Habakkuk 3:17-19
English Standard Version

Habakkuk Rejoices in the LORD
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the LORD, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

This will end our study of the book of Habakkuk.  He ends by saying that even if bad and hard times come (the judgment that the LORD pronounced), and all the things that were seen as blessings under the covenant turn to the things recognized as curses under the covenant, he will still rejoice in the LORD.  Though circumstances may change, it is because the people have changed, not because the LORD has changed.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He will always be worthy of our worship, honor, and praise.  He is our strength and our song and our salvation.  That has not changed.  He helps us to make it through the rough and treacherous places in life, like a deer that skips across the loose rocks on the top of the mountain.  The high places that He calls us to climb are lonely and desolate, but He is with us all the way, and for this we praise Him and wait to see how He will orchestrate things to be, for He is still in control of all things.

Habakkuk 3:1-16
English Standard Version

Habakkuk's Prayer
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
    and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
    in the midst of the years make it known;
    in wrath remember mercy.
3 God came from Teman,
    and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
    and the earth was full of his praise.
4 His brightness was like the light;
    rays flashed from his hand;
    and there he veiled his power.
5 Before him went pestilence,
    and plague followed at his heels.
6 He stood and measured the earth;
    he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
    the everlasting hills sank low.
    His were the everlasting ways.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
    the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?
    Was your anger against the rivers,
    or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
    on your chariot of salvation?
9 You stripped the sheath from your bow,
    calling for many arrows. Selah
    You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw you and writhed;
    the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
    it lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their place
    at the light of your arrows as they sped,
    at the flash of your glittering spear.
12 You marched through the earth in fury;
    you threshed the nations in anger.
13 You went out for the salvation of your people,
    for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
    laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah
14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
    who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
    rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15 You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.

16 I hear, and my body trembles;
    my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
    my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
    to come upon people who invade us.

This is the beginning of the last chapter of the book of Habakkuk.  It is written more as a song or a psalm even though it is called a prayer here, as it uses the word "Selah" that is mostly found in the Psalms and in other songs.  Though we don't know exactly what "Selah" means, many think it marks the end of a verse, possibly telling the singer to pause and reflect before continuing.  In any case, this musical feature to chapter three sets it apart from chapters one and two.

Habakkuk decides that even though he doesn't fully understand the LORD's plan, he will worship the LORD for who he is, what He has already done, and what Habakkuk is certain He will do in the future--so certain that he uses the past tense to speak of future events as if they have already happened.  There is a mixture between the salvation and deliverance that the LORD has provided in the past and what Habakkuk is sure He will provide in the future.  Why do I say this?  Because in the past, the LORD brought His people together into the Land from one place, and even when they return from Exile, they will mostly be returning from the East (though some from the North and South), but not even in this current Exile were the people taken to the West.  Habakkuk speaks of a greater return (when Messiah comes to reign) when the LORD's people will come from North, South, East and West and gather back together in the Land as a united people.

Though the LORD is a mighty warrior that brings to bear the forces of nature and even pagan armies to do His will, He also is the one who redeems and restores His people at the proper time.  The whole earth will be broken by the shaking of heaven and earth at His coming, but His Land and His People will be safe and secure.  He advances in battle for the purpose of saving His people.  The nations will be sifted like grain and the good grain will be gathered into His storehouses while the wicked chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.

No man or army can stand against Him, though there will be fools that will try.  The warriors that try to fight against Him will die by their own weapons.  Those who came to devour the LORD's people will be destroyed.  Those who came to rob them will leave their possessions as an inheritance for the LORD's people.  Habakkuk says the idea is joyfully terrifying, but he will quietly await this coming Day.  In the end, he knows the Chaldeans will get what is coming to them, even if it doesn't come in Habakkuk's lifetime.  Evil and the kingdom of this world will not triumph.

Habakkuk 2:6-20
English Standard Version

Woe to the Chaldeans
6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,

“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own--
    for how long?--
    and loads himself with pledges!”
7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
    and those awake who will make you tremble?
    Then you will be spoil for them.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
    all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who dwell in them.

9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
    to set his nest on high,
    to be safe from the reach of harm!
10 You have devised shame for your house
    by cutting off many peoples;
    you have forfeited your life.
11 For the stone will cry out from the wall,
    and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood
    and founds a city on iniquity!
13 Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts
    that peoples labor merely for fire,
    and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled
    with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
    as the waters cover the sea.

