(Part 5 in a series of posts on Habakkuk.)

Habakkuk 1:2-4

Habakkuk was a prophet who struggled with questions about evil in the world and why God permits evil. Habakkuk’s three big questions were: “Does God care? Is God fair? Is God there?” People are still asking the same questions today. The book of Habakkuk traces the prophet’s journey from doubt to faith as he brought his complaints to God and found satisfying answers to his questions.

Habakkuk 1:2-11 deals with the first of these questions: Does God care? We will just look at verses 2-4 today.

Habakkuk 1:2-4 – 2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 herefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. (NIV)

“Does God care?” It is a question that has haunted countless persons over the ages as they have grappled with the problem of evil in the world. “If God is all powerful, then why does he allow evil and suffering? Is God concerned about us? Does he notice all the troubles that take place on our planet? Does God care?” If you have ever asked questions similar to these, then you are not alone. Habakkuk struggled with the same questions and doubts, and he was a prophet!

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(Part 4 in a series of posts on Habakkuk.)

Habakkuk 1:1

Today we will look at Habakkuk’s introductory statement in 1:1.

Habakkuk 1:1 – The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.

Only three prophets in the Old Testament specifically identify themselves as prophets at the beginning of their books. Habakkuk is one of them; the other two are Haggai and Zechariah.

Habakkuk identifies himself as a prophet, and he identifies the book that follows as “the oracle that he received.” An oracle is another word for prophecy. Habakkuk is saying from the very start that the message in this book is not a message of his own devising. Rather, it is prophecy. It is a message from the Lord.

There are several Hebrew words that can be translated “oracle” or “prophecy,” but this particular word also conveys the idea of a burden. It is used especially to describe prophecies that carry a warning or a rebuke for the receivers. It may also imply that bringing a prophecy of judgment upon a people was a burden for the prophet as well. It is never easy to be the bearer of bad news.

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(Part 3 in a series of posts on Habakkuk.)

The prophet Habakkuk had three big questions about God. If we are honest, we will admit that we sometimes have the same three questions about God ourselves. The three questions are:

1. Does God care?
2. Is God fair?
3. Is God there?

Do you ever feel that way about God? Habakkuk did. That’s the way things looked to him before he went to God with his doubts and his confusion.

Let me give you a quick summary of the three sections in the book as organized around these three questions:

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(Part 2 in a series of posts on Habakkuk.)

Today we will answer the following three questions about the prophet Habakkuk: Who was he? When did he live? Why did he write this book?

1) Who was Habakkuk?

Unlike some of the other prophets, we do not know that much about Habakkuk. His name only appears in Scripture twice, in Habakkuk 1:1 and 3:1.

Some sources outside of the Bible say he may have been from the tribe of Levi, but the Bible does not tell us one way or the other. However, chapter 3 of Habakkuk is a musical poem, and so it is possible that Habakkuk may have been one of the Levites responsible for worship in the temple.

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(Part 1 in a series of posts on Habakkuk.)

As I mentioned last week, I would like to spend some time blogging with you through the book of Habakkuk. The posts will be adapted from a sermon series on Habakkuk that I will later put on the Sermons page. For example, last week’s series of posts (“Reading the Prophets 1, 2, and 3″) on the Old Testament prophetical books came right out of the introduction to this series. The whole series is called Habakkuk: The Journey from Doubt to Faith.

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