H A B A K K U K
By: J.N.Robles Olarte
There is a Christian teaching that say, “people who have no faith can not understand” and many have believed that saying is the plain truth. In our Hebrew Scriptures, known like Old Testament, We can find two references of that faith word. They are in Deuteronomy 32:20 and Habakkuk 2:4¡
The first one comes from Strong H29´s word and it´s defined with these words: “EUWM (ay-moon); from H539; stablished. i.e. (fig) trusty; also (abst.) trustworthiness: faith (-ful), truth.”
About H539´s word, Strong says “AMAN (aw-man); a prim. Root; prop. to build up or support; to foster…to be certain or believe.”
The second word comes from Strong´s H530 and it is defined like “EMUWNAH (em-oo.naw); or short EMUNAH
(em-oo-naw); feminine of H529; liter. firmness; fig. security; mor. Fidelity…stability, steady, truly, truth, verily.”
What Deuteronomy 32:20 says is about the behaviour of Hebrew people, “…see what happens to them¡ For they are stubborn, faithless generation.”
It´s speaking about the lacking of trusty of the Hebrews, that they do not believed Eternal´s word.(The Living Bible = TLB).
In Habakkuk 2:4 we read, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in Him: but the just shall live by his faith.”(King James Version=KJV). Habakkuk is speaking about the fidelity of the Hebrews and not of a “faith” without any support in Eternal´s words. It is speaking about the firmness that His people do not handle, and not of a void faith.
The book of Habakkuk was wroted in the sixth century BCE (Before Common Era), shortly before the Babylonians destroyed Judah and the Temple were a mess. In that time the priests were not doing like Eternal dictates them to do and the people worshiping other gods. Was the time when because the worshiping of manyv “baals”, Etrernal decided send His people to captivity and exile, the same that now we can see around us in these end-times. For that reason His Glory departed from the Temple just before its destruction.
The Glory will return to Jerusalem in the millennia period and since then no Temple in Jerusalem. Or other site of the world has been builded or known the presence of the Glory of Eternal Creator since 596 BCE.(1)
You can read those events in Ezekiel 9:3, 10:4,18, and 11:23.
Why do I say what I´m said? Because many Christian´s groups assert that Habakkuk is a prophecy that they are fulfilling in their “churchs”¡ If you read the Hebrew Scriptures with the sincere desire to learn the Eternal´s word, you will find another perspective.: the real one¡ There you will know that since the same beginning the Hebrew people has been stiff-necked´s one and that has been the reason we live in a world of problems, big problems and infringements.
Let us read and see what Habakkuk revealed us through his words:
Hab.1:1/5.-“The pronouncement made by the prophet Habakkuk : How long, O Eternal, shall I cry out, and You not listen, shall I shout to You ,”Violence”, and You not save? Why do You make me see iniquity, why do You look upon wrongs? Raiding and violence are before me, strife continues and contention goes on. That is why decision fails, and justice never emerges ; for the villain hedges in the just man – therefore judgment emerges deformed. Look among the nations, observe well and be utterly astounded, for a work is BEING WROUGHT in your days which you WOULD NOT believe if it were told.” (2)
Eternal always has used other people to punish his Hebrew nation. One of them is the Chaldean. In the past verses Habakkuk is speaking of the Chaldean punishment, and they believed that they were doing the best¡
Let us continue,:
Habakkukk 1:6/11.-“For lo, I Am raising up Chaldeans, that fierce, impetuos nation, who cross the earths´s wide spaces to seize homes not their own. They are terrible, dreadful; they make their own laws and rules. Their horses are swifter than leopards, fleeter than wolves of the steppe, their steeds gallop, their steeds come flying from afar.
Like vultures rushing toward food, they all come, bent on rapine. The thrust of their van is forward, and they amass captives like sand. Kings they hold in desirion, and princes are a joke to them; they laugh at every fortress, they pile up earth and capture it. Then they pass on like the wind, they transgress and incur guilt, for they ascribe their might to their god.”
There you have it very clear. Chaldeans have thinked, always, that their god have gave them their might and success. And they have been wrong¡¡ Babylon is gone, only what we have is …the history¡
Habakkuk 1:12/17.-“You, O Eternal, are from everlasting; my Holy Sovereign, you never die. O Eternal, You have made them a subject of contention; O Rock, You have made them a cause for complaint. You, whose eyes are as pure to look upon evil, who cannot countenance wrongdoing, why do You countenance treachery, and stand by idle while the one in the wrong devours the one in the right? You have made mankind like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler. He has fished them all up with a line, pulled them up in his trawl, and gathered them in his net. That is why he rejoices and is glad. That is why he sacrifices to his trawl and makes offering to his net; for through them his portion is rich and his nourishment fat. Shall he keep emptying his trawl, and slaying nations without pity?”
Here we have the history of the enemies of the Hebrew people. In truth we read in Psalms 83:4 these words, “They plot craftily against Your people, take counsel against Your treasured ones. They say, “Let us wipe them out as a nation: Israel´s name will be mentioned no more.”