15 “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink--
    you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
    in order to gaze at their nakedness!
16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
    Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the LORD's right hand
    will come around to you,
    and utter shame will come upon your glory!
17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
    as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who dwell in them.

18 “What profit is an idol
    when its maker has shaped it,
    a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
    when he makes speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
    to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
    and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple;
    let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Habakkuk has been upset by the fact that the LORD is using the wicked Chaldeans to punish the people of Judah.  The question lurking for Habakkuk and probably for us too is "Will the LORD let the Chaldeans go unpunished?"  The LORD answers that question in today's passage where He lays out what is going to happen to them because of the atrocities that have committed and are going to commit.  Just because they are supposed to take the people of Judah captive and into exile does not mean that they needed to abuse and mistreat them.

They stole possessions that did not belong to them, even taking the holy items from the LORD's sanctuary, but this will not keep them safe as those who owe them money will rise up together because they will covert the treasures that the Chaldeans have acquired from far-away lands and will try to take them by force, even though they have no right to them.  The plunderers will be plundered.

The Chaldeans think they are safe and secure like a bird that makes its nest on top of a rocky spire that no animal can climb.  However, the LORD can still reach them and will bring destruction to their entire households.  Their cities are stained with the shedding of innocent blood and all kinds of iniquity, so the LORD will destroy them.

They forced their neighbors to become intoxicated so they could have nonconsensual sex with them.  This is a form of rape that still exists today and it was just as detestable then as it is now.  Those who take advantage of the innocent for perverse sexual pleasure are condemned by the LORD and will face His wrath.  They will feel the same kind of wrath and fury that they poured out on others, but this will come from the hand of the LORD.

Last, but not least, they will be destroyed because they worship and put their trust in idols.  In a sense, this is their way of worshiping themselves as they fashioned the idol so that makes them superior.  The LORD says all those who worship idols of metal, wood, and stone will come to realize their idols are dead, but He is the Living God and He is in His Holy Temple (in heaven, just because they destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem did not destroy the LORD) and all people will keep silent before Him as He sits in judgment over them.

Habakkuk 2:2-5
English Standard Version

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith
2 And the LORD answered me:

“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.

4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.

5 “Moreover, wine is a traitor,
    an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
    like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
    and collects as his own all peoples.”

The LORD tells Habakkuk to write down a vision that would come true in the future, an appointed time.  Though it may seem slow to come (or like it may never come) the vision is sure to be fulfilled exactly as prophesied at the appointed time.  Why would there be men (supposedly men of the people of God) that would say and think such things?  Because they are proud and their hearts are wicked.  However, "The righteous will live by faith"--they will take God at His word and believe He is willing and able to do exactly what He said He would do in His perfect way and in His perfect time.

Some men would rather eat, drink and be merry than believe in the coming Day of the LORD.  Such a man lives as if there is no coming judgement (at least, that is what he hopes, because he knows he cannot defend his actions).  Such men are also greedy and never have enough.  They are like the bottomless pit of Sheol that always wants to be fed, but is never satisfied.  He will try to strengthen his position by getting others to join him in his foolishness and rebellion.  The LORD will not be impressed by many people falling victim to the same lie.  All men are personally responsible for the truth that they have been exposed to and how they respond to it.

Habakkuk 1:12-2:1
English Standard Version

Habakkuk's Second Complaint
12 Are you not from everlasting,
    O LORD my God, my Holy One?
    We shall not die.
O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
    and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 He brings all of them up with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
    so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
    and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
    and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2 I will take my stand at my watchpost
    and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
    and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

Habakkuk comes back to the LORD certain that He will fulfill all the promises and prophecies made to the people of Israel and Judah, so it is not possible for this judgment to end in their total annihilation.  He also does not try to argue with the LORD about His decision to judge Israel and Judah.  He understands that dye has been cast.  He knows the LORD abhors evil, cannot look on it and must punish it, and that the people of Israel and Judah have done evil.  However, he's also aware that there are other ways that the LORD has dealt with the evil of His people in the past.  He has used the system of sacrifices to purify them so that their sins would not be counted against them.  Habakkuk would like to know why that plan has changed and why the LORD feels it necessary to use a wicked Gentile nation to carry out His just punishment against His people.  Can He not execute the judgment Himself?  Can He not use a more righteous people than the Chaldeans?

