Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are going to survey the book of Habakkuk and see why it is such an important book for us as New Testament Christians.

In this part of the Old Testament, Israel has been split into 2 separate kingdoms, the north and the south.

The northern kingdom was taken into captivity by Assyria as punishment by God for their idolatry, and only the southern kingdom, Judah, remains.

But now, Habakkuk faces is the imminent invasion of the southern kingdom of Judah by the Chaldeans (who are the same as the Babylonians).

This invasion eventually happened at the end of the sixth century BC, and Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC.

The Lord revealed to Habakkuk beforehand that Judah was going to be punished for her sin by the Chaldeans.

Unlike Joel and Zephaniah and Amos, Habakkuk does not even mention the possibility that destruction could be averted.

He does not call for national repentance.

It is too late.

Instead, he predicts the destruction of Judah, and beyond that the doom of the Chaldeans themselves.

And he promises that the only way to preserve your life through the judgment is by faith.

So even though destruction is decreed for the nation, there is hope for individuals who hold fast their confidence in God.

The full-blown doctrine of justification by faith, as Paul taught it in Romans and Galatians, is not yet here.

But the seed is here.

So what I would like to do today is survey the content of this prophetic book, then focus on its main point and how it unfolds in the New Testament as the great gospel truth of justification by faith.

So we’ll begin this survey in chapter 1.

Judah’s Wickedness and Coming Judgment

Habakkuk cries out in Habakkuk 1:2–4 that Judah is full of violence and perverted justice.

In verse 4:

Amos had warned the northern kingdom that injustice would bring judgment, and in 722 BC Assyria swept the northern kingdom away.

Now here is the southern kingdom of Judah, 130 years later, guilty of the same offenses.

They had not learned anything.

So in Habakkuk 1:5–11 God foretells what he intends to do.

God is in control of the nations.

He swings them like a sword to chastise his people.

The Chaldeans will come against Judah as God’s rod of correction.

But verse 12 expresses the confidence Habakkuk has that God will not utterly destroy his people.

God is stirring the Chaldeans against his people, but it is not for annihilation but for correction and chastisement.

The Chaldeans’ Wickedness and Coming Judgment

Then in 1:13–17 Habakkuk complains that the proud and violent and idolatrous Chaldeans should themselves escape the judgment of God.

They certainly are no more righteous than Judah, even if God is using them to do his righteous work of judgment.

So he protests in verse 17:

In chapter 1, then, Habakkuk protests first against the violence and injustice of his countrymen in Judah, and then against the violence and injustice of the Chaldeans whom God is sending to punish Judah.

Now, in chapter 2, Habakkuk takes his stand to await the divine response to his protests.

In Habakkuk 2:2, 3, the Lord answers him in a vision.

We are not told what he saw in this vision, but whatever he saw changed his mind.

Because what he says about Judah in verse 4 is this

There is hope for those who will hold firm their trust in God as the calamity comes.

But what he sees about the Chaldeans in 2:6–19 is a five-fold woe.

Verse 6: “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own.”

Verse 9: “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high.”

Verse 12: “Woe to him who builds a town with blood.”

Verse 15: “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink up the cup of his wrath.”

Verse 19: “Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise!”

In other words, the great power of the Chaldeans will, in the end, come to nothing.

The nations seek in vain to fill the earth with their power and glory, but why?

When God says this in,

Habakkuk need not fear that a rebellious nation will have the last say.

The earth is the Lord’s, and he will fill it with his glory.

The chapter closes with these awesome words in verse 20:

Let all the nations be still and know that he is God.

His glory will fill the earth, not the glory of the Chaldeans.

So in answer to Habakkuk’s protests, God assures him that the pride of the Chaldeans will come to a woeful end (Habakkuk 2:6–20) and that any in Judah who humbly trusts God will gain his life.

“The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

Habakkuk’s Song of Praise and Faith

The last chapter of the book is Habakkuk’s response to what he has heard.

But it is more than his own personal prayer.

It is intended as a psalm to be used in worship.

When it says in verse 1, “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth,” it means that the prayer is to be used to musical accompaniment with a spirit of excitement and triumph, literally “to reel to and fro”.

Jumping for joy.

This is confirmed to be a psalm for singing by two things:

(1) the very last phrase of the book, “To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments,” and

(2) the use of “Selah” at the end of verses 3, 9, and 13.

The reason this is important to see is that Habakkuk wants us to be able to sing this prayer with him.

It is not here to merely inform us about Habakkuk’s piety.

It’s here to show us how we should face the judgment of God.

The Chaldeans are coming against Judah for sure.

How should the godly prepare for this tribulation and calamity?

We should ask ourselves the same question.

Tribulation is coming upon the world, as Jesus said.

How should we prepare for it?

How shall we endure it?

First of all, in 3:2 Habakkuk prays,

Habakkuk has a sober and healthy fear of the judgment of God.

So he prays that in the midst of wrath God will have mercy on him.

Then in Habakkuk 3:3–15 he sings the greatness of God’s power, and especially his power to save.

For example, verse 13:

The prophet knew God’s power from his work in the past, and so he counted on his ultimate victory in the future.

So verse 16 says that even though his body trembles at the thought of the invasion, he “waits quietly” for what must be.

And finally, in 3:17–19, Habakkuk breaks out into a wonderful song of faith:

In other words, no matter how severe the tribulation when the Chaldeans invade the land, Habakkuk will never stop trusting God.

Even though God himself has roused this “bitter and hasty nation”, Habakkuk is confident that in wrath, God will show mercy to those who trust him and rejoice in him alone when all else fails.

The Main Point of Habakkuk

Now as we step back from our survey, it shouldn’t be too hard to see what the main point of this little book is.

Negatively it is this: Proud people, whose strength or ingenuity is their god, will come to a woeful end, even though they may enjoy prosperity for a season either as God’s chosen ones in Judah, or as the victors over Judah.

All the proud, whether Jew or Gentile, will perish in the judgment.

But Habakkuk stresses the positive side of his main point, namely, “the righteous shall live by his faith.”

He states it as a principle in 2:4, and then he celebrates it as his own song in 3:16–19.

When Habakkuk says, “Even when all the fruit and produce and flocks and herds are destroyed and my very life is threatened, yet will I rejoice in God,” — when Habakkuk says that, he shows us what he means by faith in 2:4: “The righteous shall live by his faith.”

He means banking your hope on God no matter what.

Remember that Habakkuk’s prophecy began with his attack on Judah’s violence and strife and perverted justice in Habakkuk 1:3, 4.

You might expect that when he comes to tell the people how to be saved in the judgment he would say: “Cease being violent!

Do justice!

Put away strife!” (That’s what Amos said.)

But he doesn’t.

When the judgment is certain and the question is, “How can I gain my life before the wrath of a holy God?”

Habakkuk’s answer is trust him.

“The righteous shall live by his faith”.

Amos had said to Israel,

So Habakkuk could have said to Judah: The righteous shall live by his goodness!