The Book of Habakkuk, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Habakkuk chapter by chapter. In our Nahum study we saw God bring down Nineveh. But the nation that brought it down was Babylon. And Babylon was coming next for Judah. Habakkuk is only 3 chapters. But it asks the hardest question a believer can ask. Why. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

The other prophets speak for God to the people. Habakkuk speaks to God for himself. He sees violence and injustice all around him in Judah. He prays and nothing happens. So he asks God how long. God answers. I am sending the Babylonians to punish Judah. That made it worse. The Babylonians were more wicked than Judah. So Habakkuk asks again. How can a holy God use people like that. Then he climbs up on his watchtower and waits for God to answer. And God gives him one of the most important verses in the Bible. “The just shall live by his faith” (2:4).

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Habakkuk is about bringing our questions to God. “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!” (1:2). Habakkuk is about living by faith in the one God when we do not understand. “The just shall live by his faith” (2:4). “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (3:18). And Habakkuk points to Jesus Christ. The vision that “will surely come, it will not tarry” (2:3). And the salvation God would bring “with thine anointed” (3:13). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

“The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see” (1:1). That is all we know about him. His name may come from the Hebrew word to embrace.¹ He does not name a king. But God says he is raising up the Chaldeans (1:6). That is the Babylonians. So most believe Habakkuk preached around 609 to 605 BC. In the days of king Jehoiakim. Josiah the good king had just been killed. Jehoiakim was wicked. We saw him in our Jeremiah study cutting up the scroll and throwing it in the fire. Babylon had just beaten Assyria and Egypt. And it was about to come to Jerusalem.

The book is a conversation. In chapter 1 Habakkuk complains. God answers. Habakkuk complains again. In chapter 2 God answers the second complaint. Then he gives 5 woes against Babylon. And in chapter 3 Habakkuk prays and sings. The book starts with a question. And it ends with a song. Habakkuk does not get every answer he wanted. But he ends up in a different place. Chapter 3 even has music notes in it like the Psalms. It starts with “upon Shigionoth” (3:1). It uses the word Selah 3 times (3:3, 9, 13). And it ends “To the chief singer on my stringed instruments” (3:19).

We will break the book down like this. How long (1:1–11). Thou art of purer eyes (1:12–2:1). The just shall live by his faith (2). And yet I will rejoice (3). Then we will put together what Habakkuk teaches about the one God. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

Habakkuk was honest. He was upset with God. He prayed about the violence in Judah. And it seemed like God was not listening. The law was not being kept. The courts were crooked. The wicked surrounded the righteous. And God was quiet. Many believers have felt this way. Notice. Habakkuk did not stop praying. He did not walk away from God. He took his complaint to God. That is faith too. David did the same. “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever?” (Psalm 13:1).

Then God answered. And it was not what Habakkuk expected.

God said I am already working. You just would not believe it if I told you. I am raising up Babylon. They will punish Judah. Paul quoted verse 5 when he preached in Antioch. He warned the Jews who rejected the gospel. “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13:41). In Habakkuk’s day the work was judgment through Babylon. In Paul’s day the work was salvation through Jesus Christ. And many would not believe that either.

Then God describes the Babylonians. Terrible and dreadful. “Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves” (v.7). They made their own rules. Their horses were faster than leopards and fiercer than wolves at night (v.8). They laughed at kings. They piled up dirt and took every fort (v.10). “Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god” (v.11). They would give credit to their own god for their power. Their strength was their god.

Notice how Habakkuk starts. Not with the problem. With God. Art thou not from everlasting. My God. My Holy One. We shall not die. He reminds himself who God is first. God is eternal. He is holy. He made a covenant with his people. So Judah would not be wiped out. Babylon was only for correction. The words “O mighty God” are literally O Rock.² God was his rock.

Notice also the title “mine Holy One.” In the New Testament the demons called Jesus “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). And Peter told the people of Jerusalem “ye denied the Holy One and the Just” (Acts 3:14). The Holy One from everlasting that Habakkuk prayed to is the Holy One they denied.

