Habakkuk’s Complaints (Habakkuk 1:1–2:1)

This sermon was preached on 20/12/2012

Why study the Book of Habakkuk? After all, it is not a long book and we don’t know much about the man himself. It is possible that his name means ‘embracer’, and he certainly was determined to hold on to God, and at the same time embrace his people. Such is an accurate description of all who are called by the Lord to serve him. No personal information is available about who Habakkuk was (some suggest that the final verse of the book indicates he was a musician in the temple), which of course means that the Spirit saw no need for us to know very much about the prophet. But what reasons can be given for considering this book that the Spirit inspired for our spiritual benefit?

Walter Kaiser helpfully provides four reasons: ‘pastoral, theological, apologetic, and spiritual.’ The pastoral element is its emphasis on prayer; its theological element is that Habakkuk is the source of the well-known New Testament phrase, ‘The just shall live by faith’; the apologetic element deals with the problem of a good God and the existence of evil; and the spiritual element is its teaching on joyful worship of God.

Habakkuk is looking back to an oracle that he received from the Lord. What did God want Habakkuk to realise through this message? We discover it from the burden he had and what he did with it. The prophet had a huge concern for his wayward people and longed for the Lord to restore them. Through a series of interactions between the prophet and his God we are given insight into how the Lord responds to earnest prayer and into how we can maintain and develop a spiritual lifestyle in difficult days. We see different ways by which God answers prayer.

Yet the book is more than a dialogue between God and his servant. For example, the verbs in 1:5, which begins the initial response of the Lord to Habakkuk’s complaint, are plural. So it is clear that Habakkuk was given a reply to pass on to others for their careful consideration.

Habakkuk’s first complaint (1:2-4)

The prophet reveals that he has been praying for a long period, apparently without an answer from God. Further the contents of his prayers are logical and based on a love for God’s law. It is logical to assume that the holy God will act to defend his law and love for the Lord will cause his people to pray to him for protection of his people. These things were true in the prophet’s day and they are true in our day. Yet the response from heaven to Habakkuk seemed to him to be one of silence and we too can deduce the same assessment as far as our prayers are concerned. But was he right, and are we right, to do so?

Habakkuk’s first complaint raises two common questions in the outlook of Christians. First, why does the Lord sometimes take a long time to answer a repeated prayer request? We don’t know how long the prophet had been praying in this manner. Second, why does the Lord allow his devoted people to see horrid sins, even among the professing people of God?

The concern about delays in answered prayer is a common one and usually is very difficult to experience. It is easy to indicate the different ways in which God answers. He can say ‘yes’ immediately and we receive what we ask, he can ‘yes’ but adjust his answer from what we requested, he can say ‘yes’ but not answer for a long time, and he can say ‘no’. The problem with the two final aspects is that we don’t know if he has said yes or no. So we have to keep on praying and wait.

One reason why he delays in sending an answer is to test our love for him. The reality is, do we love God more than the thing we are asking for, or do we love the thing more than God. The ‘thing’ may not be evil in itself, but it becomes evil if it replaces God in our affections.

A second reason why he delays in sending an answer is connected to us using the right arguments. Imagine a child coming to his father and asking for something. The father asks the child why he should it and the child replies, ‘Because I want it.’ That might be acceptable in a three-year-old, but not with an older child. The child has to explain why he should receive it. What arguments should we use in prayer to God? His glory and his promises. I am certain that a failure to use them is why our prayers are often not answered. God delights to honour his own promises. This is what it means to pray in faith. Praying in faith is not convincing myself that God will listen to a prayer, rather it is realising that God has made definite promises about certain matters and I can pray with confidence about such things.

A third reason for delays in answering prayer is that the Lord knows what we are asking for would not be good for us. Having been a Christian for forty years, one of the details of my experience for which I am very thankful is that the Lord did not answer yes to some of my most earnest prayers. If he had said yes then, I would not be here now. The Lord waits until we are more mature and then we will stop making some requests. 

Why does he at times let his people see personal sins in themselves? One answer is to remind them that they are saved sinners; another is to lead them to deeper dependence on God and such dependence is usually seen in urgent prayers; a third answer is to show them reasons why they should be very careful about tolerating sin; a fourth answer is to cause us to value our salvation more and more, and a true sight of our sin brings that about.

And we can see sin other people as well. Why are we allowed to see their sins? One answer is to be appalled by sin, another answer is to pray for them, and a third answer is to bring the gospel to them.

As we look at Habakkuk’s complaint, three details stand out. First, he is very frank with his words and expresses his complaint clearly and straightforwardly. There would be no point in being otherwise because the Lord knew the prophet’s concerns already. The second detail is that Habakkuk’s feelings were involved. We can see that was the case from his questions. He was not stoical about the situation. The third detail is that his complaint is an expression of faith. He articulated his words because he knew that the Lord could answer the questions. Where else can we go when things seem to go wrong?

