Habakkuk Has Questions

Habakkuk 1: 1-4

1 This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision.

2 How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. 3 Must I forever see these evil deeds?  Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people  who love to argue and fight. 4 The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous,  so that justice has become perverted.

Habakkuk 1: 12-17

12O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. 13 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? Should you be silent while the wicked swallow up people more righteous than they?

14 Are we only fish to be caught and killed? Are we only sea creatures that have no leader? 15 Must we be strung up on their hooks  and caught in their nets while they rejoice and celebrate?  16 Then they will worship their nets
    and burn incense in front of them.  “These nets are the gods who have made us rich!”  they will claim. 17 Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?

Habakkuk 2: 18-20

18 “What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you? How foolish to trust in your own creation—  a god that can’t even talk!  19 What sorrow awaits you who say to wooden idols,   ‘Wake up and save us!’
To speechless stone images you say,  ‘Rise up and teach us!’  Can an idol tell you what to do? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside. 20 But the Lord is in his holy Temple.   Let all the earth be silent before him.”