Habakkuk 1:6-The Lord Has Prepared the Babylonians as His Instrument to Judge the Apostasy in Judah

Habakkuk 1:1 The following is the message which God revealed to Habakkuk the prophet: 1:2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help? But you do not listen! I call out to you, “Violence!” But you do not intervene! 1:3 Why do you force me to witness injustice? Why do you put up with wrongdoing? Destruction and violence confront me; conflict is present and one must endure strife. 1:4 For this reason the law lacks power, and justice is never carried out. Indeed, the wicked intimidate the innocent. For this reason justice is perverted. 1:5 “Look at the nations and pay attention! You will be shocked and amazed! For I will do something in your lifetime that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. 1:6 Look, I am about to empower the Babylonians, that ruthless and greedy nation. They sweep across the surface of the earth, seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.” (NET)

We have noted that in Habakkuk 1:2-4 that the prophet Habakkuk on behalf of himself and the faithful remnant of Judah complains that the Lord had failed to judge the unrepentant, apostate individuals in the southern kingdom of Judah.

However, in Habakkuk 1:5-11, the Lord responds to these complaints by asserting that He will send the Babylonians as His instrument to judge these unrepentant, apostate individuals in the southern kingdom of Judah.

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.

Each of these four commands are addressed to the faithful remnant of the kingdom of Judah.

They are addressed not only in a corporate sense but also as individuals.

Therefore, the recipients of each of these four commands would be the faithful remnant in the southern 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.

Now, as we noted, here in Habakkuk 1:6, the Lord asserts that He had had cause the Babylonians to come power.

The implication from Habakkuk 1:2-5 is that He was going to use the Babylonians as His instrument to judge the unrepentant apostate citizens of the kingdom of Judah in Habakkuk’s day which we noted was 605 B.C.

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 at the beginning of Habakkuk 1:6 that the Lord caused the Babylonians to come to power with the implication that He would use this pagan, Gentile nation to discipline the citizens of the Judah who were in an unrepentant state of apostasy 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).

Now, as we noted in Habakkuk 1:6, after the emphatic declarative statement that the Lord would cause the Babylonians to come to power, the Lord begins to describe the Babylonians and which description ends in Habakkuk 1:11.

He describes them as “savage” and “impetuous.”

The Lord uses another declarative statement in order to provide Habakkuk and the faithful remnant of Judah a third and fourth description of the Babylonians.

The third describes them as the ones who march across the vast expanses of the earth and the fourth describes them as seizing dwelling places which by no means belong to them.

So therefore, Habakkuk 1:6-11 asserts that the Lord would use the Babylonians to discipline the citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah who were living in unrepentant apostasy.

The God of Israel used the Babylonian Empire to discipline the kingdom of Judah and the inhabitants of her capital city of Jerusalem and He also used Babylon to punish Edom as well as many of the nations in the Mediterranean region of the world in the sixth century B.C. according to Jeremiah 27.

The Babylonian empire led by Nebuchadnezzar was serving God in that they were the instrument used to judge Judah and Jerusalem.

In Jeremiah 25:9, and 27:6, the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah describes Nebuchadnezzar as His servant because this king and his empire were the Lord’s instrument in judging Judah and Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 25:1-11 also teaches that the Lord delivered Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s power because of their idolatry.

Also, a comparison of Leviticus 25:1-12, 26:32-35, 43, Jeremiah 25:11, 29:10 and 2 Chronicles 26:21 indicates that the Lord delivered Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s power because they failed to respect the Sabbath Day and the sabbatic year in which every seventh year they were to let the land rest.

In Ezekiel 36:1-7, the God of Israel through the prophet Ezekiel asserts that He will destroy Edom for their sinful behavior towards Judah when they were destroyed by Babylon.

Therefore, we can see 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.

Now, 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. The Lord had suffered long with these unrepentant citizens of Judah.

Their unrepentant sinful, ungodly conduct was repulsive to the His holy character.

To Habakkuk, and this faithful remnant in the nation, it appeared that the Lord was unconcerned about this situation, but in reality, His righteous indignation was about to be expressed in judgment against the southern kingdom as He makes clear in Habakkuk 1:5-11.