The Lord’s first answer (1:5-11)

Eventually the Lord reveals to Habakkuk what is going to happen to his people. Contrary to what the prophet had imagined, the Lord had been at work with his own plan for dealing with his erring people. He has been at work preparing his tools for punishing Israel for her sins. The divine tool was the Chaldeans or Babylonians, especially their all-conquering army. In what would have been a stunning moment for Habakkuk, the Lord reveals that he is going to use the worst traits of the Chaldeans as a means of punishing his people. It is not a mere threat that the Lord gives. The days of warning were over, now the punishment was coming.

The vast majority of people would have put the rise of Babylon down to a wide variety of political and military reasons, each of which would be true. They had defeated the Assyrians and the Egyptians and their rise seemed unstoppable. Yet only divine revelation can explain the rise of Babylon and all other powers. Their ascent to prominence and period of power is connected to the Lord’s plans for his people. Paul reminded the Ephesians that Jesus ‘is head over all things for the sake of his body, the church’ (Eph. 1:22). The Saviour governs everything with his church in view, which is very comforting and challenging. Babylon was to bring Judah into captivity, it is true, yet it was also going to be a means of divine correction of his people.

In this divine response we see his almighty power in the fact that he can use the most powerful nation in the world to fulfil his purposes. We also see his love of righteousness in the fact that he did not turn a blind eye to the sins of Judah. Further here is a reminder that judgement begins at the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17) – Judah knew better, therefore they were facing severe judgement, including the loss of property (1:7) and slavery (1:9). In addition, the Lord was going to remove his common grace from the behaviour of the Chaldeans and when that happened Judah would experience intense cruelty; his common grace was also removed from Judah, with the consequence that their protectors (kings and rulers) and their defence systems (fortresses) would be useless. Yet although they were used by the Lord the Chaldeans would not be given saving grace. Instead they imagined that their success came from themselves.

So how would Habakkuk respond to this information? This leads us to consider his second complaint in 1:12–2:1.

Habakkuk's Second Complaint

The prophet begins with words of praise about the greatness of God, and it is clear that he expresses them with warm affection and delight. Habakkuk is living in changing times and wisely he thinks about the unchanging God who is from everlasting. Thrones topple on earth, but the heavenly throne is fixed. So in changing times, like the ones we are going through, remember that God is on the throne.

Thinking about God in changing times also strengthens faith. Despite being told that the most powerful empire on earth is about to march into Judah, the prophet responds with confident words, ‘We shall not die.’ He did not say, ‘I shall not die.’ He could not focus on himself alone because he had no access to God’s plan for him as an individual. But he did know that, despite the severity of the judgement, God’s cause would survive. When the judgments of God come on his church they are not sent to destroy her but to bring her to repentance. As we look out on the threats God is sending against his church, none of us knows what will happen to us individually.

Thinking about God as we pray in changing times enables us to understand why he brings judgement.  In verse 12, the prophet acknowledges that the covenant Lord of his people will use a powerful enemy to chastise them for their sins. Yet as the prophet thinks of this awful prospect he calls the Lord a Rock, a place of security when he is active in judgement.

Thinking about the character of God in such times helps us with apparent contradictions. In verse 13ff., the prophet is perplexed because he knows God is holy and yet is going to use an unholy people to punish his people. Yet when we think about it, what would be the alternative? The Lord could have used the holy angels, but their power was far more to be feared than the power of Babylon.

Yet there still is a dilemma here, and it is one that reappears throughout history, and it is that God uses wicked tools to bring down his own work. In Habakkuk’s perception, it was not the fact that sinful people of Judah would be punished that bothered him; instead it was the fact that righteous in Judah would suffer at the hands of the Babylonians (v. 13), people like Daniel and his friends. Of course, we know in looking back that God worked things together for good as far as his kingdom was concerned.

Perhaps it might help us to understand this if we think of other forms of judgement that God might use. Take, for example, a plague that he sends; we have examples of such in the Bible. It is possible that among the victims of the plague will be the Lord’s people. Of course, they go to heaven and it could be that their removal is the most serious aspect of the divine judgement in that their prayers are now silent.

Habakkuk knew the fury of the Babylonians (they were like fishermen who show no mercy to their fish). Indeed some ancient inscriptions depict the Babylonian armies as fishermen sweeping up all before them. The only One who could stop them was the One who called them to this task. And Habakkuk wanted to know if the Lord would stop them. Therefore he would wait on his watchtower until God replied.