The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Grievance” it comes from the Hebrew Word “amal” which means “grievance, trouble.”
Habakkuk questions God about the injustice around him, and God answers with a startling response. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Habakkuk 1.
Habakkuk the prophet records the burden he saw, crying, “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!” asking why He shows him iniquity, and causes him to behold “grievance,” “amal” in Hebrew, since spoiling and violence are before him, and there being strife, and contention rising up, the law being slacked, and judgment never going forth.
Habakkuk laments that the wicked compasses about the righteous, therefore wrong judgment proceeds, the Lord responding with a startling answer, telling him to behold among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously, for He will work a work in his days which he will not believe, though it be told him, for He raises up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the land, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
Habakkuk describes this terrible nation as terrible and dreadful, their judgment and their dignity proceeding from themselves, their horses also being swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves, their horsemen spreading themselves, and their horsemen coming from far, they flying as the eagle that hastens to eat, they scoffing at kings, and princes being a scorn to them, they deriding every strong hold, closing with Habakkuk’s bewildered question, addressing the Lord as his Holy One, his God, asking why He, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity, holds His tongue when the wicked devours the man who is more righteous than he, this raw, honest questioning launching the entire book’s wrestling with divine justice.
Habakkuk’s raw, unfiltered questioning of God, essentially asking why He tolerates injustice and then why His remedy seems even more troubling than the original problem, models an honest, unafraid approach to genuine spiritual struggle rather than false, superficial piety. This opening chapter’s startling divine answer, that God will use the notoriously cruel Chaldeans as His own instrument, reveals that God’s methods frequently defy human expectation and comfortable assumption.
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