The big picture
Habakkuk 1 begins with a legal and moral contradiction: the law is present, yet judgment is distorted and violence keeps winning. Habakkuk brings that contradiction directly to God, expecting the God who hears and saves to answer it. The answer is not relief in a simple form. God is raising the Chaldeans, whose speed, appetite, and contempt for restraint make them terrifying, and whose conquest is itself described as violence. Habakkuk therefore presses the question from inside his conviction that God is everlasting and holy. The chapter ends with a fishing image in which peoples become a profitable catch and the conqueror honors the net that feeds him. The first answer has arrived, but it has made the prophet’s original problem harder rather than easier.
Central truth
Habakkuk brings persistent violence and corrupted judgment before the Lord, asking why cries for rescue seem unanswered while the wicked surround the righteous. The Lord answers Habakkuk by announcing the Chaldeans' advance, and the prophet appeals to God's holiness against the conqueror's treachery, predatory violence, and worship of its own means of success.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Habakkuk 1:1: “The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.”
Slow down at the turning point
Habakkuk 1:11: “Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.”
Keep this word trail visible
judgment, LORD, violence, drag, gather, horsemen
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Habakkuk 1:1–4
Habakkuk 1:1
A burden the prophet saw
Begin with the heading: "The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see". Explain burden as a weighty message from God, a load laid on the prophet to carry, and point to the verb: he saw it. The book tells us almost nothing else about him, no father, no hometown, no king's name. Teach this first because it frames everything that follows. The complaints of 1:2-4 are not private grumbling that slipped into Scripture; they are part of the burden Habakkuk was given to deliver, and God chose to keep them.
Habakkuk 1:2
How long, and to whom
Read verse 2 slowly, twice. Point out the address, "O LORD", and the two matching halves: crying and no hearing, crying out of violence and no saving. The prophet has been praying and sees no result. Explain that how long is the language of lament found in Psalm 13:1-2 and on the lips of the martyrs in Revelation 6:10; it belongs to the faithful, not the faithless. Teach it here because learners need to hear that complaint addressed to God is a form of prayer before anything else in the book will make sense.
Habakkuk 1:3
Why must I keep looking
Move from time to purpose. "Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?" Gloss grievance as trouble or mischief and spoiling as plunder. Note how much of the verse is about sight: shew, behold, before me. Habakkuk cannot look away, and he asks why God makes him look while God himself seems not to act. Write the list on the board: iniquity, grievance, spoiling, violence, strife, contention. This step comes before verse 4 because the list is the cause on which the therefore of verse 4 depends.
Habakkuk 1:4
The law gone slack
Explain slacked as numbed or gone limp, and compass about as surround. Draw the chain: violence and strife, therefore the law loses its grip and judgment never goes forth; the wicked surround the righteous, therefore judgment comes out twisted. This is the height of the complaint. The courts that God gave Israel to restrain wrong have been bent to serve it. Close the exposition without an answer, and tell the group plainly that the LORD's reply begins at 1:5. Today they stand where Habakkuk stands, inside the question.
Habakkuk 1:5–17
Habakkuk 1:5-6
An answer no one would believe
Read 1:5 and 1:6 as one sentence, because the Book of Habakkuk wrote them that way. The LORD tells his hearers to look among the nations and "wonder marvellously", for he is already at work. Then he names the work: "I raise up the Chaldeans". Explain that the Chaldeans are the Babylonians, the rising power of Habakkuk's day. Teach this first because the shock of the chapter depends on it. Habakkuk asked God to act against violence in Judah, and God says he is acting, through a nation more violent still.
Habakkuk 1:7-11
A portrait of the instrument
Walk through the portrait slowly. Their law comes from themselves (1:7). Their horses outrun leopards and outhunt evening wolves (1:8). They come "all for violence" and "gather the captivity as the sand" (1:9). They laugh at kings and "heap dust, and take it" (1:10); explain this as earth ramps thrown up against city walls. Finally they are guilty, "imputing this his power unto his god" (1:11). Spend time on that last line. God will use this nation, but the LORD's own description already holds it accountable, which prepares for the woes of chapter 2.
