Commentary - Habakkuk 1:5-11

Bird's-eye view

Habakkuk has just finished lodging his first formal complaint with God (vv. 2-4). He looks at the state of Judah and sees nothing but violence, iniquity, and injustice. The law is slacked, and the wicked are running circles around the righteous. His question is a raw one: "O Lord, how long?" God's answer in our text is not what the prophet was expecting. It is not comforting in any conventional sense. Instead, it is shocking, world-altering, and a severe mercy. God's answer to the wickedness within Judah is to raise up an instrument of judgment from without: the Chaldeans.

This section is God's first response, and it is a master class in divine sovereignty. God governs the world with an inscrutable and holy wisdom. We confess that He is holy, but the reason His governance is so often inscrutable to us is that He frequently uses unholiness to accomplish His holy purposes. This is the central problem Habakkuk must grapple with. God is not going to tidy up Judah with a gentle slap on the wrist. He is going to bring a pagan, bloodthirsty, and idolatrous nation to do the job. This passage reveals that God is not a passive observer of history; He is the one raising up nations, directing their paths, and using their very sinfulness to achieve His righteous ends, all without being the author of their sin Himself.

Outline

Context In Habakkuk

This passage, Habakkuk 1:5-11, is the theological pivot of the first section of the book. Habakkuk, a man of God, sees the covenant community of Judah rotting from the inside out. He cries out for God to act, to bring justice. God's answer here is a direct reply to that cry. But the answer creates a far bigger problem for the prophet. How can a holy God use a nation even more wicked than Judah as His instrument of chastisement? This response from God is what sets up Habakkuk's second, more profound complaint in 1:12-17. The structure is a divine setup. God answers a problem with what appears to be a bigger problem, in order to teach His servant a deeper lesson about faith and sovereignty. The just shall live by faith, and this is the first test of that faith.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 5 “See among the nations! And look! Be also astonished! Be astounded! Because I am doing something in your days, You would not believe if it was recounted to you.

God begins His reply by commanding Habakkuk to lift his eyes. The prophet was looking at the sin within Judah, focused on the internal decay. God tells him to look outward, among the nations, the goyim. This is where the answer will come from. The tone is emphatic. See! Look! Be astonished! Be astounded! This is not going to be a subtle course correction. God is about to do something so outside the box of normal expectations that it would be dismissed as unbelievable if it were merely reported. The Apostle Paul quotes this very verse in Acts 13:41 when preaching in Antioch, warning the Jews there not to be scoffers who disbelieve the incredible work of God in Christ. Here, the incredible work is one of judgment. God often works in ways that confound our tidy theological systems. He is about to do something that will make everyone's head spin, and He announces it beforehand so that when it happens, they will know who is behind it.

v. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That bitter and hasty nation Who walks on the breadth of the land To possess dwelling places which are not theirs.

Here is the unbelievable thing: "I am raising up the Chaldeans." Notice the active voice. God is not passively allowing this to happen. He is the one actively stirring up this nation. The Chaldeans, or Babylonians, were not some neutral party. They were known for their cruelty. God Himself describes them as "bitter and hasty." They are a resentful, angry, and impetuous people. Their mission is described in stark, geopolitical terms: they march across the earth to seize what does not belong to them. This is raw conquest. God is taking a notoriously wicked nation and commissioning them as His rod of discipline. This is a hard providence. God is not simply cleaning house in Judah; He is calling in a demolition crew that has no regard for the historical owners. This is the heart of the problem for Habakkuk. God is sovereign, yes, but this seems to be a morally problematic sovereignty.

v. 7 They are dreaded and feared; Their justice and exaltation come forth from themselves.

Their reputation precedes them. They are a terror to all. But the key phrase here is that their justice and their exaltation, their dignity, "come forth from themselves." This is the very definition of secular humanism, of a lawless state. They do not appeal to a higher law. They do not look to God or to any transcendent standard of right and wrong. They are their own source of law, their own standard of greatness. What they decide is right is right. What they want, they take. They are the ultimate expression of autonomous man, and God is the one setting them loose upon His own people. This is a crucial detail. God is using a people who embody the very sin of pride and autonomy to judge a people who were flirting with the same sins, just in a more "religious" way.

v. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards And sharper than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping; Their horsemen come from afar; They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.

