Joseph Shulam: Habakkuk's Prophecy - Lessons for Now

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom! In this teaching we're going to talk about a prophet called Habakkuk. Habakkuk is one of the small prophets; he has only three chapters – not very long chapters, but like all the word of God, small or large, it has its importance. And I think that Habakkuk has its importance for today, for the 21st century, for the 1920s of the 21st century – has a very special place and importance for our understanding.
It starts its prophecy in Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 1:

"The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw."

The word "burden" in Hebrew is "Masa," which, if we look at the Torah in the book of Exodus, we talk about if you see a donkey under the burden, so it has the physical quality of a burden. But the way Habakkuk is using this burden, is the word "burden," the word "Masa," it means a campaign, it means a spiritual burden, a project of heavy consequences.

Now, the problem with Habakkuk is we have several other prophets like him that we know very little about. He's not mentioned very often in the Bible except in the book of Habakkuk and this is a very unique prophet. And like some of the other small prophets among the Minor Prophets, he prophesies a lot of difficulties, doom, political doom, the rise of the Chaldean Babylonian Empire, the punishment that God is going to mete to the people of Israel by this new empire.

We don't know much about his background, tribal background, family background. He is mentioned in the inter-testament literature several times. And as he says, he has vision. For example, Isaiah the prophet starts with Isaiah, the son of, the son of, the son of etc., that prophesied in the days of this and that other king. The vision of Isaiah, "Hazon" over here is "Masa", but it means that he saw the difficulty, he saw the vision of what God is about to do.
And he appeals right up front in chapter 1, verse 2, to the Lord and said:

"How long shall I cry and you will not hear? Even cry out to you, '"Hamas", violence!' and you will not save!"

I feel literally right now and every time I read that, I feel cold in my body, goosebumps in my body, because I can understand this from my own life, from my own experience. That somebody who loves his people, loves his nation, loves the Lord, has a relationship with the Lord, and he cries out sometimes day and night, "Lord, help us! Lord, save us!" There is no answer. Or, I can't hear the answer and he couldn't hear the answer and he couldn't see the answer.

Habakkuk is designated that he lived in the 600 BC, around the 600 BC. Exactly the scholars argue where, but it is in the 600 BC. I would say in the 6th century BC, 6 in the end of the 7th Century BC. It's considered to be prophesying in the days of King Joahaz around 609, when Pharaoh Necho in 609 had exiles taken to Egypt. So Habakkuk is crying to the Lord and says, "Look, the condition of my people, the condition of your people, the condition of we are being plundered in violence."

Not only toward me as an individual, as a prophet, but the whole country is in contention and in strife. And the Torah is powerless, the law is powerless, and just it never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, therefore, preserved judgment proceeding. You know, Lord, take care of us. You know, I mean, like I said, I feel goosebumps all over my body because we are experiencing today a very similar situation.

The law is powerless, the criminals win, the criminals get elected to be in the government, ministers in the government, those who were set in jail for years for bribery and for debauchery and for crime. Such similarity between what Habakkuk is saying to our situation today in the land of Israel. And I feel his pain. And if you read it and you look at your own country, you will feel his pain too, because the world, the whole world, seems to be in the same condition. The whole, what's called the Free World, the Christian World, Europe, United States, South America, we are in the same mess.

The law is powerless, the criminals win. I identify with this. And Habakkuk like Ovadiah and Zfaniah and the other prophets and Jonah are prophesying not only to Israel. In chapter 1, verse 5 he calls upon the Lord and says:

"Look among the nations and watch, be utterly astounded. I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it is told to you."

Even if I tell you what I'm going to do, you're not going to believe it. God is speaking to Habakkuk because the situation is unbelievable.
And He tells him what's going to happen:

"I'm rising up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians. It's a bitter and quick nation, fast nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs."

They're conquering the land, they're conquering the Middle East. They're going east toward Asia, northeastern Asia and southwest toward the land of Israel, toward Egypt.

And the two empires are jostling, and we are the salami in the sandwich. One side on the north of the Red, the other side in the south in Egypt bread and we are in between, the hot dog, the land of Israel. And it's always been that way, we're that way right now. It's not close nations like Egypt and Babylonia or Iraq, but we're between the two big empires, between the Asian empires and the Western empires of the United States and Western Europe. And Israel is in it, almost like a bird in the cage.

The way that the Hezekiah is mentioned in the Sargon prison, yes, that's that's the Jewish nation and Habakkuk, the prophet, is crying to God and saying, "God, help us!" But he gets no answer from God. Yeah, he gets no answer. The enemy is terrible, has no dignity, their horses are swift like leopards, they're more powerful than we are, they have large cavalry, they fly like eagles, they come with violence.

Look, it's a doomsday prophet, but it really happened. Whatever God told Habakkuk is going to happen, happened and we were taken to exile and ten of the tribes of Israel never returned from that exile till today. So this small prophet Habakkuk, who knows God, who has a relationship with God, who is anointed by God to be a prophet that carries the burden of Israel.
How do I know he knows God and what does he know about God? He knows about God more than I do. Verse 12:

"Are you not for everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have appointed them (the enemy) for judgment, O Rock."

