June 10, 2014 (Tuesday)
I had a seminary professor who pronounced Habakkuk as “Hah bah kook” (slight accent on first syllable and strong accent on final syllable). He was a Hebrew authority so I know he pronounced it correctly. Then he praised the writing of this prophet and read portions of it aloud to the class…in Hebrew. He was enraptured as he read, but to most of us in the class it was all meaningless sound. We did not know Hebrew well or at all. Too bad, because the scholars tell us that Habakkuk’s psalm prayer is “not to be excelled in any language in the grandeur of its poetical conceptions and sublimity of expression.”
Habakkuk complained to God about the injustice of using wicked Babylonia to punish His own people. Then he understands that God will bring judgment upon the oppressors as well. Their sin will be punished. Habakkuk then breaks into song in praise of God and his righteous judgment.
Habakkuk – A devotional thought
Habakkuk closes his short book with some of the most beautiful phrases in the Bible (3:17-18):
“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
These verses are good to remember in the hard times.