Introducing Habakkuk
In July we will starting a new series in the book of Habakkuk. We’ve put together a short video to give you a helpful summary of where it fits in the Bible story, and what the key themes to look out for are... You’ll find a transcript and glossary below too
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Please find a list of definitions for the words shown in bold in the glossary
Welcome to Habakkuk! Before we have a look at the structure and key features of this Old Testament book of prophecy, let’s see where it sits in and how it relates to the Bible story so far.
The Bible begins with the account of Creation. God makes and rules everything. He gives humanity a privileged role as his image bearers in the world. And he gives them just one ‘don’t’: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Right from the beginning, humans are called to live trusting that what God says and does is good and, by trusting, to obey.
But only three chapters in, we see the first humans disobey when they are tempted by the serpent, Satan, to doubt God’s word and goodness. The results are catastrophic for their relationship with God, with the world and with one another.
One consequence of their disobedience is exile from God’s presence. But God also makes a gracious promise: to send someone who will defeat evil and bring restoration. The whole of the rest of the Old Testament features both the wait for that figure and more detailed promises about him.
Along the way God chooses a people for himself, entirely on the basis of his grace. On various occasions, God makes covenants, either with individuals, such as Abraham, or with the people of Israel. A covenant is a relationship formalized by something similar to a treaty, with God making promises and committing himself to bless the people, and the people committing themselves to keeping the obligations set out in the covenant.
One key example follows the famous story of Moses and the escape from Egypt. . After he’s rescued them, God establishes his covenant relationship with the people of Israel as his ‘treasured possession’ and calls them to live as he commands.
However, God’s people repeatedly disobey. They reveal their lack of faith in God’s goodness and promises in all sorts of ways. But as a new generation finally prepares to enter the land God has promised the people, God renews his covenant with them. He sets out the blessings they can expect to enjoy as loyal, obedient subjects of his covenant. But he also warns them what consequences they can expect if they break the covenant, including military defeat, crop failure, and other disasters, culminating in exile from the land.
Once they’re in the land, there are high moments of faithful rule in their history such as under King David, who receives from God the promise of a future, eternal King who would establish a perfect, lasting kingdom.
However, after David, things go pretty badly pretty quickly. The kingdom splits into two: Israel in the North and Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital, in the South. Over hundreds of years, the number of kings who don’t put their faith in God’s goodness and promises far outweigh those who do. The people are idolatrous, disobedient and faithless, and society is corrupt.
Which brings us to the prophets, who we can think of as God’s ambassadors to the people, holding them to account for their disobedience to the covenant, and warning them of the punishment that was coming. But, wonderfully, they also brought promises of future restoration, and further details about the promised rescuing King.
Sure enough, though, as warned, in 722BC, the Northern kingdom fell to the mighty and vicious Assyrians in an act of God’s judgment. But by 612BC the infamous Assyrians were themselves defeated by rising superpower, the Babylonians – a name that came to represent all empires that set themselves up against God.
So as we read the book of Habakkuk, we are in approximately 612-605BC, some 20 years or so before Jerusalem would eventually fall. At the time of writing, Habakkuk is aware both of his people’s faithlessness and disobedience and of the devastating threat that is Babylon. These are the theological and political contexts existing in the background of the very personal questions we see raised in Habakkuk and into which God speaks his reply.
So let’s take a closer look at the book itself.
Habakkuk is in fact very unusual amongst Old Testament prophecy. Yes, it’s typical in that the covenant background still makes sense of what is going on; it has a tone of lament in common with sections of other prophets; like many prophetic books, it features Hebrew poetry; and it is still characterized by messages of judgment and the promise of future deliverance.
But Habakkuk is unusual in that he isn’t only relaying God’s words to the people. Instead, he’s recording God’s direct, personal response to him, Habakkuk, as he addresses his questions to God. Over the course of three chapters, we see the development of Habakkuk’s own thinking and feeling as it is shaped by God’s answers to his questions.
The structure looks like this…
It opens with Habakkuk asking God a question: Why aren’t you doing anything about the evil in Judah?
And then God answers: I am! I’m going to send Babylon against you.
The raises a second question for the prophet: How can you, a holy God, use people who are even more wicked than us to bring judgment on us?
And again God answers: I will bring judgment on their evil too
And then the final chapter brings us Habakkuk’s vision of God and his prayer of faith where he effectively says to God: Even in the face of difficulty and loss, I will rejoice and trust in you.
Keeping that structure in mind helps you know what’s going on as you read the book. And, as you read, here are four things to look out for:
First, at the different points that Habakkuk speaks, how would you sum up how Habakkuk feels and why? What changes? What has God said that leads to those changes?
Second, the book is full of imagery, arranged in the typical style of Hebrew poetry. This means a particular idea is addressed over two or more successive lines, either to build up a picture or to draw out contrasts. Ask yourself what all the poetic imagery adds to the ideas being communicated. Do you recognise any of it from elsewhere in Scripture?
Thirdly, sometimes it can be hard to spot Jesus in the Old Testament. In Habakkuk, look out for big Bible themes such as evil and justice, God’s sovereignty, hope, faith… and think about how they are addressed or fulfilled in the gospel of Christ. And are there any references to anything else in the Old Testament that make you think of Jesus?
Finally, what is Habakkuk having to wait for and to trust in? And how is that a picture of the believer’s life of faith?
Habakkuk is an insight into one man’s heartfelt wrestle with many questions we can relate to today and the disclosure of some of God’s answers. We hope that as you read these words and we look at them together in the coming weeks, you enjoy seeing God’s goodness in the book of Habakkuk.
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ambassadors
someone sent to represent a ruler and deliver that ruler’s message — in this case, to bring God’s words to the people of Israel
bless
do good to
corrupt
guilty of dishonest or immoral behaviour; that is behaviour that isn’t what God desires and commands
culminating
ending with (as the best or, in this case, worst thing)
deliverance.
rescue (eg from slavery, from danger)
disclosure
making known
exile
being sent away from your own country and banned from reentering it
grace
undeserved, unearned kindness shown by God to people
gracious
showing undeserved, unearned kindness
idolatrous
worshipping or treating something or someone other than God as if it were God
image bearers
humans reflect something of the nature and character of God to the rest of creation
imagery
using words to create pictures in a reader’s mind, often in a way that helps to communicate an idea, description, impression or mood
infamous
famous for something that is bad
judgment
finding someone guilty of doing something wrong and punishing that wrongdoing
lament
communicating deep sadness, mourning or regret
obligations
Duties — things you have to do
prophecy
Old Testament prophecy involved prophets (God’s chosen ambassadors) speaking God’s word to God’s people about their disobedience and what God was going to do about it
relaying
receiving something and then passing it on to someone else
restoration
Repairing; putting something back to how it was before it was broken. Here, it’s talking about God’s relationship with his people
sovereignty
God’s total control and rule over all things as the Creator who has total authority over everything
successive
following one after another — in this case, two or more lines of poetry that are considered ‘parallel’ and so are meant to be read together. By comparing the ‘parallel’ lines, we either build up a bigger picture of the idea they’re talking about, or we see contrasts between different ideas
theological
to do with God
