Last week we began a study of the book of Habakkuk with the women of our church with an introduction by my co-teacher on the historical context in which Habakkuk lived and wrote. This week we covered the first four verses of Habakkuk. I’d like to share here the substance of our lesson for those who weren’t able to make it and those who would like to revisit the material, and also to drive it deeper into my own heart as I ponder what we learned.
The book of Habakkuk begins with a brief superscription and a prayer:
The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. — Habakkuk 1:1
An oracle is a message, often a “heavy,” burdensome message which the prophet must carry and unload. Every prophet had a message of some sort from God, but unlike most of the prophetic books in Scripture, Habakkuk’s message comes in the form of a dialogue with God—he’s praying, and the content of his prayer, God’s answer to that prayer, and his resulting hymn of faith are his message. In Habakkuk we find no, “Thus saith the LORD,” but rather “O LORD, how long?” as he pours out the distress of his soul to the Sovereign God whose ways have him perplexed.
Another unusual aspect to this superscription is the lack of information about our prophet; who was Habakkuk? Kenneth J. Turner writes:
“We know little of the prophet other than what we can discern from the book’s content and infer from the general historical context. He was a true prophet who ministered during a time of great crisis for Judah. What stands out is how deeply and painfully invested Habakkuk was emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually in what was and was not happening, in what he knew and did not know. Like Job, his grappling with the circumstances turned into contending with God and questioning God’s justice. [Habakkuk’s] personal faith struggle is one of the main themes of the book. This is not despite Habakkuk’s role as a prophet, but because of it. . . . Though all we have are the prophet’s sayings without narrative about him, the nature of Habakkuk’s words— complaints directed toward God (1:2–4; 12–17); monologue about standing and waiting (2:1); trust-filled hymn (ch.3)—provide plenty of information about his personal wrestlings and overall transformation. The book codifies his journey of faith as an important lesson for readers of all ages” (Habakkuk; The Judge of all the Earth Shall do Right, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament).
O LORD, how long? O LORD, why?
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted. —Habakkuk 1:2–4
Apparently this prayer is a well-worn path for Habakkuk. He has asked these questions before. His dismay at what he sees in the world around him has brought him to his knees once more in lament to the Sovereign God of Israel. “The question of why God does not act against evil in the world is . . . raised from the outset as the pivotal issue of the book” (David G. Firth, ESV Expository Commentary, vol. VII).
Habakkuk isn’t the only servant of God who has been dismayed by the reality of life in a fallen world. His cry is almost an exact echo of an earlier plea for help:
Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
I call for help, but there is no justice. Job 19:7
In Job 19:7 we hear the cry of a righteous man who has been drawn into the deepest wells of suffering by the hand of Satan, with the express permission of the Sovereign God whom Job worships. The Lord allowed him to be stripped of everything in his life: family, possessions, wealth, and even his health and reputation. And yet his deepest suffering was his mental anguish over why the God he loves and worships has apparently forsaken him. Job wrestles deeply with the question of God’s justice in his sufferings. In the end, Job’s sufferings proved to the watching universe that in the midst of this fallen world, God is worthy of worship simply for who he is—because he is God—and not for the blessings he gives.
Our prophet Habakkuk will get there by the time we finish our study. But first we must wrestle alongside him in prayer, lamenting with him as he watches the violence around him in Judah, and the destruction which will come to Judah by the hand of the evil Babylonian Empire, with the express permission of the Sovereign God whom Habakkuk and Judah (supposedly) worship. The crucial difference between Job and Judah is that Job was innocent of great evil, but Judah was not.
A Godly King and a Wicked Nation
Habakkuk received his oracle from God during the reign of Josiah. In 2 Kings chapter 23, we find king Josiah humbling himself before the Lord, making a covenant to “walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and soul,” and “all the people joined in the covenant” (v. 3). What then follows is a recording of Josiah’s reforms to the religious and civic life of the people of Judah which reads like the cleansing of a thoroughly pagan nation. It’s clear that, while the nation of Israel was the chosen people of God, their hearts were hardened in sin, and they chased after the false gods of the surrounding nations at every opportunity. The depth of the depravity revealed in 2 Kings 23 is staggering.
To set the context for Josiah’s actions in chapter 23 we must turn back a page. When we meet Josiah in 2 Kings chapter 22, he is a child of eight who inherits the throne of David, and he’s described as doing what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walking in the way of his father David, not turning aside to the right or the left. When Josiah had reigned for 18 years Hilkiah the priest found the book of the Law (probably Deuteronomy) tucked away in a forgotten corner of the Temple. When Josiah reads God’s law for the first time, he tears his clothes and repents in godly fear because of the nation’s radically sinful ways. Through Huldah the prophetess, Josiah learns that the clouds of God’s wrath are poised to rain down the covenant curses God promised in his Law for their disobedience.
Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. —2 Kings 22:16–17
We see here in brief what Habakkuk will see in the prophetic burden given to him by the LORD. With what we’re told in chapter 23, describing the depths of evil to which the people of Judah descended, it’s a wonder the Holy One of Israel has endured their ways for so long and hasn’t snuffed them out already. Josiah was a godly king, and he obeyed the Lord as completely as he could once he learned God’s will as revealed in the book of the law found by Hilkiah. The young king proceeded immediately from genuine repentance to cleansing the temple, the city, and the land of the elements of false worship. But as thorough as he was, he couldn’t cleanse the hearts of the practitioners of the false worship. Josiah’s reforms could change the landscape, but they couldn’t change the loves of the people.
The newly discovered revelation of God’s holy will was of earth-shattering consequence to the people of Judah—for some it was received gladly, inciting humble repentance, reformed lives, and joy; for others it destroyed their pagan practices and their livelihoods, and it exposed the wickedness of their hardened hearts. Habakkuk was among those who received the law with reverent fear, welcoming the reforms and the knowledge of how to live and walk in the light of God’s word. And yet as he looked around, he saw that many around him did not share his joy, but rather chafed at the changes wrought by Josiah in accordance with God’s law. While public changes and sweeping reforms had been made, private holiness was rare and private wickedness still rampant. How long would God allow this to go on? Don’t we find ourselves asking the same question?
Charles Spurgeon sums up the dilemma with the following observation:
“True religion is heart-work. We may wash the outside of the cup and the platter as long as we please, but if the inward parts be filthy, we are filthy altogether in the sight of God, for our hearts are more truly ourselves than our hands are; the very life of our being lies in the inner nature, and hence the imperative need of purity within.” — Charles Spurgeon
God’s Answer in Christ
Habakkuk cried out to God for help understanding how violence and destruction, strife and contention, iniquity and injustice could possibly happen in Judah, among the very people of God. How could a Holy and Sovereign God allow his people to live such sinful and rebellious lives? How long must Habakkuk cry out to God for help? How long will the Lord not hear—how long will he remain silent? How long will he not save?
God’s salvation came when he sent our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the only truly innocent, blameless, and upright man who ever lived. He perfectly feared God and turned away from evil. Even still, in his life he endured strife and contention, and on the cross he suffered violence and destruction. Like Job and Habakkuk, our Lord Jesus cried to God and his Father kept silent. In his crucifixion the law was paralyzed, and justice was turned on its head. The wicked surrounded the only truly righteous man who ever lived, and they mocked him as he died. God didn’t merely allow this horrific miscarriage of justice; he ordained it for his holy purposes. “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
For though God remained silent, he was not deaf to the agony of his Holy Son on the cruel cross. God answered the cry of “How long?” when three days later he vindicated his Son’s righteousness by raising him from the grave. Therefore, Jesus is the King of kings whose actions can change and indeed have changed the hearts of his followers. In the resurrected Lord Jesus, believers are granted repentant hearts of faith to humbly repent and walk after the LORD, keeping his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and soul.
I’ll close with this from James Montgomery Boyce:
“Habakkuk . . . . asks, is God in charge of history? And, if he is, why do things happen as they do? In dealing with these questions he speaks as directly to our own times as any comparable portion of the word of God.”
Then, quoting from a wartime sermon by Donald Grey Barnhouse, outlining the devastation of war, he shares Barnhouse’s conclusion which corresponds with what we will learn from our study of Habakkuk:
“Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is the Lord of history. Jesus Christ is the God of detailed circumstance. Nothing has ever happened that did not flow in the channel God dug for it. No event has ever flamed up in spite of God or left him astonished, bewildered, or confused. He is our God. The sin of man has reduced the world to an arena of passion and fury. Like wild beasts men tear at each other’s throats. Yet in the midst of the history of which Jesus Christ is Lord, each individual who has believed in him as the Savior and as the Lord of life will know the power of his resurrection and will learn that events, however terrible, cannot separate us from the love of God. This is the lesson that God taught Habakkuk: God is the Lord of history, he controls history, and he accomplishes his purposes in history for those who are his own” (The Minor Prophets volume 2; An Expositional Commentary).
Grateful 