32. Habakkuk

   
   Paragraph Numbers: On | Off
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

32. HABAKKUK

I. OUTLINE

1. Why Does God Permit Evil? 1:1-17.

A. Title. 1:1.

B. First Series of Questions. 1:2-4.

C. The Bitter Nation. 1:5-11.

D. Second Series of Questions. 1:12-17.

2. The Just Shall Live by Faith. 2:1-20.

A. Answer from the Tower. 2:1-4.

B. The Woes. 2:5,6.

C. Tyranny Self-destructive. 2:7-20.

3. Psalm of Praise. 3:1-19.

A. Title. 3:1.

B. Introduction. 3:2.

C. Theophany. 3:3-15.

D. Joy despite Adversity. 3:16-19.

II. AUTHORSHIP

1. In 1948 a commentary scroll was discovered in a cave near the Dead Sea.

2. Habakkuk was a Levitical temple musician.

3. Habakkuk, with the help of one or two editors, wrote the book.

4. Date: From about 615 to 605, perhaps about the date of the battle of Carchemish.

III. TEACHING OF HABAKKUK

1. Habakkuk was a philosophical prophet. He wrestled with the problem: "Why should a righteous God allow the wicked to prosper and to triumph over the saints?"

2. The outstanding text: "The righteous shall live by his faith." 2:4. Twice quoted by Paul-Rom. 1:17, Gal. 3:11. Also noted in Heb. 10:38.

3. While Habakkuk does not fully answer the question of why the forces of violence and oppression are allowed to swallow up the righteous, he does present one of the higher flights of poetry to be found in all of the Old Testament.

4. There are four divisions of the book:

A. Why does the God of right permit the rule of wrong?

B. The oracle-why is a foreign nation allowed to plunder the people of God?

C. Woes on the robbers-"greedy as hell, insatiable as death"-selfish plunderers, oppressors, insulting idolaters.

D. A psalm of deliverance.

5. Habakkuk quotes from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea.

6. A favorite verse: "The-Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." 2:20.

7. This old problem of evil is dealt with in Job and in many of the psalms- note: Ps. 73.

8. Habakkuk seems to conclude: "Evil carries in it the seeds of its own destruction."

9. The fellowship with God is the greatest of all riches.

IV. SELECTED TEXTS

1. Living by faith. "But the righteous shall live by his faith." 2:4.

2. Earth filled with the glory of the Lord. "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 2:14.

Foundation Info

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Urantia Foundation, 533 W. Diversey Parkway, Chicago, IL 60614, USA
Tel: +1-773-525-3319; Fax: +1-773-525-7739
© Urantia Foundation. All rights reserved