I’ve been listening to Mark Driscoll preach again lately, and it’s been really good. Listening to his sermon series on Habakkuk has been pretty interesting – enough that I’m gonna dive into the book myself.
3 things I notice in Habakkuk 1:
- Wow, he’s super frustrated and really letting that show.
- They laugh at fortified cities because they build earthen ramps and capture them…holy cripes. That reminds me of the Sword of Truth novel that I read years ago where that’s what the evil army did to assault the fortress of…Rahl, I think. Anyway, it was insane that they could and I have pretty vivid imaginings of what that would look like and require, so this verse is nuts to me.
- Also that I thought it was crazy when I read it in the novels, that anyone would think of that. But here it is from two thousand something years ago.
- Wow, God actually just straight up answers the guy. The answer SUPER sucks, but He does just answer him.
Here’s the passage if you want to read it.
Totally copying and pasting from Bible Gateway. Thanks Bible Gateway for being around and available to copy the bible from.
Habakkuk 1New International Version (NIV)
1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,[a]
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
9 they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes[b] advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
10 They mock kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen ramps they capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you[c] 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?