Habakkuk 1
1. What were the prophet's complaints to God? Answer
2. What was God's response to the complaints? Answer
3. What conundrum does verse 13 present? Answer
Habakkuk 2
4. How was Habakkuk given a response to his questions directed at God? Answer
5. Who was one the chief New Testament supporters of the teaching that "the just shall live by his faith" (verse 4)? Answer
6. What is God condemning in verses 18 to 19? Answer
Habakkuk 3
7. What is Shigionoth? Answer
8. Where was Teman and Mount Paran? Answer
9. What does Selah mean? Answer
10. Who was Cushan and Midian? Answer
11. What does the last verse of chapter 3 reveal about the chapter? Answer
Habakkuk 1 Answers
1. Habakkuk cried out to God asking about what he perceived to be the Lord's indifference toward the wicked and the suffering of the righteous. The prophet feels his prayers are being ignored (Habakkuk 1:2) in the midst of sinners being allowed to indulge in violence and strife (verse 3).
[What Are the Best Places to Pray?]
[List of Israel's Best and Worst Kings]
The sins of the people, those in the Kingdom of Judah, have led to God's laws being ignored. Justice has become perverted to the point where the wicked regularly take advantage of the righteous (Habakkuk 1:4).
2. Habakkuk is informed by the Lord that he will cause an amazing and unexpected event to occur that will be so astonishing as to be unbelievable (Habakkuk 1:5)!
The unbelievable event is the rise of the Chaldeans (Habakkuk 1:6), also known as the Babylonians, whose powerful army and dedication to violence will sweep away their enemies (verses 7 - 11). Implied in God's answer is that the Kingdom of Judah will also be a victim of Babylon's desire for glory.
3. Habakkuk first states that God's purity and righteousness is such that he cannot look upon or condone evil. Yet, at the same time, the Lord is willing to allow a wicked nation to punish and devour those that are more righteous (relatively speaking) than they!
Habakkuk 2 Answers
4. Habakkuk was given God's answer to his questions in a vision (Habakkuk 2:1). Visions are one of the many ways God has chosen to communicate with humans.
[How Does God Communicate With Us?]
5. The Apostle Paul was one of the chief New Testament proponents of the concept that the righteous should live their lives centered on faith in God. He, in fact, quoted Habakkuk 2:4 in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38.
[Did Apostle Paul Write Hebrews?]
6. In Habakkuk 2:18 - 19 God is condemning the utter foolishness of idolatry. An idol is nothing more than an image carved into wood or stone that a person then uses to worship a deity created solely by man's imagination!
[Is it Idolatry to Have a National Flag?]
Idols are tools of self-deception. Humans who use them convince themselves they are worshipping an independent deity when they are the ones who create and decide the beliefs of their "god" and how they should be served! Idolatry robs God of the obedience and worship that he, as Creator of all things, rightly deserves.
Habakkuk 3 Answers
7. Shigionoth, whose singular form is used only in the title of Psalm 7, is a word which possibly designates a particular type of song should be sung with the words. The exact meaning of the word (Strong's Concordance #H7692) is unknown.
8. Teman was a city in Edom famous for its teachers of wisdom (Job 2:11, Jeremiah 49:7) and its mighty men of courage (Obadiah 1:9).
Mount Paran is within a wilderness area that stretching from the heart of Arabia to southwest of the Dead Sea. The area of Paran where the mountain is located was where Ishmael, Abraham's son through Hagar, sought refuge (Genesis 21:21). It is also the place where the children of Israel spent time wandering after they were freed from Egyptian bondage (Deuteronomy 33:2).
9. It is uncertain exactly what Selah (Strong's Concordance #H5542) meant as a musical notation. It may have marked a crescendo in the music or that singing should pause while instruments continued to be played.
[Musical Instruments in the Bible]
Selah, as a musical note, is utilized only in the Psalms (Psalms 3, 4, 7, 9, etc.) and three times in Habakkuk 3 (verses 3, 9 and 13).
10. Cushan, a word which means "a region of Arabia" (Strong's #H3572), only appears in the Bible in Habakkuk 3:7. Midian, who started the people known as Midianites, was a son of Abraham through Keturah (Genesis 25:2).
The land of Midian, located east of ancient Egypt, was the place where Moses found refuge when he fled Egypt at the age of forty (Exodus 2). His encounter with a Midianite priest ultimately led to him marrying the priest's daughter named Zipporah.
Midian's initial friendly relationship with the Israelites changed when Midianite elders, in a pact with Moab, sought a prophet named Balaam to curse God's people (Numbers 22). Midian, from this time forward, became one of Israel's enemies (see Numbers 31, Judges 6 - 8, Isaiah 9:4, etc.).
11. The last sentence of Habakkuk 3 states the following.
To the chief singer on my stringed instruments (Habakkuk 3:19).
The above verse, along with the musical notations of Selah and Shigionoth, designates that the entire chapter was a song to be sung in worship of God. This song was not unlike those found in the book of Psalms.