Unlike the other minor prophets who spoke to the people with messages from God the book of Habakkuk is a dialogue between the prophet and the Lord.
Habakkuk’s prayer is from that time in Israel’s history when the last good king of Israel ,king Josiah dies.Timeline would be somewhere between 609-586 BC.
King Josiah was a mere child when he became the king of the southern part of Israel.
While he was in power he put in a lot of reforms that was God-honouring ,besides one of the priests in the temple found an old Torah, on reading it the king realised that the Israelites had sinned and gone against the Lord so he repented for the nation and went about setting things right.
However, after he passed away ,It was all downhill journey for Israel.
God’s people wilfully disobeyed the Lord.
Habakkuk laments before the Lord,”Oh Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear.........”
There are six different problems he attributes to the Israelites of that time.
Sin, wickedness, destruction, violence, no justice in the courts, trouble makers and people raising up strife and contention.
The Lord replies, “look at nations and watch and be utterly amazed .I am going to do something in your days that you will not believe, even if I told you”.
God is raising up a foreign nation, the Babylonians, to come and destroy Judah, his own people.
God has his judgement for the Babylonians too.
This was not the answer Habakkuk expected because if Judah was invaded everyone ,including himself ,would suffer.
He pleads for mercy in the midst of judgement.
Habakkuk 3vs2 -Lord,I have heard of your fame,I stand in awe of your deeds. Oh Lord,renew them in our day, in our time make them known,in wrath remember mercy.
In Habakkuk 2 versus 2 to 4 the lord replies, “write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it .For the revelation waits an appointed time; It speaks of the end and will not prove false.Though it lingers, wait for it: it will certainly come and not delay...........but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk understands the purity of Lord,he cannot tolerate sin.
Habakkuk understands omnipotence of the Lord ,what He wills ,will happen.
Habakkuk understands the covenant of the Lord, a remnant will remain in Zion.
He chooses to rejoice in the Lord and his God-given salvation and to draw strength from Him.
God’s judgement delivers us from our enemies.
Divine judgement purifies the righteous remnant so that He can dwell amidst us ,for
the promise remains (in chapter 2 verse14), “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
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