Faith for Hard Days
Habakkuk 1:1-2:4 (RCL 1:1-4, 2:1-4)
Tony’s Overview Video
How to Use
Preparing to teach
- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
- Watch Tony’s Video for this session
- Select either the Adult or Youth teaching guide and follow the directions
Click to read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge
Key Text: Habakkuk 2:4
“Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faith.”
Have you ever been so dissatisfied with life that you took your complaints to God and demanded that God do something about it? Many of us may feel that we have been treated unjustly or suffered unfairly, and it’s not unusual for us to blame our misfortunes on God. Surely, we think, God should see to it that believers get better treatment.
Sometimes, we may be just bold enough to “let God have it” with our complaints, knowing that God can take it.
Our text for the day is a similar complaint, though on behalf of an entire nation, the small country of Judah. The man railing at God was a little-known prophet named Habakkuk, who probably lived during the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE. It was a time when the resurgent Babylonians had conquered the ruling Assyrians and begun extending their reach to the smaller nations of the Levant, including Judah. [DD] [DD] [DD]
How long, Lord? (1:1-11)
We know nothing about Habakkuk except for the superscriptions of 1:1 and 3:1, both of which describe him as a prophet. His parentage is not given, and even the meaning of his unusual name is a mystery. Habakkuk’s frequent references to the temple along with the hymn suitable for temple use in chapter 3 lead some to think he may have been a temple functionary as well as a prophet. [DD]
Habakkuk was not hesitant to tell God exactly what he was thinking, and much of his short book is structured around two cycles of complaint and response. [DD]
Habakkuk’s opening words are a plaintive lament reflecting Judah’s oppression by foreign powers: “Oh LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” (1:2).
Habakkuk fully felt the burden of his prophetic office, and apparently did not enjoy it. [DD] Longing for some good news, he pleaded: “Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble?” (1:3a). He seemed afraid that the violence and strife that dominated the land had resulted from God’s abandoning the people (1:3b). Foreign invaders threatened from without and economic corruption threatened from within. The end result, Habakkuk said, was that “the law becomes slack and justice never prevails” (1:4a).
Habakkuk’s complaint would have been appropriate for Judah late in the seventh century. Prophets had expressed great hope that religious reforms under young king Josiah would have lasting effect, but Josiah was killed in an ill-conceived battle with Pharaoh Neco in 609 BCE, and the reforms had lapsed. [DD]
Central to the law was the importance of showing compassion and care to one another – especially to other Hebrews – but when the law became numb or paralyzed (the literal meaning of the word translated as “slack”), the wealthy and powerful were free to run roughshod over the poor, exploiting them and taking their land. This was a common concern of the prophets (Isa. 5:8-10, for example).
Habakkuk brashly asked if God had any plans to address the current situation in which “judgment comes forth perverted” (1:4b).
God’s initial response to Habakkuk’s complaint is found in 1:5-11. There God challenged Habakkuk to look beyond Judah and see what was happening in other nations, where the Chaldeans (an alternate name for the neo-Babylonians) were wreaking destruction across the landscape (1:5-6).
Like the lawless people of Habakkuk’s own country, the Babylonians had become their own law: “their justice and dignity (or “exaltation”) proceed from themselves” (1:7).
The Babylonians scoffed at other countries and trusted their own power to the point that “their own might is their god” (1:8-11). But was their success really all their own doing? God told Habakkuk: “I am rousing the Chaldeans . . .” (1:6). God intended to use the fierce Chaldean army as an instrument of divine discipline: those who ignored true justice would experience the remorseless “justice” of the Babylonians.
Why, Lord? (1:12-2:1)
Habakkuk’s second complaint begins in 1:12-17 and concludes with 2:1. The prophet could not understand why God, the ancient and holy one who does not die, had not yet judged the Babylonians, though they were marked for it (1:12). “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing,” Habakkuk charged – so “why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” (1:13).
Habakkuk perceived a disconnect between what he believed about God’s actions and God’s nature, and he was cheeky enough to point out the contradiction.
Do you ever pray with such boldness?
