Hab 1:12-17'

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Second complaint and answer (Hab 1:12-2:5)

Habakkuk replies to God by asking a further question. If Judah is God’s people for ever, and if God is holy, how can he use Babylon to punish Judah when the Babylonians are more wicked than the Judeans (Hab 1:12-13)?

It seems to Habakkuk that God has the same standards as the Babylonians. They treat the people of nations as if they were no better than fish in the sea - there to be caught for the fisherman’s enjoyment (Hab 1:14-15).

The Babylonians’ power is their god. Their appetite for conquest will never be satisfied. They will go on killing and plundering (Hab 1:16-17).

Having made his complaint, the prophet awaits God’s answer (Hab 2:1).

The answer is that the greed, pride and violence of the Babylonians will be the means of their downfall. Some time may pass before the judgment falls, but it certainly will fall. Wickedness always brings defeat in the end, just as moral uprightness always leads to victory. There is a message in this for the Judeans also: the greedy are never satisfied, but the righteous find genuine contentment in their loyalty to God (Hab 2:2-5).