Habakkuk

Habakkuk’s name means “embrace” or “pressed to the heart.” The prophet certainly took his nation, Judah to heart as he poured out his heart to God as Chaldean (Babylonian) forces approached the nation. Previously, Nahum had announced the fall of Nineveh and with it the Assyrian empire which had threatened tiny Judah for centuries. Indeed, Nineveh met its end at the hands of the rising power of the Chaldeans and Medes. It fell in 612 B.C., and three years later the last Assyrian army was destroyed. The Chaldean forces under Nebuchadnezzar then turned their attention southward. Jerusalem would capitulate in 605B.C.. It was during this period of Chaldean approach that Habakkuk was written. This book is a conversation of the prophet with God. The prophet is trying to understand the unfolding events, so he asks many questions of God. Essentially, his questions are all about the ”why” of what is happening; he cannot understand the providence of God and he says so. Many of his specific questi