Habakkuk Week 2
We’re back in the book of Habakkuk, let’s do a little bit of review.
Assyria was finally defeated by Babylon. You’ll remember Babylon came out of the east and destroyed Nineveh. Assyria retreated to Haran and Babylon destroyed Haran. Then they took their final stand in Carchemish. The asked Egypt to come help them. On the way up Egypt kills King Josiah. Egypt and Assyria still lose to Babylon. Babylon deports people from Judah three times. The first time it’s just the best and brightest including Daniel. The second time they deported lots of people. The third time they destroyed the city and the temple. Habakkuk takes place during or just after the time when Assyria is losing to Babylon.
Habakkuk is a dialog between God and Habakkuk. Habakkuk complains. God responds. Habakkuk complains again. God responds again. And the book concludes with Habakkuk’s prayer.
Let’s start with a passage we read last week, but didn’t spend any time explaining. This is the opening of God’s response to Habakkuk’s second complaint
2:2-5
We’re going to break up God’s reply into multiple sections so put a line under verse 5 there.
Again as a reminder, what was Habakkuk complaining about? He was complaining that wicked people were just killing over and over and a new wicked nation would just replace them and kill over and over forever.
Interestingly, in his reply, God doesn’t plainly answer Habakkuk’s complaint. At least not yet. What does he say instead?
Vs 2 He tells Habakkuk to write the message he is receiving on tablets. Make it very plain. This probably means using large letters so they could see it easily. What is he supposed to write it on? What are these tablets? It’s not entirely clear. They could be stone tablets like Moses received at Mt. Sinai, but if that’s the case they wouldn’t be very easy to run with. Maybe it was a large stone set in the ground then. I don’t know. The other option is clay tablets which were commonly used for messengers to deliver news with.
But whatever it’s written on isn’t the point. He tells him to write it down because it’s a vision or a prophecy that will absolutely come about and I want everyone to know it’s coming ahead of time.
Vs 3 This is a very interesting verse. It seems like God is saying two opposite things at once. He says this vision is hastening to come and it will surely come. It sounds like you better prepare yourself quickly because his fulfillment will take place any moment! But then the same verse also says the vision is awaiting its time. It seems slow. And you’ll have to wait for it. So which is it? Is it fast or slow? The vision is coming at its appointed time and it will not delay. God has a very specific, carefully appointed time to make things happen and he will not miss that appointment.
What’s Habakkuk supposed to do in the meantime? There are only two commands God gives him here. Verse 2 says, “Write the vision” underline that. And verse 3 says “Wait for it” underline that. Tell everybody what I’m promising and then wait for that promise to be fulfilled.
That’s a huge ask from God. “Habakkuk just trust me on this one. Tell everybody I’m going to work things out. You have no idea how. And you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you. But just go on confidently believing that I’ve got this and then wait patiently to see how it all plays out.” That’s almost a non-answer.
Sometimes my kids will ask Silvi or I what we’re going to do about something. They think there’s a problem somewhere and it needs fixed. We can’t always explain everything to them so we have similarly said, “We’ve got it under control you’ll just have to wait and see”
How can Habakkuk do this? That’s where verse 4 comes in. It starts with “his soul is puffed up”. Whose soul is he talking about? Who’s the “his” referring to? If you remember from last week, Habakkuk’s complaint ended with him saying “Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing forever?” Habakkuk was referring both to Babylon and to all wicked people who mercilessly attack others. Habakkuk asks, “Will an evil guy like this always kill?”
God replies to that question by making a comparison in verse 4 between the evil man and the righteous man. The evil man has a soul that is puffed up or swollen. It is not straight and even. It’s not good. They’re using puffed up the same way we might say that “this dude’s head is so swollen.” He’s arrogant. He’s proud. The wicked man thinks that he is so tough and strong that everything depends on him and he can handle anything that comes his way.
But what is the contrasted person like? “But the righteous shall live by faith” Put a box around that. I told you last week this is the most quoted verse in the whole New Testament and that was not true. I guess I had heard that before and I didn’t fact check myself. This verse is quoted about 3 times, but there are plenty of verses quoted more often than that. We’ll look at how the NT uses this verse in a second, but first what does it mean for Habakkuk
God is telling Habakkuk that the evil man is puffed up and trusts in his own strength and in his own wisdom. The evil man thinks things will play out exactly as he wants them to because the future is within his power to control. The righteous man however lives by faith. He knows he doesn’t have strength. He knows he can’t control the future. He places his hope and trust in someone else. And as a result he will be the one who lives. In the rest of this chapter, God is going to describe how despite how it appears now and despite their confidence in themselves, Babylon will not live in the future.
