Habakkuk 1:12 - Meaning and Application

The prophet had already received from the Lord the message he was to give the people. Now he turns back to God again, speaking to him for the relief of his own heart under the burden of what he sees. He is still full of complaint. If he looks around, he sees violence done by Israel; if he looks ahead, he sees violence coming against Israel. It is hard to say which sight is more painful.

He pours out his thoughts before the Lord. We should be deeply moved by both the sin and the suffering of God’s people, and by the times and places in which we live. At the same time, we must guard against becoming bitter in our anger and letting that bitterness grow too far. We must not allow it to create hard thoughts about God or steal the comfort of fellowship with him. The world is bad, always has been, and always will be. We cannot fix it. But we know that God rules it, and that he will bring glory to himself from everything. So we must make the best of it, become better ourselves, and long for the better world to come.

The coming rise of the Chaldeans, the Babylonian people, drives the prophet to prayer. He takes the liberty of arguing his case before God. In his prayer, we can see several truths he holds onto. These truths comfort him and the people with him as the Chaldeans grow stronger, and they can comfort us in the same kind of trouble.

However things look, God is still the Lord our God and our Holy One. The victorious Chaldeans credit their power to their idols, but Israel must keep saying that the God of Israel is the true and living God (Jeremiah 10:10, Jeremiah 10:11). He is Jehovah, the one who is, the source of all being, power, and perfection. Our rock is not like theirs. He is my God, the prophet says in the name of the people. Every true Israelite can say the same. Though we are badly broken and all this has come on us, we have not forgotten our God, nor broken our relationship with him. We have not denied him, and he has not denied us (Psalm 44:17). We are a sinful people, and he is a God who has been offended, yet he is still ours. So we will not think harshly of him or of his service, whatever comes.

He is also my Holy One. That means the prophet loves God for his holiness. He belongs to me because he is a holy God, and because he is holy he will be my sanctifier, the one who makes me holy, and my Savior. People are unholy, but my God is holy.

Our God is from everlasting. The prophet pleads this before him: “Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God?” It is a lasting comfort to God’s people in this life’s troubles that their God has no beginning and no end. This means the eternity of his being. If he is from everlasting, then he will be to everlasting too. So when visible things, which are only temporary, become discouraging, we must fall back on this first truth, that we have enough hope and help in the God we cannot see, the eternal God. If he is from everlasting, will he not stretch out his everlasting arm and carry out his everlasting plans to make an everlasting name for himself?

It also means the oldness of his covenant, his binding promise to his people. Some understand the phrase to mean, “Are you not from of old, a God in covenant with your people?” He has done great things for them in former days, things we have heard from our fathers and from those who came before us. He is still the same God he always was. He is God, and he does not change.

As long as the world stands, God will have a church in it. You are from everlasting, and therefore we shall not die. The Israel of God will not be wiped out, and the name of Israel will not be erased, even when it seems very close to that. Like the apostles, they may be disciplined, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 6:9). They may be chastened severely, but not given over to death (Psalm 118:18). The prophet reasons from God’s eternity to the church’s continuing life, for Christ has said, “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). He is the rock on which the church is built so firmly that the gates of hell shall not, and cannot, prevail against it. We shall not die.

Whatever the enemies of the church do against her, they do it under God’s rule and for wise, holy purposes. “You have ordained them; you have established them.” It was God who gave the Chaldeans their power and made them a people to fear. In his wisdom he decided what they would do, and they had no power against Israel except what came from above. He gave them their commission to take spoil and plunder (Isaiah 10:6). In this, God shows himself mighty, because the strength of mighty men comes from him, depends on him, and stays under his control. He says to their power, “So far, and no farther.”

Those whom God appoints will do no more than what God has appointed. That is a great comfort to God’s suffering people. Men are God’s hand, the rod in his hand (Psalm 17:14). He has appointed them for judgment and correction. God’s people need correction and deserve it. They must expect it and will receive it. When wicked men are allowed to rise against them, it is not for their ruin, but for their correction, so that they may be reformed. They are not meant to be a sword that cuts them off, but a rod that drives folly out of their hearts, even though they do not mean it that way, nor think that way (Isaiah 10:7). It is a great comfort to us, when the church suffers, that whatever harm men mean, God means to bring good from it, and we are sure his purpose will stand.

