Habakkuk

Date of Authorship. While Habakkuk does not mention a date or even a king in his book, most scholars agree that he ministered during Jehoakim's reign, between 605 and 598 BC. Babylon had already defeated Judah by this point (Jehoakim’s reign), but the final and terrible destruction of Jerusalem would not occur until 586 BC.

Author: Habakkuk wrote this book, but we know nothing about him.

Purpose: Unlike the other prophets whom we have read this week. Habakkuk is not words directed toward people by God, but an exchange of words between God and a prophet. Habakkuk is distraught to see not only the punishment which has befallen Judah but also recognizing the further punishment which awaits and asks God to explain why any of this is fair. God answers him and explains that Judah's oppressors will also be punished along with all who do evil, and Habakkuk concludes by praising God for His providence.

Jeremiah

Date of Authorship: It is widely agreed that some form of the collection of Jeremiah's writings was produced during the prophet's lifetime. and Jeremiah's scribe, Baruch, had some of Jeremiah's prophecy recorded and delivered to king Jehoiakim (see chapter 36) as early as 605-604 BC. Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet in 627 BC. The latest historical event recorded in this book is the death of Nebuchadnezzar which occurred in 562 BC. thus the final edition of the book of Jeremiah was completed at least that late, likely, after Jeremiah's death

Author: The book of Jeremiah does not claim to have the prophet of Jeremiah as its author. Instead, it claims to contain the words of Jeremiah the prophet. We are not told for certain, but it seems likely that these words of Jeremiah were recorded, narrated, and then collated by his scribe Baruch (again, see chapter 36).

Purpose: Jeremiah is the message and story of a prophet of God to His people who He has seen enough from. Jeremiah's earliest prophecies seem to include the possibility of repentance and forgiveness, but those invitations cease and Jeremiah pronounces an inescapable and irrevocable judgment upon the people of Judah. Jeremiah lives to witness the punishment of God's people, and later turns his prophetic message to the nations surrounding Israel in the ancient world. Jeremiah's message is not limited to Judah's destruction, but also includes a promise of restoration and rescue after God's people have suffered their punishment for some time. Jeremiah's sadness and misfortune are a living portrayal of the way that God has been treated by His people.

Notes

Habakkuk: a conversation with God

Habakkuk has a unikq structure and literary style because it contains a dialogue between the prophet Habakkuk and God, whis is unlike any tother prophetic book in the Old Testament.

The book of Habakkuk is structured as a dialogue between the prophet and God, with each chapter containing a distinct conversation between them. In the first chapter, Habakkuk complains to God about the injustice and violence he sees in Judah and questions why God allows it to continue. In response, God tells Habakkuk that he is raising up the Babylonians as a judgment against Judah. In the second chapter, Habakkuk questions God's justice in using the Babylonians, and God responds by declaring the judgment that will come upon the Babylonians for their own sin. Finally, in the third chapter, Habakkuk responds to God's words with a prayer of praise and trust in God's sovereignty.

Habakkuk 2:4: a repeated refrain

When God is replying to Habakkuk’s complaint about using the Babylonian army to punish His people, He says this in Habakkuk 2:4

4 “See, the enemy is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness

This verse gets used repeatedly in the New Testament in these places:

Romans 1:17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Galatians 3:11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”

plus it is featured in a series of quotes in Hebrews 10:38.

The message througout remains the same. Our own power is not enough to sustain us. Not even the might of the Babylonian empire would sustain them. It is only the faithful who have the strength and power to persist because God supplies it for them. In the New Testament, the “might” contrasted with faith has more to do with good works or one’s own obedience to God’s commands. God’s word says: ‘that will never been enough.’ The righteous person will live by his faithfulness

JEREMIAH’s HISTORICAL SETTING

Above is a chart showing the succession of the kings of Judah from Hezekiah, to the Babylonian invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC

Jeremiah is called by God to be a prophet to Judah and the nations in the 13th year of King Josiah. Before this time (during the reign of Hezekiah), the northern kingdom of Israel had been decimated and taken into exile by the Assyrian empire. The kingdom of Israel had descended into idolatry from the moment they split off from Judah under the reign of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and were more idolatrous and heinous than their Judahite neighbors to the south. However, as time passed, Judah grew less and less faithful to God and eventually became the abjectly unfaithful people who Jeremiah addresses in his ministry. The faithfulness of the people of Judah took a disastrous turn in the reign of Hezekiah's son Manasseh. Manasseh oversaw a horrible influx of idolatry to the kingdom of Judah and even introduced the worship of Molech in which supplicants would burn children on an altar (more below). Even though Jeremiah does not begin his ministry until 15 years after the reign of Manasseh, he (Manasseh) is still identified by the prophet as the cause of Judah's demise

“I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” declares the Lord, “the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds and the wild animals to devour and destroy. I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 15:3-4)

One year before God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet, Josiah leads a religious revival as king in Judah and celebrates the Passover with great enthusiasm. Because the structure of Jeremiah is a compilation or anthology of Jeremiah's prophecies and story, it is hard to assign a certain date or occasion to a particular passage. However, many have speculated that the words of Jeremiah 1-11, where Jeremiah seems open to the possibility of Judah's covenant obedience/reform, belong to this period of Josiah's reign. Despite Josiah's faithfulness to God, it becomes clear in the historical accounts and the the accounts of the prophets that Josiah's faithfulness was not practiced by all, or even a majority of the people of Judah, who remained idolatrous. Josiah's best effort was not enough to turn the hearts of Judah back to Yahweh, thus Jeremiah's prophecy is one of impending Judgment

During the reign of Josiah, the Assyrian Empire was losing strength in the Ancient Near East, and it likely felt, to the people of Judah, like the noose was loosening. You will notice that at many places in Jeremiah's interactions with the people of Judah, they seem to possess an undue confidence or feeling of invincibility. Jeremiah's message is that they are not so secure, and that God is preparing the arrival of their destruction from the north.

Unbeknownst to the people of Judah, a new emperical power was rising to take the place of Assyria. This new empire would be called Babylon. Their first king, Nebuchadnezzar, would squash the empirical efforts of Egypt and invade, harass, exile, and ultimately demolish Judah (from the north). More on those events in coming weeks

John 17:12: Judas prophecy fulfilled

John 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

Some suggest that the fulfilled Scripture here might allude to Psalm 41:9, cited in John 13:18: the verb for “lost” appears often for the wicked in the Psalms. Jewish teaching recognized that God dealt more severely with apostates than with those who were born pagans, because apostates had known the truth but turned away from it. “Son of perdition” (NASB) or “of destruction” reflects a Semitic idiom essentially meaning, “one who would be destroyed.” The passage may play on the related terms for “lost” and “destruction.”

Keener, Craig S.. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (p. 297). InterVarsity Press.

Pslam 41:9 Even my close friend,
someone I trusted,
one who shared my bread,
has turned against me.

Week 18 - Habakkuk, Jeremiah 1-2, John 17 (April 30 - May 6)