Habakkuk 1:12
Faith speaks before the hard question
Mark the change of speaker; Habakkuk answers. Before he objects, he confesses: God is "from everlasting", "my God", "mine Holy One". Then "we shall not die", a confidence grounded in who God is rather than in the size of the army. He even accepts the purpose: "thou hast ordained them for judgment" and "for correction". Teach this step on its own because it shows how faith handles a hard word. Habakkuk does not deny what God said; he reasons from what he already knows of God toward what he cannot yet understand.
Habakkuk 1:13
Pure eyes and a silent tongue
Now the question. God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity". Explain that this means God cannot look on evil with approval or indifference, not that he cannot see it, because the same verse asks why he "lookest" upon the treacherous and "holdest thy tongue". The problem is the comparison: the wicked devours "the man that is more righteous than he". Judah is not innocent, yet it is less wicked than Babylon. Let the group feel the weight of the question before reading on.
Habakkuk 1:14-17
The fisherman who worships his net
Finish with the image Habakkuk chooses. People become fish and creeping things with no ruler (1:14), hauled in by hook, net and drag (1:15). The conqueror rejoices, then burns incense to the very tools of his success, because they make his portion fat (1:16). Close on the question of 1:17 and leave it unanswered: will he keep emptying the net and slaying nations without end. Teach the passage in this order so that the last thing the group hears is the prophet's question, which is exactly what 2:1 picks up.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
Habakkuk 1:1–4
"Questioning God like this shows a lack of faith."
Habakkuk addresses "O LORD" and a few verses later calls him "O LORD my God, mine Holy One" (1:12). A man who has given up on God does not keep praying to him. The same how long is asked in Psalm 13:1-2 and by the souls under the altar in Revelation 6:10. The book counts the complaint as part of the prophet's burden (1:1). The line to draw is between complaint brought to God and accusation thrown at him from a distance; Habakkuk is doing the first.
"God really wasn't listening."
Verse 2 reports what Habakkuk experienced, "thou wilt not hear", and the Bible keeps that report honestly. But the very next verse is the LORD speaking, and his first words show he has been at work: "I will work a work in your days" (1:5). Teach the gap between experience and reality with care. The prophet's sense of silence is true to what he felt and is not mocked; it is also not the final word on whether God was paying attention.
"This is about Habakkuk's personal troubles."
Every wrong named is public: violence, spoiling, strife, contention, a law that is slacked and judgment that "doth never go forth" (1:3-4). The complaint is about a society and its courts, not about a private injury done to the prophet. That matters for application. The passage gives words for grief over injustice done to others, and it should not be shrunk into a lesson about personal disappointment or unanswered wishes.
"If God allows the injustice, he must approve of it."
Habakkuk's whole complaint rests on the opposite belief. He assumes God hates what he sees, which is exactly why its continuance troubles him, and he says so in 1:13: "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil". The tension in this book is between God's holiness and God's delay, never between a holy God and an approving one. Let learners feel that tension rather than relieving it by lowering God's character.
Habakkuk 1:5–17
"Verse 5 is a promise that God will do something wonderful in my life."
The verse is addressed to a plural audience and is explained at once by the next verse: "For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans" (1:6). The unbelievable work is an invasion. When Paul quotes it in Acts 13:40-41, he uses it as a warning to those who scorn God's work, not as a promise of success. Teach that God does work beyond belief in history, and that the work announced here is judgment.
"If God raised up the Chaldeans, then what they do must be right."
The LORD's own description of them ends with guilt: "and offend, imputing this his power unto his god" (1:11). Chapter 2 announces their judgment: "Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee" (2:8). Isaiah 10:5-15 says the same of Assyria, which was the rod in God's hand yet was punished for its pride. Being used by God for judgment is not the same as being approved by him.
"Verse 13 says God cannot see evil at all."
Read the rest of the verse. Habakkuk asks why God "lookest" upon them that deal treacherously and "holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth" the righteous. So God does see. The phrase "purer eyes than to behold evil" means he cannot look on it with favour or let it pass. The prophet's complaint is precisely that a holy God sees and appears silent.
"'We shall not die' means no one in Judah will be killed."
Habakkuk says it straight after "Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God", so it rests on God's faithfulness to his people, not on a guarantee for every person. The same chapter describes captives gathered "as the sand" (1:9), and the God who has "established them for correction" (1:12) intends real discipline. The confidence is that the covenant people will not be wiped out, because their God does not die.
Learning objectives
- Identify the Lord as the one Habakkuk addresses.
