Habakkuk

This minor prophet found near the end of the Old Testament was probably a priest before he was called to be a prophet. He wrote about the same time as Jeremiah. Habakkuk would have also been a contemporary of Daniel in the days leading up to the Babylonian captivity.

Habakkuk asks the question that every believer encounters in life: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" This is one of his main themes. Chapter 1 lays it out succinctly:

¹ The oracle of God which Habak'kuk the prophet saw. ² O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear? Or cry to thee "Violence!" and thou wilt not save? ³ Why dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. ⁴ So the law is slacked and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted. ⁵ Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.⁶ For lo, I am rousing the Chalde'ans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize habitations not their own. ⁷ Dread and terrible are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. ⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. ⁹ They all come for violence; terror of them goes before them. They gather captives like sand. ¹⁰ At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, for they heap up earth and take it. ¹¹ Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god! ¹² Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them as a judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast established them for chastisement. ¹³ Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong, why dost thou look on faithless men, and art silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? ¹⁴ For thou makest men like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. ¹⁵ He brings all of them up with a hook, he drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults. ¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his seine; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. ¹⁷ Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and mercilessly slaying nations for ever?

In Chapter two we come to a pivotal passage in verse 4:

"The Just shall live by faith."

This verse became the primary prompt for Martin Luther which led to the Reformation. It is also a unifying quotation in a trilogy of Paul's epistles:

1. Who are the "Just" Answer: Romans 1:17
2. How shall they "live"? Answer: Galations 3:11
3. "By faith!" Habakkuk declares. Paul focuses on this in Hebrews 10: 38.

In fact this last quote precedes the famous "Hall of Faith" of Hebrews 11. [This is one reason why many believe Paul was the author of the Hebrew letter.]

Habakkuk's writings are not about being called by God into ministry. In fact, it is Habakkuk who is initiating the dialog with God about ministry. Habakkuk is the one asking the questions and God is responding. One can see this concept of wrestling with God in the life of Jacob. In Genesis 28, Jacob has a personal theophany with God at Bethel. God appears to him in a dream and there is a ladder with angels who are ascending and descending into heaven. Jacob awakens to the realization that he is on Holy ground. He builds an alter and worships there. Right after this event he finds the love of his life....Rachel. In Genesis 35 he returns to Bethel. This is after he has wrestled with the "angel" all night and had his name changed from "Jacob" to "Israel". He again worships at Bethel by building an alter. But this time when he departs, not far from Bethel, Rachel goes into labor with their son, Benjamin, and Rachel dies from complications of childbirth. Interestingly, Rachel's tomb is still there today just outside of Bethlehem. I believe that every follower of Christ experiences the hilltop and valley experiences of life in this manner. The words of Job 1: 21 describe this as:

"Naked I came from mother's womb; and naked shall I return there;

the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

blessed be the name of the Lord."

Since we each enter life with nothing and take nothing physical with us when we exit, the experience of life itself is what the process is all about. Religion wants to make it about rules, regulations and sacraments. However, for the believer it is all about "faith". How does one walk in the Way in a fallen and corrupt world? Without faith we cannot please God. Faith is not about an abstract ideal....it is a relationship with a living God that is a give and take dialog every day of our lives about the things that are good and the things that are bad. The difference is that God is the one who gets to decide what is "good and evil". Without the omniscient point of view, man cannot determine for himself what is good or bad in the end. It is only by the "eye of faith" that we can glimpse a bit of the eternal through God's revelation of his Word. Habakkuk got it long before the arrival of the Messiah. But, the revelation is as true today for every child of God as it was to him when this was written.