What Habakkuk Tells Us About History and Hope

We can take great comfort in the truths of this prophetic book:

If you are anything like me, you look around and see all the horrible things happening in the world – and even in the church – and it seems overwhelming. Whether it is Western nations seemingly headed on a downward spiral, or conflict in the Middle East, or communist China making menacing moves, or culture wars going berserk, or scandals in our churches, it is all so very alarming.

As such, it is certainly easy for the believer to get heavily weighed down. These are very dark days indeed, and that is why we must stay focused on God, and not on what is happening all around us.

The short book of Habakkuk is something that can really be of help here, since that prophet felt the same way that we do: he was greatly concerned about what was going on in his world. But he ended up getting the right view on things, and we must as well. See my earlier pieces on this key book:

https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/09/18/habakkuk-trust-god-nations/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2021/01/22/bible-study-helps-habakkuk/

The three chapters of the book are easily broken down in outline form:

1:1-4 Habakkuk’s first lament or complaint
1:5-11 Yahweh’s first response
1:12-2:1 Habakkuk’s second lament or complaint
2:2-20 Yahweh’s second response
3:1-19 Habakkuk’s prayer

Like some other minor prophets, such as Zephaniah, the book begins with words of judgment and gloom but ends with words of hope and restoration. It does not let the events of history overwhelm us, but it reminds us that there is a God who is very much in control.

That is why Martyn Lloyd-Jones titles the Introduction of his short expository commentary on Habakkuk “The Mystery of Historical Processes.” Both past and present historical events can seem to contradict the promises and assurances of God. Therefore Lloyd-Jones speaks of “the problem of history”. He bids us to see the bigger picture as we ask why history seems so troubling to us:

The main reason, it would seem, is that there are those who use the Bible in a narrow sense, as being exclusively a text book of personal salvation. Many people seem to think that the sole theme of the Bible is that of our personal relationship to God. Of course that is one of the central themes, and we thank God for the salvation provided without which we should be left in hopeless despair. But that is not the only theme of the Bible. Indeed, we can go so far as to say that the Bible puts the question of personal salvation into a larger context. Ultimately the main message of the Bible concerns the condition of the entire world and its destiny; and you and I, as individuals, are a part of that larger whole. That is why it starts with the creation of the world rather than with us. The trouble is that we are inclined to be exclusively concerned with our own personal problem, whereas the Bible starts further back: it puts every problem in the context of this world view.

 

If we do not realize that the Bible has a particular world view, it is not surprising that the world in its present state makes us despair. But if we read right through the Bible and note its message, instead of just picking out an occasional Psalm, or the Sermon on the Mount, or our favourite Gospel, we shall find it has a profound philosophy of history, and a distinctive world view. It enables us to understand what is happening today and that nothing that occurs in history fails to find a place in the divine programme. The great and noble teaching of the Bible is concerned with the whole question of the world and its destiny. (pp. 8-9)

‘Behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans’

Recall that Habakkuk is complaining not just about wayward and sinful Israel, but about the fact that God is using the evil Babylonians (Chaldeans) to judge them for their backsliding. That really does his head in. ‘God, how can this be?’ he asks. And also recall that the equally evil nation of Assyria was now waning while Babylonian power was increasing. It was a time of real instability and upheaval.

As Christopher Wright explains:

For several decades, the whole world of the ancient Near East has been in turmoil, with one empire collapsing and another rising to take its place. All of this was generating great fear and uncertainty, especially among the smaller nations who, like Judah, had got caught up in the rivalry of the great powers of Egypt and Mesopotamia. As the African saying goes: when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. Habakkuk turns to God in the midst of that world—a world he could not understand—with those fears and questions tormenting his mind. (xv-xvi)

Hmm, it sounds pretty much like today. So Habakkuk and Yahweh go back and forth on these matters, and in the middle of the book (in Hab. 2:4) we find these familiar words spoken by God – words quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17: “the righteous shall live by his faith”. Says Lloyd-Jones:

“The import of the message from verse 4 to the end of chapter 2 is that the Chaldeans, who were going to be used as an instrument to chastise Israel, were themselves going to be chastised and finally routed. God was using them temporarily, but their final end was certain. God was going to humble the pride of the Chaldeans and inflict a terrible punishment upon them.” (p. 45)

And that is where faith comes in. It is knowing that the same God who acted in the past for his people will act again – even if things look so very bleak. We must trust God to act, even though it will be in his own good time, and not our own. As Wright puts it:

We still live in a crazy and agonizing world that we do not understand, which contains all the problems that Habakkuk observed—and worse. But, like him, we are summoned to go on living by faith. This does not mean just our initial act of faith through which, by God’s grace, we were saved and justified in God’s sight, but also our ongoing daily faith in the living God. We live as those who confidently trust that, however baffling and painful events may seem to us while we are struggling in the midst of them, God is working out his sovereign purposes. We live in the sure and certain hope that the day will come when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (2:14). (p. 53)

And finally, we see the faith-filled conclusion of all this when the prophet says this in Hab. 3:17-19:

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

That is a great word of optimism, faith and trust, and quite a contrast to his earlier complaints and laments. Walter Kaiser in his “Mastering the Old Testament” commentary puts it this way:

It is not always possible to say where or when God will intervene and demonstrate that He is still Lord of history. But it is possible for all who are justified by faith to live—and that does not mean merely to “tough-it-out.” Surely we see the judgments of God in fallen nations: a Saddam Hussein silenced in his bunker far beneath the surface of the earth, a Hitler ending his life in his bunker, a Mussolini strung up by his feet.

 

But God still warns all tyrants, dictators, presidents, and any who have authority over people to mark their step, for the five-fold woes are just samples of what awaits those who are not only bellicose in their threatenings against others, but also resistant to God’s principle of life: trusting the only name that is above every other name for salvation (Acts 4:12). Just people live because they have been declared justified in that they have put their trust and faith in Him and Him alone. Is it any wonder that this theme became the rallying cry for the Reformation? May it be the rallying cry for a revived church once again as some continue to cry out “How Long, O Lord?” But God is in His heaven and He will mark iniquity. He will act decisively. And He will declare justified as many as trust in Him as Abraham did long ago and as Habakkuk urges in our passage. (p. 175)

Or as Wright says in his Conclusion: “So, like Habakkuk, we need the courage of discernment—to know and trust that God remains sovereign in the world of history and nature. We need to listen to the news with this perspective in mind. ‘Look at the nations and watch. . .’ (1.5). Watch out for God at work. Discern the mustard seeds of the kingdom of God…” (p. 113)

I began this piece with the words, ‘If you are like me…’  Let me finish in similar fashion. I am not sure how you cope when you are gripped with fear about the state of the world, but what I do you might find helpful. Each morning I spend some time reading two things: some chapters of Scripture, and THEN some headlines from the daily newspapers.

ONLY learning about what is happening in the world will be overwhelming if you do not undergird all that with learning about the God of history, and what he has done in the past and what he will do again.

Works cited

Kaiser, Walter, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (MTOT). Word, 1992.
Lloyd-Jones, Martyn, From Fear to Faith. IVP, 1953, 2011.
Wright, Christopher, Hearing the Message of Habakkuk. Zondervan, 2024.

[1690 words]