- Explain what 'how long' reveals about the complaint.
- List the public wrongs named in these four verses.
- Explain what has happened to the law and judgment.
- Distinguish the prophet's protest from a denial that God exists.
- Describe what this opening leaves unanswered.
- Identify the nation named in the Lord's answer.
- Explain why the answer deepens Habakkuk's concern about violence.
- Trace the animal images describing the advancing army.
- Identify what the conqueror credits for its power.
- Explain Habakkuk's comparison between people and captured fish.
- Distinguish being used for judgment from receiving moral approval.
Teacher preparation
- Read 1:1–17 beforehand, but let learners hear the opening complaint before supplying the answer.
- Gloss 'burden' as the prophetic message, not merely Habakkuk's private anxiety, in 1:1.
- Explain 'spoiling' as plunder or destruction and 'grievance' as trouble in 1:3.
- Explain 'slacked' as weakened in force and 'compass about' as surround in 1:4.
- Prepare a fictional case of ignored injustice; do not request accounts of violence or unanswered prayer.
- Read 1:1–17 and 2:6–8; connect the opening violence with the conqueror's later accountability.
- Identify the Chaldeans of 1:6 with the Babylonian power; do not supply an exact campaign date the passage does not name.
- Mark the speaker change between 1:11 and 1:12; read the latter as Habakkuk's response.
- Gloss 'angle' as a fishing hook and 'drag' as a net in 1:15–16, not anger or reluctance.
- Explain 'more righteous' in 1:13 as a comparison, not a declaration that Judah is sinless.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Read 1:2–4: Habakkuk cries to the Lord about violence, destructive conflict, weakened law, and distorted judgment. Read 1:6–11: the Lord announces the Chaldeans' rise while describing seized homes, violence, captivity, contempt, and wrongful credit to a god.
Scripture-supported
Connect 1:2 with 1:12: his protest addresses the God he calls everlasting and holy, rather than abandoning belief in him. Join 1:11 with 2:8: use within divine judgment does not remove the conqueror's guilt or future accountability.
Strong inference
Infer from 'how long' and the repeated crying in 1:2 that Habakkuk describes sustained distress, not one moment of impatience. Infer from 1:12–13 that Habakkuk's difficulty grows from his conviction about God's holiness; he asks how that conviction fits the announced instrument.
Possible or traditional reading
Present the opening wrongs in 1:3–4 as commonly located within Judah, contrasted with the incoming Chaldeans in 1:6; the opening names no specific ruler or trial. Read 'we shall not die' in 1:12 as a possible expression of confidence in the people's preservation, not a guarantee that every individual survives invasion.
Limit
State that 1:2 reports the prophet's experienced lack of an answer, not a final declaration that God is unaware or incapable; these verses give no timetable. State that 1:14–17 does not authorize calling any present nation God's appointed invader, or prove that military success expresses divine approval of its methods.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. Whom does Habakkuk address when he asks 'how long'?
What a good answer contains
He speaks to the LORD directly. The verse opens "O LORD, how long shall I cry", and every verb after it is addressed to thou. Habakkuk does not complain about God to the people; he complains to God about what is happening to the people. A good answer sees that the protest is itself a prayer, the act of someone who still expects to be heard. A weak answer calls it unbelief, which 1:12 rules out when the same prophet calls God "mine Holy One".
Show teacher guidance
Identify the Lord in 1:2; the protest remains prayer rather than a speech merely about God.
2. What does the repeated crying tell us about his concern?
What a good answer contains
The cry appears twice in one verse: "how long shall I cry", then "even cry out unto thee of violence". The words how long assume a history of asking, so this is not a first prayer but one that has been prayed before and is being prayed again. A good answer names persistence and urgency. A weak answer either supplies a number of months or years the text never gives, or calls Habakkuk impatient, as though asking again were a fault rather than the shape of faithful prayer.
Show teacher guidance
Use 1:2 to recognize persistence and urgency; avoid inventing the number of days or years involved.
3. Which wrongs does Habakkuk name rather than leaving his complaint vague?
What a good answer contains
Gather the nouns from 1:2-3: violence, iniquity, grievance, "spoiling and violence are before me", and people who "raise up strife and contention". Verse 4 then adds a law gone slack and judgment perverted. A strong answer notices that these are public and social wrongs, done in streets and courts, and that Habakkuk names each one rather than sighing about the state of things. A weak answer reduces the list to a general feeling that the world is bad.
