Habakkuk Week 1
Today we start a new book! Habakkuk
But first we have to have another history lesson!
Scholars estimate that the date Habakkuk was written was probably about 605 BC, that’s just after Assyria gets defeated. But despite how this timeline makes it look, Assyria doesn’t get displaced by Babylon in 1 year there’s a bit of a struggle first. Let’s look at the screens!
700 BC Assyria is at the height of its power - their most significant biblical achievements were Jonah visiting them around 760 BC and destroying Samaria/Israel in 722 BC. If you can see it, I put a little X on northern kingdom Israel because they have already been destroyed and only Judah the southern kingdom is left. You’ll also notice the giant arrow pointing to Nineveh. That’s Assyria’s capital which we are already familiar with.
630 BC - Assyria starts to crumble a bit, civil war type stuff, the last great king died and people are fighting over the throne and such. And shortly after a man named Nabopolassar (name not important) who leads Babylon declares that they are independent of Assyria. They enlist the help of the Medes and form an alliance to take down Assyria.
612 BC - The Babylonians rise up and destroy Nineveh. I talked to you about how Nineveh gets destroyed back in the book of Nahum. Remember there was a river that ran through the city of Nineveh and sources say there may have been a flood that helped destroy the city. Again we’re not entirely sure. But we know that after a short siege of 3 months, Nineveh falls. So the remaining Assyrians retreat to Haran. That’s where that next big red arrow is pointing. You might remember Haran as the place where Abraham temporarily stayed before moving to Canaan.
609 BC - The Babylonians push further and defeat Assyria in Haran also. The remnants retreat to Carchemish. Assyria’s king is dead and they’re barely holding on. They call for aid from Egypt. Egypt doesn’t like Babylon and kinda likes the idea of having Assyria exist between Egypt and Babylon. So Egypt sends help to fight Babylon. Interestingly at this time, Josiah is king of Israel and he attempts to stop the Pharaoh from reaching Carchemish. He is killed. (2 Chron 35:20-24)
605 BC - Despite teaming up, Assyria and Egypt are defeated at Carchemish ending the Assyrian empire entirely and introducing the Babylonian. You’ll notice that on our timeline I say that Assyria ends in 612, that’s because that’s when Nineveh fell, but it took about 7 more years to completely wipe them out. Now who has been leading this Babylonian army and destroying everything? (Jeremiah 46:2). A fella named Nebuchadnezzar. He was the lead general of the armies and in that same year 605, the king of Babylon (Nabopolassar) died and Nebuchadnezzar took his place as the new king of Babylon. He also at this time takes away a few of the elites from Judah to strengthen his kingdom. This event is known as the first deportation. Babylon would make 3 deportations in total, but this first one would be when Daniel and his friends are taken away.
597 BC - Babylon conquers all the way down to Judah including Jerusalem and takes their second deportation away to Babylon (including King Jehoiachin). They don’t destroy the city, but it is severely weakened.
586 BC - The last king of Judah, a man named Zedekiah rebels against Babylon, which is a pretty horrible choice. You can read all about those events in the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 37-38, he has multiple conversations with Zedekiah the king and tells him that Babylon will destroy them. However, if Zedekiah willingly surrenders, he’ll live. Zedekiah believes him, but he’s too scared to surrender. Eventually Babylon arrives, kills Zedekiah, destroys Jerusalem/the temple, and the remainder of Judah goes into exile in what is called the third deportation
This begins the period known as the exile.
But let’s back up a little bit to 605. The Babylonians had just destroyed the last bit of the Assyrians and they will soon be making their way down to Judah. This is the world that the book of Habakkuk is written in and it’s really important for understanding what’s going to happen in this book.
Habakkuk is unique among the prophets because he never actually speaks to the people. The entire book is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. So here’s our outline
Habakkuk laments (1:2-4)
God responds (1:5-11)
Habakkuk laments again (1:12-2:1)
God responds again (2:2-20)
Habakkuk prays (3:1-19)
I really like the book of Habakkuk. It’s my favorite of the minor prophets. It plays out a little like a miniature version of the book of Job. Just like Job, Habakkuk starts out confused by God, but then just like Job, Habakkuk ends with confidence in God. He grows throughout the story.
