Habakkuk 1:1-2:4, Habakkuk Revisited (1)

In November of 2017 we posted for 4 days on the book of Habakkuk.  It is a wonderful, pertinent book.  I think our posts were quite helpful, and I have no disagreement with them.  Recently, however, I revisited Habakkuk and came away with a little more clarity on some matters, which I would like to share in the next 2 or 3 posts.  The layout of the book has not changed; it is very straightforward so we will just make comments on the five movements.

1.    1:1-4.  Habakkuk calls attention to Judah’s sins, wondering how long it will be until God judges them.  All I want to add here is that the description of Judah reminded me a lot of the United States these days.  Strife and contention are on the rise, and the law seems powerless so that “perverse judgment proceeds.” 

2.    1:5-11. God’s answer to Habakkuk is that, “in your days” I will judge using the Babylonians.  They are terrible and ruthless, but they will be my instrument.  At the end of the passage the LORD notes that “his mind changes … he commits offense, ascribing this power to his god.”  This is such a precise description, perfectly fulfilled in Daniel 4-5.  Nebuchadnezzar became proud, praising himself for all his success.  God humbled him and he responded with praise for God.  But his grandson Belshazzar did not humble himself.  Daniel referred to this, how God had used Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 5:18-19), how he became proud and God humbled him and how he then humbled himself before the LORD (5:20- 21).  Then Daniel says, “But you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this” (5:22).

3.    1:12-2:1. Habakkuk’s response to God’s plan is, in effect, to say, “LORD, that doesn’t quite sound like You, to use the wicked in such a way.”  Lest you think the prophet is a bit contentious, you have to include 2:1, where he knows he is about to be corrected by the LORD, which indeed happens.

4.    2:2-20.  God’s answer is, “Trust Me!  I am going to do this (2:2-3).  And don’t worry, I will deal with all the pride” (2:4).  This is, of course, the passage quoted so famously by Paul in Romans 1:16-17 as well as in Heb. 10:38, “The just shall live by faith.”  In both NT uses this is critical in dealing with the gospel and its power to save.  In Rom. 1 it’s “for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.”  In Hebrews it’s the issue of Jewish believers in the days leading up to 70AD and the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish nation. 

How did the NT writers come to depend on such an “obscure” statement?  The answer is that this passage is in the perfect context for both Paul and the writer of Hebrews.  God told Habakkuk the judgment was coming “in your days.”  But in 2:3 the LORD told Habakkuk, “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.”  Let’s pick this up in the next post.