Show teacher guidance
Collect violence, spoiling, strife, and contention from 1:2–3; keep the public harm visible.
4. What does the surrounding of the righteous do to judgment?
What a good answer contains
Verse 4 turns on two therefores. Because violence and strife go unchecked, "the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth". Because "the wicked doth compass about the righteous", the outcome is that "wrong judgment proceedeth". The righteous are hemmed in, and the courts that should protect them hand down crooked verdicts. A good answer traces that cause and effect. A weak one hears only discouragement and misses that the verse describes a system of justice that has stopped working.
Show teacher guidance
Follow the explanation in 1:4: wicked pressure produces wrong judgment. Correct the idea that the verse merely describes an unpleasant mood.
5. How do 'how long' and 'why' differ in the complaint?
What a good answer contains
How long, in 1:2, asks about time: when will the LORD hear and save? "Why dost thou shew me iniquity", in 1:3, asks about purpose: why must the prophet keep looking at wrong that is never put right, while God also sees it? A good answer keeps both questions and notes that neither receives a reply in these verses. A weak answer merges them into one complaint and loses the sharper second question, which presses on what God himself is looking at.
Show teacher guidance
Compare 1:2–3: one asks about duration, the other about the continued sight of wrongdoing; neither receives its answer within this unit.
6. What answer has the Lord given by the end of verse 4?
What a good answer contains
None yet. The unit closes at 1:4 on "wrong judgment proceedeth", with no word from the LORD. His reply begins at 1:5, and it will not be the reply Habakkuk expects. The strong answer lets the silence stand for the length of the lesson, because the Book of Habakkuk lets it stand. A weak answer reaches ahead to 2:4 or 3:18 and closes the complaint before the group has heard it.
Show teacher guidance
Identify that no divine answer has yet been reported. Resist borrowing a comforting conclusion before hearing the actual reply in 1:5–11.
7. Why is the promised astonishing work not a simple announcement of pleasant news?
What a good answer contains
Because verse 5 runs straight into verse 6. The work "which ye will not believe, though it be told you" is explained by the next word, "For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation". It is unbelievable because it is terrible: God answers violence in Judah by bringing a more violent nation against it. A good answer reads the two verses as one sentence. A weak answer lifts verse 5 off the page as a promise of blessing and never reaches the army it announces.
Show teacher guidance
Read 1:5–6 together: the work is the rise of the Chaldeans. Correct the use of verse 5 as a detached promise of personal success.
8. What do the leopards, wolves, and eagle make the reader notice?
What a good answer contains
Speed, ferocity and hunger. The horses are "swifter than the leopards" and "more fierce than the evening wolves", hunters that have gone all day without food, and the horsemen "fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat" (1:8). The images end where predators end, with prey: "they shall gather the captivity as the sand" (1:9). A good answer follows the images to the captives. A weak answer admires the animals and forgets that each picture describes people being run down.
Show teacher guidance
Follow 1:8–9: speed, ferocity, and predatory movement culminate in captives, not a decorative nature scene.
9. Where do the invaders locate their authority and power?
What a good answer contains
In themselves. Verse 7 says "their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves": they make their own law and answer to no one above them. Verse 11 completes the portrait, "imputing this his power unto his god". Whatever god they name, it is their own strength they worship. Strong answers notice the irony against 1:4, where Judah's judgment went out wrong; now comes a nation whose judgment is simply its own will. Weak answers mistake this confidence for faith.
Show teacher guidance
Compare 1:7 with 1:11: their judgment proceeds from themselves and their power is credited to their god; do not confuse this with faithful dependence.
10. How does Habakkuk describe God before challenging the means of judgment?
What a good answer contains
As eternal, personal and holy before he says anything hard: "Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One?" (1:12). He calls him "O mighty God" and grants that God has "ordained them for judgment" and "established them for correction". Then 1:13 sets out the problem from God's own purity. A good answer sees that his question rests on God's character rather than doubting it. A weak answer hears Habakkuk accusing God of evil, when he is appealing to God against it.
Show teacher guidance
Identify everlasting, holy, and mighty in 1:12–13. His question appeals to God's character rather than declaring wrongdoing harmless.
