Tag Archives: Amos

Habakkuk

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Habakkuk 1

Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Ahabiblemoments begins this narrative commentary series on Habakkuk quite differently. You can click on the following and hear a three-minute overview of the Book of Habakkuk.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Habakkuk&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-qJ23qgcsJI

Has anyone ever asked of God WHY(?) this or that? Habakkuk did this 2700 years ago and he was a prophet of God. Some amazing understandings and clarity of our Christian issues today are revealed in the very first chapter Habakkuk. Answers to many of our common questions come to light.

One of the spiritual concerns of Habakkuk was that God seemingly would not answer his pleadings, petitions, prayers, and requests. He prophesied around 612 B.C. This is at the time of the fall of Nineveh and Assyria. Jonah wished the Assyrians (Nineveh) to be judged many years earlier but much to the chagrin of Jonah they repented. The Book of Micah exemplifies what Jonah had wished to be ill on the Assyrians. He also pointed the warning finger to both northern and southern kingdoms of Israelis. Nahum tells the Ninevites, you will have no more warnings. Here comes God’s judgement. Habakkuk sees God’s punishment happen (as also did Micah). But, he had difficulty understanding why God would replace the Assyrians with an even greater nation of evildoers.

Reminder of the sequence of prophetic events:

  • Amos: The book of Amos was to announce God’s holy judgment on the Kingdom of Israel (the Northern ten Tribes of Israel). This happened 120 years before Habakkuk prophesied in 712 B.C.
  • Obadiah: His prophetic mission as an Israeli was to the cousins of the Israelites; the Edomites or descendants of Jacob’s twin brother Esau.
  • Jonah: Like to Obadiah, Jonah took the same type of message to the Assyrians in their capital city of Nineveh.
  • Micah: As does Isaiah, the book of Amos announced God’s judgment on the Kingdom of Israel (the Northern ten Tribes of Israelis).
  • Nahum: Nahum 100 years earlier was essentially God’s follow up of the warnings to the Assyrians by Jonah. They repented then but fell back in their old ways within their next generations.
  • Habakkuk: He witnessed the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. (Assyrians) to an even more merciless people called the Chaldeans (Babylonians). He also saw the fall of the southern Kingdom of Judah to the same Chaldean-Babylonians.

Habakkuk 1:1,2 He begins his book by asking God a very blunt question. It almost reads like Habakkuk thinks God does not listen. “How long shall I cry; will you not listen; I cry out to you; will you not intervene” (paraphrase mine)? This is like Jeremiah 12:1. Jeremiah is asking the same thing of God. It is different circumstances but like Habakkuk questioning the ways of God.

Habakkuk 1:3 Christian believers who are some studied in the Word of God ask the same question today. Even do those who are believers ask…Where do we not see or hear of strife, contentions, iniquities, trouble around us, plundering and violence? It is everywhere and NOT just in the United States. We can add to this by reading the next verse in Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 1:4 “The law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” Are we not seeing this all around us today? Habakkuk sees it daily. It is around 612 B.C. (BCE: Before Current Era).

Habakkuk 1:4 God responds to Habakkuk in a vision; “this is what Habakkuk saw” [verse 1]. There is ruthlessness all around and the just seem to be the minority. God does not deny this. Even the laws of the land do not stop the evil. At times there seems to be a two-tier justice system. One set of enforced laws for the commoner and another set of limited laws for the elite. Let’s make it a three-tier system. The third tier is those who follow not any law other than domination, strength, and force…my gun is bigger than your gun attitudes. The laws of nature. Woe to those then and now who didn’t have let’s say, a means to defend self and family. What is going on with Habakkuk if he doesn’t feel or think GOD is a defense against such woes?

Habakkuk 1:5 God tells Habakkuk to not be nearsighted but look to the nations in existence at that time. God is telling Habakkuk to be more observing. Recall what has happened and what will happen. One should underline the following. Habakkuk saw the fall of Assyria and the fall of the Kingdom of Judah. He saw some of Jeremiah’s prophecies fulfilled. Jeremiah, Zephaniah and Habakkuk were contemporaries. He knew of the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel. More on this human attitude in Habakkuk 2:5

Importantly is what God tells Habakkuk in verse 1:5b. “I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you.” It is amazing that Habakkuk, a prophet of God is told by God that he would not believe even if God told him? This in and of itself is astounding.

