Part 2

Habakkuk’s response

12 ¶ Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction.

13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more rightous than he?

14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea, Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?

15 They take up all of them with a hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.

16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, And burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is sumptuous And their food plentiful.

17 Shall they therefore empty their net, And continue to slay nations without pity?

1 ¶ I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. (Habakkuk 1:12-2:1 NKJV)

God’s response does not make sense to Habakkuk. Habakkuk responds first by defining God and then questioning God’s response. Then humbly Habakkuk watches for God to correct him.

List how Habakkuk defines God.

Compare this to how you define God.

Do you come to God and seek the revelation of who He is?

Are you willing to be “corrected”?

The Chaldeans would put a hook in the nose of those who were enslaved by them so they would not be able to escape and mark them as a slave by the scar.

How does this compare to Habakkuk’s description of the Chaldeans?

What does this say about the Chaldeans?

God’s answer

2 Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

4 "Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.

5 ¶ "Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples.

6 "Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases What is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges’?

7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty.

8 Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it.

9 "Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, That he may be delivered from the power of disaster!

10 You give shameful counsel to your house, Cutting off many peoples, And sin against your soul.

11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, And the beam from the timbers will answer it.

12 "Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity!

13 Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain?

14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.

15 ¶ "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness!

16 You are filled with shame instead of glory. You also—drink! And be exposed as uncircumcised! The cup of the LORD’S right hand will be turned against you, And utter shame will be on your glory.

17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, And the plunder of beasts which made them afraid, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it.

18 "What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols?

19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, Yet in it there is no breath at all.

20 But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." (Habakkuk 2:2-20 NKJV)

God reveals the evil of the world and the woes which God declares come from evil. We also have a wondrous declaration of faith! The ending verse declares this is from God and is not debatable or even to be questioned.

List of woes God’s response to Habakkuk and the evil of humanity includes a list of woes which are appropriate for all of time. Look at each woe and write what you think it means and why God declares it.

Woe to him who increases What is not his

Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house

Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity!

Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness! Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness!

Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise!

God speaks of the cup of the Lord’s right hand. The Bible consistently speaks of two cups. There is the cup of God’s wrath and the cup of the blood of Jesus we call Holy Communion. Jesus said He would sit at the right hand of the Father.

What is God declaring here?

The cup of the LORD’S right hand will be turned against you, And utter shame will be on your glory.

God’s response to Habakkuk’s prayer rips away our nice picture of ourselves and the world and leaves us under a horrific burden of guilt. Whether Israelite or Chaldean we deserve judgment! But a small sentence among all the sin and judgment offers HOPE! Though sin brings judgment and destruction God offers faith as a hope!

Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.

What does the just have faith in? What do you have faith in?

Using a Biblical Dictionary define:

Just or justification

Faith

[The rest of this book is Habakkuk struggling with God’s response and coming to terms that God is God and works in His way and not like we think God should. This third chapter is broken into two parts to show the continuing change in Habakkuk.]