Habakkuk (huh-BAK-uhk)

Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Habakkuk was a prophet during the same time Jeremiah prophesied in Judah. King Josiah had died in battle and the people had fallen back into grave sins once again. Josiah’s reformation was merely legislative, not spiritual. You can legislate righteous behavior but not a righteous heart.

As Habakkuk looked about his people, he marveled at the sinfulness and that God does not stop the wickedness. He wondered when God would stop the violence, strife, contention, and iniquity that had filled Jerusalem. God answered Habakkuk; God will “raise up the “Chaldeans” or Babylon to come and thrash the land. They were a bitter and hasty nation that was a law unto themselves. They were terrible and dreadful, and will be strong, fast and ruthless, everything you DO NOT want your enemy to be. And when they come, they will take Judah and the people captive and thus God will punish the sins of Judah.

This presented another problem for Habakkuk. He asks in Habakkuk 1:13

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

He prayed, in a way, God you are holy and cannot bear to look upon sin, that is why I asked how you can allow your people to continue to live in iniquity. It is because you are holy and righteous eternally. Yet, I don’t understand how you can raise up a nation who is WORSE than us. How you can give them strength to punish us, though we are bad, we are not as bad as they are going to be?
Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Something wasn’t right. There was something that just didn’t quite add up and Habakkuk knew it, but couldn’t figure it out. God did come and give him the answer that when the fullness of time comes, he would punish Babylon and every sin that they commit will be accounted for and would come back upon them. It was the inward man, not the outward, the just shall live by faith. God would be faithful to Israel and that God would not allow sin to go unpunished. Habakkuk did answer like he said he would do in Habakkuk 2:1. The answer is chapter three. He remembered the history of Israel, what God had done in the past and that God keeps his promises and He will again.

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

BUT, here is the point. Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

Habakkuk knew something wasn’t right, and he knew it was his thinking that wasn’t right, not God. He came upon a dilemma that he couldn’t understand in God’s sovereignty and sin. In his mind there seemed to be a contradiction. SO what did he do? He said I will see what God says and then I’ll have my answer when I have been corrected. This is the way we should all come to God’s Word. Too often people will pick up their Bibles trying to prove themselves right instead of sitting and being reproved and taught by God. When God shows them wrong by His Word, instead of submitting to it, they rebel against what God says. For some it is better to prove their opinion and live with a contradicting theology rather than say they were wrong and hold to Biblical theology, especially when it comes to church truth. Anything that differs from popular sentiment about the church, regardless of what the Bible says, must be wrong because “if popular sentiment is wrong, then I must be wrong too, and that just cannot be.”

Because Habakkuk knew that there was no contradiction in God, knew that God was both sovereign and holy so he knew the problem was not with God but with himself and his understanding. So he sought God in humility to be shown where he was wrong, not look for texts to prove that his opinion was right.


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Douglas Newell IV