I like that Habakkuk calls God "Rock". That idea, The Rock is clearly delineated by the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians chapter 10, talking about Yeshua the Messiah as the Rock of Israel that gave water in the wilderness to Israel and followed them all through till they entered the land of Canaan, chapter 10 of First Corinthians.

O Rock, you have marked them for correction. You know, you have marked Israel to get educated. Oh, what a statement. Whatever is going to happen to Israel, the wickedness of the Babylonians, the conquest of the land, the plundering of the land that is described is not because God hates us. It's because he wants to educate us, he wants to correct us.
But Habakkuk appeals to God and says:

"Listen, God, your eyes are pure, your eyes shouldn't see evil, you cannot look upon the wickedness"

(of the people of the nations and of the Israelites.) And he turns to God and says,

"Why do you look at those who deal treacherously and hold your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?"

The wicked person devours the righteous, there have been times like that and maybe now in the land of Israel where the wicked devour the righteous, not only in the land of Israel.
And Habakkuk intercedes for his people, for Israel.

"Why do you treat men like fish in the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them?"

And you pick them up with a hook, you catch them like a fisherman catches fish with a hook. You're doing the same thing to your children. You catch them in the net, in the dragnet, and it's not your net that you, in their own nets, in their own web you catch them according to Habakkuk and that's why, because they're caught in their own net, they sacrifice to their own net, to their own framework, to their own government, to their own prison that they created for themselves. I think spiritual prison. Habakkuk is a short prophet, but very, very, very hot like a habanero pepper, yeah, because he sees the condition of his people, he sees the world politics around Israel, he sees the trap that Israel is in and that they can't get out. And he cries to God.

And what does God tell him? "Get yourself a piece of paper, a tablet, and write this vision down so the one who is going to read it is going to be motivated to run. The vision is yet for an appointed time, but the end will not speak and it will not lie. Wait, even if the vision is late, it tarries, don't worry, wait for it, it's going to come. Whatever I promised is going to come and it will come in the right time, it will not tarry." In your eyes maybe history is tearing, God is slow, but no, he has a set time and it's going to happen, whatever I promised, it will happen. You know what, it happened more than one time in our history, this paradigm of us rebelling against God, ignoring God, using God for our own well-being, for our own wealth, for our own worldly aspirations is going to come to an end.

And whatever God said to Habakkuk happened to us more than one time. All you have to do is read Daniel and Ezekiel that come after Habakkuk. Yeah, or contemporary with Habakkuk, maybe Daniel is contemporary with Habakkuk. But, yes, short prophet, three chapters, but each verse is loaded with meaning.

And in my opinion, especially meaning for us today, and not only for Israel, but the so-called Western Christian world because the accusations are so much apropos, fitting for our Western world, appealing in chapter 2, verse 5:

"Because they transgressed by wine. He is a proud man. He does not stay at home because he enlarges his desire as hell and he's like death, cannot be satisfied. He gathered himself all the nations and heaps upon himself all the people."

Now, we are looking for allies, we're looking for union, you're looking, but we're looking in the wrong place, we're trusting the wrong powers. That's what Habakkuk is talking about, we're drunk with wine, not with the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter 2, the disciples were accused of being drunk, but they didn't drink any wine. Here, they're drinking wine, they're drunk from the wine and the drugs that are spread all over the world and they can't be satisfied, even death doesn't satisfy them.

Us, I should say instead of them, we're looking for help from the nations, from the United Nations, thinking that they're going to help us, it's not going to happen. And he brings a proverb, he brings a proverb in verse 6:

"Woe to him who increases, who gets rich with what is not his. How long?"

How long, is the question, how long can you get rich with what is not yours, which you didn't earn and to him who loads himself with many pledges, promises?

Oh, I think our politicians in the West need to read this short letter, prophecy from Habakkuk because it's so fitting in my opinion to what's going on in our world now. Addressing the big empire to the north of us,

"You have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you because of man's blood and the violence of the land and the city and of all who dwell in it. Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster."

But no, that's not going to work.

The big powers of the world who are shameless, Habakkuk says they're not going to succeed in the end. God is going to use them like a beam of timber to build a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity. God is going to use them, he's going to let them do it, but the end is not going to be good for the world, for them, and the glory of God shall cover the Earth like the sea covers the Earth.

Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle. Drink here could be drugs, could be something you smoke, not necessarily drink. It could be what you drink, but it could be drugs that you may look on his nakedness. In other words, you give him drugs, alcohol, get him drunk so that you can look at his nakedness and his vulnerability.

"You are filled with shame instead of glory and also drink exposed as uncircumcised. A cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you." Powerful things, dear brothers, powerful things. Habakkuk is another one of these prophets that I highly recommend for you to not only read. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to read it, but to contemplate it and try to project it to your circumstances, to your time, to your church, to your government, to your very, very existence as a disciple of Yeshua, a child of God who believes in the almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and who wants to be pleasing to him in order to inherit eternal life in Yeshua's name.