Let’s look at how the NT uses this verse because I think it’s important. First look at Galatians 3:10. He’s talking about if we can be saved by our own works or saved by faith. READ GAL. 3:10-14. Now that’s a dense passage, but what he says is If you want to be someone who relies on your own strength and your own ability to do good then you will most certainly fail. If you think you can keep all the laws, you’ll end up being cursed. But if you want to live then “The righteous shall live by faith” You can’t rely on yourself, but you can rely on Christ and his work.
Let’s go to another one. Romans 1:16. READ ROMANS 1:16-17. He’s explaining here that the gospel is the way in which we rely on God’s power and not our own. The righteous live by their faith in God’s power and in the work that Christ did. That is the message of the gospel. And Paul uses our verse from Habakkuk as his way of summarizing the whole gospel. This isn’t a new message. This is the same message that God has been teaching since the Old Testament. We have to rely on him and not ourselves.
Last one. Hebrews 10. I’ll read a longer passage here. In the book of Hebrews, he’s writing to Christians who are going through hard times and so they are thinking of abandoning their new way of life in Christ and returning back to their old ways because they seem easier or better. READ HEBREWS 10:32-39. He says, “Look! The entire Christian life has been based upon the idea that you’re trusting in what Jesus did in the past to give you a promised hope in the future. Consider the things you’ve already overcome. You endured suffering before and came out the other side joyfully. Then he quotes both verse 3 and 4 of Habakkuk 2. The promises are coming soon. They won’t delay. But the righteous shall live by faith. Don’t be someone who shrinks back from that faith. And he concludes with Hebrews 10:39 which is a fantastic verse. READ VS 39. The words that God says to Habakkuk are powerful words to anyone who is frustrated by the power of sinful men or frustrated by the power of sin in their own lives. The righteous shall live by faith.
Verse 5 concludes this section by describing how the puffed up and arrogant evil man from before will never be at rest. He uses some metaphors to describe him. He’s like wine that promises satisfaction but only delivers destruction. You never drink enough where you feel like your heart is satisfied with it. Or another metaphor is Sheol which represents the grave. The grave is never satisfied either. It doesn’t say, “I think enough people have died. I don’t need any anymore”. No, it just keeps taking.
For the rest of the chapter, God is going to describe 5 woes against Babylon and all the wicked nations. We’ve encountered woes before in the book of Amos, but here’s a bit of a refresher. Every time we see the word woe we’ll put a box around it. A “woe” generally has 3 parts:
1. Who it is against
2. What they have done - now in Habakkuk these two are the same thing, but we’ll circle them when we see them.
3. What the consequence will be. When we see the consequences we’ll underline it.
We’ll go through them one at a time and put a line between each of them.
2:6-8
Put a line under verse 8 and write 1st woe next to this section.
Put a box around the word woe in verse 6.
Who is this first woe against and what have they done? Circle “Him who heaps up what is not his own”. This is a woe against people who plunder others' goods and steal from them.
And what’s going to happen to them? Verse 8, “All the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you” Underline that.
This woe is the most straightforward of all of them. When you live a wicked life of taking from others, you’re just waiting until someone bigger comes and takes from you. Ultimately the biggest one who will come and take everything from you forever is when God arrives on the Day of the Lord.
2:9-11
Put a line under verse 11 and write 2nd woe next to this section.
Put a box around the word woe in verse 9.
Who is this second woe against and what have they done? Circle “him who gets evil gain for his house”. This is a woe against those who are greedy and just build themselves up in as much comfort as possible.
What happens to these people? Verse 11 “The stone will cry out and the woodwork respond” Underline that.
They think that having more will make them safe, like an Eagle’s nest high in a tree. They are unconcerned with the safety of others
Their house will condemn them. The fact that they hide for their own safety at the expense of others will always be an indictment against them. An “I don’t care what happens to others as long as I’m safe” attitude is condemned by God.
2:12-14
Put a line under verse 14 and write 3rd woe next to this section.
Put a box around the word woe in verse 12
Who is this third woe against and what have they done? Circle “him who builds a town with blood… iniquity”. This is a woe against those who abuse others to build themselves up
What happens to these people? Verse 14 “The earth will be filled… the sea” Underline that.
