Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk 1:1-17

—-OR A HARD Habakkuk 1:1 to Habakkuk 3:19. IT is no easy task to treat the Book of Habakkuk and be silent concerning its difficulties. While every one of the Minor Prophets has been the subject of much discussion on the part of students, conservative and critical, this Book of Habakkuk has been the storm-center for such controversy. Its date is undetermined. And while it probably belongs to the reign of Jehoiakim, about 607 B. C., no man can affirm that to be a fact. The peculiar circumstance of a separate style in each of the three chapters has also raised the question as to whether Habakkuk wrote them all; and if so, whether at one time, or on separate, possibly somewhat widely removed, occasions.

The enemy here described has also been made the ground of much dispute, although that, to me, is settled by the text itself—he was the Chaldean. It were vain to lead you into the intricacies of these questions, presenting the arguments pro and con upon each separate point, since the same could not result in an agreement of opinion. I purpose, therefore, to pass them over, grave as they may be, with merely having called attention to them. Of Habakkuk himself we know nothing save his name. There are many traditions about him, the most popular of which is that he was a priest, and the son of Joshua of the tribe of Levi. But that this may not be the truth is clear from the fact that other traditions, with equal weight of age, speak concerning the birth of Habakkuk and his parentage, and lay claim to equal exactness. Some have insisted that he was a contemporary of Jeremiah, which is probably true. The one thing we do know is that he was the Prophet of God.George Adam Smith calls attention to a unique fact concerning this Prophet, namely, he assumes a different attitude from that which characterized his contemporaries. The most of them had addressed the nation Israel on behalf of God.

They called attention to Israel’s sin; they proclaimed Israel’s doom; they pleaded with Israel to repent; they promised Israel pardon and peace when once he had turned about. Habakkuk, on the contrary, speaks to God on behalf of Israel. He sees the awful condition of his people and propounds to God the question, “Why is this permitted?” He strives to find out the Divine purpose in permitting tyranny and wrong; he seeks the solution of the great problems of life; he wants to know why God’s work in the world is not successful at every point, why sin is not overthrown, and the adversary brought to an ignominious end.The Book takes the form of a dialogue, with questions by the Prophet, and answers on the part of God. Sharp questions they were, and hard questions every one; questions that men before him had asked, questions everyone of which skeptics now make capital. The very name of the Prophet Habakkuk—or Struggler— is suggestive of the fact that, as Jacob wrestled with God for his blessing, so Habakkuk strives with God for a solution of the problems of life.This leads me, therefore, to the first suggestion,THE PROPHET’S HARD These problems assume three or four phases at his lips. He wants to know several things.First of all, Why are my prayers unanswered?“O L,ord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save”! (Habakkuk 1:2). It is an old question! Many a man had asked it before Habakkuk. Many a man, since that time, has repeated the sentiment. In fact every man, at some point in his life, is troubled with this very problem, Why are my prayers unanswered? What one of us but has had an hour with this interrogation point? What one of us but has been in anguish over this problem?

I listened only a few days since to one who asserted that she was angry when her prayers were unanswered, and felt tempted not to pray again. And in that respect she was not alone. We have seen our own children in the same mood. They have made requests of us and we have not granted them. Requests which to them seemed reasonable enough, and we have not regarded them; and they have plied and pestered us with that troublesome “Why!” “Why!” “Why!” It is a word with which men have annoyed God from time immemorial.But the Prophet has another problem of equal importance.Why is gross iniquity permitted?“Why dost Thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. “Therefore the Law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth” (Habakkuk 1:3-4). How many, many times must the minister meet that same inquiry? John Stewart Mills raised that question and saw no sufficient answer to it, and turned skeptical and said, “If there is a God He is not Almighty or He would put an end to war, and pain, and death and trouble and every cry.”Mr. Ingersoll gave expression to the same idea in these words, “But here is my trouble, I find this world made on a very cruel plan. Life feeds on life; justice does not always triumph; innocence is not a perfect shield; I do not understand it—A God that has life feeds on life; every joy in the world born of some agony! I do not understand why in this world, over the Niagara of cruelty, should run this flood of blood. If there be a God He understood this.

He knew when He withheld His rains from Russia that the famine would come. He saw the dead mothers; He saw the empty breasts of love; and He saw the helpless babes. There is my trouble.” It was one of the hours in Ingersoll’s life when he came down from flippant rhetoric and really presented a serious problem. But it was a problem not original with Ingersoll; every man since Adam has felt the same perplexity, and propounded the same questions.And when God makes answer to Habakkuk, He raises a third question almost as difficult as those already presented, for in his answer, he says,“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not their’s. “They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. “Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. “They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. “And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap dust, and take if” (Habakkuk 1:5-10). This answer involves the Prophet in further difficulty, and he puts it in another question:Shall the sinner, used as a scourge, escape?“O Lord, Thou hast ordained [the Chaldeans] for judgment; and, O mighty God, Thou hast established them for correction. “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and boldest Thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he”? He cannot understand why God should take a people of insatiable ambition, or covetous character, of cruel customs, of drunkenness, debauch and idolatry and make them a scourge for His erring children; and he wants to know whether these Chaldeans will be allowed to devastate forever, and will not themselves have to stand in judgment? That question comes up under many circumstances. Here is an insolent child whose conduct invites chastisement, but her cruel guardian brutally beats her. She deserves a certain punishment, but shall one who is worse than she administer it, and then escape herself unscourged?Here is a man who has gone against his mother’s advice and despised his father’s counsel, and contracted the habit of drink, and by his debauches he has squandered his father’s substance and broken his mother’s heart and insulted God. He deserves reproof, and one day the saloonist knocks him down and beats him until he is blue in the face, and sends him home to be bedridden for many days. He has only reaped whereon he has been sowing; his judgment is perfectly just.

