Habakkuk 1:12-2:5

Recap

Habakkuk 1:12–2:5 ESV

Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever? I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.”

We see God’s Eternality

Verse 12

We shall not die vs. You shall not die

You shall not die restates what he has already said

We shall not die affirms God’s preservation of His people, and His fulfillment of His covenant

Calvin

Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets Lecture One Hundred and Seventh

the Prophet confidently draws this inference,—that this people cannot perish, for they are preserved by God. No power of the world, nor any of its defences, can indeed afford us this security; for whatever forces may all mortals bring either to protect or help us, they shall all perish together with us.

We see God’s Purity

Verse 13

Obviously not teaching that God somehow cannot observe evil

Throughout Scripture, God

Isaiah 10:5–7 ESV

Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;

Verse 14

John Chrysostom

Old Testament XIV: The Twelve Prophets God’s Purity Does Not Look on Evil

You see, even if it is the wicked who perish, nevertheless the souls of good people are likely to show compassion when they see people being punished.

Verse 1

Ezekiel 3:17 ESV

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.

Verse 5

“His greed is as wide as Sheol”

Literally “He opens his throat like Sheol”

Sheol “realm of death” or “grave”

Conclusion

“Wherever human beings rely on something of this earth— whether it be intellectual achievement or wealth or military might or aesthetic ability and appreciation or pride of birth and status or even the ability to cope and solve problems and master the complexities of modern life—wherever confidence is placed in human prowess and not in God for the achievement and a satisfying and secure manner of living, there true life cannot be had.”