SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2016
10:28 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 Introduction to Habakkuk
I
want to look at several different commentators as they preview the book of
Habakkuk, including Dr. Warren Wiersbe, and also I want to look at what John
MacArthur has to say about this book in his study Bible.
“HABAKKUK,
from a Hebrew root meaning to "embrace," denoting a
"favorite" (namely, of God) and a "struggler" (for his
country’s good). Some ancient authors represent him as belonging to the tribe
of Levi; others [PSEUDO EPIPHANIUS], to that of Simeon. The inscription to Bel
and the dragon in the Septuagint asserts the former; and #Hab 3:19 perhaps
favors this. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 7.29] states that in his time
Habakkuk’s tomb was shown at Ceila in Palestine.
“The time
seems to have been about 610 B.C. For the Chaldeans attacked Jerusalem in the
ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, 605 B.C. (#2Ki 24:1 2Ch 36:6 Jer
46:2 36:9). And Habakkuk (#Hab 1:5, 6, etc.) speaks of the Chaldeans as about
to invade Judah, but not as having actually done so. In the second chapter he
proceeds to comfort his people by foretelling the humiliation of their
conquerors, and that the vision will soon have its fulfillment. In the third
chapter the prophet in a sublime ode celebrates the deliverances wrought by
Jehovah for His people in times past, as the ground of assurance,
notwithstanding all their existing calamities, that He will deliver them again. #Hab 3:16 shows
that the invader is still coming, and not yet arrived; so that the whole refers
to the invasion in Jehoiakim’s times, not those under Jehoiachin and Zedekiah.
The Apocryphal appendix to Daniel states that he lived to see the Babylonian
exile (588 B.C.), which accords with his prophesying early in Jehoiakim’s reign,
about 610 B.C.
“The
position of the book immediately after Nahum is appropriate; as Nahum treated
of the judgments of the Lord on Assyria, for its violence against Israel, so
Habakkuk, those inflicted by, and on, the Chaldeans for the same reason.
“The style is poetical and sublime. The
parallelisms are generally regular. Borrowed ideas occur (compare #Hab 3:19,
with #Ps 18:33; #Hab 2:6, with #Isa 14:4; #Hab 2:14, with #Isa 11:9).
“The
ancient catalogues imply that his book is part of the canon of Scripture. In
the New Testament, #Ro 1:17 quotes
#Hab 2:4 (though not naming him); compare also #Ga 3:11 Heb 10:38. #Ac
13:40, 41 quotes #Hab 1:5. One or two Hebrew words peculiar to Habakkuk occur
(#Hab 1:9 2:6, 16) (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown).”
“It is a very foolish fancy of some of the Jewish
rabbin that this prophet was the son of the Shunammite woman that was at first
miraculously given, and afterwards raised to life, by Elisha (2 Kings 4), as
they say also that the prophet Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath,
which Elijah raised to life. It is a more probable conjecture of their modern
chronologers that he lived and prophesied in the reign of king Manasseh, when
wickedness abounded, and destruction was hastening on, destruction by the
Chaldeans, whom this prophet mentions as the instruments of God’s judgments;
and Manasseh was himself carried to Babylon, as an earnest of what should come
afterwards. In the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon mention is made of
Habakkuk the prophet in the land of Judah, who was carried thence by an angel
to Babylon, to feed Daniel in the den; those who give credit to that story take
pains to reconcile our prophet’s living before the captivity, and foretelling
it, with that. Huetius thinks that that was another of the same name, a prophet,
this of the tribe of Simeon, that of Levi; others that he lived so long as to
the end of that captivity, though he prophesied of it before it came. And some
have imagined that Habakkuk’s feeding Daniel in the den is to be understood mystically, that Daniel
then lived by faith, as Habakkuk had said the just should do; he was fed by that word, #Hab 2:4. The prophecy of this book is a mixture of the prophet’s addresses to
God in the people’s name and to the people in God’s name; for it is the office of the
prophet to carry messages both ways. We have in it a lively representation of the intercourse
and communion between a gracious God and a gracious soul. The whole
refers particularly to the invasion of the land of Judah by the Chaldeans,
which brought spoil upon the people of God, a just punishment of the spoil they had been guilty of
among themselves; but it is of general use, especially to help us
through that great temptation with which good men have in all ages been
exercised, arising from the power and prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings
of the righteous by it (Matthew Henry).”