Then Habakkuk asks his second question. God you are too pure to look at evil. So how can you watch Babylon swallow up people more righteous than they are. Judah was bad. But Babylon was worse. Habakkuk said Babylon treated people like fish. They caught them with hooks and nets and dragged them away (vv.14–15). “Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag” (v.16). They worshipped their own weapons. Their army was their god.

Then Habakkuk did the right thing. “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” (2:1). He went up and waited. He did not just complain and walk away. He expected God to answer. And he was ready to be corrected. That is how to bring a hard question to God. Ask it. Then wait for him. And be ready to hear what he says even if it is not what you want.

Though It Tarry, Wait for It

God answered. Write it down. Make it plain. So that a runner can read it as he goes and carry the message. Then God said the answer has an appointed time. It might seem slow. Wait for it. It will surely come. God is never late.

Now notice how Hebrews quotes this. “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith” (Hebrews 10:37–38). In Habakkuk it is the vision that will come. In Hebrews it is he. A person. The Greek Old Testament had it that way too.³ The vision that will surely come is Jesus Christ. He came the first time. And he will come again. Though it tarry wait for him.

The Just Shall Live by His Faith

Then God shows two kinds of people. “His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him.” That is the proud. Babylon. And everyone who trusts in himself. “But the just shall live by his faith.” That is the righteous. The one who trusts God. The Hebrew word for faith here means faithfulness.⁴ Trusting God and staying true to him. Not a feeling for a moment. A life. The just will live by trusting God when he cannot see. And keep trusting while he waits.

This verse is quoted 3 times in the New Testament. Paul uses it to show that we are made right with God by faith. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). And “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith” (Galatians 3:11). And Hebrews uses it to tell believers to keep going and not draw back (Hebrews 10:38). This one verse changed the history of the church. Martin Luther read Romans 1:17 and it set him free.⁵

But notice what faith means in the Bible. It is not just believing facts in your head. James says “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). Real faith obeys. On the day of Pentecost the people believed Peter’s preaching. And they asked what shall we do. Peter told them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized” (Acts 2:41). Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter. And every person in it did something because they believed. By faith Noah built. By faith Abraham went. The just live by faith. And faith lives by obeying.

Five Woes

Then God gave 5 woes against Babylon. And against anyone who lives like Babylon.

Woe to the robber. “Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his!” (v.6). What he stole would be stolen from him (v.8). Woe to the one who builds his house with dirty money. Who “set his nest on high” to be safe (v.9). “For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it” (v.11). The very building would testify against him. Jesus said if his disciples were quiet “the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40). Woe to the one who builds a city with blood (v.12). It would all burn. The people “labour in the very fire” for nothing (v.13). Then right in the middle of the woes this.

Babylon wanted to fill the earth with its glory. But the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. We saw almost the same words in Isaiah 11:9 in our Isaiah study. Paul tells us where we see that glory. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The knowledge of the glory of the LORD is in the face of Jesus. And it is filling the earth through the gospel.

Woe to the one who gets his neighbor drunk to shame him (v.15). He would drink the cup of the LORD’s right hand (v.16). And woe to the idol maker. “What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it … to make dumb idols?” (v.18). “Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it” (v.19). The idol has no breath. No life. No voice. Then the last verse of the chapter.

The idols cannot speak. The LORD speaks and the whole earth must be quiet. Habakkuk started the book crying out. Now he is told to be still. God is on his throne. Even when it does not look like it.

In Wrath Remember Mercy

“A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth” (v.1). Now Habakkuk sings. “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy” (v.2). He knew judgment was coming. He did not ask God to stop it. He asked God to revive his work. And to remember mercy in the middle of wrath. That is a good prayer for any time. Revive thy work. In wrath remember mercy.

God Came From Teman

Then Habakkuk remembers what God did in the past. “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise” (v.3). Teman and Paran are in the south. On the way from Sinai. This is God coming to help his people in the exodus.⁶ Notice. God. And the Holy One. Not two. One God called by two names in the same line. That is how Hebrew poetry works. It says the same thing twice in different words.

“And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power” (v.4). The word horns here means rays of light.⁷ Light shining from his hand. And there was where his power was hidden. Some have seen in this a picture of the hands of Jesus. Pierced for us. Where the power of God to save was hidden in what looked like weakness. Paul says “the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25).

