Wondering and Waiting
Habakkuk is both the hardest and easiest of the minor prophets to understand. Hardest because we have so little background information. We know nothing of Habakkuk as a person, there is no agreement among scholars as to the date of the book’s origin and it is not clear whether the oppressors are the Assyrians, the Babylonians or the Greeks. Easiest because such uncertainty enables us to read it as valuable ancient text (rather like poetry with a quality of timelessness) against the background of our own circumstances to hear what it has to say.
Such a ‘pick your own’ interpretation obviously has its dangers, not least that of beginning where we are and then digging into the text to find what we want to hear. All the more important therefore to begin with a fairly general summary of the issues to clarify what we do know.
At its heart is ‘a prophet’ (man of God or thoughtful, caring individual) who feels trapped — in his case, caught between contemporary evil and corruption and faith in a God who seems to do nothing about it. Habakkuk is for the moment when you say, ‘Where is God . . . and what is he doing?’
Habakkuk prays but gets no satisfaction and all possible explanations seem only to leave him with greater problems. All he hears is a word telling him to ‘wait’, so he uses his waiting time creatively until one day, worshipping in the temple, it dawns on him that no answer is going to come in the form in which he is looking for it. Only then does he receive the reassurance he is hoping for.
Recall a situation when his problem was your problem and read him against the background of your own experience. Some of the details are remarkably similar to those we all face in the world today but don’t let Habakkuk or the general picture prevent you from taking a more personal, local and immediate view. Keep your eye on that ‘backdrop’.