Christopher J. H. Wright Hearing the Message of Habakkuk

What does it mean to be faithful disciples in a violent and unjust world? Habakkuk described an era of rampant moral and social evil among his own people, and a vision of the rapid rise of the Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar. The world he described is familiar in so many eras of human history, including our own. The frightening international tensions, confusion about political alignments and alliances, fractured moral and religious traditions, and social dissolution and degradation cause the same fear and anxiety today as they did back then. Confusing is a mild world for it--international, political, religious, moral confusion. It was (and still is) a world of national wickedness and international turmoil and violence, a world in which God appears to be asleep on his watch and yet claims to be "working a work" in Habakkuk's day and ours. Hearing the Message of Habakkuk walks through the questions the prophet asked God about injustice and the jaw-dropping answers he received. This popular-level exposition addresses: God's silence. God's sovereignty. Living by faith. God's judgement. Trusting God's Word. What we learn from Habakkuk's dialogue with God can help us today as we struggle to work out what it means to believe in God's sovereignty, justice, and love, and to live as faithful disciples in an unjust world.