Habakkuk was a prophet anointed of YHWY Himself and God used him as a watchman in the Southern Kingdom sometimes called Judah (Hab.2:1). Now these watchmen were prophets anointed to speak to God’s people in warning about their sin and spiritual lethargy. In the first chapter Habakkuk speaking of internal conditions in Judah points to a time after the reign of King Josiah and probably during the reign of King Jehoiakim and especially during the early years of his reign, the conditions seem to fit. He was a godless king who led the nation (church) down the path to destruction — II Kings 23:34 – 24:5; Jeremiah 22:18.

Now as anointed as Habakkuk was, he could not figure out why God wouldn’t intervene in what was happening. And just what was happening? The Chaldeans, the Babylonians, in a period of approximately 20 years were sweeping over Judah in successive waves of violence and ultimately destroyed the country and took its inhabitants away into captivity in 586 BC. And in the midst of these violent waves of destruction Habakkuk cries out to God and asks Him why He is not doing anything to intervene and protect the Southern Kingdom and God replies that even if He were to inform Habakkuk about what He is doing Habakkuk probably wouldn’t believe Him anyway. But the Lord tells Habakkuk that it is God Himself who is raising up the Chaldeans to come and attack Judah and eventually they will be carried away into Babylon.
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