Habakkuk 1
- As we study the book of Habakkuk you will notice a back and forth
Hab 1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
Hab 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
Hab 1:3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
Hab 1:4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
2. Verse 1 starts by describing this book as a
3. Habakkuk asks several questions that we often find ourselves asking as well.
4. He asks God why he hasn’t
5. He also asks why God was allowing him to be
6. He then even accuses God’s
Hab 1:5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. Hab 1:6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
7. In verse 5 God
8. God says he is raising up an
9. The Chaldeans are the
Hab 1:7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
Hab 1:8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
Hab 1:9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10. We read these verses as a
11. Habakkuk would have understood that this was God saying is
12. Verse 7 means they will bring their own
13. Verses 8 and 9 mean there will be no means of
Hab 1:10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
Hab 1:11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
14. When this army arrives they will defeat the ruling authorities and take up residence in there
15. Some believe verse 11 could also be referring to Nebuchadnezzar’s heart
16. More likely it means a shift of
Hab 1:12 Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
Hab 1:13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
17. You can almost hear a
18. Habakkuk acknowledges God has the
19. When he says we shall not die he is referring to
20. In verse 13 Habakkuk asks if you see the evil of both the Jews and their enemies why allow the more evil to
Hab 1:14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
Hab 1:15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
Hab 1:16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
Hab 1:17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
Hab 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
21. Habakkuk describes the Jews are like
22. Cave
23. Verses 16 and 17 describe these nets, weather actual or metaphorical, as a type of
24. Chapter 2 begins with the sediment that Habakkuk although he doesn’t fully understand he will wait and listen for God’s response and then