Habakkkuk means whom the Lord embraces... and Habakkuk could use an embrace after hearing the coming judgement but coming mercy as well Book of Habakkuk, a struggle, ultimate futility of the nations in some senses and going forward, faith in a God who will accomplish all His pleasure The page on the first slide is a fig tree with no leaves or figs God tells Habakkuk He is doing something YOU HABAKKUK would not believe even if you were told. Is that a type of irony for God to say that to a prophet? The justified (by faith) shall live is set in contrast to the proud (who have no need of faith except in themselves) and is also in contrast to the summary statement in 2:13,14 where the nations labor for nothing. God's purpose will stand and The death shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (which is completely). Habakkuk went through real struggle with the issue of evil in the world and God's apparent lack of response. Hw complains to God about evil, violence and lawlessness and God explains He will send the Babylonians and they will wipe you out. He resolves to listen The book ends with a musical psalm that models living by faith in a desperately difficult time

1. The justified (by faith) shall live
A truth modeled by Habakkuk himself

2. part 1
A statement of despair
A dialog
of discontent
Habakkuk speaks of his burden

3. The burden of Habakkuk
Evil in the world
and God’s response

4. Habakkuk's Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
SILENCE
violence
lawlessness
injustice

5. God’s reply
Not as expected
The Lord's Answer
5 “Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.
God Called righteous Abraham from
the land of the Chaldeans
now He will Call the
Wicked Babylonians from the same

6. Habakkuk's Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord's Answer
5 “Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

7. A rebuke to humanism
through Babylon
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

8. Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12
Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you[ will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
13
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
14
You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
15
The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
16
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
17
Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?
2
I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.[d]
How could God use an evil nation
The evil nation is relentless
The evil nation worships its success
The evil nation has no mercy

9. Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12
Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you[ will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
13
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
14
You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
15
The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
16
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
17
Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?
2
I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.[d]
The Lord’s Answer
2 Then the Lord replied:
“Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald[e] may run with it.
3
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it[f] will certainly come
and will not delay.
4
“See, the enemy is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness[g]—
5
indeed, wine betrays him;
he is arrogant and never at rest.
( continued…)
The proud do not live by faith
except perhaps in themselves

10. They worship
their might

11. part 2
A new resolve
Habakkuk
had a change in direction
and gets an unexpected response
2
I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give
to this complaint.

12. WOE TO THE TERRORIST
Habakkuk 2:6. Shall not all these take up a
parable against him,
and a taunting proverb against him, and
say,
Woe to him that increaseth that which is not
his! how long?
and to him that ladeth himself with thick
clay!

13. Because he is as greedy as the grave
and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
and takes captive all the peoples.
6 “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,
“‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods
and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
How long must this go on?’
7
Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
Then you will become their prey.
8
Because you have plundered many nations,
the peoples who are left will plunder you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

14. woe 2
WOE TO THE WICKED RICH
Habakkuk 2:9-11. Woe to him that coveteth an
evil covetousness to his house,
that he may set his nest on high,
that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
10Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by
cutting off many people,
and hast sinned against thy soul.
11For the stone shall cry out of the wall,
and the beam out of the timber
shall answer it.

15. 9
“Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
setting his nest on high
to escape the clutches of ruin!
10
You have plotted the ruin of many peoples,
shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
11
The stones of the wall will cry out,
and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.

16. woe 3
WOE TO THE VIOLENT
Habakkuk 2:12-14. Woe to him that buildeth a town with
blood,
and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
13Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts
that the people shall labour in the very fire,
and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
14For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory
of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea.

17. 12
“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
and establishes a town by injustice!
13
Has not the Lord Almighty determined
that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
14
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of
the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
verses 13 and 14 may be the summary
verses of the whole of the
book of Habakkuk

18. woe 4
WOE TO THE ABUSERS
Isaiah 2:15-16. Woe unto him that
giveth his neighbour drink,
that puttest thy bottle to him,
and makest him drunken also,
that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
16Thou art filled with shame for glory:
drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered:
the cup of the LORD’S right hand
shall be turned unto thee,
and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.

19. 15
“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors,
pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
16
You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed!
The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you,
and disgrace will cover your glory.
17
The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
18
“Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman?
Or an image that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
he makes idols that cannot speak.

20. woe 5
WOE TO THE IDOLATOR
Habakkuk 2:18-20. What profiteth the graven
image that the maker thereof hath graven it;
the molten image, and a teacher of lies,
that the maker of his work trusteth therein,
to make dumb idols?
19Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake;
to the dumb stone, Arise,
it shall teach!
Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
20But the LORD is in his holy temple:
let all the earth keep silence before him.

21.
19
Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’
Can it give guidance?
It is covered with gold and silver;
there is no breath in it.”
20
The Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

22. Babylon will fall “by it’s own arrows”

23. Babylon will fall “by it’s own arrows”

24. Babylon will fall “by it’s own arrows”
In many many Biblical stories
the enemies were defeated by the means they
meant for evil.
This is true of the ultimate enemy as well
The devil had the power of death
yet Jesus entered into death
and defeated it.

25. part 3
Habakkuk models
“The justified (by faith) shall live”
A hymn of faith
An expertly crafted musical
praise
A song of submission in trust
A Psalm. A Shigionoth with three Selah’s

26. A Shigionoth
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet,
according to Shigionoth.

27. A Shigionoth
About that word ‘shigionoth’
no one knows for sure… but it has the same
root as error and can mean wander
or possibly an erratic musical composition
or dance or a reeling. Babylon was said
to reel with the coming judgement, so this could be
appropriate.
Psalm 7 is also a ‘shigionoth’ and has things
like earthquake references and the like and deals
with the error of peoples ways and a victory
of God over evil.

28. O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
3
God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
“…in wrath remember mercy…”
Selah

29. 3
His splendor covered the heavens, and the
earth was full of his praise.
4
His brightness was like the light; rays
flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
His power viewed in His hand
light shining out from inside a clenched fist

30. 5
Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels
6
He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the
nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the
everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.
He stood and measured the earth

31. 7
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8
Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
9
You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows.
You stripped the sheath from your bow
Selah

32. 9
You split the earth with rivers.
10
The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high.

33. 11
The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as
they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
12
You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger.
13
You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your
anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck.

34. 14
You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour
the poor in secret.
15
You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.
16
I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
Selah

35. 17
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
18
yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19
God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Selah
Habakkuk models
“The justified (by faith) shall live”
The conclusion

36. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

37. Two silver trumpets
made from one piece
for the calling of the people
Some might say the Old and New Testaments
are made from the same piece of silver
and call the people of God together

38. Two silver trumpets
made from one piece
for the calling of the people
and no wonder that an Old Testament book
like Habakkuk can be so prominent in
Romans and Galations

39. The justified (by faith) shall live
A truth modeled by Habakkuk himself
fin