Habakkuk 1:5-11
Notes
Transcript
Habakkuk 1:5-11
Story of sunburn on head
Textual Context:
Date: 609-605 BC
Author: Habakkuk
Location: Judah - pre exile
Form: Wisdom, Lament, Poetic/Hymn
This uniqueness in form positions Habakkuk to stand as the climactic/transitional book of the shorter prophets
Narrative Context:
Narrative Climax of the book of the 12
Transitions from Israel’s punishment to hope for the future
Historical Context:
640 BC - Josiah becomes King
622 BC - “book of the covenant” is found, Judah affirms covenant, Passover celebrated
609 BC - Josiah dies, Jehoahaz/Jehoiakim become kings
609-605 BC - Judah practices the sin of Manasseh
Remember, Israel/Judah is a people whose identity is in the covenant with Yahweh. They’ve lost their identity.
Mosaic has ongoing conditions (Suzerain Vassal)
Abrahamic has already met the conditions (Land Grant)
One theme we will see is The Lord is going to continually remind Judah of His covenants, both the Mosaic, and the Abrahamic
Content Overview of Habakkuk
Chart
Key Points from Hab 1:1-4
How Long?
Why?
Where is Your justice?
Not asking simply out of desperation, but out of Habakkuk’s expectation of who God is and God’s covenant, he is asking the Lord (Yahweh) to do something.
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In verse 5, God enters the conversation. Let’s read our text together.
5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.
6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.
7 “They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
8 “Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
9 “All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand.
10 “They mock at kings And rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress And heap up rubble to capture it.
11 “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.”
PRAY
Let’s zoom in on v5 and begin working through our text
5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.
Where Habakkuk’s plea before the Lord was singular, the Lord’s response is plural.
Four Plural Imperatives:
Look among the nations
Observe
Be Astonished/Marvel
Wonder (LXX - Be Destroyed)
Where Habakkuk’s petition was entirely singular, the Lord’s (Yahweh) response is plural
He is speaking to the nation
Look and Observe in the original language correlate to See and Look in v3 (Ra ah & Nevit)
Habakkuk 1:3 “3 Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises.”
Habakkuk 1:5 “5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.”
5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.
The second pair of imperatives come from different variations of the same root word (tam ah). This is used to communicate the intensity of the shock from confusion and fear.
This combination is used prior in the Old Testament regarding God’s salvific work. (Ps 48:4-5)
28 “The Lord will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart;
5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.
The combination of these 4 commands is in essence, Pay attention. The Lord is doing something awesome.
The word for “something” - פֹּעַל (po’al) is also used in Hab 3:2, we will deal with it more there, but it states that the Lord has not been idle.
Furthermore, the Lord is doing this work in their days. It is coming soon. It will happen rapidly.
Babylon went from being hardly known, to the world power in about 20 years.
6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.
For behold! Expounding and pay attention!
Chaldeans were a tribe in the southern region of Babylon
In Daniel 1, Chaldean is used in an ethnic sense referencing language (605-536)
In Daniel 2, we see them as astronomers or wise men
By the Hellenistic Period, ~300-60BC, Chaldeans is near synonymous with astrologer
Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, was Chaldean
“To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.”
Sounds similar to the promise of the land.
10 “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,
11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,
12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
13 “You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.
14 “You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,
15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.
On the day of the covenant with Abram, the Lord notes His patience with Canaan:
16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
Amorites are of the northern section of Canaan.
When their iniquity was complete, the Lord exacted judgment through Israel.
5 “It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
See the role reversal, hear God’s reminder of the covenant:
The iniquity of Judah is complete, and they have fallen into the place of those whom they dispossessed from the land in accordance with the promise given to Abraham.
6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.
God now moves to describe Babylon
Note the continued use of couplets:
7 “They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
Word for dreaded is used of imminent danger at an awesome force, a crocodile with visible teeth.
It is used of the presence of God. Same narrative of the covenant with Abram.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
Then the Lord speaks His covenant with Abram.
7 “They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
They believe they are autonomous
8 “Their horses are swifter than leopards And keener than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping, Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
There is no comfort in the distance between Babylon and Judah.
The Lord is constantly reminding Habakkuk of the covenant.
49 “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand,
9 “All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand.
Notice the multitude: All of them, Horde, They collect
We need to deal with the word violence here.
Habakkuk uses this word by proportion twice as much as any other Old Testament book. By count it is surpassed only by Psalms and Proverbs using it 6 times like Ezekiel.
The Hebrew word for “Violence” here is Hamas
Now I’m not trying to make a political statement and I would encourage you not to read today into the text, but to read out of the text truth and wisdom to be applied to today. If we believe and follow Scripture, we should be praying for both Israel and Palestine. God desires all to come into relationship with Him through the death and resurrection of Jesus (1 Tim 2.4). Yes, there is a Biblical mandate and responsibility for us to bless the nation of Israel (Gen 12). We here believe the church has not replaced Israel. As such, there is still a future promise, role, and fulfillment of the covenants in the nation of Israel in the future (Romans 9-11). However, this does not mean that we agree with or support every decision carried out or enforced by individuals or governments. We hold the Word of God as truth, the standard of right and wrong. We cannot allow ourselves to deviate from Scripture to fulfill a mandate that Scripture has given us. So as we turn to the text today, please be cautious to not read into the text, but to read truth and wisdom out of it.
So turning back to the text…
9 “All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand.
Violence is not indicative of a nation.
Hab 1.2 it is used of Judah
Hab 1.9 it is used of Babylon
We discussed last week violence as not just physical but is a matter of intent
Violence is indicative of these nations’ character towards God
Violence is their achieved purpose
What do they collect? Captives like sand
16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.
9 “All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand.
10 “They mock at kings And rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress And heap up rubble to capture it.
Once again, Babylon has no respect for authority. They dominate with their might. They destroy where they go.
11 “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.”
Once again, God’s judgment will be swift as accomplished by the Babylonians.
11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god.”
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
11 They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”
11 “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.”
But they will be held guilty isn’t a statement of coming justice, it is a statement of the wrongness of their actions.
who? They whose strength is their god.
This is the nation of Babylon
6 Observations from the Lord’s response
He does not disagree nor correct Habakkuk’s assessment of Judah
He does not rebuke Habakkuk for his complaint - He clarifies, but does not rebuke Habakkuk
The Lord has not been idle, though that is Habakkuk’s statement
The Lord has been patient with Judah, waiting until their sin was complete
The Lord’s response is terrifying
6. Even in pronouncing judgment, the Lord is reminding Judah to remember His covenants
As we look to our own lives, how quickly have we forgotten the promises of God?
This is why we participate in the Lord’s Table
Passover provided life with hope for the land
The cross provided life with hope for the kingdom
Let us remember God’s promises
Let’s pray
Benediction: Luke 22.19-20
19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.