Habakkuk 1
BBCHabakkuk 1:1
I. THE PROPHET IS PERPLEXED THAT GOD DOES NOT PUNISH THE INIQUITY OF JUDAH (1:1-4) The burden (or oracle, NKJV marg.) which the prophet Habakkuk saw is probably a title for the whole book. In verses 2-4, he complained to the Lord about the terrible violence, iniquity, robbery, strife, and injustice in Judah. He asked the LORD how long it would be allowed to go unpunished. Because of this and similar questionings of God, Habakkuk has sometimes been called “the doubting Thomas of the OT.” The first eleven verses of the prophecy are a dialogue between Habakkuk and the Lord.
Habakkuk 1:5
II. THE LORD REPLIES THAT HE WILL USE THE BABYLONIANS TO PUNISH JUDAH (1:5-11) God’s answer is given in verses 5-11. He would raise up the Chaldean army to punish Judah. The enemy would be hasty, bitter, avaricious, violent, dreadful, and proud. The Babylonians were noted for their cavalry, swift in conquest and fiercer than evening wolves. They scoffed at captive kings and princes, and their might was their god. Feinberg comments: The success of the Chaldean will be multiplied; he will carry all before him, as the wind sweeps over vast stretches of land. In doing so, the Chaldean conqueror heaps up guilt before God because of his ungodly ambitions and his subjugation of many helpless peoples.
Habakkuk 1:12
III. HABAKKUK NOW QUESTIONS GOD’S CHOICE OF A MORE WICKED NATION TO PUNISH JUDAH (1:12-17) When Habakkuk heard this, he was troubled, and his agitation brought forth the second dialogue (1:122:20). How could God punish Judah by a nation that was worse than they were? He argues with God based on his knowledge that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. And the Babylonians were undoubtedly wicked! However, Judah’s wickedness was greater, since the Jews were sinning against much greater light. How could God look upon the wickedness of the Babylonians as they took men captive by the netful, even by the hook and the net? They sacrificed to their idols and grew fat. Would there be no end to their slaughter of the nations? J. E. Evans explains: An analogy was drawn from the life of a fisherman. The men were like fishes whom the fisherman collected in his net, and then paid divine honors to the net by which he has been so enriched. In this comparison, the world was the sea; the nation was the fishes; Nebuchadnezzar was the fisherman; the net was the military might of the Chaldean by which he was able to gain great wealth through the conquest.