But shall that saloonist go unscathed? Will God approve this act and overlook the character of the man who accomplished it? That is Habakkuk’s question.These are not the questions of an Ancient. They are your questions and mine. They enter into the problems that now press upon the thoughtful for solution. They uncover some of the deepest, darkest mysteries of life, and while they are older than even Habukkuk, they are as new as the rising of this morning’s sun, or the last breath one has drawn.

But, thanks be to God, they are not unanswerable questions!Follow this prophecy of Habakkuk a little further and you will findJEHOVAH’S READY REPLIES He denies leaving true prayers in neglect. In answer to the charge that He had let Habakkuk’s cries go unanswered, God replies, “No, no!” “Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not their’s”. Mark you God does not say here that He is answering every man’s prayer; nor even that He is answering every prayer that any man may put up. There are some prayers that never will be answered. To some He is compelled to say, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts”. But we know, on the contrary, “This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).Delay on His part is no sign of indisposition. Because we cannot see the answer at once, it is not conclusive evidence that none is coming. Faith does not always ask to see; it accepts on the ground of a promise, and waits in confidence, God’s own good hour—“The just shall live by His faith”, we hear this same Prophet saying; and to live and believe that God is at work, even when the movements of His hand do not appear, is to show that one understands Him.I often think of that little poem which should be a comfort to praying people; to mothers whose prayers for their sons have not been answered, to wives who have watched, till weary, for the conversion of their husbands, to friends who have long sought the sobriety of some dear one addicted to drink: “Unanswered yet! The prayer your lips have pleaded In agony of heart these many years? Does faith begin to fail? Is hope departing? And think you all in vain those falling tears? Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer, You shall have your desire, sometime, somewhere!

“Unanswered yet! Nay, do not say ungranted Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done. The work began when first your prayer was uttered, And God will finish what He has begun. If you will keep the incense burning there, His glory you shall see, sometime, somewhere!” And God also answers his second question.Iniquity shall not go unpunished. He will execute judgment against apostate Israel by the terrible Chaldeans. And then He will call that Chaldean to account for his conduct. In other words every man, and nation, that forgets God and walks in folly, and delights in sin, shall feel the hand of correction, or hear the sentence of judgment. In my recent visit to the South I have been studying somewhat that ever present and disturbing question of mob-violence, although most of it has been occurring lately on our side of the Mason and Dixon line. It would seem that the last few weeks has recorded a carnival of that rapine and murder which is the expression of brute-lust on the part of those who wear the name of men, but whose behavior is below that of the basest beasts of the field.

Some of these have met summary justice at the hands of an outraged public, and certain newspapers, with a mind for turning all things to political account, have been passing extended judgment upon the process. I am in sympathy with most all they have said against mob law.

It is not for the public weal; no good citizen will advocate it. But I have been chagrined, beyond measure, at the strange silence concerning the acts of those “brute-beasts” who make mob law almost a social necessity. A few days since I conversed with a colored barber in Texas and asked him what he thought of the likelihood of a race war. And he talked more good hard sense in ten minutes than some partisan newspapers would utter in ten months. He said, “The worst thing that ever happened in Texas in the way of mob violence was the burning and torture of a black man at Paris, but my opinion is they didn’t give him enough.” “When I recall,” he said, “that the child of his attack was only four years of age, and that he was not content to gratify his lusts on this darling little one, but in his murderous spirit, tore her limb from limb and scattered the fragments of one of earth’s white angels with ruthless hand, I said, let them do what they will, and I’ll never so far identify myself with that brute as to take up a race cudgel because he happened to be of my color. I have no objection to make to punishing the guilty.

If men don’t like the feel of the rope around their necks, and the flame against their flesh, let them quit the devilish conduct that calls for it.”“What I object to,” he added, “is such conduct as has lately characterized Evansville, Indiana, where, when one man commits a crime, a whole community are persecuted for it because they happen to be of his color.” It was refreshing to listen to such intelligence after some of the rantings to which the newspapers have lately treated us. Say what you will, the guilty man will answer somewhere for awful conduct.

