Contextualize
Habakkuk is a minor prophet in the Old Testament. Not minor because of its content, but because of its size. It is 3 short chapters. Habakkuk as a person is not mentioned in the bible before or after this book and very little is known about him. Scholars estimate that Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah and lived during the reign of King Jehoiakim around 600BC.
• The books starts with Habakkuk asking his first set of difficult questions. Chapter 1:1-4
• Then God gives his first answer in Chapter 1:5-11. This is a shorter version of what God will clarify in more detail later.
• Next, Habakkuk raises the stakes and asks even more difficult and detailed questions to God in verses 1:12-17.
• Then, God gives a more detailed answer that takes up all of Chapter 2.
• Last, Habakkuk pens a psalm that summarizes the whole engagement in Chapter 3.
In a few ways, you will notice that the book of Habakkuk has similarities to the book of Job. In fact, I believe it would be accurate to say that Habakkuk is a mini-Job book. Habakkuk doesn’t tackle the enormous and cosmic issues that the book of Job addresses, but Habakkuk does take a quick flight over a central theme of Job.
We will look at the specific questions Habakkuk asks, but the overarching thematic question is, “Who is God and what is His nature?” Is God simply the superhero, always “good” as we understand goodness, that rescues we his damsels in distress just before catastrophe strikes? Or is God’s character more complicated? Who is this God guy and what is he like? How do we categorize him in terms we can understand? These ideas represent what a deep-dive into Habakkuk offers.
In chronology Habakkuk takes place just before the book of Daniel. If you recall the book of Daniel, it is about Daniel and his friends being taken off into captivity in Babylon. Habakkuk was sitting in Judah; the southern kingdom and the Babylonian attack was imminent. Here we have Habakkuk watching the Babylonian army getting closer and closer, the threat becoming more and more serious, as he has a vision, then pens this book asking God some big questions.
The threat of the Babylonian army is difficult to overstate. Non-biblical historians note that Babylon crafted a siege wall at Jerusalem and prevented people from entering or leaving the city, causing mass starvation. When Babylon finally breached the walls of Jerusalem and entered the city, it was a violent murderous purging of the conquered culture.
Destruction of people, animals, homes, and anything that represented identity to the people got wiped away. If it was an online video, it would have a warning that preceded it saying, “the contents of this video are shocking, viewer discretion is advised.”
Historians describe streets littered with bodies, fires everywhere and anyone deemed capable, valuable, or desirable was hauled off into captivity and abused. The Babylonians were known for their cruelty and would drag captives away in fish nets and string captives together by putting large iron hooks into people’s jaws. We are going to see imagery of this in the biblical text. Habakkuk knows this about the Babylonians and is rightly terrified that their armies will arrive soon.
In a desperate situation, Habakkuk has a vision, or oracle, and has a conversation with God, asking God some big questions.