Though well aware of the Hebrews’ shortcomings, Habakkuk still regarded his countrymen as more righteous than the marauding Babylonians. He complained that God was allowing their armies to collect victims like fishermen using hooks and nets, showing no mercy (1:14-17).
Like Job, who persistently questioned the lack of justice in his misfortune, Habakkuk was plagued with the question of theodicy, wondering if God was truly just after all. As Job dared to challenge God with words like “Answer me!” (Job 31:35), Habakkuk announced that he would “stand at my watchpost and station myself on the rampart” while waiting for an answer to his complaints (2:1).
Whether Habakkuk spoke metaphorically or had in mind a literal observation post on the outer wall of the temple complex, he was standing by and waiting for an answer.
When, Lord? (2:2-4)
Suspense builds for the reader. As Habakkuk stubbornly waited for God to respond, we also wait to see what explanation God would offer. Habakkuk wanted God to judge the wicked, deliver the righteous, and do it right then. God insisted that judgment on evil would be sure, but could not be rushed or demanded by humans, even prophets. It would happen in God’s own time.
God first put Habakkuk on alert that he would indeed receive a message, and he was to “write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it” (2:2, NRSV).
This verse is subject to multiple translations and difficult to interpret. The NRSV seems to understand that Habakkuk was to inscribe the message on something so large that someone running by would be able to read it.
“Make it plain,” though, does not require the sense of writing in large letters. Elsewhere in scripture, it deals with explaining or writing a clear message that people can understand (Deut. 1:5 and 27:8).
Some translations assume that the writing would be of normal size but written so clearly that a reader’s eyes could quickly “run” across the text: “so one may easily read it” (HCSB).
An alternate translation is “That the one who reads it may run” (NAS95, similar to the KJV). On the surface, this may suggest that readers take warning and run away, but it could also be understood as “that one who reads it may run” or live in accordance with God’s way.
A final approach is to regard the verb “run” as a reference to a messenger or runner who is sent to proclaim a message through the land. Understood this way, God would be instructing Habakkuk to write the vision plainly so a messenger could easily read it, then run to deliver the message. The NIV, for example, has “make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.”
Whatever nuance we apply to the verse, the main intent is clear: Habakkuk was to publicize the message so that others could understand it and respond to it.
The suspense continues through the next verse, which speaks of the revelation as something yet to come. When it finally arrived, it spoke of two options. “Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right within them” (2:4a). Wrong-spirited people would eventually fall, for “wealth is treacherous, the arrogant will not endure” (2:5).
Unlike those guided by self alone, the righteous should live in faithfulness to God’s way, with a right spirit. These few words – literally, “the righteous in/by their faith shall live” (2:4b) – are the most remembered part of Habakkuk’s prophecy, as Paul picked up the Greek translation of the verse and made it a cornerstone of his doctrine of salvation by faith. (See “The Hardest Question” online for more on this.)
In Habakkuk’s prophecy, however, the emphasis was not on faith as a system of belief, but a call to live in faithfulness to God. [DD] God’s challenge was not for the Hebrews “to have faith” in the sense of believing that God exists or agreeing that God’s way is best. The call was for the righteous to live faithfully, in keeping with God’s teachings.
“To live,” then, is both a command and a promise. The righteous are called to live with faithful integrity that honors God despite the negative circumstances that surround them. Arrogant folk who oppress others are bound to fall, but those who live faithfully are on the path to enduring life.
As we bemoan the state of the world or suffer painful days, are we able to trust in God and remain faithful through it all, doing justice and trusting in God’s future, even when we can’t see it? [DD]
Habakkuk would hope so.
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Habakkuk 1:1-2:4
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
How open are your students with you? How much do they share with you? Do you want them to share everything with you? Do you think they will come to you when they are truly mad and frustrated? Communication is about trust; how much do you trust the person you are about to go and talk to? The more you trust them, the more likely you are to share with them what is really going on. To build that trust you have to be present, open, and honest. If you can be those three things with your students, you will have better communication with your students.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Habakkuk 1:1-2:4
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Attention” from Columbus
via www.youtube.com
Need Help?
Learn how to better use Nurturing Faith teaching resources.