Name means: “Embrace.”
Occupation: Prophet of the Lord and possibly also a temple musician or singer (see “A Song of Trust” at Hab. 3:1–19).
Best known as: The prophet whose “burden” (Hab. 1:1) is given in the Book of Habakkuk, possibly written around the same time as the Battle of Carchemish (605 B.C.; see “The Battle of Carchemish” at Jer. 46:2).
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Habakkuk felt deeply disturbed by the evil he witnessed in the world around him. With an anguished heart he lodged his complaint before God: “O LORD,” he said, “how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ and You will not save” (Hab. 1:2). The prophet saw injustice and violence at every turn, the righteous hemmed in by the wicked. Why was the Lord so unresponsive?
But this time the Lord was quick to answer. He would soon send His judgment through the Babylonians (here called Chaldeans). Their fierce military might would bring a swift end to the evil Habakkuk observed.
For the prophet this raised another question. How could God use the vicious and idolatrous Babylonians to execute judgment on His chosen people? Habakkuk prayed, “Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?” (Hab. 1:13).
When the Lord answered again, it was clear that the Babylonians’ victory was not to be the end of the story. Rather, the Lord vowed to punish the punishers at an appointed time, putting an end to the cycle of evil. The Babylonians would face the consequences of their crimes just as the Israelites had faced the consequences of theirs. No one is exempt from God’s judgment.
More: To learn more about this turbulent period of history, see “The Life and Times of Jeremiah” at Jer. 1:3 and “The Life and Times of Ezekiel” at Ezek. 1:1.
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The Lord’s announcement to Habakkuk that “the just shall live by his faith” came as the prelude to the prophet’s brutally honest words about the corruption and ultimate demise of Babylon. The Lord declared that He would judge the Babylonians because of their pride and failure to fear Him, while people who were “just,” or righteous, would receive God’s approval and blessing because of their humility and fear (or holy reverence) of Him.
The Hebrew word translated here as “faith,” emunah, means “steadfastness” or “faithfulness.” In the New Testament, the apostle Paul built on this idea, explaining that living by faith doesn’t entail a mere outward observance of the Law, as many Jewish teachers of Paul’s day assumed (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:10–12). Rather, it involves a heart commitment to the Lord and the recognition that Christ alone makes people righteous. This doesn’t mean that believers should not live faithful, godly lives; if anything, it establishes a proper basis for righteous living. When we are justified by faith and brought into right relationship with God, He empowers us to break free from sin and live virtuous lives.
Martin Luther adopted Habakkuk 2:4 as his watchword during the Protestant Reformation, reclaiming this essential perspective for believers of his day. Many people had forgotten the vital connection between faith and obedience. Their religion boiled down to empty ritual, legalistic standards, and attempts to buy God’s favor and forgiveness with money. Luther recovered the powerful truth that God announced to Habakkuk: The just shall live by faith—faith alone!
More: See here for an article on the life of Martin Luther.
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Because the Babylonians arrogantly lived as if their own interests were all that mattered, God’s prophet delivered to them a song of five stanzas, each beginning with a “woe” predicting the affliction that would be paid back to each according to his due. These warnings deserve our attention because all nations—and their citizens—will ultimately answer to God for violating His commands.
1. “Woe to him who increases what is not his” (Hab. 2:6).
The Babylonians grew wealthy through extortion and robbery, plundering Jerusalem, for example, and carting temple treasures back to Babylon (2 Kin. 25:11–17, Dan. 5:1–4).
2. “Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house” (Hab. 2:9).
The Babylonians ensured their own security by conquering surrounding nations and thus enlarging their borders, using outlying districts as buffer zones between themselves and potential enemies.
3. “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed” (Hab. 2:12).
The Babylonians built impressive cities, including structures said to be among the wonders of the world. But God denounced these extravagant architectural accomplishments because they were financed through violence and built for the sake of vanity.
4. “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor … that you may look on his nakedness” (Hab. 2:15).
The Babylonians exploited other nations by diluting their cultures, ravaging their resources, and setting up economic dependencies. King Nebuchadnezzar so severely deforested Lebanon (2:17) that later attempts by the Romans to irrigate and reseed the region were unsuccessful (see “The Cedar Trade” at 1 Kin. 7:2).
5. “Woe to him who says to wood, “‘Awake!’” (Hab. 2:19).
Along with most of their neighbors in the ancient world, the Babylonians reaped God’s judgment for worshiping idols and practicing astrology and magic.
These dire pronouncements still serve as sober warnings to individuals, institutions, corporations, governments, and other alliances who are tempted to cut moral and ethical corners on the way to greater status and prosperity. God promises that victims will eventually rise up and retaliate, turning the table on their oppressors (2:7, 8).
