Habakkuk 1:5-11 NLT

[5] The LORD replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. [6] I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. [7] They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like. [8] Their horses are swifter than cheetahs and fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their charioteers charge from far away. Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey. [9] “On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand. [10] They scoff at kings and princes and scorn all their fortresses. They simply pile ramps of earth against their walls and capture them! [11] They sweep past like the wind and are gone. But they are deeply guilty, for their own strength is their god.”

            Habakkuk’s complaint was to ask God when He would deal with the evil in Israel.  God’s answer was not quite what Habakkuk may have expected.  God tells him He would do something that would not be believed, even if someone had prophesied it to happen.  God was going to bring punishment on the evil of Israel through another country.

            That country happened to be the Chaldeans, or Babylonians.  They were a fierce warrior culture that shed blood everywhere their army went.  Their chariots were fast and furious.  Their army was able to lay siege to walled cities and conquer them.  They were going to sweep across Israel, cruelly conquering it and carrying its people away as captives.

            But God ends His response to Habakkuk with something of a foreshadow about the future of the Chaldeans He was using to punish the evil in Israel.  He stated they were guilty of relying on their own power.  It was their “god,” so to speak.  That usually gave an indication that even the Babylonians were going to be judged by God, too.           

Many people today cry out to God about the evil in our own land.  They seek His renewal and His righteousness, while asking Him to do something about the evil.  I wonder what our reaction would be if God were to tell us He was going to use a violent, powerful country to punish the evil in this land.  Food for thought, wouldn’t you say?