1:1-4
Put a little line under verse 4. The book opens with Habakkuk’s lament. A lament is a type of complaint. So Habakkuk is complaining.
What’s his complaint? Habakkuk is living among people who are extremely violent and wicked. There is a complete lack of justice. However, Habakkuk himself is completely powerless to prevent it or fight it. Look at what he does in verses 2 and 3. He cries for help. Underline that. He cries “violence”. Underline that. He sees iniquity. Underline that.
There he is in the midst of Judah. And it’s extremely wicked. You’ll remember that King Josiah was a good king and he instituted all types of reforms and brought back the law and rebuilt the temple and all these good things. But as soon as he died (killed by the king of Egypt) his sons brought Judah right back into wickedness. Naturally, Habakkuk, a man who fears the Lord and likely learned to fear him under the reign of Josiah, is upset.
How does he see God acting during all of this? He says in verse 2 “You will not hear” circle that, then “you will not save” circle that. And in verse 3, “You idly look at wrong” circle that.
Vs 4. Habakkuk is stuck in the middle of wickedness. It bothers him, but doesn’t seem to be upsetting God. No one is following God’s law and so there is no true justice. The wicked outnumber the righteous and they make up their own twisted version of justice to go forth.
I don’t know if this sounds familiar or not, but it should. Not because we’ve heard it from the Bible before, but it seems to be what happens on the news everyday. Often times it appears that Christians live amongst a wicked nation with a perverted sense of justice and furthermore it seems like God doesn’t care and isn’t doing anything about it. This makes us particularly invested in how God’s going to respond to Habakkuk
1:5-11
Verse 11 is the closing of God’s first response so put a little line underneath it.
I love God’s opening line here. “I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told”. Circle that. Essentially, he’s saying, “I could try to explain to you what I’m up to, but you won’t get it even if I did”. Honestly, God could have stopped the conversation right there and he would have been justified.
This is a fair response to give us today. “I’m doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” Ok. Case closed. We just have to trust that he’s at work. Again, this is very Job-like. God doesn’t have to explain himself to us, he’s wiser and knows what he’s doing. But because he’s also very good he keeps going.
“I’m raising up the Chaldeans” underline that. Chaldeans is just another name for the Babylonians. So here is God’s plan that Habakkuk won’t understand. He’s going to get rid of those wicked Jews with Babylon.
Notice that God suggests ironically that maybe the Babylonians will solve the lack of justice problem. Do you see in verse 4 how Habakkuk says just doesn’t go forth and that when justice does go forth it’s perverted? Now look at verse 7, he says Babylon will make their own justice go forth. Which of course would make Habakkuk’s jaw drop.
Having Habakkuk’s jaw drop is a bit of the intended effect God wants to have here. That’s why God describes very vividly what the Babylonians are like in this passage. Habakkuk was concerned about violence and destruction and God paints a picture of even more violence and destruction.
Here’s an important principle that God is demonstrating and that we’ll learn through the book of Habakkuk. Sometimes God’s plans look like the exact opposite of what we would expect or desire. Sometimes it even looks like God is making things worse rather than helping. Whenever this happens it isn’t revealing something about God’s inability to do what’s right, rather it reveals something about our inability to understand God’s wisdom and actions.
Because look at our timeline over here. Judah will be destroyed. Everyone kicked out of the land. Countless men, women, and children killed. Surely this is all horrible right? And yet, God orchestrated each of these events perfectly to pave the way for the arrival of Jesus Christ. God doesn’t tell us his plans, but we wouldn’t even understand it if he did. Let’s see how Habakkuk does.
1:12-17
Don’t put a line under this yet, we have one more verse in Habakkuk’s second response, but let’s look at these verses first.
