Do you ever feel like things are backward and upside down in this life?  Are you ever perplexed by the prosperity of the wicked and struggles of the godly?  Occasionally we may feel like we could give God a pointer or two on how to make things right in the world!  We are not the first to feel this way.  In the 6th century before Christ (607-606 BC), a relatively obscure servant of God felt the same way about the events of his day.  He was outraged at the sin of God’s people, Judah.  He was frustrated by the silence and seeming absence of God from their day.  He was unhappy with God’s announced plan.  In the midst of his delusion, God called Habakkuk from pride to faith (Habakkuk 2:4).

Text: Habakkuk 1:1-2:4

1:1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Hab. 1:2    How long, O LORD, will I call for help, 
And You will not hear? 
I cry out to You, “Violence!” 
Yet You do not save.
³ Why do You make me see iniquity, 
And cause me to look on wickedness? 
Yes, destruction and violence are before me; 
Strife exists and contention arises.
⁴ Therefore the law is ignored 
And justice is never upheld. 
For the wicked surround the righteous; 
Therefore justice comes out perverted.

Hab. 1:5    “Look among the nations! Observe! 
Be astonished! Wonder! 
Because I am doing something in your days — 
You would not believe if you were told.
⁶ “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, 
That fierce and impetuous people 
Who march throughout the earth 
To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.
⁷ “They are dreaded and feared; 
Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
⁸ “Their horses are swifter than leopards 
And keener than wolves in the evening. 
Their horsemen come galloping, 
Their horsemen come from afar; 
They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
⁹ “All of them come for violence. 
Their horde of faces moves forward. 
They collect captives like sand.
¹⁰ “They mock at kings 
And rulers are a laughing matter to them. 
They laugh at every fortress 
And heap up rubble to capture it.
¹¹ “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. 
But they will be held guilty, 
They whose strength is their god.”

Hab. 1:12    Are You not from everlasting, 
O LORD, my God, my Holy One? 
We will not die. 
You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; 
And You, O Rock, have established them to correct.
¹³ Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, 
And You can not look on wickedness with favor. 
Why do You look with favor 
On those who deal treacherously? 
Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up 
Those more righteous than they?
¹⁴ Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, 
Like creeping things without a ruler over them?
¹⁵ The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, 
Drag them away with their net, 
And gather them together in their fishing net. 
Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
¹⁶ Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net 
And burn incense to their fishing net; 
Because through these things their catch is large, 
And their food is plentiful.
¹⁷ Will they therefore empty their net 
And continually slay nations without sparing?

Hab. 2:1    I will stand on my guard post 
And station myself on the rampart; 
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, 
And how I may reply when I am reproved.
² Then the LORD answered me and said, 
“Record the vision 
And inscribe it on tablets, 
That the one who reads it may run.
³ “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; 
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. 
Though it tarries, wait for it; 
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

Hab. 2:4    “Behold, as for the proud one, 
His soul is not right within him; 
But the righteous will live by his faith.

Habakkuk 1:1-2:4