The Burden

THE BURDEN (HABAKKUK 1)

An elderly man with a very large ego went to an art gallery with his wife and some friends. Although he was quite near-sighted, he took great pride in his ability as an art critic. Unfortunately, the man had forgotten his eyeglasses, but this did not deter him as he stood before a large frame and began to expound for the benefit of his friends.

“In the first place,” he stated, “the frame is all wrong. It is not in keeping with the subject. And as for the subject itself, “It is altogether too homely or too ugly in fact to make a good picture.” Hearing this, the man’s wife edged her way to his side and tried to whisper something to him. But the husband just kept on expounding: “It’s a great mistake for an artist to paint so homely a subject against such a background.

Again the wife tried in vain to get her husband’s attention. “Moreover,” declared the husband, “if the artist does choose such a homely subject, the face should at least show some character.”

At this point the wife nudged him hard enough to get his attention and put an end to his ego trip. “You’re looking into a mirror, you know,” she quipped.

Habakkuk the prophet was alarmed, argumentative and aggrieved with what was happening around him. The prophets are a rich source of poetry, prophecy, prayers, parables and even protests. Prophets raged against the princes, the privileged and the powerful. Sometimes, however, their disillusionment and their disenchantment are against God – their Creator and Commissioner, their Sovereign and Sender. The most popular protester in the Bible is Jonah. The most heartbroken protester is Jeremiah in his book of Lamentations. The most strident of them all might just be Habakkuk. Jonah is disgruntled prophet, the weeping prophet doom He’s been called the doubting prophet. Habakkuk supposedly lived about 610-600 B.C. shortly before the exile in 586 B.C.

What is your instant reaction when things go wrong in the world– blame others, yourself or God? What perspective do you have other than panic? Given the chance, how would you correct the injustices in the world?

Bemoan the Fallen World

1 The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. 2 How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

A matchmaker corners a poor student and says, “Do I have a girl for you!” “I’m not interested,” replies the student.

“But she’s a very beautiful girl,” says the matchmaker. “Really?” says the student, a bit more interested now.

“Yes. And she’s also very rich.”

“Are you serious?”

“Of course I am. Would I lie to you? And she has a long line of ancestry. She comes from a very noble family.” “It all sounds great to me,” says the student, “but why would a girl like that want to marry me? She’d have to be crazy.”

Replies the matchmaker, “Well, you can’t have everything in life!”

Indifferent to the irrational, irreconcilable and imperfect world God had revealed to him, Habakkuk began the same way as the earlier book Nahum (Nah 1:1) and Malachi (Mal 1:1) did, with “burden/prophecy” as introduction, but with one exception, that is Habakkuk had to “see,” adding to his burden– three different “see” verbs in verses 1 and 3. He also supposedly went with the people of the Jews into exile, so it was a heavy burdensome prophecy to him – taxing, tiresome and troubling; Received is “see,” an authoritative prophetic introduction in a vision (Isa 1:1, Mic 1:1). To be accurate the two heavy questions begin the chapter before the title “Lord.” (How long, Lord) The first, ‘How long,” is a vexing cry (Job 8:2, 9:2, 19:2, Ps 13), but even with the inclusion of the verb “call for help/cry” is even more frustrating. Call for help/cry (KJV) is introduced into the Bible by Job (Job 19:7) and next occurrence will reappear in Psalms in the context of distress (Ps 18:6). 4 of 21 occurrences are in Job or Psalms and the rest is in the Prophets, so it is in a pensive, pessimistic and prophetic mood. The second “cry” in the same verse (KJV) is “to shriek (from anguish or danger)” (Ex 2:23), possibly like a dove or cat cry. “Not listen/hear” and “not save” is parallel in Hebrew. It is a sad, sorrowful and stricken cry.

The second question (v 3) from Habakkuk is two-fold: “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” The first “look” in verse 3 is “see” in Hebrew is the natural ability but the second “tolerate/behold” (KJV) is from the noun “prophet” – supernatural ability. Verse 3’s “violence” is repeated three times (vv 2, 3, 9) in the chapter, more than any chapter in the Bible – violence from the damage, the defeat and the destruction in the city, but also the desecration of the temple, the degradation of the people and the death of loved ones. Verse 4’s “justice/judgment” occurs four times (vv 4 twice, 7, 12) in the chapter, more than any of the shorter prophetic books – no differentiation of right and wrong, no good guy and bad guy, no godly and ungodly. Verse 4’s paralyzed is rather strong – the other translations are fainted (Gen 45:26), feeble (Ps 38:8) and slack (Hab 1:4). It means short, slipping, snuffed, squeezed and starved. No solution, safety, stability, success, support.