The description of their military might is poetic and terrifying. The imagery is all of speed, ferocity, and predatory instinct. Leopards are swift, but the Chaldean horses are swifter. Evening wolves are ravenous and cunning, but the Chaldean warriors are "sharper," more keen. They are relentless. They come from a distance, which means this is a determined, major invasion, not a border skirmish. The final image is of an eagle, a bird of prey, swooping down to devour. There is no hint of mercy here. This is not an army that takes prisoners for benevolent reasons. They are coming to consume. This is total war, and it is being orchestrated by the God of Israel.

v. 9 All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. And they gather captives like sand.

Their purpose is singular: violence. They are not coming to negotiate a trade deal. The phrase "their horde of faces moves forward" is a vivid Hebrew idiom depicting a relentless, unified, forward-moving mass of people, like a desert windstorm. Their goal is conquest, and they are wildly successful at it. They gather captives "like sand," an image of innumerable quantity. This is a picture of entire populations being uprooted and deported. The judgment God is bringing is not just a military defeat; it is the dissolution of the nation itself.

v. 10 And they mock at kings, And rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress And heap up dirt and capture it.

Their arrogance is boundless. Earthly authority means nothing to them. Kings are a joke; rulers are sport. They are contemptuous of all human power structures because they believe their own power is ultimate. And their confidence is not misplaced from a human standpoint. They are masters of siege warfare. A fortress, the pinnacle of a city's defense, is just another object of their scorn. They simply "heap up dirt," building siege ramps, and take what they want. Their military technique is brutally simple and effective. They see an obstacle and they overwhelm it with sheer force and engineering. This detail underscores their self-reliant pride.

v. 11 Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose power is their god.”

They move like a force of nature, a wind that sweeps through and is gone. But just as God's answer to Habakkuk reaches its terrifying crescendo, He inserts a critical caveat. The Chaldeans will not get away with this. They "will be held guilty." Why? Because "their power is their god." Here is the key. God is using them as His instrument, but they are not a righteous instrument. They are acting out of their own sinful hearts, fueled by their own idolatry. They worship their own might. And for this, God will judge them in turn. This is a fundamental principle of how God governs the world. He can use the sinful actions of men to accomplish His holy will, and yet hold those men fully accountable for their sin. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery out of wicked envy; God used it to save a nation. The Jews and Romans crucified Jesus out of lawless hatred; God used it to redeem the world. The Chaldeans are a tool in God's hand, but a tool is still accountable for what it is. Their guilt is not erased just because God used them for His own sovereign purposes.

Application

The first and most jarring lesson here is about the absolute sovereignty of God. Our God is not a frantic celestial fireman, rushing around to put out fires started by others. He is the one who strikes the match. He raises up the Chaldeans. This should be a profound comfort to the believer, even when it is a terrifying thought. It means that nothing, not even the most violent and godless empire, is outside of His direct control. History is not a runaway train; it is a story being written by a sovereign author.

Second, we must learn to deal with God's difficult providences. Habakkuk was praying for revival and got an invasion instead. God's answers to our prayers often look very different from what we requested. He is more interested in our holiness than our comfort, and sometimes the path to holiness runs straight through a Chaldean bootcamp. We must learn to trust Him even when His methods are inscrutable and painful. The temptation is to think that if things are going badly, God must have lost control. Habakkuk teaches us the opposite: when things are going badly, it is often because God is most certainly in control, working a purpose we cannot yet see.

Finally, we see the justice of God. The Chaldeans are God's rod, but God will break the rod after the chastisement is done. Their sin is their own, and their idolatry of power will be their downfall. This reminds us that God's justice is comprehensive. He judges the sins of His people, and He also judges the sins of those He uses to judge His people. No one gets away with anything. This should drive us to the foot of the cross, the only place where divine justice and divine mercy meet. At the cross, the ultimate act of injustice, the murder of the Son of God, became the means of our salvation. God used the wicked actions of men to accomplish the greatest good, and in so doing, provided a way for us to escape the judgment our own sins deserve.