Yes, many nations has been unanimous in their counsel to destroy the Hebrew faith and replace it by another false. But is Eternal who handle all in this universe and you can be sure that He will not give His Glory to another and that He will finish all His work¡
Habakkuk 2:1/4.-“I will stand on my watch, take up my station at the post, and wait to see what He will say to me, what He will reply to my complaint, The Eternal answered me and said: “Write the prophecy down .Inscribe it clearly on tablets, so that it can be read easily. For there is yet a prophecy for a set term, a truthful witness for a time that will come. Even if it tarries, wait for it still; for it will surely come, without delay: Lo, His spirit within Him is puffed up, not upright, but the righteous man is rewarded with life for his fidelity.”
Here Habakkuk speaks about what He is going to do with regard to Eternal´s orders and commandments¡ His fear, gratitude and love is so great that we must emulate his example¡ We must nor forget that our reward for our fidelity to Him will be life not dead ¡
Habakkuk 2:5/8.- “How much less then shall the defiant go unpunished, the treacherous, arrogant man who has made his maw as wide as sheol, who is as insatiable as dead, who has harvested all the nations and gathered in all the peoples¡ Surely all these shall pronounce a satire against him, a pointed epigrams concerning him. They shall say: “Ah, you who pile up what is not yours – how much longer? – and make ever heavier your load of indebtedness¡ Right suddenly will your creditors arise, and those who remind you will awake, and you will be despoiled by them. Because you plundered many nations, all surviving peoples shall plunder you – for crimes against men and wrongs against lands, against cities and all their inhabitants.” “
These are the curses that will befall over all the nations that have plundered other nations and peoples and givbing them bad examples forgetting Eternal Creator¡
Habakkuk 2:9/13.-“”Ah, you who have adquired gains to the detriment of your own house, who have destroyed many peoples in order to set your nest on high to escape disaster¡ You have plotted shame for your own house, and guilt for yourself; for a stone shall cry out from the wall (people like to say that” walls have ears”¡¡¡) and a raftger shall answer it from woodwork. Ah you whop have built a town with crime, and established a city with infamy, so that peoples have had to tail for the fires, and nations to weary themselves for naught.¡”
Yes, what we have in our cities are frauds, violence, crimes, infamies, and things worse what we can imagine¡ Our rulers give order to invade other nations, restrict the civil rights, foresee the establishment of interment camps or center of relocations camps and the suspension of the national constitution, etc, etc. That is the simple reason that Eternal is punishing His people, His choosed nation, because they have been forgetting Him¡
Habakkuk 2:14.- “” For the earth shall be filled with AWE for the Glory of Eternal as water covers the sea”.
Here we have good news from our Eternal Creator, that He will fulfil in these end-days all what He has been saying us through His word – something that will be a reality promptly¡ And He continues saying us what will come to happen promptly to the rulers of this world:
Habakkuk 2:15/17.-“Ah, you who make others drink to intoxication as you pour out your wrath, in order to gaze upon their nakedness¡ You shall be sated with shame rather than glory: Drink in your turn and stagger¡ The cup in the right hand of Eternal Creator shall come around to you, and disgrace to your glory. For the lawlessness against Lebanon shall cover you , the destruction of beast shall overwhelm you. For crimes against men and against lands, against cities and all their inhabitants.”
All what we have doing through all these past centuries, on the land that Eternal gave us, is and has been the worse.
We have been doing all the contrary what Eternal has ordered us through His Scriptures:
Habakkuk 2:18/20.-“¡What has the carved image availed, that he who fashioned it has carved it for an image and a false oracle – that he who fashioned his product has trusted in it, making dumb idols? Ah, you –peoples of the world- who say, “Wake up” to the wood, “Awaken”, to inert stone¡ Can that gives an oracle? Why. It is encased in gold and silver, but there is no breath inside it, but Eternal is His Holy abode – Be silent before Him all the earth¡””
Yes, the world has been blind to all warnings of our loved Creator thinking that they know better all the things of our future peace and happiness. But behind all these actions of us there is something, Satan, our natural enemy that has been working through the mankind knowing that he -the man- is lost since the same beginning of this human world.
(You can corroborate these words reading Isaiah 14: 12/17).
Habakkuk was a prophet of Eternal Creator. We do not know for sure if he was a descendant of Levi but we may be sure that he was choosed by Eternal like one of His prophets to advice His people and manifest His oracles. When Eternal decides something is foe ever¡
He declared the Levi Tribe for His service, Firstly he take Aaron and his descendants to serve Him like priests:
“And for Aaron´s son also you shall make tunics, and m ake sashes for them, and make turban and on his son as well; ANOINT them, and ordain them and consecrate them to serve Me as priest…it shall be a law for all time for him and for his offspring to come.”(Exodus 28:40/43).
The rest of the Levites will be of His property, “Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: I hereby take the Levites from among the Israelites in place of all the first-born, the first issue of their womb among the Israelites: the Levites shall be Mine.
For every firstborn is Mine…” and “Now I take the Levites instead of every first-born of the Israelites; and from among the Israelites I formally assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons, to performs the service for the Israelites in the Tent of Meeting and to make expiation for the Israelites, so that no plague may afflict the Israelites for coming too near the sanctuary.” (Numbers 3:11/13 y 8:18/19).