Then the whole earth shakes before him. The mountains scatter. The hills bow (v.6). “His ways are everlasting” (v.6). “Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? … that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?” (v.8). That is the Red Sea and the Jordan. God split the waters for his people. “The sun and moon stood still in their habitation” (v.11). We saw that in our Joshua study. God fought for Israel.

Salvation With Thine Anointed

God went out to save his people. With his anointed. The word anointed is mashiach. Messiah. In the exodus God saved Israel by Moses. And in the days of David by his anointed king. But all of them pointed to the Anointed One. Jesus Christ. And notice. He wounded the head of the house of the wicked. That goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15. The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. We covered that in our Genesis study.

Trinitarians will say God and his anointed are two persons working together.⁸ But notice. The verse says God went forth for salvation with his anointed. God himself went out. The anointed is the man God anointed with his own Spirit. Peter says “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power … for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). And Paul says “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Not God and another divine person. God in Christ. The one God came out to save us in his anointed.

Although the Fig Tree Shall Not Blossom

Then Habakkuk comes back to the present. “When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones … that I might rest in the day of trouble” (v.16). He was scared. His knees were shaking. Babylon was coming. But he would wait quietly for the day of trouble. Then the most beautiful words in the book.

No figs. No grapes. No olives. No crops. No sheep. No cattle. Everything a farmer needs to live. Gone. Yet I will rejoice in the LORD. That is the just living by faith. His joy was not in what he had. His joy was in who God is. “The God of my salvation.” The word salvation is yesha. The same root as the name Jesus. We saw that in our Exodus and Isaiah studies.

And then “he will make my feet like hinds’ feet.” A hind is a female deer. She can run up rocky mountains and never slip. God would not take Habakkuk out of the hard places. He would make him able to walk on them. High places. Above the trouble. That is how the book ends. Not with every question answered. With a song.

Habakkuk learned to trust God when he could not understand him. Before we finish we want to put it all together. There are three things we want to point out.

First there is one God who rules over the nations. He raised up Babylon to punish Judah (1:6). Babylon thought its power was its god (1:11). They worshipped their nets (1:16). Their idols had no breath (2:19). But the LORD is in his holy temple (2:20). He is from everlasting (1:12). He is too pure to look on evil (1:13). And in the end the earth will be filled with the knowledge of his glory (2:14). One God. Over Babylon and over Judah.

Second the vision is a person. Habakkuk said the vision will surely come (2:3). Hebrews said he that shall come will come (Hebrews 10:37). The knowledge of the glory of the LORD fills the earth (2:14). Paul said that glory is in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). The Holy One Habakkuk prayed to is the Holy One they denied (Acts 3:14). The God who came from Teman came in the flesh.

Third God went forth to save in his anointed. “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed” (3:13). Not two Gods. One God anointing the man Christ Jesus with his own Spirit. God was in Christ. And the just live by faith in him. Faith that obeys. Faith that waits. And faith that rejoices in the God of our salvation when the fig tree does not blossom. One God. Revealed in Jesus Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

We have gone through Habakkuk chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Habakkuk is about bringing our questions to God. Habakkuk asked how long. Then he asked why. He did not hide his questions. And he did not walk away from God. He took them to God. Then he climbed up on the watchtower and waited for the answer. You can do the same.

Second Habakkuk is about living by faith in the one God. God did not explain everything. He said the proud will fall. And the just shall live by his faith. Babylon trusted its nets and its army and its gods. They all failed. Habakkuk trusted God. And even when he lost everything he could still say yet I will rejoice in the LORD.

Third Habakkuk points to Jesus Christ. The vision that will surely come and will not tarry. The Holy One from everlasting. The one in whose face we see the glory of the LORD. The Anointed through whom God went forth to save his people and wound the head of the wicked. The just shall live by faith in him.

Habakkuk waited for the day of trouble. The next prophet preached about that day. The great day of the LORD. A day of wrath. But he also saw God singing over his people. He was a descendant of king Hezekiah. And he preached in the days of king Josiah. That is where Zephaniah begins.