11. What happens to people in the fishing picture?
What a good answer contains
They stop being people. God is said to make "men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them" (1:14), and the conqueror hauls them in with "the angle", the "net" and the "drag" (1:15). Explain angle as a hook and drag as a dragnet. A strong answer notices the last line, "therefore they rejoice and are glad": the catch is a celebration for the fisherman and a catastrophe for the fish. A weak answer treats the image as a picture of skill rather than of human beings taken in bulk.
Show teacher guidance
Trace hook, net, and drag in 1:14–15: nations become helpless catches for another's gain. Do not treat the image as fishing advice.
12. Why does worshiping the net make the problem worse?
What a good answer contains
Because success has become a god. "Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous" (1:16). Whatever brings the profit receives the worship, so nothing will restrain it. That is why the unit ends with a question: "Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?" (1:17). A good answer links the worship to the endless killing. A weak answer laughs at literal net-worship and misses the warning about power that justifies itself.
Show teacher guidance
Read 1:16–17: the means of conquest receives devotion because it produces abundance, while slaughter threatens to continue. Success has become its own moral justification.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Rewrite a fictional vague complaint as a precise, truthful appeal modeled on Habakkuk's named concerns.
Relationships and community
Examine a fictional group that ignores an injured member's report; identify what responsible listening must hear before offering explanations.
Room for lament
Compare a hasty reassurance with an honest acknowledgment that wrongdoing remains unresolved; keep both examples impersonal.
Read the whole announcement
Compare a detached quotation of 1:5 with its continuation; practice preserving unwelcome context instead of advertising a promise the passage never makes.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
Habakkuk 1:1–4
45 minutes
Hear the cry
Read 1:1-4 aloud once without comment, then read verse 2 again slowly. Ask question one.
Name the wrongs
Read 1:3 and write the six words for wrong on the board. Take question three, glossing spoiling and grievance as you go.
The broken chain
Draw verse 4 as a chain with two therefore links. Take question four, then confusion three.
How long and why
Ask questions two and five. Answer confusion one from 1:12 and Psalm 13:1-2.
Leave it open
Ask question six and touch confusion two, saying the answer begins at 1:5 next time. Hand out the sheet, read the key verse together and pray verse 2 in your own words.
90 minutes
A wrong left standing
Ask the group to name, in general and historical terms, a public wrong that went unpunished for a long time. Keep it impersonal and do not ask for cases from their own lives.
The burden
Read 1:1 and teach exposition step one: burden, seeing, and how little the book says about the man.
How long
Read 1:2. Take questions one and two, then read Psalm 13:1-2 and Revelation 6:10 beside it and work through confusion one.
Why must I look
Read 1:3. Build the list of wrongs, take questions three and five, and address confusion three.
The law gone slack
Read 1:4 and draw the chain. Take question four, then confusion four with 1:13 read aloud.
The silence
Ask question six. Read 1:5 only as a preview and handle confusion two.
Precise prayer
In pairs, take the first application: rewrite a vague invented complaint as a precise and truthful appeal, modelled on 1:2-4.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and close by praying for places where the law has gone slack.
Habakkuk 1:5–17
45 minutes
What answer was expected
Read 1:2-4 briefly and ask the group what reply Habakkuk might have hoped for.
The unbelievable work
Read 1:5-11 aloud. Take question one, then confusion one from Acts 13:40-41.
Leopards, wolves and an eagle
Take questions two and three, marking 1:7 and 1:11 as the frame of the portrait.
The second question
Read 1:12-13. Ask question four and deal with confusions three and four.
The net
Read 1:14-17. Take questions five and six, and touch confusion two from 1:11 and 2:8.
Handout
Read the key verse together, give out the sheet and pray for those caught in the nets of powerful people.
90 minutes
Recall the first cry
Read 1:2-4 and list the wrongs from last time. Ask what answer the group would have expected God to give.
The answer and its sting
Read 1:5-6. Teach exposition step one, take question one, and work through confusion one with Acts 13:40-41.
The portrait
Read 1:7-11. Take questions two and three. Explain the earth ramps of 1:10 and the guilt of 1:11.
Used and still guilty
Read Isaiah 10:5-15 and Habakkuk 2:8, then discuss confusion two.
