Thy Strong Word - Habakkuk 1: Babylonians Defeat Babylon's King, ☧ Lives On

Host Rev. AJ Espinosa studies Habakkuk 1-2:5.

“Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?” Habakkuk boldly pours forth his complaint to God, but who is he talking about? It turns out that Habakkuk and Jonah have a lot in common: Jonah didn’t want God to give the Assyrians time to repent, and Habakkuk wants the Chaldeans to come overthrow the Assyrians right away.

But God says “If it seems slow, wait for it. […] The righteous shall live by his faith.” He assures Habakkuk that God’s righteous people—Israel—will not be wiped out; they will survive Assyrians. And in Jesus Christ, they do more than survive: they come back to life.

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Thy Strong Word is a daily in-depth study of the books of the Bible with host Rev. AJ Espinosa and guest pastors from across the country. Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation and produced by the LCMS Office of National Mission.

Habakkuk 1

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

²O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
    and you will not save?
³Why do you make me see iniquity,
    and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
⁴So the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
    so justice goes forth perverted.

The Lord‘s Answer

⁵“Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told.
⁶For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
    that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
    to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷They are dreaded and fearsome;
    their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    more fierce than the evening wolves;
    their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
    they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
⁹They all come for violence,
    all their faces forward.
    They gather captives like sand.
¹⁰At kings they scoff,
    and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
    for they pile up earth and take it.
¹¹Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
    guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

¹²Are you not from everlasting,
    O Lord my God, my Holy One?
    We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
¹³You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
    and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
¹⁵He^[a] brings all of them up with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
    so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,^[b]
    and his food is rich.
¹⁷Is he then to keep on emptying his net
    and mercilessly killing nations forever?

2 I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

²And the Lord answered me:

“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
³For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.

⁴“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.^[a]

⁵“Moreover, wine^[b] is a traitor,
    an arrogant man who is never at rest.^[c]
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
    like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
    and collects as his own all peoples.”

Footnotes

Habakkuk 1:15 That is, the wicked foe
Habakkuk 1:16 Hebrew his portion is fat
Habakkuk 2:4 Or faithfulness
Habakkuk 2:5 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll wealth
Habakkuk 2:5 The meaning of the Hebrew of these two lines is uncertain

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv.org

Rev. AJ Espinosa

It’s no coincidence that the favorite hymn for Rev. AJ Espinosa, host of Thy Strong Word, is Thy Strong Word. Working on his PhD from Concordia Seminary St. Louis, Pastor Espinosa takes breaks from his studies by beating the competition in his favorite video and board games, reading “Mere Christianity,” or getting some quality sleep. When he’s not mixing curries or whipping up a fresh flan for dessert, you may find him researching cryptocurrency, watching Star Trek Discovery, or jamming out to the Coco and Moana Spanish-language soundtracks (with his daughter, of course). Pastor Espinosa lives in California, where he enjoys time at the beach with his wife, Gaby, precious little girls Ellie and Natalie, and exceptionally friendly black cat Heike.