Will the LORD judge His people for their iniquity and remain silent about the atrocities committed by the Chaldeans and Babylonians?  Will the LORD allow the few righteous that remain to be swept up in the judgment? Habakkuk knows that if this came directly from the hand of the LORD that the righteous would be spared, but is that the case when the LORD uses a human agent to execute His judgment?

The Babylonians literally worshiped a fish-god and fileted their enemies and put hooks in their mouths or faces or put them in huge fishing nets to drag them away into captivity.  The men of other nations were literally treated like fish to be caught and carried away.  The Babylonians then made sacrifices to this god as it appears their god is powerful and bringing them success as long as the nets full of their enemies continue to come in and be emptied.  Habakkuk asks how long the LORD will let this continue because of the way they torture other people and the way in which this perpetuates their delusion that their god exists and is worthy of worship.  Habakkuk is sure the LORD will answer him, so he takes his place waiting to see what the LORD will do and waiting to hear what the LORD will say, and he promises to report everything he sees and hears like a watchman on a watchtower who looks to giver early warning of the coming invasion because he sees or hears something and sounds the alarm.

Habakkuk 1:5-11
English Standard Version

The LORD's Answer
5 “Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
    that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
    to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
    their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    more fierce than the evening wolves;
    their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
    they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
    all their faces forward.
    They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
    and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
    for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
    guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

We already started to hint the LORD tells Habakkuk that He's already at work to answer his prayer/complaint.  The LORD tells the prophet Habakkuk that he will not believe what it is the LORD is up to, even if the LORD would tell it to him (we'll see that is very true as we progress through the book).  What is this amazing thing that the LORD is doing?  He is using the Chaldeans (the rich and powerful ruling and warrior class of the Babylonian Empire) to judge the surrounding nations.  They will also be used to judge the people of Judah that the prophet Habakkuk just decried and asked "How long O LORD?"

The LORD identifies the Chaldeans as dreadful and fearsome.  Those who do not fear the LORD will be made to fear His agents of justice and wrath.  The Chaldeans have their own sense of justice that they are known for as they will quickly sweep through the region and devour many people who worship idols.  They will form the opinion that their victory is because the gods of these people were not strong enough to save them and the Babylonians will start to think of themselves as having superhuman strength to even go to war against gods.  All the mighty men who trust in their own strength or in their false gods will be destroyed and put to shame.  But what of the people of God when the LORD allows them to be defeated and captured?  Will this not harm His great Name? That has been and will continue to be an objection that the prophets raise, and it is the main reason that the LORD will again act to save His people in the end--not because they deserve it, but for the sake of His holy Name, so that the nations will see it and fear Him and worship Him.

Habakkuk 1:1-4
English Standard Version
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk's Complaint
2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
    and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
    and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
    so justice goes forth perverted.

We actually just finished our study of Habakkuk in Sunday School this past week.  It's a short book that is different than many of the other prophets in that it is more of a dialogue between the LORD and His prophet.  The prophet prays to the LORD concerning the evil that He sees all around him in his land (the land of Israel and Judah) and asks how long before the LORD will act.  The prophet has the intention of praying so that the LORD would turn the hearts of the people back towards Him and there will be revival, but the LORD tells Habakkuk that if He would tell the prophet what He was going to do, Habakkuk would not be able to believe it.  I'm getting ahead a bit here so, I'll stop here and focus on Habakkuk's complaint in this passage--there is violence against the innocent and there is intentional sin (iniquity) all around--idolatry, sexual sin, and all kinds of men taking advantage of their neighbors.  There is violence, contention and strife everywhere he looks.  The Law that should be transforming the people seems paralyzed and powerless to teach them.  Justice appears to never be done as the kings and the courts are corrupt.  The wicked are in power and prosper while the righteous are poor and destitute and taken advantage of.  There is no justice for those who are not part of the elite ruling class because the rich get away with anything or bribe the judges to bring up false charges and convictions against their enemies.  It sounds awful, but yet, we could easily see ourselves in a similar situation in another generation or two if we continue on our path of godlessness.  The people of Israel did not get here overnight it's been hundreds of years that they've lived in rebellion to the Law that they received.  Now, it is going to be time for the LORD to discipline and judge His own people, and Habakkuk is not going to find the LORD's plan to do so displeasing.  We'll talk more about that going forward.