Habakkuk 1

 

Habakkuk, nothing can be really known beyond what he says of himself. From this it is clear that he lived in evil days, and was perplexed with the silence and forbearance of a Holy God in permitting the evil to continue.

 

His prophecy takes the form of a colloquy with God; and God answers his cry by revealing the fact that a time will come when the evil will be visited upon Judah by the Chaldean successors of Assyria and by the Dispersion of Judah. (Habakkuk 1:1-13)

The prayer is very important as being a summary of God's dealings with His People from the passage of the Red Sea to the prophet's own time.

The prayer is important also, as being the model (together with Isaiah 38), outside the Psalter, of the proper construction of a Psalm, with (1) the superscription, (2) the text, and (3) subscription; and also, of the meaning and use of the word "Selah" .

The prophecy is undated; but we have a clue afforded in Habakkuk 1:5,6. It is given to Habakkuk before the fall of Nineveh, which placed Babylon at the head of the Gentile world. According to traditional or "received" dating, this took place in 625 B.C., but, according to the chronology given, it was 515 B.C., or 110 years later.

If the hints given in Habakkuk 1:3-11 are to he accepted on the above lines, we may date the prophecy of Habakkuk as being given (as a whole), or at any rate commenced, in the year with which Jeremiah begins: in the thirteenth year of Josiah, 518 B.C. three years before the destruction of Nineveh.

In this case, supposing one among those Habakkuk addressed to be twenty years old, he would he forty-two in Jehoiakim's fourth year and Nebuchadnezzar's first. At the carrying away to Babylon he would be forty-nine; and at the destruction of Jerusalem he would be sixty-one.

 

Habakkuk 1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

• Burden = The Hebrew accent places the chief pause on this verb, to emphasize the fact that the giving of the vision was of more importance than what was revealed by it.
• A second and lesser pause is placed on "burden", leaving "Habakkuk" as being less important.
• The verse therefore should read, "The burden which he saw, Habakkuk the prophet".

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

• Cry = cry for help in distress
• Showing that the cry is not personal, but made in the name of all who suffered from the evil times.
• Cry out = cry with a loud voice, implying the complaint.

3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.

• Iniquity = Hebrew word 'avert = trouble, having special reference to the nature and consequences of evil-doing.
• Grievance = oppression, or injustice.
• There are that raise up = A reading is found in some codices (named in the Massorah), "I had to endure".
  strife and contention.
• There should not be a comma after "strife", as in the Revised Version.
• The Hebrew accents indicate the one act, "and contention rising up", like "spoiling and violence are before me" in the preceding clause.

4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

• Wicked = coming of Satan
• Slacked = benumbed.
• Judgment = justice
• The wicked = a lawless one: looking forward from the Chaldeans to the future Antichrist. Hebrew word  rasha".
• The righteous = the just one
• Wrong = perverted.
• Proceedeth = goeth forth.

5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.

• Behold = Look ye = For emphasis, introducing the change to God's answer.
• Behold . . . regard . . . wonder = the Figure of speech Anabasis
• Heathen = nations
• Which ye - will not believe = Some codices read "yet ye will not believe".
• Works = in the end times = God's words
• Ezekiel 37:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
• Ezekiel 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
  12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
• Isaiah 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
  20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over past.
• John 5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
Ezekiel 37:5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

• Chaldeans = Babylon
• Satan is the king of Babylon of the end times

7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

• They are terrible and dreadful = Chaldeans = Babylon

8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

• They shall fly as the eagle = Deut 28:49 The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
  50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
• You should be remembers Revelation 9
• End times by their lies they deception the world all people that don't have the seal of God in their forehead

9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

• All for violence = not for conquest, but for destruction.
• Faces = aspect, intent, or eagerness,
• Sup up = swallow up as the Palestine burning east wind withers up and destroys all green things.

10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.

• This is how deception will take over the world, those that want to believe a lie
• Take it = capture = every stronghold

11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.

12 Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

• We shall not die =  This is one of the eighteen emendations of the Sopherim, which they say they made because it was considered offensive to say this of God; hence, the one word of the primitive text "who diest not" was changed to "who die not"  = "we shall not die".
• The change from the second person to the first did more than avoid the supposed irreverent expression; it transferred to mortal men the truth which, apart from resurrection, pertains to God alone, "Who only hath immortality".
• O mighty God = O Rock

13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

• God let's these things happen = for a test
• Are you listen to man or you studying God's Word
• God needs to know if you love Him
• The wicked = a lawless one. Hebrew word rasha" = Looking forward to the Antichrist.

14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

• They have no ruler over them, to teach God's Word

15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.

• Most children know how to count = 5th trump, 6th trump and 7th trump
• What did God said?
• 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
• What does man teach?
• You don't have to study God's word = you're going to be gone
• They teach = rapture fly away
• They catch my people in a net = to deceive them
• Ezekiel 13:10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:
• Ezekiel 13:16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord God.
• The prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem
• Which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord God
17 Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them,
18 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?
• Will ye hunt the souls of my people
19 And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?
• By your lying to my people that hear your lies?
20 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.
• I am against your pillows, ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms
21 Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
22 Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:
• Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad
23 Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.

17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

• Once Satan and his children have you in Satan net
• This is why the people pray for the mountains to fall on them
• Once you worshipped Satan = It's too late

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

(Leviticus. 26: 28-46) God warned Israel that if they persisted in continually breaking His Laws, not only would curses come upon them.

He would punish them for seven times, (a time being 360 years, seven times would be 2520 years) and would banish them from the land of Palestine and scatter them among the heathens (like lost sheep)

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25