Study Audio Download

The Book of Habakkuk – Chapter 1:1-17 

[Aired March 15, 2025]

The prophet Habakkuk mysteriously appears around 612 BC and vanishes after fulfilling his mission. His “burden,” as stated in the opening verse of his book, appears to be just that—a weight imposed by the holy spirit upon his mind; this burden, with a slightly different slant, shared with his fellow Minor Prophets, warning about the destruction of Israel unwittingly for the old man within us.

The Body of Christ is well acquainted with the common Biblical theme of humanity’s craving for health and wealth to foster peace and joy. Patently seeing scripture and our Lord’s promise, which, when not forthcoming, sometimes leaves us a little perplexed and despondent. In his wise writings, Solomon truly embodied that lifestyle in Ecclesiastes, denying himself no pleasure, only to lament that it was all vanity of vanities. 

Ecc 2:10  And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. 
Ecc 2:11  Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. 

That is the inane desire we all lust for the same conclusion, ever experiencing but never learning — never having the spiritual means to learn.

Our Lord is showing us that our breathless quest to satisfy the flesh’s cravings, though starkly evident through experience, is but a pathetic shadow of the reality in Christ, particularly for the Elect becoming his Bride. He instills in us this desire through His servant, Satan, to ultimately reveal to his Elect who the Father is by the agonising path of the flesh to become spirit. In bewilderment and pain, we are driven to cry out the same ‘burden’ Habakkuk saw and personally experienced in Israel and the Lord’s apparent dismissal of those anguishes. Meanwhile, the rich materially and in ‘another Jesus’ lives riotously each Sunday, shaking their heads at us, the symbolic Lazarus, struggling in our delusion of strange doctrines. They can’t possibly understand that we genuinely glorify God for our suffering, not in a masochistic way, but with the understanding that the flesh is like a flower that blooms overnight only to wither in the midday sun.

It brings joy to understand that the Lord’s apparent inactions against our worldly enemies, materially and spiritually, demonstrate the integrity of the vessel He is shaping for the equally incongruous fire.

Jer 25:27  Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. 
Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. 
Jer 25:29  For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts. 

Significations:

Hab 1:1  The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. 

Habakkuk’s Complaint

Hab 1:2  O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! 
Hab 1:3  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. 
Hab 1:4  Therefore the law is slacked [H6313], and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

Our Lord is reconstructing each of us as uniquely designed joints in His Bride for His purposes (Mal 3:16, Eph 4:16). Just as wise parents should understand before having children how far their righteous chastisements should extend, it is crucial to foster the moral qualities in them without breaking their spirit. Speaking of those changes needing to take place internally, our Lord says:

Exo 23:29  I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 
Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 

When retribution upon others who wrong us is not swiftly forthcoming by our standards, we feel miffed and unheard, like Jonah sullenly awaiting the destruction of Niveneh – only, and like Cain for his chastisements, we become sulkier.

Slacked H6313 –  to grow numb, be feeble, be benumbed 

1. (Qal) to be feeble
2. (Niphal) to be benumbed.

In the short term, that is precisely our walk; we tend to become numb and feeble under Christ’s apparent heavy hand, vaguely aware that God’s goodness brings joy through deep reflection upon our old man (“wondering marvellously” – Hab 1: 5). What better way for spirit to discern spirit is there than from a fellow prophet, Nahum,

Nah 1:7  The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 
Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 

The Lord’s Answer

Hab 1:5  Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. 
Hab 1:6  For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. 

Everything belongs to us; we are they among the heathen, as are the Chaldeans within, who are bitter and quick to condemn the wonderful works of God within our spirit. We boldly march through life with our skirts hiked up around our thighs, always pointing derision at passersby with a ‘flicked bird’ for their lecherous leers, honking horns, and wolf-whistles, and inside with our heads held high; we revel in their validation of our illusionary rights — for the moment, unaware of the wonderous thoughts and works the Lord will work in us. Upon being given eyes and ears for the marvellous works he has planned in our lives, we look back, embarrassed for seeking validation from our former Babylonian church, family and friends.

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 
Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 

Our “dwelling places”, our temporary ‘booths’ of corruptible flesh, are ours for the short term; however, our Lord has marvellous, fiery works to accomplish within to bring us to an expected end.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. 

In the meantime, we who are given by God to judge ourselves by His fiery word, working a marvellous wonder of transformation to becoming ‘His Christs’ (Rev 11:15), are being prepared to pass like judgment on our brothers in the Lake of Fire.

Oba 1:21  And saviours [plural!] shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau [representative of the world]; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S. 

Hab 1:7  They [the “saviours, the Christs] are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity [Royal elevation, excellency] shall proceed [be lifted up] of themselves [As Christ’s Christs, unified in Him]. 

1Co 11:29  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 
1Co 11:30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 
1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [In the Lake of Fire].

Hab 1:8  Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
Hab 1:9  They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. 
Hab 1:10  And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. 
Hab 1:11  Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god. 