Their goal is to build a town/city for themselves and attain the fame that comes with it. They kill or enslave people to make this happen. In the end it always amounts to nothing. Their fame, their landmarks, the great works of their hands will all be gone. It’s destroyed by fire every time. But God’s fame will cover the whole earth and can’t be destroyed like the oceans. The empires of evil people rise and fall, but the oceans are like a town or a city that has existed since the dawn of time and isn’t going anywhere. God’s fame will be the only one left.
2:15-17
Put a line under verse 17 and write 4th woe next to this section.
Put a box around the word woe in verse 15
Who is this fourth woe against and what have they done? Circle “him who makes his neighbor drink”. This is a woe against those those who deceive others to please themselves
What happens to these people? Verse 16 “You will have your fill of shame instead of glory” Underline that.
They would get others drunk to take advantage of them sexually. Or at a national level they would fool others into becoming their allies so that they could expose their weaknesses and take advantage of them (2 Ki. 20 with Hezekiah)
God returns by saying, I have a cup for you to drink. His cup is always associated with his wrath. When you drink, it will expose the shameful nature of your lack of relationship with me. The glory you feel now is fleeting.
2:18-20
Put a line under verse 20 and write 5th woe next to this section.
Put a box around the word woe in verse 19
Who is this fourth woe against and what have they done? Circle “him who who says to a wooden thing Awake”. This is a woe against those those who trust in idols
What happens to these people? Verse 20 “Let all the earth keep silence before him” Underline that.
This one is pretty interesting because at first glance it seems to say, “The punishment for everyone who makes little wooden or stone idols is that the whole earth will be silent.” Those two things don’t seem to connect. But with the wicked people, notice who is talking and who is not. The idol maker is the one talking to his idol. He says “Awake!” and “Arise!” But what’s the idol’s response? Silence. It can’t say anything.
So God tells them I’m going to reverse things, like he always does in his punishments. Instead of you talking and your false gods be silent, how about you be silent and the true God speak.
This reversal has been the pattern for just about every woe. You took from others, I will take from you. You tried to fill earth with your fame, I will fill it with my fame. You made others drink you cup, I will make you drink my cup. You like gods who are silent, I’ll be a God who speaks. Now listen.
And this is how he closes his response. To sum it up: Habakkuk, live by faith. Wait patiently. I will make things right at the appointed time.
The final chapter is Habakkuk’s prayer in response to God’s reply. We’ll split this one up into just two parts.
3:1-15
In verse 2, Habakkuk explains the purpose of this prayer. He has heard about all the great things God has done in the past and he is calling him to do it again. But also, a key line - “in wrath remember mercy”. This is always true of God. Every time he pours his wrath out on some he sets aside and is merciful to others.
Vs 3-7, he describes the work God did in the past with strong imagery of a mighty colossal warrior stomping through the earth. He comes from “Teman” which means the south and Mount Paran is an area associated with the Sinai peninsula.
It’s unclear if he’s describing one specific event like leaving Egypt or receiving the law at Sinai or even Joshua’s conquest in Canaan. Most likely he’s describing all of these as one big Exodus event where God showed his power on the earth.
Vs 8-15, he speaks to God and describes again what God did in the past. He has shown wrath against rivers and seas - such as the Nile, the Red Sea, and the Jordan river.
Again this whole section is him reminding himself of God’s power in the past and asking God to do it again
This last section is perhaps the most powerful section in the book and hardly needs much commenting for us to realize its significance.
3:16-19
Vs 16. Habakkuk can hear the sound of Babylon coming to invade them. And it terrifies him. Yet, even then he says he will quietly wait for God to do what he said he would. This is what the righteous living by faith looks like. It’s scary, but he holds on to the truth
Vs 17. He looks around him and says everything is failing. There is no crop. No cattle. No visible hope for the future at all.
Vs 18. But his response? He’s going to rejoice in the Lord. He sings and takes joy in salvation! Salvation! The salvation that hasn’t happened yet, but which has merely been promised. Looking for crops to sustain you for the next few months is too short sighted. Habakkuk is looking for eternal and ultimate salvation
How can he do this? Because his strength is not his own. His strength is the Lord’s strength. The final verses about having deer feet and treading on high places sound confusing to us, but he’s referencing an ibex. These were common deer in Israel and they’re the ones you see on documentaries that stand on the edge of a near 90 degree cliff face eating. They just walk around relaxed even though they’re on a deadly precipice. Habakkuk says, even though by all accounts it looks like I’m in grave danger, nonetheless I can stand here securely.