Habakkuk 1:1-4 - How to complain!

1:1

Habakkuk is referred to as a prophet. This is actually quite unusual among the Old Testament prophets! His name is probably Babylonian and refers to a garden plant. He was possibly employed in the temple as a professional prophet. This would be consistent with his complaining about the amount of unrighteousness in Judah. He “received” the prophecy. As Peter says, no prophecy came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things, it was given by God (2 Pet 1:20).

1:2

“How long ...” This is a common complaint in the Bible! Judah was in a poor state spiritually. About a hundred years ago the northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered by the Assyrians as a judgement upon her sin. Judah had failed to learn from this and had sunk progressively into deeper and deeper apostasy. Habakkuk would have seen the grim reality of this. He was evidently a man or prayer and had called on the Lord for help, but no answer had been received. The sins of Judah were not just “religious”, ie the worship of false gods, but also included violence. When a society abandons God it is not just a “religious” matter, serious consequences also follow, usually including violence. In our increasingly secular society the abortion rate is an example of this.

1:3

Habakkuk had to serve in the nation, and so had to see the evil in the land. Why did he have to look on injustice? We may wonder why God makes us live in this land with its increasing sins. God does this for a reason, and part of that reason is for us to call upon the name of the Lord.

But it wasn’t just himself that Habakkuk was concerned about, why does God tolerate it? Why doesn’t He do something about it as He is a God of justice.

“Destruction and violence are before me, there is strife, and conflict abounds”. This is quite an apt description of western societies. There is increasing strife and conflict at all levels.

1:4

The law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. The law here is probably the civic aspects of the Law. In the west too justice often seems far away, the legal system rarely seems to serve justice, more just lining the pockets of the lawyers. So-called human rights seem more to be robbers and terrorists’ rights. Part of the reason for this was that the wealthy could pervert justice. Again in our society the rich can get access to the law, but the ordinary person often cannot afford it.

So we now get the picture. Habakkuk is surrounded by injustice. He has prayed to God on many occasions, but so far nothing has happened, at least as far as he can see. Sometimes God wants to bring us face to face with the reality of the situation. In Habakkuk’s case this would be partly because the answer would seem so terrible, as we will find out in the next section.