Habakkuk 1.5-The Lord Issues Four Commands to the Faithful Remnant of Judah and Gives the Reason for Them

Habakkuk 1:1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received. 2 How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. 5 “Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. 6 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. (NIV84)

Habakkuk 1:5 marks a transition in the book since it marks a transition from Habakkuk’s complaints to the Lord in Habakkuk 1:2-4 to the Lord’s response to these complaints in Habakkuk 1:5-11.

Habakkuk 1:5 is composed of four commands as well as a causal clause and a concessive clause.

Each of these four commands are addressed to the faithful remnant of the kingdom of Judah who lived at the end of the seventh century B.C. in 605 B.C.

They had remained faithful to the God of Israel by remaining obedient to the Mosaic Law since Habakkuk issues his first complaints to God in Habakkuk 1:2-4 regarding those in his nation who were not faithful to the Mosaic covenant.

The first command required that they look among the nations, which is a reference to all the Gentile nations located in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world who stand in contrast to the southern kingdom of Judah because they do not possess a covenant relationship with God as was the case with Judah.

In this command, the Lord is authoritatively directing Habakkuk and the faithful citizens of the kingdom of Judah to look among these Gentile nations.

The second command is emphatic in the sense that it is advancing upon and intensifying the first.

In this command, the Lord is authoritatively ordering or directing this faithful remnant to enter into the state of observing carefully the Gentile nations located in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world and remaining in that state.

Therefore, the advancement and the intensification is that the Lord does not want this remnant to simply look among the nations but also more importantly to carefully observe these Gentile nations located in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world and remaining in that state.

The third command and the fourth present the result of the first two.

The third command is authoritatively ordering each of the faithful citizens of the kingdom of Judah to cause themselves to enter into the state of being astonished as a result of obeying the Lord’s commands to look and carefully observe the Gentile nations located in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world.

In the fourth, the Lord is solemnly and authoritatively directing or ordering each of the faithful citizens of Judah to exist in the state of being astonished as a result of looking and carefully observing the Gentile nations located in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world.

The Lord wants them to be astonished in the sense that they are struck with sudden fear and with great wonder and surprise.

These four commands are followed by a causal clause, which records the Lord asserting that He was about to perform an act during the lifetime of this faithful remnant which each of them will never believe.

It presents the reason why the Lord wants each of the faithful citizens of Judah to look and carefully observe the Gentile nations so that they cause themselves to enter into the state of being astonished.

Lastly, attached to this causal clause is a concessive clause which asserts that the Lord told this faithful remnant in advance about this act He was about to perform during their lifetime.

It is expressing the idea that each of the faithful citizens of Judah would exist in the state of never believing the act of the Lord was about to perform during their lifetime “even though” or “despite the fact” that they were told in advance by the Lord through this prophecy communicated to them by the prophet Habakkuk.

Therefore, we can see here in Habakkuk 1:5 that the Lord, the God of Israel wants each member of this faithful remnant in Judah to not only look among the Gentile nations located in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world but also to carefully observe them.

The reason for this is that the Lord was about to perform an act among these nations which they would never believe even though He told them in advance through this prophecy He communicated to them through the prophet Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 1:6 reveals that one nation in particular would be the recipient of this act, namely Babylon.

Therefore, the Lord is directing this faithful remnant to take their eyes off the apostasy in their own nation for a moment in order to observe what was taking place politically, militarily and economically in another part of their world.

For among these nations, the Lord would address the apostasy in the kingdom of Judah and specifically, He would discipline the apostate individuals in Judah by sending the Babylonians to attack them, destroy their nation and temple and take them from their land.

This faithful remnant would never believe that God would use Babylon since they were a wicked, pagan nation who did not possess a covenant relationship with Him like Judah did.

Therefore, contrary to Habakkuk and this faithful remnant felt that the Lord appeared to be indifferent to the great apostasy in their nation, the Lord was in fact preparing the kingdom of Babylon to discipline the majority of the citizens of Judah for their apostasy.

Thus, long before Habakkuk issued his complaints recorded in Habakkuk 1:2-4 about the apostasy among his fellow citizens of the kingdom of Judah, the Lord was justifiably angry about this same thing.

Habakkuk 1:6 begins with an emphatic declarative statement which asserts that the Lord, the God of Israel has caused the Babylonians to come to power.

He then describes them as a savage and impetuous nation, which acts for its own selfish benefit.

He then describes them as those who march across the vast expanses of the earth in order to seize dwelling places which by no means belong to them.

The first statement in verse 6 is presenting the reason for the previous four commands, causal and concessive clauses recorded in Habakkuk 1:5.

Therefore, a comparison of these verses indicates that the faithful remnant in Judah must obey these four commands because the Lord was about to use the Babylonians as His instrument to judge their fellow unrepentant, apostate citizens in the southern kingdom of Judah.

In Habakkuk 1:6, “Look!” (hinnē) draws the attention of the reader in order to mark the statement that the Lord had caused the Babylonians to come to power as important to the reader and specifically important to the remnant of Judah in Habakkuk’s day.

It is important because the Babylonians will be used by the Lord as His instrument to discipline the southern kingdom of Judah and specifically to discipline the unrepentant, apostate citizens of this nation.

“The Babylonians” (kǎś∙dîm) refers to the Chaldeans who entered southern Mesopotamia in the first millennium B.C. and became the rulers of this area in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.

The ancestor of the Chaldeans was Chesed, the nephew of Abraham through his brother Nahor (Gen. 11:28, 31; 15:7; Neh. 9:7).

The nation of Israel identified the Chaldeans as the Babylonians under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar.

The Babylonians regained their independence from Assyria in 626 B.C. and destroyed the latter completely in 612-605 B.C.

They were a superpower until they were defeated by the Medo-Persian army in 539 BC.

In Habakkuk 1:6, when the Lord asserts that He caused the Babylonians to come to power, He means that He caused this nation to come into prominence as major power in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world in order to fulfill a particular military and political function for Him.

Here this emphatic declarative statement pertains to the Lord preparing the Babylonians to fulfill a particular function for Him militarily and politically.

Specifically, it speaks of the Lord causing or preparing the Babylonians to become His instrument militarily and politically to judge the unrepentant apostate citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah in 605 B.C.

This emphatic declaration ran counter to the theology of the citizens of Judah including Habakkuk (cf. Jer. 5:12; 6:14; 7:1-34; 8:11; Lam. 4:12; Amos 6).

However, this use of another Gentile nation to discipline the nation of Judah was in accordance with the Mosaic Law (cf. Deut. 28:49-50; 1 Kings 11:14, 23; Jer. 4; 5:14-17; 6:22-30; Amos 6:14).