Habakkuk 1:6 is part of that unbelief God says Habakkuk will have…even though God is telling him. God says that he is raising up a counter-nation to Assyria, one that has an even worse attitude than did/do the Assyrians? How can this be? How can a God of creation do such a thing? Instead, how about a Red Sea event? Maybe another plague as in Egypt but now upon these bad Assyrian people? What about another Jericho Wall miracle? Perhaps a reuniting of all the Tribes of Israel, a strong leader, and a swift victory for their armed forces such as in the time of Jehoshaphat?

NOPE God says! I will use an even worse and evil nation to dissolve Assyria for the life of this planet earth.

Habakkuk 1:7-11 (NIV) God admits his solution is to use a more troubling nation than were the Assyrians. God even gave Habakkuk a long list of the reputation against humanity by those soon to invade Nineveh then Judah itself.

  1. They are terrible and dreadful
  2. Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves
  3. Their horses are as swift as leopards
  4. They are as dreaded as the evening wolf packs on the hunt
  5. They seem to not weary of their long travels
  6. They soar as eagles hunting for prey
  7. Their arrival or sight on the horizon means pending violence
  8. They gather captives as does the fierce easterly dust storms gathers sands
  9. They make mockery of other kings (and their gods)
  10. The Chaldeans are elated at their success just to transgress even more

One would think that Habakkuk’s complaint to God to this point in chapter 1 is personally dangerous waters. But he isn’t done trying to remind God who God is yet seems to violate HIS own standards.

Habakkuk 1:12  First Habakkuk recognizes and compliments God for who he is. Then…(v13b).Cntrl/Click on this link and read it for oneself. In verse 13a Habakkuk points out that God is pure, then he asks why he tolerates evil against mankind and God himself. Verse 13 also addresses a personal question some may hesitate to admit to wanting to ask but it is in one’s mind. Why does God allow the less righteous to dominate those who are trying to live a righteous life?

Habakkuk 1:14  Now Habakkuk, in a way, accuses God of not being a God of justice. Habakkuk says that God allows men to create a state of anarchy, by wrong going unpunished. It is as if there were no God of concern. He compares the world to the sea; men to fishes; Nebuchadnezzar to a fisherman (Jameison-Fausset-Brown).

Dr. David Guzik expresses this passage quite well in his commentary on Habakkuk:

It would be like crying out to God about the state of the church in America, and hearing God respond by saying, “I’ll fix the problem by [allowing] a Communist invasion of America.” We would say, “Wait a minute LORD – the problem is bad, but your cure is worse than the disease!”

We at ahabiblemoments see it similarly. It is like a former Christian nation like America crying out to God about the church being repressed and God says…”I will fix it by bringing socialists to power in your congress.”

Habakkuk 1:15 “They take up all of them with a hook, They catch them in their net, And gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad.” They delight in giving misery to others. Recall Habakkuk is not talking about the brutal Assyrians but of a force God is going to bring to uproot the Assyrians. These same people will within a couple years do the same to the Kingdom of Judah.

The last two verses of Habakkuk chapter 1 are, in a sense, similar to Matthew 13:12-14. God already told Habakkuk earlier in this chapter that even if God attempted to explained it to him, he would not understand. This is NOT a viable excuse for a Christian to neglect studying the Words of God. One cannot hide behind the excuse of not understanding. First gain knowledge then seek understanding. Read how Habakkuk handles this in verse 1 of chapter 2.

Rev Dr Jstark
2022

Amos – Introduction (Article One)

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The prophecy of Amos should simplify the choices in our lives. Instead of choosing between prayer and service, the book of Amos teaches us that both are essential. God has called Christians not only to be in relationship with Him but also to be in relationships with others. For those Christians whose tendency has been to focus more on the invisible God than on His visible creation, Amos pulls us back toward the center, where both the physical and the spiritual needs of people matter in God’s scheme of justice – Chuck Swindoll

It is seldom that ahabiblemoments.com uses a quote from someone else to introduce a new series of chapter-by-chapter book studies, but Chuck Swindoll says is so well. Seldom does one seriously consider a balanced service and prayer life outside of church attendance, perhaps a mid-week bible study and prayer at church or for one’s dinner. Our prayer lives suffer intimacy with God. In ignorance we pray for God to “be with us” (or so-in-so) even though both the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 36:6 and the New Testament in Hebrews 13:5 state God IS with us and will not forsake his followers. That is rote (preconditioned) prayer, not intimacy with God. Amos points this out to the northern ten tribes of Israel. It certainly applies to too many of us here and now.

