A prophet's burden.
I. THE PROPHET.
1. His name. Habakkuk—"Embracing," which might signify either "one who embraces" or "one who is embraced." Accepting the former sense, Luther notes the suitability of the prophet's name to his office. "He embraces his people (in his prophecy), and takes them to his arms; i.e. he comforts them, and lifts them up as one embraces a poor weeping child or man, to quiet it with the assurance that, if God will, it shall be better soon;" though probably the name rather points to the character of the prophet's faith, which cleaved fast to the Lord amid the perplexity of things seen (Pusey).
2. His person. A Jewish prophet, belonging to the tribe of Levi, and officially qualified to take part in the liturgical service of the temple (Habakkuk 3:19). Beyond this nothing is known of his history, the Jewish legends concerning him (consult Introduction) being absolutely worthless.
3. His date. Uncertain. Before the arrival of the Chaldeans in Judah (verse 6), and therefore before the third year of Jehoiakim (Daniel 1:1); but whether in the reign of Manasseh (Havernick, Keil, Pusey), or in that of Josiah (Delitzsch), or in that of Jehoiakim (De Wette, Ewald, Umbreit, Hitzig, Bleek, Kleinert), is open to debate. That the Assyrians are not mentioned as a power seems to indicate that by this time Nineveh had fallen, which speaks for the third of the above dates; that the predicted judgment (verse 5) was to be so unlikely as barely to be credible favours a time while Babylon was yet subject to Assyria, and therefore a date in the reign of Manasseh. The moral and spiritual degeneracy of the age in which Habakkuk lived (verses 1-4) harmonizes less with the reign of Josiah than with that of Manasseh or Jehoiakim. The latter is supported by the fact that the Chaldeans appear to be depicted as already on their march (verse 6); the former by the circumstance that the judgment is represented as not immediately at hand, but only as certain to happen in the days of those to whom the prophet spoke (verse 5).
II. THE BURDEN.
1. Its contents. As Nahum had predicted the destruction of Nineveh and the Assyrian power, which had carried the ten tribes into captivity (2 Kings 17:6), so Habakkuk declares
2. Its form. In the first two chapters the prophet sets forth his message in the form of a conversation between himself and Jehovah, the prophet addressing Jehovah in the language of complaint (verses 1-4) and challenge (verses 12-17), and Jehovah in return replying to his complaint (verses 5-11) and to his challenge (Habakkuk 2:2-19). In the third chapter Habakkuk appends a prayer, which begins by supplicating mercy for the afflicted people of God (Habakkuk 3:1, Habakkuk 3:2), and quickly passes into a sublime description of Jehovah's coming in the glory of the Almighty (Habakkuk 3:3-11) for the destruction of his foes (Habakkuk 3:12-15) and the salvation of his people and his anointed (Habakkuk 3:13). "The whole of the prophecy has an ideal stamp. Not even Judah and Jerusalem are mentioned, and the Chaldeans who are mentioned by name are simply introduced as the existing possessors of the imperial power of the world, which was bent upon the destruction of the kingdom of God, or as the sinners who swallow up the righteous man" (Keil).
3. Its style. The lofty sublimity of this brief composition, as regards both thought and expression, has been universally recognized. "His language is classical throughout His view and mode of presentation bear the seal of independent force and finished beauty" (Delitzsch). "Habakkuk bears not merely the prophet's mantle, but also the poet's wreath adorns his honourable head. He is a Jeremiah and an Asaph in one" (Umbrieit). "As regards force and fulness of conception and beauty of expression, he was certainly one of the most important among the prophets of the Old Testament" (Kleinert).
4. Its origin. No more in his case than in Nahum's was this political foresight, but inspiration. If this prophecy proceeded from the age of Manasseh, political foresight is simply out of the question as its explanation; if from the first years of Jehoiakim, it will be time enough to admit that political foresight could certainly predict a Babylonian invasion at a year's distance when it has been shown that modern statesmen can infallibly tell what shall be on the morrow. And, of course, if political foresight could not certainly predict the Babylonian invasion at one year's distance, still less could it announce a Babylonian overthrow at a distance of more than half a century. Political foresight, then, being an insufficient hypothesis, Divine inspiration should be frankly admitted. Like Nahum, Habakkuk "saw" the burden he delivered. In the New Testament the book is cited as inspired (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Acts 13:40, Acts 13:41; Hebrews 10:38).
Learn:
1. That future events are known to God—Divine foreknowledge.
2. That God can reveal these to men, should he so please—the possibility of revelation.
3. That those whom God selects to be his messengers nevertheless retain their individual and characteristic modes of thought and expression—inspiration not mechanical or uniform.