1 "The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw." Habakkuk prophesies in Judah as he sees destruction near, when Babylon will invade one last time and carry God's people away to Babylon.
2-17 The Prophet's Complaint
2-4 O LORD, how long will I cry for help, and you will not listen? There's violence, destruction, and injustice all around me.
3-11 God answers: You would be surprised at how active I am, for I am raising up the Chaldeans against you; they are fearsome, whose horses and horsemen are powerful and violent, who scoff at kings and laugh at fortresses, whose own might is their god.
12-13 Habakkuk: But you have marked our enemies for punishment! "Your eyes are too pure to behold evil." How can you excuse their cruelty, as they "swallow up" those "more righteous than they"?
14-17 Habakkuk: You have made people like fish of the sea with no ruler, whose enemy brings them up in his net to devour them, empties his net, then goes on to devour other nations.
Habakkuk 2
1-5 God's Reply to the Prophet's Complaint
1 Habakkuk: I will "stand at my watch post" and wait for the LORD's reply. Typical reply of the faithful prophet. Even as he complains to God, he humbly and willingly submits to God's will.
2-3 The LORD: Write the vision plainly: It concerns the end and will come at the appointed time.
4-5 Observe the proud - how they welcome that which leads to death. They will not endure. "But the righteous live by their faith." The wicked suppose that because they have physical power and wealth they are in control over their own destiny. It is not so. It is those who live by faith who truly live.
6-20 The Woes of the Wicked
6-8 Alas! Eventually, the creditors will rise up against you who trust in your riches and demand payment; you who are wicked will suffer for your cruelty against other nations.
9-11 Alas! You who think you are above everyone else have forfeited your lives; your own houses will cry out against you.
12-14 Alas! You who found a city on iniquity waste your energy, for "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." This reminds me of a couple of passages in the New Testament that I discovered are actually quotes from Isaiah 45:23 – Romans 14:11: "For it is written, 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God'" and Philippians 2:9-11: "Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." There will come a time when those who think they are in control discover the real Almighty.
15-17 Alas! You who make others drunk so you can look on their shame will be "sated with contempt" and overwhelmed with violence.
18-19 What use is an idol that you've made with your own hands? Alas! Can you wake it up? It has no breath in it!
20 "But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!" We can't make an idol speak, but in the presence of the Creator, it is we who are silent.
Habakkuk 3
1-16 The Prophet's Prayer
1 A prayer of Habakkuk "according to Shigionoth." John Gill interprets this to mean "with a song"; John Wesley, "upon a musical instrument."
2-3 O LORD, I stand in awe of your work; in wrath may you remember mercy.
4-7 God's glory is known in heaven and on earth. From him comes the brightness of the sun, but he also scatters pestilence, makes nations tremble, mountains shatter, hills sing low, the earth quake.
8-11 LORD, are you angry with the rivers, or the sea, as you brandish your bow, causing the earth to split, the mountains to writhe, the sea to explode, the sun to rise, and the moon to stand still?
12-15 In fury you trample the earth, coming to save your anointed, crushing the head of the wicked, piercing their warriors who come like a whirlwind to scatter and devour us.
15 I tremble within and without; I wait quietly for the day of calamity for the people who attack us.
17-19 Trust and Joy in the Midst of Trouble
This is such a powerful statement of faith, I feel compelled to quote the whole passage here. It answers so many of those who doubt God in the midst of trouble. Again, it's an affirmation of the faith of so many of the Old Testament prophets, and the reason that – though we may not understand every word when we read them – jewels like these can only strengthen our own resolve to be faithful.
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.
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