Amos, an older contemporary of Hosea (and Isaiah), took a different prophetic approach to the very same sins Hosea prophesied against, but included seven other neighboring kingdoms. Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah while Hosea was a member of the northern kingdom of Israel. We will see in Amos chapter 7 that he determines he is neither a son of a prophet nor “graduate” from their School of Prophecy. One might legitimately say that he is a layman minister; i.e. not a son of a preacher nor a product of some denominational seminary. It is not unusual for a prophet to first identify himself as to who, what and the where of his very being. In a sense, they source themselves for the sake of legitimacy that can be verified. Amos is a bit odd in that he is not quoted in any other book of the Bible. Many other prophets are quoted, paraphrased, or identified within text of other scripture.

Over and over again many commentaries and articles mention that this is “two years BEFORE the famous Amos earthquake. What earthquake? We refer you to the earthquake most likely to be the one to which Amos refers [next page]. Amazingly, this is evidence of both Amos and of his ministry since this earthquake is a benchmark in history. Keep it in mind that this website does not distinguish between histories of scripture and secular. They are within each other; the same history content but under differing contexts. Bible history and secular history are HIS-story after creation in Genesis 1.

The picture to the left is of Israel. The Amos earthquake occurred in or around 750 B.C. Researchers and archeologist “diggers” place this earthquake at or around a mid-8 seismic event. Isaiah, Zechariah, and Joel mention the damage and reference this quake. Isaiah and Zechariah come shortly after Amos in His-story.

During this time, 780 B.C. to around 740 B.C. Jeroboam II of the northern kingdom of Israel had defeated and conquered portions of Syria, Moab and Ammon. An interesting historical fact is that these territories had been the possession of the “east of Jordan Tribes of Manasseh, Gad, and Rueben”. They did not want to cross the Jordan during the time of Joshua as the pasture lands were very good to the east of the Jordan River. However, as we will point out in a later Amos article, they did send their troops across the Jordan to help their “cousins” conquer the Canaanites.

JIV NOTE: National Geographic 2017 DNA samplings have discovered that by far most of Lebanon is where the Canaanites moved after warring with Joshua and the Israelites.

Amos did not travel throughout the Northern Kingdom with his message to the Kingdom of Israel. He spent most of his time in and around Bethel, just north of his own home town in Tekoa, Judah. Bethel was one of two worship centers for the northern Tribes of Israel. The other was in Dan. Dan was to the northern sector of Israel and Bethel to the southern. Both were established to deter the members of the ten northern tribes from going to Jerusalem and the Temple in Judah to worship; even on festival days.

 Chuck Swindoll puts it this way in defining the Book of Amos and the man himself.

“Amos was fed up. While most of the prophets interspersed redemption and restoration in their prophecies against Israel and Judah, Amos devoted only the final five verses of his prophecy for such consolation. Prior to that, God’s word through Amos was directed against the privileged people of Israel, a people who had no love for their neighbor, who took advantage of others, and who only looked out for their own concerns.”

As we will read in a later article, Amos was personally “invited” to leave the northern kingdom and return to his home in Tekoa of the southern kingdom. The elite did not wish him well and the fact that he was pointing out that there was a growing wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots in the kingdom of Israel. PLUS, he notes in his book several visions he has regarding this northern territory of Israelites. We will be able to see in this series on the Book of Amos and by using just a little insight, how the message Amos leaves with Israel and God’s frustration with what was once a nation under God parallels America today (2020).

For the sake of identifying bible persons, places and things, understand that Syria at that time was NOT Assyria. They were enemies of each other.  It was a physical buffer zone between northern Israel and Assyria. Syria is often referred to as Aram. They are one and the same. Damascus was once what is called a city-state; a government to itself; i.e. Aram/Syria/Damascus; one and the same.

For a great summary of Amos and his prophetic mission, click the link below.

https://www.biblewise.com/bible_study/characters/amos.php

Rev. Dr. Jstark
2020