Vs 12. He starts off well by expressing confidence in the Lord. You are my God. You are holy. You are everlasting. And because he believes God keeps his covenants, he knows that God’s people won’t be entirely wiped off the face of the earth. He even concedes that perhaps God is using them as discipline against Judah.
Vs 13. But verse 13 is where he goes back to his original complaint, you’re supposed to be incapable of looking at wrong. And yet, “You idly look at traitors” circle that phrase. And “remain silent” circle that phrase.
God’s solution here does not appease Habakkuk. In fact, Habakkuk says that the wicked are swallowing up those more righteous than they are. That is to say, that even the wicked Judeans are better than the Babylonians.
You see the problem Habakkuk is stating? “The Babylonians are even worse than us God, how is this a solution!?”
Vs. 14. He complains that God makes man like the fish of the sea. There’s no ruler down there. There’s no order or rule of law. It’s chaos. It’s just whoever is the biggest eats those smaller than him.
Vs. 15. Habakkuk references “He” which means the wicked man from earlier. He catches them with hooks and nets. This is very much a fishing analogy. If those in Judah are like lawless fish, then Babylon comes along and scoops them all up with a net or catches them with a hook. But it could be a literal description as well. There are ancient wall sculptures of victors dragging away their enemies with nets or of placing hooks in their noses to walk them into exile.
Vs. 16. He is worshipping his weapons of war here, which is exactly what God mentioned in verse 11. He said their own might is their god.
Vs 17. The question is posed to God, “are you going to let this go on forever?” Is Babylon just going to attack and destroy people forever? And this is a question that we could ask too.
Because look again at our timeline. There was a wicked nation in charge. But then a stronger wicked nation displaced them. And they were in charge, until a stronger, more wicked nation displaced them too. And then it happened again. And then again. And as far as we can tell it’s just been happening every century or so since the dawn of time. “God, are they going to keep on mercilessly killing nations forever?
2:1
This ends Habakkuk’s complaint. Put a line under verse 1.
He concludes talking with God and he says, I’m going to take my stand and see what God has to say to me.
Now this is a really important response from Habakkuk. Up to this point we’ve seen him be frustrated. In his first complaint it’s just all accusations against God. “You’re not doing your job. You’re letting everyone get away with evil” In his second complaint he starts by affirming truths about God, but then goes on to say that none of this makes sense to him and he’s still confused. But now we see him learning something.
Underline the actions he takes. It says “I will take my stand”, “station myself” and “look out to see”.
He knows that he needs God’s response. He knows that it is the only thing that can clarify his confusion. So he physically places himself somewhere to wait for God to respond to him. Like a watchman, diligently searching the horizon, Habakkuk will diligently search for God’s answer.
But interestingly he also says, “and what I will answer concerning my complaint” You’d expect it to say “what HE will answer concerning my complaint”. But Habakkuk is taking time to consider how he himself will respond. This is a really humble picture of Habakkuk. He knows he needs God’s answer and he knows he needs to be prepared to receive it. He waits and he contemplates as he humbles himself.
This is a great example for us as we find ourselves complaining to God. First we have to give ourselves time to hear God’s response. Sometimes we complain to God and then just keep moving along without waiting to hear his response. What would this look like? I’m positive one way is sitting quietly with God at some point during the day. Maybe you pour out your heart to God in prayer like Habakkuk. Maybe you’re quite frustrated as you pray. But it should be followed by some time to sit quietly with God’s Word so that he can give you a response. It might not happen the first day. But like a watchman in a tower, you keep scanning and you keep scanning and you persistently show up and scan so that when God replies you actually see it.
His humility here is also excellent. It’s suggesting that maybe our perspective on what’s happening isn’t always correct. We don’t understand what he’s doing in our day. We need to humbly consider, how will I respond to God when he doesn’t tell me what I want to hear? Will my heart be ready to submit and trust him in faith? Or will I battle him again?
We’ll read these last few verses today as a bit of a teaser for next week, but we won’t unpack them until then.
Read vs 2:2-4.