Key Themes in Habakkuk

Outline of the book

1:1                    Title

1:2-4                Habakkuk’s first complaint to God: sin goes unpunished

1:5-11              God’s reply: the Babylonians are his agent of punishment

1:12-17            Habakkuk’s second complaint: the excesses of God’s agents of punishment

2:1                    The prophet as a watchman

2:2-20              God’s response: the punishment of the wicked

3:1-19              Habakkuk’s psalm of praise

Background and setting

We know little about Habakkuk himself: he is simply the prophet (1:1). There is a possibility, strengthened by the musical instructions in chapter 3 (1, 19), that he was a Levite and one of the official prophets at the temple in Jerusalem.

Habakkuk lived at a time when society was shaken by violence. As Judah and Jerusalem had sunk deeper into disobedience towards God, so the fabric of national life had begun to fall apart at the seams. The prophet lived and spoke in the build-up to the invasion of Judah (anticipated in 1:6) and the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 bc. The reign of Josiah, marked by justice and covenant loyalty, had come to an end. His son Jehoiakim had succeeded him in 609 bc, but he was only concerned with self-promotion; mercy and justice became values of the past and the nation spiralled downwards in oppression and violence. When Jeremiah, Habakkuk’s contemporary, challenged Jehoiakim about his corrupt ways, he spoke with characteristic vigour: ‘Your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, and on oppression and extortion’ (Jer 22:17).

For Habakkuk, as for Jeremiah, declaring the message of the Lord to his people was costly and traumatic. They both experienced the personal anguish of being spokesmen for God in days of deep darkness. But for Habakkuk, God’s message was a burden, supremely because it contained at its very heart an uncompromising and chilling declaration of judgment on his own country. Habakkuk lived and felt his message (3:16), not merely spoke it. The content of the book is so vivid, the word pictures so dramatic, that we today can almost ‘see’ what the prophet describes.

Themes and relevance

The book of Habakkuk is a conversation: the prophet addresses the Lord, unburdening himself with total candour in the face of what looks like the imminent destruction of the city, the land and the people by a vicious and violent invader. The Lord responds and reveals that divine sovereign activity is at work in history, though maybe in a hidden way. There are echoes of Job – Habakkuk also questions God – but Habakkuk’s starting point is a national crisis rather than a personal one and he asks God to bring just judgment on violent oppressors.

Habakkuk directs his passion and despair at God himself rather than at the king. In this sense he is an unusual, if not unique, prophet in the Old Testament. We are given profound insight into the prayer life of the prophet and his whole relationship with God becomes public. It is a moving and challenging experience and the dialogue format emphasises the importance of both speaking and listening to what the Lord has to say in times of fear, confusion and destruction.

Habakkuk burns with zeal for God as much as, if not more than, with pain for the people. He is confident in the justice of God and certain that God deserves praise. He pours out his heart to God rather than pronouncing doom on the guilty. He is moved by the offensiveness to a holy God of people’s sins, not by any personal sense of injury or rejection within himself. He is concerned at the violation of the law.

Beginning with his own situation, Habakkuk finds himself articulating timeless questions – about the problems of evil and the character of God, about the value of prayer given the apparent impotence of God, about the oppressiveness of unrestrained violence and the silence of God. These questions are essentially the main reason for the continuing relevance of Habakkuk’s message today.

The dilemmas and the traumas are timeless, but so is the overwhelming power of violence. Our own societies today are being torn apart by violence of all kinds: the violence of war; violence in our streets, public institutions and homes; psychological and verbal violence; violence by the strong against the weak (whether unborn babies, women, children, refugees or other powerless people). In a dangerously sanitised fashion such violence enters our homes through television screens and turns our societies into theatres of violence.

We, like Habakkuk, live in a violent world.

Like Habakkuk, we need to start where he begins in his dialogue with God: How long...? Why...? (1:2-3). Like Habakkuk, we need to reach the place where we can quietly say, 'though ... yet I will rejoice in the Lord' (3:17-18). Habakkuk uncovers for us the process by which the journey of faith that takes us from questions to song can be achieved. Questioning God is acceptable, but refusing to trust him is our downfall, for whatever the circumstances, personal grief or national disaster, the just God, the sovereign Lord gives strength to the righteous person of faith.

This blog post is extracted out of the NIV Bible Speaks Today Bible - an essential resource for preachers, small group leaders and all students of the Bible.