Faith reasons with God
Read 1:12-13. Ask question four, then confusions three and four. Draw two columns: what Habakkuk knows about God, and what he cannot fit with it.
Hook, net and drag
Read 1:14-17 and take questions five and six. Ask where people today are counted as a catch.
Application
Work the second application: rewrite an invented report that counts gains and hides the people harmed.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together and close by praying it, ending on the question that 2:1 will take up.
Adapting the lesson
Habakkuk 1:1–4
Children
Set up a playground scene with paper figures: a big figure pushing smaller ones while the referee looks the other way. Ask what the small figures could do, then read 1:2 and show that Habakkuk took the problem to God. Teach how long and why as words children may pray too. Leave out the detail about courts, and do not ask whether anyone has hurt them.
Youth
Young people notice injustice quickly and are often told to keep quiet about it. Let them see that a prophet asked God how long and why, and that the Bible kept his questions. Have them list the six wrongs of 1:3 and find a general modern equivalent for each in public life. Steer away from naming classmates, teachers or local people.
Adults
Give time to 1:4 and the idea of a law that still stands on paper but has lost its force. Many adults have watched institutions fail; invite reflection without asking for cases. Read Psalm 13 together and discuss whether their congregation leaves room for lament. Note that the wrongs appear to be inside Judah, and keep the Chaldean answer for the next session.
One to one
Read 1:1-4 together and ask which word in verse 2 or 3 they would underline. If the person carries an unanswered prayer, let them notice that Habakkuk's prayer also went unanswered for a time and still stands in Scripture. Do not hurry them to the end of the book. Offer to pray verse 2 with them in their own words, and let the question stay open if they are not ready to close it.
Habakkuk 1:5–17
Children
Tell the children God answered Habakkuk, but not in the way he expected. Use pictures of a leopard, a wolf and an eagle and ask what each is good at, then explain that the army is compared to them because it was fast and fierce. Draw a net with fish and talk about how unfair it is to treat people like fish. Keep war details simple and avoid frightening descriptions of captivity.
Youth
Ask whether they have ever prayed for something and received an answer that made things harder. Then read 1:5-6. Spend time on the net that is worshipped in 1:16, and ask what tools of success people today trust and protect at any cost. Encourage them to notice Habakkuk's pattern in 1:12, saying what he knows of God before his hard question.
Adults
Give more time to the theology: God using a guilty nation without approving it, with Isaiah 10 as the parallel, and the comparison in 1:13 between the wicked and the more righteous. Discuss how economic and political power can come to be worshipped for what it produces. Avoid naming present nations as the Chaldeans, and keep the conversation on the text and on our own temptations.
One to one
Read 1:5-17 together and ask which part was hardest to hear. If the person feels God's answers have made life harder, sit with 1:12, where Habakkuk holds on to what he knows of God before he asks his question. Encourage them to write their own two lines in that pattern, one of confession and one of honest question, and pray them together.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Habakkuk 1:1–4
The passage in brief
Habakkuk was a prophet in Judah, and his book opens with a prayer of complaint. He asks the LORD how long he must cry out about violence before God hears and saves, and why God makes him look at so much wrong. He sees plunder, fighting and quarrels, a law that has lost its strength, and courts where the wicked surround the righteous so that judgment comes out crooked. These four verses end with no answer yet. They show that honest questions can be brought to God in prayer.
A verse to keep
Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
Habakkuk 1:3 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What two questions does Habakkuk ask God in 1:2-3?
List the wrongs Habakkuk sees in 1:3-4.
What happens to the law and to judgment in 1:4, and why?
This week
This week, bring one wrong you have seen in the world to God by name, in honest words, and ask him to act.
Habakkuk 1:5–17
The passage in brief
God answers Habakkuk, but the answer is hard. He is raising up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, a fast and fierce nation that makes its own law and treats its own strength as its god. Habakkuk responds by remembering who God is: eternal, holy and his own God. Then he asks how a God too pure to look on evil can stay silent while a wicked nation swallows people more righteous than itself, catching them like fish in a net and worshipping the net that makes it rich.
A verse to keep
Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
Habakkuk 1:12 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What is the work God says no one would believe in 1:5-6?
What does Habakkuk say about God in 1:12 before he asks his question?
What does the conqueror do with his net in 1:16, and why?
This week
When God's ways confuse you this week, first say aloud what you know is true of him, then bring him your question.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