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Let All the Earth Keep Silence
Worship leaders often use Habakkuk 2:20 to call congregations to reverent silence before God. Yet this passage doesn’t merely reflect the respectful silence of a church service. It expresses awe at the awareness of God’s judgment. Though we are welcome to bring our honest questions and grievances before the Lord, silence is the only appropriate response to His final judgment. A holy God gets the last word.
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As Habakkuk observed the epidemic of evil around him, he questioned God’s ways. When he heard God’s answers, he feared his nation’s fall to the Babylonians. Yet Habakkuk learned that the Lord remains in control of everything, and sometimes uses unexpected channels to accomplish His purposes. As a result, Habakkuk decided to trust God no matter how desperate things might appear.
God isn’t afraid of our doubts, complaints, and questions. While He might not explain everything to our satisfaction—nor are we always capable of understanding everything He might tell us—He assures us that His ways are good and righteous, and that furthermore, “the just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4). In the end, the ultimate answer to all of our questions is to put our trust in God.
Living by faith means keeping a proper perspective on the troubles around us. When evil forces appear to win, or when financial crises, poor health, or difficult relationships threaten to defeat us, we can trust that God still reigns and will work out His sovereign purposes for our good (Jer. 29:11). We need not fear that life will come undone. Indeed, we need not fear death itself.
The third chapter of Habakkuk is called a “prayer” (Hab. 3:1), but it also appears to be a psalm, a musical composition sung to the accompaniment of instruments (3:19). Habakkuk’s psalm expresses not only his reverence for the Lord but also the peace he has found as a result of placing unconditional trust in Him. Even when trees bear no fruit, even when fields are bare, even when no animals fill the barn—even when all seems bleak and hopeless—God will bring us joy. Regardless of how treacherous the journey may seem, He gives us sure footing and enables us to dance on the heights.
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The Other Side of Doubt
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) is renowned as a man of towering intellect and deep faith, the beloved author of the allegorical fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia as well as numerous apologetics works that have become classics of the Christian’s library, including Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. In all of Lewis’s work, one can see a man who was unafraid to ask questions and explore tough concepts, a man who valued the role of the intellect in leading a person to belief. Yet this esteemed theologian was not immune to the burdens of disillusionment and doubt.
Baptized into the Church of Ireland, an Anglican Communion, Lewis was known to his family as Jack, a nickname he adopted at age four, reportedly after the death of a favorite dog named Jacksie. His mother passed away when he was ten. From an early age Lewis began to feel that religion was a chore, and at fifteen he abandoned his childhood faith and became an atheist with a bent toward mythology and Celtic mysticism. Feeling alienated as an Irish lad attending Oxford University in England, he broke from his studies to volunteer for the British Army during World War I. While facing trench warfare in France, he was wounded in a friendly-fire incident that killed two of his fellow soldiers. Lewis suffered from depression as he healed but returned to his studies. He eventually became a professor of English literature at Oxford.
In Surprised by Joy, Lewis writes that when he shed his belief in God, he was “very angry with God for not existing.” He felt that if God had designed the world, it would not be so frail and faulty. But the writings of Scottish novelist George MacDonald helped Lewis draw a connection between God and the kind of life he longed for. Conversations with his close friend J. R. R. Tolkien, along with the writings of G. K. Chesterton, slowly drew him back to Christianity. Lewis remarked that when he finally converted, he came “kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting [my] eyes in every direction for a chance to escape.” Yet he further recalled, “I gave in, and admitted God was God.”
After his conversion, Lewis worked to convince others of the truth he had discovered. He wrote The Problem of Pain in 1940, then crafted a series of radio talks during World War II that later became his popular book Mere Christianity. In the face of Hitler’s atrocities, Lewis argued that moral law, a “rule about right and wrong,” is innate to all human beings. He reasoned that our universal yearnings for joy hint at a God who can satisfy those yearnings. Then he presented the trilemma that Jesus is either God, a liar, or delusional, concluding that only the first option is consistent with His character. Furthermore, as God Incarnate, Jesus is the only adequate source of atonement for the horrors of human sin.
Later in life Lewis married Joy Davidman, an American writer who died of cancer four years after their hospital bed ceremony. After her death Lewis wrote A Grief Observed, in which he describes how his immense heartache caused him to lose faith, publishing the book under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk. Again Lewis found himself asking where God could be in the midst of such pain. He felt that God had slammed a door in the face of his desperate need, then bolted and double-bolted the locks … but he slowly sensed the door unlocking. He made gradual progress returning to faith, which he described not as a “striking and emotional transition” but “like the warming of a room” at the coming of daylight.
That one of the most revered Christian apologists of all time should undergo such profound crises of faith might seem discouraging—yet Lewis’s struggles demonstrate God’s faithfulness. Even in the midst of life’s most trying ordeals, Lewis discovered that when God is sought, God is found. We need neither fear our doubts nor surrender to them; the Lord can always handle our misgivings—and use them to bring us closer to Him.
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