Yes, so it was and it is yet¡ But many church speak and teach that there is a “Levi” type and a “spiritual” Jew to handle their teachings about the Galilean man and give a support to the many Christian teachings that, of course, is a great fraud and lie. All what we see happen all around now in Jerusalem, and other sites of the world, is the next advent of the real Mashiach that will come in union of the prophet Elijah, and the Eternal´s Government.
Habakkuk 3:1/7.-“A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. In the mode of Shigionoth (our supplication): O Eternal¡ I have learned of Your renown; I am awed, O Eternal, by Your deeds. Renew them in these years; Oh, make them known in these years¡ Though angry, may You remember compassion. ( And we must do the same thing¡). Eternal is coming from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.(selah) – His majesty covers the skies, His splendour fills the arth: it is a brilliant light which gives off rays on every side – and therein His Glory is enveloped. Pestilence marches before Him, and plague comes forth at His heels. When He stands, He makes the earth shaker; when he glances, He makes nations tremble. The age-old mountains are shattered, the primeval hill sin low. His are the ancients routes: as a scene of havoc I behold: the tents of Cushan; shaken are the pavilions of the land of Midian¡”
Eternal is going to revive ALL things in this planet earth – and all the universe… later.
And those verses are, only, a glance of that past and the next future¡¡¡
Here we can bring some wonderful words of our loved Creator, “Hear, O heaven and give ears, O earth, for Eternal Creator has spoken: I reared children and brought them up – and they have rebelled against Me¡” and these sad words, “An ox knows its owner, an ass its master´s crib: ISRAEL DOES NOT KNOW, My people TAKES NO THOUGHT.”(Isaiah 1:2/3).
Those words has been a reality in Hebrew´s peoples and history. But…we count with an Creator that is not like other gods of this world. He is LOVE , FORGIVENESS and MERCIFUL:
“Come, let us reach and understanding, says Eternal. Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-white; be they red as dyed wool, they can be come like fleece.” and “If, then, you agree and give heed, you will eat the good things of the earth; but if you refuse and disobey, you will be devoured by the soword. For it was Eternal Who spoke.”(Isaiah 1:18/20).
Now Habakkuk intervenes before Eternal Creator and tell us these words:
Habakkuk 3:8/12.-“Was Eternal displeased against the rivers? The mountains watched and trembled. Onward swept the ragin water. The mighty deep cried out, , announcing its surrender to Eternal Creator. The lofty sun and moon began to fade, obscured by brilliance from Your arrows and the flashing of Your glittering spear. You marched across the land in awesome anger, and trampled down the nations in Your wrath.”(TLB version).
!What a wonderful words from Eternal mouth¡¡ There you can see moulded the wrath and love of Eternal for His people, His creation¡.
Habakkuk 3:13/18.-“You have come forth to DELLIVER Your people, to deliver Your anointed king- David. You will smash the roof of the villain´s house, raze it from foundation to top (the Chaldean´s kingdom and his descendants in the end-times). You will crack his skull with Your bludgeon; blown away shall be his warriors, whose delight is to crush me suddenly, to devour a poor man in an ambush. You will make Your steed the sea, stirring the mighty waters, that I may have rest on a day of distress –Habakkuk speaking- when a people come up to attack us. But this report made my bowels quake, these tidings made my lips quiver; rot entered into my bone, I trembled where I stood: that the fig-tree does not bud, and no yields is on the vine; the olive crop has failed, and the fields produced no grain; the sheep have vanished from the fold and not cattle are in the pen.”
All of that happened when Judah was took by the king of Babylon and was burnt the temple; news that you can read in Antiquities of the Jews, chapter VIII of the Book X.(3).
Knowing now the sure future, on the days of the “end-time”, Habakkuk rejoices himself and sing with great happiness:
Habakkuk 3:18/19.-“Yet I will rejoice in Eternal Creator, exult in Eternal Who deliver me. My Sovereign is my strength: He makes my feet like the deer´s and lets me stride upon the heights.” And so it will be!!
COLOPHON: What we need all is to believe, love and worship the Real and Unique Creator of this universe: Eternal Creator Who is our Only One Mediator and Saviour. There is no other equal to HIM.
Let us remember always these words that has come from His mouth too, “I am Creator, YHWH, that is My Name, I will not YIELD My Glory to another (god), nor My Renown to Idols.” because will come a day when “…men shall Not turn to the altars that their own fingers wrought.” (Isaiah 42:8 and 17:7).
SO BE IT ETERNAL FATHER!!!
End Notes: (Emphasis mine throughout).
1) The Ezekiel book narrates about the “Judgment and Glory for all Israel”, a prophecy that says that Israel is formed by two nations: Judah and Israel. They never know it because they were in captivity.
2) All verses of Habakkuk are from the Tanakh, 1958´s version, except Habakkuk 3:8/12. Jewish Publication Society.
3) Josephus´s work, Book 10, Chapter 8, 1 et al of the Antiquities of the Jews. Kregel Publications, 1973.
