Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Habakkuk 1:5-11
God's Reply. He Is Bringing the Babylonians As His Chasteners (Habakkuk 1:5).
‘Behold among the nations and regard, and wonder marvellously (‘wonder with wonder'). For I work a work in your days which you will not believe though it be told to you. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.'
God points out to Habakkuk and his followers (plural verb) that what He is doing is something that will be mysterious and inexplicable to them. Or possibly he is pointing it out through Habakkuk to the evildoers who will be punished as a result of their activity. Either way it will seem unbelievable to them. It will make them marvel. God's ways are ever so. His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. But in the end they achieve what our way would never have achieved.
‘Which you will not believe though it be told to you.' This indeed was their problem, lack of belief in what God says. This is in contrast with the righteous in Habakkuk 2:4, stressing that there it is faith that is the prominent idea. These do not believe, while those in Habakkuk 2:4 believe what God says and find strength from it and ‘live'.
And what was this amazing thing? In order to see it they must look among the nations, and consider carefully. They must consider what they saw around them. It was that He would use the Chaldeans (the Babylonians) as His instruments. Ezekiel had said the same thing, even seeing Nebuchadnezzar as someone whom God paid wages to for his services (Ezekiel 29:18), and as the one who bore the sword that YHWH had given to Him, YHWH's own sword (Ezekiel 30:24).
The Neo-Babylonian empire began its rise to ‘world' domination with the accession of Nabopolassar to the throne of Babylon in 626 BC, whose first task was to finally free Babylon from being tributary to Assyria. Like Israel and Judah they had every now and again sought to free themselves from the Assyrian yoke, and they had suffered under their transportation policy. Thus their rise resulted from a sense of bitterness at the way they had been treated, and they were out to make up for it.
And they seemed to be in a hurry, for within a short time of destroying Assyria with the aid of the Medes and the Scythians, and defeating Egypt, who sought to aid Assyria against them, they were out to take over their empire. Thus are they here described as ‘bitter and hasty', and that ‘bitterness' was seen as continuing in the way in which they treated the conquered nations who would not submit to them. By 605 BC they were at the gates of Jerusalem, and the first of a number of transportations began, which included Daniel. For their attacks on Egypt see Ezekiel 28:7; Ezekiel 30:11; Ezekiel 31:12; Ezekiel 32:12.
So the fact that God uses them is no recommendation of the Chaldeans. He describes them as a ‘bitter and hasty' nation, who go everywhere taking dwellingplaces that are not theirs. They are as bad as the Assyrians, but He nevertheless uses them to punish the Assyrians, and also finally to punish the wicked and violent in Judah and Jerusalem, as Ezekiel makes clear.
This is a clear statement that YHWH is the Lord of history and makes history fulfil His will. Out of evil He produces good. He can use as His instruments even the most unworthy. This is not to make Him responsible for how they do it. Man acts as he is, freely, and often cruelly and reveals his true nature. As Daniel shows us he is like a wild beast. But over all YHWH is sovereign, bending all things to His will.
‘They are terrible and fearsome.
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And are more fierce than the evening wolves.
And their horsemen spread themselves.
Yes, their horsemen come from far.
They fly as an eagle which hastens to devour.
They come all of them for violence,
The eagerness of their faces is as the east wind,
and they gather captives as the sand.'
A fuller description of Babylon is now given. God does not want Habakkuk and his hearers to be under any illusions. These are a terrible foe who cannot be thwarted or turned aside. Jeremiah later tells the people that they must submit to them because it is God's will. Not only do they seize what is not theirs, but in doing so they appear terrible and fearsome. They are proud and self-sufficient. They behave as they wish to behave and have their own way of doing things, which is not always very pleasant to say the least. They make their own decisions and pass their own judgments. They are not to be thwarted. There is irony here for we will soon learn that YHWH can thwart them.
They are also powerful warriors. Swift as the leopard, fierce as hungry wolves in the evening (compare Jeremiah 5:6; Zephaniah 3:3), eager to satisfy their hunger. Moreover they spread themselves, they reach out further and further, and come great distances. They swoop like the eagle hastening on its prey (Deuteronomy 28:49; Job 9:26; Lamentations 4:19). And their aim is violence, in which they are eager and determined like the scorching east wind. The picture of faces eager to scorch up the earth is a vivid one.
The east wind is a dry wind from the wilderness (Job 1:19; Jeremiah 4:11; Jeremiah 13:24), strong and gusty (Exodus 14:21; Job 27:21; Job 38:24; Jeremiah 18:17) and of scorching heat (Amos 4:9; Hosea 13:15). Its attentions are therefore very unwelcome and unpleasant.
‘They gather captives as the sand.' Both in subjugating nations and transporting people into exile they deal with huge numbers. Their captives are numberless like the sand by the seashore.
So while they are being used as God's chastening instruments, in a similar way to the Assyrians, ‘the rod of God's anger' (Isaiah 10:5), this does not recommend them as worthy. Rather God is to be seen as turning the beastliness of man to fulfil His own purposes.
Israel were constantly confident, in their few times of independence, that God would not again allow the Gentiles to overrun their nation or destroy their temple (see Jeremiah 5:12; Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 7:1; Jeremiah 8:11; Lamentations 4:12; Amos 6:1). Yet their law and their prophets warned them again and again that it would happen, because of their sinfulness (see Deuteronomy 28:49; 1 Kings 11:14; 1 Kings 11:23; Jeremiah 4:1; Jeremiah 5:14; Jeremiah 6:22; Amos 6:14). But that was a message that they did not want to hear. So God stresses through Habakkuk the powerful nature of the forces that are coming. They are irresistible. And He stresses that though they may be seen as far away they will come swiftly and unstoppably.
‘Yes, he scoffs at kings,
And princes are a derision to him.
He derides every stronghold,
For he heaps up soil and takes it.
Then will he sweep by as the wind,
And will pass over, and be guilty.
Even he whose might is his god.'
The king of Babylon is so mighty that he sweeps minor royalty aside in derision, he mocks at fortresses and strong defences, for he puts up his siege mounds and takes them. Thus let not the king of Judah think that he can stand against him. He comes like the wind, the east wind (Habakkuk 1:9), and then he passes on like the wind, and he leaves behind the devastation and barrenness that has increased his guilt. For even kings like the king of Babylon have their sins counted against them. But for the time being at least, he sees might and power as his god. He looks to them to be the foundation of his life, a foundation that one day will crumble (and all too soon, for within seventy years the Babylonian empire was no more).