Habakkuk - Introduction
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INTRODUCTION
Habakkuk lived in Judah in the latter part of the seventh century B.C., during the final years of Judah’s existence as a nation. Thus he was a contemporary of Jeremiah.
The book of Habakkuk is unusual among the prophetic books in that it consists mainly of dialogue between Habakkuk and God. Habakkuk questions God about Judah’s sinfulness and why God isn’t doing something about it. God answers that He will indeed do something about it: He will send the Babylonians to conquer Judah (Habakkuk 1:5–11)—which came to pass in 586 B.C., not many years after Habakkuk’s book was written.
Habakkuk represented the godly Judahites who were perplexed by God’s ways. Habakkuk openly and devoutly questioned God, and he accepted God’s answers though he couldn’t fully comprehend them. He related these answers to his fellow Judahites.
Habakkuk shows us that it is all right to question God. But more important, Habakkuk shows us that even though evil seems to prevail and our struggles seem in vain, still we can trust in God. And Habakkuk demonstrates his own trust in God