God’s Strong Love Sustains - Habakkuk 1-3

“The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. ‘O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ and You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround, the righteous. Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” Habakkuk 1:1-3

Habakkuk was burdened because the Lord revealed to him violence, iniquity, plundering, trouble, strife, contention, lawlessness and injustice. The wicked surrounded the righteous like thorns that strangle food producing plants. Habakkuk hungered and thirsted for righteousness.

Habakkuk means embrace. He wanted to embrace people. Accept them! Love them! But he could not embrace sin, so he carried his burden to the Lord. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”

“Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead. Their cavalry comes from afar. They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. They all come for violence. Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings, and princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.” Habakkuk 1:5-10

The Lord showed Habakkuk the Chaldeans. They were going to grow up and become mighty. The Lord compared their war horses to swift leopards and fierce wolves. They swoop upon prey like eagles. They are like the east wind that destroys. They take people captive. They mock kings, princes, and fortresses because they know how to overcome them. They are going to use their military might to make land grabs and to plunder the wealth of nations.

“Then his mind changes, and he transgresses. He commits offense, ascribing this power to his god.” Habakkuk 1:11

The Chaldeans were the elite people of Babylon. They erred when they ascribed their victories to their idols. God used their greed to chastise the nations that had abandoned Him. In John 19:11, Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given you from above.” God allowed Pilate the authority to crucify His Son to fulfill the prophecies spoken about Messiah. The Chaldeans should have given glory to God.

After being humbled by the Lord, the king of Babylon did glorify the Lord. In Daniel 4:37, he said, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and His ways are just, and those who walk in pride He is able to humble.” This event came to pass after his military victories, and after he ruled over nations.

“Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment. O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he? Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with a hook. They catch them in their net and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?” Habakkuk 1:12-17

Habakkuk asked the Lord about His justice, “Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue.” He lamented before the Lord because powerful people were fishing for weak people with hooks and nets. These human traffickers made sacrifices and offerings to their weapons (nets) because by them they seized people and acquired an abundance of sumptuous food. These beast-like people showed no mercy to their victims.

Lamenting before Lord is a frequently used approach that God’s people use when dealing with problems that are too great for them to resolve. Galatians 4:19 says, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Paul knew that only Christ could make people more Christlike. In Ezekiel 9:4, the Lord told His angel to, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that be done the midst thereof.” God spared His sighers.

“I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said: ‘Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Habakkuk 2:1-3

In Habakkuk 1:12-17, Habakkuk prayed. Here in Habakkuk 2:1-3, he watches. In Matthew 26:41, Jesus urged His disciples to watch and pray. Habakkuk watched to see what the Lord would say to him. The Lord showed him a vision of writing tablets. The Lord told Habakkuk to write His Word on tablets so people could read them and run with them.

“Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Indeed, because he transgresses by wine. He is a proud man, and he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, and he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, he gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples. Will not all these take up a proverb against him, and a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases what is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges?’ Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you, because of men’s blood and the violence of the land and the city, and of all who dwell in it.” Habakkuk 2:4-8

The phrase, “the just shall live by faith” is quoted in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. Habakkuk wrote: “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.” Proud people refuse to admit their need for God. They trust in themselves. They justify themselves. The just live by faith in God’s Messiah. Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners.

In Habakkuk 2:5-8, the Lord describes the deeds of the proud. He transgresses by wine. He does not stay at home – not a family man! He heaps up people for himself. The Lord says that this debtor’s creditors will rise up against him. They will oppress and rob him. They plundered others. Others shall plunder them. They must pay for the blood that they have shed.

“Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster! You give shameful counsel to your house, cutting off many peoples, and sin against your soul. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the timbers will answer it.” Habakkuk 2:9-11

Having an abundance of material things and having one’s nest in a lofty place doesn’t guarantee a happily ever after. Psalm 147:10-11 says, “His [God’s] delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love.” God loves us! He wants us to trust in His love for us.

“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity! Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the peoples labor to feed the fire, and nations weary themselves in vain? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:12-14

People wearied themselves in vain. Jeremiah 5:25 says, “Your sins have kept good things from you.” Their society was built on violence. Such societies shall vanish. One day soon, the earth shall “be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness! You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also—drink! And be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you, and utter shame will be on your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, and the plunder of beasts which made them afraid, because of men’s blood and the violence of the land and the city, and of all who dwell in it.” Habakkuk 2:15-17

Babylon ruled over many lands and people, but for what good? Did they help them? Did they love them? No, they made them drunk so they could gaze at their nakedness. Human traffickers hook people on drugs and pornography to enslave them. Who will bring them down?

“What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, the molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Habakkuk 2:18-20

The Babylonians promoted idolatry. Idols cannot speak. They have no breath. They do nothing for those who trust in them except put them at odds with the true Creator of the universe.

“A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. ‘O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known. In wrath remember mercy.’” Habakkuk 3:1-2

Shigionoth (שִׁגְיֹנוֹת) is a Hebrew musical or poetic term conveying intense joy amidst trouble. [1]

The Lord’s Words of judgment on sin struck fear in the heart of Habakkuk. He asked the Lord to revive His work. He asked the Lord to remember mercy while executing justice. The Lord IS very merciful. It was Babylon and their allies that lacked mercy.

“God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran – Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness was like the light. He had rays flashing from His hand, and there His power was hidden. Before Him went pestilence, and fever followed at His feet. He stood and measured the earth. He looked and startled the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian trembled.” Habakkuk 3:3-7

Teman is south of Judah. Mount Paran is in that area. Mount Paran is near Mount Sinai where God gave His Law to Moses. God came to the people of Habakkuk’s day from the perspective of His Law which they had failed to keep. The sanctions of pestilence and fever which God placed on them was in accordance with His Law in Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:21-22.

“O Lord were You displeased with the rivers, was Your anger against the rivers, was Your wrath against the sea, that You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made quite ready. Oaths were sworn over Your arrows – Selah. You divided the earth with rivers. The mountains saw You and trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice and lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. At the light of Your arrows they went at the shining of Your glittering spear. You marched through the land in indignation. You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your Anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked, by laying bare from foundation to neck – Selah. You thrust through with his own arrows the head of his villages. They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. You walked through the sea with Your horses, through the heap of great waters.” Habakkuk 3:8-15

Habakkuk sees the Lord as a mighty warrior who marches through the land. “You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your Anointed.” The devil wanted to destroy the Jews because Christ was to come from their race. The Lord preserved them.

“When I heard, my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, he will invade them with his troops.” Habakkuk 3:16

This prophecy impacts Habakkuk physically. His body trembles. His lips quiver. His bones feel rotten inside. The Lord showed him that Babylon would temporarily prevail over his people.

“Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills. To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.” Habakkuk 3:17-19

What did the Lord do for Habakkuk? He gave him peace and joy despite his circumstances. Though food was in short supply, Habakkuk declared, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.” God helped Habakkuk to navigate past the problems.

God has not changed. Thanks to His grace we have peace and joy amidst chaotic circumstances. We live justly and love mercy in a world full of injustice and cruelty by faith in God’s grace.

In Romans 8:35-39, Paul wrote, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God’s love for us is amply wide and deep enough to sustain us. “This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” [2]


[1] – Google resources
[2] “This is My Father’s World” hymn by Maltbie D. Babcock