Those same horses and leopards of self-righteousness emblematic of other Beasts in Daniel’s dreams shockingly depict us mauling Christ’s word, whose four heads of self-righteousness while in the flesh are impossible to subdue. They are numbered as the sand of the sea, representing mankind. The beasts represented by “they’s” and other plural and singular pronouns of Daniel’s dreams are the same in Revelations. Habakkuk 1:11 parallels Daniel 7:24-25 of a symbolic three and a half years for the process of Orthodox Christianity and formerly we, utterly twisting God’s word to more palatably suit our ideologies of ‘another Jesus’.

Dan 7:6  After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. 

Dan 7:24  And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 
Dan 7:25  And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. 

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Horses, horsemen, leopards, wolves, and eagles all represent our personalised strength, dismissing our Husband’s power and might to fight our battles. We initially stubbornly cling to our self-righteousness, unwitting of captivity, remaining utterly unaware of its enslavement to our imagined democratic system and remodelled religious rulings promising freedom. The “sand” in verse 9 represents humanity as numerous as the stars of heaven and the seashore sand destined to be smelted in the Lake of Fire to make our Lord’s fiery word crystal clear in translucent colours of amber and sapphire forever. Of course, and like we formerly experienced, not having Christ’s spirit to discern the spirit, they scoff at Him, nonetheless semiconsciously troubled by those doctrines for saying that he chastises every son he loves.

Eze 1:21  When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 
Eze 1:22  And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. 

Rev 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 

Rev 4:6  And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. 

Rev 22:1  And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 

It all represents our initially bitter protest that our Lord does not hear our pleading to be relieved from our fiery trials when we haven’t seen that we are that Beast we worship with his number and associated whoredoms stamped in our foreheads.

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. 

We learn to be grateful to be tormented for as long as it takes to have another Jesus slowly and torturously burnt out of us — gently glowing amber until burning sapphire blue, denoting the hottest flame. We gladly seek Christ’s word day and, in restless nights, now brightly seeing visions of His truth in our thoughts coming into alignment with Christ’s. 

That last verse 12 of Revelation 14 perfectly leads into Habakkuk’s second complaint.

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

Hab 1:12  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 and all the prophets, the watchmen in Old Covenant times, understood that same enigmatic power that the Elect alone have personally known since Pentecost to be the holy spirit must come as a kind of helpmeet to empower the New Jerusalem with their Husband’s spirit and might, providing us with a hope that Old Israel never had. Up until the cross, all of Israel died without hope; as an unwitting widow, Babylon the Great with an illusionary saviour, their works of harlotry to this very day continue as a testament to their vanity.

Joh 15:26  But when the comforter [the holy spirit] is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 
Joh 15:27  And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. 
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. 

In glorious ad nauseum, we are grateful for those revelatory chastisements, which make Christ’s word crystal clear in our eyes daily. When we judge ourselves righteously by Christ’s purifying word, He no longer sees our iniquities, as we, in understanding, forge ahead, continually putting behind us our sins in authentic yet decreasing need of repentance. It is not time in this age for our brothers and sisters in Babylon to repent and mimic Christ and His Christ’s examples; consequently, we mostly remain silent, not casting our pearls before swine. We await the Lord’s timing for their recreation in the Lake of Fire.

Isa 53:7  He [as Christ is, so are we] was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 

Habakkuk contrasts our idolised ways with ‘the Christ’s’ righteousness — steadily becoming ours. What does it mean in the following verses that seem to state that Christ can’t look upon iniquity when he clearly states that his eyes see all — additionally appearing that we should not hold the iniquitous man that we are accountable for his sins?

Hab 1:13  Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? 

Pro 15:3  The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. 

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 
Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. 

This signifies that humanity, symbolised by the countless fish  and grains of sand in the sea, lacking a righteous ruler, are most certainly not forgotten. It is that it is not their time for judgment according to Christ’s spiritual laws from the cross until being thrown alive into the Lake of Fire.  (Notice that they are alive following the destruction of all men at the end of the One Thousand Years reign, denoting a second resurrection.) In a panic, confronted by the Second Resurrection, they realise they’re all ensnared by their own devices, learning, as the Elect has before them, to bless God for ensnaring them.

Hab 1:14  And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 
Hab 1:15  They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad. 

Num 32:21  And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, 
Num 32:22  And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD.
Num 32:23  But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. 

Rom 2:8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 
Rom 2:9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 
Rom 2:10  But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

Until that time, the Babylonian world continues in his filth, offering strange fire in prayer to a false Jesus, gluttonously revelling in deluded faith, hauling in stadiums full of happy-clappy followers eager to fill the coffers to refresh their wolves in sheep clothing leadership lavish lifestyles. Hundreds of tons of A1 jet fuel guzzled by the most prestigious private aircraft symbolically burning incense as it ostentatiously climbs out steeply on its way to justifiably feed a ravenous, deluded flock — all depicted in these last two verses,

Hab 1:16  Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag [net]; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. 
Hab 1:17  Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations? 

Rom 3:22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 
Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 

Babylon is given no wit of understanding that they, like us, will drink Christ’s cup, sparing no nation.

Jer 25:27  Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. 
Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. 

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 

— in the Lake of Fire, of course.

Yet, we know that the Lord always leaves his Elect peaceful in his faith and hope, to be reviewed in Habakkuk chapter two, Lord willing, next week.