Habakkuk 1:1-17

HABAKKUK
1:1 | Normally, the prophets speak God’s word directly to the people. This book instead records a dialogue between the Lord and the prophet Habakkuk. The burden is a weighty oracle that announces the threat of heavy judgments; these sometimes came to prophets in the form of a vision (Isa. 13:1; Nah. 1:1).

1:2-4 | Habakkuk’s timeless questions recall those of the psalmists (Ps. 13:1-2; 22:1-2). Yet believers can trust that God’s silence is never a sign of indifference or inactivity (Dan. 10:12-14).

1:5-11 | God’s response surprises Habakkuk: He is sovereignly raising up the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to judge Judah.

1:12-13 | A clear focus on what a believer knows about God and not the why behind his or her circumstances is the starting point for any question about God’s will and work. Habakkuk does not understand why God would go to the extreme and send the Babylonians against Judah, but he prophet is confident of God’s character (Ps. 90:2; 93:2; Mal. 3:6).

1:14-17 | The prophet uses the image of a net to “remind” God of how ruthless and evil the Babylonians were and to illustrate how they had made an idol of their “net” – their prowess in war.