Now as we go through these different commentators we
realize that they have different views as to what time period this book was
written and I mentioned 640 BC yesterday in my introduction to this book. The reason I mentioned this was because I
thought of how terribly sinful that Judah was during the time period of
Manasseh was as there were many children killed as offerings to the idols that
were worshiped during that time period of Judah. I do see similar things going on in the world
today as many unborn children are being killed just for convenience sake
stating that these are not children until they are born, so in similar ways we
see the offering of children.
Dr. Wiersbe writes under the title of “Habakkuk in
His Time.”
Habakkuk was a contemporary of Nahum, Zephaniah, and
Jeremiah, during the reigns of Josiah (640-609 BC) and Jehoiackim (609-598). Assyria was off the scene; Babylon (‘the
Chaldeans’) was in power. Nebuchadnezzar
had defeated Egypt in 605 and was about to attack Judah. Jeremiah had announced that Babylon would
invade Judah, destroy Jerusalem and the temple, and send the nation into
exile. This happened in 606-586.
“Habakkuk’s little book indicates that he knew the
Scriptures well, was a competent theologian, and had great faith in God. Because of the psalm in chapter 3, some
scholars think he may have been a priest who led worship in the temple. If so, then like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was
a priest called to be a prophet—a more difficult ministry.
“His name means ‘to embrace’ or ‘to wrestle,’ and in
his book, he does both. He wrestles with
God concerning the problem of how a holy God could use a wicked nation like
Babylon to chasten the people of Judah, and then by faith, he embraces God and
clings to His promises. Habakkuk also wrestles
with the spiritual decline of the nation and why God wasn’t doing something
about it. Habakkuk wanted to see the
people revived (3:2), but God wasn’t answering his prayer.
“The prophet’s statement ‘The just shall live by
faith’ (2:4) is quoted three times in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11;
Heb. 10:38). The emphasis in Romans is
on the just, in Galatians on how they should live, and in Hebrews on
faith. It takes three books to explain
and apply this one verse.”
I only want to quote the following from the John
MacArthur Study Bible under the heading of “Interpretive Challenges.”
The queries of the prophet represent some of the
most fundamental questions in all of life, with the answers providing crucial
foundation stones on which to build a proper understand of God’s character and
His sovereign ways in history. The core
of his message lies in the call to trust God (2:4), ‘the righteous shall live
by his faith.’ The NT references ascribe
unusual importance theologically to Habakkuk.
The writer of Hebrews quotes Hab. 2:4 to amplify the believers need to
remain strong and faithful in the midst of affliction and trials (Heb.
10:38). The apostle Paul, on the other
hand, employs the verse twice (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11) to accentuate the doctrine
of justification by faith. There need
not be any interpretive conflict, however, for the emphasis on both Habakkuk
and the NT references goes beyond the act of faith to include the continuity of
faith. Faith is not a one-time act, but
a way of life. The true believer,
declared righteous by God, will habitually persevere in faith throughout all
his life (cf. Col. 1:22, 23; Heb 3:12-14).
He will trust the sovereign God who only does what is right.”
It was on July 2, 2013 that we began to look at the
Old Testament Prophets, beginning with Isaiah and then going through the other Major
Prophets, and then on May 28, 2015 we continued in our study of the Minor
Prophets beginning with Hosea. We have to
look at Habakkuk and then we will have four more Minor Prophets to look at before
we conclude out study of the Old Testament which began with the book of Genesis
on December 30, 2005. So it has been a
fairly long road, but one well worth traveling on to look at the entire Old
Testament is something that I never dreamed that I would do, but by God’s grace
we continue on the path.
As I look at the different prophets we are looking
at I see similar things in all of them and as I look down the corridor of time
as far as nations one can see that the principles that we see in these prophets
show why nations raise and fall. In
Genesis 12:1-3 we read of God’s call to Abraham and the beginning of the
Abrahamic covenant that God makes with what will become the nation of Israel,
and we read in verse three that God says to Abraham “And I will bless those who
bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families
of the earth will be blessed.’” We can
look at different nations and how they treated the Jews and if they did not
treat them well then God has kept His Word to Abraham and cursed them. We can also look at the nation of Israel who
gave us the Word of God, the prophets and eventually the Messiah and see how
God has kept His Word as He says “And in you all the families of the earth will
be blessed.” Yes it is well worth the
time to study the Word of God each and every day to see things like this and be
thankful for a God who is faithful in keeping His Word no matter how hard life
gets sometimes.
1/29/2016 11:15 PM
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