Habakkuk Part 2

1203 words long.

Published on 2024-03-30

The Violence of Beastly Empires

The second section of Habakkuk is more profound and detailed than most people realize. It hammers the same two ideas out unrelentingly: bitterness and haste. Each idea is repeated seven times, telling us that they are carried to the extreme.

Bitterness means violent pride in word and deed:

• 1:6 bitter
• 1:7 dreaded and fearsome
• 1:8 more fierce than the evening wolves
• 1:9 they all come for violence
• 1:10 at kings they scoff
• 1:10 at rulers they laugh
• 1:10 they laugh at every fortress

Hastiness is measured by distance and speed:

• 1:6 hasty
• 1:6 march through the breadth of the earth
• 1:8 their horses are swifter than leopards
• 1:8 their horsemen press proudly on
• 1:8 their horsemen come from afar
• 1:8 they fly like an eagle swift to devour
• 1:11 then they sweep by like the wind and go on

Each of the empires prophesied in this section pioneered means of rapid conquest, excelling all previous empires in their military capabilities.

In the first section, Habakkuk wanted to know this:

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

and you will not save?

- Habakkuk 1:2

How long? It would be a long time, but God actually told him how long! He also told Habakkuk how many empires would oppress the Jews before they would be able to regain sovereignty over their affairs. However, the form of God’s answer is one of the riddles we have to solve. (In the quote that follows, the numbers are mine, not standard verse numbers.)

1. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome;
2. their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
3. Their horses are swifter than leopards,
4. more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on.
5. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. (Habakkuk 1:6-8)

The prophecy seems on the surface to indicate but one invading empire, the Chaldeans (which ruled Babylon) but in reality it lists five. This is consistent with Daniel 2 (which lists four) and Revelation (which counts seven, then describes an eighth and its allies). Daniel speaks of a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron with feet of iron and clay. Thus Babylon, the golden head, collectively represents all four of Daniel’s empires, which are elsewhere (Daniel 7) associated with various beasts. (Some empires are represented by the several prophets with alternate beasts, so care is required.)

The second beast is harder to spot. It says “their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.” That is a polite way of referring to the Persian empire. When Cyrus came to power, he freed many slaves, permitted the Jews to rebuild their temple and city, and practiced religious tolerance. Towards the Jews, he projected more justice and dignity than the Babylonians.

In third place comes Greece. This is an easy association, as both Daniel and Habakkuk liken Greece to a leopard (Daniel 7:6, Habakkuk 1:8). Surely the haste with which Alexander conquered Persia and many lands beyond it matches the speed of a leopard.

In fourth place, the Romans are not merely wolves, they are the evening wolves. Legend holds that Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were raised by wolves. The reference to the evening is our clue as to when Rome would capture Jerusalem, and hence when Jesus would come, for it was to be in the days of the fourth empire that God would establish his kingdom and send Messiah (Daniel 2:34,44-45). The evening of a millennium is its end. Rome captured Jerusalem in 63 BC. As established in Peace, my research suggests a creation date of 4020 BC. Thus the fourth millennium of history ended in 20 BC, a mere forty-three years after the capture of Jerusalem.

Then Jesus was born at dawn on the fifth day, the fifth millennium of history. In Habakkuk 3:4, God comes down to defeat his enemies, and “His splendor is like the sunrise”. Likewise, in John 21, Jesus appears to his disciples at sunrise to tell them where to fish.

By these statements, we see a coded message that a wolfish empire would come at the end of the millennium followed soon after by the sunrise, an analogy used elsewhere, such as in Malachi. God gave Habakkuk the first answer he was pleading for, when Messiah would come.

This leaves the fifth and last empire, the eagle. Eagles are creatures of the morning. They feed from daybreak to about 11 a.m. The eagle empire is tricky. Roman soldiers marched under the banner of an eagle, and many empires have used the eagle as their mascot. But since we already have Rome represented as wolves, the logical alternative is the Islamic empires which followed Rome. Many Islamic nations have lions on their flags, and their great hero, Saladin, the scourge of the Christian crusaders, had an eagle on his banner. Also, it says that “their horsemen come from afar”. At its largest extent. The Islamic Empire was vast. Its soldiers came from a farther distance than any enemies the Jews faced before.

The Ottoman Empire was the last Islamic empire to possess Jerusalem. Shortly after it collapsed, Israel was reborn as a nation. Thus there were four civilizations to possess Jerusalem before the messiah and five before God would restore the Jews’ nation. He answered Habakkuk’s desperate questions and then kept His promise. (The fifth empire of Habakkuk matches the seventh empire of Revelation. This empire plays a special role in Revelation 9 as shall be shown later.)

Links to the other articles in this section:

1. Connections to other books The scope of inquiry is given. The riddle is connected to Genesis, Psalms 34 and 119, Jeremiah 32, Habakkuk, John 21, Matthew 13, and Revelation 9.
2. Defining 153 Noah's Flood is shown to have lasted precisely 153 days.
3. Fear 153 is connected to the Fear of the Lord through Psalms 24 and 119, Luke 12 and 2 Kings 17.
4. Hope Jeremiah connects a related victory number, seventeen (17), to hope. Then the themes of John 21 are connected to Habakkuk.
5. Habakkuk: Part 1 Analysis of Habakkuk 1:1-4. Habakkuk puts questions to God.
6. Habakkuk: Part 2 Analysis of Habakkuk 1:5-11. God doubles down: the bitter and hasty Chaldeans are coming.
7. Habakkuk: Part 3 Analysis of Habakkuk 1:12-2:1. Habakkuk complains with three threes about innocent people caught in a cruel net.
8. Habakkuk: Part 4 Analysis of Habakkuk 2:2-5. God offers a fourfold assurance to the faithful.
9. Habakkuk: Part 5 Analysis of Habakkuk 2:6-20. Five woes are pronounced against lawbreakers.
10. Habakkuk: Part 6 Analysis of Habakkuk 3:1-16. Prophecy of God's coming six-ply war against the wicked.
11. Habakkuk: Part 7 Analysis of Habakkuk 3:17-19. Six laments over a barren harvest and a seventh praise of God in faith.
12. The Fifth Trumpet of Revelation The Revelation 9 Plague of Locusts lasts 153 Years.
13. Habakkuk's War Revisits the sixth section of Habakkuk with a final insight into God's battle plan.