He may have to answer to the flames; he may have to answer to the very enemies of God, for God sometimes makes His enemies to execute judgment for Him. A mob is the enemy of God, but who will say that its work is always unjust? A serpent is the very symbol of Satan himself, and rests under Divine condemnation, and yet, it is written into the Word, concerning certain ones,“Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine hand take them; though they climb up to Heaven, thence will I bring them down: “And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: “And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good”. Ah, these are the threats that turn pale the faces of brutal offenders, for God will make them good.And yet Jehovah always judges according to character. He knows the difference between the righteous and the wicked. He may send rain both upon the just and the unjust. But, after all, He will commend the just; and pass against the unjust His sentence of condemnation. Listen to this word from the Prophet, reporting God, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him:but the just shall live by His faith”. And then he continues to describe the “proud man” who “transgresseth by wine, * * neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied”, and he declares that against him that ladeth himself with thick clay enemies shall rise up suddenly to bite him, and vex him, and make booty of him, and because he spoiled many they shall spoil him.He uncovers also the character of the covetous man (Habakkuk 2:9-11) and lays bare his character who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity (Habakkuk 2:12).

He pronounces his woe against the man who gives his neighbor drink; that putteth the bottle to him and maketh him drunken; and the graven-imager whose proudest product is a dumb idol. And He reminds all these that “the Lord is in His holy Temple”, which is only another way of saying that He will call them every one to account.

God judges on the basis of character. He will not at all acquit the wicked; but the righteous shall forever find in Him a Friend. He does care whether the dwellers upon this earth are fair or foul, brutal or beautiful; He does not look upon all men, taking equal pleasure in every one. I tell you that God never loves the wicked, but He ever more loves the good, the true, the noble; His very character requires Him to hate baseness, falsehood, and evil. Iniquity is as an abomination unto Him; righteousness is His delight, and when at last the great white throne judgment is set up, men will be separated upon the basis of character, and judged every man according to his works. The righteous shall hear Him saying, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”.

And the impenitent and wicked shall listen to this sentence of doom, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”.Who would change? Who would take a single holy man and cast him out of Heaven, and who would bring into the Celestial City “any thing that defileth, [or] worketh abomination, or maketh a lie”?

Ah, beloved, God will be justified when He speaks, and clear when He judges, and His replies will be the solution of our hard problems.But there remains a third chapter to this Book. Its original form was doubtless blank verse. It is worthy to be bound with the Psalms. It isA HYMN OF PRAISE AND TRUST The new style is introduced into this third chapter. It is vivid, and even more vigorous than the foregoing prophecy. Here is a sweep of vision which includes centuries. And the exultation of spirit is indicative of the fact that when one gets at God’s reason for things he can rejoice in spite of adverse surroundings. I believe with St. Augustine, this Psalm has references to the first and second advents of Jesus Christ; and yet with Calvin also, I know that it refers to God’s guidance of Israel from the time of the Egyptian plagues to the days of Joshua and Gideon.But passing over this historical reference, and for present purposes leaving undiscussed the prophetic element, I want you to see what Habakkuk has to say concerning Jehovah.He remarks on the majesty of God.“God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Par an.

Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. “And His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of His hand: and there was the hiding of His power” (Habakkuk 3:3-4). But what tongue ever attempted this theme but to falter and fail? The majesty of God is beyond the flash of human imagination. One who contemplates it will speedily feel the insufficiency of speech, and yet long to express himself; so he may join with Kempthorn: “Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him, Praise Him, angels, in the height; Sun and moon, rejoice before Him, Praise Him, all ye stars of light.

“Praise the Lord! for He hath spoken, Worlds His mighty voice obey; Laws which never shall be broken, For their guidance He hath made.” He trembles before the might of God (Habakkuk 3:5-15). It is well for men to realize that God’s will is the law of the universe, and to that will all must bow, either by volition, or else coercion; for, when God cannot command our affectionate obedience, He will restrain, by His might, our disobedience; and He is able. He, whose voice breaketh the cedars of Lebanon, at whose touch the everlasting rocks tremble, who bindeth the clouds with a cord, and excels all angels in strength; He whose hand hurled, from the lofty battlements of Heaven, Satan, and sent after him his every satellite; at whose word the mountains rocked, and in answer to whose request the tempestuous sea ceases from its tossing and is calm, is One before whom the Prophet did well to tremble. And every knee does well to bow, and every tongue to confess. And yet, if one but make peace with Him, that infinite power becomes his security and defense and the subject of jubilant song.“In all our Maker’s grand designs, Almighty power with wisdom shines. His works through all this wondrous frame Declare the glory of His Name.” He rejoices in the grace of God.“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.“The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments” (Habakkuk 3:17-19). A few years since Dwight L. Moody and Robert G. Ingersoll passed from the stage of action. They were born within a few months of each other, and died within a few months of each other; and died each one as he had lived. As types of character they were poles apart. One was serious and the other scornful; one prayerful, the other profane; one reverent, the other addicted to ridicule of holy things.

One a student of the Bible for soul-culture, and the other a railer against it, for silver and gold. The deathbed scene of one was the gate of Heaven; that of the other the desolation of darkness. “One received and enjoyed the grace of God; the other resisted and rejected the same!” One still lives in thousands of converts, great schools, conquering churches, philanthropic and benevolent movements a multitude; the other in souls steeped in skepticism, and in bodies bloated by bad conduct.“Choose ye this day”! “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation”.