement and the fall of Jerusalem was about eight years. In the original language the “you” in Hab. 1:5 is plural and can be translated “you all” (the plural occurs six times in 1:5). God is giving Habakkuk a message to repeat to a wider audience. It is not just for him; it is for the whole society to hear. When Paul and Barnabas are in the synagogue at Antioch, the apostle quotes this passage. He applies the “you wouldn’t believe it” and “be amazed” to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the forgiveness of sins through him, and justification through faith:

But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:

“Look, you scoffers,

wonder and perish,

for I am going to do something in your days

that you would never believe,

even if someone told you.” (Acts 13:37–41)12

If God has died and been raised from the dead, then anyone who does not give up the ways of self-sufficiency, self-worship, or prosperity-worship to follow God’s Word is lost. Even the murderous convict (“Misfit”) of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” knows this truth. As a grandmother confronts him with the name “Jesus” just before her own murder at his hands, he confesses the necessary radical response to Jesus’ resurrection:

Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead … and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him.13

If Christ has indeed been raised and our sins are forgiven by faith in him, amazement, wonder, and the transformation of faith are possible. We would not have believed it if we had been told in advance. But God has already accomplished the defeat of sin and death. He has sent his Spirit to call, gather, and enlighten us through his Word. This is the persistent power of the gospel to transform lives now through a salvation that has already been accomplished.

The message of Habakkuk’s proclamation is that God is interested first in restoring us to a right relationship with himself as created and redeemed people. Without that reconciled relationship, earthly peace and security are a façade. God draws us into lives of faithfulness in relationships through the instruction of his Word. His Holy Spirit tutors us in true worship. The suffering of the Babylonian occupation is a dire example of God’s radical commitment to these goals. Jesus’ suffering on the cross is his ultimate appeal to a world bent on violence. God will stop at nothing in order to draw us near to himself and the way of peace he offers.

The source of false worship. The deeper causes of injustice in every culture are uncovered in Habakkuk’s response to Yahweh in Hab. 1:12–17 (“He sacrifices to his net”). In every time and every place, cultures center their life on the most obvious source of their strength and prosperity. Seagoing cultures have sea and storm gods. Agricultural cultures have grain gods. Hunting cultures center on totems and spirits that control the animals. Technological societies such as our own do not identify “gods” but elevate (worship) values that lead to greater control over life: wealth, information, and military technology. A fisherman reveres his fishing net.

For the Babylonians the fisherman’s net was a symbol of military power.14 They worshiped the tool that was the means of their wealth, taken from other cities and towns. The Greek historian Herodotus records that the Scythians even made sacrifices to a sword.15 They made a god of the source of their standard of living. To criticize that source was at once unpatriotic and blasphemy of the civil religion.

Christians may find that an examination of their allegiances creates internal conflict when they are part of an affluent society. Habakkuk reveals the deeper causes of violence when he points to the worship of “the net” and calls for a rigorous evaluation of any devotion to prosperity in light of our ultimate devotion to God. He shows us the problem from the side of a small country dominated by a great economic and military power.16 His exposure of the worship of the source of prosperity is echoed by Isaiah’s ridicule of the deluded man who worships what he himself makes (Isa. 44:9–20).