Though the wicked may prosper for a time, God is holy and does not approve of their wickedness (Habakkuk 1:13). “You are of purer eyes than to see evil.” When the prophet saw how sinful and godless the Chaldeans were, and yet how much success they had against God’s Israel, he felt the temptation to think it was useless to serve God, and that God did not care how people acted. But he quickly pushed that thought away by going back to his first principle. God is not, and cannot be, the author or supporter of sin. As he cannot do wrong himself, so he cannot look on evil with approval. Sin is the hateful thing the Lord hates.

He sees every sin committed in the world, and it offends him. It is disgusting in his sight, and those who commit it make themselves liable to his justice. God’s nature has a deep hatred for whatever goes against his holy law. Even though a way has been graciously found for God to be reconciled to sinners, he will never be, and cannot be, reconciled to sin.

And we must hold to this truth, even if God’s rule in providence seems, for a time, to go against it. We should never turn God’s patience with sin into approval of sin. He is not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness (Psalm 5:4-5).

The sin God is said not to look at may especially mean the harm done to his people by their enemies. God may allow that harm, but he does not approve of it. This fits Balaam’s words, that God has not seen iniquity against Jacob, or approved wrongdoing against Israel (Numbers 23:21). That is a great comfort to God’s people in their suffering at the hands of men. The people who hurt them may hate them, but that does not mean God hates them too. In fact, he loves them, and his correction comes from love.

Now the prophet turns to the trouble he finds hard to fit with these truths. If we are sure that God is holy, why does he allow unbelievers to use that as a reason to doubt him? Why does he look at the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, who are acting treacherously against his people, and give them success? Why does he allow his sworn enemies, who blaspheme his name, to treat his people so cruelly and so deceitfully? This kind of struggle has troubled God’s people before, like Job (Job 21:7; Job 24:1), David (Psalm 73:2-3), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 12:1-2).

God seems to let sin go on for a time, and he is patient with sinners. He sees all their evil plans and actions, yet does not stop them right away. He does not punish them at once, but allows them to carry out what they want. In fact, his looking on them can seem like he is giving them approval and help, as if he were smiling on them. He keeps silent while they go on in their evil ways. He says, in effect, “These things you have done, and I kept quiet.”

But this patience is abused. Because judgment is not carried out quickly, sinners grow bolder in evil. They are false and deceitful, so no trust can be placed in them. They deal treacherously, hiding cruel plans under a mask of peace and friendship. They also hate and persecute people because they are better than themselves. Like Cain, who hated Abel because Abel was righteous, the wicked attack the man who is more righteous than they are. They hate God’s image in good people, and that is why they devour them.

The prophet also says they treat human life as if it were nothing, like catching fish. When God gives the weaker into the hands of the stronger, people become like fish of the sea (Habakkuk 1:14). Earlier they had preyed on one another, as bigger fish eat smaller fish (Habakkuk 1:3), and now the common enemy does the same to them. They are like creatures in the sea with no ruler over them to restrain them or protect them. God has handed them over to the Chaldeans as fish are handed over to fishermen. Those proud oppressors kill without conscience, as easily as a man pulls fish out of the water. They make no difference between people. Whoever comes into their net is treated as theirs. They use many ways to ruin others and enrich themselves, some one by one with a hook, others in groups with a net or dragnet (Habakkuk 1:15).

They also boast in what they gain, even though it was gained dishonestly. Their portion is rich and their food plentiful. They live well off oppression and deceit, and they have much, and the best of it too. Because of that, they are pleased with themselves and live in comfort. They rejoice and are glad because their wealth is great and their plans keep succeeding, like the rich fool who said, “Take it easy” (Luke 12:19). They are proud of their own skill and success. They even sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their dragnet, meaning they praise themselves for the money they have made, even if they got it in a corrupt way. We are all too ready to give ourselves the credit for outward success and say, “My power and the strength of my hands have made me rich” (Deuteronomy 8:17). That is really a kind of self-worship. It is as foolish as worshiping an idol, just because it brought in money. The thing they love most is their gain. Anyone who makes a god of money will also make a god of whatever brings money in.

At the end, the prophet humbly hopes that God will not let these destroyers of people keep prospering forever. He asks God whether they are to go on emptying their net and filling their own vessels with what they have stolen by violence and oppression. Are they to keep casting the net back into the sea to catch more, while God allows them to continue in this wicked way? Must they keep slaughtering nations without end? Is the wealth of nations to be offered up to their net as if it were nothing? And if they rob people of their property, shall they also rob God of his glory? God is the King of the nations, and he will surely defend their wronged rights. He is jealous for his honor, and he will uphold it. So the prophet leaves the matter with God, as the psalmist does: “Arise, O God, plead your own cause” (Psalm 74:22).