The Preacher's Homiletical Commentary
Habakkuk 1:1-4
CRITICAL NOTES.] Burden] (cf. Nahum 1:1).
Habakkuk 1:2. How] A complaint; wickedness continued long, and God did not interfere.
Habakkuk 1:3. Why] dost thou behold violence without checking it? some; the prophet is permitted to behold iniquity, and this is the reason for his cry. Since God the Holy One will not look upon it in Israel (Numbers 23:21), why should his servant? Raise] A litigious spirit prevailed; none were quietly permitted to enjoy their rights. All was seized by force or perversion of law.
Habakkuk 1:4. Therefore] Because crimes are unpunished. Slacked] Lit. chilled; neither secures obedience nor influence. The word means to relax, to lose strength and vital energy. Forth] Lit. for a permanence, i.e. for ever, as in many other passages, e.g. (Psalms 13:2; Isaiah 13:20) [cf. Keil]. Wrong] Unrighteous verdicts given, and godless men encircle the good.
HOMILETICS
THE IMPORTUNATE PRAYER.—Habakkuk 1:2
The question asked is this: How long will God suffer his people to pray and still neglect to hear?
I. Until they see the plague of their own hearts. We may be astonished at the sins of others, and wonder at God’s forbearance with them. But we forget that seeds of iniquity dwell in our own hearts and ripen in our own lives. We must feel our sinfulness and humble ourselves in the dust. “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?”
II. Until they remove the hindrances which prevent the revival of his work. Many stumbling-blocks are in the way. God can do nothing, and will not hear until they are removed. Ignorance, avarice, and slothfulness—all sins must be forsaken. We must be ready for every duty, be wathchful lest by apathy, selfishness, and unbelief, we hinder the work of God.
III. Until they are willing to give God the glory. We may pray for selfish ends, and withhold what is due to God. If in pride and success we claim the blessing, this will silence devotion. In prayer we often devour that which is holy, and consecrate to our own use that which should be given to God (Proverbs 20:25). We desire to pamper our lusts and feed our own vanity. Wrong in spirit and purpose, we cry, “O Lord, how long?” Learn,
1. Why so many prayers fail.
2. To search your own hearts and purify yourselves before God. We may have earnestness and grief and yet fail. “Though you stretch out your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; and though you make many prayers, I will not hear you [Adapted].
THE LAMENTABLE SIGHT.—Habakkuk 1:2
The prophet is permitted to see the great social and national evils of the Jews. Unchecked and encouraged they grow in magnitude and number. He laments, in the name of all the godly among them, that their labours seem in vain, and he is forced to cry bitterly to God for relief.
I. The rights of property were disregarded. “For spoiling and violence are before me.” They robbed one another, and took goods and lands from others. God himself divided the land, established the rights of property, by sacred law fixed bounds to every citizen, and taught him to be content with his lot. When violence of any kind breaks forth in a land its prosperity will soon fade away.
1. This disregard was openly declared. “Before me.” The sins were deeply rooted, and those who committed them cared not who saw them. Modest at first, and afraid of discovery, sinners get bold in their wickedness, and openly and impudently avow them.
2. God seemed to connive at this open disregard. “How long shall I cry?” When God appears to overlook sin and to countenance it by permitting sinners to prosper, it grieves the heart and shakes the faith of good men. They cry to God for a sense of justice and right to prevail. “It is time for thee, Lord, to work.”
II. The spirit of litigation prevailed. “There are that raise up strife and contention.” They were broken up into parties and factions that bit and devoured one another continually. Hatred stirs up strifes of all kinds, domestic, political, and religious. It sets man against his fellow-men and against his God. It disturbs society, promotes crime, and rouses the moral forces of the universe.
“A Trinity there seems of principles,
Which represent and rule created life,—
The love of self, our fellows, and our God” [Festus].
III. The law had lost its authority. “Therefore the law is slacked,” &c. The law of peace and charity and the law of Moses were set at nought. That which was the soul, the heart of political and religious life, ceased to act, like the pulse ceasing to beat. The state of a country may be judged from the authority and influence of its moral laws.
1. The law was first disregarded. Contempt for the word and authority of God opens the door for all wickedness. Neither threatening nor promise will then check in evil courses.
2. Then the law was perverted. “Judgment (justice) doth never go forth.” (a) Wrong decisions were given. “Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.” The law was weak, the magistrates were corrupted, and there was no appeal against injustice. (b) The ties of humanity were broken. “The wicked doth compass about the righteous.” The godly and innocent were surrounded and overcome by men turned into brutes. There was no security for persons or property. “Wickedness,” says Bp. Taylor, “corrupts a man’s reasonings, gives him false principles, and evil measuring of things.” Well, therefore, did the prophet lament and cry to God. “My soul is also sore vexed; but thou, O Lord, how long?”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
1. The minister of God in this prophecy.
(1) By his name, Habakkuk.
(2) By his function, the prophet.
2. The manner how he came by it, vision.
3. The matter of it, the burden. In which two questions are moved—
(1) Why a burden; and
(2), whose burden it is: a burden in respect of the sin punished—of the punishment threatened—of the word of God threatening [Marbury].
1. What the prophet did.
(1) He cried—with intense feeling, with great boldness, with long patience.
(2) He cried to God in perplexity and grief, to stir him in apparent forgetfulness, and remind him of promised goodness.
2. The reason why he did it. For violence, strife, and war in domestic circles, injustice and oppression in courts of law, prevailing without check and without shame.
3. The success he had in doing it.
(1) Thou wilt not hear.
(2) Thou wilt not save. As not hearing is to be imputed to his mercy and patience, so his not saving is to be imputed either to his wisdom, putting his children to the trial of their faith by afflictions, or to his justice, making one of them, who have corrupted their ways, a rod to scourge the other, neither of them being as yet worth the saving till he had humbled them [Adapted from Marbury].
1. Prevalent evils grieve the minds of God’s servants. Like David and Jeremiah, they weep at what they see. It makes them sigh. It is a burden to them.
2. In their grief they fly to God for remedy. They have faith in his power, providence, and purpose. They earnestly pray for justice and truth to prevail, for sin and wickedness to end.
3. But in this course they do not always succeed. God is not unmindful of his promise nor regardless of sin, but his people are not always delivered, and retribution not generally sent in the time they fix. God is holy and just: we are hasty and sinful. “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?”
“Thy God hath said ’tis good for thee
To walk by faith and not by sight.
Take it on trust a little while,
Soon shalt thou read the mystery right,
In the bright sunshine of his smile” [Keble].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Habakkuk 1:1. How long. If men look upon some of God’s providential dealings with a mere eye of reason, they will hardly find any sense therein, such their muddle and disorder. But, alas! the wrong side is objected to our eyes, while the right side is presented to the high God of heaven, who knoweth that an admirable order doth result out of this confusion: and what is presented to him at present may, hereafter, be so showed to us as to convince our judgments in the truth thereof [T. Fuller].